System 1.1

Some really good suggestions from the last post. To wit:

One thing that I was concerned about, and from the comments rightly so, is that there just aren't enough cards in one deck to use suit the way I was. In a 5-player game, if everyone gets dealt 8 cards (one for each suit, plus 4 in the Reserve) you've lost 40 of the 54 cards. There's a fair to middling chance that someone's not going to have a card of each suit, etc, etc.

Someone on my LJ points out that while my desires for the Memory system were pretty well defined, I didn't spend a lot of time talking about the way I envisioned other systems running. So let's think about that:

Where non-lethal conflicts are involved, I want players to be able to succeed if they want to. I hate the "chuckle behind the screen" model of GMing. I like torturing players with twists in plot and the eventual realization of the consequences of their own actions, when it's thematic (which it may not be here), but the point is, I like it when the players make the story happen. One of the reason I like GUMSHOE so much is that this is built into the system - you get the facts, but you have to figure out the truth.

So for curse the darkness, I want non-lethal conflicts' success to be mostly determined by the player. Failure is useful because it can be memorable, which can help the group later (after you die). Success is useful on its own merits. And I know that players might deliberately fail at a non-lethal action just to get a bad card out of their Action slot, especially if it's the kind of the thing that another player can pop in and say, "Hang on, I'm good at this" and throw down a king. And that's fine - I'm good with people using the system like that. That's what it's there for.

Ooh, I got it. I want non-lethal conflicts to help define characters. Tell you what I mean.

I'm playing a character who (currently) has a king in Focus. We find a survivor (maybe a new PC) who just popped through the Between and fell onto some debris, breaking his leg. Setting the bone is a Focus action, the GM sets that at 10 because it requires specialized knowledge and we don't have the right tools to hand, but again, I've got a king there. My character steps forward, says, "OK, calm down. I'm going to help you."

Now - why does my character know how to do this? I need to figure that out, because someone in the group is going to ask.

"How the hell do you know how to set a bone, Jack?" one of the other PCs asks.

"Well," says Jack, "Dad took us off the grid right after Jerusalem. We lived up in the mountains in Tennessee, and Dad taught my sister and I all kinds of stuff like this. Setting bones, what plants are edible, building fires, trapping."

"Cool," says the other character. "How'd your Dad know all that stuff? He in the Army?"

Jack shrugs. "Actually, I don't know how he knew. Dad wasn't the kind of guy who talked about himself."

We have now defined a great deal about Jack's life, and, you guessed it, this will be of great help later when he dies and folks need to remember him.

Now, right off the bat, I can see an issue forming: If I have a high card in a stat, I'm god. If I have a low card, I'm for shit. The fact that this can happen quickly is actually OK with me - you can get second winds, you can push yourself or run out of gas, and that's fine. But what I do worry about is that a guy with a King in Focus, for instance, is a surgeon as well as a genius and mapmaker and everything else.

So, with that in mind, here's a revised system:

You still have the same four stats: Focus, Stability, Stamina and Humanity. They still mean the same things. But each of those stats has a numerical value, 1 to 5. That's the number of cards you can have in that Action's slot. When you create a character, you get 10 points to spread out. For each point in an Action slot, you can put down one...defining point (I need a better name. "Scope" comes to mind, as in "scope of practice"). You can do these during chargen, but it's perhaps better to do them in play.

So let's take Jack, up there. He's got, let's say, Focus 3. When he tells his little history, I jot down "survivalist training" under Focus (that could also work under Stamina, if I wanted to double up, which is acceptable - maybe even advisable). This defines the scope of my training. It means that while Jack might be good to set a broken bone, he's not going to be performing appendectomies anytime soon, no matter what my active card in Focus is.

Also, having multiple cards in a given Action allows for better use of Refreshes. Offhand, let's say I can spend a Memory point to Refresh any given Action slot. I'd need to burn more Memory to Refresh all of my Action slots (that might also happen, as Jon suggests, when something important happens in-game - after someone dies might be a good idea).

And, obviously, one deck isn't going to be enough. One possibility is one deck stays broken down into suits, and one deck remains shuffled all together. I don't know what I'd use that breakdown for, but it's there.

Lethal Actions: OK, when you're taking a lethal action, it means you stand a good chance of dying or otherwise being removed from the game. As I may have said, mostly that'll involve dealing with Them, but getting into firefights with loyalists and the like works, too. So how's this gonna work?

Lethal actions have two phases, Exchange and Resolution. In the Exchange phase, you either win or lose quickly. If you win, you get to assign a suit to one of the four outcomes (which are, remember, escape but fail, escape and succeed, die and fail, die and succeed). If you lose, the GM makes that assignment. After an Exchange, the winner can attempt to force a Resolution.

When Resolution happens, the player takes a card at random from his Reserve. This determines the outcome. The odds are already stacked in favor of death, which I want, but this gives the player a little bit of edge - the GM doesn't necessarily know what's in the player's Reserve.

OK, so two issues right off the bat: 1) What if I have no cards in my Reserve? and 2) What if the Resolution pulls up a card that hasn't been defined in an Exchange?

Well, 1 is easy enough. If you run out of cards in you Reserve, maybe you automatically draw X cards. Maybe you draw the top card of the player's deck - or choose randomly from the GM's hand or deck. Either way, if you don't have a Reserve you have no idea how to play the Exchange.

But what if you Resolve but draw a suit that isn't defined? One option: The player defines it with one of the options left open. That might be good or it might utterly fuck you.

OK, we need to figure out how Exchanges work. They need to be quick, so let's make it a straight-up high card wins kind of thing. The GM puts down a card and says what's happening. The player puts down a card from one of his Action slots and says his response (this allows the player to either win or lose right away). The winner then defines an outcome, and can force an outcome by immediately playing a second card that beats the winning card (any suit).

Concrete example, for the love of God. OK, so let's say Jack slipped into the Between and now They are coming for him. This is a lethal conflict - Jack basically needs to get away before They catch him (once They catch you, you're done). The GM plays a 6 of hearts (suit is actually not relevant for GM purposes), and says, very simply, that They are slithering out of the Between and coming toward Jack.

I respond by playing a 7 of hearts from my Stamina slot. I say that Jack runs back toward the opening, hoping that it's still there and that I can make it somewhere safe. Maybe They won't chase me. I won the Exchange, so I get to define a suit.

In my Reserve, I have four card, three diamonds and a spade. I've obviously got the best chance of drawing a diamond, so I define diamonds as "escape and succeed." If I have an 8 or better handy, I can force Resolution. It's actually in my best interest to do that if I can, because I've got such a good chance of getting away. I play an 8 of something out of one of my Action slots, force Resolution, and the GM picks a card at random from my hand. If he draws a diamond, I'm home free - Jack gets out of the Opening, They don't chase him, and we're golden.

But that's too easy. Let's say the GM draws the spade. Spades aren't defined, so I now have to define them as one of the other three options. Assuming I like Jack and I don't want to make a new character (and you never know, sometimes it might feel like a dramatically appropriate thing to let a character die), I should choose "escape but fail."

This is a weird situation, in that "succeed" here means "escape", but I suspect that's really not going to be all that uncommon. OK, so moving on, I say that spades means "escape but fail." So I get to the opening, but They do follow me through. The circumstances have changed significantly (we're out of the Between, there might be more characters about, etc.). So what's happened, here?

Obviously if there's not an easy definition to the "succeed/fail" portion of the scene, then "fail" should fuck you in some non-lethal way. I'm OK with it leading to another lethal action scene, though maybe any cards already defined should stay defined? Like, Jack's outside, the circumstances are different, but we immediately enter a new scene but keep diamonds and spades the way they are? Yes, that favors Jack just at present, but that won't always be the case. Or maybe we enter a new scene and ditch the original definitions.

I think, at this point, I'm drifting beyond the level that pure discussion is helpful. Need to playtest.

Before that, I need to consider the important question: What do characters do? But that's another post.

More systems

OK, try this:

Each character has five slots on the character sheet. Normally, four of them can only have one card at a time (Actions) while the fifth (Reserve) can have any number. The PCs share a deck, while the GM has a deck all to himself. Both decks have both jokers. For sake of argument right now, let's call the four actions Focus (diamonds), Stability (hearts), Stamina (clubs) and Humanity (spades).

Focus: If you've got a high Focus, you can apply your mental faculties to the task at hand. Covers remembering facts, finding your way through an unfamiliar (or formerly familiar) area, performing medical procedures (though this might be combined with Stability), and coming up with plans. If you've got a low Focus, it doesn't mean you're stupid, it means you're fried, hungry, tired, whatever, and your brain just isn't online right now.

Stability: If your Stability is high, it means you're coping well with the world. Yes, it sucks, but you're able to push the horror of the situation out for now and do what needs to be done. You'd make Stability actions when coping with loss, blood, death, grief, addiction and things that just scare the crap out of you. If your Stability is low, you just cannot cope anymore, and you might get too loud, cry, feel suicidal or just shut down.

Stamina: Physical tolerance. If it's high, you can run, carry, lift, engage in non-lethal combat (like restraining a low-Stability PC), defuse a bomb (again, probably also involving Stability). If it's high, your muscles are burning, your lungs are bursting for air, your heart is pounding, or maybe you're just so fucking exhausted that you can't even lift your arms.

Humanity: If this one's high, you can deal with people. Not the people in your group specifically (but them, too), but everyone. You see humanity as worth saving, and you've got some hope for the future. You'd use this Action to convince people you don't know to follow a plan, to counsel another person through a tough time, and probably some other stuff I'm not thinking of right now. If you've got a low Humanity, you're being really misanthropic and emo. It's not that it's not understandable, of course. You're making tasteless comments about the destruction of Jerusalem or any of the other massacres that have taken place, and you just don't give a shit that your friend lost his wife because she forgot and crossed herself on impulse.

OK, so, you've got a card in each of these. The higher the card, the better you're doing. When the game starts, you draw X cards and assign four to these Actions, and keep the rest in Reserve. You cannot refresh the cards in your Reserve until it's empty (normally). It makes sense to start off with higher cards across the board, if you're starting from a place of strength and respite. If you're coming into the game already on the run, maybe having one or two low cards isn't a bad idea. Also, say I wanted to play a character who is a dedicated misanthrope, or has a physical handicap of some kind, or who has ADD and can't focus, or whatever? I might never put a card higher than 5 in that Action, and consistently fail those types of things.

Now, why would I do that? Because it'll make my character easier to Remember. It might not be the nicest thing in the world if the other characters make use of my character's Memory by calling to mind how he almost got us killed because his gimpy leg made him slow, but it's a legitimate memory of the character and it'll work to allow refreshes and whatnot. Actually, I'm getting ahead of myself.

When a character takes a non-lethal action, the player plays a card from one of the Actions. It doesn't matter what suit, though the number can be higher or lower as a kind of "setting difficulty." If all four of your Actions are low numbers, you're tired, wasted, emotionally beaten down and you're seeing movement in the shadows even if there is none.

It's possible for Actions to require more than one type of suit. For instance, say my character is trying to defuse a bomb, for whatever reason. I need Stamina to cover the manual dexterity of it all, but also Stability because I'm freaking right the fuck out (this assumes my character knows how to disarm a bomb, but I'll get to that). The GM says I need a 5 or better in Stability (not so bad; that's 10 cards that are successes and only 3 that aren't, not counting jokers) and a 9 or better in Stamina.

(Now this is actually a bad example because if the bomb goes off, that'll kill me, which is pretty much the opposite of a "non-lethal" situation. But I think what would happen then is that the situation becomes Lethal, and we make everyone who's not at a safe distance take a Lethal action, which we'll get to).

If you can't or won't play a card at difficulty, you fail the action. Failing a non-lethal Action cannot lead to a character dying or otherwise leaving the game. It can result in injury, card-caps, and a situation immediately turning lethal.

Card-Caps: Say you go to jump across a gap in a bridge and the GM tells you "take a Stamina action." He doesn't tell you the difficulty because it's dark and you can't see how far it is to the other side. You take a leap of faith, and are immediately rewarded with an object lesson in how stupid an idea that is. Your character falls and lands badly. Your Stamina is capped at, say, six. You immediately check your Refresh for a heart of 6 or lower. If there aren't any, another player can (but does not have to) donate one. If that doesn't work, you just don't have a card in Stamina and you can't take Stamina actions until you can heal up (until there's some kind of Refresh happening). If They choose that moment to pop out of the shadows and come from your group, you stand a much better chance of dying.

Refreshes: When the PCs' deck runs out of cards and one player runs out of cards in his Reserve, all discarded cards are reshuffled.

Players can use Memories to force a Refresh.

A player can spend a red joker to force a Refresh.

Memory: You can Remember a dead or gone character at any time. It has to be stated in character, however (in soliloquy counts). Example: The unfortunate bridge-jumper (let's call him Bob) from above died shortly thereafter; he couldn't run fast enough to get away from Them. My character (who apparently survived his ill-advised bomb defuse attempt), is sitting on a pile of debris, other surviving characters nearby. My character reaches into his pocket and pulls out a photo. "Bob's kids," my character says. "He gave me this picture before he jumped. I guess I forgot to give it back in the confusion afterwards."

Now, at this point, my GM gives me a Memory, probably in the form of a chit or glass bead or something.

Another player picks up the cue. "Did he mention their names?"

A third player glances down at her sheet. She's currently got a 3 of Spades in Humanity. "Who gives a fuck? They're dead anyway."

That's a dick move. If it's a big enough dick move - like, it changes the topic of conversation and we drift away from Bob and his kids, the moment is lost and we can't follow the Memory more, that player gets to make a Swap on her sheet, changing out a bad card (including that Humanity) for a better card in her Refresh. She doesn't lose the bad card, she just tucks it back into her Refresh. If the other players ignore her and keep talking about Bob, that doesn't happen.

But let's say she doesn't take the dick move, and says, "I know the older one is Andy. I can't remember the little girl's name, but I remember he said she was named after her aunt."

Holy shit. That's two more Memory points, and the player that asked the question ("what were their names?") gets one, too, for setting it up (which wouldn't have happened if the third player had shut down the conversation).

So obviously it's possible to get lots of Memory points for free-form conversation. It's up to the GM when a Memory conversation has run its course, but there will be some guidelines. But here's the deal about Memory - you can't just make it up. You can misremember details (maybe it wasn't Andy, it was Adam), but you cannot make up another character's story. And, the player cannot write down these details. The player has to be memorable enough in her portrayal of a character for the other players to be able to use that Memory later.

Yes, that means characters are going to blur together in a long game where lots of people die. Yes, that means players have to pay attention, put their goddamn phones down and stop texting, and interact. Yes, that means you need to think about the specifics of your character's situation and how to bring that out. And, yes, that means this game rewards freeform, conversational RP. All of those things are things I want for curse the darkness.

The GMs' Deck: The GM has one deck, but reshuffles as needed. The GM does not normally play cards during non-lethal actions, though sometimes characters will take contested actions and it becomes "beat this card" rather than "beat this difficulty." During Lethal scenes is where the GM really gets to use cards.

The GM has a hand equal to the (number of players) x 1.5, rounding up, so 6 cards for a four-player game. The GM, like the players, does not draw to replace lost cards - he needs a Refresh for that. The GM gets a Refresh when:

He's out of cards.

Someone ends a Memory conversation in order to better their own situation (the "dick move", which will need a real name).

The GM uses a black joker for whatever reason (the Refresh is just a bonus).

A PC dies or leaves the game.

Jokers: Red jokers are good for players. Black jokers are good for the GM. When a red joker comes up in a players' hand, he can do one of two things with it: Keep it or put it on the table. If he keeps it, it becomes part of his Actions or Refresh as usual, and beats any other card except a black joker. If he puts it on the table, any player can use it to force a Refresh for the players, or any player can use it in an Action (non-lethal or lethal). Any player who puts a red joker on the table gets a Swap, but unlike a Swap gained for a "dick move," a joker-induced Swap you can use to discard a crappy card and draw a new one from the deck (so it might not get better, but then again, it might).

If a player draws a black joker, it immediately gets passed to the GM, and the player that drew it redraws. The GM should immediately do something unpleasant to the character that drew the black joker; a temporary card-cap is one possibility. Whatever is done, it should relate to Them or the Between in some way.

If the GM draws a red joker, it immediately goes on the table for use by the players. Any existing card-caps increase by one (that is, if you were capped at 3, you're now capped at 4) as the characters get a second wind.

If the GM draws a black joker, he keeps it out on the table for future use.

Lethal conflicts: Hokay. I said before that lethal conflicts have one of four outcomes: You die but fail, you die but succeed, you escape but fail, you escape but succeed. Here's the deal: In lethal conflicts, the usual suit breakdown doesn't apply. You are fighting for your life, and so you are using everything you have available to you. Running out of cards in the players' deck doesn't force a Refresh during a lethal conflict, but using a red joker or Memory points will work.

If They are the opponents, usually everyone's involved because you can't really hide from Them. If you're fighting, say, a bunch of loyalists with guns, then it's feasible that one character might hide and wait it out, and is therefore not involved. If you're not involved, you can jump in, but until you do, you can't assist.

More on lethal conflicts when I return from Kai's first day of soccer. Meantime, anybody spots any obvious holes, punch through 'em.

Systems

So, I've been thinking about curse the darkness a lot lately. One of the things I've been thinking about is using cards as the random element, rather than dice. I know gamers like their dice, but I also know that you can grab probability from a deck just as easily as a dice bag, and I have some ideas about using suit and number that make cards more ideal for what I want.

The other thing I've been considering is that I'd like two types of conflict resolution. For the moment, call them "non-lethal" and "lethal."

A non-lethal conflict is pass/fail. You know the fact or you don't. You find the clue or you don't (and with all due respect to Robin Laws and the awesome GUMSHOE system, if the game goes off the rails because a player missed an investigation roll, the problem is with the GM, not the game). The stakes in this kind of conflict are non-lethal and, for the most part, binary. Yes/no, pass/fail.

A lethal conflict, though, has four possible outcomes: You escape and succeed, you escape but fail, you die but succeed, you die but fail.

That is, you've got a 50/50 shot of living through this, and a 50/50 shot of failing. This kind of conflict gets used for life-and-death conflicts, or, more specifically, conflicts with Them.

I want conflicts with Them to be a bad idea on the face of it. Unavoidable, sure, but if you're fighting Them directly, you're going to die sooner or later. That's why He was able to conquer the world so quickly - He controls Them. You can still "win" in the sense that you can achieve the goal of a given conflict, but odds are even that you won't live through it. And I want high mortality, here, which I know is going to turn some people off.

But see, here's the thing. One of the things I like about Chill is the lethality. Most creatures of the Unknown aren't vulnerable to bullets, and a lot of them can kill you easily. For people who are risking their lives because it's the right thing to do, that kind of lethality is appropriate. In a lot of games, it's not, because the protagonists are the PCs and so on. But in curse the darkness, I want character creation to be fast and life to be short.

I also want some kind of trait that lets people draw on your character memory after s/he's gone.

Anyway, just my thoughts for now. More coming.

Character Creation: Blowback

 Let's do this!

The Game: Blowback
The Publisher: Two Scooters Press
Degree of Familiarity: Ran it last night. Don't think I quite got it right, though.
Books Required: It's a one-book dealie. 

Anyway, I wrote a review of this game for RPG.Net, but I just submitted it so it's not up yet. In brief: Awesome game about disavowed spies. Influenced heavily by Burn Notice, which I've never watched. Definitely has a vision for what it wants to be, but doesn't communicate how to realize that vision clearly enough. Would very much like to read a detailed AP or play the game so I know what I'm missing.

But I do like the game, I really do. Simple task resolution, and the game really values planning and initiative, which I think goes undervalued in a lot of traditional RPGs (which assume that characters will walk into the plot and have it happen to them, rather than happening to the plot). The characters come up with a plan, first to find information and set themselves up for the eventual Operation, and then for the Operation itself.

The game asks that everyone create both a Professional and a Civilian. These two characters aren't directly connected, rather, you'd be connected to other folks' characters through Relationships. I'm going to make one of each type, but I'm not going to do Relationships, because that'd be a group chargen kind of thing. It's also going to make this go a lot faster. :)

OK, so, Professional first. I have two choices: Lifer or Artists. Lifers are more general, while Artists are quite specialized. I'm going to create an Artist, which gives me one skill at 5, one at 2 and one at 1.

Here's the thing: the Skills are Pavement, Diversion, Commando and Provocateur. Each of those can be used in a variety of ways. I know I want my character to be a surveillance expert. He's a hacker, kinda, but his real love is on watching people, planting bugs, and learning the little, embarrassing things that they do when they think no one's around. As such, I'm putting my 5-dot Skill into Pavement. I'll put my 2-dot into Commando - sometimes you have to choke someone out and leave them to get away clean. I'll put my one-dot into Diversion. He can find a good stash-place for weapons and the like, and he can attract attention if need be. What he's not good at, at all, is the whole "con artist" aspect of the job. Meeting people, making friends...just makes him feel sticky. His name is Emory Winstead, by the way, but he goes by Em. Other folks have called him "Bug" or "Stick," both because he's adept at planting bugs and because he raise stick insects. He's got more than a passing interest in etymology.

OK, that's Skills. Let's do his Profile. This is meant to be written about him, not by him, and written by the Agency. So let's say: Subject will work to uncover the most personal details about a target. Subject would like to be reinstated as a field tech, but has no higher ambition. Subject is more concerned with having a job than who the job is for.

Now, under Evaluation, I write a bit from a psych eval, also by the Agency: Subject is obsessive and somewhat paranoid. Subject is always looking for meaning in tiny details. Subject refuses to let a job go unfinished.

Ordinarily, I'd fill out Hometown and Relationships, and write down what Questions I have about the botched job - but all of that requires a group, which I don't have. So let's move on to my Civilian.

My Civilian is Logan Meyer. Logan works at a local grocery store, managing the dairy case. That means he gets up early and knocks off work in the afternoon. He's in his late 20s and is starting to regret dropping out of school, but he's personable and, outside of the grocery store, he's well-spoken and clever. In the grocery store, he feels dumb because he's just lifting milk jugs and the like, and so he keeps his hat pulled low. He gets either one two-dot skill or two one-dots. I'll take one in Provocateur and one in Pavement.

For Profile, I put Subject regrets dropping out of school. Subject feels current job is beneath him. Subject wants to relieve current debt and find a better career.

For Evaluation, I write Subject is embarrassed about job, and if asked what he does claims "Management." Subject has an aversion to blood. That should be a fun way to bring me some stress.

So that's it, actually. I figure Logan might be useful to the spies he knows by providing someplace to stash a body (frozen foods), or for free food. I can see a fun scene happening at a grocery store, and Em using the office to set up his gear. 

Character Creation: Unhallowed Metropolis

Kind of like Shaun of the Dead, if it took place 200 years earlier and wasn't a comedy. So not much like that, actually.

The Game: Unhallowed Metropolis
The Publisher: Not sure. Started off with Eos, then apparently moved to Hallows Eve, and they've got a note on their site that says it'll be moving to a new publisher.
Degree of Familiarity: Some. I've played it a few times at MarCon, and always had a good time with it.
Books Required: Just the core. Mine has a cover half torn off, thanks to Cael. Grr. 

 

Unhallowed Metropolis is a steampunky-horror game. A zombie-plague hits the world and wipes out most of it. Jolly Olde Englande manages to stay alive, more or less, and over the next hundred and some years, manages to reclaim most of London and some other cities. You got zombies, vampires, werewolves, lightning guns, and some really badass people called Undertakers (I played one once) that kill off monsters for bounty. You can play dhampir, Mourners (people paid to sit with dead rich people so that they don't get up, and to behead them if they do)... it's a big, fun game. Also some aweomse artwork.

The game has a really, really detailed, rich history. I'm finding I'm in a phase now where I like the games that have easier to understand and read histories, and I'm kinda over the White Wolf/Fading Suns "let's have 40 pages of text explaining the world" history. That's mostly because I'm reading a lot more games, and I want to get through them. But that's neither here nor there - the game is well-written, the history is immersive and well-researched (as far as I can tell).

So, starting off. "Present day" is 2105, and here we are in London. We've got seven steps of chargen - actually, it looks very White-Wolfy. 

Step One: Character Concept. I want to play a Fagin-like character, someone who runs a group of minions (you might be able to spot some Bioshock here, if you look). Definitely someone on the street-level, but someone who has some money in his family. My guy's name is Bernard Admunson, and he's the outcast of the family. In fact, folks on the street call him "Bernie the Black Sheep." He looks the part, too. He's got black hair while the rest of his family is sandy blonde, he's skinny when they're all stocky, and he's poor when they're all rich. Why? Well, I'll figure that out.

I've gotta come up with a Calling, here, so let's look at my options. Aristocrat doesn't work because it assumes you're still living high on the hog, so never mind that. Let's take Criminal.

I start with the Qualities of Criminal Associations, Murder of Crows and Reputation - Street. I have no idea what those mean, but I'll look it up later. I also start with Language (Thieves' Cant or Rhyming Slang), Streetwise, and some Skill choices. OK, let's have a look.

I get three Criminal Skills, so I pick Shadow, Pickpocket and Lockpicking. Mostly, I'd rather not be noticed stealing. Then I get a pick of three Skills from a list, so I take Appraise ("One microwave oven...ten quid, hardly worth lifting it."), Melee Weapon and Unarmed Combat. I think for my language, I'll take Rhyming Slang, while I'm here. I get all this at 2, but I might buy some of it up.

Step Two: Attributes. Got six of these, 25 points to spend, but it ain't one-for-one. 1 is underdeveloped or otherwise sucky, while anything over 5 is pretty darned OMG.

So. I know I want Bernie's Charm nice and high, and probably his Coordination, too. Let's go ahead and set Charm at 4 (9 points), Coordination at 3 (5 points). That's 14 out of my 25. Geez. I'll put Intellect at 3 (5 more, spent 19), Vitality at 2 (2 points, 21 spent) Will at 2 (2 points, 23 spent) and gee, guess that leaves my Wit at 2, too. Hopefully I can raise it with Custom points. Moving on. My Prowess is Coordination + Wit, or 5.

Step Three: Skills. I get 25 points here, too, but again, not one-for-one, dangit. I can (and will) increase the Skills I have. I also get stunts for combat skills and, because I'm a Criminal, Streetwise. In fact, I'll start there.

I start with Streetwise 2. I get two Stunts right off, and I want Alibi and Cant (basically, I've always got an alibi and I have Rhyming Slang and Cant at 5). I'll buy Streetwise up to 4, which costs me 7 points, and buy the...holy shit, a bunch of these are gold. Screw it, we're going Streetwise 5. That sets me back another 5 points, but whatevs. I want Phantom (I know the streets like the back of my hand), Mobsman (I am part of a gang, and they have my back) and Rothschild (I can impersonate an Artistocrat).

OK, I also want Thrown Weapons 2 (3 points). I take Improvisation (I can throw unbalanced stuff and not take a penalty) and Snap Reaction (it's all in the reflexes). I'll leave Melee Weapons at 2 and take Free Parry and Two-Weapon Fighter. I'll leave Unarmed Combat at 2 and take Pull Punch (I can knock you out without killing you), and Trip (sweep the leg).

Right, 13 more points. I'll spend 9 and bump Lockpicking, Pickpocket and Appraise up to 3. I get specialties in those, too. I take Clothes, Art and Metals as Appraise Specialties. I'll take Old Locks, New Locks and Detection as Lockpicking Specialties. I'll take Crowds, Teaching and Watches for Pickpocket. And let's see, I've got 21 points spend. 4 more. I'll buy Shadow up to 3 points and take Crowds, Plain Sight and Hide as specialties. With my last point, I take Acting 1 with a Specialty in Impersonations.

Bernie's story is coming into focus a bit more. He had to become the Black Sheep pretty early, or else he'd have more Etiquette. Instead, he's learned to be a Rothschild, learned about high society by mimicking it.

I think he's the bastard son. His mother got in a bad predicament with...well, we're not sure. But his father isn't really Mr. Admunson. When he was born, all black-haired and stuff, Dad claimed him as a son, but never really paid attention to him (he knew, see). And then by weird coincidence, Mom got bitten by a reanimate a year later, so Bernie never really knew her. Dad raised his other kids, but distanced himself more and more from Bernie, and Bernie found he enjoyed spending time with the help. He'd go shopping in the market districts, and he learned from the other snipes there - how to pickpocket, how to be sneaky, and how to talk the talk. One day he just melted into the crowd and never went back. He was 8 at the time.

Over the years, he's made himself a lot of friends, especially among the kids of the streets. He keeps them safe from the zombies and the police, and has even appeared as an advocate when they get busted. He doesn't advocate killing or even violence to get rich, because "you never know who's who, do you, lads?" He's encouraged the rumor that he's descended from royalty, and he hopes one day to rub his Dad's nose in what he's become.

Step Four: Corruption. Yi. Everyone in this game has the makings of their own undoing. In Bernie's case, he wants to become the Crimelord of London, ruling the Family. But it's a pipe dream, not so important to him as to make him Consumed. Nope, I'll take Dissolution. Everything he touches is doomed to failure.

Right now it's handkerchiefs. There's a market for them, and some of his kids can swipe them pretty well. But every time Bernie tries, he gets made. Every. Time. White ones especially.

Step Five: Qualities and Impediments. Well, the ones I have are the ones I'd have bought, anyway. Murder of Crows means that folks watch my back on the street. Street Rep means exactly that, and Criminal Associations means I'm a member of the Family in good standing. Let's see if any Impediments make sense.

OK, I'll take Nemesis 2. That's Bernie's dad, Charles Admunson. He won't actually harm Bernie, but when Bernie surfaces from the criminal underclass, there's always someone waiting to make his life hard (by the way, Bernie suspects his Dad of murdering his Mum. He's wrong).

I'll also take Illiterate. Makes sense; Bernie never went to school and he's forgotten whatever his tutors may have taught him. Finally, just for fun, I'll take Good-Tasting (he gets it from Mom).

Step Six: Custom Points. That all gives me 8 points to play with. I get 5 more Custom points. There are no Qualities I really want, but I do want to raise my Wit. If I raise it to 3, that'll cost me 6. If I want to raise it to 4, that'd cost 14 total...damn, not enough. OK, I'll put Wit at 3. That leaves me with 7 points, total. Hmm. I'll plump for Ambidextrous, I guess. It works for this guy. Finally, I'll spend my last 3 points and buy Acrobatics 2, with Specialties in Climbing and Falls. Second-story man, y'know. Occasionally.

Step Seven: Finishing Touches. This is where I'd buy equipment, but you know how I feel about that. I think I've got a good sense of Bernie. He looks out for the urchins, the snipes and the like, but at the end of it all, he's going to get himself hanged for swiping a goddamned hanky. And he'll see his father's disappointed, loathing face in the crowd. 

Character Creation: Seven Leagues

Cael's napping, it's too bloody hot to do yardwork (and the grass isn't growing anyway, probably because it's so bloody hot). So, let's make a character!

Actually, I've already made one this week. Well, I mean, I made one on Tuesday, but then Thursday was chargen for Michelle's upcoming Dresden Files game. So my character there is a kinetomancer. He's a professor at Loyola University (the game is set in Baltimore, which is funny because we chose that city without realizing that the city used in the book as the example for City Creation is, in fact, Baltimore) who had a nervous breakdown after reading a book on the Music of the Spheres and checking some of the theorems put forth in that book against the cutting-edge astrophysics work he was doing. His Trouble Aspect is "The Math Doesn't Add Up", which I like. I think he'll either become a fully-fledged wizard or go nuts and start breaking things by fucking with kinetic energy. Either's good.

But never mind that now!

The Game: Seven Leagues: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game of Faerie
The Publisher: Malcontent Games [ETA: apparently defunct]
Degree of Familiarity: None. I got it in the Haiti bundle, and recently started reading. I hear good things, though.
Books Required: There is just the one, AFAIK.

 
Seven Leagues is the kind of game I would buy anyway (and indeed, I almost bought it at Origins until I remembered I had the pdf and hadn't read it). It's a faerie-tale game, appears to be very system-light, and is based heavily on concept. I know players that would have a hard time with this chargen, since a large part of it is "make something up."

But hey, let's get to it. I start with Aspect. My character's Aspect is a brief description of that character, sort of like a title. So: What kind of Faerie-tale creature would I like to play?

Well, I always liked the stories of the Black Shuck, the huge black dog of the English moors. So my Aspect is going to be Peat, Canine protector of travelers.

Next we do Virtues. These are stats, basically. Hand is all things physical, Heart is courage, empathy and charisma and Head is all things mental. I get 13 points to split up, nothing lower than 1 or higher than 7.

Well, I don't think Head is really the doggie's strong point. The books says that an animal's Head rating might be 1, so I'll make Peat's Head score 3. That leaves 10 points for his others, and I'll put 6 into Heart and 4 into Hand. He's physically capable, but it's where he gets to be brave and tenacious that Peat really shines.

Now we do Charms. Charms are magical powers, and they're a little like the More and Less Than Human bits of My Life With Master, in that they're magic with a very open interpretation. I get a number of Charms equal to my lowest Virtue, which is 3.

I want Peat to be sneaky and silent, so I'll choose Glides silent and unseen through the moors. I want him to know who's worthy of his protection, so he can smell a person's truth (be it true home, name, etc.). And, finally, Peat Can rally the beasts of the moors to his side by baying.

And now, Taboos. These are magical hindrances. I don't have to take any, but I can take up to three and get one extra Charm per two Taboos...except no point in taking three, then, because I'd still only get one Charm. OK, then.

I think Peat has a soft spot for women. Actually, he's easily fooled by beauty (that way it's not just a girl thing). And one more: Peat cannot set foot on ashes. Not sure why, just sounds Faerie to me.

Finally, I need a Legend. The Legend is a quick passage about Peat, in which I underline several Keywords, which then get worked into the game and help with Narrative Control (I haven't read the system fully yet, so I'm fuzzy on the details - hopefully I can talk someone into running this sometime). So here's Peat's Legend:

The black dog of the moors bays at the moon, and the creatures of the moorland come to him. "Here is a man lost," says the dog, "and so we must guide him on his way."

The other creatures balk at this. The birds of the moors twitter and complain, because the man shoots them and takes them for food. The stag whickers and raises his antlers, and the red fox sits quietly, guiltily, for he steals the man's chickens at night. But the black dog is resolute. "The man will be protected." And he bears his teeth and the animals flee, following the man, guarding him from harm.

Other beings stalk the man. The Redcap seeks to dip his hat in the man's blood. The Piskie and the Will-o-the-wisp seek to lead him astray. Other fae might wish to seduce or change him. The black dog walks next to him, unseen, unheard, and his snarls frighten away these creatures. The other animals of the forest take care not to hurt the man or lead him astray, but they have no truck with the magical beings of the moors. That burden of protection belongs to the black dog alone.

So there ya go. I see Peat as a kind of guardian angel, and the conflicts he'll get into will almost certainly involve being used by someone abusing that tendency. 

Character Creation: Witch Hunter: The Invisible World

We found a witch! May we make a character? 

The Game: Witch Hunter: The Invisible World
The Publisher: Paradigm Concepts
Degree of Familiarity: None. I've read the book, which I traded for because I'd heard good things.
Books Required: Just the core, though supplements exist.

 
OK, I really have to stop letting months go by between reading the book and making a character. Anyway, Witch Hunter totally looks like a game I'd enjoy, and I'm sad I haven't gotten to play it. It's billed as swashbuckling/horror, set in the 17th Century in the Colonies...but unlike Colonial Gothic, this has more over-the-top action (and an editor).

So, again, it's been a while since I read it, and games tend to fall out of my brain like water through a duck (right?) when I'm not actually playing them, just because I read so many. But, looking it over now, I remember a bit...

See, back in the day (way back), King Solomon tried to banish all evil from the world. But just as the Great Seal was about to clap for a fish (right?), Solomon realized that it wasn't really going to protect mankind, so he let a trickle of magic through, enough to hopefully empower mankind. Orders are formed, and a few thousand years later a Jew gets nailed to a piece of wood for being all up in Rome's bweez-nass and a fish cult forms around him, but in this RPG, his followers actually have some magical ass-kicking going on.

Ahem. What I really enjoyed about this book was the description of the world. It's not until later in the book, unfortunately, but when I got to that chapter, the world of Witch Hunter (almost typed "switch hunter," which is a very different sort of game) really came alive for me. I got a bunch of ideas for running this game off the descriptions of what's going on in various countries, and it was dense enough that it took me a few nights to get through because I didn't want to skim it. The magic also looked interesting here.

OK, we start with Character Concept. Why not?

You know, it's about two centuries out of period, but what I find inspiring me is the movie Ravenous. The lonely outpost that's only busy during the summer, exposed and dangerous during the winter...it's not exactly the right place for swashbuckling, but as a starting point, it's not bad. I see my character as someone who maybe grew up in a place like that, raised by a very small band of soldiers or other tough people. And then one day something wiped them the hell out, but spared him. For him, magic and the supernatural don't hold any mysticism, and when Lightbringers and other folks perform magic using ritual and chanting and formulae, he just scoffs into his beard (oh, his beard come so fat). For him, the Invisible World is blood and gristle and sucked marrow, and we damn well should be afraid of the dark.

Next, I'm asked to consider Culture and Ethnicity. Hmm. I think he's a colonial child. The first white explorer in Michigan (I love the woods of Northern Michigan) was a French dude named Étienne Brûlé. He shows up in Michigan in 1620, but the first permanent European settlement doesn't happen until 1668, which is right about the time this game is set. So let's say that there was an outpost in what is now northern Michigan in the mid 1600s, formed by Brûlé and company. Handful of French pioneers, soldiers and explorers settled on South Manitou island (and here we take leave of history, but fuckit). The settlers were there until 1648, when my character was a lad of 10, and the rest of the colony was destroyed by something. A French ship found him, the only survivor, mad, starved and freezing. He recovered, and became a Witch Hunter. Neat! I like him already.

OK, now I consider Religion. I think he's nominally Catholic (of French descent, after all), but isn't terribly devout anymore. Rather, he believes in God. He just doesn't think God so much answers prayers as waits to judge our actions. Praying is a fool's gambit. Action is what matters, and if one's actions are in error but undertaking in earnest, well, surely God recognizes that.

Background. This codifies and puts numbers to the history I just made up for my character. Hang on a sec. OK, Explorer and Scout both look good, but really, it's Settler that sums up this guy's early life. That gives me a quality called Grit, which lets me re-roll a failed action roll once per day, at a +2 bonus. Nifty. It also gives me some background skills, but I'm not sure how that works so I'll move on for now.

Catalyst. Again, putting into game terms how I got my start. "The Sole Survivor" is pretty much exactly what I described, so there ya go.

Abilities. This is a dice pool system that looks a lot like White Wolf; roll the pool of d10s and count the 7s-or-better. I start with a score of 2 in all nine of the Abilities, and I get 100 points to buy scores (it's not 1-for-1, I think...nope, there's a chart). Let's do this.

Physical Abilities include Strength, Agility and Toughness. I want this guy to be good across the board in physicals, if possible. Strength 3 is good, and only costs me 10. Agility 2 is fine for me. Toughness I want higher; let's make it 4. I've spent 40 points.

Mental Abilities are Education, Reason and Will. Well, Education obviously isn't my strong point. Education 1 posits that I was raised by wolves or just in an environment so sheltered I don't have an idea how the world really works. I think that's not inappropriate (and I'd like the extra ten points), so I'll bump it down to 1. I've effectively spent 30 points. Reason, though, is using intellect and lateral thinking, and I really like that that's separate from Education. Anyway, I'll spend 10 and bump that to 3. Will is discipline and resisting temptation, so let's spend 10 more and bump that to 3.

Spiritual Abilities are Courage, Intuition and Personality. I have to put Courage to at least 3 because I'm a Settler, but that's fine. I have 50 points left. Huzzah. I'll spend 10 to up Courage to 3, but I think that's as high as I want it. Really, I want Intuition at 4, which costs 30. That puts me at 90 spent, total. Personality 3 sounds good, making me roughly average at communication. So there ya have it.

Health: I mark off Health circles based on my Toughness. Have a look at the sheet, it's there.

Defense: The ability to evade and shrug off attacks. It's the average of my Agility and Toughness, which is 3.

Skills. OK, this makes sense, but there are steps. I get background skills, which are already set, and then I get elective skills, which are assigned within categories. So let's start with the background. I get Animal Care 1, Construct 1, Drive 1, Endurance 1, Hand-to-Hand 1 and Survival 1. Those skills are set (and I'll need to pick an area of expertise for Construct).

And then I get one point to put into a Fighting Skill, one into an Interaction Skill, two into Movement, 4 into Professional and 2 into Reaction. OK, let's have a look.

As much as I'd love to take Firearms, it's based on Agility and guns aren't really that accurate or reliable anyway. And besides, if you know me, you know I'm a goob for thrown weapons. My fighting point goes into Thrown.

My Interaction Skill goes into Command. I picture him being the sort of guy who takes control of an operation once the "leaders" have given it over to the dudes on the ground who know how to kill things.

I get two in Movement. I put one into Swim (I grew up on an island) and one into Climb (which has trees).

4 into Professional. One into Disable (which includes lockpicking). One into Occult (which is all I can put there because my Education is only 1). One into Track, and one more into Survival.

Finally, I get 2 in Reaction. One each in Notice and Resolve, I think.

So, to recap:

Animal Care 1
Climb 1
Command 1
Construct 1
Disable 1
Drive 1
Endurance 1
Hand-to-Hand 1
Notice 1
Occult 1
Resolve 1
Survival 2
Swim 1
Thrown 1
Track 1

Talents. Special abilities, dontchaknow. I begin with "at least three," whatever that means. Oh, I see. I can take 4 basic talents or two basic and one greater. Can't take Heroic talents, evidently. Well, let's have a look.

So, I actually don't have the requirements for a lot of these. I think I'll take 2 basic and one greater. For my basics, I take Cheat (I can impose a -1 on my opponent in a contested roll) and It's Just a Scratch (I make an Endurance check to ignore injury penalties), and for my greater talent I take Danger Sense (adds +1 Notice and +2 Reflexes).

Finishing Touches. Last bits.

Hero Points let me influence die rolls, but I don't seem to get any at chargen so it's moot.

True Faith points let me cast spells and counter magic. I don't see my guy as a spell caster, even with Faith-magic, but I do see him using that Faith to banish monsters. I start with 1 point.

Damnation is the counter to True Faith, obviously. I don't start with any.

Sins and Virtues. These are meant to be personality hooks for the character, much like Virtue and Vice in NWoD, I think.

For my Sin, I'll pick Despairing. It'd be easy to go with Vengeful, but I don't think that's this guy's problem. I think he feels that the Adversary is really more powerful here on Earth and if God gives a shit, He's not letting us know. I figure this guy spends time brooding, and thinks we're all for the chop eventually.

For Virtue, I'll pick Humble. He doesn't take credit. He thinks there's a certain righteousness in doing what needs done for its own sake.

Oh, you know, in all of this I completely forgot about Order. The Orders are, well, the splats. They're groups of Witch Hunters bonded by faith, goals or tactics. Fortunately, there's one that perfectly fits this character: The Stalkers of the Unseen Hunt. They go out into the wastes and the wilderness and kill the monsters they find, and don't so much think they'll win in the long run, but maybe humanity will. I get a bonus Basic and Greater Talent from a list, and I can ignore pre-requisites, which is cool. I pick Attack Focus and pick Hatchet, which reduces the complexity of a throwing hatchet by one (effectively giving me a +1). I also pick...ooh, do I want to aim my throwing axes really well or see better in the dark? I'll be Bullseye, I think. I pick Marksman, again for Thrown.

OK, so I just need a name. Huh, another Frenchie. I name this guy Etienne (after the colonist) Lefevre (his family were smiths, going back to France). I picture him as late 30s, grizzled, big ol' beard, carries around several throwing axes that he sharpens when he's nervous. Refuses to eat strongly spiced food, for fear the smell will linger and give him away to lurking beasts. He's seen it happen.