Character Creation: Under Hollow Hills

Insert creepy calliope music here.

The Game: Under Hollow Hills
The Publisher: Night Sky Games or lumpley games or Lumpley & Co. or all of the above
Degree of Familiarity: Never played it, but it's PbtA 
Books Required: Just the one

It's a pretty easy one to explain, actually. You're a troupe of fairies (and perhaps humans) in a traveling circus going through Fairie and the Mortal World. Go to a new place, sniff the wind, set up your show. The vibe is very fairytale-esque, in the old "blood, sex, and death" meaning of the word. It looks really cool and reminds me of some of the more interesting parts of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. 

As is often the case with PbtA games, we must first choose a playbook. Most of them are for faerie creatures, and while my inclination is to pick the Lantern Jack, I think I shall go a different direction and choose the Chieftain Mouse. The Chieftain Mouse is a kind of small warrior; I suppose Sir Didymus might fit into this archetype, though of course Labyrinth isn't quite the right tone. 

I'm meant to start with a mousey name, but a name suitable for a mouse of distinction. I think we'll name my mouse Mushka the Proud (just rewatched Coraline not long ago). 

Now we pick aspects of summer and winter; we start full summer, but things can happen in play to make us step toward winter. 

For summer, Mushka gets: Apples, sober little face, rufus red, fancy clothing, and charming. For winter, these become wind in tall grass, bright eyes, smoke grey, worked mail, mannish. I think Mushka's pronouns are he/him regardless, though.

And now we assign numbers to plays. Plays are basically what most PbtA games would call "moves," but unlike most other such games, we don't have stats that they attach to. Instead, each play gets a modifier, but as we step toward winter (or summer), these numbers can shift, which I think is pretty cool. 

So I get +2 (x3), +1 (x5), 0 (x2) and -1 (x2) to put into the obvious plays (that everyone can do) and the four Chieftain Mouse plays. Let's start at the bottom: What is Mushka not so good at?

I think open up to them and sniff the wind are his weak point. Mushka is a mouse of action, and his long service in the Mouse Army (not the Mouse Guard has made him more a solider than a talker).

For the 0s, I'll put them into sit counsel with them (I'm loathe to put low scores into my Chieftain Mouse moves, but it seems to make sense) and size them up. 

Jumping to the other end, we'll put our +2s into summon the Mousey Clans, waylay them, and confront them. That means everything else gets a +1. Mushka is pretty good at the aggressive, even violent stuff, but I think as he moves toward winter he falls into a more decadent, social, and fun-loving aspect. 

And that's it, folks, because everything else would require a group. Mushka is a little red mouse (I debated whether he was actually mouse-sized, but I think it works better if he is). He's got a very smart waistcoat and pantaloons, a mouse-sized sword that stings disproportionately to its size, and a cart drawn by a very small pony (that he refers to as a warhorse). 

Epyllion: Beneath the Springs

Back in Dragonia, for the final time (I mean, maybe not ever, but for now). Here's last time.

Our heroes venture into the caverns and tunnels beneath the Searscale Springs, searching for some idea as to why the temperature of the Springs is changing. They pick their way through the tunnels and find a four-way split. Zeblek has a lantern around dris neck, and Stars consults dris Geographical Primer and finds a decent map of the tunnels! 

The map indicates that one tunnel dips way below the Springs, and then the map kind of ends, so no one apparently got that deep. The next tunnel goes under the Springs proper, and that seems like the best option. Toverinn consults with dris spirit guide, Sprinkles, and asks how they can make the spirits of this place happy. Sprinkles tells them that the spirits would love the Springs to regain their heat, and the best way to do that would be to go through these tunnels. 

They head down the tunnels, Zeblek first, but Zeblek misses dris footing and falls into a rushing underground river! 

The other dragons suddenly realize they're without light, and hear Zeblek getting washed away ("wheee!"). Toverinn follows, swooshing through the tunnels, and OB tries to find a light in dris saddlebag of potential but then remembers dre used it earlier and left it topside. Dre jump into the water to follow, trying to check dris descent. Stars, ever the cautious one, digs dris claws into the side and, remembering the twists and turns of the tunnels, slowly climbs along the chute. 

Zeblek shoots out of a tunnel into a cavern and lands on a stone surface, getting dris bearings. Toverinn emerges a moment later and Zeblek catches them. OB shoots out next, and Zeblek and Toverinn stretch across the path of the waterslide to catch them. OB, however, fails to act despite danger and all three dragons wind up getting pulled in a big dragony clump into another tunnel!

The tunnel empties out into a shaft, and they all plummet down. They land in water at the bottom, and realize that they can see again - something in the water is luminescent. Zeblek takes a big breath and dives down to try and find what's here, and at the bottom dre finds long, feather-like protrusions coming. Dre get close, and suddenly the feathery bits fold against the stalks and reaches out and drag dris leg!

But fortunately, that's not Zeblek, that was dris mirror image. Dre knows that isn't going to last, though, and has to decide between diving deeper or resurfacing. Zeblek being Zeblek, dre dives, and emerges into another tunnel that leads up, back into the tunnels...

...the tunnels empty out into a large cavern with multiple exits that water flows through. Zeblek notices that one of them is blocked by an oblong object. Dre gets closer and realizes that it's an egg, and that the water gets almost unbearably hot the closer dre gets. Zeblek doesn't know what it is, and figures dre needs some help from Stars. Dre calls upon the void moon and opens a portal.

Meanwhile, Stars has slowly picked dris way to the shaft and calls down to the them. After confirming that everyone is OK, a portal opens and Zeblek's head emerges. Dre calls Stars through, and shows them the egg. Meanwhile, OB and Toverinn climb and flap their way up the shaft, and find the portal as well (Zeblek helpfully kept it open). Stars consults dris books, and figures the egg to be...something unknown. 

Dre has seen huge eggs before (the dison of Woodsedge, for instance), but the heat this thing gives off makes dre think it might be some kind of elemental. In any case, it's wedged up against a tunnel, and it's clearly been dislodged from someplace. 

At this point they hear voices, and follow them to a chamber where they find three other drakes! OB recognizes one of them - Lokken, the drake that was in Mxlar'nishka's shack. The other two look very similar - long, serpentine bodies, jet black underbellies, but one has blue scales and the other golden brown. Stars realizes that these dragons might be triplets - all hatched from the same egg!

The two clutches talk a bit, and one of the triplets (Hexxen, the brown one) admits to picking up the egg from its resting place using magic - and then losing control and dropping it into the water. They've been trying to find it and return it ever since. OB dresses them down a bit, but they have found the egg now, so dre employs dris dragon trade to make a sling to drag the egg safely. The triplets show the clutch where they found the egg - there's a nest!

The nest looks like it's made of petrified wood, and there's no evidence of any other creatures around. It looks like this egg was here a long time. OB and the other dragons manage to get the egg back in, and Toverinn studies it, figuring that it might be close to hatching! They also realize, though, that they're right below the Springs, and that this egg must be what's been heating them all this time. If the egg hatches, that might effectively destroy the Springs. Do they want to do that?

They're talking this over when Mxlar'nishka arrives, surveys the area, and shoos the drakes out. OB lingers, though, checking what dre is doing, and sees them use moon magic on the area. OB demands to know what they're doing, and Mxlar'nishka says that dre is just dilating time, making sure the egg stays alive but doesn't hatch.

OB stands up to the older dragon, saying that keeping a living thing imprisoned isn't acceptable. Mxlar'nishka says that if OB can figure out a way to heat the Springs, dre is welcome to do it (dre probably doesn't really mean that, but OB takes it to heart). Stars and Toverinn both agree - the egg is a living thing and needs to be free. 

Over the next few weeks, the clutch works on developing a heating system and shoring up the tunnels. Stars calls on the liberty moon to create perpetual fire to heat the springs, and they all look at the egg, wondering what it is. Stars mentions to Toverinn that dre could probably commune with it spiritually, and dre does so...

Dre sees themself hatch, and burst into flame, flying up through the rock and into the sky. Dre circles Dragonia, burning gloriously, for ten minutes or a thousand years, and then crashes back to earth in a plume of ash that clears to reveal an egg. 

Toverinn reveals all this, a little awed, and the dragons help to hatch the egg. They watch as a little bear protrudes, followed by a scaly head, and then a small, winged creature. It hops around a bit and shakes off its shell, and then poofs into flame and bursts up through the bottom of a pool, vaporizing the water as it goes! It flies off into the skies, and the dragons watch it leaving a fiery trail.

OB sticks around for a while, making a maintenance manual for the new heating system. Stars returns to the capital library to record all of this. Toverinn follows the fire-creature across the continent. And Zeblek starts working on a play. Maybe something about a clutch of drakes that have to help with a controlled burn?

Character Creation: The Watch

I should say up front that I'm doing this game now because the...sequel? Second edition? I dunno is Kickstarting and, as of today, not quite funded. I should also say that I'm quite sure the author would as soon spit on me as look at me, and fair enough, but I'm still impressed with the game and Mars Watch looks pretty cool. 

The Game: The Watch
The Publisher: Peach Pants Press
Degree of Familiarity: None, other than the fact that it's PbtA 
Books Required: Just the one

I don't feel like going down the rabbit hole to figure out where in the early incarnations of PbtA this game came out. I'm actually only interested in that at all because it's one of the "create the threat facing the group" - there are a lot of those, but this may have been one of the earlier ones? Anyway, the basic conceit here is that the Shadow (whatever that is in your game) has infected the land and driven the men - just the men - to violence and despoilation of the world. The Clans (which are enumerated, but not given a lot of detail) broke apart, the civilization fell back, and you're playing a member of the Watch. That is, a woman or enbie task with driving back the Shadow and protecting the people remaining. 

Why the gender strictures? Because the game's about toxic masculinity, which is something I know a little bit about. Without wanting to get too personal, I actually had a very good model of masculinity, because my dad was a gentle, patient man, not prone to outbursts or macho chest-thumping (my mother was another matter, make of that what you will). I, on the other hand, while never having been particularly prone to demonstrative macho-ness, have absolutely been prone to anger and even violent outbursts, and it's something that took me a long time to get over. (And that's all the self-analysis you're getting today.)

 

Anyway, the idea is: 

You can read in the Mars Watch Kickstarter how the author's notions of all this have evolved since coming out as trans, but I'm just rolling with what I have. 

As with a lot of PbtA games, we're starting with a playbook. Here they're all animals (rather, they're named for animals). The game also does something I really like, which is give a list of the playbooks with a one-sentence blurb and a "this playbook is good for players who X". 

Now, if I were actually playing this game, I suspect I would lean toward Bear or Wolf, because I like playing support characters (Wolf also has some interesting relationships with violence that, at the right table, would be fun to explore). For our purposes today, however, I think I want to pick the Fox.

So, starting with name, gender presentation, and demeanor. Gender presentation is, of course, important in this game. I don't mind playing cis or trans women occasionally, though I'm generally more comfortable playing men (which isn't an option here, obviously) or, failing that, non-binary folks. The Fox playbook is very much about moving between worlds (living and dead, or physical and spirit, mostly), so I think I want to lean into that and have my character's presentation be "fluid." I'm gonna name them Teka (it's a choice off the list, and the lists of names are actually constructed to give some thought to the phonology and consistency of the language at work here, which I appreciate). 

Completing Teka's look, I think we'll say they have a, arresting face, ragged clothing, and a distracted demeanor. I like the notion of being half "here", but that means I'm also half "elsewhere." 

Gear! I get a symbol of my clan, which should probably wait until I pick that. I get a token, mark, or scar that shows the price I paid to talk to spirits. I think the fingers on Teka's left hand are permanently crooked, like half-curled into a fist. When they learned to commune with spirits, the left side of their body was possessed, and they managed to get it out, mostly. 

I get a spear, sword, bow, shield, and armor. I get to pick two options off the list to make my gear unique. Let's see here. I'm gonna say my shield is covered in spikes (I just kind of like that imagery), and that my bow is famous for killing the Three Kings. The Three Kings were a pride (pack?) of hyena/lion creatures that were picking off Watch members. The got the nicknamed because the horns on their heads looked like crowns, from a distance. Teka killed them with arrows over the course of three nights, took their horns, and use them to adorn their shield. 

Rank...I can be a recruit, initiate, warden, or corporal. If I were playing this, we could only have one corporal, but of course that doesn't matter here. I feel like Teka is more experienced than a recruit or initiate, so let's make them a Warden.

Normally, here I'd do Ties that Bind (establishing history with the other PCs and giving and getting Camaraderie), but y'know, just me, so moving on!

Clan! I get to pick one, but they aren't given much detail, really just a profession. Clan Dothas are mystics, which would make sense, but I think I want Clan Sharn (hunter/gatherers). Going back to the symbol of my clan, I think it should be an empty basket. The thinking here is that Clan Sharn knows that people are always consuming, and if you're going to keep your people fed, you must treat that basket as if it's always empty.

Stats! I get Cunning 0, Luck 2, Training -1, and Valor 0, and then I get to add 1 wherever I want. I think I want Training to not suck so bad, so I'll bump that to 0. 

Moves! I get two from the playbook. Let's see now. The obvious one is spirit walk, which lets me (as the name implies) walk in the spirit world and do a number of things, but I actually think Teka's experience with possession made them a little gunshy about actually going there. Instead, I'll take eyes in the sky (I can mark an animal and then see through its eyes) and spirit bond (I can open up, the basic social sort of move, with my Camaraderie with that person rather than using Valor, as long as I teach them about spirits).

And that's actually about it! I picture Teka as kind of on the smaller side, but oddly shredded in a "damn, that skinny guy can run/fight/lift" sort of way. Their armor is light, but the shield is heavy, especially with those horn-spikes on it. Teka has black hair and green eyes, and while they don't know it, their left hand flexes while they're sleeping. 

Cool, that'll do it!

Epyllion: The Searscale Springs

Last night, after a quite long hiatus during which we played a whole bunch of superhero games, we returned to the fantastical lands of Dragonia! First session of this game is here, the last one we played (almost exactly two years ago) is here, now you're all caught up, on we go!

We pick up with our clutch reuniting after some time apart. They separated shortly after the events of the last story. They didn't really mean to, they just kind of got busy with their own interests. OB took on an apprenticeship with Vizali, the Forge Master, and has learned to work with precious metals and wood. Zeblek has started performing, bringing the classic plays of Dragonia to the Capital stages. Stars has remained in the Capital, never going far from the Library, except to occasionally visit the wilds to verify details about some creature or other. Toverinn stayed with Stars a while, but then went back to Woodsedge to run with the turferant herds.

But then a dragon that they met during their travels, a Bearded Dragon named Rollatha, approaches them all. The Searscale Springs - a group of hot springs in the archipelago northeast of the continent of Dragonia - has begun to lose its heat, and no one is sure why. The Springs are a place that elder dragons go to cleanse their scales (it's far too hot for drakes, but Long-Tooth Dragons can just about manage). Rollatha remembers that this clutch has some skill in dealing with mystical places that are changing or losing their magic (which is pretty niche as these things go), and rounds them up. 

They all agree for their own reasons: Toverinn is in as soon as the location is mentioned. Zeblek is overjoyed to be back with the clutch. OB knows that dris mentor, Vizali, wants some samples of mineral deposits found around the Springs. Stars has heard of a local creature called the tardisnail that is somehow impervious to the heat. 

The clutch gets back together, travel to the coast, and build a boat. Stars raises concerns about its buoyancy and what they'll do if it sinks (remember dre doesn't have wings), but OB patiently explains all this. Besides, it's not that long of a journey, it's just too long for them to fly (even those that can). They arrive at the docks of Searscale Island and disembark, heading up the hill to a plateau with a bunch of springs. Stars tells the others that dre has read in dris books that the springs' heat causes a chemical reaction in the rocks around the edges, turning them yellow. That being the case, it should be possible to tell where the springs' temperature has changed based on the rock color.

They only see two dragons: an elder with ruddy scales and scars relaxing in the largest pool, and a long-tooth moving around the area, pulling stuff out of pools, and generally maintaining the space. They head down to the plateau and dre comes up to meet them, introducing themself as Mxlar'nishka, the Springtender. Dre welcomes them, and confirms that the temperature has been screwy lately - dre points to the edges of one of the outer pools and shows them that the rocks are yellow, but not all the way around. Weirder still, earlier today the yellow formation was in a different place; it looks like the heat is "moving" diesel (clockwise) around the pools, and pretty quickly too. Mxlar'nishka also mentions that there are caverns beneath the pools, but that Zalor, the Cavetender, is who they should talk to about that. (Dre also notes that the elder dragon in the pool over there is called Daishi, and dre is an excavator back on the mainland and comes here to get clean after big jobs, but that's incidental and Daishi spends most of the day snoozing anyway.)

The dragons start looking about for information. Toverinn climbs into a pool and eases into the heat ("OW OW OW"), but then dris tail gets sucked into a hole in the bottom of the pool! Dre try to dislodge it, but can't. 

Zeblek and OB aren't in the immediate area. Stars paces nervously up and down the bank, but realizing that no help is coming, puts dris bag down and plunges in! Dre reaches Toverinn and starts to pull them out, but looks back and realizes that one dris tomes is about to plunge into the water! Stars gives a little yelp, but doesn't abandon dris clutchmate. Dre pulls Toverinn out, but the book goes ploop, into the water.

OB tries to grab it, but misses, and paws some dirt backwards into Daishi's face! Zeblek jumps in and tosses the book out, but then dris hindquarters get pulled in (Zeblek is skinnier, so more of dris body fits). Zeblek's nostrils close and dre can hold dris breath a good long time, but the heat is uncomfortable and this hurts. 

OB pulls a rope from dris saddlebag of potential and jumps in to get Zeblek out ("OW OW OW"), but the rope is too short and OB has to swim down to hand it to Zeblek. Dre manages to pull Zeblek out and onto the bank. Stars, meanwhile, has taken dris soaked book away from the pools and is desperately trying to dry it out. Once OB has finished with Zeblek, dre joins Stars and rigs up a drying fan, powered by tail-swishes, to help. The book is salvaged, though Stars isn't sure how much of it was lost. 

The water continues to drain out, and Mxlar'nishka, by this point, has heard the ruckus and come over. Seeing the water draining away, dre asks if any of the dragons are skilled in the magic of the stone moon (dre has given up that particular moon). Toverinn is, and calls on the moon - but overdoes it. Crystals form on the edges of all the pools and cover them (the one that Daishi's in, too, but dre just flicks the crystals apart with dris claws and grumbles at the young'uns; dre also isn't happy to have gotten a snootful of dirt, but OB was apologetic). 

Toverinn is pretty mortified, and not only are all the pools covered over but the one that dre was trying to plug empties out with a bathtub sort of sound. Mxlar'nishka groans ("ugh, this is gonna take all night"), and goes to get a hammer to start knocking the crystals in. 

Zeblek pokes dris head into the empty pool and shoves it through the hole at the bottom. It's very dark, of course, but dre can see/feel a river rushing by. Dre pulls dris head back out and reports this, and Stars, having now rejoined the clutch, consults the Geographical Primer on Rivers, Mountains, and Magic Islands to see if this river is mentioned. The river is mentioned, but when the book talks about where it empties out, it gets into the realm of myth pretty quickly - something about a massive creature digging out the riverbeds with its talons. Probably not helpful. 

OB asks Mxlar'niskha about the river. Dre says that dre is aware that there is water beneath the plateau, but always thought it emptied into the sea. Dre suggests talking to Zalor when dre comes up for the night (Zalor always warns against being in the caverns at night, but Mxlar'nishka isn't sure exactly why). OB also askes Mxlar'nishka if dre has some rope (for spelunking), and dre says to look in dris shack up the hill.

Meanwhile, Toverinn climbs into the now-empty pool and uses dris wild speech to talk to the land. Dre realizes that something below them, down in the caverns, is stuck, and by freeing it, the clutch can alleviate the problem with the temperature. 

OB does so, and when dre opens the door, finds a dragon! The dragon is a winged drake, so a bit younger than OB and dris clutch. Dre has deep green, jade-like scales on dris back, but dris underbelly is jet black. OB asks the dragon who dre are, and dre responds "Lokken." OB asks if Mxlar'nishka knows that dre is here, and Lokken says "yes?", clearly lying. OB says that probably they should go talk to Mxlar'niskha about this, and Lokken nods, but then says "Look! A distraction!" and disappears in a puff of black smoke. 

OB grabs a length of rope, shaking dris head, and goes back down to the pools. Dre ask Mxlar'niskha about Lokken, but dre doesn't know the name. Dre are, however, confused at OB's description, as dre has seen a dragon with a black underbelly and blue scales hanging around...

The clutch gathers together and discusses their next move. Clearly the need to go into the caverns. Stars advocates waiting until morning, but Zeblek points out that there's no light in the caverns anyway so why wait? That logic appeals - better to get going on this before it gets worse. 

The clutch gathers their stuff, and prepares to head into the Searscale caverns!

Thrilling Adventures! Omen of the Gigantic Tiger, pt. 1

A one-shot! Well, a two-shot, really, since we're gonna finish next week. Anyway. Thrilling Adventures!

It's the 1920s, and we've got a ragtag band of adventurers: 

• Moxie, the Hero: Moxie is a masked crimefighter, an expert fencer, who rides a motorcycle and wields a thin, lightweight blade! Only Ernie knows that he is really Max Greene (he got clonked on the head once and Ernie saw his wallet). Moxie acts as a kind of moral center to the group.
• Robert Ford, the Inventor: Robert's no-good brother Henry really made good with his stupid "automobile," but Robert's sights are set higher. He is a clever inventor and weapons designer, and in fact designed a knockout-gas gun for Moxie.
• Marigold McMurrough, the Treasure Hunter: Marigold is a professional adventurer, sometime academic, and inveterate gambler. She owes money to some...rather unsavory people, and both Moxie and Ernie have had to save her bacon from various dangerous situations. She has an ongoing argument with Robert about the viability of ancient booby traps.
• Ernie Wozchzowski, the Schmo: Ernie a blue-collar, no-nonsense, standup kind of guy. He drives a truck (the truck varies, but is always called "Martha"), but he was once a collector for some rather unscrupulous fellows. Moxie showed him the error of his ways, and Ernie has been the group's muscle and grounding influence ever since. 

On this particular day, the team is disembarking a boat to Vladivostok. They have heard rumors that an ancient artifact called гигантский тигр ("giant tiger") was found in the far north area near the city of Khabarovsk...but then it was stolen! Moxie is concerned about it falling into the wrong hands, Marigold is concerned that it might more specifically fall into crazy Tsarist hands, and Robert has heard that the tiger is, in fact, a machine of some kind. Ernie, of course, is just here to make sure his friends don't die.

They get off the boat, and the sailors wave, sad to see Marigold go (she's enthusiastic about playing cards with them, though not especially good at it). They get tickets on the train going north, and stow Ernie's latest Martha and Moxie's motorcycle in a cargo car. As they're sitting in a passenger car waiting for the train to depart, they see two large, burly men in dark coats hassling the ticket-taker. Ernie is the only one who speaks any Russian (and he only speaks a little), but to him it seems like these guys think they should be allowed on and don't have tickets. The ticket-taker isn't letting them on, and they're getting angrier. Ernie can also tell these dudes are henchmen - Ernie, having been a goon himself, knows goons when he sees them.

The adventurers observe all this, but then one of the thugs slugs the ticket-taker in the stomach, and that's more than Moxie can abide! He swings out of a window, kicks both thugs in the forehead, and swings back in before anyone notices! The thugs fall backwards, the ticket-taker jumps aboard, and the train pulls away...but one of the thugs stands up and looks right at Moxie. 

The trip is a multi-day affair, of course, and on the first night Ernie gets up, unable to sleep (Moxie snores). He wanders through the train to the cargo car and gets into Martha (that sounds weird), and is dozing off when he hears the door to the car open.

Two young people - a boy and a girl, probably about 12 - slip in. They hunker down next to the truck and talk briefly, and it becomes clear that they were the ones that the thugs were looking for. Ernie sticks his head out the window and both kids yelp in surprise; the both covers his head but the girl pulls a folding knife and stands ready to fight. She puts it away when it becomes clear that Ernie isn't a threat, and Ernie tries to get them to tell him what's happening, but they're both pretty cagey. Ernie gives them a little coffee from his thermos and a spare blanket from the truck, but isn't able to convince them to tell him their story. The girl tells him that they're getting off at the next stop, but Ernie doesn't buy that - he heard them mention Khabarovsk. 

Next morning, Ernie relays all this to the others. They wonder if these kids might have some connection to what's happening with the tiger? But as they discuss it, the conductor comes through and announces they'll be stopping in the next town for 15 minutes only. The next "town," as it happens, is a tiny train station with some farms visible in the distance, but there are five very thuggish gents waiting on the platform, two of whom have bootprints on their foreheads (Moxie: "How'd they get ahead of us?!"). They disembark and watch the men a bit, but they don't start any trouble on the platform, and everyone gets back on the train.

The men sit in the bar car and drink a bit of vodka, and the characters sit nearby and eavesdrop as best they can. Ernie catches the words "kids" and "thieves", and then the men stand up and break into two groups. Three of them head toward the back of the train, and two towards the front. Moxie and Ernie follow the larger group, and Robert and Marigold the pair.

The pair of goons winds up in a passenger car close to the front, and there they spot the boy that Ernie met! They go over and sit across from him, and say something menacing in Russian. The boy goes pale, but shrugs and says "I don't speak-" whereupon one of the toughs tells him, in English, that he'll be coming with them. 

Marigold walks up beside them and starts talking to the men, but they aren't interested in being distracted and one of them opens his coat to reveal a pistol in his waistband. Marigold glances up at Robert and gives him a meaningful look, hoping to convey the problem, and Robert, deciding not to waste a good opportunity, pulls a crowbar from his coat and clonks the thug on the head!

The other thug stands up and grabs Robert by the lapel, and picks him up ("What are they feeding you?!" "Americans."). The thug tosses him down the aisle and he stumbles and falls, and the thug steps out into the aisle and starts speaking in Russian. The other passengers react, and it's pretty clear he's calling for Marigold and Robert to be detained. They both choose the better part of valor and run; they also notice that the boy is nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile, at the back of the train, Moxie and Ernie see the three toughs slip into the cargo car (the one with Martha). There's no way to follow them stealthily, so they just open the door, and Ernie sees the men looking over the truck. She tells them to step off, and Moxie takes the opportunity to roll under the truck, where he finds himself next to the girl! 

She tells him not to give her away - these guys are dangerous. Ernie manages to talk them into moving on, claiming not to have seen the kids they're looking for, but as they pass, one of them kicks up a bit of dust and the girl sneezes loudly! One of the men grabs her and pushes her against a wall, covering her mouth! That's too much for Ernie, he produces a wrench and bonks one of them in the head, dropping him. The third draws a gun and fires at Moxie as he emerges from under the car, but misses, and Moxie throws a punch. Problem is, Moxie, while a skilled fighter, is much lighter than these guys, and the punch doesn't really connect. The thug, however, clocks him in the head with the butt of his gun, and the third guy runs for the back of the car with the girl under his arm.

Just then, Robert and Marigold run into the car ("Guys, we've got...oh"). Marigold sees a man holding a young girl and trying to escape, so she runs and tackles him! The door, however, is already open, and the girl fall out, only grabbing onto the door at the last second. 

Robert, fortunately, has just the thing - he raises his arm and a small cylinder becomes visible from his sleeve. He fires two darts at the thugs and they both collapse, unconscious. That, unfortunately, leaves him vulnerable to the last thug (the one who was in the passenger car), who appears behind him and goes to pistol whip him - but Ernie to the rescue! Ernie takes the blow for him and shoves Robert out of the way, and Robert fires another dart and drops him.

Everyone takes a breath, and the boy kind of appears out of nowhere. The girl looks at Ernie and gives him a "yeah, you're OK" kind of nod, and then they explain themselves. 

The boy (Jimmy) explains that he and the girl (Rina) were workers at a dig site further north. There's a man named Ivan - scary guy, big muscles, pointy beard - running it, and the kids were employed to wriggle into small spaces. For that they were given food and a few rubles. But then recently, the found a chamber containing a huge mechanical tiger! 

The tiger was a machine, capable of moving ("I KNEW IT", cries Robert), when its key was turned. Jimmy reveals that he stole the key. He did that after a group of scary guys were brought in (like the guys the characters just fought), and then all of the workers on the site were rounded up ("and shot," says Rina dryly). Jimmy and Rina fled and got on a train, and made it to Vladivostok, but were unable to get out of the country. Ultimately they decided to head back to the site and steal the tiger! 

The characters decide that this is very much the kind of thing they need to get involved with. Ernie tosses several of the thugs out into the snow, but keeps the one that speaks English and interrogates him. He tells the group about a man that Ivan brought in after the diggers and workers were "released," a man with a scary beard with white stripes, two different-colored eyes, and a strange manner about him. He heard rumors that the man was a disciple of Rasputin! 

They have a while before they get to Khabarovsk, so they take some time and rest up. Moxie rubs his aching jaw and remembers that he needs to fight like a featherweight, not a heavyweight, 'cause he's not. Robert tries making a heavier gun, but makes it too heavy and can't get it to movie (he figures he could mount it in the back of Martha, but that'll take more time). And Marigold pores over a mysterious document she obtained, and discovers it's actually a map of the area. She realizes that the tiger has some scary lore associated with it - it dates back to old legends about demigods and heroes, but people who attempt to use the tiger often become obsessed with it. She makes a note not to do that.

The train pulls in to Khabarovsk, and the team gets ready to disembark for the next part of their Thrilling Adventures!

Character Creation: Noir World

I knew this game was trouble the minute it walked into my office. Wait, what?

The Game: Noir World
The Publisher: johnadamus
Degree of Familiarity: Plenty with the genre, plenty with the underling system, never played this game
Books Required: Just the one

Noir World had something of a trouble production. The Kickstarter gave estimated delivery dates in 2017, but I didn't mark my copy received until December 2019, and based on the most recent updates and comments, it looks like some folks still don't have it. Weirder yet, I apparently only backed at the $1 level and I literally cannot fathom why I would have done that, especially since I obviously got a POD code at some point (or did I just buy a copy? I honestly don't remember, it's been too many years). 

Anyway, what about the game itself? It reads very much like a PbtA game of its era (even has "World" in the title), but it's GMless, inasmuch as one player is the Director for each scene (so "shared GM" might be closer to the truth, but I still consider that a GMless game because of the distribution of narrative load). The Director has more of a defined role than in other games that pass that particular hat (like, say, A Tragedy in Five Acts); there are specific moves or actions they can take. 

So: Worthwhile to run this game? I dunno. On the one hand, I think this kind of format isn't bad for noir. On the other, there are other games that do it pretty well (notably Fiasco), and this particular kind of GMless game is a hard sell for some tables because it does require some GM-like skills, but spread out for everyone. Now, could you run it with one person as the Director only? I'd need to read more carefully to know.

Well, anyway, let's make a character. Let's assume we're in the 1940s, the default era (oh, also, there's references in the book to "The Replicant" and "The Toon" playbooks, presumably riffing on Blade Runner and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but I don't see them in the DTRPG downloads, so they might have been cast to the internet wilds). The next step is to pick a Role, so let's choose...the Mook (just rewatched Miller's Crossing, mooks are on my mind). Let's name our Mook Curly (it's one of the suggested names, and I like an ironic nickname, so Curly is very much bald).

Let's say Curly used to be a boxer, agreed to throw a fight, but didn't quite understand what he was agreeing to (let's further say Curly is German by birth and doesn't really speak much English, or at least didn't at the time). He won the fight, and the folks who paid him to throw it were none too pleased, so they shot him in the face. The bullet lodged in his cheekbone and fucked up his speech and vision, but didn't kill him. Curly couldn't box after that, but he can still throw a punch, so professional mookin' it is.

Right, so now we pick a stat-like (they're called Motivations here for some reason). Brains is obviously not my strong point, but what kinds of things do we use Moxie for? Social stuff, I don't need that. Let's pick the "Brains -2, Moxie -1, Risk +2" line and add 1 to...yeah, fuck it, let's just go all in and add it to Risk.

Secrets! I'll take "you're about to get a significant demotion in the underworld, and this is your last chance." Goals! "To avoid getting found out or arrested." 

Belongings! I get to pick two. I'll take casual leg-breaking clothes and brass knuckles.

Hooks! These would require other characters, but I think I can pick a couple and just fill in the name of the Role. I think I'll mark "this Role owes your employer a lot of money, and you've been assigned to keep an eye on them." Basically any Role would work there, but I think Reporter would be interesting, as would one of the Cops. I'd also take "you and this Role have done some work together in the past, and it went really well." Career Criminal, War Vet, Gangster, or Disgraced Doctor would be fun here, I think.

And, finally, I get two Role Actions (what any other PbtA game would call "moves", but whatever, gotta be different). I want the strong silent type (I can shake off the first 2 points of Injury I take) and go down swinging (if I'm already hurt I get a bonus to fight).

And that's it for the stuff on the sheet! Curly is big, muscular, but has gotten a little pudgy since he's not training as regularly. He's got a gnarly scar on his left cheek and his left eye is always half-closed and dead. He's bald (obvs), big hands, couple of tats on his shoulders. Speaks with a thick German accent, but his English has improved at least somewhat. 

Character Creation: The Dread of Night

As my dear departed friend Karafa used to say, it's not all A material. 

The Game: The Dread of Night
The Publisher: Fabletop Productions
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, and maybe a Steam deck

One of the problems with only half paying attention to the games I back on Kickstarter is that I sometimes wind up backing games that look pretty cool on first blush (this, Renegade City, Overgrowth, Gears of Defiance, I could go on) but that fall down in the execution. 

Sometimes that's because the game itself isn't actually something I'm into, but I either didn't pay close enough attention to realize that or it wasn't clear from the pitch (The Island of Dr. Moreau, is, perhaps, an example here - if I'd paid attention I'd have known). Sometimes that's because the game's creators got their money and then realized it wasn't enough, mismanaged the funds, or otherwise figured out that making a game well is haaaard (there are any number of these, but the one on my mind at the moment is Heroic, a supers game that's presently a couple of years late and the creator is now saying that he might release the game with AI art just so he can get it done, after promising that everything was going to be made by, like, people, and what's really upsetting is the people in the comments going "yeah, do that" and I'm just sitting over here invisibly yelling "WHY ARE YOU MAKING IT EASIER FOR EVERYTHING TO GET SHITTIER"). And sometimes the game comes out and it's more or less what it was supposed to be, but that product is just kinda...meh?

So what's the deal with The Dread of Night? It's a fantasy monster-hunting game, inspired by video games that I haven't played (The Witcher, Dark Souls, Castlevania, etc.). And that's fine. I ran Darkest Days which was also inspired by some of these games, it was a good time. There are a couple of things that sort of rub me the wrong way about this game, thought.

First, the writing. It's not unreadable or egregious, but it seriously needed some proofreading and clean up. 

Fewer than none knew how to harness it? Huh?

But quite beyond the clumsy turns of phrase and the unnecessary capitalization, I don't love that this paragraph is prefaced with "Lore". It feels...I don't know, dismissive? Video-gamey? And I just keep thinking back to games like Fight Item Run and Heroes of Cerulea (which I just ran the other night), both of which take explicit inspiration from retro video games but wear that in their mechanics, their aesthetics, and everything about their presentation. 

And maybe what this really means is that modern video games of the "RPG" variety don't have their own aesthetic. Rather, any given game might, but what it is about about the look, the music, or the game play of these games that gives it identity? Or maybe that's an unfair question for me to ask, since those games generally aren't my vibe? I just think that putting a section called "Lore" in a TTRPG and using the term the way a video game would is weird, since TTRPGs are basically all lore. 

And then there's the second thing (yes, all that was one thing. Maybe one-and-a-half): This game purports to be a Powered by the Apocalypse game. You could have a long and interesting discussion about what makes a PbtA a PbtA game (and I have, more than once, in the Before Times when I was welcome in such spaces), and I'm never in any hurry to gatekeep and say that a game is or is not "really" the kind of game it's saying it is. But like...reading this game, it doesn't read or feel like a PbtA game. It feels like yet another slightly-darker D&D clone, drawing inspiration from Dark Souls instead of Lord of the Rings. The game mechanics aren't designed to move from the conversation and then back into it, they're just your standard "roll Agility to jump over a pit" kind of thing. The "playbooks" are just classes (with some admittedly dope artwork). The system is 2d6 + a stat, but the "moves" aren't triggered by anything and don't lead to any specific results. And again, none of this is required for a PbtA game, but like, what about this makes it a PbtA game?

What I'm saying is, I'm not impressed, and after the very enjoyable game that I did yesterday this is something of a let-down. But there's always tomorrow. 

The PDF is bookmarked, at least, though I never got copies of the playbooks so hopefully I can print one from the book directly.

Playbooks are classified in categories like "Rogue," "Mage", and "All-Rounder," just in case we forgot that the creators are big video game nerds. Anyway, there's no step-by-step for chargen that I can see...oh, no, wait, I found it.

All right, so clearly my first step is to choose a playbook/class. I'll take Rune Haunter: I like the art, the notion of a "Rogue/Mage" is appealing, and...that's all I've got, really. We're told, though, that Rune Haunters have "cursed gauntlets [that] are both a blessed and a curse." Great job, everybody. 

OK, so the long and the short of it is, my cursed gauntlets (which are both a blessing and a curse) have slots for magical gems that give me elemental powers and resistances. That's actually pretty cool. 

Name: I'm meant to pick a name first. There are some sample characters in the book, but the naming conventions aren't exactly consistent ("Grendel," "Elizabeth Buchard," "Abuela Monrietta", "Kaax Camal"), so let's just say my guy goes by Greyjack (used to be he was "Jack" with a family name, probably "Farmer" or something, but then...).

Life Before: I'm gonna pick "you were traveling when you ran into a merchant promising exotic wares." Jack was out at market to sell a cow (yep), when a fast-talking merchant managed to talk him into trading the cow for the gauntlets.

Life Now: Well, I think Jack is still a simple boy at heart, so he seeks to make the most of his curse and help people. 

Allocate: 9 points into Attributes. Well, Luck probably isn't high. Let's say Jack is nimble and strong and not terribly smart. Fuck it, can we leave these at 0? Oh, hell yeah, I can even go to -1. Well, let's take -1 in Luck, put 3 into Strength, Agility, and Arcane, leave Influence at 0 and put 1 into Wits. 

Check off: Specifically, my "Hunters [sic] amount [sic] of available moves." OK. My first "move" is Rune Magic, and basically I get to pick the elemental flavor of two gems. I'll pick Wind and Earth, how about. I get elemental charges when various things happen, and once a charge builds up I can release it as a beam or a punch or...another thing that I get to pick. Um...I'll take - oh, wait, hang on, I want Shake On It. If I make a deal with someone and we shake hands, I mark them with a Rune and if they break their word I can "gain a Haunt point," whatever that means. I think that's what happened to Jack, actually (he shook on a deal with the merchant, who was trying to give up the gauntlets). 

Boring shit: Select starting weapons, tools, snore. My primary weapon is my rune gloves, obvs, Earth gives me +1 Harm Reduction and Wind gives me +1 Evasion, but I can only use one at a time so neither of those bonuses are locked in, as it were. I think I want a Reinforced Cloak for my armor, though. And I get a tool which gives me some bonuses; I'll take a pouch (which gives me extra damage using Earth, for some reason). 

Playbook-specific stuff: I don't think I have any. Rather, I do, but it's covered already. 

Experience/Mastery at 0. OK, sure. What's my Health set to? 10 plus (Strength x 2), or 16 in my case. Neat. 

The last thing would be relations with other Hunters (not like that), but I can't do that without a group, so skippin' it! I'm also only going to scan the first page because the other ones are just ticky boxes. 

So: Greyjack looks big and buff and scary, with the heavy cloak and the hood that hides his face, but then he talks and he's got an accent that immediately identifies him as, for want of a better word, a bumpkin. So he doesn't talk much, and he's found that to be pretty reliably intimidating, especially when the earth rumbles a little or a cold breeze kicks up. He really would like to get rid of these gauntlets (I guess they must upset his tummy or something, though buggered if I can find any downside to them at first read), but the thing is if he manages to con a bad person into wearing them, then a bad person has them, and if he cons a good person into them, then he's conned a good person. Truly a conundrum.

Character Creation: Fluxfall Horizon

Here's where I'd normally quote the opening titles to Quantum Leap, but I never watched it.

The Game: Fluxfall Horizon
The Publisher: Dave Thaumavore
Degree of Familiarity: None with the game, lots with the rules set
Books Required: Just the one

Fluxfall Horizon is one of those games that I'm sure I liked the premise when I backed it on Kickstarter, but I utterly forgot about it until I plucked it off the shelf to read it. And actually I think it's pretty cool! You're playing a group of people tumbling through alternate realities. When you get to a new one, you get a task, some little thing that needs to be stitched up, and then you can move along. I'm sure that if one were to have watched Quantum Leap, one could see the parallels much more clearly, but I never really did. I will say, though, that the game looks pretty cool and I'll have to put it on the run-me list at some point.

So! In brief, your characters are Lancers, people who, for various reasons, wind up zipping off to other realities and then bouncing around trying to get back to theirs. There's more to it than that, but that's the gist. It's actually a very accessible game, considering it's heavily based on a particular piece of media (I've read other RPGs that are unofficially based on some TV show or movie and if you haven't seen the property it's based on, the game never quite gels). So let's create a Lancer!

(Side note: There is an RPG called Lancer. I have a copy, but I haven't read it.)

Step One: Pick a Type. I like 'em curvy. Ahem. No, we're picking a playbook, here, and there are 10 different ones, but they break down into two expressions of five broader archetypes. So like, if you're playing Corporate, you can be a Junior Exec or a Senior Exec. I think, though, that I want to make a Civilian and be a Tourist. I'm taking inspiration from a weird place, here. I've been playing Hitman lately (in freelancer mode, which is weirdly tense at times), and there's an NPC who shows up occasionally named Jason Portman. We see him in a level set at a very expensive hospital in Japan where he's having plastic surgery to look like a famous model. He's...kind of a douchebag. I don't want to play a character quite as a dickerly as Portman, but I do want someone with too much money and no real idea of what to do with it. 

Step Two: Description. Let's name him Skylar Osae, we'll say he's 25. He's trim, handsome, black hair, tan skin, and he's paid well for all of that.

Step Three: Choose a Secret Objective. Normally I'd only reveal this to the GM, but y'know. There's a list in the book and I could roll for it, but I like "get a selfie with a famous figure." There's no place on the sheet to write that, so I guess I'll just remember it. 

Step Four: Fill Stats. I start with Power 2, Movement 1, Mental 1, Tech -2 and Fluxtech -2. No choices to make, here.

Step Five: Choose Two Specials. There's a list of four on the sheet, I get to start with two. Let's see here. Oh, I very clearly want the first two: that was expensive (I can sacrifice any Special Gear to avoid a physical Condition) and short position (I can raise a small fortune on any commodities exchange in two days' time). 

Step Six: Special Connection. This is an NPC with whom I share a special connection. I could make something up, but there are random tables and I enjoy those. Just a moment, need to dig out some d6s. I get..."current/former subordinate" and "you entered a pact as teenagers and it remains an unspoken bond." Well, that's very interesting. Let's say that Skylar grew up with a girl named Skyler, their parents were best friends, they had a lot of the same interests, and actually they kind of look alike (which, given that Skylar kind of looks like his dad, raises some awkward questions). Let's say the pact they entered was to never try and find out the truth of their parentage. They both pretty much suspect that they have the same father, but suspecting and knowing are two different things. (The fact that Skyler works for Skylar is just because Skylar needed an executive assistant, Skyler was in the market, and obviously Skylar's not going to treat Skyler like dirt just because that's how he treats the rest of his employees.)

Step Seven: Special Gear. I get a transceiver, all-weather durafiber clothing, and a universal translator as basic gear (though Skylar strikes me as the kind of guy who'd insist on speaking in a language he thinks he knows without the translator, just to show off). I get one piece of primary gear, and I shall take...hmm. On the one hand, Skylar might like any of these (basically, a ray gun, a healing device, or a portable sciencey thing). On the other, I feel like Skyler would have made sure he was carrying not-a-gun, so I'll take the Science Box. I get a Safety Bubble, which can inflate around me and keep me safe. And obviously I want an Inflatable Tent, so I can sleep in style no matter when I am. 

Step Eight: Draw or find a portrait. Nah. I think, though, that Danny Ramirez could play him (I just rewatched Captain America: Brave New World last night). 

Step Nine: Choose a Goal. This is, like, the overarching goal for the character, and it's a pretty good chance for Skylar to be not-a-douchebag. I don't think I want to involve Skyler here; that's something that I think would get resolved earlier in the character's arc. Maybe Skylar's ultimate Goal (though he doesn't know it yet) is to "sacrifice to save the Continuum." Not sacrifice himself, necessarily, but maybe his wealth or his position? 

And that's it! Skylar is ready to lance to some weird new world and probably bitch about it the whole time.

Character Creation: Inverse World

Razzum frazzum hoist by own petard. 

The Game: Inverse World
The Publisher: Liberi Gothica Games
Degree of Familiarity: Very little
Books Required: I think just Inverse World, but I might need to reference Dungeon World 

As with Scofflaws a few months ago, I opened up my PDF folder for this game and discovered that there are actually two editions and they're sold separately and use different rules sets, meaning that under my self-imposed strictures for this project, I have to do two characters. The other edition uses Fate Accelerated, so at least it's a rules set I enjoy. On we go!

Inverse World is, as the cover up there says, a supplement and setting for Dungeon World (which is itself the PbtA take on D&D). It's a pretty cool setting, though; a world where everything revolves around an imprisoned god and gravity always points towards that being, so which way is "up" and which way is "down" depends very much on your perspective. And as with a lot of PbtA and adjacent games, there's a lot that's left to the table, but there's enough interesting stuff that it holds on its own as a setting (I mean, it's by no means groundbreaking, mind, but it's playable). I've had this game on my shelf for freaking ever and just never bothered with it, but I'm not sure why, I don't dislike Dungeon World. Well, whatever, we're here now. Let's do this thang.

Characters are all technically the same "race," but they vary depending on where they were born in terms of topography - if you're born in the Cloud Sea, you're a merfolk type of thing, if you're born on the Worldcrust you're a stony-ass goblin, and anywhere else you're more or less "human." I don't have a particular opinion on the matter. Actually there's a cool little random island generator, so how about I use that and see where my character is from? 

Right, so first we roll for size and shape. We get...tiny, only able to hold a house or two, and it's a pretty standard island shape. So that says to me that my guy's family are loners or outcasts or something, and/or they really consider the "sea" around their island part of their home, which therefore implies my race is Cloud-blessed. Cool, moving on. 

We roll to see what the surface is like, and we get "completely urbanized," which is funny for such a small place. But I think that just means that the family home takes up every available inch of space. For fun I'll roll for what's on the underside of the island (which is the part the sun actually touches, because remember the god-cage is below us), and we find it's covered in vines with strange seed pods. Neat! Ooh, maybe we can use them to make chocolate. 

I'm gonna skip the Quirks tables, because I feel like there's just not enough room for any of them to make a lot of sense. But I will roll on the island goods table...cloth/silk. Oh, OK, so not chocolate, then. Let's say the seed pods are full of a fluff, kind of like milkweed, that we can spin into fabric. 

I'll skip the culture tables, because again, it's just our family. We'll assume that we trade cloth with other, more bigger islands for any necessities that we can't find or grow. But I'll roll on social quirks, though. Rolling a 3 means we have a secret quirk, and rolling a 2 on that table means that the ruling class is happy with the status quo and doesn't like it when people rock the boat. Not really applicable here? Or maybe we'll assume that my character's family is the ruling class by dint of just being the only ones around here, and they've resisted attempts to take seeds and make these plants grow elsewhere, even though they could potentially become very wealthy off of it. 

Cool, that's a pretty good jumping off point. Let's move to actual chargen and pick a playbook. Assuming that my character is a scion of this weird little cloth-farming family, I guess his playbook is probably going to be influenced at least in part by his relationship to said family. I think I'll go with Rainlord, that looks pretty cool.

You know, one thing that some PbtA games do that others (like this one) don't, but I wish they all did, is have a little section for each playbook that says "play this if you want to [whatever]." The playbooks in Inverse World are pretty evocative, at least at first blush, but I'm not 100% on what the arc is for all of them. I mean, Captain is pretty obvious, but Rainlord isn't, and a little more guidance would be nice.

Well, anyway, rain in this setting contains messages from the divine (you know, the imprisoned god), and the idea is that a Rainlord is what you get when enough of those messages collects in one place. We'll say that there's a lagoon of "uprain" on the underside of the island. Well, "lagoon" is generous, "pond" might be closer to the truth. Anyway, the youngest child of the family, Mint (it's one of the names given on the playbook and I like it), used to sneak down there and bathe, and over time, he started hearing the rain.

Cool, OK. Let's do look. We'll say Mint has blank eyes, a lithe body, elastic skin, and wears a simple tunic. 

Right, stats. (Turns out I do need the Dungeon World book.) This is pretty D&D like. I assign the array (16, 15, 13, 12, 9, 8) and their attendant modifiers to the six standard stats. Guess I better look ahead to my moves real quick and see what I should be good at.

Oh, OK. My body is made of liquid, so the divine rain really did change me. I get to pick the nature of that liquid, which assigns a "Ward" stat, which is what a lot of my playbook moves use. OK, then. Let's say my liquid is...light. I would say shadow, since my pond was hidden beneath the island, but like, that's where the light is. That sets CHA as my Ward stat, which means that's where my 16 should go (I like playing high-Charisma characters anyway). Let's put 15 into Dexterity, 13 into Wisdom, 12 into Constitution, 9 into Intelligence, and 8 into Strength. My base HP is 4, and I get nothing from my CON, so I have 4 HP.

Starting moves...do I have any choices to make here? Nope, they're all based around being all liquidy, cool. The book mentions Aspect moves, but there's nothing on the sheet...oh, wait, that's Liquidity, I did that already. Drive! This replaces Alignment. I think given how bent out of shape my family gets about no one else having access to our plants and their fibers, it's gotta be Blasphemy. I want to spread the plants, because the plants help the rain collect. My god's message will be heard. 

Gear and Bonds are the only two things left, but I ain't doing Bonds because I ain't got other players, so Gear it is!

I start with monster feed (but I can eat it so WHAT DOES THAT MAKE MEEEEE SOB anyway). I can have one of three weapons, and frankly I don't love any of them. I think I'll take the collection of knives and say that they're not "knives" per se, but tailoring implements that are sharp and throwable. 

And then I get to pick two off a list. I shall take a rain bottle and lightweave armor, worn under my skin (ew). 

And that's Mint! Mint is smol and liquidy and lithe. He has various tailor tools stuck into a belt, but really the belt is held in place just under his skin. He wears a tunic not made of his family's cloth, but the armr under it definitely is. He's full of liquid light, which means he faintly glows a lot of the time. I think the brightness is less about emotion (as that seems too obvious), and more about information - when he's learned something interesting, he glows brighter (and with a 9 INT, that'll happen a lot).

That'll do it! 

Character Creation: The Veil

I know, two PbtA games that begin with "V" in a row. Blame Gus.

The Game: The Veil
The Publisher: Samjoko Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game, but it felt familiar as I was reading it
Books Required: Just the one 

The Veil isn't the only PbtA cyberpunk game I've seen. We've also got Headspace and The Sprawl, and I'm sure there are others I don't know about (or that I own and just haven't read yet). The Veil looks pretty interesting. Well, strike that. It looks like a good, solid example of the genre in this system, and that's cool. I have a couple of concerns, one of which is that it looks like there are a lot of different things that hinge off of "Giri" (kind of filling the role of a reputation or strings stat), and there do seem to be quite a lot of moves, though nothing on the order of, say, Dead Scare. Also the PDF isn't bookmarked properly, but that's just annoying. Oh, wait, it's just the hi-res copy that's not bookmarked! The lo-res works just fine. Sweet!

Anyway: It's a cyberpunk world complete with corporations and "The Veil," which is the game's lingo for the cyber-space. The particulars of that, and of the world in general, are left for the table to define, and I think it'd all work pretty well, though of course I'd have to play it to know. So let's do this!

First thing we do is pick a playbook. There are a bunch in this game, and I haven't read them all carefully, so let's see here... 

I think I want to pick The Architect. I was just watching Cael play Animal Crossing and I got to thinking about how much I like games like Subnautica and The Forest that have not only base-building aspects but stories, and I wonder if you could have the Architect playbook build "places" in the Veil. 

Yeah, looks like it! Neat. We start with "the Subconscious." I must first pick three things that bleed over from the physical world to "my" Veil.

So I'm gonna say that when my character creates a Veil-space, there's also catacombs of his deepest memories. I've been really intrigued by the trailer for Backrooms of late, and I like the idea of spaces between spaces where things get stuck. So when my guy makes a place in the Veil, there's always an entrance to the back hallways. Sometimes it's a door, sometimes it's a hole hidden behind a couch, whatever.

Likewise, I'll say a family member gets brought over. We'll say it's my character's sister, Tyara. We've kind of grown apart, but my guy still sees her as she was when she was 18, when they had a place together in the city and were best of friends.

And, finally, I want a manifestation of fear. There are always rats in the walls in my Veil-space. My guy is terrified of rats, especially when he can't see them, only hear them (I have squirrels in my walls presently and it's fucking unnerving when they start scrabbling around). 

Right, what next? Cyberbrain! Bunch of options here that have some implications about the setting. I think we've established a couple of things about my Architect so far, so what fits with that? 

Hrm. I would take "for another purpose" and pick a move from a different playbook, but they don't really generalize well. You know, I think I'll take "has a dedicated remote server" because I like the idea that this server is tucked in a backroom somewhere.

I get the reconfigure move and then I pick one more, and the only one that makes sense is construct, because my cyberbrain makes it more effective.

(I'm finding that there's not really a "here's how to make a character" section, which is annoying because yes, I can follow the playbook, but there's no centralized place with the instructions that I can find so it's all scattershot. Bleah.) 

Giri questions I can skip, because they would require other players. Look? Sure, let's do that. Let's say I'm fluid, I've got working class gear, a sweet face, clear eyes, a wiry body, and I'm Black. 

My "Jam" is how I earn a living. Let's play to my strength and say that my Architect designs digital lobbies. Like, when you visit a "Veil site" (like a website), you wind up in a waiting room or a lobby that has basic info on the company or the person. But someone has to design these and make them user-friendly, and my character is good at that. 

Stats! Or rather, states, since these are all named after emotions. These can change as I use them, so whatever I put my +2 in is likely to be what taps out first. My character strikes me as an anxious person, so I'll put +2 in Scared. I'll put my +1s in Joyful and Peaceful, my 0s in Powerful and Sad, and my -1 in Mad.

Cybernetics! I can be as cyber'd as I want, though I might owe Cred or Giri for them. I think my Architect has a cyber'd eye. I get three tags for my eye, so I'll take recording (I can record video), HUD, and integrated (to my cyberbrain, so I can include whatever I've seen into my digital places). Do I wish for more cyber? I do not think I do. I do have to take a negative tag for my eye, so let's take bleed. People and things that I see tend to wind up in my Veil-space whether I want them to or not.

Now, where'd I get it? I think I struck a deal and I owe Cred for it. I don't see my character are real violent and a cybereye isn't something you steal. 

Beliefs! I get three of these. The book advises me to make them things I'd want to be challenged and explored right now. I'm seeing my character as sort of like Lenny Nero from Strange Days inasmuch as letting go of the past is hard, so the first belief will be "Nothing ever has to fade away." I think he sees what he does in the Veil as art, and he definitely strikes me as the sort of artist who would put little details in his art that only he and his closest friends are going to catch. Let's make the second Belief "Art belongs to the artist." I don't see him as a hacker per se, but I do think he might take a very hacker-ish approach to rules, like "If a rule can be broken, it wasn't strong enough." (There's one that's gonna get thrown back in his face.)

I get fashion appropriate to my lifestyle and I get a weapon from the list on the sheet. Definitely taking a neural disruptor; my guy isn't the sort to use a gun. 

And I think that's it! Let's name this guy Andray Sim ("Sim" is not his real surname, but it's the one he uses). Andray uses he/him pronouns and generally presents as male, but actually doesn't see gender as terribly important and in the Veil tends to be more femme (or less masc, depending how you look at it). His sister, Tyara, is married and living somewhere in a different city, and Andray finds her a little insufferable now that she's grown up and career-oriented and so on. He misses the Tyara who was young and cool and fiery...so that's the one he interacts with. 

Character Creation: Vale of the Failed and the Fallen

I didn't know I needed this game until it came up on Kickstarter some time ago, but I'm really keen to try it.

The Game: Vale of the Failed and the Fallen
The Publisher: Wicked Clever
Degree of Familiarity: None, other than the fact that it's PbtA
Books Required: Just the one

Beautifully simple and yet kind of niche concept, this. You're playing the grown-up versions of a group of kids who were transported to the magical land of Eidylorn in order to save it from the Vassal of Darkness...but failed. One of the kids died in the process, and now, twenty years later, the survivors have been transported back in order to redeem themselves and finish the quest. I haven't seen an expression of this idea before. When The Dark is Gone has some similar elements, but doesn't involve going back to the magical realm and is much less structured in general. 

Anyway, it's late to make a character, but if I do this one today I'm at 30 for the year so I'm caught up, and that's apparently worth being at my computer a little more. So here we go!

So, if we were actually playing this game, the first thing we'd do is define Eidylorn a bit more, including which of the peoples who live there are going to figure into our story. Since it's just me, though, I can just skip right to the Childhood Heroes bit. 

Seems like playbook should really be first, but sure, why not. Let's name my hero Jesse Daniel (he/him). And now I must choose a playbook. Hmm. I think I'll lean into the darkness today and be the Shadow.

So that means I get the Cloak of Shadows (all the playbooks get a gift when they arrive in Eidylorn). I can step into the Shadowlands and be invisible and incorporeal to others, and then I get one more ability to go with that. Let's see...I'll take Ebon Messenger, that lets me summon little shadow critters to act as messengers.  

My Inner Child is an aptitude that I was interested in or good at as a child (but recall that these characters are adults now). I have kind of an idea on where to go with this character, so I'm gonna pick Animal Lover. Jesse was super into animals as a kid - mostly he loved big cats, but really he found all animals fascinating. He dreamed of being a big animal vet when he grew up. So that makes my aptitude Empathetic, and gives me a tether and a bane (which are basically things I can use to boost rolls or the GM could use to screw with me, respectively). My tether is when you train or befriend a magical creature from the realm..., and my bane is when you must hurt an animal...

Companion bonds would require more players, so I'll skip that. Likewise, we'd all decide on the Fallen Companion together. The trick here is that the Companion Bonds and the Fallen Companion would give me two more tethers, and then I would pick a tether to be burned to start with (burned tethers act like banes, but you can recover them). But lo! I must now be an adult!

First, I choose my adult vocation. In Jesse's case, the trip into Eidylorn and the loss of his friends kind of soured him on animals (so I'll take that as my burned tether, I guess). He'd seen dragons and pegasi and whatever else, going back to the world of cats and dogs and snakes just didn't seem as interesting. Plus, like, he'd seen a friend die. Jesse never really recaptured that kind of passion, and he kind of fell in with a bad crowd. His Adult Vocation is Petty Criminal.

And that leads us directly into Emotional Baggage. Basically my experiences in Eidylorn give me another bane. I think Shady makes the most sense (when people need to trust you...).  

And that's basically it, because the rest of it would require a group! Jesse is in his 20s now. He's got red-blonde hair that he keeps buzzed, his skin has gotten worse over time (thank some drug use for that), and he's got prison tats on his arms and hands. I think in play Jesse would be the guy who you might think would betray everyone, but then comes through for them with a line like "snitches get stitches" or something. 

Character Creation: Our Traveling Home

Can't run home if the home runs, too.

The Game: Our Traveling Home
The Publisher: Peach Pants Press
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one 

Interesting little game, this. It's meant to be queer romance and found family, inspired by Ghibli films, and all that's great. What I find interesting is the very firm requirements the game puts out.

To wit: Four or five players, not more than five, not less than four. It has a happy ending, full stop. There is a romance between the Wizard and the Cursed, that's part of the game. The game consists of two Acts, each of which consists of a number of scenes, but the scenes are named and some of them restrict which characters can be involved.

Understand, this isn't criticism. I don't think there's anything wrong with setting up solid expectations for how the game works, and if we're honest, it's not that much different than the structure of, say, Fiasco or Ganakagok (or A Tragedy in Five Acts, for that matter). It's just interesting because PbtA games in particular (and this game does claim to be PbtA, though what that means is hardly an objective fact) are usually a bit more open-ended, and this one is very specific and proscribed. 

Reminds me a lot of Once More Into the Void, what with the mini-games in the scenes, as well as Back Again From the Broken Land, kinda. Would I play it? I dunno. I think I could put together a group of my players who would really like it, but it's mechanically weird and while you can play it as a one-shot (which is probably how it would work out), it's got a lot of front-loading for that. I think honestly if I wanted to play something like this I might want to play one of the games I already listed, or else Thirsty Sword Lesbians. 

But anyway, let's make a character. There are some decisions that the group would make about the world, but I think I can make a character without doing that. First off, we choose a playbook. Our options are Wizard, Demon, Cursed, Child, and Monster. 

Well, if I were actually playing this game, I would 100% want to play the Demon or the Monster. Let's assume we have five players and so the Monster is available. (The Monster's themes are all about finding healing and suffering consequences for past actions and move past them, and it's nicely escapist to play a story where it's possible to do that sort of thing.) Printing!

I appreciate that the playbooks can be folded into, like, little books, always appreciate it when PbtA games do that. Less enthused about the ink-heavy artwork on them and I wish there were an art-free version.

Right, so. The Monster is some creature of the wilds that "got their comeuppance" and was stripped of their powers. Ignoring for a moment that something that is not and never was human getting stripped of their powers and forced to be something they never wanted to be might not be quite the definition of "comeuppance" (but we're splitting hairs now), let's start with Look. 

Gender: This game, much like Sleepaway and Thirsty Sword Lesbians, treats gender as something more like a descriptor of vibe and less like something tied to sex (which only makes sense). The options they give us here are witch, demon, and beyond mortal ken. I'm thinking demon.

Eyes: I've always found black eyes (like, shark eyes, not shiners) very compelling as a way to make something scary, so I'll go with that.

Body: I think I want my Monster to mostly look human, so I'll say he's got the body of an old man (and pick "old body"). 

Clothing: Let's keep the theme going and say "tattered clothing."

Detail: I'm mean to explain who took my powers and how, why I deserved it, and what illusion I can no longer maintain. So I need to think about this a little more. 

My Monster's name is Dread. It was a demon lurking in the dark, watching, the shape just out of focus in the mirror that vanishes when you turn around or the creak on the staircase that you swear sounded like a footstep. Dread is (was) a demon of fear, but not a jump-scare, not the kind of fear that leaves you running screaming away. It's the kind of fear that you feel silly confessing to anyone, because you know ("know") that there's really nothing to be afraid of. Probably. Dread is the knowledge that something awful could happen, and the stupid little brain glitch that people have that makes them think if something can happen then it will. 

Before Dread lost its powers, it was a shapechanger, but never really had much of a defined form. It was usually humanoid, basically, usually bigger than you, usually just slightly dark and large enough to be menacing. It could slip between shadows, just out of sight, and pull attention from across a room or a street. 

And then one day someone called Dread out. (If I were playing this game, I would push for the Child to be involved, because it seems like a very Ghibli thing to have the Child dress down the Monster. As it happens, the relationships section requires the Cursed be involved, but without other players it's really impossible to get too specific.) They pulled Dread into the light and revealed it for what it was - something potentially dangerous, but not if everyone's watching. And Dread became an old man with tattered clothes, with hands that shake and a bit of a limp, and the only vestige of its lost power is those freaky shark-like eyes. 

Now, at this point, normally we'd do the Relationships and figure out why the Cursed brought me home and how the Wizard feels about that, but again, it's just me, so I'm pretty much done.