Character Creation: Würm

Ugga-bugga, says the caveman. 

The Game: Würm
The Publisher: Nocturnal Media
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Actually, the book makes very clear that the characters involved (Neanderthals and Cro Magnon) are much more advanced, linguistically speaking, than grunts and gibberish. That said, nothing says they couldn't use "ugga-bugga" the way we use "yadda yadda" or "more or less." "How far is the bush with the tasty berries?" "Four miles, ugga-bugga." Anyway. 

In Würm, you play, simplistically put, cavemen. It's a translation of a French game, and it very much shows in the sentence structure. I actually think it could have used one more pass from a native English speaker to clean up the language a little, but it's by no means unreadable, just a little hard to parse at times. I really like the central premise and the setting (35,000 years ago, pretty accurate archaeological info, except some light magic and supernatural shit). I did find myself wondering how a campaign of this game would go, but I think if I had the right group it could be a lot of fun for like a 10 or 12 session story. 

Anyway, character creation seems pretty quick, so let's dOOOOooooOOO it!

So, the first choice is: Long Man or Bear-man? That is, Cro Magnon or Neanderthal. I think I shall go with Bear-men. Means I'm a little shorter than the Long Men, my features are a little, um, bulgier, and the type of tools I can use are different. 

Clan and Tribe are things that the GM would provide in play, so let's say he's part of the Black River tribe (it's described in a sample scenario in the book). 

Gender and age are next. Well, I want to be male, and age is rolled (1d6 + 10). 12, which probably puts me right out of my initiation ritual (or about to start it, if we did it in play). 

Strengths are next. Würm doesn't have stats per se, instead there are aspect-like things that modified certain actions (XP, too, doesn't let you buy shit, but instead lets you modify rolls in play, which is really interesting). 

So I start with 3 Strengths. One comes from my People, and I choose the other two. As a Bear-man, I can pick Heart of Ice or Strength of the Bear. Well, Heart of Ice gives me a bonus to resist pain and cold, and since I'm basically Mr. Freeze in real life, I like that. I also want Softness of the Otter, because, well, otters; that gives me a bonus for calming folks down and giving first aid. And just to keep the theme going, I'll take Fins of the Salmon (bonus to swimming and fishing). Seems appropriate, if I live on a river.

At this point I could take a fourth Strength if I take a Weakness, but eh. I like that this guy is a young man who hasn't had a chance to get kicked in the face by life yet, so I'll stick with what I have. 

I start with 3 Experience (which refreshes during play and, again, gets spent to influence rolls). I get 30 Stamina. I start with the basic Craft skills of my culture, which is...Mousterian, which means I get Wood craft and Stone craft (flake flint knapping). I start with 6d6 Prestige to split between Bravery and Generosity (hang on), 22, so I'll say 18 in Bravery and 4 in Generosity (which is much harder to get). 

Equipment! I get clothes and weapons appropriate to my culture, which probably means a stone knife for slittin' up fish. Ooh, and a fishing spear. 

And other than a name, that's it! I'll say my young fisherman is called Ki'e (probably it's derived from their word for "fish" or something). He's tall for a Bear-man, has a mop of brown hair and amber eyes, and he's known for being able to dive deep into the cold water to fish. He's already had a couple of drowning scares, though, and his father has warned him that if doesn't learn his limits he's going to wind up staying underwater. 

That'll do it! Gotta say, no idea how it would play but chargen is nicely simple.