Character Creation: Fates Worse Than Death

There's a bit in Blackadder Goes Forth where the titular hero is captured by the Germans and threatened with a fate worse than death, and then told not to escape or he will "suffer...even vorse!" To which he replies "a fate worse than a fate worse than death? That's pretty bad." Anyway, I've always thought that was funny and it kind of gets glossed over in the episode. 

The Game: Fates Worse Than Death
The Publisher: Vajra Enterprises
Degree of Familiarity: I've slogged through their chargen before
Books Required: Just the one

Fates Worse Than Death is an urban horror/cyberpunk kind of thing. Actually there's a whole page in the book where they explain the differences between Cyberpunk and this particular game:

And that's all fine. The game is overwritten and way too long, and there's more than a little problematic content, but it's the same kind of thing you get in In Dark Alleys and Hoodoo Blues, and these games were written in the early aughts. I'm still not particularly looking forward to doing this character, but it's the last one on my list from this company, at least. (Not to say that I'm necessarily whole-heartedly against anything this company does; I think First Contact is really cool and it's on my list to run at some point, though I may need to hack it into a system that doesn't annoy me.)

ANYWAYS, as King Kong says, let's get to it.

No character classes or other splats this time around, meaning that there's no Chupp test to pass. Guess I'll go find a random theme song!

That's "Clean" by Depeche Mode (man, been a while since I listened to this album). There's a couple of ways we could interpret this song. One is that the singer really is "clean," whether that means sober or morally so, that he has changed in some way and is in a better place than he was. But, of course, there's the "sometimes" that pops up at the end of some verses that indicates that this change might not be entirely fixed. There's also the possibility that our narrator is, as they say, protesting too much, that his insistence that he's clean is compensating for something, be it the fact that he's not clean or the guilt that he feels about having once been not-clean. Any of these options would make for an interesting character for this sort of setting, I think.

So let's assume my character used to be not just a drug person but a drug trafficker - not a pusher, he's not great with people and he's pretty unpleasant looking. Hell, let's say he was in an accident when he was younger and it fucked up his face pretty badly, so the initial drug use was to manage that (pain, anxiety, etc.). But as he's gone along he's seen his friends get shot or arrested or OD or whatever, and he is now trying to turn himself around, which involves not indulging quite so much...but that's easier said than done. Let's say his name is Wen Lo. 

OK, cool. Now I pick three Personal Ideals and three Worldviews. What does all that mean? Personal Ideals are things that the character has achieved or wants to achieve. 

Well, "Clean & Sober" sounds like a good one. There's one called "One of the Crowd," and I like that for Lo; he's tired of standing out. And finally, I'll say "Inspiring Figure" - Lo wants to be someone who tells his story and people are like "shit, you really went through it."

Worldviews are personal philosophies (interesting that we pick three). I don't want Lo to be a nihilist; nihilism is boring. I like "Common Sense," though. I also think "Moderate" is good (all things in moderation, including moderation). And then I think Lo tries to believe in a straight-edge kind of philosophy, but has trouble making it stick. Oh, wait, I like "Distraction" - whether Lo would admit it or not, he does spend a lot of energy trying to avoid pain and suffering. 

Next, Attributes. We've got 8 of them, and 80 points, and 10 is average, so I could split them up evenly, but I don't know that I want to. Let's start off with 10s across the board, but let's reduce Charm by 5 (again, not Lo's strong point) and raise Endurance (tolerance, baby). Let's reduce Awareness to 7 and raise Strength to 13, and let's lower Willpower to 6 and raise Speed and Intelligence to 12. So that gives me:

Agility 10
Awareness 7
Charm 5
Endurance 15
Intelligence 12
Speed 12
Strength 13
Willpower 6

Next up, we choose Socioeconomic Class. I can be Indie (as in, independently wealthy; nah), a Well, or a Street Person. Hmm. I'll go with Street Person, since that means I have no legal income. I shall be an Unborn; Lo was born on the streets to an unlicensed midwife, so he has no legal identity and is therefore ineligible for benefits (welfare is a big thing in this game). 

OK, now...character class. Oh, whoops, I guess there are classes in this game. But they're actually more like occupations than RPG "classes." Let's make Lo a Runner: a black market courier.

And now, Skills. I get 100 points, and costs are set by my class.

Athletic and Street Skills are the cheapest, obvs. Creative Skills, too. Let's see here.

Bicycling 2
Driving 2
Running 4 (I get 2 free)
Motorcycle 3
Assassin: Armed 2
Club 1
Shiv 3
Street Fighting 2
Anonymity 1
Pocket Picking 2
Prowling 3
City Knowledge 3
Drug Resistance 4
Graffiti 1
Needles 1
Street Drugs 6

That totals 203. Erm. A little over my total. Let's prune. I'll lose the first two Skills entirely, drop Club, drop Anonymity, and drop Drug Resistance to 3. Now where am I? Still too much. Let's drop Assassin, drop Pocket Picking, drop Graffiti (I hate how granular this is). Drop Street Drugs to 4, Drug Resistance to 2, Shiv to 2, Motorcycle to 1, Street Fighting to 1. So that's:

Running 4
Motorcycle 1
Shiv 2
Street Fighting 1
Prowling 3
City Knowledge 3
Drug Resistance 2
Needles 1
Street Drugs 4

That's 98 points, but not much I can do about that unless I wish to totally reconfigure things, which I don't.

Equipment! Eh. I don't get much as a Street Person, so moving on. 

Bonus Characteristics! Oh, snap, I can use these for Skills. One Bonus Point gives me 3 Skills. Let's take some Disadvantages! 

Well, Addiction (Multi-Drug) seems appropriate. Let's take Illiterate. Physically Unattractive (Major). That all gives me 22 points, which is respectable. I will immediately spend one of them on Skills so I can use the 3 that buys me with my remaining 2 and buy back that point of Graffiti. 

I'm tempted to just dump the rest into Skills, too, but let's look through Advantages, first. Also this game doesn't know that different between "affect" and "effect" and it's DRIVING ME NUTS. Moving on.

I'll spend 2 and buy Multilingual (Lo speaks English and Cantonese). And I'll spend one more and buy Stone Face (I'm hard to read). That's 18 Bonus Points left, and I'm gonna dump them all into Skills, which gives me 54 points back. OK BACK TO THE DAMN DRAWING BOARD.

Bicycling 2
Running 4
Motorcycle 1
Shiv 3
Street Fighting 2
Pocket Picking 2
Prowling 3
City Knowledge 3
Drug Resistance 4
Needles 1
Graffiti 1
Street Drugs 6
Trading 1

And that's it, kids! I picture Wen Lo as kind of a combination of Sung Kang and James Duval; skinny, black hair, massive scarring on his face - his lower lip was pretty much split in half and it healed, but not well. People on the street call Lo "Mess" sometimes, as in "yo, his face is a mess," which may be one more reason he's trying to clean up.