In celebration of finishing Our Flag Means Death last night, and because the other game I've been reading this week (Mettle) doesn't really have a setting and that's more work than I'm willing to do today. Also, this game is so delightfully weird and holy shit, I need both "delightful" and "weird" today as our nation slides further and further into Christo-facism.
The Game: Shanty Hunters
The Publisher: Molten Sulfur Press
Degree of Familiarity: None with this particular game, but it's Gumshoe and I know how that works
Books Required: Just the one
So, in Shanty Hunters, you're playing sailors who are literally hunting sea shanties and writing them down as the age of sail comes to an end. But the shanties come to life and "recapitulate," altering the world around them, and you need to figure out what's happening and...fix things (I'm unclear on exactly how that part works because I haven't read the whole book thoroughly yet, but for chargen purposes it's not a problem). Like I said, delightfully weird, and plays into my love of magical realism and meta-fiction. And singing.
Making a character is a lot faster than many Gumshoe games; not nearly as many skills. We start off by picking a Profession, something that allows my character to go to sea for long periods of time. (Gentleman pirate, perhaps?)
Actually, one of the Professions listed is "Client Scholar." That is, someone is paying my way to go on these adventures, and I like the idea that my character is an eager and skilled scholar in service to a shadowy billionaire (or, given the setting, a shadowy several-thousand-aire, I guess).
Next step is Drive, or, why my character does this. And "money" is obvious, but ooh, I like "Musicality." My character was down on the docks one morning, maybe stumbling home, maybe delivering something, and heard sailors getting ready to ship out and singing a shanty. The song rattled around in his head for months, and then one night he was whistling it while making a delivery (guy transports goods, I think?) to the aforementioned shadowy rich guy. Said rich guy heard it and offered him this very weird job. And my character knew this was weird on the level of "might never come home again", but the song just won't leave him alone.
Skills! There are eight Skills and I get 5 points to distribute, which seems like nothin', but like I said, it's a pretty stripped-down version of the system. Let's see. I think I want Athletics 1, Class 1, Seamanship 1, Stealth 1. One more. I think I'll put it in Kind (the Skill one would use to flatter or persuade). My character is easy-going and approachable; it's part of what got him this job.
Details! My character's name is Charles Charles. He was born in San Fransisco, and grew up in a working class family. His father and brothers worked hard (and made the right friends) and eventually wound up being able to buy a sturdy wagon, which they used to make pickups and deliveries at all hours. Charles, the youngest boy (you can tell because they ran out of names), had been at the family business for a couple of years when all of the shanty weirdness happened, and while his family was initially against him going to sea, the money paid to them by Charles' mysterious employer changed their minds.
Charles isn't exactly thick, but he's not terribly smart, either. He's able to follow his training and his instincts are good, but he's not the kind of person who's going to invent something clever or come up with a terribly original solution to a problem. But he remember songs and shanties, and he's got an impeccable sense of rhythm (which would be the most challenging thing for me to roleplay). Charles has stringy brown hair, his mother's bright green eyes, his father's rather listless expression, and a sailor's calluses.
And that's pretty much it! Yarr!
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