Character Creation: Aegean

Coming off the Akropolis to start some pandemonium! 

The Game: Aegean
The Publisher: we evolve
Degree of Familiarity: None, though the design philosophy feels pretty FitD/PbtA
Books Required: Just the one

Aegean occupies some of the same setting space as AGON, but reading it, I don't get the sense the games are all that similar. AGON is focused on travel and have discreet adventures, while Aegean is much more about the characters and the city-state from which they hail (and you build your "polis" as part of chargen). Likewise, system-wise, AGON is a more adversarial, compare the dice pool kind of thing, while this game you roll some d10s, count your 8+s, and 10s give you bonuses. One mechanic I think is cool is that you take points of Risk, and once Risk gets higher than Endurance you're Vulnerable and further Risk translates to Wounds. 

ANYWAYS. Let's make a...Greek dude, I guess.

Choose a concept. Fuckin' I don't know. Let's open up my old friend The Weird and roll on PC Backgrounds. "Childhood memories of starting fires just by thinking about them, but you don’t seem to have that ability now." That's pretty dope. I think I'll lean away from the obvious Firestarter inspiration and say that my character's firestarting was limited to sacrificial bonfires or holy sites. I don't need a tragic backstory, just kind of a strange and mystical one.

Choose a heritage. Speaking of which. I think this backstory implies Divine heritage. In Aegean that means one of my parents is actually a god or goddess, so the three virgin goddesses (Artemis, Hestia, and Athena) aren't options. Neither is Dionysus, for some reason. That's fine, I'm thinking either Demeter or Hephaestos. Let's go with Demeter (I made a child of Persephone once, maybe next time I'll do Hades and round out the family). As a child of Demeter I get Endurance 7 and Glory 2 (actually that's just a Divine Heritage thing) and also:

Now, for all that, I spend 5 of my 10 Character Points. I need to choose one of those Gifts, let's check 'em out. Hmm. I think I'll take Blight and say that it manifests as a sudden flame, not like it'd burn any living things therein but it blights land and makes it burnt and ashen.

Choose a background. This is how my guy grew up. I think maybe Priest...oh, no, wait, I want Farmer. I like the idea of my little pyro being out on a farm and starting little fires that miraculously didn't, like, destroy everything. 

For this, I get: 

And I've spent 7 CP. Neat! Need to choose a friend and an enemy from those folks. I'll make Kileos the enemy. He's seen fire in my future. And I'll say Akaia is a friend of the family and stays with us when he's in town. 

Choose characteristics. I choose an array based on how many CP I'm willing to spend. Let's start Strong, which three characteristics at 3 and the other two at 2. I also get a +1 to Insight from mom. 

Well, let's put Cool and Insight at 2 (Insight becomes 3) and the rest are 3. I've spent 9 CP.

Choose a starting career. Fireman, whose job it is to start fires? Nah. Ooh, actually, let's lean into the "fire can be a tool to heal or harm" and be a physician. 

OK, so I either get a Talent or a Specialization. Well, let's just take the Healer Talent, how bout. 

Spend points on skills. I already have Craft 3, Knowledge 2, Medicine 2, and Lore 1. I can spend 1 CP for 3 points in Skills, to a max of 3 (so I'm as crafty as I can be). Let's spend both of my remaining points and put 2 into Athletics and 1 each into Accuracy, Awareness, Brawl, and Survival. Oh, wait, shit, I only had 1. Well, then I'm at 11 spent.

Choose advantages/disadvantages. Usual deal, disads give you points, ads taketh away. Well, disads first, so I know what I have to work with. I'll take Incompetent in Melee; my guy gets a sword in his hands and he just gets fuddled. I actually don't much like the other ones, but that's fine, as that puts me even.

Choose a Fate. Despite the phrasing, this is more about an overarching goal or drive. For my guy, I'll say he strives to "use his fire to heal."

Select starting equipment. I start with whatever I think I'll need, so probably some doctoring stuff? Herbs, a saw for cutting off limbs, I dunno. Definitely not a weapon, though. I get drakhmae equal to Standing, which I think is 1? No, 2. Cool, that's easy.

Finishing touches. Name, description, that kind of thing. I think my guy has wheat-brown hair, but weird ash-grey eyes. His father met a woman after a harvest sacrifice one evening, and then Demeter left my character on dad's doorstep some months later, with a cryptic note: Tend the fire. 

Dad wasn't sure what that meant. He named the boy Kypris and went about his farming, and throughout Kypris' childhood he sometimes set fires by thinking real hard. After puberty he found he couldn't do it anymore, but isn't sure why. He hasn't done anything wrong that he knows of, he's never forgotten a sacrifice or angered a god. Maybe his mom (I think Kypris knows who his mom is, but just doesn't talk about it) figures during puberty he'd better not have that power? But it hasn't come back as he's become an adult. 

(Couple of possibilities here. One is that mom has some larger lesson about fire, healing, and responsibility to teach and it hasn't become clear yet. One is that another god is fucking with Kypris; my money's on Hades. Another, probably my favorite, is that his mom is actually Hestia, but Hestia arranged with Demeter to take care of the kid because she needs to keep her "virgin" guise intact.)

Anyway, that'll about do it!