Character Creation: Ruma

When in Rume, do as the Rumans do. 

The Game: Ruma: Dawn of Empire
The Publisher: Azure Keep
Degree of Familiarity; I've played plenty of PbtA games, and this is that
Books Required: Just the one

While I'm by no means an expert, I've read and play a bunch of different Powered by the Apocalypse games over the last few years, and this is one of the games that followed the second edition of Apocalypse World. It's a fictionalized Roman ("Ruman") Empire, in which you're playing soldiers and other representatives of said Empire and going out to squash the savages and expand the Empire's interests. It doesn't get into the weeds of Roman history as much as, say, Roma Imperious, which was published the same year, and indeed other than the Latin names and the Roman gods, this might as well be a fantasy game.

I'm...not on board. It's not that the game isn't well put-together. It looks like a perfectly solid game. But PbtA games live and die on the little nifty quirks and vibes that make them all unique, and this one just doesn't hook me. It might be because we're explicitly playing imperialists, and there's very little self-reflection in the game on why this might be a bad thing. It might be because it's basically a D&D game with some Roman trappings - the example of play might as well be any other fantasy game (the PCs find a dead body and then fight a magic tree monster). It's a solidly built PbtA historical fantasy ish game, but if I wanted to play a game like this, I don't know that I'd want it to be PbtA? 

I dunno. It's one of many games I own that if I had players that were just clamoring to play it, I'd run it, but no one is ever going to clamor to play it. But let's make a character, it'll be quick.

As is often (though by no means always) the case with PbtA games, I start by picking a playbook. Today, for whatever reason, I'm feeling the Eques; cavalryman and noble riding a horse. Ruma doesn't give us notes on how Roman (or Ruman - by the way, I keep thinking of the "Moopets" in The Muppets, the knock-offs performing in Reno, and how they were just ratty impersonators with a vowel replaced - not to say there's anything ratty about this game but that's where my brain goes) names work, but fortunately the above-linked Roma Imperious does, and I never throw away an RPG (though I've been known to recycle copies of games if the author libels me, which is a pretty specific circumstance). What a terrible sentence. 

Anyway, let's say my dude is called Titus Roscius Felix. Looking at the "description" section, I'll say Roscius is male, has a narrow face, sparkling eyes, and an athletic body. 

I choose temperament from the four classic humours; let's say he's choleric. 

I belong to a cult of one of the gods, which actually does give me a move. Hmm. Well, as a cavalryman, I'd be getting into horsey combat, so Mars isn't a terrible choice. I like Mercury in principle, but the moves either kinda suck or don't sound appropriate for what I'm envisioning. Actually, you know what, I'll say Roscius is a worshiper of Minerva, goddess of war and tactics. I like the "commander astride his horse" vibe. 

My starting starts are determined by the playbook, but I get a +1 to add to one of them. I'll add it to Fatum, because it'll help with a move I want to take from my cult. 

Speaking of which, let's pick moves! I get born in the saddle for free, which means I get a warhorse. My horse's name is Boreas, after the Hellenic god of the North Wind - he's big, grey with black legs, and actually a big softie when not in his armor. I get one more Eques move, so I shall take tall in the saddle - when I'm mounted and battling a gang, I count as a small gang. And then for my cult move, I'll take rally the troops, which lets me shout orders and erase harm or give a bonus to my allies. 

Ordinarily I'd get bonds, but of course it's just me, so that's about it! Roscius is tall, but often seems taller because he's on a big horse. Black hair, brown eyes, big "ride 'em down" energy. I think he'd probably start a game with very much a "Ruma forever" attitude and would thus be ripe for an arc where he realizes that Rumans are actually kinda the baddies, but I don't know if this is the game to get us there.