Character Creation: Brinkwood

No songs, no gimmicks, just straight ol' fashioned chargen. Gonna try to do 10 a month this year, let's see if that happens.

The Game: Brinkwood: The Blood of Tyrants
The Publisher: Far Horizons Co-op
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played it, but it's Forged in the Dark and I know that pretty well
Books Required: Just the one

Brinkwood is a fantasy/horror game in which you play folks under the oppressive rule of vampires who rebel and try to stake the fuckers. The fae are involved, too; ashwood confuses vampires and you live in the ash forest under the protection of your fae buddies. When you go out on missions, you don one of several Masks, which gives you special abilities, but you don't have to wear the same Mask every time, which is pretty cool.

Every FitD game is going to get compared to Blades in the Dark. Like Blades, Brinkwood has a strong, specific setting but still has enough room to let a playgroup make it their own. Like Blades, the system "collapses" down to one idea: roll the dice, 6 is a success, 4-5 is mixed, 1-3 is failure. Like Blades, it has a built-in structure and expansion rules, and it has a lot of moving parts rules-wise but you can include them as you go so that it's not overwhelming at first.

However, Blades, I felt, is a better-written game overall, and one big reason is that there's not an example to be found in this whole book. Blades (and Wicked Ones, for that matter, and Scum & Villainy, I think) all have running examples as well as taking the time in the text to explain, with concrete depictions, how the rules would work and play at the table. And Brinkwood could really have used that, not just for the reader, but because I think it might have pushed the writers to make a few things a little less vague. 

Now, with all that said, I might wind up playing this game (as a player, whhaaaat) in the next year or so and I think it'd be dope as hell, so don't mistake mild critique for poo-pooing. I just like my examples.

Anyway, a character! First thing we do is choose a "folk," which is kinda like ethnic background. There's no mechanical weight (much like race in Wicked Ones). The book says to write it on the sheet, but there's no slot for it. Boo.

Well, I like the notion of a sylfolk, the people from the forests and woods, but of course I also love the deepfolk, from rivers and seas. So let's say my guy has pale, sky-blue skin, pure white hair, and wide, brown eyes. He's tall and willowy - more a marsh than a forest, more a brook than a river.

And now we pick an "upbringing." I'll take Foundling, I think. My character was found near a human village (the other option is raised by the fae), meaning I get to name my village and I'm always welcome there. I'll called it Shepforth Look (there's an island called Shepforth Isle, so this is on the mainland but on the coast and in view of the isle). 

I also get an associate; either a beast I met in the forest or a village elder who taught me everything I know. I think I'll do the former, actually. Aster is a cat-like creature that comes to the beach to get cockles, and he and I grew to be friends when I was a kid. 

And now I pick a profession. Ugh, why aren't these in alphabetical order?! Anyway. I already know I want his profession to be Ascetic. My character met a traveling scholar named Azvent, and followed him deeper into the Brinkwood every year when he passed through the village on his way to and from the Isle. Once year my guy just didn't go back, and learned to be a hermit of sorts. For my trait here, I'll take foresight (I get a free flashback every session). I also get a dot in Attune.

Now a "class," which is my new role after fleeing into the Brinkwood and joining the rebellion. I'm gonna take Saboteur, just because it's at odds with this character's somewhat pastoral life up to now. That means I get 2 points in Wreck and 1 in Prowl.

Add three more action dots (they're not dots, they're squares, but whatevs). Hmm. I feel like he needs a point in Survey, I'd like a second dot in Attune, and I think a point of Skirmish. 

Tragedy! Everyone who joins the rebellion does it for a reason, and those reasons aren't theoretical. I don't know that vampires control weather in this game, but I don't know that they don't, so let's say that one winter the Look didn't pay the tribute they were supposed to. The vampire-in-charge (which would be something the table would decide upon) conjured up a storm that wrecked the town, but didn't kill everyone. Many of the oldest and youngest were washed out to sea, and the vampire decreed that no one was allowed to mourn until the debt was paid. That was the moment my guy left. 

Bonds! These are things that allow me to regain stress, and they're important, so you'd think there'd be a dedicated space on the sheet, but NOPE (side note: there is enough stuff in this game to merit a full page for a sheet, but they're only half-sheets). 

Well, I'll say there's a section of beach north of the village that's hard to see from either land or water. My guy goes there to meditate sometimes. Also, there's a fisherman and his daughter that come from the Isle and wave to my character on the beach. He's never spoken to them, but he watches them work and it gives him hope.

Fae Pact! See, here's a place where an example would have been nice. You have a Pact and oaths, but they're not the same thing. A Pact is kind of an overarching vow towards an ideal, while an oath is a thing you can do before you go out on a foray to honor your Pact as expressed through your Mask. I'll swear a Pact of Solidarity - my character feels that what happened to his village was profoundly unfair in a lot of ways, and he wants to see them able to mourn their dead and weep for the lost without fear.

Beyond that, it's just name, alias, and pronouns. My character's name is Kirill (it's one of the examples and I like it). When he's wearing the Mask, he's Brook (both as in "a stream in the woods" and "I will not tolerate this bullshit"). 

That'll do it! Maybe there's an actual play I can watch for this game...