Character Creation: Witch Girls Adventures

The tinsel falls from the trees, the snows have melted, and now the year 2022 slouches towards its deathbed. However.

THE ELEVENTH GAME OF XMAS, TWENTY-TWENTY-TWO,
IS WITCH GIRL ADVENTURES,
YARR!,
THEN ROCKOPOLIS,
GOOD SOCIETY,
THEN MOONPUNK,
VISIGOTHS VS. MALL GOTHS,
PIRATES OF PUGMIRE,
THE TROUBLESHOOTERS,
THEN STAR-CROSSED,
AND THE FIRST GAME WAS THE ONE RING 2ND ED!

The Game: Witch Girls Adventures
The Publisher: Relentless Fiction
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I picked this game for the 11 slot ("eleven ladies dancing") because, well, it's about the only game I had on the list that is about ladies in any sense. I don't think I have any about dancing. 

I got this game in a bundle, and reading it now, I'm lukewarm. It looks...fine, I guess? Urban fantasy-ish sort of game in which (lol) you're playing young witches, perhaps at some kind of witchy academy. It's based on a comic strip, but the URL doesn't seem to work anymore and I ain't going fishing. 

As for the RPG, there was a second edition on Kickstarter some years ago, but it appears to have shat the bed, going by the number of comments saying things like "I never got the PDF or the book." But that's as may be, cause I didn't back it, so on we go!

Irritatingly, the PDF isn't searchable, and it's not bookmarked properly, so finding anything in particular in the book is difficult. For instance, it seems like a game that, at first blush, wants all of the PCs to be girls should at least address the idea of male PCs, but if it does I can't find it. So let's just assume that characters for this game are supposed to be girls, make a character accordingly, and go play Phoenix Point some more.

Oh, wait, there's one line that I just found that says "All witches are female." OK, then.

SCs (Star Characters, I think) are assumed to start at age 12. First thing we choose is our splat, here called "clique." Let's see.

Hmm. I just watched Sleepy Hollow again, and there's that scene close the beginning where Christina Ricci's character is playing some game called "Pickety Witch." It's clearly a party game for younger folks ("Who's got a kiss for the Pickety Witch?"), but the undercurrent of witchcraft is present just like it is for most of the movie. Also, I like the idea of working in dance somehow, just to keep with the song's lyric (and because RPGs are about stepping outside oneself, and if there's one thing that I'd need to experience through a character, it's dancing). 

So I think I'll go with Rustic:

This gives me a d8 in Magic. I split up d4, d6, d6, d8, d8 amongst my other Attributes. Well, I want her to be outdoorsy, graceful, and spirited, so I think a d8 in Body. I'll put my d4 in Mind, since it apparently deals more with education than actual intellect; she's had a much more practical and physical upbringing. I'll put a d6 into Social and Senses, and my other d8 into Will. 

I get 8 points in Mundane Skills and 8 in Magic Skills (plus a free point in either Divination or Elementalism). Ugh, there are far too many of these. Well, I'll put 3 into Dancing, 1 into Fighting, 1 into Garden, 1 into Hiding, 1 in Plucky, 1 in Track.

Magic skills! I'll put 2 into Broom-Riding, 3 into Casting 1 into Focus, and 1 into Magical Etiquette. I see this character as coming from a society where most people know a witch or two, and so the basics of Magical Etiquette are pretty second nature. She would have trouble at a fancy ball, though.

Traits! I get two Talents and a Heritage. For Talents, I'll take Friendly (I can inspire someone if I talk them up in a scene) and Rural (I get a bonus to doing outdoorsy stuff). For Heritage, I'll take Hex-Breaker. Her village had a rash of curses and hexes some years back - before she was born - and her mother, also a witch, got really good at de-hexing people. That gives me the Spell-Breaker Skill at +2 for free, but it means I get one fewer point of magic ranks.

And that's the next step, in fact. I get a free point in Elementalism or Divination, and I think I'll take the former - Divination feels a little too contemplative for this character. I'll put three points out of my 7 in there, too, for the maximum score I can start with. 

Four more points. I think I want some Curse (not that she's real fond of cursing people, but y'know, easier to break them if you know what you're dealing with). I'll put 2 there, and then the other two into Protection. 

Neat. I get a signature spell, something that I use a lot and that I can cast more easily. It has to be from Elementalism. I think I'll say that Sunny Day is her preferred spell. It just makes the weather perfect (and she's been known to use a similar spell to make autumn days crisp and winter days snowy). 

I'm gonna skip equipment, I think, and go straight on to the last step, which is fleshing everything out. 

So! My witch's name is Penny Pickett ("Penny" is short for "Penelope," but she literally can't remember the last time anyone called her that). She's what you might call "gangly" - tall, thin, her hair has a tendency to friz a bit, and her eyes are bright blue and lively. 

Penny is from a magical family - her mother and sisters are all witches, as is her aunt. Her brothers (Penny is the youngest of six) are mostly OK with it, though she suspects her brother Gerald is getting a little too jealous. She isn't sure what to do about it, though, and honestly she thinks it is kind of unfair that there aren't any boy witches. She keeps meaning to ask her mom about it.

Penny is a little naive. She's not a bumpkin, exactly, but the social contract where she's from is very different than in a more cosmopolitan area and that causes some conflict. In particular, it's frowned upon to settle differences via a quick wrestling match in this new witchy school. 

That'll do it, I think!