Oy, gotta get back in this habit. Built a zoo in Subnautica instead of reading RPGs at night, and I only have this one in PDF, which I find harder to read. Anyway.
The Game: Broken Rooms
The Publisher: Greymalkin Designs
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
I have no idea if Greymalkin is still in business, but you can apparently still buy their games on DriveThru. Their fantasy game, Desolation, is a lot of fun, FWIW.
So! In Broken Rooms, you play a Nearsider. The Nearside is a collection of 13 parallel realities, one of which is our world, and the others are our world plus a huge-ass catastrophe of some kind. The worlds diverged in August 2002, and are heading towards a Convergence with dire portents in the distant future year of...um...2015.
(OK, so this is the issue you run into with assigning real dates in a game, but whatever. 2002 seems like only yesterday.)
I have to say, I haven't read more than the initial chapters and getting into chargen, but I really like the setup for the game. There's a lot of science (and "science") in the explanation of Nearsiders, but I happen to know enough neuroanatomy to understand it, so that's cool. Also, each of the very brief descriptions of the various Earths were evocative and elicited an "ooh, that'd be fun" kind of response, so that's a good sign.
So let's dig into chargen! As is often the case, the first step is Concept. This is a modern-day game (I mean, it's set almost 20 years ago, but 20 years doesn't matter, obviously) so no space pilots or whatever. I think I'd like to make a character who's handier than me (which is not a high bar), so I'll say he's a contractor - does painting, drywall, some electrical, and so forth. He's divorced and his ex has custody of their 5-year-old son, but he sees him when he can (his hours aren't consistent, which is a problem).
I think that's a solid enough start, so let's move on to step two: milestones. First one is the Personal Divergence Event, something traumatic that happened on August 13 of some year between 2002 and "now" (whatever "now" is).
That's actually an interesting question. If the game space is 13 years, when's the game set? I don't remember reading that in the earlier chapters, and looking around the book, it seems like the default is that we're in the 2010-2012 range. So that's fine, we'll say that my character experienced his Personal Divergence Event on August 13, 2010, when his wife informed him that she wanted a divorce.
Looking back, he can see where the cracks in the relationship were, but at the time, he thought things were tense because money was tight. But that day in August, she told him that while she respected him and wanted him to be a good father to their son, she didn't love him and hadn't for a while.
Next milestone is First Fall, the first time the character slips into another variation, usually in response to a life-threatening situation. Let's say that he took on a job with a lot more complex electrical work than he was qualified to handle it, was in no way in the right headspace, and wound up electrocuting himself. He felt the pain as the electricity coursed through him, and then the next thing he knew, he was standing on the rim of a crater. The crater was about 100 yards across, as best he could eyeball it, and there was no one else around - just a darkened sky and devastation. He wandered around for a while calling out for help, and saw someone approaching in the distance, but as the man grew closer he could see that he was carrying a baseball bat with nails in it. He ran, and slipped, and then woke up back at the house he'd been working, hair smoking and hands burned.
The last milestone is Recruitment, so this is how the character gets educated in what's really going on. There are organizations that work within the Nearside for various reasons, one of which is the Regency Group. I think we'll say that one of their reps approached my character in a bar (he was supposed to see his son that evening, but he was working on a job he couldn't afford to lose and the homeowner was late letting him in, which threw off his schedule) and explained what was really going on.
I think my character is largely confused about all this. He doesn't see how journeying to other realities is going to be helpful, to them or him (since most of those realities are utterly hosed anyway), but the Regency guys insist that he can be useful, and they pay. He's kind of latched onto the idea that this might help one of the "apocalypses" not happen to his Earth, even though that's not really accurate.
So next we do MPHA, which stands for Motivation, Personality, History, and Appearance. Starting off with Motivation, I think what motivates my character is to make a better world for his son, and to try and win his ex's love back.
Personality: The character has a profound sense of being way out of his depth. This is science fiction and dimensional travel, and it all feels very surreal and dangerous. He manages it by telling his son stories of his travels in the Nearside, presented as tall tales, and that helps to contextualize. He also tries to volunteer for missions that let him use his skills as a carpenter, electrician, etc.
History: I've actually done a bunch of this, but to flesh out: His parents were lower-middle class folks, and he took some courses in community college as well as learning the smattering of handyman skills he did from his father and his pals. His parents both died within a few years of each other (cancer and heart attack), and his wife and his son were the only family he had left locally (he has three sisters, but they've all moved away). His wife encouraged him to go back to college since he was actually good at business management, but she stopped encouraging that about a year before the divorce.
Appearance: He's in his early 30s, muscular but developing a bit of a beer gut now. He's kept his hair (brown) and he has a dazzling smile that he's paid a lot of money for. He still wears his wedding ring. He favors jeans, work boots, and paint-stained shirts and sweatshirts.
Cool, step four! Attributes. Only three, Body, Mind, and Soul, but what's interesting is that Body covers physical senses, rather than Mind (which is usually how this division works in RPGs). I like that. Anyway, I think for my character's purposes, Mind (which is mentioned as being the Attribute of choice for technical skill) makes the most sense as Primary, so let's go Mind-Body-Soul for prioritization (5, 4, and 3 dice, respectively).
Skills! This game has a kind of elaborate Skill system, but so far I like it. Basically Skills are broad, but within every Skill is a number of Concentrations, and after chargen you can only improve Concentrations, not Skills. This step has sub-steps, so let's see how this works.
OK, I get three Skills at Familiar, which should be kind of my baseline. This is easy, I want Technical, Tradecrafts, and Higher Learning. Cool.
So, now I have 13 points ("13" is a very big thing in this game). I can spend 3 to bump another Unfamiliar Skill to Familiar, or 1 point to bump up a Concentration, but no higher than Professional. Hmm. I've never regretted taking Athletics in an RPG and I've established that my guy is fit, so I'll blow 3 and do that. Any others? Nah, I think with others I can just take Concentrations. 10 points left to do so, indeed, and I can't get better than 2 steps from the base Skill (meaning that if I have a Skill at Familiar, the best I can do is Professional). So I want:
Business (Higher Learning): Trained (1 pt)
Persuasion (Interpersonal): Trained (2 pt)
Spanish (Languages): Familiar (1 pt)
Search (Perception): Familiar (1 pt)
Electrical Systems (Technical): Trained (1 pt)
Masonry (Tradecrafts): Trained (1 pt)
Carpentry (Tradecrafts): Trained (1 pt)
Cars (Transportation): Familiar (1 pt)
Cool, that was much easier than I was thinking. On we got to Nearsider Abilities. I start with a Distance of 2 (which has to do with how much I've become, well, distant from others since beginning my travels). My Depth is 3, and seems to be the Attribute used to do magic-like stuff. My maximum Momentum is 4 (twice my Distance). And I get a Prime Meridian and an associated Prime Quality; this is reality-altering stuff, and tends to be a point of identity for Nearsiders.
Ooh, Juicing or Mending? Juicing lets me mess with electricity, Mending lets me fix stuff. Both are in-concept. I think Mending aligns more closely with my motivation, so let's do that. For the Prime Quality, I take Patch (I get a bonus to fix stuff, as opposed to fixing people).
Step Seven, Qualities. These are pretty straightforward; they're positive, negative, or double-edged (potentially both), and there's a list, but they're easy to make up. I get two positive and one negative, but if I want to take more, I can, I just have to take them in pairs. Oh, and then I can take one double-edged.
Well, I think I do actually want to take a double-edged. I'll call it "I Meant What I Said." If he says he'll do something, he'll do it. His problem comes when two things conflict, because he tends to pick the one that will make money (that's programming from his father, not a love of capitalism).
Positive Qualities, then. Well, he's a Quick Learner; he picks up on new principles easily and you only have to show him how to do something once. He's also Easy to Talk To, which is part of what makes him a good dad (when he's able to be there).
But on the negative side, he's got Divided Loyalties. He wants to be a helper to the Regency Group, but his first priority is always going to be his son.
And finally, I think, step eight is Other Details. I...think that's just damage tracks, so I fill in some slashies and dotties and I'm good. Oh, wait, I need a name! Let's call him Stuart Rodgers. I don't feel like he needs a super-flashy name.
Brief aside, and I admit this gripe may not be valid because I haven't read the whole book, but I feel like the chargen section needs a once-over. First off, there's a running example (yay!) but it only goes as far as Skills (boo), which means we don't get to see how the Nearsider stuff looks in context. To wit: Do I get a Concentration in Mending? Book doesn't say, and the example characters aren't starting characters so I don't know. It feels like I should have Mending at Familiar, but eh? Also, there are some mistakes and inconsistencies involving points and totals and so on.
Anyway, all of that said, it's a pretty cool-looking game and I might have to run it at some point.
No comments:
Post a Comment