Pulp is good for you.
The Game: Temples & Tombs
The Publisher: Gallant Knight Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
There are a few games like this - inspired by Indiana Jones, The Mummy, and suchlike - though not as many as you'd think. It's a natural fit for an RPG, really. The only thing that needs expanded is from singular protagonist to ragtag group of wierdos, and that's easy enough.
This particular incarnation looks fun; it leans hard into a failure on a roll being a loss of narrative control rather than a failure of that particular action, and that's fine as long as your players are paying attention. So let's make a character!
First we choose a profession. Let's see, last time I did a character for a game like this was, I think, The World of Indiana Jones. Temples & Tombs is mechanically much more my speed, though. Anyway, I think I'll go with Soldier. I dunno, I think it would be interesting to play the Elliott of such a group, if you'll pardon the Leverage callback, someone who's not really invested in the science and discovery of the situation but is highly invested in keeping everyone safe. (Actually, you know what? That's totally how Rick starts out in The Mummy.)
There's a slot for pronouns on the sheet, come on, everyone knows those weren't invented until 2019. Pfft.
Anyway, next, we determine age, which then determines points for attributes and skills. I think I want my soldier to be a veteran of the Great War (honestly if he's American, it's that or some very uncomfortable conflicts in Central and South America and no thanks). Assuming he was 18 when he went to war in 1917, that would make him in his 30s during the time this game is set, so that puts him "in your prime" for game purposes. That means I get 14 points for Attributes and 10 for Skills.
There are four Attributes: Grit, Quick, Wit, and Style. Minimum 2 (so why not say I get 6 points and start me at 2 in all of them?), max 4, except Grit, which is my key Attribute as a soldier and can therefore go to 5. Well, Grit would allow the kinds of feats of physical asskickery that I want for this guy, so sure, I'll dump points into that and take it 5. I have two points left (after putting everything else at the minimum) so I'll put one each into Style and Quick.
Skills! I get 10 points, but Skills can only have a single point, except the three associated with my profession (which are Fight, Endure, and Shoot), which can go to 3.
Well, I'll put a point into Fight, Endure, Feat, Drive, Shoot, Stunt, Scare, and Savvy. That's 8. I'll put another point into Fight and the last one into Endure.
I get to pick a Talent. Two of them have to do with ordering people around, so I'll pick the third. I don't roll Luck if I'm under threat of lethal violence (Luck in this game isn't a thing you spend to make things go your way, it's a thing you roll to see if things don't go your way, so it's better not to roll it).
I have to pick an ambition. There are a few examples, one of which is "protect the people around you." I like that, but I'll rephrase is as "save these lunatics from themselves." I picture my guy as being very pleased that he's not in a damn trench anymore, and wanting very much to get back to the relatively civilized world. I think that in play I'd ask to be the sibling of one of the other PCs to give him a good compelling reason to join in the crazy adventures.
My Income is Modest, that's fine. I'll skip the Institution and Relationship questions because those are group things and this is just me, though I'll note that if I were playing this dude I would push for the Institution to be a wealthy patron or adventuring society, something private and privately funded.
I speak my native language (English) and that's it, so apparently I didn't pay attention to the locals when I was in France. I get a bunch of stuff as gear: pistol, rifle, combat dagger, fatigues, survival gear. I also get a signature item. I'll say it's a letter from my girlfriend. She wrote me exactly once when I was away at war, and then I got home and she'd moved away and everyone was very tight-lipped about it. I think in play it'd be fun if she swung in on a vine or something as a rival adventurer, but that's just me. Her name Hope Sweeny.
That's all but the shouting, actually. My soldier's name is Humphrey Eckston; folks call him "Ecks" and that's really better than "Humphrey." He's from...let's say somewhere in Iowa or Nebraska or something. He and his brother joined up to get out of town, and while his brother discovered a taste for life and travel and exploration and adventure, Ecks got overseas, into a trench, and decided maybe corn farming isn't so bad. But his baby brother called him up and asked him to go on a little trip as his bodyguard, and when Ecks heard where this adventure was headed, he knew his brother was in over his head.
Ecks is of medium height, broad shouldered and kind of lumpy (he's eating better since being home), but he's still strong and fully capable of handling himself. He keeps that letter in a billfold in his jacket, and he reads it at night before going to sleep. His brother snatched it once and Ecks socked him right in the damn nose, so people pretty much know he's serious about his privacy. I think Tom Sizemore could have played Ecks, as a younger man.
That's it!
