Character Creation: The Gaia Complex

I'm always down for a good hard sci-fi-ing. 

(That's topical because it's a Yahztee Croshaw reference and his new review show dropped today.)

The Game: The Gaia Complex
The Publisher: Hansor Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

The Gaia Complex is a dystopian sci-fi kind of arrangement. There are a dozen megacities left after global disaster. The game is set in the one in Europe, and it's ruled over by an insane AI called Gaia. Otherwise, it feels a lot like other cyber-punk-ish sci-fi RPGs, but I have to admit the book didn't hold my attention well on a cursory read.

But anyway, let's try and make a character (I'm still behind; I need to make 19 more characters in 2023 to hit my goal of averaging 10 a month, all of which is extraneous information, but if you think about it, isn't any of this blog extraneous? I don't have any regular readers, I'm pretty sure, I've delisted it from search engines so I don't know where the middling handful of views I get come from, and I have no idea if this is interesting to anyone but me. But on the other hand, would I be able to stop, even if I felt that doing all this was more a chore than anything? I've stopped doing so much shit that I used to do in the past six years, I'm kind of afraid that if I stop more things, I'm going to just slow down and blobbify. Anyway, moving along). 

Anyway, the first step is to choose a species, and my choices are human or feral (ferals are...people who can mind-meld with animals, I guess?). I'm gonna stick with human because I don't feel like reading the whole feral chapter. 

And next, we pick Role - your class, your archetype, your immortal (maybe not immortal, but I'll get to Katanas and Trenchcoats eventually). A Role gives me:

I think I will go with Bio Hacker. They're basically hackers that slip into people's brains as they're connected to the Core. I really love the idea of biokinesis and biological-based mind control, so that might be fun.

As a Bio Hacker, my Favored Stats are Allure, Brains and Guts. My Core Skills are Deceive, Hacking, Persuasion, and Programming. I get two programs with a cost totaling 500 moneys maximum, and my Trait is Mind Jack (once per game I can automatically succeed on a Hacking or Persuasion test). 

Stats! I have 4s in my three Favored Stats, 1s in the other three, and 25 points to throw around to raise them. Can't go higher than 9 and I can't have more than one at 9 even if I do go that high. OK, gotta conceptualize a little.

I have no idea if it's possible to play a dark shadowy type that can wave his hand Ben Kenobi-style and mess with people's minds, but that's what I'm picturing 'cause it's kind of badass. As such, I think I'll pump Allure, Brains, and Perception up. Allure and Brains are favored stats so I can spend 8 of my 25 points and take them to 8, leaving me 17 points left. I shall spend 5 and put Perception up to 6 (high end of average). 12 left with 3 stats to go (Brawn, Reflexes, Guts). I'll put 5 into Brawn, 6 into Reflexes and 1 into Guts (which makes my rating there 5). Cool.

Skills are connected to stats, and you either have 'em or you don't. I get the four from my Role, and then 12 more, subject to a couple of limits but the limits make sense (e.g., no more skills in a given Stat than your rating in that stat, so I can't take more than 6 Brawn Skills). 

Oh, wait, god dammit. There's a seventh stat (Grit), but since it doesn't have skills attached to it, it's not recorded the same way on the sheet so I completely missed it. BAAAAAALLLS. I don't want a Grit of 1, so I have to rejigger things a little. I don't need much, though, so I think I'll just bump Brawn and Reflexes down by one and put those points into Grit. OK, now Skills. 

I think I want Unarmed Combat and Athletics, those are always good picks. Annoyed that Climbing and Athletics are different Skills (especially since "Firearms" is one single Skill), but eh. On the subject, I'll take Firearms. Stealth seems appropriate, I see this guy as hiding in plain sight. That's four of my 12 picks.

Interrogate and Intimidate sound good. Streetwise should come standard. Medical, Electronics, sure. Three to go. Awareness for sure. Surveillance and...one more. Let's make it Seduction. 

And now I choose two Skills to be specializations, shit I'm really good at. I think Intimidation and Stealth. I like the idea of him appearing wraith-like from dark corners. 

I get Disconnect equal to 80 + (Allure x2), so 96. As that stat gets lower I start to get worse are interacting with people. Endurance is Brawn x 3 (so 15), Pressure is Brains x 3 (so 24), and Morale is twice Guts (so 10). 

Step Seven is shopping, but eh. I think I will look at programs, though, since I get two of those. I need BioTap, since that's the basics (and should come standard, but whatevs). I'll take ResetR, too, letting me muck about with people's memories. Seems on-brand. 

Finally, finishing touches! This is just basic description stuff. The game assumes that PCs are Mercs, so having some "badass for hire" is probably standard. So with that in mind: My character's name is Leroy Lejune, but he goes by The Void on the streets (yes, I know how fucking pretentious that sounds, but a) he's French and b) if I were playing him I'd totally lean into it). Leroy styles himself as a "walking intrusive thought," something you can't get rid of, an earworm. But he also takes pains to be forgettable, dresses in muted colors and avoids standing out. 

Leroy hates crowds; it's one of the reasons he likes the Core. The Core can be loud, but the noise isn't people-noise, and he can filter it. Definitely would work on purchasing more cool programs if I were playing this guy.