Character Creation: Between the Devil & The Deep

First character of April! I'm a little behind on my 10 per month goal, but I'm pretty sure I can do 12 in April and make up the difference.

The Game: Between the Devil & The Deep
The Publisher: Sons of the Singularity
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this, but it's Gumshoe and I know that system
Books Required: Just the one

Between the Devil & The Deep is...well, it's right there on the cover.

Piracy and weird horror. Sounds good. And the truth is, ever since I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: The Second Movie, I've thought that the weird quasi-occult magic-of-the-sea setting would make for a good RPG. There's a bunch that could probably do it, but this one is one of the few I know about that makes that specific attempt (though there are quite a few pirate RPGs). 

I don't know how well it would work - Gumshoe focuses on one particular kind of game, after all - but the book has lots of adventure support so I certainly can't claim there's not a map to running it. Let's make a piratical kind of person. 

I want to make a magical type of character, but one that's kind of grabbed some random assortment of tricks in his travels and doesn't have too firm of an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings (as such, someone who is going to summon something ugly with tentacles one of these days). That kind of blundering idiocy says "white guy" to me, so let's say he's an Englishman named Toddy Red. Toddy doesn't have red hair, but he goes very red if he's out in the sun too long (that is, ten minutes), so he's just kind of gotten used to having a permanently ruddy complexion. 

First thing we do is choose an occupation. Toddy Red was pressed into service, I think, so "Pressed Sailor" is fine. That means for any of the listed skills, I get 2 points for every one point I put into them.

Next we pick a Drive. Toddy Red is simple - his Drive is Greed. He just wants to be comfortable, well-fed, and idle. (Shit, I'm kind of making Wat from A Knight's Tale in a different genre.)

And now, points! Unlike most Gumshoe games, this one gives you a flat 16 points in Investigative skills, rather than basing it on the number of players in the group. And then the standard 60 General. I also get Health 5 and Stability 1 free to start, and there's a cap on both of those at 12. 

Cool, on we go! Investigative first. (I have to say, I kind of like the approach Mutant City Blues 2nd Ed takes where Investigative skills are now binary rather than having a rating.) I'll put one point each into Salt of the Sea, Shipbuilding, Performance, and Languages so I wind up with 2 in each one. That leaves me 12. I'll put 1 into Belles-Lettres, Culture, History (Toddy Red was, perhaps, better educated than he lets on). Natural Philosophy, Occult, Poetry, and Voodoo can each get one, too. That means I've spent 11, 5 more. 

I think Forgery makes some sense, given what we've established. Flattery and High Society can get one each. Hmm. Last two I'll put into Negotiation and Sense Lies. 

And then over to General points! I'll put 5 into Health and take that up to 10, and I'll put 9 into Stability (magic tends to lower it). Let's put 6 into Athletics (17 spent, 43 remaining). I'll put 5 into Business Affairs, and 5 into Filch. I'll dump 4 into Gambling, which actually gives me 8, which gives me the Cherry for that skill. 29 to go. Navigation should get some, so I'll give it 5. Politics seems like something Toddy would have at least a little understanding of; let's put another 6 in there. I get the Occupation bonus for Scuffling, so I'll put 3 points in and get a rating of 6. Likewise, Seamanship, same drill (3 points in). 12 to go. 

I'll put 8 into Spell-Casting because I want the Cherry, and the other 4 into Sense Trouble. And that's all those points!

If I were playing Toddy, I'd get a Lore Sheet; this is a relationship with an existing NPC of the setting. I think I'm gonna skip it, largely because there's no easy way to attach it to the sheet. 

Otherwise, though, that's it for Toddy Red!