Character Creation: Starfall

Of course, "Starfall" is also the name of a children's educational software company, which took me a while to remember but is, in retrospect, why the title of this sci-fi RPG about an alien invasion of post-war Earth felt incongruous with the content. 

The Game: Starfall
The Publisher: Wordplay Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Starfall is weird in that it doesn't include a character sheet, but it does include pre-gens. I see games that don't include sheets every so often and I always wonder how they managed to get past the playtesting stage without someone saying "oh, hey, that's a thing we need." But whatever, it means I can make the character on my couch because I don't have anything to write.

The basic premise of Starfall is that WWII happened as in our world, and then in 1951 aliens show up and get quite rowdy. And these aliens are giant black bugs, affectionately called "Scarabs" by the population of Earth. They communicate via implanted telepathy radios, and human beings can have those implanted as well, so the USA got taken out of the fight with the aliens quite effectively by turning the Vice-President into one such "Quisling," after which Joe fucking McCarthy gets elected and shuts the borders, focusing entirely on rooting out alien collaborators and ignoring the damage the Scarabs are actually doing to the rest of the world. So that's depressingly plausible. 

Players take on the roles of members of X-Com the AEO (Alliance Earth Organization), but there's a lot of leeway within that. The character creation section opens with a sidebar listing six AEO missions, so since I don't have an idea for a character, I shall pick one of those missions and make a character that might be chosen to go on it. 

Well, of those, if you were to ask me as a player which one I would most prefer to spend an evening playing out, I think I'd go with one of the options that has a defined end point: that is, rescue, assassinate/expose, sabotage, maybe recover tech. Let's go sabotage, sounds like fun. Assuming we're a small team of operatives who need to get into a Scarab-controlled (or Quisling-controlled) area, plant the bombs or flip the switch or flibber the doobers, and get the fuck out before the exciting explosion chases us down a hallway. Sounds groovy. But which member of this crack team would I like to play?

I think it'd be fun to play a Scarab behavioral expert, someone who's studied the bugs' tactics and is there to advise the more fighty folks in case things go sideways. So let's say my guy was an entomologist who got a crash course in human psychology when the invasion began and is now the closest thing the AEO has (at least locally) to a xenopsychologist. This guy sounds like a "Linus" to me, so let's say his name is Linus Tinsley. 

Step One of chargen is a basic concept, but I've done that. Step Two is to pick a Background. I think Linus comes from money, so I'll take the Privileged Background. That gives me +1d Wealth. 

Step Three is to choose a Profession; Linus is obviously a Scientist. 4d Wealth.

Step Four is traits. Traits fit into three categories: Body, Mind, and Soul. I'm meant to have between six and ten in each category, and both my Background and Profession have a list, though those are suggestions. Let's start with Body!

Well, I don't think Linus is much of a powerhouse. I will give him the Skinny trait. However, I think he's not out of shape, so I'll also give him Running (traits can be skills) and Tireless. I'll give him Steady Hands (he's used to dissecting very small creatures, after all) and Fastidious (he's gotten really paranoid about bugs in general since the invasion). Hmm. Where would you put sense-based traits? Here or Mind? It doesn't seem to make a huge difference, so I'll take Sharp-Eyed as my last Body trait. 

On to Mind! Biology, Entomology, Psychology, Well-Educated, Anatomy, Pioneer in Xenopsychology, Neat Freak, Behavioral Science. That's eight, do I need more? I think that's probably fine, I could add another one if I think of something. Ooh, how about Dissection?

Soul! Raised Rich, Socially Stiff, Passion for Knowledge, Bookworm, Curious About Scarabs, Terrified of Quislings, Up-and-Coming Expert, Inherited Wealth. 

Next step, I assign numbers to the traits, thusly:

I have 23 traits, meaning two get 6d, five get 5d, 9 get 4d, and the remaining seven get 3d. Let's assign them a-like so:

Skinny 3d
Running 3d
Tireless 4d
Steady Hands 4d
Fastidious 5d
Sharp-Eyed 4d
Biology 5d
Entomology 5d
Psychology 4d
Well-Educated 3d
Anatomy 3d
Pioneer in Xenopsychology 6d
Neat Freak 4d
Behavioral Science 5d
Dissection 5d
Raised Rich 3d
Socially Stiff 3d
Passion for Knowledge 4d
Bookworm 4d
Curious About Scarabs 4d
Terrified of Quislings 3d
Up-and-Coming Expert 6d
Inherited Wealth 4d

Wealth! I have 4 from my profession + 1 for my background, so 5d. I can pick out a couple of things at my Wealth or below, let's have a look. Uh, I want an EMP Field Sensor (which can detect Quislings). A lab is 6d, which is some bullshit, but whatever, we'll assume I have a field dissection kit or something. 

Finally, Goals. I get three, and the game suggests a long-term goal, a short-term goal directly related to the mission, and a goal related to one or more of the other PCs. Since I have no other PCs, I shall skip that last one. 

Linus' long-term goal is to develop a cure for Quislings. His goal for the mission (which was to sabotage some Scarab industrial operations) is to apply his behavioral science methods to predict Scarab strategy. 

And that's pretty much it! I picture Linus as a thin, bespectacled British man, brown hair, brown eyes, worn clothes, expensive (but worn) shoes, and probably an expensive ring from his family. I suspect that the Tinsleys might have chided his interest in bugs, but they're not really laughing now (because they're all dead? Maybe...though it might be a better story if some or all of them are Quislings).