Character Creation: Rotted Capes

I swear, the next post I make won't be chargen.

(I mean, probably. I'm running Blades tonight, as far as I know, so likely that'll be the post. Not like there's anyone hanging on my every word anyway, but y'know.)

The Game: Rotted Capes
The Publisher: Paradigm Concepts
Degree of Familiarity: Not much, but not none. I played it at Origins some years back.
Books Required: Just the one.

Rotted Capes is essentially "Marvel Zombies: The RPG". It's your standard four-color supers setting, and then there was a zombie plague. Infected supers keep their powers and intelligence, but now they're zombies, and hungry for flesh.

PCs are assumed to be "B-listers," sidekicks, newbs, and minor heroes who survived Z-day and are now protecting small enclaves of survivors. I like the game; the system is involved but works well at the table. I just read over my write-up for the Origins game (it's here, if you care) and one niggle I had was that my character had trouble inflicting damage, but as it's been six years (good lord), I have no idea if that's something that would be pervasive.

Anyway, I have a concept. I want to play a character who can turn his body into stone, but only for as long as he can hold his breath. I think that's a nice balance between a super who's invulnerable to the zombies' bites...but isn't really invulnerable. Let's see if I can actually make such a character.

Step One is to pick a Power Source, which is basically, in very broad strokes, where you powers come from: inborn, skills, or tech. I want to be Super-Human, which gives me a +1 to Vigor. I also get to add a free rank to one of my starting powers, but if I were playing this character, I couldn't buy new powers without GM permission and a big in-game event. Cool.

Step Two is to choose an Archetype, which is basically what kind of powers you have access to based on a broad theme. I think my guy should be a Heavy; basically a Hulk/Thing sort of character. I get a bonus to Might or Vigor, and I have a bunch of powers that I can choose from when it comes time to do so.

Step Three is Disadvantages; these give me back points. I don't really like them, so I'm not gonna take any.

Step Four is to choose a Personality Flaw and a Tagline. I think it's funny that making up a catchphrase is a defined step, but making up a name isn't. Ah, well. I can take more than one Flaw if I want. In play they can be activated to give me Plot Dice. Let's see. I'll take Survivor's Guilt; we'll say my guy got caught out in a zombie swarm that claimed the lives of a bunch of innocent people, including his former mentor, Azul. He managed to hold his breath and stay in rock form, but he couldn't get to Azul before the zombies torn him apart.

Tagline, though. Hmm. My character isn't going to do a lot of talking in combat because he has to hold his breath to maintain his rock form. The temptation to make it "Let's rock!" (or perhaps "Rock, rock on!") is great, but I dunno if I really want to get that punny. I think I'll let that sit for a while and come back to it.

Step Five: Purchase Attributes. Okey-day. Attributes start at 3 (except Vigor, which starts at 4), and cost (next level) to buy up. I have 150 points in total, by the way. Oh, and I get a bonus to Might or Vigor - when does that happen? I guess now. I'll put it in Might, I guess.

OK, so I know I want high Might and Vigor. The level of an Attribute determines your base die; at 3 it's a d8, and it crests to a d10 at 7. If I want a d12, it's 11, though it looks like my max might be 9. Boosting Might and Vigor to 7 costs 36. Boosting Quickness to 5 costs 9 (45 spent). Kinda want Prowess up a little so I'm better at throwing; 9 more (54 spent), and I'll spend 4 and boost Insight to 4 (58). I'll leave the others (Charisma, Logic, and Resolve) at 3.

Step Six is Skills. Skills cost the same as Attribute, except you don't start with any. I can also buy skill sets, which give a suite of Skills for a price break. At this point I really need to conceptualize a little more.

OK, we know our hero was in the hero biz before Z-day. Let's say that he was a surveyor working for the city (which city? The City Where This is Set) and got caught in the crossfire between Azul and a villain called the Golden Ram.

This guy. Art by Pat Loboyko

My character got knocked to the bottom of a rocky crevasse and buried. He still isn't entirely sure how his powers manifested - something inborn, or something about the quarry? In either case, Azul took him under his wings and was training him in the fine art of super-heroics when Z-Day happened.

OK, with that in mind, I'll take the Student skill set, as I think it covers the basics of what he'd know.  That nets me Academics 3 (focus in Mathematics), Athletics 2, Linguistics 2 (each point gives me an additional language, so we'll say he speaks Mandarin and Urdu), Science (Geology) 2, and Technology (Radio Broadcasting) 2. That costs me 10 (68 spent).

I can buy more if I'd like. I think I'd better take Melee at 3, which costs 6. That puts me up to 74 spent; just about half. I may come back and buy more, but I want to do powers first.

But next step is Advantages. Advantages cost 5 points each, so let's see if I love any.

Oh, here's a thing: There's no slot for Advantages on the sheet, but there is one for Talents...which are not mentioned in the book. Oops. I assume that was just something they forgot to change on the sheet. Anyway, I like Toughness, so I'll drop 5 on that. Again, might come back later, but that's all for now (79 spent).

Ooooh, Step Eight! Powers! Woo! OK, first thing's first, let's figure out how to do my rock transformation. I could do this a couple of different ways; I could call it Armor, Invulnerability, or Resistance. Let me see if I can figure out the difference.

OK, so Armor gives me an armor rating. Invulnerability only kicks in when I take "massive damage," which is basically enough to stagger or throw me. Resistance is just highly specialized armor (I question the level of granularity, here). It looks like Armor gives me what I want, though - high resistance to damage. I also want super strength and extra hand damage, though, and I want all of this to only be available in rock-form, so let's figure this out.

I want Armor enough to suck up most incoming attacks, which means that my AR needs to be at least 10. The Armor power grants an AR equal to its passive modifier plus my Vigor's passive modifier. My Vigor's passive modifier is, at the moment, 3, meaning I'd have to buy Armor 17 to get to 10. But lo, I can also buy Enhanced Attribute! I'd still have to buy Armor at 12 to get a passive of 5, though. Is that feasible? If I put my bonus point into Armor (which happens after chargen, I checked) I could just buy it to 11. That would cost...66 points. That's maybe a bit steep, especially considering I have only 71 left. But if I don't buy it to 11, there's no point buying it higher than 8, which is where the passive mod changes to 4.

You know, let's try it. If I spent 66 and by Armor 11, I have 5 points left. OK, I'm trying to figure out Enhanced Attack and it makes no goddamn sense to me. All the power says is that if you're using it to augment a melee attack it does the base damage die of damage for the primary Attribute (Might, in this case), which is...I think what I'd do anyway? Like, where's the "Enhanced" part? I see that if it enhances a weapon, it bumps the die type up, but for hand damage it doesn't make sense, and the example characters are no fucking help.

OK, reading the combat section, maybe it adds that die? But if that's the case, why do you need to buy levels in it? Oh, wait, I think I figured it out. It's actually base power die (primary attribute), which should mean you multiply them, but it actually means you add them. As such, if I buy Enhanced Attack at, say, 3 ranks, I would add a d6 to my damage roll when punching a dude with my mighty rock fists. I...kinda want more, but bumping it to a d8 would require 4 ranks, which would cost 10 points, which is double what I have left, and I still want other stuff.

Ugh, I think I might have to reduce my Armor. Don't wanna. OK, fine. I'll drop Armor to 8. That only costs 36, meaning I'd still have 35 left. If I want Enhanced Attack at 4, that'd cost 10, so I have 26. If I want to buy Enhanced Might and Vigor at, say, 5 each, that'd cost 30, so I'd be 4 over. However, I want to apply the Linked Flaw to these powers, which I thought reduced the cost, but it actually bumps up the ranks (holy shit). So if I put my Armor at 7, I save myself 7 points, so I have 42 left. That means I can buy all of the Enhanced I want (Attack, Might, and Vigor) at 4, and still have 12 left. Jesus. I think, too, that the requirement that I hold my breath is a Limitation. Normally the GM would determined how many ranks that's worth. I kinda think it ought to be 2, but considering I can hold my breath for a number of ticks equal to Vigor x 10, that's a pretty good length. Of course I can't talk during that time, either...OK, we'll just say 1 rank. That means I get another free rank for each power, plus another free rank to one power once all is said and done.

(I am officially never going to be able to run this game for any of my groups unless I make the characters. Too much math.)

All right, so, from the top: Armor 9 costs 45. Enhanced Attack 5 costs 15. Enhanced Might 5 costs 15, Enhanced Vigor 5 costs 15. All of that together is 90...fuck, too much, I only have 71 going into this stage, so I need to pare down 19 points. Well, if I drop Enhanced Attack down to 2, that only costs me 3, so I save 12 points. Just need to save 7 more. Hmm. Could drop my normal Vigor down to 6, which would save me the 7 I need. OK, let's do that.

FUCK ME. That's a lot. Now I add a bunch of things, and I wind up with this:

Armor 12
Enhanced Attack 4
Enhanced Might 5
Enhanced Vigor 5

OK, so I fill in my Derivative traits, that's easy enough. Gear is next. And hey, I get specific stuff! Yay! I get a single firearm or archaic ranged weapon; I'll say I have a pistol, but it's only for emergencies. I get a melee weapon, and then I get a starter pack. Hmm. I'll take the Bystander survival pack, and as far as a melee weapon goes, I'll skip it - my guy would rather punch.

Awesome, just need a name and some personal details. His real name is Burhan Bao (his mother was Pakistani and his father was Chinese, but he grew up in the US and considers English his native language). He has black hair and dark skin, and looks more like his mother. His superhero uniform is loose-fitting gray cargo pants, gray slip-on boots, and a sturdy windbreak that he casts off when he's ready to go into rock-form. He calls himself Stratum; when he goes into rock form, he's striped like layers of rock in a quarry. His Tagline is just a deep breath, followed by the crackle of him becoming rock.

And that's me (finally) done!

Origins 2013: General Update and GM's Report Card

I started doing GM's Report Cards for con games a few years ago, and while I've never managed to recapture the magic of the one year that I played a bunch of games at Origins that were all fantastic and all well-run (seriously, lightning in a fucking bottle), this year was pretty spiffy. Let's begin!

We left Cleveland on Wednesday morning and got to the hotel without incident, with a stop at Grandpa's Cheese Barn because duh, Grandpa's Cheese Barn. We arrived at the hotel and Michelle picked up her trusty steed.

Wait, what? Well, Michelle had a little gardening mishap last week and sprained her ankle, and the doctor recommended against walking too much. As you know, "walking too much" is an Origins staple, so she got a scooter:

Scooty-puff junior? 

Meanwhile, we had dropped Sarah off at the entrance to the Convention Center with our booth stuff, and I met her in the exhibit hall to set up the booth.

Sparse.

 The booth in its larval form. I hadn't seen the exhibit hall during set-up in a long time, and it was kind of cool to see everyone unpacking boxes and getting ready for the craziness of the weekend. Little did we know, the craziness was already in the house.

Sarah and I heard a loud boomy kind of noise, but I figured someone just dropped a big box or a pallet or something. But then we saw that the lights were out in half the exhibit hall, and then they told us to evacuate. Whoa.

We went outside, figuring it was just a blown transformer (do not Google that phrase if you value your childhood). And then came the emergency vehicles.

All of them, I think.

I apologize profusely for catching this woman in this pose, I just wanted the fire truck.

So Sarah and I sat on the grassy knoll (not gnoll) and waited. And then we got bored and walked around to the Hyatt so we could catch up with Michelle. We eventually got back into the dealer's room and completed the booth:

Note no copies of Tragedy, which John helpfully drove down later that evening.

I was scheduled to play in a game of All Flesh Must Be Eaten, but it got canceled, so we went to dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse. On the way there, we saw protesters.

Because nothing says "God's love" like "passive aggressive emo violence."

I have no idea what they were protesting. Maybe us, but that'd be a first. Maybe Pride, but that's a couple of weeks away. Maybe just immorality in general. Michelle's comment was: "I want to walk up and tell him, 'I'll listen if you let her talk.'"

Anyway, after delicious meat-face (ever been to a Brazilian steakhouse? Let's just say it's not vegan friendly) we went back to the hotel and crashed out for the evening.

Next morning, I had a Games on Demand slot to run, but there were more GMs than necessary (this would be a repeated theme), so I wound up playing in a game of Psi-Run. Now, Psi-Run is available here, and I just bought it, and you should,, too. You're playing a group of psychic folks with amnesia, chased by sinister agents who want to bring you back. What's "back?" You need to delve into your own memories to find out (you make characters by posing questions about your powers, your weaknesses, and your past).

Our game was pretty darned cool. Three players: Myself, and then a guy and his son. The kid did pretty well with it; a little excitable, but not at all age-inappropriate, and he seemed to enjoy it. He wound up captured and we broke into the prison to save him, and all wound up captured, but then teleporting to the other guy's uncle's cabin in Vermont.

The GM made it cool, but unfortunately he was also the one kind of hosting the GoD booth, so he wound up getting up and dealing with GoD-related stuff, which made it hard to build any momentum. In a game that's basically a long chase scene, momentum is pretty critical. That said, one of the reasons is was so frustrating was because the game was so much fun, so that speaks well of it (like I said, just bought it, planning to run it for some of my players).

GM's Grade: B+

The kid is lying down because his character is unconscious. 

So from there, we got some lunch, and the Michelle and I got to play in a game of Rotted Capes. This is basically Marvel Zombies: The Unlicensed RPG. Well, that's maybe not fair, because MZ has a lot of backstory and tone that Rotted Capes doesn't, but it's still a mashup of super heroes and zombies. I'd backed their Kickstarter, and wanted to try it out. I got to play Arc-Lightning (or, as the character sheet, "Arch-Lighting"), an ex-super villain archer.

This game was a lot of fun. The GM wound up being a little late, having literally just rolled out of bed, but once he was there he kept things moving and responded well to player suggestions and craziness (and considering it was his first time running the scenario, I'll forgive him reading directly from the text). He knew the game well, and since Rotted Capes has a not at all simplistic system (it's not overdone, it's just involved), that's good. I was a little frustrated that while my character could hit accurately, damaging zombies was an issue, but that's maybe something I could fix with a few tweaks. Michelle really enjoyed the game, so I might wind up running it for my folks at some point.

GM's Grade: A-

That huge pile of dice is mine. They weren't all necessary. SHUT UP.

So then we got some dinner at the food court and I had to go back to Games on Demand, where I had priority since I didn't get to run in the morning. I had folks there (a couple of whom had played in Rotted Capes) who wanted to play curse the darkness, so who am I to argue?

The game was set in Cairo, and the characters had rigged up an irrigation system...only to see the Nile stop flowing (I know, right?). They investigated, but the first Removal Challenge came after they procured camels;  the beasts stampeded, dragging one of the characters down the street and killing him, which is our first camel-related fatality in curse the darkness.

The second Removal Challenge, though, came off with no fatalities and everyone making the essential choice, and they discovered a man in the Between, comatose, apparently keeping a big enough shadow Open to let the Nile flow into it. The Opener they had with them closed the shadow, and they rescued him. The story ended with more questions (like, how long had he been there and how'd he do that?), but that's how I roll.

Everyone seemed to have fun and a couple of them came and bought the game afterwards, so I'll call that a win. :)

Watch out. They spit. And kill.

 That was Thursday, then. Friday I worked at the booth for a little while in the morning, and then got some lunch with David and Filamena and their kiddos, which was nice. We had to get back for a game of Cold Steel Wardens, which I'd also backed on Kickstarter. No pictures this time, I'd forgotten my camera.

So, Cold Steel Wardens is based on Iron Age comics; Dark Knight Rises, Watchmen, and the kind of grim, grittier superhero stories that we all know and love. Characters, therefore, are supposed to be somewhat darker and willing to, y'know, murder. And that's all fine. I enjoyed the game and I'm looking forward to seeing it finished. I have a few issues, though.

First, the system (roll a dice pool of d10s, 6+ is a "hit", 1s cancel hits) has a lot of what Michelle rightly referred to as "design remnants". Things like 1s cancelling successes, which was a bad idea in OWoD and it's a bad idea in general, because it's a) one more thing to remember and b) makes you worse at things as your pool gets bigger. And the game has a lot of that, little extra fiddly things that could probably be cut in the service of focusing the game a little more. Which leads me to...

...the system doesn't serve the game very well. As is, it's a servicable supers engines, but there's very little in it that marks it as Iron Age. That said, I don't have a suggestion right offhand, but I personally feel that a game's mechanics should reflect what it does, rather that the game engine just being a physics engine and the game's text doing the work of creating the narrative.

Also, some (not all) of the characters we had were too derivative. Michelle's characters was introduced as "basically Rorschach." Well...that's kinda lazy. I mean, "inspired by" is fine, "like," is fine, but for one thing Rorschach is a complete bastard and he's hard to play, and for another, it serves your game better to make up characters that showcase the game well.

That said, my character was pretty cool - former EMT who developed the power of phasing and fought crime as Sawbones, wearing a surgical mask and a trenchcoat. I didn't like a lot of the flaws he was given, but the concept was neat, and lent itself to some fun tactics.

The game was basically "ambush the drug dealers and kill them," so we did that. The GM obviously likes his game, so that's nice. Five demerits for not letting us keep the character sheets, though.

GM's Grade: B

So then I worked the booth for a while, and then went to Games on Demand, hoping to run Demon: The Descent or A Tragedy in Five Acts. Problem was, while there were a lot of players, there were also a lot of GMs, and I wound up without a table. I knocked around a bit trying to find something to do, but in the end decided to stay up in the room with Michelle and watch a movie on Netflix and recharge. That was a smart decision, as it happens.

So then Saturday! I spent a lot of time in the booth on Saturday, as my friends Andrea and Corey got married at Origins (like, it was in the event book and everything), and Michelle and Sarah both wanted to go. I did, however, see Daredevil wandering around (though I assume he didn't see me).

Hooray for Blindy!

During my booth-time, I Tweeted a bit about wanting to run Demon. And lo and behold, someone hit me back and said he was available. I just had a game of CthulhuTech to play first.

Well, actually, no, it got cancelled, so we played Demon: The Descent that evening at the Games on Demand room. The game was fun; the Integrator betrayed everyone and gotten ripped to shreds by the Destroyer and the Psychopomp. And then said Destroyed exploded because he bit the head off an angel right after the angel had activated self-destruct (weird game). 

We finished up fairly early, and wanted to play Pandemic with our amigo and contributor to The Road to Hell on Earth, Jonathan Lavallee. But he was stuck in a game of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, as Rocket Raccoon.  

No, really.

Here's the thing about running Marvel: If your GM is sitting on 5d12 in the Doom Pool for an hour, it's time to fuck off and play Pandemic. So there ya go! We saved the world from disease. You're welcome. 

So then we hung out for a while, chatted about game design and our upcoming cyberpunk game, and then eventually crashed out.

And then Sunday. Sunnnnday.

I had the 9AM shift at Games on Demand again, and once again, lots of players, but lots of GMs. But I wasn't taking it lying down this time, and got a little more assertive about running, and boom! I got to run Demon: The Descent again. Four players, with very different spins on the characters than last time (they also glommed on to Agenda a bit more than the others). One player had to duck out early, so got stuck in a Solitary Confinement caused by a cell phone, but the others destroyed the Infrastructure forming on Port Angelus and then got the heck away before more angels showed up. The fellow on the right in the picture, by the way, is Peter Adkison, who was a lot of fun to play with.

Angels don't tap their feet to the music. Demons do. 

After that, it was all booth all the time until 4PM, when the booth closed and it was time to pack up and head out! We took turns doing some shopping; I picked up swag, which I will show you:

RPGs.

Board games.

Origins was good this year. Our first year with a booth, and so it was expensive. But the gaming was good, we got to hang out with some awesome people, and I'm hoping we can figure a way to get some booth space next year.