Character Creation: FantasyCraft

Got some time today and I can't play Mortal Kombat all day, so. 

The Game: FantasyCraft
The Publisher: Crafty Games
Degree of Familiarity: I mean, I've played D&D and that's all this really is
Books Required: Just the one

FantasyCraft is yet another D&D clone. Same assumptions both as far as game design (roll to hit the thing, you've got attributes, they have scores which give you modifiers, ho hum), and same weird self-satisfied tone that it's not D&D. Yawn.

However, I will say this. It sets out from the jump to be a high-fantasy RPG toolkit, and then it gives you some tools. Sure, there's nothing in here that's really innovative as far as world-building goes; it's not like Spark or Fate or any of the zillions of indie games like Questlandia that make collaborative world design part of the process. It's very GM-as-creator focused, but it's very thorough in what it asks the GM to consider, and in listing permutations and examples. The discussion of alignment in particular I think is nice; it starts off stating that alignment is only there if you want it to be, but if you are gonna use it, have it mean something. It also gives you different axes along which to consider alignment, rather than the bog-standard order/chaos or good/evil, and I think that's cool. 

So would I ever run it? I mean, probably not, if I want to build a setting I know how to do that and there are systems I'd rather play with (and frankly if I'm building a setting from ground up I want to involve my players, both so I don't have to info-dump and because those collaborations are fun). But this is a lot more useful and a lot less wanky than many of the D&D clones out.

Since I don't have a setting, of course, I'll just stick to the usual high fantasy assumptions (though, side note, I've been watching The Legend of Vox Machina of late and comparing/contrasting with the Dragon Age Netflix show, and it's interesting to me how well both shows take a setting that could be anybody's D&D game and make the world feel alive and unique). So let's make a character! Or should I say...craft a character! 

The crafting steps

Step 0 is concept, and since this system is point-buy rather than random, a concept actually is applicable. Let's again to turn to music for inspiration: 

For no better reason than it was what was playing in my car when I went to go move it. "All These Things I've Done" is an interesting song, and the bit that gets stuck in my head is "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier." The other line I really like is the first one: "When there's nowhere left to run/Is there room for one more son?" I think there's a lot of fantasy character potential there. So let's say my character was a refugee, found as a baby (or a child, anyway) after his village had been burned. He was taken in by some kindly folks in another town, and has since grown up, and has always kind of felt like a fifth wheel because these folks have kids of their own, y'know? 

So with that kind of sad origin story in mind, I'll reserve other choices for later in the process (race, for instance). What's next!?

Attributes, of course. It's the standard list, and I get 36 points to buy my scores. But it's not one-for-one, UGGGGHHH. 

OK, well, let's think about this. I picture this character being strong, so I think I want Strength and Con to be his highest ones. I never like making Cha a dump stat - actually I think his Wisdom can be low because I seem him being somewhat gullible. So let's set it up thusly:

Str 16
Dex 12
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 8
Cha 10

Can I make that work? That's...holy shit, exactly 36 points. I'm a genius. 

Next step is Origin, in which I am asked to choose a Species and a Specialty that combine to make my particular, well, origin. Let's see now.

Well, I definitely want a non-human race, but I don't think my concept really works with Saurian or Drake. Pech (basically halflings) aren't threatening, and I want my character to be a little scary to his adopted parents. That basically makes it orc, ogre, or giant. Let's do giant. 

Relevant giant stuff

Specialty! Let's say he's a warden. I like the idea of him guarding his community from the fringes, and it fits with having soul but not being a soldier, I think. 

I get to pick two skills to be Origin Skills. I'll pick Notice and Survival, those seem pretty Warden-y.

Next, career level. Let's assume I'm level 1. My Action dice at d4, I get 3, my max Skill rank is 4, and I get a bonus Feat. 

Next, class! (Man, lots of intersecting categories, which I don't mind, but it's a lot to keep track.) Since I'm level 1 I get a Base Class; if I leveled up to 5 I'd get an Expert Class, and so on (hey, Shadow of the Demon Lord). 

Hrm. Wisdom is a favored Attribute for just about all of these, looks like I picked the wrong dump stat. You know what, I'm gonna swap Intelligence and Wisdom, just so I don't get hosed on Notice checks and whatnot. And I'll double down and take Scout as my class. 

That means I get 20 Skill points (6 + Int mod, which for me is -1, x 4 at 1st level), which I can only spend on Class Skills. Presumably I can spend them on Origin Skills, but both of mine Origins Skills are also Class Skills, so it's moot. I can only buy 4 ranks in Skills to start, so let's do it this way:

Athletics 4
Blend 2
Medicine 2
Notice 4
Resolve 2
Sneak 2
Survival 4

That's 20!

I get 4 Proficiencies; I get Hurled because I'm a giant. I'll also take Unarmed, Blunt, and Bows, and then I'll spend my last one for Forte in Unarmed. 

OK, Feats, then. I get one Pathfinder Feat from my Specialty, which means I pick a terrain. Let's take Plains, which gives me a +2 to Notice checks. I get a free one from Career, so I'll take Wrestling Basics (requires Unarmed forte, which hey, I have). 

Next step (which is 7) is Interests. Interests include languages, alignments, and "Studies" (just generally things that the character is interested in). 

Let's assume, for purposes of this exercise, that this campaign doesn't include alignments. We'll say my Giant speaks Common, and then I get two Studies. I'll take Local History and Heraldry - he's interested in families and how they're put together, since his is a little weird.

Step 8 is "fill in everything else on the sheet", so just a moment. Oh, I need a name, of course, and a description, but let's look at numbers real quick. How do you figure Defense? Does the fact that I'm a giant give me a modifier? It doesn't say it does in the Giant write-up, so let's assume not. That gives me Defense of 11, or 12 against adjacent opponents (thanks to Wrestling). 

Step 9 is gear, but y'know, I often skip that step. I should at least look, though. Ok, there's coin in hand (100 silver in my case) and Lifestyle, which gets split between Panache and Prudence, but is 0 in my case because I don't get any modifiers.

So, cool, that's it, because I don't feel like spending silver. Let's just assume my giant has rugged clothes for wardening/scouting, probably a club, and appropriate gear (flint & tinder, that kind of thing). 

The rest is silence details, so: Clay Knollsson was named after the clay-like ground he was found on, and that he was found on a knoll. His adoptive parents were apparently familiar enough with giant naming conventions that they gave him a giant-style patronym, but Clay has always felt like they could have given him their name, maybe in addition? (Their family name is Overhill, for the record.) Clay felt more and more as he grew up that his adoptive mother treated him like a beast of burden, but his adoptive father was always kind and loving, and his brothers and sisters were...kinda split on the issue. It was enough to make Clay feel just welcome enough to want to stay, but just awkward enough to become a warden.

Getting Clay into an adventuring party wouldn't be hard, I think; basically have him follow trouble in his area and slowly get further away until he realizes, like Samwise, that he's as far from home as he's ever been. Clay has the black hair characteristic of the giants in his area, but his eyes are emerald green, which would usually indicate forest giant extraction. Maybe his family history is more complicated than he knows. 

That'll do it! Not a bad setup but too many steps, methinks.