Character Creation: Young Centurions

Well, this game is going on the "run this" list.

The Game: Young Centurions
The Publisher: Evil Hat Productions
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this particular game, but I'm very familiar with FAE and with Spirit of the Century
Books Required: Just the one 

Young Centurions is basically the teen version of Spirit of the Century. You're playing Spirits, folks born at midnight at the beginning of a new century (the 20th, in this case). In SotC, though, you're playing them as adults, while here you're playing them as teens. That means that game takes place before 1920, so there's this whole World War thing happening, and yet the tone of the game still manages to be pretty light. Part of that is because of the author (Carrie Harris, with whom I went to college and did a lot of gaming back in the day); she's really amazing at keeping the tone consistent and accessible. 

Anyway! The game is meant to be playable by younger and less experienced players, and I can honestly say it's one of the better expressions of that idea that I've seen. So, let's make a Spirit!

This being Fate Accelerated, I need to start by deciding a high concept. I also need to figure out what I'm the Spirit of. I feel like I make a lot of characters who are resilient and enduring, and I know I lean on tragedy a lot (this may be because I'm sad most of the time, but y'know, life's like that). So let's say that my guy is the Spirit of Hope. The latter half of the 1910s are pretty dark, and enduring it is one thing, but hoping for something better and daring to dream is another. So my guy is going to be someone who has spent his young life in an orphanage (yes, I'm drawing on Annie, sue me). He doesn't know who his parents were, but he's bought into the story that a lot of orphans have - my real parents are important, and someday they'll find me. 

Anyway, I think Hopeful Orphan is a decent enough High Concept. So now I need a Trouble Aspect. I think that the flipside of hope is that he trusts too easily; he's basically really easily led. Far Too Trusting is a good Aspect.

Now I get three more Aspects, and not a lot of guidance. I definitely want to lean into the whole "orphaned under mysterious circumstances," but I also don't want to have an Aspect that represents something the character doesn't know, so I'll call it No One Will Tell Me What Happened To My Family. 

I suppose it'd be in-genre to take a dog as an Aspect, but I don't want to go full Annie. Actually, I want to swim again the grain here and say that the orphanage is an awesome place to live. The couple who runs it, the Swanns, are caring and honest people, and they just won't place a child with a family that they think won't care for them. Swann's Home for Wayward Children is the Aspect, and it'll represent that I can call on the Swanns for assistance and that the place is important to me, so it's potentially leverage.

One more Aspect, and I think I want something that's a little more intrinsic and beneficial. Nimble Like a Nervous Cat. He startles easily, but he also gets out of the way instinctively. Doesn't mean he's afraid of everything, he's just an easy mark on Halloween.

Strictly speaking I should choose a name and description now, but I'm not quite ready to do that. I'll do approaches first. I get one Good, two Fair, two Average, and one Mediocre. I know I want Clever to be my Mediocre (this guy gets by on guts, not smarts). Conversely, my Good is gonna be Flashy. Fairs can be Forceful and Quick, and that leaves Careful and Sneaky as Average.

Stunts, then! The book says to take at least one, but the usual rules apply (meaning I get three). One needs to be a "Century Stunt", which means the bonus is +3 or do a cool thing twice per session. It needs to be thematically related to my High Concept. I'll make a stunt called Light in the Darkness: Because I'm the Spirit of Hope, twice per session I can spend a Fate point to give a rousing speech that gives anyone who hears it a Fate point.

Cool. I can take two more stunts before I have to start spending refresh. I'll take one called "Want Ta Make Somethin' Of It?" Because I can talk tough, I get a +2 to Forcefully create an advantage by intimidating others.

And then I'll take "Ssh! You'll Wake Mrs. Swann!" Because I'm used to sneaking out of the orphanage with my pals, I get +2 to Sneakily overcome if I'm leading a group.

That means I've got 3 refresh, which is fine. The rest is description!

Obadiah "Obie" Tailor is 14 (meaning that this is set in 1914). He's short for his age, lanky, and has dirty blond hair that falls in his eyes if he's not wearing his newsboy cap (he's basically always wearing it). He's missing one of his front canine teeth and he blows air out of the hole when he's thinking. Obie is always down to sneak out of the house and go raid someone's garden or whatever, but if someone on the block asks for help, he always manages to convince his fellow orphans to pitch in. "How did Obie talk us into this?" is a common question, but it always seems to work out OK. 

And that'll do it!