Character Creation: Game of Thrones

THE FIFTH OF XMAS, TWENTY-TWENTY-FOUR,
UGH, FINE, GAME OF THRONES,
FOUR NESTIN' BIRDS
THREE VELVET GENS,
TWO SONGBIRDS,
AND BARD THE RPG!

The Game: A Game of Thrones RPG
The Publisher: Guardians of Order
Degree of Familiarity: Some with Tri-Stat, not much with the source material
Books Required: Just the one, but you could kill a giraffe with this thing

Right, so. This is one of two Game of Thrones RPGs that I own (the other being Green Ronin's A Song of Ice and Fire, which I did a character for way back in the Before Times and thus the post contains a bit of blather about industry stuff that's totally not relevant). This is very much the lesser of the two, and I mean that with no disrespect, it's just that THIS BOOK IS MAMMOTH and I've been putting off reading it for days because it's Xmas time and my dog has been sick and my mom's needed help with her new place and I've got games to actually run and and and...

But I'll never get to the twelfth game of Xmas (TWENTY-TWENTY-FOUR!) with that attitude, so here we go. 

This book is #0599 of 2500 (it's a limited edition!) and I own it because Michelle edited it (she did a bunch of work for Guardians of Order before they folded and also stole Daedalus from her and never paid her). It's the last Tri-Stat book I own that I haven't done a character for, I think and I haven't touched it because a) it's way too big to read comfortably and I don't have a PDF and b) I do not care a single squishy banana for A Song of Ice and Fire and related materials. Tried to read it, tried to watch the show, couldn't get into it, not my thing. But rules are rules. I'm aware of the setting in kind of general terms, so I think what I'm gonna do is find a hook for a character and then just build that muthafucka, and try to spend as little time on this as possible so I can go do Xmas things (and also D&D prep). 

ENOUGH WAFFLING. What kind of game or throne or whatever should I make?

OH WAIT MOTHERFUCKER. This game contains both d20 rules (probably 3.0) and Tri-Stat rules. SHIT. What do the rules of the chargen project demand? When I've had games like H.P. Lovecraft Academy that have multiple rules sets I usually make a character for each, but those are in separate books. Do I have any other games that include multiple rules sets in one book? Oh, wait! I do! eCollapse! And in that book I decided that I would just use one rules set because they're in the same book! 

(See, the disadvantage of me being off for Xmas break is that I have more time to blather during these chargen posts.)

OK, with all of that in mind, I'm gonna use the d20 rules. What, you say? But Matt, you hate those rules! Well, "hate" is a strong word - it's certain not my favorite system - but it is immensely quicker than Tri-Stat, and that's my priority today. So, with that in mind, let's do this!

So, Step One would be "Discussion" (that is, the group deciding what kind of game to play), but it's just me, so skipping that. Step Two is "character outline," but that kind of depends on Step One in a lot of ways. I think I want to make a commoner, rather than a noble, and assuming this game would take place in the north, probably someone outdoorsy and good with traps and hunting and shit. A little like Alfred Molina's character in Ladyhawke but not a total dickbag. 

Step Three is Ability Scores, and they're done point-buy here rather than rolling. I start with 8 in each of them (the standard D&D six) and I have 25 points to add, one-for-one up to 14, 2 to buy points 15 and 16, and 3 to buy 17 and 18 (so if I want an 18 in a stat it'd cost...22 of my points. Not worth it). 

Well, knowing what I do of the d20 system, I can't really put anything as a dump stat other than Charisma and maybe Intelligence, so let's put two each into those and leave them at 10 so I don't have a penalty. That's four points gone. I want my Constitution to be on the higher side, so let's bump that to 14 (10 points spend), and I want at least a small bonus in Dexterity, so I'll bump it to 12 (14 points spent). I'll put Strength up to 12 (18 points spent), Wisdom up to 14 (24 points spent), and that leaves me one lonely little point, which I'll throw into...Intelligence, I guess, so that if I ever get to raise it, I only have to put it one point to give myself a bonus. 

Step Four is Background, which is this game translates to "where ya from." I know I want him to be from The North. That gives him Survival as a Favored Skill, +2 on Handle Animal and Intimidate checks, +2 to Fortitude Saves (nice), and a few Feats I can pick as a Background Feat, which I'll worry about later. 

Step Five is House Affiliation, but I'm a commoner so it's No House.

Step Six is Class! There are new ones in this book, that's cool. My guy is obviously a Hunter. That gives me 8 HP plus my CON bonus (so 10). I get a bunch of Class Skills, but there's really no place to write them on this sheet (this sheet is kinda crap - it looks nice, though), so I'll just write down the ones I have. And oh look, I get 7 + Int modifier (so 7) x 4 (so 28), and a +4 bonus since I'm human (what other option is there?) so I have 32 Skill points. Skills are a later step, though, so I'll skip spending them for now. 

I get proficiency in...a bunch of things, really. I get Native Terrain and I'll pick "cold forest" as mine. And that's it, everything else comes at later levels.

Step Seven, Skills. I have (as mentioned) 32 points to spend. Class skills are one-for-one, and that's probably all I'll buy. I only put 4 ranks into a given skill (3 + level), so that actually makes things easy. I want to max out Survival, so that's 4 points right there and leaves me 28. For the rest, let's do this:

Balance 2
Climb 2
Craft: Fletcher 1
Handle Animal 3
Hide 4
Knowledge: Local Area 1
Knowledge: Nature 2
Listen 2
Move Silently 4
Profession 2
Spot 1
Use Rope 4

Step Eight: Feet! No, Feats! I get two (one basic and one for being hooman). I'll take Blind Fighting (I'm used to fighting at night), and Canny (I'm extra good at fighting with a short sword).

Step Nine would be Reputation, but I don't think I start with one, which makes me wonder why it's a step (I mean, I guess if you're a noble or you have certain Feats). 

Anyway, that's me about done! Let's name this fucker!

Wind is aware that "Wind" probably isn't his birth name, but what he remembers from his childhood was his father raising him out in a cabin in the woods and telling him "mind the wind, be the wind" a lot. Wind got pretty good at that - he's perceptive and stealthy, and has made a living as he's grown up out of trapping animals and selling pelts. He still lives in that cabin. His father died of fever a few years ago, and he protected his body from scavengers for months and then buried him when the ground got soft in spring. 

Wind has a routine - he sleeps much of the day and hunts by night, because that's when the animals with the best pelts are active. Getting him into an adventure would require shaking up that routine. My suggestion to my non-existent GM would be to burn the cabin down. 

Wind looks like a dude that lives in the woods and hunts for a living - he has a big ol' beard, he's strong but thin, but he looks bulky because he bundles up. He has a sword that his father gave him (he's not entirely sure where Dad got it, and he doesn't know what the symbol on the hilt means), and he's gotten pretty adept with it. 

That'll do it!