Character Creation: Hope

Lord save me from passive voice.

The Game: Hope
The Publisher: I have no idea
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

By "I have no idea" I mean I know who the author is, but there doesn't seem to be a publisher's imprint or label on the book and the Kickstarter doesn't list a website or anything. Also can't find the game on DriveThru, and I don't care enough to go digging.

Anyway, Hope is a post-apocalyptic game in the most recognizable, basic sense. There was a nuclear war, now there's mutants and giant bugs and raiders and so forth, you're defending and building the titular town of Hope, go for it. And all that of that is fine, if a bit simplistic, but I don't mind simplicity in a game's premise if it gives the players some room to build.

But - and here's we're going to pour the horse paste out onto the floor and beat it some more - the book is really not well-written from a clarity or usability standpoint. We start off with some fiction that needed a pass for clarity and editing (it starts in past tense and then changes to present within a paragraph, and it doesn't feel deliberate), and those fiction pieces happen sporadically through the book. They're not good fiction, but I do appreciate that each of the pieces is contextualized as a part of a game session. What I don't enjoy is that the game session as depicted just doesn't look...fun. It looks like the PCs are getting their asses kicked and the GM is like "yeah I didn't balance this encounter well, oh well lol we'll try again next week". And I'm not disputing that shit like that happens, but why would you make it your example of play?

(As an aside: One of the pledge levels we used for A Tragedy in Five Acts was for the pledge-er to come and play a session with us which would then be used as the example of play, and not to pay myself on the back, but I really had to stretch my writer muscles making that session seem fun. That's no fault of the game, it was just a strange table.)

Anyway, there's that, there's the rampant passive voice, and then there's the fact that character creation is never summarized so I actually don't know how many skill points I'm meant to get. But the good news is that the game is quick - most of the book is gear and monsters and shit and then there's 20 pages of blank sheets at the back - so this shouldn't take long. 

First thing we do is pick a Role, and then a Vocation. There are six Roles, and then eight Vocations. "Role" is not defined in the context of the game, and "Vocation" is only defined as "a specialty to complement your Role." 

Just for fun, here's the entire list, in alphabetic order: Brawler, Combatant, Commandant, Diplomat, Gossip, Gunner, Mechanic, Medic, Scavenger, Scholar, Scout, Sentry, Swindler, Thug. Now, for fun, you tell me which ones are "Role" and which are "Vocations." 

Anyway, as may be becoming clear, I am not heavily invested in this process, so y'know what, I'm gonna roll a d6 and a d8 and see what I get. A 2 for Role gets me Gunner, and a 4 on Vocation gets me Sentry (because they're not in alphabetical order in the book; this book really does strike me as something that was written in a kind of "make it up as we go" sort of way and then never got a usability pass). Gunner/Sentry does seem to make some sense, though.

Annnnnd there is not a spot for Role or Vocation on the character sheet. Must not be that important. 

"Have been known to put bullets to good use." Kill me. OK, twee verbiage aside, I get to use the highest roll for Agility (this will make sense in a minute), and I can put my 3 free Skill points into  the Skills listed. Please note that how many Skill points I get is never listed anywhere, but contextually it looks like I get three chosen from those five Skills, and then a free point of Ranged Combat from my Vocation. But that's a later step. Maybe. I think.

Characteristics! There are 9 of them, because apparently the writer really wants groups of three. My favorite bit here is that there are stats called "Presence," "Eloquence" and "Grace," and "Grace" is defined as "a measure of your ability to maintain presence and eloquence in distress." Presumably that means "Grace" is a resistance stat or something, but at first blush it looks like you're using one stat to define another and it's very strange. 

Anyway, we generate these by rolling 2d4 for each of them and taking the lower, except in my case I take the higher for Agility. So! Whipping out the d4s, we get:

Strength 4 
Agility 3
Fortitude 4 (no foolin', rolled two 4s twice now)
Intelligence 2
Awareness 1
Will 2
Presence 1
Eloquence 2 
Grace 1

And now I get to add +1 to two of my stats. Well, since I'm a Gunner, I think I'll cheese and add one to Agility, and since I'm a Sentry I'll add one to Awareness.

Derived traits! ("Secondary Characteristics," but whatever.) Carrying Capacity is double Strength, so 8. Speed is equal to Agility, so 4. And...is not on the sheet. Perchance you mean Movement? I think so.

Hit Points = (Fortitude) x 4, so 16 for me. Initiative is equal to Awareness (2). Stress Points are just like Hit Points, except with Will (so 8). Likewise, Counter Points are the same but use Grace...dafuq is "Counter"? How much I can withstand verbal coercion? Hokay then.

Next section discusses Skills, but doesn't tell me how many I get to start, so again, let's assume four total (three split betwixt my Role Skills and 1 in Ranged Combat).

Well, my Sentry Abilities key off of Ranged Combat, Cope, and Coordination, so if I'm smart (which I am) I'll put points there. In the interest of having a little identity, I'll put one of my free points (they're hardly free, I can only choose five out of 22 options) into Search, one into Cope, one into Coordination. 

(By the way, the method by which you increase skills in play is...interesting. When you make a roll, you roll 2d10. One die has to come up equal to or less than the total of the Characteristic, Skill, and any other factors in order to succeed. The other die only matters if it matches the first, and if it does that makes the result critical, so crits only happen when the dice match. With me so far? Now, when you get a crit success, you make a hash mark, and every five hash marks (for a Role Skill) or seven marks (for not), you get a point.

Basically, your Skills ain't improving much.)

And at this point, the book goes into a chapter on Gear, but it doesn't tell me if I get any gear to start, and character creation just kinda peters out, so I guess I'm...done? Nice job, guys. Let's do the description stuff and knock off for more coffee.

Coney is smarter than he looks, but that ain't saying much. He's a big guy, thick of head and voice, and he'll pretty much do what you tell him to do. He's a decent shot and pretty observant, so mostly "what he's told to do" is "stand here with a rifle and if anything bigger than a bunny gets near the perimeter, put a bullet in it." OK. Coney's got that shit, no problem.

Coney is just a hair under seven feet tall, if he had any hair, which he doesn't, including eyebrows (radiation, it happens). He's got blue eyes and tends to have an open mouth posture. For all that, Coney's only scary when he's holding a gun. He doesn't look like he'd tear you apart. He looks like he could, but like he wouldn't. (And he probably wouldn't, unless someone said "hey, Coney, tear that guy apart," and then he'd do his best.)

That'll do it! Back on the shelf with you!