Character Creation: Sig

It's about yogurt, I think?

The Game: Sig: Manual of the Primes
The Publisher: Genesis of Legend Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Sig is a fantasy taking place in the titular city. It's a "nexus at the center of worlds" kind of situation, but what I think is cool is that at any given time, three planes are "tethered" to Sig, and which ones those are shift. That, in turns, shifts the general vibe of the city and which people are populating it. It's a pretty cool setup. 

The system...I dunno. It's the same as Spark, and I've run Spark, and the problem with the system is that it requires players who take active part in the conversation and don't get distracted by cat videos or shiny objects every couple of sentences. Not that there's anything wrong with such players; I run games for them all the time. It's just that in a game like Sig, the narrative load is spread pretty evenly around the table.

For all that, I think Sig is a game I'd like to run, though maybe just for a short-run campaign. So let's make a character. 

Step One would normally be to figure out which planes are presently tethered to Sig, but it doesn't much matter for pure chargen choices. 

Step Two is Name and Title. Er. I don't have a concept yet, so "name" isn't really on my mind. I'll come back to this.

Step Three is Family Heritage, and it's not very well explained (although actually the character sheet helps). Reading the section and the example of play (which includes chargen OH THANK YOU), it becomes clear that what we're doing is choosing the planar heritage out of character's parents, which, in turn, gives us access to the Talents that those particular races have. If, like one of the example characters, both your parents are Giants, then then you take all four of the Talents associated with Giants. But nothing says that you can't be a hybrid of whatever races you want. 

Hmm. I read these last night and I remember a couple of them sounding cool. I like the Winged from the Plane of the Wind and I dig the Cubi from the Plane of Dreams. Would those make an interesting combination? The Cubi are all about connection and live vicariously through others, while the Winged are rumor mongers and divine messengers. Yeah, I think that'd be fun. 

So that means I have to take two Talents from each of those. Talents can be Broad, Common, or Deep. Let's see now. Well, I want Flight, for sure. I'll take Communication as well (those are both from the Winged). From Cubi, I'll take Connection and Obsession. That gives me two Broad and two Common, so I need to make sure I get a Deep in there somewhere. 

A bit of backstory: I picture this guy as appearing mostly as Cubi (that is to say, his appearance shifts depending on who he's with), but his wings - broad, dragon-like, membranous - remain constant. I see him as someone who tends to fixate, so maybe he's a little slower to change than a lot of Cubi. 

Next up is Step Four, Professional Talents. I need to pick a Profession, then. I want something that allows him to fly above Sig, looking down, but not in an "I'm better" sort of way, just that's the way he sees the world. There's a list of professions, but it's just framed as what the most recently census of Sig turned up as common jobs. One of them is "Bloodwatcher," and the term never appears in the book again, but I like the sound of it, so sure, he's a "bloodwatcher." So what exactly does that mean?

I think that makes him a kind of urban scout, flying over the city to see where things are getting bloody. Violent, sure, could be, but also just kind of heated up in general. Hotspots, things that are likely to become important. And I'll say that bloodwatchers don't report to any particular group or governing body; anyone can hire a bloodwatcher. They fly, they spy, they do not interfere. I'll take "Perfect Recall" as a Deep Talent, then. 

I get two more Talents, but I'm gonna keep going with chargen and see if anything suggests itself. Next up is Faction. I already know I want him to be a member of the Heralds; they deliver messages and read people's mail, which gives them leverage. 

Next thing is which spiritual power I worship. The Cubi are tied to Nyx the Oracle, but I really like Myn, the Questioner. She appears to people and asks them a question that compels them to reevaluate their decisions and lives, and I think that's a nice synthesis of what my character is about thus far.

The next thing is Beliefs, which is really the meat and potatoes of this game, so I want to finish my Talents real quick. I'll take Stillness as a Common Talent, and Hidden Things as a Deep Talent. My character's name is Sable the Voyeur. His body is black and white and hard to focus on, like rain on a dark window, but he takes on colors from his surroundings as well. 

Right, so! Beliefs! I get one from Family, Faction, and Spiritual Power. 

The Family one needs to center on community, culture, or heritage. Hmm, tricky. I think his combination of Winged and Cubi, rumor/messages and dreams/passion, has left him with the Belief that passion is fleeting and fragile. 

The Faction Belief centers on professional and financial concerns, and on Sable's feelings about the Heralds. I think that the belief here is a secret, once written, cannot be kept. If you wrote it down, someone is going to read it (probably a Herald).

And, finally, our Spiritual Belief, which centers on (in my case) Myn, the Questioner. Myn, as I mentioned, poses questions to shake up those who are comfortable or complacent. I think Sable takes that to heart: stop moving only when you die. 

And speaking of "die," time to assign dice! (That was weak.) I've got two Attributes (Smoke and Spark) and three possible allocations: either one can be higher or they can be equal. Spark is you changing the world, Smoke is the world responding to you. I think Sable makes the most sense as the Companion archetype: Smoke d10, Spark d6. The world responds to him, because he watches and observes and questions. 

The last bit of chargen would involve me figuring out a connection between Sable and the other PCs in the group, but of course, Sable's flying solo, so that pretty much puts us done!