A monstrous mashup of beasts! The horrible fire-breathing...no, hang on. Just an RPG.
The Game: Chimera RPG
The Publisher: The Welsh Piper
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
Chimera is a perfectly serviceable (-looking; I haven't played it so who knows how it plays at the table) generic RPG system. I have no idea why it's called "Chimera", though. In any case, as I thought back on the book today I kept thinking about Mettle instead and getting them confused, which probably tells me a) I need to limit how many setting-agnostic games I do in the same month to one and b) Chimera didn't make a lot of impact on me. I think it falls into the "playable but so what" category.
And, unlike a lot of setting-agnostic games, this one doesn't include a sample setting, so I'm forced to make a character based on a very short blurb. To wit:
It's actually a pretty cool-sounding setup for a game and I wish it got more than this. The book was only 76 pages, could've spared 10 more. Ah, well.
I'd kind of like to play a sorcerer. I'm thinking about the section of the story where the main characters go looking for allies and someone's like "I know a guy who can do magic" and another one's like "Oh hell no, I know who you mean, we're not going anywhere near-" and then smash cut to the sorcerer's house. So I want to play a sorcerer who makes people nervous, in a "he's not really going to summon a shoggoth, right?" kind of way.
Step One: Character vision. Got that, more or less.
Step Two: Select race. I'm thinking "human".
 | |
| Of course, we're "adaptable." |
Step Three: Select Class. Let's see if there's a "sorcerer" one. Oh, no, but Occultist is one. Let's do that.
Step Four: Perks & stuff. I get three Improvement Points to buy stuff, but I can get more by taking flaws. I'm not 100% clear on how this works, but fortunately there's an example!
OK, I see. I was thinking that "improvement cost" was a pool of points that was spent during chargen - not true! Instead, it's a cost that affects how much XP you get to use to raise shit later on. So, you can front-load your character, but that'll make for a high IC, which in turn means you'll need to earn more XP in order to be able to do stuff.
That's kind of a cool idea, and I wish the game fucking explained it somewhere. Ah, well.
So, with that in mind, do I wish to take another class? Yeah, why not. I'll take Scout as well. That gives me Explore and Sneak as class abilities.
OK, so back to Step Four. I'll take my free special perks first, thanks. I want Spells from Occultist and Survivorman from Scout. This, by the way, puts my IC up to 8 (1 for being human plus 3 for Occultist + 4 for Scout), and my WL (wound limit) is 4. So far.
Right, three points! I have access to one "power school" from my Spells perk, so I want...ooh, Summoning, please. I can buy powers for one IP each. Let's see what's on offer! OK, I'll take Summon (call forth monsters) and Banish (do exactly that). Nice and tight.
One more point, unless I wish to take a flaw. Oh, well, I think I will take Strong Mojo as a perk, giving me even more juice to my Summoning magic.
Flaws? Oh, sure, I'll take Outsider - I make Influence rolls with polite society (or even slightly polite society) as if opposed. I'll use the point I get to buy Resolve.
Step Five is equipment. Ugh. I get 3d6 x 10 in monies to buy shit; 11 gives me $110. Do I really wanna buy anything? No, I really don't.
Step Six is IC cost. I haven't raised it since I added it up before, so it's 8.
Step Seven is abilities. I have Academics, Explore, Sneak, and Wield as class abilities and Resolve as non-class. The class ones have an AR of 1d12, Resolve has an AR of 1d10.
Step Eight is Wound Limit; again, that's 4.
Step Nine is Movement, which is 20.
Step Ten...OK, more derivative traits ahoy. Defense is 0 (no armor), Parry is 3, I start with 1d6 (roll...1, fuck) Mana.
Step Eleven: Boon and Background. I can roll 2d10 to give my dude some flavor, so I shall. Roll of 15 gives me..."has connections to an influential organization." Sure. My island-dwelling summoner is actually the little brother of an officer in the Royal Navy. They don't really get along, but they're family, and my dude could go to him and ask for help if he really needed to.
Step Twelve is name 'n shit. OK, then. His real name is George Ellery, but that name is his past. Folks nowadays call him "Cangrejo", "crab", because of the hunched and scuttle-y way he walks on his beach. He's perfectly capable of walking upright, though, wearing pants, and speaking in King's English. He'd just...rather not. He wears a necklace of dried shells and raggedy clothes (when he has to wear clothes), and he hasn't groomed his beard in entirely too long. His eyes are...a little nuts.
I have to admit, this game bores me but this character and setting sound fun, and it would be very amusing to have Cangrejo get all cleaned up to go undercover, since he was raised in society.
