Character Creation: Brindlewood Bay

A little bit cozy, a little be Elder Things from beyond Creation.

The Game: Brindlewood Bay
The Publisher: The Gauntlet
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game, but I've played similar
Books Required: Just the one

This will make 71 characters for 2024 (I'm shooting for 10 a month; this'll be 11 for July). I did the 10th a few days ago and meant to do this one right afterward, and then got busy with Things for a couple of days and here we are. When I realized I had time left in the month to do another character or two, I started thinking maybe I should grab something that I don't really want to do, like Game of Thrones (it's just Tri-Stat, but the book is huge and I'm not interested in the setting), or something like Psionics or Changeling: The Lost that might take me to some upsetting places, since I had time to process. But then I thought, nah, fuck it, I want to read a game that I'm actually looking forward to reading and excited to potentially run. So here we are in Brindlewood Bay.

Brindlewood Bay, like Blades in the Dark and Apocalypse World before it, has managed not only to catch on in the RPG world (though, of course, there are really two such worlds at the very basic level - D&D and everything else) and inspire a whole approach to design, called "Carved from Brindlewood." Having only read the OG, as it were, I don't know what the principles that are being carried forward are. 

I do note, however, that the idea of having a mystery/investigative game that has the players find clues and then solve the mystery by basically narrating the theory to fit the clues is something that We Used to be Friends did, I think before Brindlewood Bay came out (which is neither here nor there, just thought it was interesting). 

I run a lot of mystery/investigative games, and while this approach is certainly less GM-intensive than, say, Chill or any Gumshoe game (which require the mystery to be pretty much figured out at the jump), it sometimes feels less satisfying creatively for the GM because you're really just adjudicating moment-to-moment play rather than doing any real prep. 

With that said, the game looks like it would be a lot of fun...but my goodness, I really wanted an example of play ("but there are APs on Yubtub and-" NOT THE SAME THING). The game looks like it would work perfectly well, but there are multiple times in the text that refer to a rule or a text that I thought was going to get explained in a bit more detail, never did, and really only made full sense when you read the character sheet or the other supplement printout-y sorts of materials...which are not in the book. 

Well, anyway, let's make a Maven (one thing I appreciate about this game is that it pretty much says "all the characters are old ladies with deceased partners," full stop - I really like when games are what they want to be and don't try to squish their way into being everything). 

One interesting thing about the Brindlewood Bay book is that all of the Session One stuff, including chargen, is at the very end of the book. That's an interesting approach, and I think it makes sense here - you really need to know what you're in for because the game is structured in a particular way. It does mean, though, that while I was reading it I had a lot of "OK but when does the book start" kind of thoughts, but that's more 40 years of RPG expectation than anything else.

ANYWAY. Character creation is actually step seven of Session Zero, but of course the first steps don't really apply here.

Starting at the beginning: There's a list of first names, and elsewhere in the book we're told to make up a surname (or make up both, whatevs). As I'm thinking about this, Dianne Wiest's character in Lost Boys keeps coming to mind - the ex-hippie who wound up living with her father and her kids after her marriage went bad, and then dating the Head Vampire, y'know. I'm not taking much of that backstory, but I like the vibe. We'll say my Maven's name is Birdie Sallinger.

Birdie's style is "hippy dippy," obviously. Lots of very large and flowy outfits in bright colors, lots of jewelry with stones and crystals. Her Cozy Activity is rock collecting, though she puts a very "this mineral is good for cleansing energy" sort of spin on it.

I get to assign one point to one of the abilities. I think I'll put it into Presence - Birdie is, if nothing else, interesting, and people remember her.

And now I choose a Maven Move. These are all named after male detectives from TV shows (well, mostly, there's a set of "Advanced" moves that breaks that formula and adds female characters and characters from literature and movies). Let's see, what's appropriate for Birdie.

Oh, Frank Columbo, most definitely.

I figure Birdie is fluttery and flustered and has no particular idea how to handle herself in an upper-crust kind of environment ("oh, it's that Sallinger woman," they mutter into their mimosas). For her part, Birdie is probably just thrilled at how fancy everything is! 

The next step in Session One is still part of chargen; we're meant to introduce the Maven and talk about their career before moving to Brindlewood Bay, their deceased partner, and any children or pets they have. Sure!

So, Birdie was married to a very nice man named Harold Sallinger for 25 years, and when they met, they were both in college and both very much on the "peace, love, and perhaps some mind-altering substances" train. And then they graduated and Harry had a business degree and Birdie had a liberal arts degree, and they bought a house and had two kids (Thomas Skye Sallinger and Rain Louise Sallinger - "Thomas" and "Louise" are family names from Harry's side, and "Skye" and "Rain" are just what Birdie felt the Universe was telling her). 

But over time, Harry became consumed by the world, that's how Birdie sees it. He got so focused on "success" in a worldly sense that he lost perspective, and eventually Birdie realized that she just didn't love him the way she had. They split up (Tommy and Rain were both grown by this point), and three years later Harry died of a heart attack at his desk. Birdie is a big enough person not to say "told you so," at least not out loud.

Birdie was still his beneficiary, though she gave almost everything to the kids, most of the rest to charity, and used the rest to get herself a place in Brindlewood Bay (there are some very interesting rock deposits near the beach!). I suspect Birdie still needs to work sometimes because she's not great with money, though of course this being a TV show she has an unrealistically fantastic apartment. 

Birdie has reddish-blonde hair (greying quite a bit now, as Nature intends, thanks). She has a couple of tattoos that her clothes cover up, but when she goes swimming you can see bits of them. 

Oh, I have to decide on an object in her Cozy Little Place! Let's say there's a chunk of quartz that she and Harry found on their honeymoon.