Character Creation: Spirit of the Century

Stew Wilson unwittingly contributed to this character, but I think his LJ is either deleted or locked, so you'll just have to take Jacob Diamond as read.

The Game: Spirit of the Century
The publisher: Evil Hat Productions
Degree of familiarity: None. I bought the game at GenCon last year, finally got around to reading it this winter, and it looks pretty damn awesome. I'm playing it next week at Origins, in fact.
Books required: Just the Spirit of the Century book. 

My first pulp character was a Shadow-type of dude. Not sure what I want to do here. Well, let's back up first.

Spirit of the Century is a lot like Adventure!, really. They both have the elite clubs of adventurers, and they have the same inspirations (Spirit of the Century even lists Adventure! as an inspiration, which is only right). The system is actually where the tag/invoke/compel thing comes from, which I was first exposed to in Houses of the Blooded.

Characters have lots of Aspects, which, in keeping with the indie game aesthetic (which I fully enjoy), can be just about anything that helps define the character. You wind up getting style points if something happens that hinders your character based on an Aspect, and that's so amazingly suited to my style of play it's not even funny. I love playing my character's flaws, but I want my characters to be awesome into the bargain.

This game also asks you to invite as many people as possible over to make characters, and then run games with whoever happens to be around - it's a "pickup pulp game." Damn, why didn't we have this back in college? This is basically how I ran Chill. Ah, well. Anyway, chargen happens in five phases, but before I start the process, I need a concept and an appropriately pulpy name.

OK, I wish to avoid being dark and shadowy, having done that with my Adventure! character. I think it'd be fun to play up some of the SCIENCE! aspects of the pulp genre. What if Indiana Jones had been a physicist? Or a zoologist? Or a botanist? Hmm.

My character is a biologist specializing in plants. That might not sound exciting, but what he's discovered is that there's a plant for every occasion. Herbs improve your dinner, your memory, your sex life, whatever. Some plants are poison, some are medicinal, some are just fun. As my influences, I see Dr. Seward from Bram Stoker's Dracula, Indy (duh) and Fink from Beerfest. This guy might be a nerd, but he's a party animal, too. His name is Edward Green, PhD., but call him Doctor Green.

Phase One: Background. This covers Green from early youth to about age 14. I'm thinking that his green thumb was always there, but it was mostly helping Mom with the gardening. Not just flowers, but herbs and other exotic plants. Dad was not sciencey, he was a brewer (though there's science there), and he instructed Ed in things like choosing the right wine (or beer) to go with dinner and blending in with different crowds. Ed did just fine blending in with the drunk, loud folks, but never quite got the high society types. But he was damned popular with his mates, since he had access to lots of free beer.

Green is American, and I'm thinking Midwestern. Probably Wisconsin, y'know? Did OK in school, but didn't mine his genius IQ until later. Did some hell-raising as a kid (blame the beer), but Dad had friends in the cops and his trouble pretty much got laughed off.

Aspects: Party Animal, In Vino Veritas

Phase Two: War. What is it good for? Huh. Not much, really. Anyhow, Green didn't fight in the Great War, not exactly. When word came down that folks were using poison gases, Green remembering his mother mentioning that certain herbs could be used to counteract poison. He started boning up on the subject, and discovered he had a real knack for biology. He finished secondary school early and went straight into college, doing research that (he hoped) would help save lives on the battlefield. During that time, he met up with a Centurion (member of the Century Club) who had taken ill from mustard gas and was hoping that Green could save him. Green worked tirelessly, but his patron (Captain Mark Bullion) knew that his time was up. He sponsored Green into the Club, and then passed on. Green never saw a battlefield except through Bullion's eyes, and as Bullion got sicker, he imparted a lot of knowledge to Green that was technically classified.

Aspects: Secrets of the Great War, "Every poison has an antidote!"

Phase Three: Novel. This is Green's first pulp novel! Yee!

Now, Green's a hard character to take center-stage with, honestly. This is where a little of the Indy personality needs to come in. Let's think. How about...

Dr. Green in... Secret of The Walking Jungle! Dr. Edward Green ventures down the Amazon River, looking for a mysterious copse of trees that, according to local legend, walks from one place to the next. He expects to find new medicines and folk remedies in the jungle. But he doesn't expect to find the man who killed his mentor, Captain Bullion, or a secret that could lead to worldwide famine!

Aspects: Collector of World Relics, The Truth Hurts

Phase Four: Guest Star. Here, I guest star in someone else's novel, which is why this would normally happen with a bunch of other folks. Since Stew is the only one doing this chargen exercise who's done a Spirit of the Century character (let's be honest, he's the only one other than me still doing it from last summer - y'all are slackers. Talking to you, Mark), I'll definitely use Jacob Diamond.

Jacob Diamond and the Black Dragon. Gentleman thief Jacob Diamond can hardly resist a challenge to steal the fabled Black Dragon, located deep within San Fransisco's Chinatown. But doing so requires undergoing the Spirit Tea Ritual, and Diamond enlists the help of famed herbalist Dr. Green to ensure his survival.

Aspects: "I can hold my liquor," Chemical Testing Apparatus

Phase Five: Guest Star, again. Same drill, different novel. Since I don't have another idea, I shall do something really wonky.

The Querent vs. The Men Without Minds! The masked crimestopper known only as the Querent seeks answers to a string of robberies and assaults committed by upstanding citizens, who claim to have no memory of their misdeeds. The Querent asks his questions of renowned scientist Dr. Green, believing that the Men Without Minds have been drugged. But will Green's curiosity about the drug doom them both?

Aspects: "I need to get a sample!", Brain Trumps Brawn

Skills: Now that I'm done with Aspects, I get Skills. I get one at Superb, two at Great, three at Good, four at Fair, and five at Average. Everything else is Mediocre. It's called a "Skill Pyramid."

OK, let's see the list. Obviously, Science needs to be my Superb Skill. For my two Great Skills, I'll take Endurance (high tolerance for drugs) and Contacting (beer opens many doors). Under Good, I take Fists (pulp game), Athletics (gotta climb trees to get the juicy samples) and Academics. Under Fair, I take Stealth, Survival, Resolve and Resources. Finally, under Average, I take Engineering, Gambling, Rapport, Investigation and Pilot.

Stunts: I get five of these. They go in trees, though, like Charms in Exalted, and a lot of the good ones are a few steps in. Let's look at my higher-ranked Skills and see what jumps out.

OK, obviously I need Scientific Genius (Botany). I also want Scientific Invention, though instead of taking Gadgets, I'm likely to be mixing nifty new drugs and herbal compounds.

Under Endurance, I really want Developed Immunities, but I need another Endurance Stunt for it. I think Tireless works well; I can see Dr. Green spending all night partying.

Finally, I take Walk the Walk, to represent Dr. Green's travels across the world.

And I believe that's it. Since I have Resources, I get a workspace equal to Resources - 2; Mediocre in my case. Since I want his to be a greenhouse, and therefore only useful for researching plants and related phenomena, that's worth Resources - 1 (or Average) instead. 

[ETA: Not sure what happened to the character sheet, have to rescan.] 

Character Creation: Slasher Flick

Insert the sting from your favorite slasher movie here. 

The Game: Slasher Flick
The publisher: Spectrum Games
Degree of familiarity: None. I've read it, and I have a passing familiarity with the genre.
Books required: Just the pdf of the game, which Cynthia Miller helpfully sent me. I said I'd read it and talk it up on RPG.Net, which I will, after I run it.

Slasher Flick is a nifty little RPG that, as the name implies, takes its inspiration from the myriad "dead teenager" movies that we all know and love. Players make one primary and several secondary characters, and the slasher him/her/itself is a force of nature, unkillable until a certain number of people are dead. Very much up my alley.

Technically, this should happen with the rest of the group and we'd be making the secondary characters along with the primaries, but you know how it is.

Step One: Getting Ready. I am ready.

Step Two: Assign Stereotypes. I like this; slasher flick characters should be able to be described in a two-word phrase. Since I don't have a Director to tell me the movie's setting, I will assume that it's a) modern day and b) a typical 80s-era slasher movie, with the killer going after horny teens who dare to fuck, drink, do drugs, and listen to the Devil's music. My stereotype is "bad-boy musician." I suspect I'll either die quite early on, or be the surprised survivor by revealing that I'm not such an asshole after all (see the remake of House of Wax for more information).

Step Three: Determine Stat Ratings. Stats go by die type (it's a pun, you dumb gopher) and lower is better, because you're looking for matches, not high numbers. My stats (Brawn, Finesse, Brains and Spirit) start at Poor, and can go up to Good. I get four stat boosts to use. I could, therefore, boost all of my stats to Normal, but screw that. I want high Finesse (I'm a drummer, which implies low Brains (any drummers in the audience can feel free to take issue with this assessment, provided they can read this journal to begin with oh snap)). So I'll leave Spirit and Brawn at Normal for now.

Step Four: Create Positive Qualities. I get four of these. Qualities add dice when they apply (or subtract dice, in the case of negative qualities, which are coming up next). I'll take Ruggedly Handsome (Spirit), Natural Rhythm (Finesse), Smooth Talker (Spirit) and Good Memory (Brains).

Step Five: Create Negative Qualities. I could take something like "asshole" under Spirit, but that's too obvious (and it's hard to play). I will instead take "Uneducated" under Brains. I only get one negative quality, incidentally.

Step Six: Perform Alterations. I bust out my needle and thread...wait. No, I get two alterations, which I can use to muck with my stats. I can also gain a special ability, which I would like very much.

An aside: In this game, you get genre points for doing stuff in-genre. Doing stuff in-genre will get you killed (in fact, getting killed gets you genre points), but the points are tied to players, not characters. That means when my drummer dies, I get two genre points that I can spend on secondary characters under my control (the reverse would also be true). One of the things I can spend these points on is a special ability for my drummer. I see this guy going head-to-head with the killer and getting in a couple of good hits before dying, so I'll take Adrenaline Boost.

My other alteration, I'll use to boost Brawn to Good.

Step Seven: Equip the Characters. My guy has drumsticks (literal drumsticks, not turkey), a gold chain around his neck, and a studded belt. That'll do.

Step Eight: Work Out Details. OK, first off, I need a name. Since he's my drummer, I'll call him Anthony (it's a movie reference, anybody get it?). I don't think he's going to live long enough to need a last name. I'd do links to other characters, but that would require some, and I don't have any. And then, tidbits. OK. Anthony rolls his own cigarettes. He loves classical music (but is ashamed of it). And he hates cats, to the point that he'll throw drumsticks at them (the Director should use this to kill Anthony). 

Character Creation: Exalted 1st Ed

Go make a sandwich, this'll take a while.

The Game: Exalted 1st Edition
The publisher: White Wolf
Degree of familiarity: I played a pretty substantial campaign back in Atlanta, and then another one when I moved back to Cleveland
Books required: While I do have a few of the caste-books kicking around, I'm sticking with just the core.

 
OK, when making Exalted characters, I always found it fun to pick their home society and go from there. My Eclipse character (Atlanta) was Haltan (though he wound up marrying Marukani nobility; I suspect he's probably dead now, since the other players in that game hate my guts), and my Twilight character (Cleveland) was from the west (Jale, the Sorcerer-King of Milash). So this time around, I'll pick... the South!

My character is nominally from Gem, deep in the South. Gem's a big city, built into the side of a mountain, but he hasn't actually seen it. His grandfather got into trouble with the legal authorities. It wasn't a criminal matter, exactly, but financial - Gramps got overextended. In order to make ends meet, he married off his daughter (my character's) to one of the city's militia captains. That guy (my character's father) shipped out into the desert, patrolling the southern keeps (if there aren't any, there should be) to make sure that nomadic tribes and monsters and so on don't get too close to civilization. My character was born in the blazing desert, at the moment the sun reached its Zenith.

Fast forward 20 years. My guy is still out in the desert, taking up with Dad and his folks. He hits his 20th birthday while out on patrol, and suddenly a sandstorm blows up. He gets separated from his patrol, and winds up in a dust devil so hot that the sand could sear flesh from bone. And then he finds the eye of the storm, and stares up at that sun. He raises his hands, there's a blinding flash of Essences, and he blows the sandstorm flat. And then he walks into the desert, Exalted, a Pillar of Heaven.

Step One: Character Concept. See above. Obviously, he's a Zenith. My problem right now is that I'm having trouble figuring out his concept and story arc. He feels generic, beyond the backstory. What does he want? Well, he Exalted in the middle of a crazy-powerful sandstorm. I think that the notion of a crucible is fun for him; he endures. He passes through the fire (of the Sun) and comes out stronger every time. I see his arc as a series of getting badly injured and then recovering (injury is nothing to sneeze at in this game, IIRC, because healing magic isn't easy to come by). So I'll take Survivor as his nature. I see his Anima banner is the whirling sandstorm and a wave of white heat.

And, this being a Solar character, if he goes nuts as he grows more powerful, he becomes the sandstorm - uncaring, unwavering, just pure destruction.

Step Two: Choosing Attributes. 8/6/4 split. Boy, tough call. Gotta go with Physical first, then Mental, then Social, though I might raise Charisma later.

Physical: Stamina 5, duh. I'll split the others evenly between Strength and Dexterity.

Mental: Even split, 3 across the board.

Social: One each into Charisma and Manipulation, and two into Appearance. I see him as very clean-cut. Shaved head, neat beard, trim features. Sand never clings to him, even after riding all day.

Step Three: Choosing Abilities. First I've got to choose my Favored Abilities. Well, I know I want Lore (Southerners are superstitious) and Bureaucracy (this guy's very up on the law, I think). I'll take Athletics because the Charms are cool, and I need at least one combat Ability, so I'll take Brawl because I see this guy as a no-nonsense kind of fighter. One more. I could take Investigation, kind of a "nothing hides from the Sun" sort of deal. Yeah, sounds good.

OK, now I get 10 dots to put into Caste and Favored Abilities. Nothing higher than 3 at this point. OK, I'll put 3 into Resistance, Endurance and Survival, and the 10th in Brawl. Right, now I get 15 more than can go anywhere. I'll put two more into Brawl, two into Athletics, one into Awareness, two into Presence, one into Bureaucracy, two into Ride (everyone rides in the south), two into Investigation and three into Lore.

Step Four: Advantages. Here's all the fun stuff. Backgrounds first. I get seven dots, but I can't go over three. I'll put two dots into Influence; he retains his rank in the militia, but he's not well-known in Gem proper (never having been there). I'll put two into Backing for the same reason. I'll take two in Followers (three surviving riders from my unit), and stick the remaining dot into Resources (savings).

Virtues. I get five dots to break up amongst them, and I can't go over four. I think Conviction is going to be this guy's high point, that and Valor. So I'll put two into Conviction, and one each into the others. I like Heart of Flint as a Limit Flaw, but I'm not crazy about the trigger. I think I'd rather have it have something to do with failing to withstand hardship. When people around him seem weak in the fact of obstacles that their lives really should have prepared them for (like, y'know, the sun if you live in the South), he might gain Limit.

And now, Charms. Oy. I know that the 2nd Ed really revamped these, and it's led to new terminology and "builds." And indeed, even in this book, there's a section that says "Better take Ox-Body, or you gonna die!"

You know what? That's bad game design. If there's a trait your character isn't viable without, then it should come standard, or it's nothing but a limiter. So I'll take what I think is appropriate and ask my non-existent GM to remember that this isn't fucking WoW.

Anyway. As it happens, Ox-Body Technique is very much in-concept here, so I'll start with that. And you know, fuck it, I'll buy three slots on it. I have lots of Health Levels. I'll take Harmonious Presence Meditation, not because I particularly like it, but because it's a speed bump to Majestic Radiant Presence, which I do want (that makes people have to roll Willpower to attack me, yo). That's five Charms. Sigh. They go so fast.

OK, under Resistance, I want Durability of Oak Meditation and Iron Skin Concentration. Actually, what I want is Adamant Skin Technique, but I can't quite afford it.

Better take some combat Charms. Sigh. I'll take Ferocious Jab and Fists of Iron Technique. That leaves me one more freaking Charm. Well, it'd be highly out-of-concept not to take Hardship Surviving Mendicant Spirit, which allows me to resist environmental things. So there's that.

Step Five: Finishing Touches. My Willpower starts at 5 (equal to my two highest Virtues). My Essence starts at 2, though I might raise it. I'll figure my Health Levels after I do...bonus points!

I get 15. I'll boost Endurance, Resistance and Survival to 5 (costing me 6). I'll put Brawl to 4, while I'm at it. I'll buy Graceful Crane Stance because it opens the door to so many cool stunts, and I'll buy 10 Magistrate Eyes, because automatic successes on Investigation rolls keep the game moving. That's all my freebies.

Health Levels: I'll take a -0, two -1, and one -1 and two -2, for a total of a lot of Health.

Essence: My Personal Essence pool is 11. Peripheral is 28.

My character's name is Hrun Aric (that's Aric of the Hrun family), but his followers call him "Sirocco".

As for his progression, I seriously suspect that his first "death" will involve his Backgrounds. They should all be stripped away, flayed like flesh in the sandstorm. And then at some point he needs to learn the value of armor. Likewise, I think the "protection from the Wyld" Charm tree would be a necessity at some point. Definitely a long-range character.

Also less of a hardass than a lot of the Zeniths I've seen. This guy is a desert soldier, it's just that now he has a higher calling than killing tyrant lizards. And he's not entirely sure what to do with that, but he needs to burn off the weakness first. I can see this guy becoming very Achilles-like in play, down the tragic end. But maybe he burns off that last bit of mortality, too.

Character Creation: Conspiracy X

The truth is out there, if that's not too cliché.

The Game: Conspiracy X Second Edition 
The publisher: Eden Studios
Degree of familiarity: I think I played it once back in Toledo. I made a DEA agent whose name and basic concept I used years later in my Werewolf chronicle. Other than that, never touched it.
Books required: Just the core. I have the 2nd Ed, pre-Unisystem version. 

ConX is a game about, well, conspiracy, government, and aliens. Lots of aliens. It's higher-tech and more sci-fi than I realized when I played it, and while that took a shift for me, I think it'd be cool to play. I especially like how you can bring the resources of your government agency to bear in order to hunt down aliens.

I will say, though, that the system looks freaky, and if I really felt a burning urge to run this game, I think I'd invest in the Unisystem version.

With that in mind, my first step is Create a character concept. I want to go a little, well, weirder than my last ConX character, who was basically in the dark (I think the one session we played was about learning about aliens and getting into Aegis). So since I'm making someone already part of Aegis, I want to play someone who's in deeper than is healthy. This guy started out following leads like a good investigator, but was probably more a data collector. If he was a cop, he'd be a beat, not a dick. He went down the proverbial rabbit hole, get mixed up with Aegis, and is now so far in that the only way he can ever get out again is to get deeper (if that doesn't make sense, go take a shot, then read it again. Repeat as needed).

Basically, kind like Cypher in The Matrix, but unlikely to betray anyone. Just wants to go back to sleep, but understands why he can't do that. He might be likely to succumb to addiction, except that the little robots in his blood won't let him. Yeah, he's got Atlantean nanotech. On a mission some time back, he walked through a swarm of the damn things (not sure why they had aerosolized) and inhaled them. Now he's got a big advantage, but he's even further into the weirdness than he ever wanted to be. He misses ringing doorbells and doing interviews.

That's a start. Now, Select physical and mental attributes. I like that keeping my stats average would cost nothing, not that I'm going to do that. I'll leave everything average except Perception. My character is observant; made him good at collecting data. That costs me 20 points. And, heck, I'll bump Willpower down to 2, which puts me even again. Everything else is 3.

Modify Luck is next. My Luck starts at 2 (Good) and 12 (Bad). On the one hand, I don't see Lady Fate fucking with this guy too much, but he did walk through a swarm of nanobots. I'll decrease Bad Luck to 10, but up Good Luck to 4. I'm still even, therefore.

Modify Influence. I start with one, and I think that my guy has developed some Influence just by dint of the weirdness that happened to him. I'll spend 15 and go up to Influence 2.

Choose credential. This is the group I work for. Hmm. As much as Secret Service, or one of the more exotic ones (like MKULTRA) appeal, with this concept I think I'll go FBI. My profession is Field Agent.

Pick traits. These are skills and professional trainings. OK. I can go to 1 or 2 in any Skill, but 3 or higher only in my professional skills. And then I get one skill that I can take at a higher level just due to personal interest, which is cool. OK, let's look at the list.

I take Athletics (Running) at 2, Computer Use at 2, Lockpicking at 1, Photography at 2, Small Arms: Pistol at 2, Stealth at 2, Video at 2, Brawling at 2 (one level is free), Drive 2 (one level is free) Occult (Numerology) at 1, Shadow at 2, and Cartography at 3. That's (hang on) 72 points spent. That does net me the Navigation training for free, because I'm good with maps (I see this guy's office hung with maps of crime scenes, "UFO" landings, and so on, and just recently he's gotten into numerology to see if that tells him anything).

Now trainings. I definitely want Awareness (3 points), Investigation (10 points) and Communication (10 points). That puts me to 95 spent. I'm gonna need flaws or something. Fortunately I get other traits that can give me CPs back. OK, right off the bat, since I know I want those freaky nanobots, that's gonna cost me 30. I want the Bio-Battery Energy System, specifically.

OK, need some negative traits. I'll take Deep Sleeper (10 CP; probably relates to the Atlantean stuff, though truth is he was always a log). I'll also take Watched (15), though my character doesn't know that anyone's watching him. And, to dovetail with that, I'll take Creature of Habit (5); he always eats lunch from a brown bag, outside if possible, and he gets really fidgety if he can't.

Let's see, where does that put me? At 95, believe it or not. That gives me 5 more. I'll take Media Leak. I can get information into the papers quickly by acting as an anonymous source. That sounds fun.

History and details. I did most of this. My character's name is John Rostov. Raised some eyebrows from older Bureau guys who remember the Cold War (his grandfather was Russian), but John's not really spy material. He never got to spearhead his own investigations, but he was second in command on a lot of them, and he's good support because he notices things that others don't. He doesn't, however, have an especially strong stomach and he sleeps like a brick, so he's not ready to go at a moment's notice. That kept him back.

And then one day, he dozed off on stakeout. When he woke up, everyone was gone. The agents he was with never returned, but Aegis came calling about what John saw (not much). John noticed that Aegis people's conversation was about aliens (they didn't think he could hear them), and rather than whip out the Mickey, they recruited him. The Atlantean swarm incident happened about a year later, and that's making John Rostov a strange commodity. 

Character Creation: Savage Worlds

I've been reading Conspiracy X of late, and a couple of people requested it, so I was all set...but I don't have a character sheet. And I have the 2nd ed (the one published in 1996), so most of the sheets I've found online are for the Unisystem version. So ConX will have to wait, but it'll probably the next one I do.

Today, though:

The Game: Savage Worlds
The publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Degree of familiarity: None. And oddly, I don't think we're playing any at Origins. I definitely need to play something with this system.
Books required: Well, see below. 

 
Savage Worlds, by itself, is a game engine, much like GURPS. It's designed for more action-oriented games, from what I can tell - pulp, superheroes, pirates, etc. The only setting I own for it is Low Life, but the core book itself gives a brief scenario at the back that's pirate-related. In the interest of making as many characters as I can, I'll do something for that, and then I'll do Low Life some other time.

OK, so, let's get to it.

1) Race. As far as I know, my only option is human, so let's do that.

2) Traits. I start with a d4 in my five attributes, and I get 5 points to bump them up by die type. Meaning I could have all d6s, but that's not really how I roll.

OK, forget I said that.

I'm leaving Agility at a d4 because I play jumpy/flippy characters a lot. Instead, I'll boost Spirit, Strength and Vigor to d6. That eats 3 of my points. I'll boost Vigor up 2 more, to a 10, because I picture my character as a not-entirely-bright young man who just doesn't know when to stay down. When the mates get really drunk, they take turns punching him to see if they can knock him down.

Right, now skills. I get 15 points to spread around. It'll be cheaper for me to buy up skills linked to Vigor, since that's my highest Attribute, but let's see what we got. Oh, wait, there are no Vigor skills. OK. I want:

Boating
Climbing
Fighting
Guts
Streetwise
Swimming
Notice

Buying them all up to d4 eats seven of my points. I'll buy up Guts and Climbing to d6, as that only eats 2 more (9 spent). I want a high Guts, so I buy that up to d10, which eats 4 more points since my Spirit is only d6 (13 spent). I put Fighting up to d6, since it's that kind of game, which eats my last 2.

Derived stats are next: My Pace is 6, my Parry is...weird. It's 2 + half your Fighting, but Fighting is a die. The example seems to take half of the maximum, which would make mine 5. Charisma is 0 unless I take an Edge to modify it, which I might. Toughness is 7, assuming I'm calculating this right.

3) Edges & Hindrances. Why don't these go before Derived Stats? Seriously, WW does this, too, and it's weird. Why do the derived stuff before the stuff that can modify it?

Anyway. I can take one Major Hindrance and two Minor, and then I can take Edges to balance or raise my stats. So.

I like that my character has been punched in the face too many times, and just doesn't know shit that he should. I'll take the Clueless Hindrance. But, he's willing to learn (Curious). He's also poor (Poverty) because he always eventually loses that "punch until you fall down" thing, but he hasn't quite figured that out yet.

Now, I get four points. I can raise attributes (2 points per die type) or buy Edges (2 each). I think I'll split the difference. Agility seems important, so I'll raise that to d6. That also means that that second die of Fighting only cost 1, not 2, so I have another Skill point. But can I do anything with it? Sure, I could raise Boating or Swimming by one, and since I'm a goddamn Pirate, I'll raise Boating to d6.

And I want an Edge. I'll take Fast Healer, seems appropriate.

4) Gear. Eh. I'm a pirate. I have a dagger, a set of raggedy-ass old clothes, a stripey bandana and only a few teeth. I'll say my guy has a tattoo down his back that he's never seen (woke up one morning, there it was, and all of the mates tell him to keep it covered - they won't tell him about it, either).

5) Other Details. I love how the book says that you can do these now, or just start playing and fill 'em in as you go. Like I said, it's that kind of game. Well, my dude's name is Petros. There was a Greek guy on the boat for a while, and he was impressed (and amused) by how my character (real name, Christopher Maspeth) could take a beating, and called him Petros (rock). It stuck, and Petros never really liked his real name anyhow. Off to blunder booty! Yarr!

Character Creation: Don't Rest Your Head

 OK, I want to make a character before I go help Andrea clean. I don't want to do a White Wolf character, since that's what my last one was, but I also need to make a character that isn't going to take too long.

As such, I'll go with:

The Game: Don't Rest Your Head
The publisher: Evil Hat Productions
Degree of familiarity: None. I bought the game on vacation, read it on the way back, and I full intend to run it sometime soon. But for now, let's make a character.
Books required: Just the Don't Rest Your Head book. 

 
DRYH takes place in a kind of in-between place called the Mad City. The mechanics of the game pretty much ensure that you're going to go nuts, which is fine. The tone of the game is kinda CoC, kinda Edge of Midnight, but not as much WoD as you'd immediately think.

Anyway, the characters are all insomniacs. Unable to sleep, their exhaustion has allowed them to unlock supernatural powers, and also to see doors to the Mad City. But there are things in the Mad City that would love to kill them, eat them, use them, whatever. And on top of that, odds are that whatever was keeping you awake is still an issue. Let's get to it.

First, we get five questions. Well, the thing at the top of the sheet is My Name Is..., so let's do that. My character's name is Tracy Carter. Most of his friends call him "Trace."

What's been keeping you awake? Money problems. Trace's family is broke, and he was working two jobs, basically 20 hours a day, to send them money. And then last month he lost one of the jobs, and started doing odd jobs for criminal elements. Running numbers, delivering "packages," whatever. Trace is quick and he's smart, but he's got no criminal initiative. He's not above a hit of speed now and again to keep him going, and he's been on a run for about the last week.

What just happened to you? Man, I love this question. This literally just happened, so the GM immediately has to deal with it. Anyway, Trace and his older cousin Mark just robbed a gas station. Mark pulled a gun, the idiot behind the counter pulled one as well. Mark shot him, he shot back, Trace shot, and they fell dead. Trace isn't sure who shot whom. He just ran. He's half a block up right now.

What's on the surface? Trace appears to be paranoid and twitchy. He taps his fingers together when he's thinking, he watches the exits, he tugs his ear and chews his lip till it bleeds. He tries not to talk because he can't stop once he starts (characters like this are exhausting to play, but that's appropriate).

What lies beneath? Trace is a loyal family man. He loves his mother and his siblings, and he's torn up about Mark. He'd never admit any of this, because he owes a lot of people money (I think we'll up that speed thing to a real addiction, because the heightened paranoia would be interesting to play), and he's ashamed of blowing money on speed that he should have sent home...but he needed to stay awake to work.

What's your path? Trace is a good-at-heart man who just got in over his head. Two people are dead. His prints are on file and they're all over that store. And he doesn't know it yet, but the gun that killed the clerk is in his pocket (see below). I suspect he'll probably go mad and kill someone out of paranoia who's really on his side, or perhaps OD trying to avoid sleep.

Set Discipline. Starts at 3. That was easy.

Choose Responses. When you break, you can either run or fight. I think Trace is more a runner (obviously), but it's not like he can't go nuts. So we'll check off 2 flight and one fight box.

Talents. I get an exhaustion talent. This is something that Trace could already do, but now he's supernaturally good at it. I choose hypersensitivity. Trace can hear your hair growing. He can smell aftershave from a block away, and he can read the print on a newspaper in the garbage from across a room (if this is too broad for my hypothetical GM, I'd narrow it to just hearing).

Now, I also get a madness talent. This is something that's impossible, a superpower that I get from invoking madness. For Trace, I'm tying this in to that gun that mysterious appear in his pockets. Trace can pull objects from anywhere, as long as he can picture them. That's good for pulling stuff from stores or old apartments or grabbing things that he doesn't want to carry. The bigger or more remote the object, the more madness dice I'd have to use. 

Character Creation: Dark Ages: Inquisitor

Really, it should be GURPS, because I'm playing that in about 2 hours, but I don't know GURPS especially well, so I don't think I'd have time to make such a character. Ah, well.

OK, I want to make a character, but it's got to be something I have an editable pdf for, since my office is a fucking sty and I don't want to clean it right now. That pretty much limits me to White Wolf games, which is fine.

The Game: Dark Ages: Inquisitor
The publisher: White Wolf
Degree of familiarity: Lots. I developed it, after all. I didn't outline or contract it (in hindsight, there would have been some very different hiring choices), but I pretty much chucked everything from the original outline that I felt didn't work and reworked it. Most influential writers on the book, BTW? Sarah, Myr, and Janet. Oh, and I've run a couple of one-shot and a very cool five-session detective story.
Books required: The Dark Ages: Vampire book, and the Inquisitor book, obviously. I may grab the Dark Ages Inquisitor Companion, which should have been titled the Dark Ages Inquisitor Catechism, but the brass at WW got scared of that title.

 

Deus vult! That means "God pole-vaults," or something.

Anyway, I enjoy playing religious characters sometimes. That may surprise you, but honestly, most of the time when you're playing a religious person in a game, you've got something to back up your beliefs. Clerics in D&D really can cast spells. Inquisitors really do have magical God-powers. For the most part, that's absent from NWoD, Lucifuge and Malleus Maleficarum aside, and I like that.

Right, so, concept. I admit, I've always loved the House of Murnau. As tempting as it is to play against my gut and make, like, a Sister of Saint John or something, I think I'm going with these guys.

Now, the House isn't a clerical order, it's a noble family that was subsumed into the Inquisition. There's a lot of contention about where the Murnau curse comes from, and there are hints in various books that it might have been an oath with the Fae gone wrong, or involved demons somehow, or something. My character, I think, was born with the Murnau gift, but he wasn't aware of it. While traveling abroad, a scion of House Murnau fathered a bastard child on a recently married noblewoman (her husband was decades her senior and quite impotent, but when she turned up pregnant it wasn't like he was going to admit that). Let's say this all took place in Tours, in the Anjou region of France, just because I haven't made a DA character from there yet.

Anyway, my character was born in 1213 (making him only 17 if we're starting in 1230, which is fine). Note that, according to Dark Ages: Europe, Anjou becomes "firmly part of France" in 1214 with the English defeat at the Battle of La Rocheaux-Moines. This also mentions Melusine d'Anjou, a powerful French vampire (Toreador, and one I always liked) running to England at this point. I think that she left behind a lieutenant, who took up residence in my character's house.

NAME NOW. We'll say the family name was "Gaudet," and his mother named him "Pons." Her lover, after all, came from a faraway land (not over the sea, exactly, but she's not the brightest of women anyway), and she always wanted him to come back and take her - and their son - to his exotic home. Truthfully, Pons' father was German and his home wasn't all that exotic, but y'know.

Anyway, the household was run, officially, by Pons' mother's husband, but in truth by a Toreador vampire. The vampire wasn't very good at keeping things low-profile, and liked to create ghouls of the staff and the pets, and generally made a crazy mess of things. As Pons grew up, he started realizing he could sense something wrong with this household. And then on the night of his 15th birthday, the vampire appeared to him and offered him his first taste of immortality.

Pons threw a rosary at him, and watched as it burned the vampire's flesh. Pons realized then that he was not just sent out amongst the wolves, he had been born to them. He took his horse and a few belongings and fled, and made it to a monastery which, fortunately, was home to some members of the Oculi Dei.

It took more than a year, but the Inquisition finally traced Pons' lineage and figured out that he was a member of Hourse Murnau. They don't want to send him to his father (who, as it turns out, is still out philandering), but they are very happy to have his skills in ferreting out ghouls here in France. At present, Pons lives in the monastery, but it's starting to chafe (and he refuses to take vows himself). He wants to go to Paris, or Poitiers, or someplace that he can be more useful. And, secretly, he wants to go home and clean up Tours. (And the hypothetical Storyteller should totally involve Melusine d'Anjou at some point, like when she comes home and finds that the house is in chaos.)

OK, that's concept. Now, I do Nature, Demeanor and Impulse. Impulse is tied to Nature. I see Pons as a Rebel. He's firmly against the concept of the clerical orders, and while he whole-heartedly believes in God, he feels that God isn't interested in the ritual so much as the result. That makes his Impulse Anarchism, which would be fun to play. His Demeanor is Celebrant - he grew up in a weird household, and he's glad to be out and where things make sense.

Step Two: Attributes. The White Wolf basics, with the 6/4/3 split. Pons is definitely a Social creature, while Mental following close behind. Let's say even split for 3 dots each in the Social Attributes, one dot each into Wits and Intelligence, with the other one in Perception, and even split in Physical.

Step Three: Abilities. 11/7/4. Well, living at home did nothing for him, but living at a monastery has let him discover his bookish side. I'll say Knowledges are primary, with Skills secondary. Talents are last; it's not that Pons doesn't have natural talent, but he's never really been whipped into shape. Still a little soft.

Knowledges: Two each in Academics, Hearth Wisdom, Linguistics, Occult and Theology, with the leftover in Politics.

Skills: Two in Etiquette and Stealth, one in Melee, Commerce and Ride.

Talents: Two in Alertness, one in Athletics, one in Subterfuge.

Step Four: Advantages. I get a dot in any Superior Virtue I want. Given how he got it, I'll take Zeal.

I get on Orison. I'll take Eye of Vigilance, as it allows me to stay up all night (handy when you grow up around vampires).

I'm full-blooded Murnau, so I have to take the Endowment (Legacies). For House Murnau, that gives me a Legacy. I'll take "Surveying the Devil's Flock" from the Inquisitor Companion. That allows me to know things about a servant's demonic master. I'll want a dot of Wisdom to really get the most out of it, but I don't have that right now.

I get 7 dots in Virtues. I pump 3 points into Self-Control and Courage (4 dots each) and one into Conscience (for a rating of 2). Pons is young and immature and a little fucked up, and he's more interested in being brave and smite-y than compassionate. That'll change. Or get worse.

Sadly, I get a Curse, now. For us Murnau, it's Maledictio. Let's be classic Murnau and take Allure of Gentle Hades. He stands out in a crowd, which is annoying, especially among vampires.

Oh, Backgrounds! I get five dots. I figure Pons lost his status and his Resources when he fled, but I'll take Exposure 3 to make up for it, and a two-dot Holy Relic (the rosary he flung at the vampire, which turned blood-red when it fell to the ground). I think I'd leave it the ST to figure what it does.

Step Five: Finishing Touches. I get my Courage + Zeal for Conviction, or 5. Same for Willpower, actually. My Piety starts at 6. I'm not Callous, therefore, which is good.

And now I get 21 bonus points. Sadly, I can't buy a dot of Wisdom with those. I can, however, buy up a bunch of Skills. I'll take one dot each in: Brawl, Leadership, Crafts, Etiquette, Investigation and Theology. My Area of Expertise in Crafts is Architecture. That's 12 spent. I'll buy up Intelligence to 3 (17 spent). I'll buy my Conscience up to 3 (which also raises my Piety), and I'll take two dots of the Mentor Background (the monks looking after me). 

And that's it!