Character Creation: Terra Oblivion

Watch this space for daily characters! This week, anyway. Maybe.

The Game: Terra Oblivion
The Publisher: Khepera Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Terra Oblivion and the Mythic d6 core

I've made a couple of characters for Mythic d6, and while I don't remember much of the underlying system, I liked the core book well enough when I read it. Terra Oblivion is a sci-fi setting in which people came from Earth to another world in the Goldilocks zone, named it Terra because it's better than
"Bob", and then discovered that all of the native life is "flukes." Flukes are long, serpent or eel like creatures, but the weird(er) thing is that all creatures are flukes, and they're made up of flukes. I...don't really get what's going on here.

Characters in Terra Oblivion are built at level 2, which gives me 100 points. They're also built using one of five templates (Academic, Consul, Handler, Soldier, and Spy). I don't have much of a concept, so I think since I've already got my music program open I'll pick a random song as an inspiration. 

That's "Joe" by The Cranberries. As Cranberries songs go, it's pretty wholesome; it's apparently about Dolores O'Riordan's grandfather. So it's pretty simply a remembrance for a departed loved one (come to think of it, it's off their To The Faithful Departed album). So how do I spin that for this game? 

Well, I think the vibe I'm getting here is for the Kilmitok Republic (one of the nations in the game). They're hard and self-sufficient but also kind and generous when need be, and I think that my character saw that national attitude reflected in his grandfather. Military service is compulsory for citizens, so I think I'll say that my character found some kind of niche in the military and stayed on (as such, I shall take the Soldier template). 

Now, if I'm reading this right (and there's no example of chargen DAMMIT JERRY), these templates are also Occupations, but I also get an archetype. Let's say I'm a Protector. That means I have a bonus called "Aegis," which allows me to protect others (there's a big ol' system attached to it, but I'm not concerned about that except insofar as it keys off of REF, so I should raise that). 

Pick a culture/nation, that's easy, we're going with Kilmitok Republic. That means I'm Stoic; once per game I can change a Wild Die from 1 to 6. Nice! I mean, yes, very good, thoughtful nod. 

So evidently those numbers up there mean I've spent 48 on Attributes, 19 on Skills, and 5 on Advantages, for a total of 72. That leaves me 28 points to spend. 

Well, raising an Attribute costs 4, so I'll bump REF up to 3. I think I want Physique and Presence a little higher, too, so I'll spend 8 more and buy them both up to 3. That leaves me 16 points left. 

I feel like this guy might have some medical training, so I need some Scholar. I'll buy 1D in Scholar and then spend 4 to buy a Specialization in Medicine. That sets me back 5, so I've got 11 left. I'll spent a point to buy up Willpower to 2D. 

And then over on Advantages, I kinda want him to be a combat medic, so I'll buy Authority - he's got medic privileges (whatever those might be). I'll blow 8 points so that I can use it twice per session. That leaves me two dice left, so I will spent one to raise Scholar to 2D and one to split into pips, and I'll put one in Scholar, one in Athletics, and one in Piloting. 

Character creation in Terra Oblivion doesn't mention Disadvantages, but I know I need to take 5 dice worth across three categories (Personal/Relationship, Internal, External). Let's say there's a higher-up in the Kilmitok military that has it out for my character. Actually, hell, let's say he's the equivalent of a general, and he's pissed at my character because my grandfather made him look like a dick back in the day. His name is Limat Doll. I'll give that 3D because that motherfucker wants me dead and he's very much in a position to do it.

For Internal, I'll say my guy is Burned Out. He won't abandon his duty - he was raised better than that - but he really needs a vacation. And then for External, we'll say he's got a Trick Shoulder (flyer crash a year ago, never quite healed right). Both of those only get 1D, so they're minor. 

And that's actually about it. My guy's name is Burren Gbwan (no real naming conventions mentioned in the Terra Oblivion book). Burren is now in his late 20s, and has pretty much decided to stick with "combat medic" as a career, at least until he gets killed, or they find someone better (or General Doll sends him into a suicide mission). He's broad-shouldered and kind of...meaty, I guess, but he's got a million stories about his grandfather and his life back in Kilmitok. Burren isn't interested in killing people - he will, because that's war, but he's more interested in patching them up. 

That'll do it, I s'pose. 

 

Character Creation: Bastion

No, not the colorful video game, but the Afrocentric Sword and Sorcery RPG!

The Game: Bastion
The Publisher: Khepera Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Bastion and the Mythic d6 core

Bastion is one of the settings for Mythic d6, and in contrast to the setting included in the core (for which I made a character here), it's a kind of tragic fantasy setting. The world is dying, the last human city is Bastion, and the PCs are "Fihankra", people who have dedicated their lives to going outside the walls and protecting the city, even though that's basically a death sentence. I like the idea of the game, so let's see how easy chargen is!

Starting characters are equal to level 3 in the Mythic d6 book, which I seem to recall is the basic default...ah, yes, default starting level for heroes, and gives you 125 creation points. However, Bastion tells me:

So clearly I need to pick a Profession Template first? Let's see. OK, Professions are one thing, Archetypes are another (and are from the Mythic d6 book), and then Bastion has various races, too. The character sheets have Archetype stuff filled in, so I really need to pick that first and then print the sheet off (ssiiiiiingiiiiinnnnng, "why ain't there an example of chargen, hidely ho"). 

Well, I think I'll do what I often do when I'm faced with a setting I don't know well, and pick some random bit of the setting chapter to inspire a character.

Ooh, OK. In the poor section of Bastion, called the Hedge, there's a shadowy thorn-bush kind of thing that the Umbari (shadow-people) are tending. I'll make a character who was part of the sect doing the gardening, and has been sent out to recover some botanical necessity - maybe a bee or a bat that can pollinate the shadow-bush! That's cool. That decides my race (Umbari) but not my Archetype. Let's see. 

Scholar seems the obvious choice, although Rogue works, too. I think I'll go Rogue, actually. So I need to pick a Profession template next. Hmm. The Sikaotu are interesting (scouts), but I think that pairing this character concept with a priest (Nyame Dua) is a nice twist. Means I can bless others, which might not have been my first choice of powers for this character, but I can roll with it. 

So then I get this array:

And then from Race, I get a couple of special abilities: Dark Sight (just like it sounds) and Into the Void (step into a shadow, pop out of another, dope). Race also gives me minimums and maximums for my Attributes: 

Ooh, Sigil! These give me temporary powers when I spend Hero Points. I want Asase Ye Duru:

So, I suppose now we spend 93 additional points on stuff, which includes Attributes. I have to buy  my REF up to 3D, but everything else is min 1. Let's see here. Each D is 4 points, meaning I have to spent 12 right off the bat for REF. 

Well, seems like Knowledge should be decent for my rogue gardener/priest. Physique will also make my shadow-powers more versatile. If I put Coordination at 2D (average), Knowledge at 4D, Perception at 3D, Physique at 4D, Presence at 1D (secretive, whispery) and Reflexes at 4D, that means I've spent 72 of my 93, leaving me 21 points. I think that's OK. 

Skills, meanwhile, cost 1-for-1, or 4-for-1 for specialties. I can't go over 3 in a Skill or 2 ranks in a Specialty at chargen, and of course I have a few Skills going in already, including Influence twice? Wtf? It's not like Influence needs to be specified. Maybe the second one is supposed to be Intuition? Yeah, probably. Let's assume that. 

I'll keep most of my given Skills where they are, but I want to raise Investigation and Willpower to 3, which costs me 3 more points. Other Skills? Well, probably I should have some fighting, so, um, Fighting at 2D. I think Know-How at 2D, too. Athletics 2D, Resistance 3D, Movement 2D, how many is that? 14. I think that's probably good, and leaves me with 8 points.

Oh, wait, forgot Sneak. Better put 2D there. That leaves me 6 points. I'll spend one more and break it down into pips and add one each to Intuition, Movement, and Scholar. 5 points remaining, and I'll buy an Advantage (which lets me add 3D to a roll once per session when it's applicable). Shadow Gardener, I think, would let me add dice when I'm dealing with magical plants or other scary nature-things.

Disadvantages, then! Five dice to distribute, and we need one Relationship, one Internal and one External. (Once again, the character sheet says "Personal" instead of "Relationship," but eh.) 

So, Relationships are people that can complicate things for my character. I definitely want a Disadvantage related to my dedication to the shadow-bush, but I don't know if it should go here or External (that is, is the Disad about the secret society or the quest itself?). I think it should be the quest, actually, so the relationship needs to be something else. I'll say there's a rich guy in Bastion who really hates the Umbari (he believes they're trying to rebuild their intangible shadow-realm, and in fairness, he's right), and he's able to make trouble for my guy. His name is Bediako. I'll put 2 dice in there.

I'll put one die into Bitter (Internal), and then my other two into Secret Mission (External), and that's that.

Derived stuff: Physique Damage is 2, BDV is 2, Passive Defense is 2, Corruption Threshold is 4. Normally we'd design our Company, but it's just me, so none of that, babe.

Just a name left, and there's actually naming conventions. Assume that he was born under the black moon, on Yawoada, and that means his first name is Tumyaw, his given name is Xoese (it means "Believe"), and his surname is Damte (named after the head of the Shadow Gardeners, let's say). 

Xoese, like all Umbari, has black skin and is forever shrouded in darkness. He has silver tattoos on his arms, forehead, and hands, and he wears a hood, so typically you'd just see the glimmer of the tats from underneath it. He's bitter over the loss of his people's homeland, the incoming destruction of the world, and the idea that he has to go out in the world and look for a freakin' bee.

That'll do it!

Character Creation: Mythic d6

I have a kind of mixed relationship with generic or setting-agnostic systems, but- oh, hang on.

The Game: Mythic d6
The Publisher: Khepera Publishing 
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the Mythic d6 core, for today

Anyway, as I was saying: generic systems. Some of them I really like (Fate), some of them I could do without (GURPS). I like the concept very much, but I sometimes find it at odds with the design principle that the system should reflect gameplay and genre. As such, Mythic d6 does something I really appreciate and lays its cards firmly on the table, positing that most RPGs are really superhero RPGs with some different seasonings.

And while I don't necessarily agree, my disagreement really comes down to splitting hairs. Much of the time, characters in RPGs are over-the-top, mythical, powerful beings whose morality or agenda becomes an indelible imprint for the whole setting. Sounds pretty supers-ish to me (and, not for nothing, but there's a reason that folks call Vampire "superheroes with fangs").

In any case, the Mythic d6 system is a system meant for supers action games, and on an initial read it looks pretty much solid. And, I gotta say, if you're going to do a generic system, this core book does it right - we've got a fully fleshed-out setting that showcases the game's strengths, which also makes making a character a little easier.

To wit, our setting is Project: Mythic, and it's best summed up as a mix of Hellboy, various Lovecraftian things, and a bit of Bronze-Age Superheroics. Supers all have the same origin; during WWII, a super-soldier serum gave superpowers to a few folks, but mostly it killed the subjects (and even the people it did work on died of cancer later). Now, a fellow named Daniel Okeke has replicated the formula and tampered with various food and drug products, meaning that anyone might spontaneously manifest powers. Characters work for the Institute, or rather, one particular chapter of it (which players design and build in a manner that reminds me of what we did in Chill and therefore makes me happy).

Anyway! Making a character! The book says that Power Level 3 is the default for the setting, so I'll go with that. That gives me 125 creation points and a max of 15 total levels in Powers.

Just for reference

So, our first step is to agree upon a Power level, but that's done. Now I have to pick an Archetype, which requires I have some sense of the character. This song has been in my head lately:

Particularly the line "I break loops and trample shit while I stomp/a mudhole in that ass, 'cause I'm straight out the swamp." (It's a good line and I appreciate the PE reference.) "Ruckus" is actually a pretty good name for superhero, but it's been done, so I'll think of something else.

I like the idea of a swamp-rat becoming a superhero, though, so I'll say my character is from southern Florida. He grew up poor and in a big family that didn't really care much about school (he went, but sporadically and only until sixth grade, after which he was technically home-schooled, but that really didn't mean much). The world got weird, Shallowings started appearing and creatures started coming out of the swamp, and my character (let's called him Junior for now) developed super-powers after his mom started selling essential oils. Fortunately, the concentrations of the super-serum in the oils were low enough that they didn't have any noticeable effects on his family, but Junior, well. He can bring the ruckus.

So what Archetype works for Junior? I'm thinking either Protector or Outsider, and I think given Junior's background Outsider works best. That means I can read situations well and I get bonuses to PER-based skills, and that I add to the GM's Aggravation pool when I trust authority without checking all the facts (meaning that Junior joining the Institute probably was a fraught thing).

On to Attributes! 4 points buys me 1D, and then I can split 1D into 3 Pips (much like...several other games, actually). I have six Attributes to worry about, and 2D is about average. Anything over 5D is superhuman.

Well, I think I want Junior to have some level of superhuman physique, so I'd like Coordination and, um, Physique to be on the high end. They don't necessarily have to be superhuman, though. Supposing I put them both at 4D? That'll eat a lot of points (32, to be exact), but that'll much him pretty tough. I don't think Knowledge needs to be high, so let's keep it at 1D (36 spent). Perception shouldn't be low, I'll put it at 2D (44 spent), and Presence should be at least decent (3D; 56 spent). Reflexes...wait, how's that difference from Coordination? Oh, that's more gross motor/nimbleness kind of thing. OK. Well, I'm gonna bust Coordination down to 3D and take Reflexes at 4D, which means I've spent...68 points. And then I'd like some pips, I think. I'll spent 8 points and buy 6 pips, and put +2 into Reflexes and Physique, and +1 into Perception, Coordination, and Knowledge (he doesn't know much, but he knows some stuff).

That's 76 spent, I have 49 remaining. Hope that's enough to do some cool shit. Attributes are pricey. Skills are cheaper; 1 point per 1D and I can't go over 3D at chargen anyway. OK, then. Let's do this:

Piloting 1D
Ranged Fighting 2D
Technical 2D
Intuition 1D
Know-How 2D
Athletics 3D
Resistance 2D
Movement 2D
Willpower 2D
Evasion 2D
Fighting 3D
Sneak 2D

That's 24 points. Do I wish to buy any Specializations? They're hella useful but they're pricey, so I think I'll skip it. I've got 25 points remaining.

I can buy Advantages, which give me bumps to certain kinds of rolls X times per session (where "X" depends on how many points I pay). I want to do Powers first, though. Oh, I guess I'll do Disadvantages, because it's not the usual setup of "take flaws, get points." Everyone has Disadvantages, and they give you rewards when they come up in play, rather than points up front.

Well, Disadvantages fall into three categories: Relationships (labeled as "Personal" on the character sheet, boo, bad proofreading), Internal, and External (oh, this looks familiar). My Relationship one should be my family. They are, as Morbo says, belligerent and numerous, they don't trust the Institute, and a lot of them are a little too chatty about Junior working for the government. I'll put 2D there.

For Internal, I need a personality quirk or something. Hrm. I don't want Junior to be hot-tempered or addicted or something like that; it's a little too on the nose. Honest to fault, maybe? Yeah, I can live with that. No head for lies, at all. 2D there. And then finally, for External, I'll say Junior is uneducated. That's just 1D so it's not as big a deal, but it comes up.

Finally, Powers! Still got 25 points, and um, I should really think about what I want Junior's powers to be like. I like his powers being swamp-themed, actually (but without him being Swamp Thing). If I wanted to boost Physique to superhuman levels, that'd require 8 more points to take it to 6D (6D+2, actually), and then I'd get a special ability...like Thunder Stomp, hell yes. OK, 8 points there leaves me with 17. I kinda like Animal Mimicry, but it's 6 points per level and I could only afford 2 levels at this point. Could I take a Flaw to reduce the cost? I could; being able to mimic only one kind of animal is worth -2, but is "swamp animals" specific enough? I'm gonna say yes, because one of the examples of a limitation is "mammals," and that's actually hella broad. That drops my cost to 4 per level, which means I can spend 16 points and take 4 levels, and I still have 1 character point left over. I'll use it to buy another die in Intuition.

That's all me points! My Physique Damage Bonus is 6, because I'm super-strong. My Base Damage Value is 2. My Passive Defense Value is 2. I start with 5 Hero Points...oh, wait, no, that's how many I can spend at once. I start with 6.

Stress Points, I actually need to roll some dice. I roll Physique, count the successes (4), which gives me 20 Stress Points, add 20, I have 40. 3D in Wealth. Equipment, I don't see the need to pick anything special.

I do, however, need a name and age. Let's say Junior is 19. The heroes in this game aren't explicitly young folks, but for Junior I think it's appropriate. His full name is Aaron Michael Bledsoe, Jr., but of course his family mostly calls him Junior (except when mom's mad). His hero name, however, is Swamp Rat. One of his teammates tried to get him to consider "Wetlands" or "the Blue Heron" or something like that, but Junior knows who the fuck he is.

Swamp Rat isn't tall (none of the Bledsoe kids really are), but he's stocky. He's got brown hair in a buzz cut and he wears overalls, a big ol' white shirt (I mean, it was white), and goes barefoot when he's doing hero stuff. He's still got a bunch of freckles on his nose and cheeks, and he's missing one of his front teeth (knocked out in a brawl with his brothers, thanks very much). He speaks with a thick Florida drawl and has a languid, honest manner about him, but he's also unfailingly polite ("don't have nothing nice to say, you ain't trying hard enough," his dad used to tell him).

That'll do it!