Character Creation: The Troubleshooters

THE THIRD GAME OF XMAS, TWENTY-TWENTY-TWO,
IS THE TROUBLESHOOTERS,
TWO WAS STAR-CROSSED,
AND THE FIRST ONE WAS THE ONE RING 2nD ED!

I don't suspect this is gonna get any better at fitting the cadence of the song.

The Game: The Troubleshooters
The Publisher: Modiphius Entertainment
Degree of Familiarity: None, just read the book
Books Required: Just the one

Ah, the magic of Kickstarter. Sometimes I think back to the heady days of 2001 when I did this shit full time and consider how well an RPG based on French and Belgian bédé comics would have been received by the publishing industry. It seems a little niche.

Regardless, though, the game turned out really well. Even if you're unfamiliar with the inspiration (and I'm only minimally familiar), the tone of the game comes through completely clearly on the cover. The text of the game is colorful and easy to follow and there are lots of examples. I actually only have two complaints right off the bat, and they're pretty minor as things go.

The first one is that the character sheet is boring as hell. I only even mention it because the rest of the book is so visually appealing.

The other is that the system is, well, fussy. At its base it's percentile-roll-low, which of course is fine, but the stated way to do modifiers to a roll is with "pips." If, for instance, you get "+2 pips" to a roll, if the ones digit on your d% roll is a 1 or a two, you succeed regardless of the 10s digit. Fortunately, the book includes a sidebar saying that it usually works just as well to consider every "pip" to be a 5% swing in whatever direction, so, uh, if I run the game I'm doing that, because the "pip" thing is bananas. 

(Damage and soak rolls also use a different rolling system and it's a little fiddly, but it's not a dealbreaker.)

Well, anyway, let's make a Troubleshooter!

Assuming that I'm making a character for kind "as intended" Troubleshooters game, that is a group of European adventurers doing vaguely espionage-y hijinks in exotic locations, I have a basic concept. I want to play a Russian ex-pat (this game is set in the 1960s, so the Soviet Union is still a thing), kind of taking some inspiration from The Man from UNCLE (but more the show than the movie, not that I don't love the movie, but movie-Ilya is a little too intense for this game). My character was an Olympic competitor in the 1964 games in Japan, and during his time there he defected to France (this would all need to tie in with other PCs, of course). Not sure of his event yet; let's keep going and see what comes out of chargen.

So, my Temple is obviously Elite Athlete:

My starting Skills, therefore, are Willpower 75, Agility 65, Endurance 65, Melee 65, Strength 65, Alertness 45, Status 45, Credit 45, Medicine 45, Ranged Combat 45, Survival 45, and everything else is at a lowly 15. Cool. 

Two Abilities, which means I need to think about my event. I know I want Athlete (which means I pick a sport and I get to spend Story Points to be a badass there). I think I'll say that my guy is a bantamweight boxer, just to avoid the stereotype of the big burly Russian guy. This guy is small and lean, but he medaled in boxing (fun fact: bantamweight was the only boxing event that the USSR didn't medal at the 1964 Olympics) and then slipped away from his handlers after the fight. 

Anyway, my second Ability pretty much needs to be Mean Left Hook. Moving on! A Complication! I'll take Honest.

Max Vitality is 7, though if I shift any of my Skills around it might change. 

Languages! My Native is Russian and I speak French and English because all characters do.

I get five Gear Kits. There is no slot for this on the sheet. What the heck, guys. Anyway, I get a bicycle, a compact car, a camera. I'll take the bike as a Signature Gadget. I get two more kits, and I'll take an overnight bag and a samurai sword (what the heck, I was just in Japan). 

Plot Hooks! No slot on the sheet for these, either. GUYS. BETTER SHEET PLZ. I can take one or two Plot Hooks, and I know I want Exile. I'll also take I Owe You - Hiroaki Seki, the ring doctor in Tokyo who helped my guy get away after his fight. They have a kind of father-son relationship; I think he probably also gave my boxer the sword. 

Customize! I think I'll drop Ranged Combat to 35 and bump Melee to 75, but otherwise I think I'm pretty well set. Oh, wait,  no, I'm gonna swap Credit and Red Tape; I don't have much money but I'm good at navigating stupid rules.

And finally, some character design! My guy's name is Andrei Ivanovich Yemelynov. He now lives in Paris (I'd change this as necessary if I were actually playing this guy). He's short - about 5'3" - and only 128 lbs (he used to be even lighter, since the limit for bantamweight is about 119, but he's not as strict now). Blue eyes, brown hair, crooked nose (it's been broken a few times). He was born in 1941 in Leningrad, so he's mid-20s now. 

Andrei is what you might called "jolly." He's very used to people calling him "pipsqueak" or "shrimp" or whatever, and he just takes it in stride, because he's fully aware that he could knock them right the heck out of if he wanted to. He was born during the Siege of Leningrad and while he doesn't remember much (he was kinda young then), he likes to say that he's seen enough harsh to last him his lifetime and he'd like to live somewhere a little more tranquil. That doesn't stop him from getting yanked into adventures, because at the end of the day he's got a soft spot for people trying to better their situations. 

And that'll do it! Like this game a lot, not at all crazy about the sheet. You wouldn't think it'd make too big of a difference, but it kinda does at the table.