Character Creation: ink

Boo!

The Game: ink
The Publisher: Snowbright Studio
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

ink (lowercase affectation included; not sure what kind of nerd would make a game that's deliberate written in all lowercase OH THAT'S RIGHT) is a game where you play ghosts. It's billed as "coffee-fueled roguelite", meaning it's in the same category as Darkest Days and Fight Item Run insofar as it's a TTRPG that's emulating the style of a video game. 

Ten years ago I think that would have really annoyed me for no reason I can adequately explain. Now, eh. I think in a market as weird as TTRPGs, you niche as hard as you want. The artwork is very cute. The mechanics are pretty combat-focused, which I initially thought was weird, but in the context of being a "roguelite" it makes sense. I admit I didn't see the coffee thing as being terribly important one a first read, though there are occasional spotlights on elixirs and the "booristas" that make them.

Oh, and, as a ghost, you're split into a Spirit and a Shadow. The latter does the violent stuff. There's no ludography in the book, but there is no way someone didn't have a copy of Wraith: The Oblivion around at some point. 

Right, so let's make a character. This happens in two broad phases, because I'm making two parts of the same character that act more or less autonomously. Starting with Spirit:

Select a name: I'm told our character can be from any time period, past, present, or future. (Some of the flavor in the book and a lot of the marketing seem to assume that we're playing dead fantasy adventurers, but actually that's not really supported by a read of the text. Fun fact: I actually wrote a game for Game Chef one year that had players taking on the role of dead fantasy adventurers, that I think showed some promise, but y'know.) Let's assume my character is from a more modern context, and we'll call him Dudley. He probably did have a last name, but it's just right on the tip of his tongue except he doesn't really have that anymore...

Determine how much of their life the spirit remembers. Clearly not his full name. Dudley remembers that he worked with machinery - construction? Giant clock? He remembers going to work every day but not driving or walking the whole way, and he remembers, on his last morning, feeling like he was forgetting something, and then hearing "look out!" and a loud bong kind of sound and then he died. Something fell on his head, maybe?

That was most of Dudley's life. He also remembers being married and he knows he called his wife "Tink", but not why or what her real name is. He's pretty sure that makes him a bad husband. 

Determine the character's Burden. Someone's holding Dudley back from moving on; that's his Burden. I think it's that he think he was a bad husband. He wants to know who his wife was, or more specifically, why he doesn't remember more about her? (I think the answer is "because he's dead and you don't take everything with you," but Dudley doesn't know that.)

Select three Skills that the Spirit has retained. Is there is a discreet list? Not really (rather, there is, but we can make them up, too). I'll say Dudley recalls Athletics (probably mostly lifting/pushing rather than running/jump), Staying Alert (anyone can have an off day) and Building Stuff.

And now, the Shadow!

Select cause of death. Industrial accident, obviously. And there's no spot for this on the sheet, but the Shadow creation section doesn't say to make up a name, so I'll assume COD goes there.

Select a Form. All shadows have one of six Forms, which determine Powers and base Stats. Let's see. I think Lucid makes the most sense; the book says they tend to feel shame over the way they died or how they left things. I think Dudley's Shadow looks mostly like a literal shadow, but doesn't mirror his actions ever, and has a habit of pulling out weird little props based on what Dudley's saying or doing. 

I start with the Screech Power...and there's nowhere on the sheet to write powers. (Rather, there's plenty of space but no dedicated area.) Nice job, guys. 

Anyway, there is a spot for Stats, so I get 5 Base Stamina, 7 Base Defense, and 1d6+1 Frailty for Base Damage. 

And that's it! I think Dudley has the same kind of vibe as David Harbour's character in We Have a Ghost, just a little bit more lucid (and, like, able to talk).