Character Creation: Hieronymus

Love the weird stuff.

The Game: Hieronymus
The Publisher: 12 Pins Press
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played it, but the system is Forged in the Dark and I know that well
Books Required: Just the one

In Hieronymus, you're playing Medieval people (kind of) fleeing from an otherworldly Follower across worldscapes represented by the paintings of Bosch and other artists. It's surreal, it's symbolic, it's weird, it's very much my cup of tea.

I said you're playing people, kind of. The playbooks are meant to be representation of the institutions of the time, so you've got the Priest, the King, the Scoundrel, the Alchemist, and so on. Your character can be specific, but the whole setup is highly representative and literary. Probably I'll need to run this at some point. 

Anyway, making a character is very quick process - pick a playbook, add a Skill dot (like, one), add an Advance, do some backstory, boom, ready to flee the Follower. So which Playbook is my fav?

Well, I'm kinda feeling the King, honestly. Specifically, I find myself inspired by Nicolae Pătrașcu, a Prince of Wallachia. I'm not gonna delve too deep into the history, but Nicolae seemed to find himself jerked around and use as a bargaining chip quite a bit, and I'm kind of enjoying the notion of a boy king who is a pawn in machinations much bigger than himself. So, sure, King. 

My young King's name is Nikolas (after Nicolae, obvs). He's in his mid teens, he's dressed in finery, and he's very much used to everyone around him deferring to him unless his dad is in the room, in which case he doesn't exist. He's got black hair and blue eyes, and paintings of him make him look handsome, but he's actually got kind of a weak chin and weirdly spaced eyes. Draw whatever conclusion you want. 

Mechanically, Nikolas gets two dots in Analyze and one in Convince, and then I get one more. I'll put that extra point in Move; Nikolas is young and relatively fit. I get one Advance. Hmm. They're all fun, but I think Loyalty makes the most sense (once per worldscape I can have someone take a Devil's Bargain for me; if they refuse they get two stress). 

And that's actually it. Spent more time fucking with the picture than I did making the character. Form-fillable sheets, yo, look into it.