Character Creation: Renegade City

Sure, why not, I got some time today. Actually I'd like to do four or five more characters this week, but I'm off for my very brief summer vacation before doing summer clinic, so it should be doable. 

The Game: Renegade City
The Publisher: Polyhedral Knights
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I backed this game on Kickstarter a while ago (the books were delivered last year), I remember picking it up and reading it one morning and being kind of unimpressed, but I couldn't remember why. And then I just read the back cover text and remembered why - man, did this book need an editor. We've got missing punctuation, random capitalization, and syntax that reads like a half-hearted Reddit post. 

So what's the game about? Reading the back cover, it's a game in which characters are connected to organized crime, it's set in the fictional city of Vorhees, NC, and there's a cult and some witchcraft and...I dunno. The first three chapters are setting, talking about the city and the cult, but they're hard to read because of the, well, writing. Also, I just realize that the back cover text gets repeated in its entirety at least twice in the book. This game looks like it wants to be GTA with a splash of Witchcraft, maybe. There's an example scenario, let's check that out.

OK.

You know, let's just jump to chargen and follow the instructions and see what happens.

The chargen chapter recommends I'm a member of the Consortium, which is a criminal organization. Okey-doke. I think I need a little more than that. Well, having just finished watching Black Doves, my favorite character was probably Williams. Williams (played by Ella Lily Hyland) is a triggerman, but much more blunt and thuggish than Sam (played by Ben Whislaw). I think I want my character to be closer to the Williams side of things, capably violent but not a marksman. More a fan of the shotgun than the sniper rifle, if you see what I mean. 

Attributes! I get 17 points, there are six Attributes, min 1, max 5. Vigor, Smarts, Reflex, Flash, Discipline (which we're told is "willpower to resist things"), and Fitness. Not sure what the implications of having a 1 are. Let's do this, I'll put 2 in each one (12 points), and then I'll bump Vigor and Fitness to 4 and Reflex to 3. 

Derived Traits! (Goddammit, this should go at the end.) Hurt Level is on a chart cross-referencing Vigor and Fitness, which gives 45, and then adding 10, so 55. 

Hauling Ass, which is a real goddamn thing on this character sheet, is determined as follows:

Sure. I guess that means (Reflexes x 2) + Fitness, but whatever. If that's the case mine is 10.

Pain Mod...OK. These are "what the character adds to damage when they hurt someone." There's a chart for CQC and Range, the former based on Vigor and Smarts and the latter on Reflexes and Smarts but I have no idea how to interpret them.

There are pre-gens in the book, though! Let's see. Miles Jefferson has Vigor 2, Smarts 4, Reflexes 5. His CQC is 3 and his Range is 6. How'd we get there? I...have no freaking idea. Like, I'm legit baffled. Let's try another pre-gen, maybe Miles has a talent or something that modifies this. Officer Molly Redfern has Vigor 2, Smarts 4, Reflexes 3. Her CQC is 3 and Range is 4. 

Man, I have no idea. I guess I'm just leaving those blank.

Languages, well, I just speak my native because I only have 2 points of Smarts. Every two points of Smarts gives you a language, so what if you only have 1 Smarts? 

I start with Reputation 0. Rank...I dunno. It's defined, but we're not told where we start. The pregens start at 6 (higher is better), so I guess we'll start there?

(Side note: I started reading the combat section to see if maybe Pain was defined there, and man the system is gobbledegook). 

Archetype. This gives me an Asset, and then if I want to take a General Asset, I can take an Archetype Liability. Sure. 

I guess the only thing I have left to do is name and Motivation, which means I need to conceptualize a little. So let's say 

Well, Hired Gun, Dirtbag, or Thug all fit. Dirtbag was my first thought, but I dunno. Maybe I don't want to make someone quite that degraded. Maybe I am putting too much thought into this. I'll go with Thug. That gives me +1 Vigor which means I have to refigure my derived traits which is WHY THEY SHOULD COME LAST DAMMIT. I'll take Dirty Fighting as my Asset. Do I wish to take a Liability? UGH. My inclination is always to do that because they make characters more interesting, but do I really wish to stretch this out? I mean, if I take a Liability then I have to figure out my parameters of Assets. Christ, I think I'll skip it.

Skills! I get (ugh) 55 points, max is 6, but I can only take 6 in two Skills to start, otherwise max is 5. Sure. I want the max in Brawling. I'll take 4 in Athletics, 4 in Dodge, three in Drive (car), 3 in Intimidation, 2 in Interrogation, 5 in Melee, 4 in Pistols, 3 in Security, 2 in SMG, 4 in Rifles...this is weird, there's no Shotgun skill. Did they forget they exist?

No, shotguns are listed in the Equipment section, but that's it. Let's assume there's a separate Shotgun skill, since that seems to be the level of granularity we're on. I'll take 6 points there. Better total real quick...46 points, 9 more. Let's say 4 in Streetwise, 2 in Throwing, 3 in Stealth. 

I guess all that's left is name and Motivation and so on. Let's say this guy's name is Gordon Wright. Gordon grew up in a criminal family - mom and dad were both Consortium, both mid-level, both got caught up in a sting and sent away, both died in prison. By the time that happened, Gordon was 17, had already dropped out of high school, and was big and muscular. Dad taught him to fight, mom taught him to shoot, he's kept up with both, and that's...kinda what he does. He doesn't have the precision or planning to be a triggerman and he doesn't have the flash or the savvy to be a dealer or a con artist. He can fuck somebody up pretty good, and that's always useful, but that's about it.

But Gordon has plans. Rather, he has aspirations. He wants to progress in the Consortium, not because he particularly wants or thinks he deserves power, but because he legit isn't sure what else to do. He's not stupid, but his bubble is tiny and as far as he knows, the world outside the criminal underworld might as well be a TV show for all it matters. 

I think Gordon is a decent character in search of a better game, if I'm honest, but that's me done! I backed this company's current Kickstarter, but I'm thinking I might need to cancel that pledge, because this game is hot garbage.