Character Creation: Survival of the Able

The Black Death, but somehow worse.

The Game: Survival of the Able
The Publisher: Accessible Games (they have a website, but it seems to be down)
Degree of Familiarity: I'm passingly familiar with Fudge, but never played this
Books Required: Just the one

So, I'll say this for Survival of the Able, the elevator pitch is nice and simple. It's 1374, the Black Plague is in full swing except it's also the zombie plague, and you and the other PCs live in an almshouse because you're disabled in some way. SURVIVE.

I've had this game for a while. It was originally Kickstarted in 2019 and failed to hit a pretty modest goal, and then relaunched in 2021 and funded (but still failed to meet the goal from the original project). I always thought that was strange. It's by no means a bad concept, and I'd like it'd be the kind of thing that would get attention, especially post-pandemic. But whatever, marketing is hard.

The system is, as the King of Town says, kinda Fudge-y, so it's a little like Fate. No Aspects, though, which to me is the defining Fate comparison. It looks perfectly playable. Do I want to play it? I am not filled with a burning desire to do so, but if I had players who wanted to give it a whirl, I would. 

So let's make a character! 

Fairly simple. So, first, I am to consider my concept. An important part of characters in this game is their disability (right there on the top of the sheet). The pregens include characters who blind, deaf, have PTSD, there's one who's a little person, so "disability" here covers a very broad range. What would be, for want of a better word, fun to play? Ooh, could I play someone with Tourette's? I mean, I know I could, the question is could I simulate it mechanically.

Tourette's gets played for laughs in media a lot, but the truth of the matter is that coprolalia (the yelling obscenities that people tend to associate with it) is pretty rare. Folks with Tourette syndrome have tics, and they vary pretty widely. You can see how having uncontrollable vocalizations or movements during a zombie apocalypse might be a problem, I think (plus, tic disorders have been on my mind of late, since I seem to have developed a tic out of fucking nowhere). 

OK, cool. So, the game is set in "Western Europe," let's throw a dart and say Belgium. My character's name is Cyrille. He's living in the almshouse at 14 after most of the rest of his family died of the plague, including his mom, who protected him from people who made fun of him and/or thought he was possessed or some shit. His tics get worse when he gets scared, which means in this environment he's rarely not ticing. 

Let's move on to develop your Senses. This game has each of the five senses represented by a rating, which given the content of the game is pretty smart. Everything starts at 0, and it has to equal out to 0, meaning if I want better hearing something else has to suffer. Do I wish to raise anything? I think I don't. I think Cyrille's Senses can all be 0. 

Determine your Qualities. There are 5 pairs of Qualities, and each pair has to equal out to 0. I'm not 100% clear on the intended at-the-table use, here. It looks like you'd roll a Quality when you want to take an action that's counterindicated by an instinct? Maybe? It's not explained well, and when you take Actions you're rolling on Skills (presumably if you're trying to sense something you'd roll on a Sense). I get that you might roll on Courageous to face your fears, but would you roll Cowardly to...not face your fears? To run away? And then if you fail, do you have to be brave? 

I don't quite get what we're going for here, but I get the intent in assigning traits, so let's see, how does Cyrille roll?

Courageous/Cowardly. Cyrille is young and up until recently was used to mom protecting him, so let's go Courageous -1/Cowardly +1.

Pious/Wordly. Man, I wish I had some explanation of what these are meant to do in play. Let's just say +1 Pious/-1 Worldly, if only because Cyrille hasn't really seen much.

Energetic/Sluggish. Well, my experience with folks who have Tourette's is that they're often very energetic (Tourette's is often also comorbid with ADHD), so let's swing for the fences and say Energetic +3/Sluggish -3.

Generous/Selfish, let's be boring and leave them at 0. 

And then for Cautious/Reckless, let's go Cautious -2/Reckless +2. Might that get Cyrille eaten? Yes it might.

Design Anxieties and Assurances. These tie into Qualities. They're kind of structured like stunts; when [thing happens] you make a [Quality] roll or take Stress. Assurances are much the same, except you can gain Stress back. 

OK, sure. So what's going to cause Cyrille stress? I feel like he's got some anxiety around being told he's demonic or possessed or something. Should that be Pious? I don't know, the traits aren't explained well enough. Fuck it, we'll say "when Cyrille is told that he's possessed or demonic, make a Fair Pious roll or take 1 Stress." 

One more for major Anxiety. Better do something about the tics, right? "When your tics put you or someone near you in danger, make a Fair Courageous roll or take 2 Stress." 

Assurances work more or less the same way, except they heal Stress. I feel like Cyrille would like to be useful, so how about "when you complete a task that someone asks of you, make a Great Energetic roll to regain 1 stress." And then for my major Assurance, let's go back to the familial/comfort angle and say "when you comfort a younger person in their fear or grief, make a Good Generous roll to regain 2 Stress."

And next, develop your Skills. They all start at 0, and I have 3 free levels to raise them (to a max of +2). What do I wish Cyrille to be good (or, indeed, bad) at? 

Well, I feel like just his youth and generally being able-bodied should give him a bonus in Act/React, so let's put that at +2. Animals probably don't react well to the tics, so let's drop Animal Handling to -1. Explore can get a +1, Hand Signals can get a -1. Intuition can be something Cyrille is good at, so let's put that at +1. Lore and Medicine can both be 0; not something that Cyrille would know about, but not something he'd be necessarily deficient in. That leaves 1 point for Navigate, which is fine. That puts me at net +3, which is what I want.

Last thing would be relationships, but it's just me, so I'll skip that. Like I said, Cyrille is in his mid teens, stringy brown hair, skinny, and pockmarked with acne, which scares the hell out of him because he's afraid they'll turn into buboes. I think Cyrille is probably gonna get eaten, but y'know, that's life.