Character Creation: Dream Apart

Tomorrow I'll have to do some great big complicated rules set. Maybe I'll finally get the Tri-Stat Game of Thrones game down off the shelf.

The Game: Dream Apart
The Publisher: Buried Without Ceremony
Degree of Familiarity: None with this one
Books Required: Just the one

As with yesterday's character, the game here is "Belonging Outside Belonging," and thus GMless and diceless but about a marginalized community. In this case, a shtetl in Eastern Europe in the 19th century, but with magic and other fantastical elements present. It's very centered on a particular Jewish experience, and thus more than a little outside my experience, but it looks pretty cool.

One thing I do appreciate is that there's an example of play, and it includes not only the mechanical bits of the game, but highlights players who are not familiar with the underlying terminology or assumptions but who ask about them, make use of the in-game glossary and search engines to fill in the gaps. It's well-done.

Anyway, first step is to pick a playbook, and I'm gonna indulge my love of playing magical characters and pick the Sorcerer. 

Name: I like Khaim. I dunno, just has a nice feel to it.

Look & Outlook: Dead eyes. I don't know that I want Khaim to be dead inside, but I like the idea that his eyes aren't where his life lives. I'm OK with his outlook being cynical, however. 

Origin story: Ooh, here's the juicy stuff. I like a dead twin's whispers. We'll say that Khaim's twin was Khaya (I can't imagine the practice of giving twins similar names is new). She died when they were both six, from a fever. The things she screamed when the fever took her frightened everyone else away, but Khaim listened. 

Unseen: I know the names of two off this list. Ooh, I like a bunch of these, really. We'll say Khaim knows the names of the ghost of the miller's wife and the protector in childbirth, both spirits that Khaya attracted before she died. 

What the Spirits Reveal: The time and manner of your death. I've always liked that as a trope, the idea of a character knowing their own manner and time of death so they don't have to fear anything before that (see also: Big Fish and...a lodge I wrote for Werewolf: The Forsaken, but buggered if I can remember the name right now). 

Shtetl Relationships: Well, I think the Rabbi fears you is good. Ties in with people being scared of Khaya. I'll take your estranged spouse despises you. Khaim's wife, Rayna, wanted children, and Khaim has refused to give her any (because he knows he won't be around to raise them and he doesn't want to put that pain on them). Rayna doesn't buy it.

And that's it! I think Khaim is a relatively young man, and there are all kinds of unsavory rumors about him now since he's separated from his wife, he talks to spirits, and he shows no fear of death in a truly frightening and fatalistic way.