Character Creation: Sovereign Stone

Not going to be including a lot of screenshots of the art here, I think. Maybe a cheesecake recipe. 

The Game: Sovereign Stone
The Publisher: Applied Vectors
Degree of Familiarity: Oh, none with this game, but it's SWADE and a detailed fantasy setting
Books Required: Sovereign Stone and SWADE

Apparently, this game is based on the art of Larry Elmore and some of the works of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, but I'm not familiar with the source material, so reading it just makes me think "yup, it's another D&D setting." Lots of history, lots of magic, and it's not uninteresting but there's not much about it that makes me go "ooh!" There are some ideas I like - magic portals linking various points in the world that got unpredictable because one of them exploded during a war, for instance, and I enjoy the portrayal or orks as seafaring shamanic people. I think if I had players that were very keen to play it, I'd run it, but on the face of it, it's just another highly detailed high fantasy setting that my players wouldn't read. 

But the good news is, it's Savage Worlds, so chargen is quick! 

So, like I said, I like the portrayal of orks. One of the things about them here is that they're very into omens; ships tend to have at least one shaman who reads the bones, so to speak, to help leaders make decisions. I want to make a character who's a kind of shaman in training, with some natural talent but no magic yet. (The other thing that's appealing about this is that when Michelle I take trips together, we often see strange and beautiful things that we take as Signs and Portents.)

That's my race, then. That gives me some stuff right off: My Size is +1, so my Toughness will be one higher than it normally would be. Orks are fighty, so I start with a d4 in Fighting and Shooting. I also start with a d6 in Athletics, rather than a d4, and I get a free d4 in Boating. I'm Well-Traveled, so I start with a d6 in Common Knowledge. But it's not all good news. I get a Delusion (have to consult omens, which strikes me more as a quirk, but whatever), orks have a reputation for being Dishonest (they aren't, they just play by different social rules and they don't explain them), and they have a racial enemy (a particular nation of humans).

Attributes! I think I'll spread them out evenly for now, d6 in everything. I want my ork to be pretty broadly capable.

Skills! This being SWADE, I get my collection of free shit, and then 12 more points. I'll bump Boating to d6, Fighting to d6, and I'll buy Occult d6 (it occurs to me I need to put my Spirit to d8 to afford an Edge I want, so I'll have to remember to do that). I'll bump Notice to d6, I'll take Intimidation at d6, Survival at d6, Thievery at d4, and Taunt at d6. 

Hindrances! I'll take Clumsy; my guy is OK on a Boat, but otherwise he trips over his own feet. I'll take Hesitant (slower to react in a fight), and I'll take Obligation (I'm an apprentice to an ork shaman; this is the kind of thing that might not work in a campaign, but it's just me). 

And then I'll use the "points" thus generated to buy my Spirit up to d8, and to take the Recognize Omen Edge.

Pace is 6, Parry is 5, Toughness is 6 with the bonus, easy-peasy, I ain't shopping.

So! De'Puk is your standard ork - seven feet tall, big teeth, with some mottled black birthmarks on his back and legs that have been read as a omen, since they resemble the markings of an orca (supposedly the aquatic forebears of the orks, in-setting). As he grew up, De'Puk learned to read the omens of the world around him, and he's slowly learning the basics of magic, though his shaman teacher is more of the "first learn seamanship, then learn sea magic" school of thought. I think in a group, it'd be interesting to have De'Puk's ship get blown off course and intersect with the action of the campaign. It's actually pretty easy to involve him in a plot; just throw him an omen.