Character Creation: Drudge!

Yet another game I got in PDF in a bundle. At least this one is short. 

The Game: Drudge!
The Publisher: Penguin Comics
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

See this right here?

If you don't have the "what is this game" text done, maybe your game isn't ready to distribute to the masses. And the cover is no help, either. 

Erotic horror in an HR Giger kind of vein? Supernatural spookiness? Who can say? Honestly, "any genre" is kind of a red flag for me, because what that usually means is "yet another boring-ass simulation game," but Drudge gets weirder than that. It draws a distinction between "table-top" and "role-playing game," wherein the former is used to mean...a minis game, I guess? If ever there was a game that would benefit from a "what is an RPG?" section, it's this one, if only because it would help me figure out what the designers were thinking about. 

Now, the PDF I have say it's version 1.0, so maybe it's been improved? Or is being improved? But I only have what I have, so on we go. The system allows us to make characters that are "drudges," "specialists," or "main characters." And then we get this:

Very confusing. Remember, we haven't been told that this is anything other than an RPG at this point, and I would venture to say that most people's experience with RPGs is that everyone plays one character (there are exceptions, of course). I also think that English was not this writer's first language, nor was it the editor's. I shall do my best. 

This is so goddamn weird. The first 30 pages of this 40 page book are mostly talking about character creation (purely mechanically) and game rules, which of course means combat and car chases. There's no attention at all devoted to what any of these terms mean. There are some sample adventures at the end of the book, so I'm gonna pick one of those so I have some context for a character. 

Hm. Of these three, we've got a fantasy setting where the object is "kill the dragon" (very original), a Mad-Max-ish post-apoc setting, and a modern horror setting where everyone's in an elevator and one of the characters is Satan a werewolf. I'm torn. I hate them all, but the last one only wants one character rather than five. 

Oh, wait. The post-apoc one isn't necessarily post-apoc, it's just that you have a truck and a follow car and you're going from place to place and someone (marauders or cops) are chasing you. There's no further context. 

All right, y'know what, we're doing that one. I'll make a specialist (driving the truck) and a drudge (driving the follow car) because there's two character card things on the sheet and that's all I can fucked to do right now. 

Technically I get 100 points to build characters, but I don't have to spend them all, which is good.

OK, so a drudge first. My drudge is named Zeke. Zeke has a blue mohawk and is missing half his upper lip (he usually wears a mask anyway). He drives a follow car, and it's really his job to tell the trucker if there's trouble coming and run interference as necessary. Zeke knows he's not likely to live long. 

So I get ratings of 1 in all of my attributes (Physique, Agility, Intelligence, Nature - sigh, PAIN), and in the two basic skills (Basic Weapons and Basic Vehicles). If I buy a special skill, it converts Zeke to a Specialist, so I shan't do that. I'll just buy up Physique to 3 and Agility to 2 (costing 6 more points), and Nature to 2 (2 more). I'll buy Vehicles up to 4 and Weapons to 3 (12 total). 

I could also use points to buy gear, but let's wait and do the trucker first. The trucker's name is Hightop. Hightop is older, been doing this run for years, and is one of the few left alive that remembers the before times. He doesn't like to talk about them, just tends to mutter something about people back then being too stupid to come in out of the rain, but it hasn't rained here in a long time. Hightop has a big ol' beer belly, scraggly white hair, and wears a beat-to-shit flannel. 

So to build a specialist we start with the basic drudge package (6 points), and then he becomes a specialist when I buy a special skill. So PAIN first (this whole thing is a pain), let's do Physique 2, Agility 3, Intelligence 4, and Nature 3. That's 18 points.

Skills, we'll take Basic Weapons 4 and Advanced Vehicles 4. That's 16 more points. 

So 66 points spent so far. If I were making 5 characters I'd be worried, but eh. For Zeke I'll buy a flak jacket, a knife, and a revolver (2 points, with 5 credits left). For Hightop, I'll buy a shotgun (1 point, 4 credits left). 

Health is the average of Physique and Agility, which for Zeke is 2 and for Hightop is also 2 (round down).

Cool, that's it!