Character Creation: Armageddon (outta here)

Here we are in the aftermath of another successful "scare the crap out of the dogs" day (Terri, in particular, was very disturbed by all the loud noises and curled up on our laps, trying to make herself as tiny as possible, which is getting to be no mean trick). Since the world is apparently coming to an end (just ask Terri!), it's a good time to make a character for a game about the end of the world.

The Game: Armageddon
The Publisher: Eden Studios
Degree of Familiarity: None with this particular game, though I'm pretty conversant in the Unisystem
Books Required: Just the one

Armageddon, in addition to being a movie starring Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck, is a game about the end of the world. It hooks into the Biblical perception of said End Times, but also Norse Mythology and probably a bunch of other shit, too (I haven't read the book carefully). It's meant as a possible successor to Witchcraft (which I don't own, strangely), or as a standalone game. I think I got the PDF in a bundle at some point, because if I'd bought it directly I almost certainly would have bought a hard copy.

Anywho, the basic setup here is that war has come to the world, flights of angels poured out of the sky and got turned back by the armies of the Acolyte (a kind of Antichrist-ish figure), Odin popped up and defended his homeland, and shit has got well and truly fucky. However, the book does point out that depending on where you are, things might feel more or less normal. Life is going on as it has in parts of the world that aren't directly affected by the war.

I feel like going overtly supernatural today, so I want to make an angel. I don't necessarily want to make a big ol' archy kind of angel, though, so I'll stay at the Heroic type of character. As far as concept goes, I like this:

I think the notion of an angel that can burn away the sins and crimes of humanity is kind of cool. The thinking here might be that he's able to provide some redemption for the followers of the Acolyte (or maybe he was demoted and cast down to Earth for suggesting such; I'll see where the day takes me). His name is Kerubiel, though he lets human acquaintances call him Kirby.

OK, that's a decent skeletal concept. For Association, that's easy, Heavenly Host. As an angel, I need Honorable as a 2- or 3-point Drawback; I'll take it at 3. I'm actually going to skip ahead to Qualities since I'm pretty sure I'll need to take one to make me an angel, and there might be other requirements that will change some decisions about Attributes or Skills.

Yeah, glad I checked. So, I can be an actual Seraph, which gives me a suit of dope powers, including flight and Celestial Fire and so forth, or I can be an Exile, an angel who stayed on Earth too long and lost access to the higher realms. Exiles are tough and nigh-immortal, but they don't have any of the more obvious powers.

Y'know, I think I'll say Kirby's an Exile. He wasn't exactly acting against orders by trying to redeem followers of Leviathan, but he kind of avoided his superiors' notice until he went native, and now they can't find him. He isn't sure they'd let him back into the Host if he asked, and frankly, he's learned that redeeming sin isn't as easy as burning it away.

OK, so I have to take Exile as a Quality. I'll go for the 30-point version, which means I'm an Exiled Common Seraph. That eats all 15 of my Quality points, my 3 points I got for Honorable, and puts me 12 in the hole (oh, wait, but I get 25 for Metaphysics, which I bet I can use - yep, so actually I've got 0 Metaphysics left, and I'm down to 13 Quality points).

Back to Attributes! As a Seraph, I get a buttload of bonuses - +3 to physical Attributes and +2 to Mental. They're one-for-one up to level 5, and 3-for-1 after that.

Well, 5s all around would cost all 15 of my points, but going to six in a physical Attribute would cost 5 points, and in a mental would cost 6. Hrm. I don't really see the need to go superhuman. It'd be cool to do, but I don't have a strong sense that one Attribute would be higher than another. So, sure, 5s all around.

Qualities and Drawbacks are next. I can take up to 7 more points in Drawbacks and 13 points in Qualities (I'm out of Metaphysics points, but there's not all that much I'd be allowed to take anyway).

I'll dump 6 points into Acute Senses for sight, hearing, and smell. Feels like an angelic thing to be hyper-aware. Four points in Attractiveness, 3 points into Charisma, and that's 13 points, but I want Fast Reaction Time, too, so that puts me 2 in the hole. I'll take the Showoff and Obsession Drawbacks (the Obsession is with Redemption, and it's less an obsession proper and more that Kirby can't take violent action as a first course; he needs to give everyone a chance to walk away and understand the stakes). That puts me two up, and I want Situational Awareness, which puts me even. I'd take more Drawbacks, but nothing really fits to me, so I'll move along to Skills.

Well, I want Kirby to be an effortless badass in a fight, so I'll dump 5 points into Brawling. Dodge is its own Skill, which is dumb, but I want to be good at it, so 4 points. 3 points in First Aid (Kirby used to be able to heal magically, but he can't as an Exile). I'll put 5 into Humanities (Kirby can debate history, philosophy, and so on with the best of 'em). I have to 4 points into English (ugh, stupid language systems) because my "native" is Prime. Let's see, that's...26. Balls, I'm one point over already. Anything else I simply must have? I feel like he should have some Notice.

OK, let's do this. I'll take a 3-point Adversary as a Drawback, and then take Notice 2. His Adversary is a Greater Seraph who Fell, and while Kirby doesn't know it, it's indirectly because of him. Kirby's focus on cleansing sin caught this Seraph's attention, and he tried to apply it to angels. Trouble is, the Seraph's idea of this whole process was "burn off the sin with pain and fire," and Kirby is more about "take away the infection and let your soul heal." The Seraph found the only source of fire that could burn an angel - and was subsumed by it. Kirby is aware it happened, but not why or how, and he's probably going to be very put out when he finds out.

Derived traits! 150 Life Points, 105 Endurance, Speed is 20mph (damn), and I have 90 Essence, not that it matters because I can't channel it.

Kirby has bright blue eyes, light brown hair, and he's slim and athletic, but not notably muscular (which is why it tends to surprise people when he does shit like outrun cars and restrain much bigger people). Kirby is first and last a social creature, and while he's more familiar with humanity than some angels, he's not human and he falls into the uncanny valley sometimes. He likes to put proud people in their place (which plays into his Showoff), but he'd never kill someone who has a chance of redemption. He absolutely refuses to pick up a gun or a bow, and only grudgingly handles knives (and only for utility purposes).

And that'll do it!

Character Creation: Conspiracy X 2nd Ed

Nothing like a sudden long-term vacation to help me get some characters done.

The Game: Conspiracy X 2nd Edition
The Publisher: Eden Studios
Degree of Familiarity: I played 1st Ed many, many years ago, but never this version
Books Required: Just the one

 

 

So! I made a character for a previous edition of this game way the hell back in 2009, which was also labeled "2nd Ed", but it's clearly not the same edition as this one because it's pre-Unisystem and this one is Unisystem, so who freaking knows.

In any case, the game's basics are the same. You're playing a member of Aegis (which is officially retired as a name for a protective agency, as far as I'm concerned. Masks can keep using it), an organization fighting against the various conspiracies and alien invaders. Very much inspired by X-Files and similar properties. One of the things I always liked about this game is that agents are recruited from a variety of other agencies and professions; my first character was a DEA agent (I remember that because I converted him for use in a Werewolf: The Forsaken game and he wound up as a Halaku).

Anyway, I actually have a concept for this. I want to play a character who's imprisoned. He killed his wife to cash in on a life insurance policy, got caught, and is doing life in prison. Thing is, though, he's got some specialized knowledge or skill that makes him useful to Aegis, so they pull him out when they need him and then put him right the hell back in slam when they're done. As far as the prison system is concerned, he's in solitary when missions are going on. If he dies on mission, they're going to set it up to look like suicide. He's already got his note written.

Of course, doing this means trading any possibility of parole, because no way is Aegis ever going to let him go. So he's basically swapping occasional furloughs for the possibility of ever being really free, but that hasn't quite sunk in yet, I think. His name is Roy Wheeler.

Cool, good start. First thing in actual chargen I do is choose Type, which is Pre-Heroic, Neo-Talented, Heroic, or Talented. Well, I need to keep an eye on what his special dealie is that makes him worth the hassle, so I think I'll take a little inspiration from Forest Whitaker's character in Species and make him Talented. That means I get 20 points for Attributes, 10 for Qualities (and up to 10 in Drawbacks), 25 in skills, and 15 for Powers.

I can take a Professional Package if I wish; let's see if there's one that applies. There is, in fact! Criminal - Violent. Perfect. That gives me Brawling 1, Dodge 1, Guns (Handgun) 1, Streetwise 1, Influence (Criminal) 1, Resources (Middle Class), Status 1, Adversary (Law Enforcement) 2, and Secret (Criminal) 1. I also get some Pulling Strings - favors and perks I can call on by dint of my profession. Chop Shops, Criminal Resources, Funding, and Safe House. Nice. That means I've spent 5 of my Quality points and 4 of my skills, so I guess I can just bounce right back to Attributes.

20 points and six Attributes to think about. I figure that prison life has made Roy tough, so I don't want his physicals to be too low. I'll put 4 into Strength, Constitution, and Perception (12 points), 3 into Willpower and Dexterity (18 points) and 2 into Intelligence.

Qualities, then! I've spent 5 points, so I've got 5 left. Likewise, I've got 3 points in Drawbacks, so I can take 7 more. May as well look at both, since they're in the same section.

Well, Covetous makes a hell of a lot of sense. I'll take that at 2. Fast Reaction time, likewise, is probably good. Never been sad about Hard to Kill, so I'll put 3 points there. Situational Awareness is also useful for a prisoner, so I'll take that (which puts me to 12 points in Qualities, so I'm even until I take more Drawbacks). Ooh, I'll take Supernatural Focus as a Drawback; that gives me 5 more points and means that supernatural shit tends to happen around me. That might be part of why Aegis likes me, I'm a good lightning rod.

Cool, now I get 15 points in Powers. Oh, wait, crud. I can't take Supernatural Focus and Psychic, so I don't know if that Drawback actually works. Hmm.

Oh, OK. So being a Focus allows me to use ritual magic, but the book doesn't seem to say if I can use Power points (of which I still have 15) to take the Rituals skill or the rituals themselves. Let's assume that, since the book does mention Focus under the Talented description, that I can, since there's really nothing else that I could spend the points on as a Focus. That does mean, though, I need a "Type" for Rituals. Let's say Goetic Magic, why not. Roy learned in prison, but he's always had an interest in the occult.

So if I spend 5 Power Points on Rituals 5, then I have 10 more to buy actual rituals, which are rated separately and can't be higher than 5. Let's take Summon Spirit, Bind Spirit, and Banish Spirit, at 5, 2, and 3, respectively. Sounds good.

So now I have 21 points in skills to spend. I want...

Brawling 2 (plus the one I already have)
Bureaucracy 2
Cheating 2
Crafts (Shiv) 1
Dodge 1
Escape 2
Gambling 2
Hand Weapon (Knife) 2
Intimidation 3
Lockpicking (Mechanical) 2
Notice 3
Occult Knowledge (Goetia) 4
Pick Pocket 2
Running (Dash) 2
Smooth Talking 2
Stealth 2
Streetwise 1

Uh, that's 35. Gotta trim that shit down a little (though I do actually have 5 more points from Drawbacks, so I only have to trim, what, 9 points). Let's see. I'll ditch Gambling and Cheating, I'll ditch Escape and Lockpicking, and I'll ditch Pick Pocket, which actually leaves me 1, and I'll hold onto that and see if any more Pulling Strings appeal. Oh, shit yeah, Accomplices. I can call in a specialist or just some muscle. Very nice.

OK, then derived traits. Life Points is Constitution + Strength (which is 8) times four (which is 32) plus 10 (which is 42), but then I get 9 more because of my Hard to Kill Quality (which is 51).

Endurance Points: Constitution + Strength + Willpower (11) times 3 (33) plus 5 (38).

Speed is CON + DEX (7) times 2 (14).

Essence is just the sum of all my Attributes, which is 20, because I didn't raise anything.

Roy is just shy of six feet tall, and built like a weightlifter (which he is). He's got a bunch of prison tats on his arms, but not his hands or neck (he likes being able to "pass" when he's on missions). He keeps his head and face shaved, and likes wearing suits and ties when he's on missions - it's not like he gets to clean up nice normally. He doesn't know it, but he's getting a reputation as being "spooky" amongst the other prisoners and guards, none of whom know why he gets sent to solitary so much.

That'll do it!

Character Creation: Ghosts of Albion

Happy Thanksgiving! In celebration of the holiday, I chose a game randomly (five bookshelves plus PDFs, roll a d6 to pick a bookshelf, five shelves on said shelf, roll a d5 to pick a shelf, and then just selected a game NOW YOU KNOW MY PROCESS TODAY)

The Game: Ghosts of Albion
The Publisher: Eden Studios
Degree of Familiarity: I'm pretty proficient with the underlying system, and I've played Ghosts of Albion once (at Origins, years ago, it was a pretty awesome time) but I am not familiar with the source material (in fact, I just now learned* that it was co-created by Amber Benson, who played Tara on Buffy)
Books Required: Just the one

OK, so the book begins with a nice little summary of the adventures of Tamara and William Swift, so as to tell us what kind of weirdness we're in for. Basically this feels very urban fantasy, and in particular it reminds me of Hellboy with a Victorian sensibility about it. I can roll with that.

The book invites me to play a member of the existing cast (nah), use an Archetype (also nah), or make my own character, and like, that's what this is, so that is what we shall do. Groovy.

(Side note: Some time ago I went through and printed off character sheets for all of the game on that list that had them, excluding stuff like PbtA games because the sheets are different for different playbooks, and then I alphabetized them and put them into my binder, but I can't find the one for this game so I had to print another. That's weird. I suspect I'll find it misfiled under a different letter, but I ain't flipping through all of them; it's quicker just to print another one out.)**

Step One is Type (much like other Unisystem games). Here our options are Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master. I guess I need a concept.

Well, I don't think I want to play a ghost or a vampire or anything like that...actually, hang on. I haven't made a vampire character for a game that wasn't Vampire or Vampire in a long time. The book says that "Apprentice" characters could be newly-dead vampires, so let's maybe try that out? I need to look up how this game handles them, though.

OK, so looking into this, good-guy vampires are extremely rare (like, there's one in the "canon", but he's an exception). Mostly, they're Victorian-style vampires, which means they're monsters (Copolla aside, Dracula was not a real sympathetic character). I'm fine with that, I just need to find a reason why my newly-turned vampire would be a good guy.

Let's name him Christopher Tennyson (distant cousin to Alfred, though he's never met him). Christopher's family is pretty much middle class, and he had just become engaged to a girl named Francine. He saw the life before him - marry her, work with his father and brothers, help care for his nieces and nephews, read his books, have children, live, die, be remembered. It comforted him, this gentle mediocrity. He had no ambition to become Poet Laureate or to seek the halls of power. Even his love for Francine wasn't fiery or passionate, but gentle and steady.

And then a vampire came to town and blew it all to hell.

The vampire - a beast with the unassuming name of Levi - murdered Christopher and two of his brothers, draining their blood and throwing them in the corner of the room like cordwood. One of them managed to slash the vampire with a knife, and somehow a bit of that blood wound up in Christopher's mouth. Christopher rose the next night, just as the Protectors managed to burn Levi to ash. They had no idea Christopher had turned, but Christopher came to them and asked to be destroyed, too. He had no wish to be...this.

The Protectors agreed, but they mentioned how strange it was for a new vampire to retain so much of his humanity. Christopher asked if that meant anything, and they said that, if he could keep that gentle, steady spark, he could be a force for good, protecting Albion's soul.

Christopher Tennyson never wanted such responsibility, but he found, as he thought about it, that the notion of being a Protector was appealing.

So that's some background, then. Let's put some numbers on it!

I get 15 Attribute points (though I happen to know that the Vampire Quality boosts a few, but that's later). I want a high Willpower, to help explain why Christopher isn't a monster, so I'll put that at 5. I'll put Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution at 2 each...and actually, I'll put Intelligence and Perception at 2 as well. Christopher was, in life, a pretty average guy.

Now, Qualities and Drawbacks. I can take up to 10 in Drawbacks and I get 15 in Qualities, but Vampire costs 15, so there ya have it. That also gives me a suite of other shit, so I'll note that down. And then I can take up to 10 points in Drawbacks, so let's do that.

Well, I think Naive is perfect for Christopher; that's 2 points. I also think Honourable is appropriate, though I don't think more than 2 points makes sense. Home Soil, over on the supernatural side of things, works because Christopher is such a homebody. That's 7 points total; I could take 3 more. I'll take Adversary 3 - not that Christopher knows it, but there are other vampires in England who are none too pleased that Christopher exists at all.

So that gives me 10 points to throw around. I'll take Status 3 (middle class) and that gives me Resources 1 for free; I'll spend one more point and up it to 2. That leaves me 6 points. I kinda want Christopher to have some overt supernatural powers, so I'll take Scale Walls for 2 points and Shadow Manipulation for 2 points (the latter just means I have a reflection and a shadow, which most vampires don't). 2 points left. I'll put them into Charisma; Christopher is a nice guy, and it shows (ignore the fangs, please).

Now I get 20 Skill points (plus I get 2 free in either Fisticuffs or Armed Mayhem, on account I'm a vampire). I'll put 2 in Art, 2 in Fisticuffs (for a total of 4), 4 in Influence, 3 in Knowledge, 2 in Languages, 3 in Marksmanship, 3 in Notice, and 1 in Occultism (he's learning, give him time).

I have 52 Life Points and 20 Drama Points, and that pretty much finishes me up. Well, quick description: Christopher is slim (like vampires often are). His hair is slightly reddish, his skin is pale (obvs), and his fingers are long and delicate. He used to smile widely and easily, now he typically keeps his smiles tight-lipped so his fangs don't show.

*I mean, the Ghosts of Albion book says "Amber Benson & Christopher Golden" on it, so I knew on some level, but I hadn't connected that name to anything until just now.**

**It's apparently a rambly day in Matt's brain, y'all.

Character Creation: Angel

HERE WE GO GATHERING NUTS IN MAY.

I don't know. I'm very tired and a little punchy.

The Game: Angel
The Publisher: Eden Studios 
Degree of Familiarity: I don't think I've ever played Angel specifically, but I've played Buffy and All Flesh Must Be Eaten and so on.
Books Required: Just the one.

 
Now, while I'm more or less familiar with the premise of the show, I've never actually watched Angel. At the end of the day, though, it's a procedural/supernatural drama, and I can get behind that. I was reading through the book the other day and there are creatures called revenants that are basically ghosts of murder victims that possess corpses. If they die, they possess the nearest body of someone who died by violence. As such, the person they really are isn't the person whose body they're in. I have a kind of concept already.

Marvin S. Draper was a fairly popular and well-regarded actor for a few years in the 90s. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for a film set in WWI called The Trench (very low budget, minimal sets, he played a young soldier from Idaho who breaks down before going over the top and gets shot by his CO). A year later, one project he was attached to fell through and another one was delayed, so he took a job on a TV shoot to fill the time and pay the bills. Walking back to his car after the shoot was finished, Marvin got grabbed by a vampire, drained dry, and thrown into traffic (the vampire may have thought he was covering his tracks?).

The weird circumstances of the death of Marvin S. Draper occupied the media's attention for nearly a full day, but if they only knew what happened next! Draper woke up in the body of Kim Veidt, a young woman shoved out a window by a demon. Draper wants to hunt down the vampire that killed him and the demon that killed her, but what he doesn't yet realized is that they two events are connected (I'd let my hypothetical GM play with that).

Sounds good! Over to the stat-bits. "Revenant" is a 17-point Quality, but I still have to pick my character type. I think he works best as a Champion. That gives me 20 points for Attributes, 20 for Qualities, a max of 10 in Drawbacks, 30 Skill points, and 10 Drama points.

Attributes first. I get a +2 bonus in Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution and a +3 to Willpower (these are all perks of being undead). I get 20 points here, meaning I could put all my Attributes at 3 and still have two left over. I think I shall put everything at 3 except Intelligence (2), and then put the extra points into my physicals, so that means Strength, Dex, Constitution, and Willpower are all 6, Perception is 3, and Intelligence is 2.

Qualities are supposed to be next. My Revenant Quality includes Regeneration (1) and Unique Kill (5), but also the 3-point Psychic Visions Drawback. I get 3 more points in Qualities, and then of course I can take 10 in Drawbacks if I wish (I guess just 7, actually). So! I'll take Artist (adds 1 to any two Mental Attributes, so I'll add to Perception and Intelligence), and 1 to the Art Skill. That's two points. And I'll take Situational Awareness, which means I get a bonus to notice things, but that also puts me in the hole one point, so I'll need a Drawback. I'll take Adversary at 3 (the vampire/demon thing somehow, but I don't know the details yet). That gives me 2 extra points, of course. I'll take a Natural Weaponry Quality - Draper's hands carry the Chill of the Grave, which does 3xStrength damage on a Grapple.

Skills, then! I get 30 points. I shall take 3 in Art (for a total of 4), 3 in Acrobatics, 2 in Crime, 2 in Driving, 4 in Getting Medieval, 3 in Gun Fu, 5 in Influence, 3 in Knowledge (Hollywood), 4 in Kung Fu, and 1 in Notice. Most of that is just instinctive stuff he's picked up now that he's a walking corpse, but some of it is retained from his life.

Last thing, I guess, is Life Points. I get 58. Undeath points, really.

So, Marvin is still in Kim's body, but he's Marvin - he calls himself Marvin, uses he/him pronouns, and dresses and presents pretty masc. He can play up his body's appearance if he needs to (he's an actor, after all), and honestly he's not really concerned about gender anymore - he's dead, gender isn't the most pressing issue. Kim was a black woman in her mid-20s, dark skinned with short hair (it doesn't grow so Marvin doesn't have to do much with it). Marvin favors black cargo pants and an army jacket. He carries a gun that he stole off someone, but if he needs to do violence, he prefers up close and personal, letting the chill of the grave do the work.

Marvin is still having visions about Kim's life, and he's avoided digging into it because he doesn't want to make things painful for her family, but someone pushed Kim Veidt out that window for a reason.

Character Creation: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Happy Fourth of July! Since our country is spiraling towards apocalypse in a manner so absurd that sometimes it's funny, let's do a game that has some dark humor in it.

The Game: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Publisher: Eden Studios
Degree of Familiarity: I swear I've played this game, but I can't remember if it was at a con or in a friend's home game. I know I've never run it, but I've run other Unisystem games.
Books Required: Just the one.

 
So, my Buffy-fu is woefully lacking. I've watching most of the first season and then assorted episodes after that (yes, I've seen "Once More With Feeling") and I'm loosely familiar with the show's progression. And look, I'm generally kinda over Joss Whedon. I was talking with some friends the other day and I forget who said this but I agree with it: In the 90s, Whedon was doing some pretty innovative things as far as diversity and feminism and whatnot, but that's more a commentary on how fucked up things were than how progressive he really is. And he hasn't really progressed much since, and sure, it's hard to hear that about someone whose work you like. I love Firefly, but there sure could have been more Asians in the principle cast. I loved The Avengers, but did Loki have to call Black Widow a cunt? (Sorry, "quim.")

Anyway, all of this to say, if I were to play or run Buffy, it might look a little more like Monsterhearts and a little less like, well, Buffy. Maybe a little less graphic sex and a little more focus on killing vampires.

With all of this in mind, we start with Character Type. Well, I don't like to play cross-gender very much so I don't want to be the Slayer (interesting footnote: the game book allows for playing Buffy, playing a Slayer who replaced Buffy, playing a weird situation with multiple Slayers, or playing post season seven where the rules are different, but not "there's a single Slayer but it isn't Buffy Summers," which is how I've seen a lot of groups play this game). Let's assume that we're in season one, because that's all I've watched, and that my character is a student at Sunnyvale High, but recently transferred from Cleveland (since Cleveland, canonically, also boasts a Hellmouth). That lets him come in with some occult knowledge already. Not a Hero, though, definitely a White Hat. His name is Sung Liu (family is from China, dad worked at a bank while mom went to Case, and they got the hell out of "the incident"). Most folks in Sunnyvale call him "Lou," and he notices the differences in pronunciation, but what the hell, it's not like he says all their names right, either.

As a White Hat, I get 15 Attribute Points, 10 Quality Points, I can take up to 10 Drawback Points, I get 15 Skill Points, and I get 20 Drama Points.

Speaking of Attributes, I get 15 points to divide up among six Attributes. The book helpfully informs me that I can go 3 at 2, 3 at 3 (for a pretty well-rounded character) or I could bump one to 4 and have another at 1 (for someone more specialized). I suppose I could also go to 5 for one and 1 for two, but seems unwise, having played this game.

So, let's think about Liu. He's smart and his parents (both pretty academically minded) pushed him to hit the books, so he needs a decent Intelligence. I think that that's going to be something he struggles with, though; he feels like all this pressure he's getting to make grades doesn't ultimately matter, because holy shit there are vampires. He still folds to his parents, his dad especially, when there's pressure. So I'm gonna spread my points out more or less evenly: 2 in Willpower, Dexterity, and Perception, and 3 in Intelligence, Strength, and Constitution (he's been working out more since moving here).

I could do Life Points, but I think I'll Qualities first. I get 10 points, plus I can take 10 more in Drawbacks if I want.

Well, it's hard to justify not taking Nerd. That grants me +1 to two mental Attributes, so I'll embrace my destiny and bump Intelligence to 4 and Perception to 3. It also grants me +2 to Computers, Knowledge, or Science (but I'll cross that bridge later). That's 3 points.

Since I'm here, I'll take the Obligation Drawback to represent my parents' influence on me. I'll take it at "Important," so that just gives me a point. I think I pretty much have to take the Teenager Drawback, so that's easy.

I want something cool and supernatural, so I'll take The Sight (I can see and sense magical shit). I'll take Situational Awareness (never been sad about that), which is 2 points, and then 2 points of Hard to Kill.

I could take more Drawbacks, but let's see if I'll need them. I get 15 points in Skills; well, really 18 because I have 3 points in Drawbacks at the moment. Oh, and then I get 2 more levels to one of three nerd-skills. You know what, let's just put Computers at 4 right now. That's 2 from Nerd, and then one more, so I have 16 more points. I'll put 1 in Doctor (I know first aid), 2 in Driving (no racist jokes, thanks), 2 in Getting Medieval, 3 in Knowledge, 2 in Kung Fu (sigh), 1 in Languages (Mandarin), 2 in Notice, 2 in Occultism, 3 in Science, and 2 in Sports. That's a total of 24, so I need to take 4 points in Drawbacks to make that work.

I'll take Resources as a Drawback, why not. His family was decently well-off in Cleveland, and then his parents had a dinner party for some of his father's associates. Turns out that the "dinner" was a front to induct his parents (and maybe Liu himself, he never asked) into the demon-worshipping cult that the folks belonged to. Liu discovered this and, while he doesn't like to talk about it, the house caught fire, one of the cultists wound up in the hospital after getting pushed out the window, and his parents wound up nearly bankrupt. Between his mother's student loans, the legal fees, and the loss they took on the house, Liu saved his parents' lives at the cost of their livelihood. (Heavy, man.)

Ahem. All that I have to do now is go refigure Life Points. I have 34 plus 6 from Hard to Kill, which makes 40. I also have 20 Drama Points because I'm a White Hat. If I wished to go and copy Combat Maneuvers onto my sheet, I could (they don't cost anything), but I don't, so that pretty much puts me done!

Pirates! Pirates and also zombies!

Monday was, actually, the Warehouse 13 game rather than the Pirates of the Spanish Main game, but pirates were involved, so.

Last time, the characters were out on the Isla del Rio de Muerte, and Blaine had met Zapata, the weird sorceress lady holding the gem we were after. We decided to head towards said lady, as promised, and let Memphis and Blue do some negotiating.

Well, sure. But as we got closer, Blaine started to solidify. Rather than risk coming under the full power of whatever this was, he elected to hang back. Charlotte wound up joining him when she realized her heart was beating (which is an uncomfortable sensation for a vampire).

The others, inside the temple, spoke with Zapata, and she revealed that she was trapped there. The characters offered to shut down the gem on her headdress, and she eventually agreed. She also showed them a locket with a picture of her (as a young girl) and her father...but her father was Shore, the man who'd sent us here.

Memphis goo'd the gem, and they started walking out...but Zapata got younger, and the radius of undead weirdness went with her. It envelope Blaine and Charlotte and they started to come to life again, but they backed up out of the circle. Along the way, the others decided they ought to goo the locket as well. When Memphis goo'd the locket, it sent off sparks and reacted the way artifacts do when you defuse them.

At this, Zapata faded away, passing along like ghosts do when they finally rest in peace. It became pretty clear that this was probably what Shore had wanted with the artifact. We got back to Miami and figured that Shore might have faded and passed on as well. Memphis called him...but nope, he was there, and invited her out for Greek food. She was keen to go, but we decided (after some deliberation, and by no means unanimously) that we would just head back to base and let Walt smooth over any friction with Shore.

Heading back, Raji asked Blaine why he hadn't allowed the gem to make him solid. Blaine replied that doing so might have placed him under Zapata's control, or done something else he didn't like. And besides, now the gem and the locket were in the warehouse...so now he knew where they were.

Pirates: Quick fight against zombies

Last time, the characters stepped off the boat on to the Island of the River of Death, and were greeted by a shambling horde of zombies.

The fight began!

Blue lobbed a Molotov cocktail into their midst and lit a few up. Raji followed suit, calling up Hellfire. Memphis grabbed her service pistol and started taking shots, while Charlotte drew her sword and sliced a few in half (the top halves kept wriggling, though...ew).

Blaine, figured he might not be a lot of help here, not having a body and all, teleported to where the gem was resting, based on a description from Blue. There, he found a woman wearing the gem in her headdress, flanked by undead mummy-like guards. She told him her name was Zapata.

Zapata commanded the zombies and the undead of the island, but seemed unaware that the zombies had reached the mainland. She agreed to try and rein in her creations and let the characters approach to parley. As they talked, Blaine felt himself growing solid. He actually had to open a door to get out, but the effect faded a moment later.

He returned to the group just as they were mopping up the last of the zombies. He told them about his meeting, and about how the gem had started to make him solid. They discussed options - yanking it away with telekinesis and dropping it into a bucket of purple goo - but Blaine reminded Blue that they'd made a deal with Shore.

Blue said, "I'm not a pirate. I made a deal. But you're a pirate."

Clever girl.

Warehouse 13: On a Boat

So! Last time, the agents rounded up some data on the rafts that apparently brought freaking zombies to Miami. This time, we tried to get prepped to go out to sea.

(To see what, Colonel? No, Penfold, he doesn't mean 'floated it out to see.' He means... sorry.)

We figured we needed a boat, so Blue called up Walt and asked if he had recommendations on a boat. He did - his fishing buddy George O'Malley was willing to take us. So Blue got in touch with him, and he mentioned that the area we were going to had a habit of flummoxing GPS and such (no shock). Blue contacted Walt again and asked if he had any handy artifacts. Turns out there was a grey marketeer in the area...

So that evening, we all trucked down to Shore & Shore, and met Alan Shore (look, this is not my fault). Shore, a lawyer (duh) met with us and Blue introduced him around the table. It turns out he could see Blaine, so Blue introduced the ghost as well...and he reacted.

They talked a bit, and it turned out he was familiar with the Island of the River of Death. He made some reference to being "beaten to death with a club and left buried in the sand," which viewers of the show might have found funny, because that's exactly what happened to the traitorous Jamison during our last Pirates story. Shore wanted to have a few moments with the "gem" when we brought it back, which was the price of his help. Blue wasn't willing to agree to that, but said she'd have to check with her superiors. Shore graciously left the room so she could do that.

Blaine immediately asked why she hadn't simply agreed to Shore's terms and then revised the agreement later as necessary. Blue answered that she couldn't lie like that; she wasn't a pirate or a lawyer. She called Walt and discussed it with him, and he said that he would back her play either way.

Shore came back in, and she agreed to his terms - they're retrieving a gem, and Shore gets a few minutes with it before the agents take it away. In return, Shore gave the agents a metal emblem with a likeness of Columbus. Blue picked it up, and immediately knew where true north was, and how to sail a ship. With all of this in mind, we left.

Blaine mentioned that he might have been to this island before, but wasn't sure. Blue said that might have been useful to know previously, and Blaine said that for him, memories of his life were like a dark pool - he could reach in and find something, but he was never sure what. Seeing something from his old life (like Shore, maybe, since he seemed to know Blaine) helped him shine a light into said pool, but it didn't help too much. He said that this was troubling to him - he hated not knowing about his past. This gave the others some pause.

They got outside, and Blaine went to go run an errand; he said if the ring he was anchored to got cold to the touch, they were to bring it to the monument where they'd first found him. He went and ran his errand, and that's all you get.

When he got back, he learned that the others had been handing around the emblem. It worked on Blue and Memphis, didn't do anything in particular for Raji, and burned Charlotte's undead flesh. Blaine, using Telekinesis to hold it up, didn't feel anything, either, so they concluded it just worked for living folks.

The characters spent the next day enjoying the sights of Miami. Raji and Blaine went to the beach, Charlotte slept and then hunted, Memphis called up Shore (she was kind of smitten) and met him for lunch at a deli, and Blue went to a bar and had boat drinks.

That evening, we all got on the boat and headed out to sea. Blue, holding the emblem, steered them true, and they arrived at the Island of the River of Death. There was a little dock, and a bunch of garbage.

Blaine teleported to the island, but didn't see anything. The boat docked and then let the others off, and we started going ashore, dead people first. And then we heard moaning coming from the island, and saw shapes a-shambling toward us....

Where am I? Miami.

Said the trigger-happy ex-girlfriend to the burned spy.

Anyway, last night was the first session of our second Warehouse 13 story. As we open, Memphis was doing computer things, Charlotte and Blue were practicing shooting, and Raji and Blaine were watching Firefly. Walt called us in for our briefing - we're going to Miami.

The situation was this. Three makeshift boats ran aground in Miami, carrying nine people (3 on each boat) from Cuba. They were dead, however. But then they apparently got up at the morgue and attacked people, and were shot. The doctor from the morgue was in a psych hospital. That's it! Go get 'em, tigers!

We flew down to Miami, and walked through the airport, Blaine noting that children here seemed to enjoy wearing plastic mouse ears for some reason. We decided we'd split up. Blue would go and talk to the police, posing as an INS agent. Blaine and Charlotte, being dead, decided to go the morgue and see if there was anything to find, while Memphis and Raji went to the psych ward to talk to the doctor.

Blaine and Charlotte found the exam room in question - it was taped off. They went in and looked about; still bodies in the drawers, and still blood and...green gunk...on the walls and floor. Blaine walked into the rooms across the hall, find an autopsy in progress and an empty office, so nothing outside of this room. Charlotte called Memphis for helped hacking the computer, and found that the Cubans (all with no names listed, obviously), had been brought in with evidence of being nibbled by predators and distended, green stomachs. The word "zombie" started to occur here. Blaine noted this society's obsession with paperwork and figured there had to be an incident report, perhaps kept on sight. Another call to Memphis, and we learned that the "zombies" had actually killed a guard, and the good doctor had taken his gun and shot the assailants.

Charlotte headed upstairs to wait for the others, and Blaine looked around a bit. He found the ghost of Joe, the dead guard, who initially told him he couldn't be here. He changed his form to be more "normal Miami guy named Steve" and less "pirate," and gently led the ghost into realizing what he was, and then asked him what had happened. Turned out the guard had dropped his gun, but his last thoughts had been of getting the doctor out safely. With that goal realized (she wasn't so much "safe" as "held for observation," but Blaine didn't see the need to split that hair), he vanished into a tunnel of light. "There's a sucker born every minute," mused "Steve," before turning back to Blaine.

Upstairs, Memphis and Raji were doing their thing. Raji called a contact of his in occult circles to ask about the dead returning and eating people. Zombies, sure, including the zombi created from voudoun poisons, but also ghouls, usually the result of curses, and more pack-focused than zombies. Memphis raised concerns that Raji was imparting state secrets to outsiders, but he assured her that he wasn't giving his contact any real information.

Memphis and Raji went upstairs to the psych ward, and Memphis talked her way into the ward with her "son", using a pseudonym and some TV hacking on her phone. She talked to Dr. Florentine, who told her that what she'd seen - bodies getting up off the tables - was impossible. Everyone kept saying so. Memphis convinced her (maybe, there were a lot of drugs in the poor woman's system) that she really had seen what she'd seen. She'd been cutting on a body, and all the others got up and rushed her. More evidence of a pack mentality.

Meanwhile, Blue talked to the local police. The lieutenant she spoke to (whose name I didn't catch) told her that the story about dead bodies getting up was obviously absurd; more likely there had been something going on between Joe and the doctor and there was a fight or something involving body desecration (look, that's flimsy as shit, but it's better than "dead guys bit me"). He showed Blue the "boats" they came in on, which were also flimsy as shit. They had a scrap of paper with notes in Spanish, and a diary, also in Spanish. She took these, and we all reconvened.

The scrap of paper was just navigation notes on how to get to Miami from Cuba. The diary was an account of their journey, which talked about sailing too close to la Isla del Rio del Muerte, or the "Island of the River of Death." Raji called around about that, and his contacts came up with pirate history. In the 16th century, two groups of pirates had fought it out over gold (or something) on this island. A century later, someone had supposedly raised the dead of that island, using a voodoo curse, to wreak havoc on his enemies. Blaine claimed no knowledge of this event; "I didn't know every pirate in the area, you know." Memphis opined that being a pirate would suck, stuck on a ship with no food but dried meat. Blaine said that it wasn't so bad, you just stopped and took on provisions at an island, or raided a ship. He mentioned that his boatswain wouldn't have allowed that anyway, being the decent fellow he was.

The diary, though, discussed one of the men getting sick after getting too close to this island. Something there started the illness that apparently led to the men becoming ghouls. The group decided that maybe going out to the island was a possibility, but how would the two mortals (Memphis and Blue) fare doing that? Would they become ghouls?

Questions for next time.

Warehouse 13: All the cows come home to roost

Monday was the exciting conclusion of our first Warehouse 13 story. The tagline is "Moo."

OK, maybe not.

Anyway, recall that last time, Charlotte was blood hunting the hospital, while the rest of us were taking the young idiot man we'd found with the brand on his shoulder to the ER. Charlotte got hungry and wound up stealing a bag of blood and drinking it, but then had blood all over her face. She grabbed some gauze and wrapped herself up to look like a patient, and tried to get out.

Meanwhile, Blaine and Memphis took the lad in. Blaine coached Memphis through the act of being a social worker, displaying a knowledge of both grifting and modern culture impressive for a ghost of his age (he watches a lot of TV). The attending doctor bought it, took off the goo-bandage (which I didn't mention last time, but it happened), and treated the wound.

Charlotte got herself caught by doctors, and then hooked up to machines and folks exclaiming she had no pulse. Blue told Raji to get her out, and Raji, true to form, pulled the fire alarms. In the confusion, Charlotte slipped out, and Blue, Raji and Charlotte went to one of the other boys' houses to find the coal pan.

They showed up and knocked on the door, and the boy's mother answered. She called her son to the door, who was rubbing his shoulder. Blue got him to show them the shoulder, and low and behold, a fresh brand...which was glowing red.

The characters sprang into action, got the boy out to the van and got him doused in goo to neutralize the brand before he caught fight. Then they took him to the hospital...but left Raji behind. He sneaked into the kid's room, found and pinched the coal pan, and got it to the van and into a bucket of goo (where the characters saw the characteristic spark shower - they'd found the target artifact).

After passing along the other branded kid's name to the sheriff (the brands stopped glowing after the pan was neutralized, so we didn't see the need to hang around), we headed back to base. Our boss showed us Mrs. O'Leary's Cow Bell, another artifact associated with cattle comas and other soporific effects. "What's that, then?" asked Blaine.

Next time, we're back on the ship!

Warehouse, session three

So, last time, we found this dead guy. This time, we figured we'd wait until dark, go get the brand out of Jimmy's barn, stick it in the purple goo, and get on with our lives. Waiting for dark, Memphis and Blue went and talked to the girlfriend of the boy whose prints we found on the signs on the cows. She didn't know where she was, but claimed he'd go to the tool and dye factory (that we'd investigated last time) to hide out.

Night fell. Charlotte, Blaine and Raji went to the barn. Blaine, as usual, went ahead, and heard a snort from a bull. The animal didn't seem to see him, so he shrugged it off and called the others up. They went toward the barn...and the bull started to glow, ass-first.

Not just glow, but catch fire. The rest of the herd charged toward the barn (and the others). Blaine manifested, scaring some away, and Raji changed to his demonic form and pounded a hole in the barn, trying to escape. Charlotte dodged the herd, and the fiery bull smashed into the barn. Blaine teleported in, telekinesis'd the brand out to Raji, and then we all got the hell out right before the barn exploded.

We explained all this to Blue, who wasn't pleased, but at least we got the brand and could neutralize it. Memphis contacted Artie, and told him we had the brand. He said, "Did you get the coal-pan?" Yeah. This artifact is a two-parter.

Since the only lead we had was the tool and dye factory, we headed out there again, and started looking around. We found the boy, in a sleeping bag. Blue, rather than take any chances, hit him with a Tesla to stun him.

He immediately caught fire, and started melting the sleeping bag around him. We managed to get it off him and calm him down. Turns out that he and some of his mates all got branded as a dare, but apparently it works on people like it does on cows. We took him to the hospital, since he has, y'know, a fucking brand on his shoulder.

While there, Charlotte went off by herself, sniffing the air. "Blood."

Holy cats, busy Sunday.

OK. Gotta do the game write-up from last week. Gotta do two movie posts, and then a board game post. And then I gotta write this Hunter thing. Here we go!

So, way back here we played through the first session of our Warehouse 13 game, off on an exciting quest to chase some cows. Something I forgot at the end of that session: the next morning, several of the cows had shown up in the town square, wearing signs saying "MEAT IS MURDER" and "I FART METHANE" and so on. Looked like some low-grade ecoterrorism, but it gave us something to investigate.

Blue called the sheriff and he came and got the cows, and then she roused the rest of us. Raji examined the cows (Charlotte couldn't leave the hotel, it being daylight), and found they were also coma-cows; slowed heart rate, just kinda lethargic. But that didn't give us any sense of where they'd been or what they'd been doing. Prints on the signs matched a youngster in town who had a record, but we couldn't find him or his girlfriend.

Memphis had dug up that Daniel Thompson, the missing truck driver, had whomped together new identities for his wife and son and put them a couple of towns over (not a very professional job). We talked about going to see her, but ultimately, didn't. Memphis dug into some historical records and called up some artifacts that might have this effect on cows. She came up with Mrs. O'Leary's cowbell, and a brand that, surprise surprise, has a similar shape to the Lazy S ranch.

So we went out to Jimmy's ranch, and Raji and Blaine snuck into the barn (well, with Blaine it's less "sneaking" and more "walking" because he's a ghost). Raji found several brands, including one that Blaine identified as looking older. But at this point Raji got caught and made some excuses about 4-H. At this point Blue and Memphis showed up and told Raji to get in the van, looking all stern and stuff, to avoid prosecution for trespassing.

Jimmy said that the brand wasn't in use, and hadn't been in his memory. We talked about ways to get it, but since Raji got caught and Blaine can't carry material things, we decided to send Charlotte back for it after dark.

From there, we talked about the logistics. If you were stealing cattle, and not immediately selling or slaughtering them, where would you put them? Memphis did some computer-ing and came up with a few places in the area that you could keep a herd of that size. One was an abandoned tool and dye plant, so we headed out there. Blaine, as usual, walked through the place to scout ahead, but apart from some litter and footprints that indicated it had been visited recently, nothing. No cows or evidence of cows, anyway.

Nearby, there was a trailer, so we headed out there as well. In that trailer, we found Daniel Thompson, hanged with an extension cord. It looked as though he'd been tied up, hanged, then untied in a half-assed attempt to make it look like a suicide. He didn't leave a ghost behind, though.

Blue called the sheriff to come and start processing this scene, and that's where we left it.

Warehouse 13!

The Pirates of the Spanish Main game alternates with this one. That is, we do a story of Pirates where we find an artifact, and then a story of this game where we recover it. That's the plan, anyway. Meet the characters!

• Jason Blaine, or rather, the ghost the thereof. The other characters discovered him haunting a seaside site in Florida, mystically tied to an anchor. Now he's tied to an iron ring made from said anchor. He's trying to adjust. 
• Clarissa "Blue" Bluemental, former agent of the Secret Service, now working for Warehouse 13.
• Memphis, the computer and research person. Also a fairly normal mortal. 
• Charlotte, a vampire. 
• Raji, a 14-year-old kid possessed by a demon. 

Excuse the lack of detail; we didn't do a lot of group chargen with these folks, and I don't have the sheets handy, so I don't know a lot of their history (other than Blaine, who's my character). 

Anyway! Blue gets the briefing from our handler - out in North Dakota, in a little nothing town, someone jacked a truckload of cattle. But one animal was left there, apparently dead, but it woke up when its autopsy started. This, apparently, "pings our kind of weird," so we suited up and headed out. 

We arrived in the town after sunset (which is good for Charlotte), and found the site of the wreck. Blue talked to the local sheriff, posing as a member of the department of Agriculture, and checked out the truck. Someone had shot it up pretty good, but there was no blood. Blaine flicked through the cab and looked for the sleeping compartment (prompting surprise from Blue that he knew about it at all), but found nothing out of the ordinary. The back part of the truck was gone, of course. 

Blue talked with the local LEOs and learned that this kind of thing happens sometimes; someone jacks the truck and then sells the cattle quick before word gets out. The rancher in question (Johnny Simpson) said that he'd had something of a lean year, and needed money fast because his boy got into Harvard, which was why he'd been selling at an odd time of year. We got the named of the driver (Daniel Thompson) - he was missing. 

We checked his house (Blaine, again, making use of the fact that he's invisible and intangible, walked through it), but nothing doing. Not much stuff there at all; it looked like the guy wasn't home much, which makes sense if he's a trucker. 

Meanwhile, Memphis, Raji and Charlotte had a look at the steer. It was alive, but its heartbeat was slow (we nicknamed it "coma cow"). Nothing else doing there. 

We ended up with Charlotte and Raji wandering the town looking for more weirdness, Blue and Blaine pretty much done for the evening, and Memphis searching via computer for where the trailer might have ended up. 

Character Creation: Terra Primate

Ook, ook. 

The Game: Terra Primate
The publisher: Eden Studios.
Degree of familiarity: None directly. I've read the bits of the book that aren't exactly the same as other Unisystem books.
Books required: Just the core book.

 

Well, as with All Flesh Must Be Eaten, the first thing I need to do is decide which "Apeworld" I want to use. 'Scuse me while I slide over to random.org for a moment.

OK, so I get the first one: Dominant Species. Hold on while I read it over. Got it; this is basically the classic Planet of the Apes, and the human characters are assumed to be visitors, whether spacemen, dimensional travelers or whatever. The option is there to play human-sympathizer apes or native humans, but I have an idea that I think will work.

The Apeworld says that the apes are afraid of water. I picture my character as being a sailor, maybe idle rich...but nah, people like that crack under pressure. This guy was a rebel billionaire type of guy, someone who made his own millions on the sweat of his brow. Owned a shipping company, I think. And then when his wife died, he decided he'd just sail around the world forever. So he's got his one-man boat, big enough to live on but not so big as he'd require a crew, and started sailing.

And then a couple of years later, he hit a squall in the Triangle. It blew him off course, and when it cleared, he'd run aground someplace he didn't recognize. He'd got no gas and the boat is pretty wrecked up anyway, so he went inland to find help. He found...apes.

These apes enslave humans, they're brutal and vicious, and they think nothing of burning a human village down if the humans don't capitulate. But they've got one real fear - water. They can't swim, they drown easy and they sure as hell don't know anything about boats. And that means my character can, with help, build devices to navigate the rivers and get the drop on the hairy bastards. Thing is, the apes know that now, and they want him dead.

My first step is to choose Character Type. In this game, I can be Pre-Heroic, Heroic or Powered (psychic, basically). I think that my idea works best as a Hero, so I'll go Heroic.

Next up: Attributes. I get 20 points. It's Unisystem, so we've got Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception, and Willpower. Well, this guy's pretty tough and determined. Average is about 2, so if I divvy up evenly I get 3 in each with 2 left over. OK. I'll make him exceptional (4 points) in Constitution and Willpower.

Skipping derived traits for now, sigh.

Qualities and Drawbacks. I get 15 points in Qualities and I can take up to 10 in Drawbacks. Well, right off I need the Minority Drawback at -3 because I'm in a world where humans are enslaved. I'll also take a 4-point Adversary - that'd be the ape military of the nearby city-state, who'd like me dead before I start teaching the concept of "Navy" to the humans. And I'll take Reckless; I figure this guy's been rich for so long he's not used to having to temper what he does or says.

Qualities, though. I'll take Charisma +5 - this guy's a born leader and always has been. He's gruff, but he's also sharp and likeable. I'll take Fast Reaction time; good for a sailor. Likewise, I'll take Nerves of Steel; he doesn't crack easy. I'll take 3 points of Good Luck. Finally, Situational Awareness. Good to notice the apes in the trees before they strike.

OK, that means I have 44 points to spend on Skills (35 normally + 9 more for Drawbacks). Here's what I come up with:

Brawling 2
Bureaucracy 2
Climbing 2
Craft (Carpentry) 3
Craft (Boat-Making) 3
Dodge 2
Engineer (Construction) 3
First Aid 1
Guns (Rifle) 2
Humanities (Law) 1
Humanities (Economics) 2
Intimidation 2
Mechanic 3
Notice 3
Pilot (Sailboat) 4
Pilot (Motorboat) 4
Running 2
Swimming 3

I don't have Powers, since I'm not...Powered, I just figure my derived traits. I have 38 Life Points, 38 Endurance Points, Speed 14 and 20 Essence (not that Essence means much to my non-Powered ass).

I picture my character in his early 40s. Crew-cut, brown hair, sharp blue eyes, Navy tats on his shoulders and in good shape for his age. Still wears his wedding ring after all these years (the cancer took his wife some years back). Missing his left front tooth from the boat crash that brought him here. His name is Earl Donald. His grandfather changed the family name from O'Donnell, back when the Irish didn't get a fair shake, and Earl kind of regrets not changing it back. As it happens, the apes don't care what his name is, they just want him dead. And all Earl wanted initially was to get home again, but these natives (and the other PCs, if there were any) are growing on him. Even if he could leave, he doesn't think he should.  

Character Creation: Army of Darkness

And now:

The Game: Army of Darkness
The publisher: Eden Studios
Degree of familiarity: Some. I'm reasonably familiar with the Unisystem, and I played AoD once at Origins.
Books required: Just the Army of Darkness book, which is very pretty. 

 
OK, so you can play the characters from the movie, but how lame. The book actually includes several variant worlds, one of which is a "Future Dead" world. It's the director's cut, where Ash sleeps too long and the world is a wasted holocaust when he wakes up. In the backstory given in the book, the Deadites emerged, everybody started nuking everybody, and there are a few thousand people left alive, mostly in London, living underground and terrified.

And that's where my character is living. He's been on his own for months, looking for other survivors, but he knows that Deadites can look human, so he trusts no one. He's tight lipped and he lies like a rug, because he's also aware that Deadites use personal information to get under your skin. He's got no family left (he's from Michigan, and was over in London on business when the world got weird), as they were from Michigan, which is pretty much demonized wasteland now, since it's where the infestation started. He desperately wants to connect with people again, though.

I see this guy as a Hero, though not an Experienced Hero (a la Ash himself). His name is George Drepps, but he goes by "Brock" nowadays. It was his dog's name when he was a kid. He just reckons it's not safe to use his real name. Brock was a big, strong, bulldog, so taking his name seemed like a good bet. What do you, the world is fucking radioactive?

I get 20 Attribute points. I want high Constitution (I'm still alive, right?). I'll put that at 5. Brock is damned hard to hurt. I'll put Strength at 4, and Dexterity at 3; both above average. That leaves 8 points for the other three. I'll keep Intelligence at 2 (average) and put Perception and Willpower at 3. Brock might have been smarter before circumstances forced him to eat rats.

OK, now 20 Qualities. I love Cinematic Uni. OK, right off, Buff Guy. I'll take the four-point version, which ups two of my Physical Attributes and gives me two free points in a physically-oriented Skill. I'll put my Constitution to 6 and my Dexterity to 4.

Fast Reaction Time: Yes, please. Two points. Hard to Kill, very yes. I'll take all five points. That's 11 points down, 9 to go. Natural Toughness, in keeping with my theme of being hard to hurt. Also Nerves of Steel - no reason it shouldn't extend there. 4 points left. Well, heck, let's dump two into Resistance (Demon Powers) and two into Resistance (Radiation). That's all 20.

Now, I can take up to 10 points in Drawbacks. I'll probably put them into Skills rather than more Qualities, but there are a couple that I know I want. First off, I want Mental Problems (Paranoia). Just 1 point, but Brock always assumes that anyone could be a disguised Deadite. I'll take Tragic Love; Brock might assume you're a Deadite, but flutter the eyelashes and he's ready to go to the mat with for you. That'll do.

Now, 20 points in Skills, bearing in mind that I get two free for Buff Guy and I've got 5 Drawback points that I could use here.

OK, I'll take a point in Computers. He remembers how to use one, but it's been a while. Two in Doctor - he holed up in a bookstore and read the medical section, and he's had to splint his own leg once or twice. One in Driving (again, been a while). Five in Getting Medieval - he's fond of baseball bats. Five in Gun Fu - he's American, so he pretty much has to know guns, this game being set in England, where they're all like, "I say, guns? Protecting yourself from intruders? Not here, old boy! We just let burg-u-lars take whatever they might wish!"

Or is that Canada?

Anyway, that's 13, but assume the 2 from Buff went into those, so I have 9 more to spend without touching my Drawback points. Knowledge 2, Kung Fu 3, Mr. Fix-It 3, Notice 5, Sports 1. Whoops, I seem to have burned my 5 Drawback points, too. Ah, well.

So, that's all, then! Brock is ready to enter the radioactive wasteland that used to be Earth, and fight off the Army of Darkness. Also look for love.

Character Creation: ARRRGH MY BRAINS

Although actually, if something was eating your brain, you probably would no longer be able to complain about it. Makes you think.

The Game: All Flesh Must Be Eaten
The publisher: Eden Studios.
Degree of familiarity: Some. I've run it a few times, played it a few times, and done a little teeny bit of writing for it (part of Worlds of the Dead). I'd like to do more, but I don't know what their production schedule is like and I'm kind of spoiled by White Wolf, believe it or not (or maybe it's just that I'm familiar with their brand of chaos). Oh, I also wrote an essay about running AFMBE.
Books required: Just the AFMBE book, though I might use others, depending on what I decide to do.

 
OK, so this is the game about playing someone when the zombie Rise happens. Easy enough, yeah? Except that the game is set up with a zillion "Deadworlds," allowing you to play that Rise with lots of different kinds of zombies, and lots of different time periods. And because I already made a character for a modern, Romero-style Rise (here), I'll pick a Deadworld randomly. Hold on.

The core book has 11 Deadworlds, so I'm going to skip the first one (it's basically the Romero situation) and roll a d10 to determine which one I get. A 3 gives me...Sacred Soil. Basically, the Rise comes from a chemical fertilizer, and so it started in the country and spread to the burbs, rather than starting in the city. Food is becoming scarce, and you spread the love by burying the body, rather than biting (in some ways, this is similar to the Deadworld I wrote). These zombies actually bury people that they kill, making more of themselves. Yeek.

I have three choices for character type: Norm, Survivor and Inspired. As much as I love playing Inspired characters, this scenario is more science-y, so I think I'll play a Norm. I want to play someone who's been watching all of this happen with grim fascination. He was one of the chemists for OrganoGrow, the company that started this whole mess. Actually, he was just a lab tech, not a real researcher, but he's still got a good handle on the science behind it. His present mission is trying to extract the chemicals from patches of soil, so that new food can be grown. Oh, and not getting eaten.

Second step: Attributes. As a Norm, I get 14 points to divvy up between six Attributes.
I know I want this guy to be brainy, but not a total weakling, either. I'll do it evenly (2 each) and put the extra two points into Intelligence.

Next up: Qualities and Drawbacks. I get 5 points in Qualities, and I can take up to 10 points in Drawbacks. I could use Drawbacks to raise Attributes, but let's see what jumps out at me. Other than zombies.

Right off, I see a Drawback I like: Adversary. My character stole files and data fro OrganoGrow, and the upper echelons want it back (rather, if anyone's going to solve the problem, they want to, so that they aren't perceived as the ones who totally fucked the world). I figure they're big, but they've lost a lot of resources since the Rise, so I'll make them a 3-point Drawback.

Because I want to survive, I'll take 2 levels of Hard to Kill.

I like the Honorable Drawback, but I'll just take the 1-point version. My character won't lie to you if he likes you, but can lie to strangers.

Photographic Memory's good; that's probably how he remembered what files to swipe. And I'll take Resistance (Fatigue); lots of all-nighters doing research and filling in data. Finally, I grab the Showoff Drawback - he can't keep quiet about his stolen data, which is why it's not a Secret.

That's all my points in Qualities, and I've got six points in Drawbacks to throw around. Hmm. I'll do the next step, Skills first, and then come back to that.

I have 30 points in Skills. Perusing the list, here's what I come up with:

Bureaucracy 3
Cheating 2
Computer Hacking 2
Computer Programming 2
Electronic Surveillance 2
Engineer (Chemical) 4
Gun (Pistol) 1
Notice 3
Research/Investigation 2
Sciences (Biology) 4
Sciences (Chemistry) 5

Looks good. I still have six Drawback points floating around, though. I'll use three to raise my Perception to 3. If I take another 2-point Drawback, I can raise my Intelligence to 5. That'd be nice. Let's check One of the Living and see if there's anything cool there. I find Weak Stomach. I think my character was a vegan before the Rise, but since food is so damned scarce, he can't afford to be fussy anymore. The sudden change in the diet, though, has left him a little shaky. That gives me the extra points I need.

Last bit, I'll do my derived Attributes. I get 32 Life Points (because of my Hard to Kill Quality). I get 23 Endurance Points. My Speed is 8, and my Essence Pool is 16, not that it'll matter much (I'm not Inspired).

Thinking about my character, I picture him as skinny, blond, mid-20s, just out of college and was looking to become a real researcher in chemistry. OrganoGrow offered him a good salary, and he took it up. In between poker games with his mates, he dug into their protected files. When the Rise happened, he chanced across the memo (it started small, in the country) and swiped copies of a bunch of their data. Now he's on the run, with some other survivors. He's always talking about how he could cure this thing, if he just had the right materials. His name is Nick Houser.