Character Creation: Lightning War

Yay, I picked something fun! 

The Game: Lightning War
The Publisher: Games, Ink
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I guess small publishers just don't have websites as much anymore.

Anyway, Lightning War is a game in a genre that's not exactly underrepresented: fantasy WWII. But where it's different from, say, Fae Noir or Wild Skies: Europa Tempest that touch on some of the same themes is that this world is inspired by ours but manifestly isn't. 

That's nice because it frees us from a lot of the baggage of our own history, but it also places a bigger burden on the writing because now not only do you have to bring across the setting, but also doing it without the benefit of easy touchstones. I'm happy to say that Lightning War does it. The relevant history of the world (note "relevant", thank you for not giving me prehistory through now) brings us up to speed, here's a few pages on the "Big Five" nations and why they're at war, go.

Character creation consists of making a specialist and two grunts. I was leery of making three characters, but grunts basically just get a name, a species, and one relevant trait and then if/when your specialist packs it in, you can promote a grunt. Since the game is designed around tactical play (which for a game set in war makes sense), I think that's a nice feature. 

Would it play well at the table? I have no clue, but I'd be interested to find out! Let's make a character. First thing we do is determine Abilities; this is a 2d6 roll for each of them that then translates to a modifier. So I get: 4, 2, 5 (nice!), 2, 3, 4, 2. And then I gotta assign these values to Accuracy, Communication, Dexterity, Fitness, Intelligence, Perception, Willpower, in order. 

Next, I pick a species. I kinda want to be a flamethrower operator for reasons I can't quite enumerate, so I'm gonna be a dwarf. I was thinking cinderfolk (flamey elemental types) but maybe you don't want to put the guy who's sometimes on fire wearing the flamethrower? 

So, as a dwarf I get darkvision, stonecunning (I can retrace my steps and track time underground). I can take an urgosh (a dwarven polearm weapon) instead of my standard melee weapon; maybe, I'll have to see what I'd normally get. And I can resist fear with Intelligence instead of Willpower, which is at least a bit of a bonus.

I could roll for a personality trait, but I kinda like the "never forgive, never forget" one. My dwarf is a refugee from one of the pogroms. See, the dwarves in this setting all come from Gundundren, this massive underground nation, but most of them are very into "purity". There are some progressive dwarves, like my guy and his clan, who push for diversity and not being dicks to the rest of the world, and the powers that be have been known to just...bury them alive. That's what happened to my family, and so he's very much of the opinion that anyone that sides with the fascist nutbags of the Apex can just burn. 

(War is hell, baby.)

As a flamethrower, I get stuff. I get a flamethrower (doy), a pistol, a fuel tank, and a helmet. As written I get a knife, but I think I'll invoke my dwarven thing and take an urgosh. I get a "light kit," what's that mean? Oh, just means less ammo than a heavy kit, easy. And then I get two perks to start. 

Well, I feel like I should take tunnel rat, since I'm a dwarf and it feels an obvious fit. And then I think I'll take slow burn; my flamethrower effectively has more shots because I'm disciplined with my trigger finger. 

My dwarf's name is Qud Delzender (and thank you for including naming conventions for each of the races). He speaks his native language of Gundundran, but is also fluent in Meridian, as that's where he fled to after his family died. Qud is short (doy), stocky, and has burn marks and singed bits all over. He takes no overt joy in burning enemies to death, but an almost spiritual, ferocious reverence.

Cool, now two grunts! Grunts get a species, name, basic traits, and they give you a bonus. So I want a Prepared Grunt that gives me an extra utility slot, and a Precise Grunt that gives me +1 Accuracy. 

The Prepared one is an orc. Her name is Ines. She's fussy but very well organized. The Precise one is a cinderfolk called Murrae. They're hoping to be a sniper one day, but part of being a sniper is, um, not being noticed, which is hard when you're on fire. 

 And that's it!