Character Creation: STaRS

Black Widow isn't until tonight, so in the meanwhile:

The Game: STaRS (Simple Tabletop Roleplaying System)
The Publisher: Charlie Cohen
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

First of all, I've had this song in my head since I started reading this game. I knew that song from a dang Coke commercial, but it turns out it's about doing drugs and partying. 

Anyway, STaRS is a GURPS-like system in that it's setting agnostic and has an easy-to-say acronym. It's very much movie themed (check the character sheet), but unlike a lot of little indie homebrews, it actually addresses the fact that there are a zillion RPGs out there:

The answer they give to the question is "it's simple and you can pick up and play quickly," which is by no means unique among RPGs, but at least it's not "our game doesn't have classes or levels, which is so original!" 

System-wise, it's a d10-roll-low kind of thing, with every two points you beat your target by giving an additional degree of success. I don't love single-die systems generally, but at least degree matters here, which my dearly departed friend Matt Karafa would have been able to explain better than I can. 

Anyway, there's one sample setting in the book, called "Cowboys in Fairyland." It's basically a Western except there are portals to, well, Fairyland in the West, and white people being white people decided to steam in there and take over, Manifesting their Destiny all over the place. There are some things about the presentation I don't love (some exoticization of indigenous folks, f'rex), and the fairy-folk are dwarves, elves, and goblins, which makes my eyes glaze over, but I have to admit that the notion of running railroad tracks into Fairyland is a pretty cool visual. So, sure, let's make a character for this setting. 

Oof. Looking more into it, it looks like elves, dwarves, and goblins are analogs for various Native cultures? Like:

Goblins

Elves

Dwarves

Erm. OK, well, anyway.

Part One is "planning your character." I think I'd like to be either a goblin or a changeling. I think we'll go changeling, actually. I figure my character is the child of a goblin father and a human mother, born in the Utah territory not far from the Ghost Valley called La Puerta. His name is Cesár Rios, now 18 or so, black hair, tan skin, and the pure black eyes characteristic of goblins. 

Goblins are expert crafters and they have some power over fire, including being able to prevent gunpowder from igniting. I think I'd like Cesár to be a gunsmith, but not necessarily a great shot. Like, he knows how to strip and reassemble a gun, how to alter the sights and make it more accurate, but he himself can't hit the broad side of a barn when he's actually holding one. He's largely self-taught, and in his little town he repairs and customizes guns for folks, but going to see him is a dirty little secret because he's a changeling (they call his mother terrible things). 

OK, Abilities, then. There are 10 of them, I start with 5 in each, and I have 3 XP that I can spend to raise them (1-for-1). I can also lower them to get more XP, minimum 3, maximum 6. OK, then. 

Agility seems like it should stay at 5; it's full-body stuff like riding and melee combat. Awareness I kind of want to bump to 6 (I like playing perceptive characters). Dexterity needs to be high, so I'll spend my other two and bump it 7. Everything else is 5 unless I want to lower something. Let's see. 

Oh, Manipulation can be lower. I'll drop that to 3. Cesár gets tongue-tied and he can't lie for shit. I'll use those points to bump Wits and Will to 6. 

Traits, then. I just get 3XP straight up to spend on these, and I could, in theory, buy the goblin Minor Power, but that's to create or snuff fire and I don't see it for Cesár. Instead, I shall blow one on Skill: Gunsmith. And then...Hmm. I think I want Cesár to be able to turn a gun into a Weapon (so it gets a bonus and it's story-important), or otherwise alter guns to do cool shit. That's probably a Moderate Power, which requires 3 points, but I'll also say that he has a Drawback - he can't actually use a gun for shit, and always misses if he tries. 

And that's pretty much it, I think. Nice simple system, the sample setting isn't bad, but they really could've used a sensitivity reader.