Character Creation: Low Life ReDredged

Much of today has been spent with people digging in the dirt around my house, so this is, perhaps, appropriate. 

The Game: Low Life ReDredged
The Publisher: Mutha Oith Creations
Degree of Familiarity: I ran the first edition of the game once, and of course I'm pretty conversant with Savage Worlds generally
Books Required: Low Life and some version of Savage Worlds; this game is written for the Explorer's Edition

Low Life is, at its very basic level, a post-apocalyptic game. The ancient Hoomanracians are all gone, and what remains are the lowly - werms (worms), croaches (cockroaches), t'iznts (weird amalgams of animals), piles (of filth), and so forth. The humor in the game is abundant and very firmly rooted in poop and related things. 

But that isn't to say it's all scatological. One of the playable species is the Cremefillians, sentient snack cakes who are largely pretty horrified that the other races view the Hoomanrace as benevolent and wise, since the Hoomanracians used to eat them. There are several widespread religions that are actually pretty fun and well-realized, including the Jeezle Freaks, whose dogma is basically a mix of Christianity and worship of Elvis. You could absolutely make this game about nothing more than gross-out gags, poo, and 12-year-old jokes, and it would work just fine. But there's a game here that is, if not exactly deeper, than more nuanced and clever. (And would include poop jokes, because you really can't not.)

So let's make a character. One of the things I like is that this game gives everyone a free Professional Edge, so you can start out by thinking about what you want your peep to do and build the character from there. You can also take a free point in a skill instead. 

First thing we do is choose a species. I know I want to make a bodul (Being Of Dubious Lineage). Boduls are descendants of the Hoomanracians, but they're kind of scrambled. Behold. 

Artwork by the inimitable Andy Hopp

I'll decide exactly what weird-ass features my bodul has presently. For now, I'm going to skip ahead a little and choose my Professional Edge, since it will inform the rest of my decisions. 

Hmm. I really like a lot of the Arcane Backgrounds (which aren't represented by the Professional Edges), so I think I may eschew the free Edge for a point in one of those Skills. Or, no, wait, I got an idea. My bodul is a Beast Puncher. He wrangles the big animals, beasts of burden, and so on. He is also a giggity gigger.

See, there are these weird little things called "giggities." They float around and touch peeps, and sometimes mimic aspects of those peeps (features, traits, whatever). A gigger can convince that giggity to relinquish the trait unto the gigger. I think it fits nicely with a character that also wrangles animals. I shall take the Beast Puncher Edge. 

OK, now attributes. I need Spirit d6 for Beast Puncher, and the Giggity Gigger skill keys off Agility, so I shall put those both at d8. I'll put my other die into Vigor. That leaves Strength and Smarts at d4; maybe I'll raise one or both later.

Skills! This being Explorer Edition, I have 15 points to just put anywhere (lol). Right off the bat I'll put d8 into Persuasion (important for beasting) and Giggity Gigging. I'll put d6 into Riding (I get a bonus from my Edge, too). That's 8 points. I'll put d6 into Notice, d4 into Climbing (11 points). I'll put Fighting up to d8. That leaves me one more point. Survival, I think, makes sense.

Hindrances n' stuff! I can take up to 4 points in Hindrances. Actually as a bodul I can take more and use them to balance out an unnatural number of Edges, but first thing's first. Cyclopean (my guy has ONE BIG EYE) is a minor, so that's 1 point. I'll take Sort of Clueless, another minor. And then I'll take Delusional (Major). My guy's delusion is that all animals are his friends, even if some of them don't know it yet (if not fren why fren-shaped). 

(It occurs to me that this Delusion would actually be really hard to play, because logically it would make it really hard to fight animals, but for purposes of this project we'll assume I've got a group that would be really cool about it.)

Anyway that's 4 points. Edges! I get Beast Puncher for free. I get a free Edge because I'm a bodul, which I will use to take Arcane Background: Giggity Gigger. And then I get two more Edges from my species. I get a +2 to any one Knowledge Skill (which means maybe I should take one) from the Clever Edge, and...ooh, neat! I get Proud Heritage, which means my Spirit starts at d6. That means I can shift a point into my Smarts or Strength. Let's go Strength. 

Right, so then I still have 4 points left. I'll put a d4 into Knowledge: Beasts so I can actually use my Clever Edge. I'll put a d4 into Tracking, as it seems like something I should have. And then I'll take Beast Master, obviously. 

Cool, so let's figure out my Powers. I get 3, and it says "special" in the write-up, not sure what that means. But I'd better take Gather Giggities (since that lets me summon the little buggers) and Gig (since that's...the whole point). The only other Novice power they can get is The Hookup, which would let me put a trait from a giggity on someone else, but like, I...don't want that? Does the "special" next to Powers mean I can take Powers from other Arcane Backgrounds, since I'd be able to do that in play? Let's assume that's what it means, since most of the online resources for Low Life have apparently gone away. I'll take the Beast Friend power, just to keep up the theme.

Other stuff! My character's name is Silica Gel Do Not Eat. Gel is a devout Hoomanitarian, believing that the Hoomanrace was master of all of the creatures great and small, benevolent and wise as they were (he also doesn't believe they really ate Cremefillians, but that there must be some mis-translation or misunderstanding or mistletoe that confused things). Gel has two hands on his shoulders that can't do much but flap a little (the fingers aren't articulated enough to hold anything). He's got one GREAT BIG EYE on the front of his head, two sets of lips (which lets him make really awesome horse noises), and a wide, gray forehead that looks like it came from an oofo (his first big success at gigging). 

I get a beast companion from my Beast Master Edge, so I'll say Gel is accompanied by a Qoochacho (triangular greenish sort of creature that subsists on cheese and can bleecccch it up at an enemy). Gel calls his Bloob and feeds it the stuff that accumulates between his toes (it's like cheese, and Bloob seems to like it). 

And normally I'd spend clams, but you all know how I hate shopping, so that's me done!