Character Creation: ARC: Doom

Tick, tick, tick...

The Game: ARC: Doom
The Publisher: Exalted Funeral
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Interesting game, this. The basic idea is that you're trying to prevent the "Doom," but what exactly that means is a matter for the table to decide. Every X amount of real time, you mark off the Doom track and can lose "moments", if that happens enough then Doom arrives. The system by itself is a pretty simple "roll a d6 and get under a target", and the tone of the text reminds me a little of Troika!, inasmuch as there not much time wasted on explaining a setting. The layout is also a little more...flowy, I guess? I think it might be a little on the abstract side for my taste, but I'd be willing to give it a go.

But for tonight, we make a character. I discovered that I have a bunch of adventures for this game in a zip file I hadn't opened, so I picked the one with the cover I liked best, called "Leviathan and Loom." It's set in an archipelago, two gods are slowly waking up as the Loom of Fate weakens, the demon-god Solkantos is shaking off its bonds and coming to eat us all. There's a bunch of info on people and places of these island, so I think I'll use that for reference and take advantage of some of the random chargen procedures. 

Approaches are Creative, Careful, and Concerted. Same idea as Fate Accelerated; your method of solving a problem determines your approach. I can roll or I can distribute +2, +1, 0 into these. I think I'll do this without rolling, and put the 2 into Creative, the 1 into Concerted, and the 0 into Careful. 

Blood & Guts modifiers are a static number that gets added to a roll to recover health (of the physical - Blood - or mental/emotional - Guts - sort). I split up 6 points between them. I think I'll go 4 Blood, 2 Guts. 

And now Skills. I get +2 in two Skills and +1 in three Skills. Guess I should conceptualize a little. I think my guy is an artist, someone making beautiful things out of what he finds on the beach. Ooh, how about he makes musical instruments. Sometimes that's chimes made from shells, or a conch shell that's been hollowed and filed in such a way to enable a flute-like arrangement. 

Well, obviously I'll put +2 in Artistry. I think I'll put my other +2 into Tinker, since some mechanical know-how is also important. I'll put my +1 into Trade, Survival, and Culture. 

Inventory! Unlike a lot of games, ARC: Doom has something more interesting than "you have 80 copper, go buy torches." There are lists of things, they each have a point value, and as long as you total 30 you can take what you want. Or, you can choose to roll 1, 2, or 3d6 on a given table as many time as you want, so long as you end up rolling 12d6, which is what I'm gonna do. 

Well, I like Oddities & Valuables, so I'm gonna spend some dice there. Just for funsies, let's roll 1d6, 2d6, and 3d6 (for a total of 6d6, or half my dice). 

I get 5, 8, 17. That gives me...a pouch of human teeth (ew), a heavy crown with an oppressive aura, and a handful of constant regenerating troll flesh (you can eat it, but it tastes awful). 

Well, let's say he lives near Breaker's Rock, and one day he was out diving and found a stone cask that contained these three things - the pouch of teeth, the crown, and the flesh. I like the idea that these items figure into the Doom in some way; maybe the flesh is a chunk of Solkantos and one can't die without the other or something like that. 

Anyway, I have six more dice. How about 2d6 on Damage & Defense? 9 gives me...Confidence and Personal Growth. Well, bully for me. I get +1 Guts Damage and Defense. Four more dice. 1d6 on Sundries & Supplies? 2 gives me Artisan's Tools and Playing Cards. Nifty. How about a little magic? I'll roll my last three dice on the Techniques table. 13 gives me...Turn the Tide. When I use it, all of my Skill checks have Opportunity for (some time). Sounds cool.

Character-building questions! Guess I need a name. Let's call him Khajeer. So: What makes Khajeer different? Khajeer hears things that others don't, and sees music in everything - birds' wings, fish's jumps, falling rain. 

Three rumors about Khajeer (and who believes them). Some people say that Khajeer drowned a man and took his teeth. This is utterly false, and no one really believes it, but as the rumor spreads and people hear it who don't know Khajeer, that might change. 

Some people say that Khajeer demands a favor - always to come later - for the instruments he make. This isn't really true; Khajeer is certainly willing to trade his skill for something, but there's nothing sinister about it.

And finally, some of the folks living around Breaker's Rock claim that they've seen Khajeer wearing a crown and talking to the ocean. This is true, but it's not like Khajeer does it often. The crown makes you think funny things.

Last question: What was the most painful lesson the hero had to learn? I think that some people don't like music. No, worse, some people don't care about music, they think it's frivolous and think Khajeer is wasting his time.

Last step is to determine Bonds, but that would generally require a group and it's just me. I think I'd spread out the Bonds among other players so that I've got minor Bonds to everyone; Khajeer strikes me as someone who likes everyone but isn't deeply involved with anyone, at least not yet. 

And that'll do it! Gotta say, I'm warming to this after reading the adventure. Nice to see it in context.