Character Creation: Asunder

Yay! The final game on PDF!

You know, it's not that I mind having a game in PDF only. It's just that I don't really feel like I own it, like it's on my shelf and a viable contender for running, unless I can pluck it off my shelf and look at it. When I come across games in PDF that I like (like this one, actually), my usual go-to is to buy hard copies. 

Now, this game I backed on Kickstarter and it was fulfilled about two years ago, and looking back on it now, I wish I had plunked down the $90 for hard copies (it's one of those annoying games with a GM book and a Player book). But the reward levels are kind of garbage; $40 for just the PDFs? $90 gets you the hard copies, but no stretch goals? Fuck off. But the game made a cool hundred grand, and dammit, it's good, so what do I know. And I'm gonna wind up spending a lot more than $90 on it because I do want the hard copies after all. Maybe I can find them cheap on eBay or something. 

The Game: Asunder
The Publisher: Gifted Rebels
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this, but it's the same system as Shadow of the Demon Lord and I know that pretty well
Books Required: Just the one (that'd be the Seeker's Guide)

Minor gripe: The PG is the Seeker's Guide. The GM book is the Keeper's Guide. These are not sufficiently different to keep straight in my brain, especially since PCs are called "Seekers" which is also unnecessary. 

I know I've spent several paragraphs bitching about this game, but I actually really like it. Like Shadow of the Demon Lord, it's a fantasy setting with some personality and some bite to it. It's a "world without metal," in that the gods fucked off and took all the metal with them, so there's lots of biological and bone or wooden or stone materials going on. All characters are human, but depending on where you're from you have access to different kinds of magic. The basis of said magic is something I really like: When the gods fucked off, their Essence settled and bonded with whatever was nearby, so the Seafarers have ocean-based mutations and fish-powers because Essence bonded with the ocean. There's a whole civilization that bonds with animal companions, and another that bonded with plants (but sometimes insects). And then there's a bunch of demon-hunting martial artists...the game kinda kicks ass, is what I'm saying, and it passes the Chupp test beautifully. 

It passes said test so well that I'm actually gonna roll a die to determine my Origin, because I like them all. A roll of 2 gets me...Pacari! Ooh, these are the ones that have animal friends. I'm not mad about that!

As with most SotDL games, you start off at level 0 and at level 1 would add a Novice path, but I'm just gonna make a starting pleb. 

I'll need to choose an animal companion, but I'm actually gonna wait to do that until I roll on some of the random tables because it can affect things. 

So I get the stuff in that box, I speak Trade and Pacari (the dialect of my particular tribe, anyway), I have access to the Beast Bond and Beast Aspect Essence Trees (which doesn't mean much as a level 0 character). What's next? 

Let's roll a d20 for Background: 4. "You were a huntermaster for your tribe." I can roll with that. Maybe my bonded animal is some kind of hunting canid. Fatal Flaw: 3d6 roll (weird) gets me 12: "You thrive in the heat of battle, always seeking physical combat." Maybe that's why I'm not a huntmaster anymore; I kept looking for good fights rather than clean kills. A d20 for my Beast Bond is: 15, great speed (my Speed goes up to 13). Age: Middle-aged adult, 36-45. Interesting. Maybe the craving for combat came later, or maybe it's been building for a while? Build: Average in height and weight, that's fine. Appearance: Also average. 

That's a pretty good start. I like the idea of my animal being a wolf-like creature. We'll say it's Medium, meaning I can pick one trait from poisonous, climber, or swimmer. Ooh, let's say poisonous, just because it's not the obvious choice. My wolf-creature has a bacteria in its saliva that is highly toxic (kinda like a Komodo dragon). I'm immune through long exposure, I'm sure. It is long and lean, kind of like a greyhound, has greenish fur and scary-ass yellow eyes, and a long, snakey tail that whips back and forth when its excited. Its name is Rusher. 

Cool, now I get two Professions. I can choose or roll, and I think I'll split the difference and pick one (Hunter) and roll for the other. Religious, Discipline of the Old Gods. Well, shit, that's a twist. I like it, though.

Stuff! Rolling on the wealth table, I get Getting By. So I get this stuff:

I get another common profession, so I shall take Animal Trainer.

And finally, I get an Interesting Thing, from the Objects table: A spear that nearly killed me once. Cool!

OK, so I think I've got my backstory. Serrai was an accomplished hunter and rose to become huntermaster of his tribe, but little by little the "hunt" started to give way to the "fight." Instead of setting up clever ambushes and traps, he set up scenarios where his party could battle a beast. He didn't even notice this shift until a younger member of the tribe, Galek, pointed it out and challenged him to be huntmaster.

Serrai won that fight, despite nearly being pierced through the neck by Galek's spear. But he won by having Rusher bite the poor guy on the ankle and slowly wearing him down as the poison took hold, and after Galek died Serrai realized that he'd been right - he had lost his way as a hunter. Serrai left his tribe and dedicated himself to the Old Gods, searching for a way to cleanse himself of prideful desire for battle. Once he's done that, he'll go back to his tribe. 

Serrai is about 40. He's bald, but wears a beard. He's got multiple scars from many hunts and battles over the years, but his face is largely unblemished. He carries a bone knife and two spears - one is his, the other is Galek's. When he returns to his tribe, he'll place Galek's spear on the young man's grave. 

And that'll do it! Offhand, I think Serrai's path would go Marauder-->Wanderer-->Packmaster, but there are a lot of other possibilities.