Character Creation: Coyote

Awoooo! 

Actually, coyotes don't really sound like that. I know because they meet at the old abandoned church near my house and then split up to go do coyote shit at night, and they yip and howl at each other, and I know it sounds like I'm talking about the plot of a Werewolf game, but it's true. 

The Game: Coyote
The Publisher: Post World Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, looks like

So, the Protocol Game Series is, well, a series of games that are designed to be GMless and zero-prep. I just have the one (it was in a bundle I bought), and it looks to share some DNA with Fiasco and other games that go scene-by-scene with each player taking on narrative duties, which is cool. The setting for this particular game is that we're immigrants being smuggled into a new nation by the titular coyote. The nations aren't specified, however, but the setting assumes that the immigrants are going to go work in manufacturing and basically be under someone's thumb, so um. 

ANYWAY, let's make a character. First thing I do is pick a Role. These don't have mechanical effect, they're just kind of there for a starting point. I think I'll go with Criminal. I'm fleeing my old country and going to somewhere else to start over, because I would, justifiably or not, be imprisoned or shot in my homeland. I'll wait for specifics until I do more of chargen, since some of it is random.

Speaking of which, let's determine my motivation! King of diamonds translates to...responsibility, respect. Huh. Well, let's assume my character is part of an organized crime family or cartel or whatever. He got into some kind of squabble with another family member, and the patriarch settled it by telling him to fuck off ("you lost all your LA privileges"). 

Relationship would be next, but I think it requires another PC? Well, not necessarily, I guess. It just defines a relationship between my character and another one making the journey, so I can do it. Drawing a card gives me the 7 of clubs, which is burden, jealousy. Oof. Hey, what if the guy I was beefing with is also banished? We caused so much trouble that we both got kicked out. Doesn't really explain "jealous," though. Yeah, that's too much mental gymnastics.

Let's say this instead: I paid for passage here by agreeing to watch out for one of the other immigrants. I know that she's got a family and a life waiting for her in our new country, something much better than I do, but if anything happens to her I'm screwed. 

The next bit would be world-building; there are a bunch of questions about the setting and we'd each answer a couple if this were a real boy game. In fact, there are 8, so I shall roll a d8 twice and answer two of them randomly. 

My questions thus rolled are: How long will you have to live here before you can return home? Can you return home? and How much do you still owe your coyote? What happens if you don't pay? How soon do you have to pay?

Well, the first one's easy: I can't go home. I'm banished for life. The second one, I'm gonna say that my debt and my charge's debt have already been covered, but I need to protect her. Anything happens to her, the coyote is going to kill me. 

That's chargen, then. Just need a name. Let's call him Pietr Czolgosz. Young (early 20s), black hair, brown eyes, noticeable mole on his neck. Scars on the face and hands, and one of his fingers is permanently just a little out of shape. Wears a pair of very nice hiking boots, a kind of sarcastic "gift" from someone in the Family. 

And that'll do it!