Character Creation: Across A Thousand Dead Worlds

Note: Book may contain fewer than 1000 worlds by volume.

The Game: Across A Thousand Dead Worlds
The Publisher: Blackoath Entertainment
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

It's a sci-fi game with kind of OSR-ish sensibilities, reminds me a bit of Into the Odd or Death in Space. It's got some Forged in the Dark DNA, too, with the mission-based approach to game play. Basically in the future, Earth is dead but capitalism is alive and well, and we the PCs are Deep Divers - we go out into space and find shit. On any given mission we might find technology from an ancient civilization known as the Àrsaidh (it means "ancient" in Scots Gaelic, apparently), we might find monsters or robots or all kinds of things!

I'm torn. I really like "roll on a bunch of tables" and generate a mission style games (if I'd been allowed to continue to Chill, I might have wanted to do a little mini-sourcebook for generating cases like that), but like, they're pretty thick on the ground these days and I don't know why, but I had it in my head that this game had a more meaty setting. I may have been thinking of Once More Into the Void, which doesn't have a defined setting but has more defined play parameters. I don't know, I might want to give this a shot. I think it hits the same game-play vibe as AGON, or something similar, though I don't know about the system (though it looks pretty OSR at first blush).

Anyway! We start with attributes. We've got six; standard D&D array except Will instead of Wisdom. We've got 8 in each of them, plus another 12 points to split up (basic system is roll a d20, add a stat, and if you hit 20 or better you succeed, so a score of 10 seems to be roughly average). But I have no legs and so cannot kick you concept, which makes distributing said points difficult. 

Fortunately, there's a Background portion further along in the process which really should be first but whatever that I can use to start me off. All I need is a d10, or a computer to do it for me. And my result is...hedge fund kid! Oof. Well, least I won't feel too bad if something eats him. 

You know, the next table after is Life-Changing Event, so I think maybe I'll roll on that, too. "Made a terrible enemy." Oh, that'll work. Let's say my guy was a trust fund kid and had no interest in ever doing a real day's work in his life, and then there was a night of drunken debauchery, there was a bet and a gun and a really stupid stunt, and another guy wound up dead. His sister, it turns out, has some connections in some extremely unsavory places, so my guy figured that he could fuck off and be a Deep Diver and stay alive that way.

Not, as it happens, his wisest choice, as the mortality rate for Deep Divers isn't great. 

All right, I think that's a good start. Since I'm watching the Morocco/Netherlands match presently, we'll say my guy is Moroccan. Ayyur Zaouche is his name.

Back to stats. Clearly Intelligence isn't this guy's strong point. (Actually as I think about it he's reminding me of Roland Abu Hadee from Skinny Legs and All.) Let's leave INT at 8, pump CHA to 12, and leave the rest at 10. 

Cool. 3 Luck, 10 Stamina, easy-peasy. And then 70 points for Skills. Can't spend more than 10 on any one, which is fine, except there's only 12 Skills. So let's see. We'll max out Manipulation, Pilot, Stealth, and Technology, and put 5 into everything else except Survival (I don't see Ayyur being much into the outdoors) and Àrsaidh Tech (which no one really knows much about).

And now I get a Talent. You can roll a d100 to pick one, but they recommend picking your initial one. Let's see. Ooh, let's take Movement Economy; I can move better while in Stealth. 

How did I earn my place in Karum Station? I could roll, but "I have family money" makes a lot of sense.

Drive. Hmm. Oh, wait, this is why I joined Karum Station. Self-preservation? Nah, I don't like that phrasing. "Hiding Out" is good.

Mannerisms! There are a few of these meant to flesh out a description of the character, so:

When you are feeling confident, you...talk a little too loudly.

When you are feeling shy or lacking confidence, you...clap hands and snap fingers.

When you're bored, you...start fiddling with technology.

When you're feeling happy, you...touch people in a friendly way (patting shoulders, that kind of thing).

When you're feeling frustrated, you...withdraw and don't talk.

Everybody starts with a nervous tic, which is no fun, tics suck (as do ticks, but for different reasons). Rolling on the table, we get "repeating a phrase." Hmm. Let's say Ayyur repeats "got it."

And that's everything, actually! Ayyur is a younger man, tan skin, black hair, thin mustache. He's not smart, but he's a good talker, very personable, and actually picks up new info pretty quickly.