Character Creation: Sufficiently Advanced, 2nd Ed

I'm on spring break, and I've got nothing in particular going on today, so I decided to do a character for a game I'm not terribly interested in since I have time to go pet a dog when I get bored.

The Game: Sufficiently Advanced, 2nd Ed
The Publisher: Valent Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I hasten to add, however, that there's nothing wrong with this game or its fantasy-based cousin, Sorcerously Advanced. I've read the first edition of this game, Sorcerously Advanced, and now this edition, and I have the same comments across all three: The game looks like it would be fun to play with a GM that understood the game and with a group that not only grokked the mechanics but was interested in the philosophical discussions that would comprise the game. I do not have such a group, and I have no idea how I would pitch this game, because the "game play" appears to consist mostly of deciding upon numbers and then using them to craft narrative.

That, of course, is the essence of most RPGs, but in most cases the dice decide the numbers for you, and that seems to make a difference. The idea of a conflict being a foregone conclusions just rubs me the wrong way, even though I know that's a big oversimplification of the game.

Well, anyway, the second edition looks a lot more polished and interesting than the first, as well it should be, so let's make a character.

Unlike 1st ed, there are several "universes" that one can use, each of which implies a different style of play and overarching game-world assumptions. Since I used the Patent Office for the 1st ed character (since that's the only one there was), I'll pick a different one today.

I like Sublight:

 That's a cool setup, I think. The process of chargen is thus:

So I need a concept. My brain is slowly coming back online (I started this process, and then was savagely attacked by a nap), so I think I'll let my old pal "Shuffle the iTunes" give me a concept. Just a moment.

Oh, well, that's perfect. That's "Black Sun" by Death Cab for Cutie, and it has this "everything is flowing toward entropy and therefore peace" vibe to it, which is highly appropriate for this setting. I think I want my character to be interested - nay, obsessed - with seeing how it All Ends. Traveling ever forward in time, 100,000 years at a jump (from his perspective), until eventually either the tech gives out or the universe does. But why? The lyrics also suggest some unspeakable sin somewhere in the past "There is grace within forgiveness/but it's so hard for me to find"), so that might be something to work in. 

I think that's probably enough to get started. Next step is to pick a Civilization. Note, however, that in this universe, Civilizations exists but Societies are more important. Oh, Disciples of the Void is perfect. Sure, it's designed for a setting with wormhole tech, but it works in Sublight, too. The Disciples believe that the universe has grown too noisy to hear the voice of God, so they go where there's true stillness to hear it. Since this setting emphasizes Society over Civilization, I think my character is probably an adherent, but mixes in the beliefs of the Disciples with (whatever I'm getting from Society). 

Speaking of which: I think I'll go with Hospitalers, folks that go from place to place to help out. That's a little more upbeat than I was thinking, but actually I like it - my character knows that All Things End, but just because we're all on that downward slope to Nothing doesn't mean that what's happening "now" isn't important. I think that sometime in his past he caused some great, maybe even planet-wide suffering, inadvertently or otherwise, and it's not so much that he's trying to atone (because what is "atonement" anyway?) as that suffering is, on balance, less desirable on a moment-to-moment basis, so why not try and reduce it? 

Right, next we choose a Neuroform. We're gonna go Baseline Dynamic (that is to say: I'm a dude with a body). Moving on.

Core values! This is pretty simple. I get Self-Preservation, because everyone does. I get two from my Civilization, and they're Privacy and Worship. I get one from my Society (Charity), which is my free pick, and normally I'd leave the fifth one blank and express it in play, but since it's just a chargen exercise I shall name the last one as Inevitability. 

And then I have to rank these 1-5, with 1 being "I'm not fully convinced" and 5 before "I will die for it." I shall put Self-Preservation at 2, Charity at 4 (has to be 4 or 5 under the rules of this universe), Worship at 2, Privacy at 3, and Inevitability at 4. 

Themes and Descriptors! (This game has a lot of Capital Terms.) Themes are metagame thingies that get activated in play through Twists, within a given, well, theme. I get to pick three and give them Descriptors. Let's see here.

Well, I know I want Wonder and Terror, but what about the third one? How about Romance? Probably not something that would come up in an actual game, but I like the idea that my character gives his love freely because, well, how can you not, in the face of the inevitable? 

So for descriptors, let's go with The Vastness of Space (Wonder), Dark Corners (Terror), and My Love I Must Away (Romance). 

Capabilities! These are pretty much what is says on the tin, generally revolving around various kinds of technology and the extent to which the character has assimilated it. Beginning at the beginning, I want Biotech 3, allowing functional immortality. Cognitech 3 sounds about right, that's when you start having weird enough dreams that they'll make you obsessed if you don't process them. Metatech 2 is fine; I don't see this guy as being able to do really out-there social stuff. I'll take Nanotech 2 because I think anything higher would be really hard to play and keep this concept intact...no, actually being able to read gravity waves plays into concept, so I'll bump it to 4. Finally, Stringtech can be 1 (he's no deadlier than any other person), but I think it used to be much higher. 

Expertise! I'll choose Professional for my Baseline Expertise, here, which gives me three Professions rated 1, 2, and 3. I'll take Courtesan 1, Explorer 2, and Spacer 3. And then I'll take the Omnicompetent Enhanced Expertise, meaning I get an automatic 2 in any situation where Expertise is relevant (basically I Know Things). 

Import and Tech! My Tech score is the average of my two highest Capabilities, minus one, plus one for my Omnicompetent, so that's 3 (([3+4]/2) - 1 +1). Import is 10 - Tech, so 7.

And that's everything but a name. The game suggests Japanese and Chinese naming conventions for the Disciples, but given that Society is more important in this universe, I don't feel too constrained there. Let's name him Sing. It might be a Chinese name, or it might be short for "singularity", or who knows. If he ever knew for certain the genesis of the name, he's edited that memory out, and in the end, it doesn't much matter. 

That'll do it! This process was definitely more intuitive than the last time I did this game, but I'm still in no particular hurry to play it. If I were still able to go to cons and I could try this out, though, I think I would. 

Character Creation: Sufficiently Advanced

Last character of 2018. I would like to say that I chose this game based on something in particular, but the truth of the matter is that I spent two hours organization my PDF game folders and then told Michelle to pick a number. The game I would up with is a far-future sci-fi game about folks working for a Patent Office in a universe where ideas and intellectual property are the only real currency. It's an interesting idea, and what the heck, it's a good enough game to end the year on.

The Game: Sufficiently Advanced
The Publisher: Valent Games
Degree of Familiarity: None. I'm reading it (there's a second edition, BTW, but that's not the one I have)
Books Required: Just the one.

In SA, you're playing Inspectors going on missions, which can vary pretty widely in their scope and tone, it looks like. Likewise, in different civilizations the Inspectors have different levels of authority, which is interesting; in one civilization you're like an FBI agent, in another you're just an observer.

First thing I need to do is pick a civilization. Hmm.

Oh, lord. One of the civilizations here was descended from the SCA. The one I was interested in (the Stardwellers) was descended from science fiction geeks. Ugh. OK, I think I'm gonna stick with this one, but I'll pretend I didn't read that goobery shit.

Well, I like this civilization, anyway. They alter their bodies to be more comfortable in zero-g, and they've got some weird modifications to themselves and their tech going on, and that's fun to think about.

So now I do Core Values. I get two from my civilization (Freedom and Diversity, so I guess the boring-ass white-guy side of sci-fi fandom died out, which is good), and then I pick two more (there's a list, but I can make them up). I then set their values at 0 to 10, my choice, which is cool.

Well, let's see. There's a mention of some Stardwellers never setting foot on a planet, and I don't think that's necessarily plausible for an Inspector, but I think my guy lived most of his life without going planetside. His feeling is that human beings tend to skew the atmosphere and ecology of whatever planet they're on, so it's more responsible to create whatever "planets" they want out of asteroids or artificial structures and ruin those (the thinking is that if you make a world, you can break it).

I'm getting a kind of self-righteous vibe, here. Entitlement is a value, so I think I'll pick that, but I also want one that shows off his commitment to letting planets and ecologies develop and change without screwing them up. I'll say "Non-Interference".

For the values (of the Values, can you dig it), they're arranged by what you're willing to do to preserve them. Like, at 6, you're willing to organize and even suffer jail time for others' rights. I'll put Freedom at 6, Diversity at 3, Entitlement at 6, and Non-Interference at 7 (he's very big on the whole "we have enough tech to build our own worlds, stop burning existing ones" thing).

Next up, we have Themes, which look really interesting. But, in order to give them scores, I need to know my Import (which is the number points I have to split between Themes), and I derive that from my Capabilities, which are the next step. Gargh.

Well, skipping ahead to Capabilities, then, I find that everyone has the same five (Biotech, Cognitech, Metatech, Nanotech, and Stringtech), but the ranges are determined by civilization. I'll take 5 in Biotech (I can lift half a ton, regenerate nerves and muscles - the thinking here is that I've got some bio-impacts), 3 in Cognitech, +1 in Metatech, 3 in Nanotech, and 3 in Stringtech.

So that puts my highest Capability at 5, which means my Import is 8, so I have 8 points to split up into my Themes. There are 6, so I can't make it even, but life's like that.

Oh, these get descriptors, too. I'll take Plot Immunity 1, with "Careful" as a descriptor). I don't see this guy as great with Intrigue, either, so I'll keep that at 1 and take Eavesdropper as the descriptor. Empathy, oy. Again, not something I see as this dude's strong point. I'll take it at 1 and take Honest as my descriptor. I'll take 2 in Magnetism - he's convincing and steadfast in his beliefs, and that's attractive (I'll take "Ideological" as my descriptor).

Oh, hang on, I don't have to take a rating in these. Um. Well, I'll skip Romance and take 3 in Comprehension, and take "Intuitive" as my descriptor.

All right! Then I have Professions. As with much of this chargen system, I get to choose my ratings, but the higher the ratings, the older I am. Of course, with my implants I'll live to be 200, so. I get a free Locality Profession at 3, too, because of my civilization. Cool.

So I'll take my Locality 3 as Offworlder (it's one of the civilizations). I'll take Engineer (Biotech) and Research (Biotech) both at 3; my guy is an expert at creating organisms and the biomes they love. I'll take Explorer at 2 and Outdoorsman at 1 (limited experience on-planet, but some) and Spacer at 2 (grew up in zero-g). I start at 10 years old and that's 29 years worth of training, so I'm 39.

I fill in my Reserve scores (twice the given trait), and then that's pretty much it! I need a name and so on, though.

Stardweller names tend to be invented or descriptive. My guy's name is Bestow (his parents were a little more religious than he is). Bestow is in perfect physical health, muscular, lush hair, perfect vision and teeth. He's aggressively human - a lot of Stardwellers have tentacles and other non-human traits, but Bestow figures that it's better to change the environment than oneself (I mean, in extremis; obviously he's got no problem with bio-implants). He's cool and quiet in demeanor, and maybe a little severe, but he's a good listener and he's not unkind, he's just not what you'd call friendly.

And that's it! Happy New Year!