Character Creation: Reign

I had meant to make more characters last week, since I didn't have a lot of demands on my time, and then I wound up playing Stranded Deep a lot instead. Ah, well. 

The Game: Reign
The Publisher: Schroedinger's Cat Press
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game, though I've played a little ORE
Books Required: Just the one

There's a second edition of this game, I discovered when I was googling around to find a website to link to, and I was initially bummed I didn't back it, but then I saw how late the Kickstarter is and I think maybe I dodged a bullet there. But whatever, on we go.

Reign is a fantasy game, but focuses on political movements and larger-scale stories as well as (or instead of) smaller-scale ones. It has a detailed setting and I haven't read all of it (because I was eager to get to the chargen bit), but the bits I did read kinda hooked me. I don't know that I'm in a particular hurry to run this game, but that's only because it's the kind of game that would benefit from having the players read the book, and we all know how likely that is. 

So anyway, there are two methods of chargen: Point-buy, or roll a bunch of dice and see what you get! I'm gonna do that because it's basically an abbreviated lifepath system and I love those. So I need 11 d10s, hang on.

I rolled: 2x5, 2x8, 2x9, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7. Three sets, not bad, though they're all pretty narrow. The height of the set shows the profession(s) my guy undertook, while the width shows how far he got. Put another way, 5s make me a sailor, 8s make me a soldier, and 9s make me (oh, snap!) a wizard, so I get:

Noice! And then I have five "Waste Dice," which I can use on charts to pick more stuff. Let's have a look!

Oh, cool. Some ideas starting to take shape. I'll use my five loose dice to choose these things:

OK, now I've gotta tie all this together. I'll put this on the character sheet first, though. 

Cool, so I think my character, let's call him Afarri, started off as a soldier, and became a squad leader. He led his squad in battle and became a fairly successful leader, but never wanted to advance beyond his station - he had nothing but contempt for "leaders" who didn't go into battle with their troops. Until, that is, he met her. 

The "her" in this case was an officer Telu. Telu was a strategist and leader, but also a cavalry rider and warrior in her own right. My guy fell hard and made his affections known, and Telu...shot him down. Badly drunk, Afarri ranted about his spurned affections to the wrong people, and wound up giving away intelligence that cost him his position and his men their lives. 

Afarri was sentenced to death, but as a warrior with some battefield cred he was allowed to become a gladiator (the expectation being that he would die there). He alternated between fights in the arena and living as a prisoner for years, and then finally entered into a battle royale that he had no real chance of winning. He managed to secure a solid position during the fight, however, and ended the battle by hurling his spear through the chests of the last two enemies as they circled each other looking for an opening. 

Under the rules of the arena, he was to be free, but under his sentence, he needed to die. The High Court decided to exile him instead, and he took work on a ship on the understanding that he was never to return to his home country. He got off the ship in a faraway land and operated as a sellsword or bodyguard briefly. And then, one winter, he found a wounded pup - a strange animal with night-black fur and odd blue eyes. Afarri nursed it back to health, often giving up meals so that the pup could eat. That spring, a sorcerer found Afarri, and informed him that the pup was the offspring of his familiar, the only survivor of the litter. The sorcerer took Afarri on as an apprentice, and he's slowly discovering his power as a magic-worker himself. 

Phew! Let's see, couple other choices to make. I get the first step in a Martial Path dedicated to Spear, Dodge, or Parry, but I don't actually see any based on Spear (nice going, guys). I'll take Iron Tortoise Technique, which is based on Parry. The first level makes parrying more effectively (gobble dice, etc). 

And then I need Passions. I get three, a mission, a duty, and a craving. Mission should be concrete and achievable, duties are more like ethical positions/principles, cravings are selfish desires. I think Afarri craves comfort more than anything - he's been in prison or fighting for his life for much of his time. I'll say his craving is "never pass up an opportunity to rest in comfort." Duty and mission are a little tougher. I kind of want him to have learned from his downfall, even if he learned the wrong lesson. I think his duty is "always guard secret knowledge with my life." "Secret knowledge" doesn't have to be the mysteries of sorcery (although, that too). Anything that someone tells him in confidence is secret knowledge. He's never getting drunk and spilling the beans again.

As for mission...hmm. The obvious thing would be to clear his name, but I don't think that's even possible. Ooh...what if his men didn't all die? Let's say three of them were sentenced to life in prison for standing up for him, and they're still there. "Free my comrades from prison" is a good mission, I think. 

And, finally, problems. I can take up to three, and this game uses the "you get XP when the problems are problems" method, which I like. I'll take Gruesome (Afarri's face is a mess of scars and old wounds) and Drunken Blackouts (he doesn't drink anymore...often). 

And that's really it! I could go into more detail about his sorcery, since there are paths and stuff, but I don't feel like parsing the rules and I like that his understanding of magic is, at this point, kind of basic. 

Afarri is tall, but he's lost a lot of his bulk to age and malnutrition. As mentioned, his face is scarred, burned, and sliced, and he's missing half his nose. He wears a hood most of the time so as not to upset people, but he's not above pulling it down and going "blearrgh!" to frighten rowdy children. His magic-dog companion sticks with him always, and is capable of looking pretty fierce when it needs to, but it's generally very friendly and likes to chase butterflies. He calls it "Nighter." 

Character Creation: Wild Talents 2nd Ed

As I said yesterday, I've only got a couple more games left from the Pakistan bundle of 2010, so I think I'll finish them up this week.

The Game: Wild Talents 2nd Ed
The Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: Not a lot; I'm pretty sure it uses the One-Roll Engine and so it'll look a little like Godlike and Better Angels, which I have a little more familiarity with
Books Required: Just the one

Characters in Wild Talents are built using points, and in fact the first thing I need to figure out is how many points I get. There's a discussion of the different genres of superheroics that the game can fit into; there aren't specific point totals attached, but it just notes that a gritty game tends to have fewer points than, say, a four-color.

Oh, wait, the book says that it recommends starting GMs give out 250 points. Sounds good to me. The GM is also supposed to brief the players on what kind of world we're in. I don't have a GM, of course, so I shall use the example "gritty world where mutants are hunted by the government". I don't think I've actually made a superhero character in such a world, so that's exciting.

This is frustrating; I get 250 points, sure, I have to buy Stats and Skills and so on, but I don't see a point cost for jut normal Stats & Skills. I see point cost for Hyperstats (basically superhuman attributes), but is it just one-for-one for the normal stuff? Ah, no, not in the slightest. Good grief, the only place the book seems to list those costs is on the reference sheet at the back of the freaking book, and there's no example of character creation (guys), so I'm just gonna screenshot the costs here so I have them for reference.

Holy shit, 5 points per normal stat die. Human average is only 2, which means I could spend 60 points and make all my stats average. But do I really want to do that? I guess I need to think of a concept.

Well, since we're in a gritty, X-Men-esque universe, I assume I want my character to be fairly young 20s or so. Since the government is hunting us, we'll assume that my character (and the other heroes in our hypothetical group) are living off the grid; whether we have some sort of Professor X figure with a dope mansion is undecided, but kinda unlikely given the setting. I want my character to have powers that are kind of scary, and what's more frightening than bugs?

My character was raised in a very strict, almost cult-like Christian household. He's still a believer, but obviously the particulars of his faith are shaken by the whole manifesting powers thing. I want his powers to be of the "commanding animals" variety, and maybe right now he can just do bugs and lower forms. He calls himself Dominion, after Genesis 1:26 ("Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.").

With all of that in mind, let's do some stats. I figure that he's mostly average, but I'll put Body and Sense a little higher (3d) and I'll put Charm a little lower (1d; he's a wallflower and he's pretty cowed because, y'know, cult). That's a total of 13d into Stats, 65 of my 250 spent.

Skills, then! These work more or less the same way as Stats, they're just cheaper. Let's see what my devout little mutie would have.

Well, Athletics at 2d is always good. Dodge at 2d, Drive (car) at 1d, Stealth 2d. Empathy and Perception can go to 3d, I think. I'll take Knowledge (Religion) at 4d, and I'll take Intimidation at 2d (highly devout people are scary, especially when they have spiders coming out of their ears). That's 16 Skill points, or 32 points spent, which puts me 97 in the hole in total (doin' fine! I think).

Next step is Archetype, and I have to check this chapter out to see if I want one. It doesn't look like there's a Mutant Archetype (which kinda surprises me), so let's build one.

I start out with a Source; first one's free, but I can take multiple Sources. I think "Mutant" is fine.

Hmm. Now this is interesting. Next thing is Permissions, which limit the kinds of powers I can buy. If I wanted to create a highly skilled sort of character, f'rex, I could take a Permission that just allows me to take Hyperstats or Hyperskills or both. If I want unfettered access to powers, I can take the Super Permission, but that's expensive. I don't know that I need that much wiggle room, honestly. I could take Power Theme, which allows me to buy whatever I want if it's in-theme (the theme for Dominion because animal command and control; the religious stuff is purely psychological). I think I'll do that, that's only 5 points.

Oh, wait, actually "Mutant" is an Archetype, and it's pretty much what I did, except it lists Genetic as the Source (which, like, fine, it said "genetic tampering" or something so I figured that was more an altered human/Spider-Man kind of thing). So that's easy; I don't get any Intrinsics and that's all I need to do for Archetype.

Powers, then. Hoo-doggies. The book lists "gourmet" powers (how to build your own) or "cafeteria" powers (pick 'em from a list), so I'm gonna see if the power(s) I want are listed first before I go trying to suss out how to build one. OK, nope, not really. Although, really, what I think I need to do is figure out what I want the creepy-crawlies to be able to do for Dominion in play, and structure the power(s) accordingly. This may take a minute.

Good grief. I like this system (it reminds me a little of Tri-Stat's Silver Age Sentinels in just how versatile it is, but wow, it's involved. I mean, sure, you can pick from the cafeteria, but as is typical with me, I gotta do it the hard way.

Well, let's jump in both feet. My power is "Animal Control." I need to choose its Qualities; Attack, Defend, or Useful. I don't think Defend makes a lot of sense, here, so I can Attack and Useful with this power.

I need to define, though, what I can do with the Useful bit. I'm gonna say that I can summon up whatever animals are in the area and I can send them to do my bidding, which allows me to short out machinery, freak people out, and I can see through their eyes (ooooh). I think, though, that although Dominion can control any kind of animal, he's got a mental block that prevents him from controlling anything but vermin (bugs, rats, bats, maybe snakes). It's a mental block because "vermin" is just how he thinks of these animals; rats are a lot more intelligent and complex than bugs, but to him they're all lower creatures.

OK, so, Power Qualities are 2 points per die. That means I need to buy dice for the Attack and the Usefuls, so I'd better define how many. Shorting out machinery is one, seeing through their eyes is another, but freaking people out I could take as a Hyperskill off Intimidation, I think. Unless there's a way to inflict mental damage or something. Ooh, there is, I can take Traumatizing. OK, that'll be a little easier, then. And actually I can take On Sight as a way to affect things with my bugs without actually seeing them, so that's nice.

Do I wish to make this really complex and take Variable Power so I can basically change up my effect whenever I use the power? Ooh, actually it's not all that complex, because I have a model I can work from - Cosmic Power. Except I don't need to be even that persnickety with it, because I don't need Attack or Defend there, it's just Useful with some wiggle room.

Good lord, are there example characters here? Oh, there are, thank goodness. OK, so now at least I have a little perspective.

So, I definitely want to make this a single power with all the effects I need. It has an Attack form, and then I think the Useful can have Variable so I can just have the bugs do what I need them to do. Let's do the Attack first.

Attack Quality is 2 per die. I'll add 1 for a Quality Level so it does an extra point of damage (3 per die). I get the Range Capacity for free, so that's fine. I kinda want Area to reflect that a horde of bugs or rats can swarm in and bite everyone. That's an extra 1 per area die, or 2 if I want hard dice. I think I'll skip that for right now, but it'll be easy enough to add in later. I'll add in Daze, though (it reduces my target's dice pool by my width for the next round, which I think makes sense). I'm up to 4 points per die. Oh, shit, I want Engulf (letting me hit all hit locations at once), which puts me to 6 points per die. Oh, wait, I like radius better than area, so I'll add that in and also Traumatizing, for a total of 9 points per die. Oy.

Ah, but Flaws. There are a bunch I like. I want Delayed Effect (takes a minute for the bugs to arrive), which takes me down to 7 per die. Horrifying makes perfect sense (6 per die), as does Obvious (5 per die). Reduced Capacities is good (which lowers my Range), so that's 4 per die. That's good.

And now, Useful. Rather, the Variable portion, since strictly speaking I can use it for any kind of Quality, unless I take If/Then to restrict myself. Oof. OK, so we start with 2 per die. I want Variable, obviously, so that's 6 per die right off the bat. I'll take On Sight to account for the "can see through the animals' eyes" bit, so that's 7 per die. I don't think I want any other Extras, but I do want Delayed Effect, Horrifying, and Obvious, which drops me to 3 per die for this part of the power.

Altogether, that's 7 points per die for my Vermin Control power. I've spent 97 points, so I have 153 remaining. Say I want 7d in this power plus one Wiggle die. 7d by itself is 49, and a single wiggle die is 28. That puts me down to 76 points. Doin' fine.

Well, shit, I have the points. I may as well buy up some Hyper-Intimidation. Hyperskills are just one per die, so I'll throw, what, 5d in there? That's 5 more points, still got 71, ffs.

Let's do Hyper-Stat in Command. I can add 5d in that for 20 points. Ooh, I kinda want to add Hard Dice to my Command stat, so that I can represent my mutant power of command, but have it be more or less not something he can control. Let's see. Hard Dice cost double, so if I want to take two Hard Dice in my Hyper-Command, it'd be 16 points right there. Add in 3d normally (so I can use my Hard Dice, but I don't necessarily have to), and that's 12 points, or 28 points altogether. Still got 43 points. Good lord.

Well, any other power-like things I should have for Dominion? I could take Hyper-Sense to represent his ability to see through animals' eyes, how about. That's 4 per die, and it feels like Wiggle Dice would be good here. So if I take, say, 4d (16 points) and 2wd (32), that's 48 points - crap, that 5 higher than I have. I'll drop my normal Sense to 2d, which gives me back 5, and that puts me even!

Oh, a couple of things I forgot. I have to do Base Will and Willpower. Base Will is Charm + Command, but does Hyper-Command count? Without the Hyper it's 3, with it'd be 9, depending on what Hard Dice do. Looking at the example characters, it does seem to count, so let's assume I have 9 Base Will. Willpower starts equal to that.

Now I do Motivations. I get 2, a Passion and a Loyalty, and they tend to conflict. I have to split points between them equal to my Base Will. Groovy. I'll say that Dominion is Loyal to God (7 points), and Passionate about Family (2 points). His Passion has been shaken pretty hard by his biological family disowning him, so the "family" in question is whoever lives at the X-mansion or whatever.

Dominion's real name is Noah Beacham. He's 19, I think - just out of high school, and his power manifested at a graduation party. Noah went to a public high school, but of course he was heavily involved in his parents' cult (like they were members, they didn't run it). He snuck away and went to a graduation party and his parents came and got him and started screaming about sin. Noah lost it and spiders, bugs, and all the other awful animals in the area swarmed in. They didn't really hurt anyone (too much), but it was terrifying for everyone, Noah included. Surrounding by a cloud of flies and with spiders crawling on his hands, he recited Genesis 1:26 (also manifesting that whole Hyper-Command thing) and everyone fucking fled.

Noah retrieved the robe that he wore for services; it used to be white, but it's pretty dingy now. He pulls up the hood when he needs to keep his face hidden, but he's not really concerned with concealing his identity, just his whereabouts. He's very confused as to how what he can do - and what other mutants can do - fits in with God's law, but it must, right?

Character Creation: A Dirty World

I wrote 3000 words of Changeling today, I can take a little time to make a character.

The Game: A Dirty World
The Publisher: Originally Cubicle 7, but now it seems to be available directly from the author
Degree of Familiarity: None with the game as such, but I'm very familiar with the subject matter and I ran Better Angels, which uses essentially the same system.
Books Required: Just the one.

 
A Dirty World is a film noir RPG, full of gumshoes and PIs and snitches and femmes fatales and so on. I'm a big fan of noir. I'm not as big a fan of this iteration of the One Roll Engine; again, it's basically the same as Better Angels, in that your traits are personality and moralistic measures rather than the game being a physics emulator. I think, though, that it seems more intuitive here. In any case, the game is short and really easy to follow, so that's nice.

So! Character creation is pretty simple. You get 40 points to build the character; Identities, which are the more important, controlling traits cost 3, while Qualities, which are more specific, cost one. You get a Profession, and if you want to spend points on a Specialties, you can (but they're not really necessary and there's not even a slot for them on the character sheet).

Since I don't really have a concept in mind, I think I'll jump ahead to Profession to get me started. Professions don't have much in the way of mechanical effect, except that they allow a link between two Qualities. Normally, when you take "damage" you slide dots between two linked traits; if you get hurt in a fight, f'rex, you might slide a point of Courage into Wrath. If someone seduces you, you might have to slide Purity to Corruption. At the end of a scene, you can slide a trait how you wish. Profession links two traits that aren't on the same continuum; an Academic, for instance, can slide between Generosity and Determination.

Looking over the profession, I note that the Ingenue mentions that although cinematic examples are typically female, nothing says that these characters can't be men. And having been watching season two of Arrow (which has some noir elements, if you squint), I'm interested in playing a man who's pure of heart, but really in over his head and hasn't figured it out yet.

So: Clarence William Feldman III is the son of (duh) Clarence William Feldman II, the mayor of the city. Daddy Clarence got elected in lightning-in-a-bottle circumstances; he was a war hero with an impeccable record, he returned from war and joined the police force, and he was promoted up the ranks until, as a captain, he oversaw a major bust of organized crime that saw the former mayor indicted and jailed. Feldman ran for office off that momentum, and became the first honest politician in the city's history. His son, whom he'd dutifully shielded from the ugly parts of his job, enjoyed the fruits of all that work, and wound up well-educated, handsome, and the toast of the town.

But Clarence is about to get into trouble...and if I were going to play him, that'd be the GM's job to hook me, but my immediate preference would be a woman giving Clarence a sob story and leading him into a web of lies and murder. I think it would also be a lot of fun for him to discover that dear ol' Dad broke a few eggs making omelets for the whole city.

Anyway! Good enough for me to start on points. Ingenue, incidentally, lets me slide Purity to Honesty, which is pretty much perfect.

So, to start off, I get a free point in Vigor. I apparently need at least one point in all of the Identities, but not necessarily the Qualities. Putting 1 in every Identity (except Vigor, which has one) would cost me 15, leaving me 25 points (which makes me wonder why you just don't start with one in each Identity and 25 points, rather than 40 overall, but whatevs).

Well, I know I want to bump up Patience, Grace, and Understanding to 2. That eats 9 points, so I'm at 16. I'll put two into Generosity (money and means, man), two into Purity, and three into Honesty. That's 9 remaining. I guess I should put one into Deceit (he's not a total naif), and I'll put one more into Vigor (5 left), two into Courage, two into Endurance, and the last one into Demonstration.

Oh, I forgot, I get a secret. It's minor by default (embarrassing, but not life-altering), but if I make it more serious I get another point to throw around. Hmm. You know, I'm tempted to make him gay. I mean, if we're playing this game period (in the 40s or 50s), that'd be enough to screw with Dad's career. Actually, hell, let's make him bi, because that way the "lured into trouble by a woman with a story" still works as intended. I'll put that extra point into Observation.

And that's me done, actually (told you this was easy).

Character Creation: Better Angels

I figure I'm going to run this game, I oughta make a character. Michelle is helping out (by which I mean, making a character as well).

The Game: Better Angels
The Publisher: Arc Dream
Degree of Familiarity: Not much. I backed the Kickstarter, played it once at GenCon, and my players made characters for a monthly game (but we haven't actually played yet). I have some experience with the one-roll engine, which it uses.
Books Required: Just the one.

 
Better Angels is a game in which you play a supervillain. The basic idea is that some people are possessed by demons, and in order to make the demon happy but not too happy, you indulge in eeeevil. That's different from actual evil. Eeevil is over-the-top, weird, and ultimately nonsensical, if you think about it. Evil is, well, evil. Efficient, cold, calculating.

Character creation is pretty quick, but it works best with a group, because the player to your left (of course) adds some things to your demon. So!

Step One has us spending 20 points on the human side of things. Now, the stats in this game are Strategies and Tactics, which are further split into good and evil (or heavenly and infernal, if you like). For instance, the sinister Tactics are Greed, Espionage, Cruelty, Cowardice, Corruption, and Deceit. You'd roll Cowardice when you're trying to get away or change a situation. The flipside of that is Endurance, which you'd roll when you're trying to survive, rather than escape, something. That's paired with a Strategy, which are also divided thus, so you'd roll Open Endurance to soak up an attack, but Sly Cowardice to dodge one.

Strategies cost 2, Tactics cost one, and Specialties (specialized areas of knowledge; they don't add to rolls, but you can't make a roll to do brain surgery unless you have the Brain Surgeon Specialty) cost 2. I need to think about concept some.

Well, I like dogs. I think my guy used to run a dog shelter. He didn't take cats (deathly allergic), but he had all kinds of mutts that people dropped off or that wandered in off the streets. And then a demon came along, possessing a dog, and traded up to human.

That in mind, and knowing that putting points into the left-hand traits may come back to bite me, I'll dump all 20 points into my right-hand traits. I take two in Generosity, Patient, Knowledge, Open (actually I buy one, but I get one free), Insightful, Honesty, three in Endurance, and one in Nurture.

I don't bother with any Specialties; you don't really need them, and I'm not convinced that this guy would have them (maybe Dog Wrangler, but I don't see that as being so hyper-specialized that it would need a Specialty).

Of note: This game is not a physics emulator. The stats, and the rolls, are very much narrative; you roll what you roll based on what you're trying to accomplish and how, and there is no "average" stat. This would bug the hell out of a lot of players, and it does take some readjusting even for me.

Anyway, Step Two, I get to pick a primary Strategy, an Aspect, and a Power for my demon.

Well, for my primary Strategy, I feel like my demon is pretty animalistic, predatory, and vicious. I'll pick Cunning. I'll take Animal Form as my power (which means at some point I'll need a point of Espionage or two); my guy can turn into a black, slavering, Hellhound. And for my demonic Aspect, I'll pick Flame-Wreathed.

Now, Step Three, we switch character sheets. I now get to spend some points on Michelle's psychology grad student, Cherie. She studies psychoanalysis and dreams, and I know Michelle took Terror and Ghost-Form for her.

That in mind, I'll buy up her Devious to 2 (I can't buy it any higher because her Insightful is already 3, and there can only be 5 points between them), and Cruelty to 3. She consolidated her points pretty well, so I'll fill in the gaps: 1 in Greed, Cunning, Corruption, Deceit, and because I'm nice, one each in Endurance and Courage. And then 2 into Espionage and Cowardice. And I fill in the extra point she gets in Open, because I don't think she remembered to take it.

And now I just wait for her to finish with my guy so we can go on to the next step!

Right, here we go. Step Four, we pick a Power and an Aspect for the other player's demon. Well, her Cruelty and Espionage are (now) high enough to be worthwhile. I don't think she's thinking of this character as a powerhouse, so I'll give her Clairvoyance as the Power (which keys off of Espionage) and Horned (which doesn't necessarily mean horns, it just means some kind of natural attacky kind of thing, which she can figure out).

And now I just wait for her to pick my stuff. Sneaking a peak at my sheet, I see she upped my Cruelty, maxed out my Espionage at 3, bought my Cunning up to 2. Also Cowardice and Devious, and 1 point in Sly. And then she gives me Arrogance (which is a defensive power) and Darkness-Shrouded (I can call up darkness as well as fire all around me, which is pretty badass).

Now we just need names. Well, my mortal name is Henry Hanson. As a villain, let's just call him "Hellhound." It's not terribly imaginative, but Henry's not a flashy guy (I think that his best friend may have suggested "Baskerville" at first). Michelle informs me that my demon's name is Sirius. Makes sense.

And that's us done, then!

Character Creation: Monsters & Other Childish Things

Only two days with the kids there, of course, and no therapy because first up is divvying up caseload, setting up the space, etc. But, in happy news, I did get my first paycheck as a therapist rather than an intern, so that was pretty cool.

We watched Nightmare Before Christmas last night. I'd forgotten how truly creepy bits of that movie are, but Kai didn't seem to mind. Every time I watch that movie, I'm struck by how much more interesting it could have been with a little more attention to script and a little less attention to hokey song lyrics. And Oogie Boogie was just wasted. And wtf is up with his gambling thing? Is that like a "deal with the Devil" kind of idea? Conclusion: Tim Burton needs more zoloft or less, I can't decide.

(I'm aware that he didn't direct it, but it was definitely his work.)

Anyway, speaking of surreal child-related experiences:

The Game: Monsters and Other Childish Things
The publisher: Arc Dream
Degree of familiarity: I've read it. Uses the same One-Roll Engine as Godlike, but I've never played it. I do, however, have an ongoing interest in RPGs that have the players taking the roles of kids, obviously.
Books required: Just the core, which I purchased at GenCon.

Anyway, here's something weird about this game: It doesn't make a lot of the assumptions clear up front. Like, evidently these monsters are real, can eat people, can wipe the floor with SWAT teams, but there's not really a lot of word count devoted to what that's done to the world. But the game is just fun to read (it took me all of one night, while Nobilis took months and Fading Suns a week, and that was with skipping large sections), and I can see it being a lot of fun to play.

Basically, you're a kid who has befriended a horrible monster from outside time and space. This monster feeds on relationships, so it's in your best interests to keep your mom (or whoever) happy with you. It's also in your best interests to keep an eye on your monster, lest he go tromping off eating people.

So, with that in mind, I start with creating my kid. If you're keeping track, this is the third child character I've created.

My character's name is Mikey Robard. Mikey lives with his dad; his mom died a few years ago. Mikey says he doesn't remember much about her, but that's not really true. He remembers more than he'd like, he just doesn't have the words to talk about his memories or the way they make him feel. Mikey's close to his dad, and even though Dad works long hours, they always watch an episode of Animaniacs when Dad gets home. Mikey can't sleep unless they do.

Since I don't know when this game is "set," we'll say Mikey is 10 years old and not bother with a birthdate. He goes to John F. Kennedy Elementary, since there's a school named after JFK pretty much everywhere. His homeroom teacher is Mr. Ackman, and he's this big, balding friendly guy that reminds Mikey a little of his Grandad.

Mikey is a little slimmer than he was last spring. Folks think that's because he's hit a growth spurt, but actually it's because he spent the summer running after his monster making sure nothing bad happened. He keeps his hair buzzed (Dad finds it's easier to do that than spend money at the barber's, and Mikey likes the way it feels anyway). He likes pants with lots of pockets and Local Sports Team gear. Mikey's Favorite Thing is sports. He's not particular about the sport, and he's not a stats encyclopedia. He likes to play sports. He wants to play on a Little League team this spring; he's even got his bat and glove already.

A Good Thing he did: Mikey stayed after school last year to help his teacher (Mrs. Drepps, who retired) carry all her classroom stuff to her car. It took 10 trips.

A Bad Thing he did: Mikey threw out his parents' wedding picture over the summer. He's not sure why he did that. He was mad about something.

Stats. We've got five Stats: Feet, Guts, Hands, Brains and Face. They start at 1d, and I have 10 to divvy up. I know I want a good Feet score, as sporty as Mikey is, so I'll put 3d in there. Mikey's not the bravest of kids, but he's not a chicken, either, so I'll put 2d into Guts. Hands should be good, too, so I'll put 3d there, and that leaves 1d each for Brains and Face.

Skills. I get 15 points for Skills, and they start at 0. I know I want P.E.; again, sporty. I'll put 4d there. Wind had better get some dice (3). Courage needs a die or two; let's call it two. I'll put a die in Shop, just for the fun of it. That leaves five dice. I don't see Mikey being great with Out-Think, but maybe Notice. I'll put two dice there. The other three dice I'll put in Charm. Mikey's a nice kid, even if he's a little loud sometimes.

Relationships. I get six dice to sink into relationships. I can add these to various rolls if I can make the case that the relationship is a motivator. Obviously, the big one is Dad, and that gets 4 of my dice. For the other two, I put one into "Mr. Ackman" and one into "Mom." Just because she's dead doesn't mean Mikey doesn't love her.

And that's Mikey! Now for his bestest buddy!

Well, first off, I have to sketch the monster. Now, if you know me, you know that my artistic ability is about on pay with my daughter's, so this is perfect! I draw my monster and assign his hit locations. He's a big, hairy, four-armed ape-pig-thing. His name is Grunty. Grunty was sitting in the dumpster near Mikey's apartment one night when Mikey got home from the park, rooting around for scraps. They got to talking, and because fast friends. Mikey loves watching Grunty do one thing with his upper hands and something else with his lower hands, like playing video games and eating a sandwich (or whatever else is handy).

I put the upper arms as one hit location and the lower arms as another. I know on the picture it looks like right and left, but I changed my mind after I drew it. Bear with me.

Right, let's do the qualities and stuff.

Hit Location: 1-3. Name: Big, hairy, upper arms. Qualities: Attack, Defend, Useful (climb walls). Dice: 9. Extras: Spray, Awesome x2.

Hit Location: 4-6. Name: Small(er), hairy, lower arms. Qualities: Attack, Defend, Useful (long, nimble fingers - can hold or entangle). Dice: 7 Extras: Spray, Awesome x2, Wicked Fast 3.

Hit Location: 7-8. Name: Short, strong, hair legs. Qualities: Defend. Dice: 8 Extras: Wicked Fast 2.

Hit Location: 9. Name: Pig-like face with sharp pointy teeth. Qualities: Attacks, Useful (eat anything). Dice: 4.

Hit Location: 10. Name: Big, flabby body. Qualities: Defends. Dice: 3. Extras: Tough 2.

Now, for a little more about Grunty. Grunty hides by clinging to walls, ceilings, trees or whatever else is just above the visual line of adults. His Favorite Thing is "eating while doing something else," or "snacking," you might say. He loves to eat, but he only uses his top arms for that. His bottom arms get bored, and he can't eat with both sets at once, so he likes to play video games, mess with clay, or do a Rubik's cube while eating. So Mikey not only has to provide him with some edible (not hard, since he can pretty much eat anything) but something to do while he eats. And he hates crosswords.

And that's about it, actually. Ready for the ape-fights! 

 

Character Creation: Godlike

Ready? Ready! Go!

The Game: Godlike
The publisher: Arc Dream Publishing (though the publication history is long and varied)
Degree of familiarity: None, really. I've read the game system, some of the backstory. Never played or run it.
Books Required: Just the Godlike book, which I have.

 
OK, Godlike is billed as "Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946." It purports that if superpowered individuals (called "Talents") had shown up, we'd have assimilated them into the culture, adapted, and things would move on pretty much as they did in real life. I'll buy that.

We start out making a normal character, and then adding on superpowers. Suits me. Looking at p. 30 of the book, the first thing I'm to do (skipping "Talk to the GM," because, well) is "Create a Background." More specifically:

Background:

This is meant to be summed up in a quick sentence. I have some ideas, so I think my development sentence is: "Middle son who doesn't think he's destined to survive the war, but desperately wants to be wrong."

Nationality:

I really like Stephen's accent, so I think my character will be from Belfast, Ireland. His name, without getting too cliche, is Sean William Niall.

Age

I don't want to play a kid, but I don't want to play a character with combat experience, either. I figure my character is 20 - in fact, he turned 20 the day before he's getting shipped off to war. He and his mates had a big party (a lot of his mates are going with him, in fact), and the whole thing felt as much like a wake as a birthday bash. If the game's set in 1936, my character was born in 1916.

Family

His parents are both still alive, but his father was the only one of six brothers to come back from the Great War. He's got four brothers, himself, the youngest of which is 15. He's also got a slew of aunts and some uncles by marriage, but most of the men in his family died in the Great War or in the flu pandemic that followed it. He's not married; there's a girl he was seeing, but once he found out he was going to war, he broke it off with her. He remembers - vaguely - seeing one of his aunts learning that her husband was dead, and he doesn't want anyone going through that on his behalf.

Education:

I want my character to have a technical job, but not something dealing with machines. I think that he's a carpenter - very deft with his hands, helps his father with the family business. He's therefore had the minimum education he needs. His father insisted he go through school, but then took over his training.

Friends:

Sean has lots of friends in Belfast. His father recruits his buddies for big jobs, and Sean was popular in school. I'm not bothering with a list of names, though, because Sean alienated a lot of them before getting shipped out. He requested to be put into a unit going as far away from his home as possible, because he doesn't want to be near his buddies. The reason is, again, he's pretty sure he's not coming home. It's just a feeling he gets, lying awake at night, that this is it. Just like his uncles and his father, only one Niall boy is coming home from this one, and Sean doesn't reckon it'll be him.

So, long story short, no friends that he keeps in contact with, lots of people that he misses.

Dependents:

None. Not married, no kids, and his parents are still young and strong enough that they don't rely on him.

Motivations:

Sean wants to live through the war, he just doesn't think he will. He's involved because he feels he has to be - he's not the sort of fellow to shirk on his patriotic duty. But he wonders if his newly-discovered Talent will be enough to get him through. And, indeed, if it's his God-given destiny to die in defense of Erin, shouldn't he?

Stats

There are six stats in Godlike. I start with 1 point in each one, and then I have six points to divide up however I want. Reviewing what the heck they all mean again, I come up with this spread:

Body: 2
Brains: 2
Coordination: 3
Cool: 1
Command: 2
Sense: 2

Sean is dexterous, but pretty shaky under fire. Makes sense, dunnit? My Base Will is 3 (Cool + Command).

Skills:

I get 20 points to assign. I read over the list, and go to work.

Endurance 2
Brawl 1
Health 2
Run 2
Pistol 1
Rifle 1
Stealth 2
Electronics 1
Mechanics (Carpentry) 3 - yeah, this isn't exactly "machinery," but there's no carpentry or professional skill
Sight 1
Touch 1
Navigation (Land) 2
Grenade 1
English 1 (no cost)

Talents:

Awesome. Now, I haven't read this bit all that carefully, so you might notice a slight lag. Oh, wait. Right.

OK, the book talks about the "cafeteria" approach (I pick Talents from the book) vs. the "gourmet" approach (I make something up and then apply the stats). Since I don't have a GM, I'll do the former. I think Sean's Talent is going to be largely movement-based; I see him as a speedster. I want manual dexterity to be affected as well as running speed, though. But that's as far as I've thought, so let's go back to the book.

The base amount of Talent points is 25, so that's what we'll go with. Right off the bat, I know I want to buy Hyperstats in Coordination, maybe Body. I don't have a lot of points to work with, though, so I'm going to read on. I suspect that I could do super-speed either with Hyperskill or a Miracle...

OK, first up, I'm going to buy my Coordination up to 7 (I love the idea of my character being able to dodge bullets, provided he knows the attack is coming). That costs me 8 points, because each die is 2. I could buy hard or wiggle dice, but that's expensive, and I want to see what else is available. I have 17 points left.

Looking at cafeteria-style Miracles (I like that phrase!) the "Alert" Miracle catches my eye. I've kind of set Sean up as being able to get out of trouble, and sticking with that, I think his Talent (if not his natural inclinations) make him able to detect danger. Now, the base cost for this power is 4/8/16, but let's see about that...OK, reading the power listing, and then the Extras page, I want this power to be Always On. That adds 1/2/4 to my costs, for a total of 5/10/20. Ouch. I'll take two levels; 10 points.

Go First is also fun, and it's cheap. With my remaining seven points, I take 2 levels of it. That leaves me with 5 points.

Checking my Skill dice pools, I see that my inhuman Coordination has made me stealthy as all fuck, and a good shot with my pistol and rifle. I can sense danger coming (without trying) and I can climb like a monkey. I'd like one more power, something that makes my character...how shall I put this...not Spider-Man. I've got five points, and I could dump them into Hyperskills or take a hard die in Coordination, but eh. Five is enough for a Miracle, so let's think about my concept a little.

Sean is convinced he's going to die in the war, but really doesn't want to. I think I'd like a Teleport power, but something that he has almost no control over. Checking the power, I see that I'll need a lot more than one level to teleport myself...unless I take some Flaws. Which I will.

Teleport costs 5/10/20. I attached the "Self-Only" Flaw, which drops it to 3/6/12. Not bad. I'll also take Peace of Mind (only when in mortal danger), and Disorientation and I'll add the Reflexive Extra, meaning it's now 2/4/8. One more: Full Power Only (making my cost for the Teleport power 1/2/4). I just dump all five points into it. So here's what that means: When Sean is in danger, he can teleport himself away. If the roll succeeds, he teleports himself (and only himself - nekkid) 100 miles away. Sean can't Teleport himself any closer than that (Full Power Only) and he can't use the power except when in mortal peril. When he does Teleport, he winds up 20 feet off the ground (modified by the Teleport roll).

OK, looks good. I think that Sean would probably die in combat, but with a good GM, he'd die in a way that was nifty and ironic and maybe even heroic.

Tomorrow: Changeling: The Lost!