Character Creation: Blood & Bone

I'm not going alphabetically and I didn't pick this to continue a "Blank & Blank" theme, it's just a short game and I don't have all day today. 

The Game: Blood & Bone
The Publisher: Arcana Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Now, see, this game I like. I don't know that I love it enough to put it on my "run me" list, but it's definitely one of those games that if one of my players came to me excited to play it, I'd give it a whirl. What's the difference between this and, say, the last game I did? WELL. 

For one thing, the graphic design. If you had asked me years ago, I would have said that doesn't matter much, but:

Battleaxes & Beasties

Blood & Bone

I don't know, Blood & Bone just seems...I guess warmer? Like the book wants me to read it? 

Also, the writing is much friendlier. Both games assume a high level of violence and lethality, but the attitude in Blood & Bone is "this world is violent, grim, and brutal and here's the in-setting reasons for that", whereas in Battleaxes & Beasties it's more "this game is violent, grim, and brutal, and that's because that's what Pappy Gygax would have wanted." The game's rules are explained up front and they're pretty simple: Roll a d20 + a skill die + an attribute vs. a target number. If you've got Advantage roll 2d20 and take the better one, there ya go. Meanwhile, Battleaxes has multiple rules' complications and they don't even tell you how they work in the players' section. It feels obtuse. And, there's no real setting info (or if there is, it made no impression), whereas Blood & Bone talks about how there's no real magic in-setting except for "the Blooded", and it's real easy to find the section on that concept and the book explains it in context. 

Nicely done, I think. Let's make a bloodybones or whatever.

The setting is detailed and evocative enough that I could probably do my trick of randomly picking a page in the world chapter and basing a character off it, but the chargen section also gives us an example campaign setup:

So that's pretty cool, lots going on. I think I want my character to be a bastard son of the current Lord Thorn, not really acknowledged as anything other than a hanger-on, but everyone knows who he is. For his part, young Vikus (for 'tis his name) isn't really interested in being nose-in-the-air nobility, but he would quite like to be welcomed back home and granted some measure of power just because that would acknowledge that they need him. It's nice to be needed. 

Oh, chargen consists of:

So the first thing we do is Beliefs. Beliefs are meant to be unambiguous and active; I want X, and because I want X I'll do Y (more like a goal, then, maybe? But the Belief part is pretty intrinsic). The World Belief is meant to connect with some part of the premise of the campaign specifically, and since Vikus's concept revolves around his relationship with his family and his status as a kind of outcast, it seems like I should include that. So:

The Lord of House Thorn is my father, but that isn't enough to make me his heir, even though it should be. I will make myself indispensable to House Thorn and make it impossible for him not to claim me as his son. 

Next, I'm meant to do an "Other Belief," but that's meant to involve another PC. I don't have any of those, but there are a couple of examples included with Beliefs so I have a some sense of those characters, so maybe I can springboard off one of those.

Oh, that's funny, one of the example characters is also a bastard of Lord Thorn, but one who was accepted. Well, I'll ignore that one since it posits that Lord Thorn is dead, and focus on Malik, who believes that House Thorn is the only thing keeping the Galloping Hordes (or whatever) from taking over eastern Tarn. He's kind of a loyalist. Let's say that:

Malik is loyal but hopelessly naive. If he isn't willing to compromise his loyalty in service to the greater good of the House, then I will do it, but I will shield him from these harsh realities. 

And, finally, we have a Self Belief. This ties into the character's philosophical core, so what is that for Vikus? 

Where is my loyalty? Am I loyal to the family that rejects me, or the people that scorn me, or only to myself? If I am to take the House, I need to know. 

OK, not bad! I think I've successfully differentiated Vikus both from the example character in the book (which I didn't realize at the get-go had a similar arc) and Edmund from King Lear. Next we choose a Complication! "Bastard" is one of the ones listed (though they're not in alphabetical order, boo), so I'll go with that.

Now we get 5 points to split up between 4 core Attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Mind, Presence). I can take 0 in an Attribute, it just means I don't have anything to add to checks. I could also go 2/1/1/1 if I want a positive score in all of them, but eh. I think Vikus needs something to help him stand out, so let's go Strength 1, Dexterity 1, Mind 3, Presence 0. 

Skill Points! I get 6, and every point raises a Skill by 1 rank. Let's see, what's Vikus good at. I feel like he probably has some combat training, even if it's just from practice fighting bandits and bullies, so I'll bump Fighting up. I've never been sorry about taking Stealth, and I feel like Learned and Perception make sense, so I'll go 1 rank in the first two and two in the second two. 

And now I get three Traits, which it looks like are Advantage/Feat kind of things. Let's see now. I'll take Subtle (gives me Advantage to blend in to crowds), Traveled (increase three Skills one rank; I shall increase Insight, Manipulation, and Thievery), and Bloodsense (Blooded powers are harder to use on me; I like the idea of that being something Vikus got from his mother rather than Lord Thorn). 

So now that that's done, I can fill in Combat Attributes (since they can be raised by some Traits), so Alacrity 4, Vitality 4, Evasion 11, Armor 11 (assuming I'm not wearing any), Power n/a (only applies if you're Blooded), and Tenacity 1. 

And that's pretty much it! Let's say Vikus is just as pale as most folks from Tarn, but has weirdly light brown eyes (from his mother). He spends much of his time learning from whoever is willing to teach him something interesting, and he's learned that it's safer if he doesn't make much of an impression. For now.