BLOOD AND GLORY! VICTORY AT SEA!
The "ten" slot in The 12 Days of Christmas is, most commonly, "ten drummers drumming," but one of the variations I've seen is "ten bears a-baiting," either of which seems pretty on-target for a game about barbarians. As such:
FOR THE TENTH GAME OF XMAS, TWENTY-TWENTY-FIVE,
TEN BARB'RANS CHOPPING,
NINE SENTAIS SENSING,
EIGHT MONSTERS WRANGLING,
SEVEN LAWS A-SCOFFLING,
SIX GEESE A-HONKING,
GIRL BY MOONLIGHT,
FOUR ELDERS GODS,
THREE TITTED HENS,
TWO CORVID COURTS,
AND IN THE NUMBER ONE SLOT, CAIRN!
The Game: Barbarians of Lemuria Mythic+ Edition
The Publisher: Ludospherik Editions
Degree of Familiarity: I played an earlier edition at Origins about 10 years ago, but it was retooled for Thundarr the Barbarian
Books Required: Just the one
Have to say, I'm kinda feeling this game. System is nice and simple, the book doesn't talk down to the players, artwork's cool, setting is fleshed out but not overly detailed or missing context for things that seem important (looking at you, Atlantis: The Second Age). I think I'd run this. The book adheres a little too much to the source material in terms of gender roles (that is, men are big and burly and warriors and women are buxom and hawt and damsels), but it at least acknowledges that warrior women exist in the inspirational sources and there are some good depictions of women doing badass stuff in the art. Book could stand to be a little less heteronormative, but that's not the kind of thing that would stop my table from making shit gayer. Let's make a barbarian!
First we "envision" our Hero. HRRMMMM. (That's the sound of envisioning.)
OK, I think I want to play a character from the jungles of Qo. He grew up in one of the many tribes that live in the jungles. His people, the Karzam (just made that up), have a particular way of hunting and fighting. They develop these thrown weapons, made by carving a heavy block of wood down to a sphere (or using a rock, there are differing schools of thought on which is better), and then taking a strip of leather hide and driving fire-hardened wooden spikes through it and gluing the leather to the sphere with some kind of natural adhesive. What you get are spiked throwing spheres - they work OK as weapons against enemy tribes, but if you're using them against humans (or Grooth, the big ol' man-ape things that live in the jungle and have this nasty habit of eating people), you want to poison them. Hunting small game, just the piercing damage is usually enough to encourage the creature to bleed out.
(Side note: One thing this game does that I really like is differentiate between "rabble", "toughs," and "villains." Rabble die easily and you can kill multiple of them with one attack, toughs are still no match for a Hero generally but require a bit more effort, and villains are about on par with a PC. So that means my guy could throw one of these things and kill a rabble, maybe even a tough, but it's just going to inconvenience a villain, which is as it should be.)
Anyway, it's common for hunters from the Karzam to carry small wooden bucklers and stick their spike-sphere in them for ease of reach, and also because it's not like you'd want one down your loincloth.
Right, so my Hero in particular. He's a skilled hunter and warrior, but he's always been curious about the bigger cities and the other tribes. When a group of the jungle folks (including some Karzam) got snapped up by slavers from one of the cities (maybe Shamballah), my guy - let's call him Diallo - volunteer to lead a contingent to get them back. Depending on where the story starts, that might have been successful, failed miserably, or still be in process.
Next, Attributes! There are four (strength, agility, will, and appeal), and I get 4 points to split up. Average is 0, and if I want I could lower one to -1 and get another point, but the book advises against this. I think I'll put agility at 2, strength at 1, and appeal at 1. That leaves mind at 0, but that's fine, Diallo can be about average in the brain-meats.
Now we do the same thing with the Combat Attributes (initiative, melee, ranged, and defense). Well, I know I want 2 in ranged, and I know I want 1 in initiative. The question is do I make myself just average in melee, defense, or both? I feel like the Karzam style of fighting doesn't emphasize close combat, so I'll put the 0 in melee and give myself a 1 in defense.
And now, the same basic thing, but with Careers. These basically act like skill groups; if you have the sailor career you know how to be a sailor, even if you just have 0 in the career (just means you know the basics but not much else). But that still gives you fictional positioning to do sailor shit.
Well, Diallo is obviously a hunter, so we'll start there. Barbarian also makes sense, and hey, it's the title of the game, so sure. Given that Diallo got selected to hunt down slavers, let's assume he's had some training in being an assassin. And that leaves one more. Hmm. Let's give him dancer and say that tribal dancing and acrobatics in trees are also culturally important to the Karzam.
Score-wise, we'll put 2 into hunter, 1 into barbarian, 1 into dancer, and leave assassin at 0.
Languages are easy. I speak Lemurian because everyone does, and Shamite because it's the language of the areas surrounding Shamballah (though Diallo's people probably have their own unique dialect).
Boons n' Flaws! I get one boon for free, but it has to be based on my origin. I can then take other boons, but every one I take after the first gives me a flaw as well.
Hard to argue that my first boon shouldn't be Jungle-born, so we'll go with that. Let's go ahead and take two flaws, because I want the boons. Diallo is illiterate (writing and reading aren't really part of his tribe's practices), and country bumpkin (I get a penalty die when making rolls regarding urban survival).
But, that all gives me two more boons! ARGH, there are a bunch I want. Well, I spent all that time time thinking about his weapon, so let's take Trademark Weapon (spike-spheres). We'll say I have three that are trademark-quality, though I could make more with the right materials and time. And then just because I think it's fun, we'll take Blind Combat. Karzam hunt by night (that's when all the most delicious animals are out), and you've got to get good at throwing spheres at noises rather than spotting targets visually.
Derived traits! I get lifeblood equal to 10 + strength (11), 5 Hero Points, and nothing in Arcane Power, Fate, or Craft Points (since I don't have the careers that give you those).
And, finally, stuff! I get what I should have, which is very much my preferred way of doing equipment and in such stark contrast to Shadowrun (which I was playing yesterday). Diallo has leather (or snakeskin) clothes, light armor at best. He's got his little shield, and his three spike-spheres attached to it. He probably also has a bone knife in his belt, and that's about all he needs!
A knife does d6L (basically, roll two dice and take the lower) for damage, but what about his spike-spheres? They're lightweight, but I feel like they're designed to cause bleeding, so let's say they do d6 damage (if I were the GM I might argue, but since there isn't one, suck it).
And that's pretty much it! Diallo has dark skin and black hair, and light purple eyes. His hands have the characteristic scars and nicks of Karzam hunters (you gotta learn to handle those spheres, and you get cut in the process). I think Diallo would either wind up as a slave for a while or free his people and send them back, but choose to stay in Shamballah for a while.
