Character Creation: Tales from the Terror Tomb

No one here gets out alive! But you know, in a fun way.

The Game: Tales from the Terror Tomb
The Publisher: James "The Geek"
Degree of Familiarity: Quite a bit with the inspirational material, none with this game
Books Required: Just the one

As might be obvious, Tales from the Terror Tomb is a horror RPG inspired by old horror comics, including Tales from the Crypt, The Haunt of Fear, and suchlike. It's not the only RPG to draw on that well (I did a character for World of Tales from the Crypt a while back), but it nails the vibe and the art style.

The system...I dunno. It does some things I like. It gives the players Terror Tokens that they can use to hinder each other or help the monsters, because the idea is that everyone has a dark secret and everyone should be trying to knife each other in the back. That's in-genre and I like the idea, but in practice I have found that players often don't like to work against each other and in fact some players find it really uncomfortable. And, like it or not, there are some players that just don't have a head for systems, and when they compete with players who do grok things like probabilities and game design, it can be a frustrating experience. 

But with that said, as a one-shot, I think it'd be fun...except that the system itself involves multiplying the two dice together (d6s) and comparing the result with a number to try and shoot high (for focused rolls) or low (unfocused). It's not necessarily difficult, it's just (to me) needlessly circuitous, and I'm always leery of systems that want you to roll high sometimes and low sometimes. 

I dunno. I think a one-shot is the right format for this, and the game does a lot of other things right, and I really do love this style of horror. Maybe someday. (Also, while the game name-checks neither of them, it obliquely references both World of Tales from the Crypt and It Came From the Late Late Late Show, and I appreciate when game writers do their homework.)

Making a character requires a setting, of course, but there are several in the book, so I'll just pick one randomly. I get "Strange Things Near Salem," which is set in Andover, MA not long after the famous Salem Witch Trials and involves the paranoia and mistrust of witch hunts, plus, you know, some actual witches. 

All right, so we start off with basic stuff: name, gender, age. I think I want to take a little inspiration from the  Fear Street movies and say my character is a teenager. His name is Repudiation Good (I recently played through Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and I really liked the names of the characters, so I'm kinda taking a cue there).

So now we determined Attributes by underlining the best one and striking out the worst one (the other two remained unmarked). I'm kind of picturing Repudiation (or "Pudie", as people call him...god, that's terrible) as kind of himbo, fair of face, dumb of ass. I will therefore strike out Wits, and make Brawn my best stat.

Wow, they even did the formatting on the sheet so you can select underline or strikethrough for the stats. Nice work, guys.

Anyway, now I need a vocation. I think "farmer" is fine. Actually, no, "farmer's son." That implies my inexperience but still gives me a reason to, like, bale hay or some shit.

Skills! I need between 1 and 9 focused skills and 3 unfocused. The more focused skills I have, the more specialized I am, whereas if I have fewer I'm more of an all-rounder (which is probably where I'll land). 

OK, so obviously I'm a fit sort of guy, so I'll take Athletics. I want Outdoor Survival, too. I'll take Hunting and Trapping (yes, I'm a farmer, but I have to keep the wolves away), and I'll take Accidental Charm, because I see Pudie as being socially adept almost in spite of himself. 

I need three unfocused skills! Let's go ahead and take Religion, I guess. Not like there's much to read in this fuckin' place but the Bible. I'll take Agriculture, and I'll take Brawling (Pudie can fight, he just doesn't have much experience).

Now I need a Shadow of the Past (a dark secret, basically) and a Dark Desire (the thing that will motivate me to do dumb things). For the latter, I'll say Pudie is a True Believer. Like, he's really bought into the Puritan ethos, even if he doesn't understand it a lot of the time.

For the Shadow of the Past, we'll say that Pudie recently spent a night of passion with the Widow Johnson (her husband died of gangrene last spring, and she's been lonely, she's only a few years older than Pudie, and, well). He regrets it and has begun thinking maybe she ensorcelled him?

Finally, my Focus is 1 + the number of focused skills, so 6.

Pudie is in his late teens, sandy blonde hair that falls in his eyes, taut muscles, broad shoulders, blue eyes. Young Chris Hemsworth, I think. And now he's likely to die or get possessed. Tragic, really.