Don't look back. No, wait, that's the other one.
The Game: The Orpheus Protocol
The Publisher: Vârcolac Press
Degree of Familiarity: None really
Books Required: Just the one
Weird one, this. It's based on an audiodrama that has been going since 2016 and is up to 327 episodes as of this writing. The basic idea is that you're playing members of ORPHEUS (not sure why the all-caps, since it doesn't seem to be an acronym), a "secretive paramilitary organization tracing its roots to ancient history." But that's basically all the setting we get.
No, really. There's no explanation of the group's history or even why it's called ORPHEUS in the book. Supposedly there's no connection to White Wolf's Orpheus, but like, really? Secret ghost-hunting organization? I dunno, maybe not. The Orpheus Group wasn't paramilitary, after all.
Anyway, the game leaves a lot to be desired. The setting info is very sparse, and the prose is boring. I know there were some hiccups in the game's production, not least because Jim McClure (the guy behind Reach of Titan and Satanic Panic - two RPGs that never came out despite having successful Kickstarters with a combined total of close to a hundred grand) was involved before he vanished off the face of the Earth. I don't know the particulars of the drama and I don't much care, I just know that I finally got my book, I read it last night, and it's basically getting added to the pile of investigative horror games that I don't like as much as Chill.
But that's no reason not to make a character! And I want to get started reading Cortex Prime, since I'm running Marvel Heroic in a couple of weeks and I'm trying to decide if I want to run that or use Cortex reverse engineer it with some of the rough edges filed down. Anyway, none of that is relevant here. On we go!
Sadly, there's no consolidated list of the steps for chargen, which is annoying because I was reading the book and got the section on Archetypes - which seem to be a pretty important part of the game! - and they are not mentioned in the chargen chapter. (Rather, they are, but only in the context of things like "your Archetype Abilities might affect Initiative".) We're never told to choose one, until we get to the chapter about them and then it seems to think we know what they are. Is there a glossary in the beginning of the book I missed? Nope! Just a bunch of very general info about RPGs and this kind of nonsense:
Right, anyway, the chargen chapter tells me the first thing to do is come up with a Bond, a Principle, and a Fear. I...don't have any particular concept in mind, so I think I'll find m'self a theme song.
OK, then. That's "Frankie and Johnny" by Jimmie Rodgers. It's basically a murder ballad; Frankie catches her man Johnny with a girl named Nellie Bly and guns his ass down, and then is arrested and, presumably, executed, and we end up with one of my favorite stanzas ever:
This story's got no moral.
This story's got no end.
This story just goes to show
That there ain't no good in men.
So, can we use this song for an Orpheus Protocol character? You're darn tootin' we can. Let's say our character is in the Nellie Bly role, but we'll gender-flip it because I prefer to play male characters. So Nelson "Nellie" Bly was having what he thought was a fun little men's room dalliance with a very handsome stranger he met, and then said stranger's wife kicked in the door and shot him dead. She was nice enough not to shoot Nellie, but like, that's the kind of thing that fucks a fellow up.
Nellie, of course, testified against this woman, but in the process, weirdly, kind of made friends with her? Like, not friends, but it turns out they have a lot in common besides just bad taste in men. She's on death row, but they correspond. I'll take her as my Bond, and call it Frankie Toomes (Weird Friendship, Estranging). (Motivations can either be emotionally healthy or destructive; I think this relationship is not healthy.)
Next, a Principle! This is a strongly-held belief. Well, fuck it, it's right there. "There Ain't No Good in Men," and that's very much Estranging. Oh, wait, no, shit. Bond and Principle can't both be Estranging. Fine, I'll make the Bond Affirming. It really could go either way.
Fear! What's Nellie afraid of? I think closed spaces. The bathroom he was in with Johnny was a single, and when Frankie kicked in the door he was basically trapped in a corner while she shot her man (he was doin' her wrong).
OK, now we divert into a discussion of the mechanics. Fuck me, I hate when RPGs do this. OK, here we go, Flaws. I can start the game with up to two. They would give benefits during play, not at chargen, it doesn't look like. I think I'll skip it, but if I think of something later I might add it.
Attributes! I get 15 AP to divide between six Attributes. Minimum 0, max 5. Hokay then. Suppose I need to think about what Nellie's all about.
Well, I'm thinking he's got some kind of legal job, paralegal maybe. That implies decent Focus and Charisma, I think. I'll put those at 4, I'll put Willpower at 1 (since Nellie's a little damaged), everything else gets 2.
Derived traits are next, and goddammit, I really wish there were a summary of chargen so I'd know if there's a way to raise Attributes later so I know if I should just write these in. Graragh. Let's play it safe, but I'll do the calculations just in case.
OK, Melee Attack is...it's written as 1/2 (Dex + Vit). So the average of those two? For me it's 2. Ranged Attack, same thing. Unnatural Attack says 1/2 (Per + Will or Foc). Do I get to choose? If so I choose Focus, which would give me 3. Evade is 2, Parry is 2, Vigilance is 3, Wariness is another one that says Will or Foc, so let's assume it's Foc because that would give me 4. Speed is 2, Acuity is 1, Toughness is...0, I guess? It says 1 at 3 Vit, so since mine's 2 I guess I don't get any. Force of Will, also 0. Tactical Acumen is 1, Initiative is 5 (but it says other bonuses apply).
Health tracks: For Clarity I get 4 Wounded, 3 Seriously Wounded, 2 Critically Wounded. For Health I get 3/3/1, and for Stress I get 3/2/1.
Skills! I get 35 Combat Skill Points and 35 Non-Combat Skill Points. Skills are ranked (lowest to highest) as D, C, B, A, and S. I don't know why "S" is the highest, though now that I think about it I see people talking about "S-tier" things online sometimes. Whatever, probably something I'm too old to get.
A new Skill (at "D") costs one point, and then improving it costs 2/3/4/5 depending what tier I'm at. If I wanted to go from D to S, therefore, it'd cost me 14 points. Also, I apparently get Skills from my "Background." "Background" has not yet been mentioned or defined, so I don't know what that means. There is no example of chargen. flings self off cliff
Ahem. Backgrounds are described a couple of pages hence, so suppose I pick one now so I know what fucking Skills I get? Argh. All of these Backgrounds assume that I joined ORPHEUS through military or intelligence or something. Would have been nice to know that when we started. Maybe a couple hundred words talking about where agents come from? Oh, well, I wasn't consulted.
Back to Nellie. Let's assume he's a Medical Professional. We'll say he's a doctor, why not, that keeps the Attribute spread pretty much valid. That gives me Investigation at D, Knowledge (Medicine) and Empathy at C, First Aid at B, and then when all is said and done I get to bump Stability up a tier.
Let's do non-combat first. I'll spend 4 to bump First Aid to A, then another 5 to put it to S. I'll spend 6 to buy Deception up to B. Might be nice to know how to Drive, I'll spend 3 to buy Drive (Car) at C. I'll spend 3 to buy Knowledge up to B. What's that leave? 14 left. Let's buy Presence up to B (another 6), and Empathy up to B (3). I'll put Investigation up to C (2). 3 left. Let's buy Knowledge (Law) at C, too.
And now, Combat. Far fewer of these, which I guess makes sense. Well, Ranged Attack, sure, let's do it at B (6 points). Let's do the same for Discipline, Stability, and Dodge. That's 24 points spent, 11 remaining. Why the heck is Stealth a combat Skill? Whatever, I'll but it at C (3 points). I'll buy Athletics up to B (6), leaving me 2. Um. Awareness at D? Sure, and also Melee Attack at D. And my Background bumps Stability to A.
Now, at this point, the chargen chapter ends and we're into Humanity & Horror. There has no been no mention of choosing an Archetype, so it's not like that's very important and oh shit your Archetype can be something like werewolf.
All the Archetypes have special abilities, and I get 3 ranks at chargen (which don't fit on this sheet, there must be a second page). OK, do any of these make sense for Nellie?
You know, the summaries of the Archetypes are presented thusly:
This game reminds me of Edara. It's very video-gamey and very tactics oriented, except it's also very generic. Anyway, for Nellie I'll pick Medium. Let's assume his experiences with near-death, both as a doctor and as a nearly gunshot victim, opened him up to such. I get three ranks of abilities, and I'll keep Nellie as non-violent as possible. I'll 1 each in Possession, Psychometry, and Seance.
And that's really it! I think Nellie is on the shorter side, well-coifed brown hair, brown eyes, good skin, you could call him a twink and not be too far off the mark (though he might reply "that's Doctor Twink to you"). I think he's got a kind of gallows sense of humor and he's very cavalier about how he almost got shot making out with a married dude in the lavatory of a club.
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