Character Creation: Highcaster

Man, I need to step it up if I want to make seven more characters by next week. That's basically one a day.

The Game: Highcaster
The Publisher: Christopher Grey, or Sundered Hold Scriptorium, I don't know
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Highcaster is a fantasy game that, by rights, shouldn't interest me much. It's a fleshed-out enough setting, in a world (IN A WORLD) with no stars because they were gods and they've all fallen, a bunch of different races and societies and so forth. It's meant as a sandboxy kind of thing - here's the world, go play in it, make up the details as you go. The system isn't a million miles from PbtA, but it's not quite that. Either way, shouldn't elicit more than a shrug and "sure?"

But I have to admit, while I was reading the book I kept thinking that it was all really cool. I like the intersection of culture and profession, and I like that your "path" is your profession in an oblique kind of way, but really only heroes have paths. And when a hero walks into town, that shit is notable. People are in awe of the characters, and that makes them a little scary. It's not a story about rising from humble beginnings, it's a story about the real legends, and that's appealing to me.

So with all of that said, let's make a character.

First off we pick a culture. In play this would be a whole-table decision, but since it's just me obviously I will be a unilateral dictator on this choice. Bwa-ha-ha. Anyway. 

Actually, I kind of like Deirwesch. The region is riverlands and wetlands, but the city of Sundered Hold is also in this region and it's one of the oldest cities in the world. Lots of talk about how law is complex and involved, and I was thinking about making a magic-y person who inscribes runes, so that appeals. Picking a name off the handy list we're given, I shall name my character Odion Beho. Let's say what I get from my Culture.

I speak Forsentung and Highspeak, and one more language, which I'll pick later. I get a Cultural Bonus; I shall take Cultured (I get to use a Talent die when using knowledge of a society). I'll take Barrister as my profession. So my guy is a lawyer from the city of Sundered Hold. I can dig it.

Next, we pick heritage (race or species). There are some pretty cool ones. I could even be a unicorn if I wanted. "Unicorn Lawyer" sounds like an Adult Swim show. Anyway, I think I'd rather be a Fynd - basically demon-y in aspect, but not necessarily evil or even malicious. So my Fynd is tall, and his build is hard to see because he's perpetually wreathed in shadow. He can spread that shadow out around him, creating a big bubble of darkness, but he doesn't like to do that - it upsets people. 

And now on to Path, and I already know I want to be a Magister. The text tells me that magisters in Deirwesch are called "tomekin." And then I have to answer some questions:

Odion's magic is mostly rune-focused. He's a skilled calligrapher, though not much of an artist (anatomy confuses him). He's very skilled at working magical runes into other symbols and letters, so that a sentence might have magic bound into it without anyone noticing. His father taught him the law and saw and encouraged his talent as a writer, but it was his mother who saw the spark of magic in him and nudged him toward becoming tomekin. Training wasn't smooth, though - Odion missed legal text, and it took a year for him to start seeing magic as "law" for the world. One of his instructors, Tomekin Issa, stayed up late and helped him rewrite and rephrase spells so that they made sense to him.

Odion has always had difficulty perceiving magic - other magisters might describe a glow or a sound or a particular odor, but Odion feels magic emotionally. Beneficent magic is comforting, like coming home after a long day. Baleful magic is the feeling when someone is watching you or something is out of place, and so on. Odion used to clash with another student of magic, a giantkin woman named Malika. She loved yelling out power words to cast spells with her deep, booming voice, and it always struck Odion as unnecessary and ostentatious. She didn't finish her training, and Odion has always felt a little glad, as though it proved him right somehow.

More questions!

 

Odion's runes are usually written in ink, carefully, but he keeps chalk and charcoal around for quick casting, too. He has a set of cards that he made with runes, useful for reference or the occasional divination. His tome is non-sequential - anyone who picks it up and tries to read it realizes that one page doesn't follow another, a sentence might break at the bottom of one page and continued 20 pages later. Sometimes words are written in a big spiral, sometimes one word is in one continual, noodle-like mess of a line. It makes sense to Odion.

Odion carries a magical quill that he can dip into anything - the air, a shadow, a moonbeam, the ocean, a living thing - and write in a color and style matching that thing. He usually just dips it into the darkness surrounding him to write in black ink, but it's very useful for writing coded messages; people with some knowledge of the "ink" can usually read messages in it, even if they aren't normally literate.

Odion is from Sundered Home. He grew up in the city, surrounded by people of all heritage, and he grew up in a particularly chatty neighborhood. It's not the same as a small town where everyone knows everyone, because people only really know their own people, but everyone is friendly, and there's a kind of agreed-upon cordiality that Odion misses when he's out adventuring. Odion's parents still live there - he's their only child and they don't have other family - and he knows that they wish he'd stay in Sundered Hold and practiced law and magic there. But Odion felt that his calling lay out in the world, because if magic really is the law of the world, then he needs to see more of that world to truly master its laws.

Relationships would require other PCs, so I'ma skip that. Disciplines, I think I get a d4, a d6, and a d8 to split up, even though it doesn't freaking say that under chargen (grr). I'll obviously put the d8 in Myster (Discipline of Runes), the d4 in Words, and the d6 in Tomes.

And then I do the same thing with the Humors (Virtue, Courage, and Prestige). Well, I think d8 in Prestige, d6 in Virtue and d4 in Courage makes the most sense. Odion isn't really a combatant.

Oh, that's cute, the sheet has Will, Force, and Charisma instead of Virtue, Courage, and Prestige. Maybe I have an old sheet? Oh, yeah, I do. Well, I've already filled stuff in, so I'm not switching now, but the correct ones do exist.

And now I get a Feat! These are just general advantages. I shall take Affluent; I can introduce a "truth" without spending Favor. Sounds cool.

And that's actually about it! It'd be interesting to play Odion and see him confront situations where there is no law, but find the laws within the chaos. Everyone has their own laws, there are agreements in duos, in small groups, in gangs, in packs of wolves, and so forth. Fractal lawyering. 

And that'll do it!