Character Creation: The Terminator

bum-bum-BUM-da-DUM

The Game: The Terminator
The Publisher: Nightfall Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, though I have the Judgement Day sourcebook, so I might give it a look if it has other chargen options

Licensed RPGs are always tricky; you need to get the feel of the property, keep the licensee happy, and keep the fans happy, and make a good game. Sometimes it works (Firefly), sometimes it doesn't (Indiana Jones), and sometimes it's just...weird (Dallas, Ghost Dog). So does it work here? 

I...don't know, really. The Terminator franchise is odd, and I'm actually not all that familiar with it past the first two movies. I never watched the TV show, and the only movie I've seen after T2 was T3, and that was really bad, so I've never bothered with the others. I think the problem with the series is that same as with, say, Highlander - the story had an ending, and so extending it just smacked of unnecessarily dragging things out. T2 ended with Sarah Connor uncertain about the future and not sure if they'd prevented Judgement Day, but hopeful - that was perfect. But then it all went whack-a-ding-hoy and we go John Connor as a Terminator and timeline shenanigans a-go-go, and also there are comics from Dark Horse, which the game references, that I've never even heard of.

I will say this, the game does a good job of at least raising the possibility of time travelers going lots of different places (and, well, times) and multiple branching timelines allowing the possibility of diverging from "canon" without having to worry about it too much, so I think the game would be perfectly playable no matter how many of the movies you've seen or haven't seen. But then the "game" part of it just seems over crunchy and fiddly, though I admit my eyes kind of glazed over when I was reading through it. I dunno, it looks like every other trad sci-fi game I've read. Would it be playable? Probably. Would I choose to run it? I dunno, maybe, I'm not opposed to a trad game. 

Well, anyway, first thing's first, let's make a character. The default is that I'm a Resistance fighter in the aftermath of Judgement Day, though if I were actually playing there would be some attention paid to the whens and wheres of the character. For the moment, though, let's keep things basic. 

Step One: Role. Basic archetype kind of thing that gives us a starting framework of skills and stats. They might be optional; the book says "all roles are optional" but from the context I can't tell if that means "you don't have to take a role" or "no given role is required so the GM could exclude some." I'll pick one just to be on the safe side. Let's say Grunt, I feel basic today. My Grunt's name is Kismet "Kizzie" Denny. Kizzie's mom was a big believer in destiny and hope; we see how that worked out. 

As a Grunt, I get:

And also the Physical Training ability, which allows me to trade one kind of die for another in some situations (I'm not quite conversant enough in the system to get the nuances). 

Step Two: Stats. We've six stats, as abbreviated above: Strength, Dexterity, Knowledge, Concentration, Charisma, Cool, and Fate. I get 7 points to raise the stats, one-for-one. I guess maybe I should have some idea how the system works before I go throwing points around.

OK, got it. It's not intuitive, but it's not terribly complex at the guts of it: We're rolling d10s. We get one Success die, Skill Dice equal to our rating in the skill in question + 1, and then adding a static bonus equal to the Stat + Skill to each individual die and looking to match or beat a difficulty. Success Die determines the overall success/failure of an action, but success on Skill Dice alter things (allowing a "messy success"). 

Also, we can spend Fate points to mess with numbers post-roll. With that in mind, let's say Kizzie is the embodiment of "better to be lucky than good." I'll put one point into Dexterity, one into Charisma, one into Concentration, and the other four into Fate. 

Step Three: Hope Points. These are points that we can spend in play to "overcome great obstacles, perform cinematic feats, or scrape a success from the jaws of defeat." They fall into three categories: Body, Brain, and Bravado. There's a formula to determine each one, but then the highest gets 2 Hope, next highest gets 1, last gets zero. Sure.

So, my Body is Strength + Dexterity (4), my Brain is Knowledge + Concentration (1), and Bravado is Charisma + Cool (3). So Body gets 2 Hope and Bravado gets 1. Easy enough. Oh, wait, then I get 3 more to add to those totals, but I can't spend more than two in any given category. Sure, I'll just put one in each, how about. 

Step Four: Skills. To pay the bills. Except there's no more bills, because the machines nuked everything (if I ever run The Terminator, it's gonna turn out that instead of the universe depicted in those movies, it's the universe depicted in Her). 

Anyway, I start with Athletics, Detect, Pistol, Rifle, and Unarmed Combat at 2, and then I get 36 points to buy more Skills, but it's not one-for-one:

So let's see, what do I want. Survival sounds good, so I'll dump 5 points to take 2 ranks there. Going along with that, I'll put in 2 points and buy a rank of Tracking. I'll buy Demolitions 2 (5 more points, I've spent 12 of my 36). Ooh, Support Weapons sounds good, I'll spend 5 and buy that at 2. I'll spent 4 and put Rifle up to 3 (21 of 36 spent). I'll buy Stealth at 2 (5 points, 10 left). I'll spend those to buy Drive (Motorcycle) and Drive (Car) at 2, and that'll do it!

Step Five: Traits. Your basic ad/disad kind of situation. If I want good ones, I have to take negative ones, so let's start there and see if there are any negative traits I like. 

Oh, this is cute. The traits aren't marked as negative or positive. It's usually clear from the description, but like, would it have killed you to put the negative ones in bold or something? Mreh. I don't see any I really want, anyway.

Step Six: Figured Stats. Hey, derived traits at the end, that's good. 

Hit Points = STR + 15, or 17 in my case.

Willpower = Cool + 15, or 17, again.

Movement is Closing: 2, Rushing: 6. 

Encumbrance is 2 + STR + Endurance (whoops, probably should have taken that; let's drop Motorcycle and take 2 in Endurance instead). Anyway, that gives me 6 Encumbrance. 

Initiative is DEX + CONC + Tactics, or 3 for me.

Step Seven: Finishing Touches. Gear, but eh, y'know. I figure I have a rifle and a pistol and some body armor, but it'd depend on the situation and what the GM wants. But description-wise, Kizzie is light-skinned Black man, wide features, kind of a perpetually surprised sort of look. He manages to pull out impressive feats from nowhere sometimes, and other grunts kind of view him as a luck charm. That's one bad day away from ending, of course, but aren't we all? I picture him being played by Justice Smith.

That'll do it!