Character Creation: Powder Mage

Not the last character of 2021 (I'm gonna do one tomorrow), but close enough. 

The Game: The Powder Mage Roleplaying Game
The Publisher: Brian McClellan, though on DriveThru it's distributed through Gallant Knight
Degree of Familiarity: None with the setting, plenty with the system (Savage Worlds)
Books Required: Powder Mage and some variety of Savage Worlds rulebook

Powder Mage is an oddity for me - I don't normally back or purchase RPGs that are based on an existing property unless I know said property or unless the game is recommended by someone I really trust. I backed the Kickstarter here because, I think (it was several years ago), I was intrigued enough by the premise and I knew the system. 

And like...that reasoning still holds up, more or less. The setting is a fantasy world with a lot of inter-nation conflict and some really interesting takes on magic. The titular powder mages eat gunpowder and then use the magic thus engendered to perform some fire- and firearm-based magic, and that's pretty cool. Likewise, there are more traditional spellcasters, but they explicitly start off with 20 extra XP that they then have to "work off" (meaning you basically start 20 points in the hole). 

There's a lot of stuff I think is interesting in the world, but the setting just did not hook me. And that might be because the adaptation just didn't gel with the SW style of game book, I don't know. The game does a lot I like, I'm just not excited about the world.

Well, let's make a character and see if that changes my mind. I know I want to make a powder mage, because they seem cool. I need to pick a culture to belong to, which gives me some free shit (which I like!), but I'm not sure what would make the most sense for a powder mage (or what the implications would be for one culture over another). So let's read the history again.

Powder-mage-ing is only about 400 years old in-setting, and until fairly recently they weren't exactly well-liked. First recorded one was in Starland, but that doesn't seem especially relevant. More relevant is that they were considered heretical, and then just second-class, and now are somewhat more venerated because of military application. So I guess culture isn't necessarily restrictive here.

Hmm, I kinda like Novi (not just because one of my favorite characters, a huckster I played in Deadlands, had Novy as his surname). Novi citizens pay higher taxes than other nations but they're also better educated and poverty isn't really a thing. They have sorcerers working for the state, but they're used for civic stuff as much as military. It'd be an interesting contrast to have a powder mage, proficient at blowing shit up, to come from a nation that emphasizes humanity and art. 

I don't think Persuasion is a Knowledge skill, though? It's not, it's a separate skill. Whatever, easy fix. I'm gonna decide my other Knowledge skill later, though. Let's look at the powder mage template real quick.

Well, mechanically it's pretty simple. It's an Arcane Background and there's a skill attached, but it's keyed off of Vigor, not Smarts or Spirit. You don't roll to use powder mage powers, you just have to eat gunpowder first. Groovy. Let's conceptualize a little. 

Let's assume my guy was brought up in Novengrad (capital city), and his parents are minor government functionaries. And let's give him a name real quick; we'll call him Ayvars. Ayvars is presently a student at one of the monastic universities in Novi (not easy to work into a group if no one else is in school, but since this is just a chargen exercise it's fine). With that in mind, on to stats! 

I want Spirit and Vigor to be on the higher side, I think. Let's leave Strength at d4, pump everything else to d6, and then put the extra into Vigor. 

Skills! I get 15 points, of course, of course. I'll put a d6 into Ingest (fun fact: At no point does the book say I need to roll on this Skill, so why does it exist?), d6 in Shooting, d4 in Fighting, d4 in Riding, d6 in Notice, d6 in Throwing, d6 in Persuasion (which only costs me 1 because I get a free d4 there), d4 in Stealth and in Taunt, and my last two into Streetwise and Repair. 

Hindrances! I have Pacifist (minor) already, but I can take four more. I get a free Edge for being human, and that's earmarked for Arcane Background. Oh, and that gives me Addiction (gunpowder, minor). Well, I'll also take Anemic (Ayvars is thin, pale, and kind of peaked at the best of times). I'll take Habit (Minor), too. Ayvars constantly crunches on gunpowder. Just a little, not enough to constitute a Powder Point, but just enough for him to taste it (and making a really annoying noise, like crunching coffee grounds). And then for my Major, I'll take Overconfident. It's not that Ayvars is actually super-confident per se, he's just young and has very little sense of his own mortality. 

Neat, I have 4 "points" to throw around. I want to bump Smarts up to d8, so that's 2 of them. And then...oh, heck, let's take Liquid Courage! If I have a stiff drink, my Vigor goes up to d10 and my Toughness increases commensurately. 

Derived traits! Charisma is 0, Pace is 6, Parry is 4, Toughness is 6 (before happy hour, that is). 

Gear - do I care? Not really. I'll spend 150 krana on a flintlock pistol, and I would buy some gunpowder, but there's no cost listed for that. Good thing it's not an important thing to buy or make in-setting! 

ANYWAY. Ayvars is in his late teens, I think. He's a second-year student at a monastery university, meaning he wears robes and dresses much like the other folks. Everyone knows he's a powder mage, and that means he's got time carved into his schedule to practice. He's not really supposed to have or eat gunpowder away from those practice times, but y'know how it is. Ayvars is studying religion and history as well as the basics, and like a lot of Novi folk he's got some affinity for art. In his case, he enjoys drawing on canvas with a solution of gunpowder, oil, and some other ingredients and then setting it ablaze, which forms patterns in the char. He mostly has it worked out so it doesn't burn the canvas up...

Ayvars is tall, even for Novi. He's got red-brown hair and his skin is pale and sallow, but he doesn't look sick, just underfed. His mother's been telling him he's going to fill out since he was about 5. 

That'll do it! Making the character actually warmed me up to the game somewhat. I think I'd run this, if my players were willing to read it and learn the world a little.