Board Game: Mansions of Madness!

There's just the one mansion, actually. 

The Game: Mansions of Madness
The Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Time: About 4 hours
Players: Me, Michelle, Megan, Gus

Game Play: Mansions of Madness is one of the many games in the Arkham Horror family, along with Eldritch Horror (but not Cthulhu Wars, which is a different company). It plays a lot like Arkham Horror, except that it's app-driven. So everyone picks an investigator, and you pick a scenario (I have no idea how many there are or what they're called, because the booklet just says "play this one first time out" and the app didn't really give a list), and then you're off to the races! (Which would have terrified H.P. Lovecraft, arf arf.)

A bad picture of the app

The app tells you what to do, for the most part. You set out the room tiles (a la Betrayal at House on the Hill) in the order it says, and place tokens for Search, Explore, NPCs, and whatever else. Two actions per turn, which you can use to move, um, search, explore, talk to NPCs, and also attack monsters when they show up. 

The aforementioned monsters

Game mechanics are pretty simple. You've got a handful of stats, you roll said stats when told to. The dice are d8s with elder signs and magnifying glasses. Elder signs are successes, magnifying glasses aren't, but you can spend Clue tokens to buy them as successes (and then there are a bunch of items that do a "change all clues to successes in a given type of roll" thing). Everything pretty much collapses back to that mechanic, though it's expressed in different ways. Sometimes you succeed by rolling a certain number of successes, sometimes the more you roll the better you do (combat, f'rex), and sometimes you're rolling to negate Damage or Horror.

Before the madness; mansion under construction

Damage is fairly interesting. You've got Damage and Horror cards, which either get dealt to you and you read them and following the instructions, or they get dealt facedown (usually when you read them they'll do a thing and then flip face down, too). Some effects "heal" face down cards. Get too many of the respective types and you wind up Insane or Wounded, and then if you get too many again you're out. But it's much more forgiving, and frankly much more interesting, than previous games' applications of damage - it's not just "get too much damage and you're out." Oh, and if you go Insane, it can change the win conditions, but I'm the only one who went Insane in our playthrough (gibber-gibber, cluck-cluck, my old man's a mushroom, etc) and all it did was make me a little shifty. 

Investigators at work!

After the investigators have their turn, the "Mythos Phase" happens, usually beginning with something weird afflicting one character, sometimes by name, sometimes "the investigator with the lowest BMI" or something. Monsters move around, they attack, you avoid damage or you don't, on we go!

Opinions: I do have them.

AAAAHH THE HAND OF CTHULHU!

So, on the one hand (lol), this game plays a lot like Arkham Horror without the players having to do a lot of the work. The app does much of the calculation, story progression, and so forth, and that allows for a greater speed of game play (this game took us 4 hours, sure, but a) a lot of that was setup and b) a game of Arkham Horror typically takes at least 5, and that's if you lose quickly). The production values are amazing, and the app seems to work well.

On the other...I dunno. Maybe what I want in a board game is not one more reason to stare at a fucking device. Also, one of the issues with a lot of Arkham games is the downtime between players getting to do things, and this game still has that like whoa. 

All in all, I think it's a well-done game, but I'm not sure if, gun to my head, I'd choose it over one of the other Mythos games or My Father's Work (which is also app-driven but has more for the players to do on a turn-by-turn basis). 

Keep? Yep, definitely need to play it again to get a better bead on it.

Character Creation: Spell Mendicant Vixens

FOR THE SEVENTH GAME OF X-MAS, TWENTY-TWENTY THREE,
SEVEN VIXENS VIXIN',
SIX MICE A-SQUEAKIN'
FIVE GOLDEN HAINTS,
FOUR UPLIFTED BIRDS,
THREE GODSENDS,
TWO DUST BOWLS,
AND CHUUBO'S MARVELING WISH-THINGIE NAMED CINAMMON!

The Game: Mendicant Spell Vixens
The Publisher: Richard Kelly
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Need to see the cover of this game:

The game is actually called Mendicant Spell Vixens, but based on the cover you'd be forgiven for reversing the order of the first two words. You'd also be forgiven for asking if the game is meant for kids or furries, but neither is really true.

It's an OSR game - described as a "barnyard crawl" - in which foxes steal chickens from farmers. So it's got heist elements, but mostly it's an OSR fantasy game, and it's very much one of those games that I read and go "...OK, sure." 

First of all, "mendicant" means "beggar," but the foxes in this game aren't beggars, they're thieves. Second, I think magic does figure in, but not heavily enough to be part of the title of game (I ran a search of the PDF for the word "mendicant," and apart from referring to the game itself, it only even comes up in mentions of the "Mendicant Handbook," but that's never contextualized that I can find.

Anyway, the idea of foxes pulling off a kind of thieves' guild/reverse Chicken Run against a hostile farmer is a fun idea, but I'm not sure if this gets us there. Let's make a fox!

I'll say this for OSR games, they don't linger in chargen. Well, taking inspiration from the traditional folk song "The Fox," I believe I shall make a thief. Burglar, rather. And I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine, and he shall...no, hang on. I shall call him Robichaud. 

I copy over my stuff and stats, and then I get to increase one of my skills one dice step, chosen from Kick Doors/Climb Walls, Avoid Traps and Ambushes, and Drive a Bargain. Well, I think either of the first two is in keeping with my origins, here, so let's do Avoid Traps and Ambushes. That bumps it to a d10. 

Equipment! See, this equipment system I like. It just gives a quick series of choices. I'll take a small backpack, a thieves' kit, a long blade, and 3 Plumes and 6 Hen's Teeth (currency, I think). 

Finally, I get Ploys from the burglar list. I get to pick one and then either improve that or pick another, and then pick another since this is my starting class. Just a moment. Oh, the PDF is bookmarked, praise Marty Moose.

Well, actually, Burglar's Guile (which lets me grab cover on the way out of a heist) seems appropriate, so I'll grab that. I'll take Distraction (which lets me...make a distraction) and I'll take Slippery (am wiggly and hard to grab). 

And that's pretty much it! Robichaud is your standard red fox, lean and lanky. His tail is naturally poofy, but he wraps it in leathers when on the job so it doesn't give him away. He's got a weird habit of appending "-o" to the ends of nouns. 

That'll do it!

Movie #771: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The Last Jedi is of course the 8th episode of the long-running franchise, directed this time by Rian Johnson, and starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, Mark Hamill, Kelly Marie Tran, Benicio del Toro, Laura Dern, and Andy Serkis. 

It is a dark time for the Rebellion...no, wait, that's Empire. Anyway, the First Order has basically killed off much of the...Resistance, not Rebellion, not that there's any functional difference, and now they're just wiping them up as the Dark Overlord Supreme Leader Snoke (Serkis) drives his pupil Kylo Ren (Driver) to find and turn apprentice Jedi Rey (Ridley). Meanwhile dashing scoundrel Poe Dameron (Isaac) is coping with being a man having to take orders from highly capable women like Leia (Fisher) and Vice-Admiral Holdo (Dern), who just never tell him anything darn it even though, like, he's lower ranked than they are and isn't entitled to have all the plans. 

So the movie is basically split between three plotlines: the Resistance fleet retreating from the First Order big ol' ship that somehow can't close the distance, but that can't flee to hyperspace because they don't have enough fuel to go to Ludicrous Speed or something; Rey on planet Walrustitty trying to convince Luke Skywalker (Hamill) to come out of retirement and train her and somehow he doesn't realize that she's basically making all the arguments that he once made to Yoda (Frank Oz, who cameos here); and Finn (Boyega) and his new buddy Rose Tico (Tran) going to Rich Asshole World to find a legendary code-breaker (Del Toro) who can get them into the big First Order ship and disable the MacGuffin 3000 so the fleet can escape. 

I mean, I talk shit, but it's not a bad movie. Sure, it's got four different endings, and sure, it's beat-for-beat very similar to Empire must as Force Awakens is to New Hope. But the cast is solid, including the newcomers. I don't agree with all of the character decisions - I think letting Finn sacrifice himself and having it make a difference, particularly since doing that might have thrown into sharp relief how badly Poe had fucked the dog all the way along, might have been better than Rose nearly blowing herself up. I also think having Poe face a little more consequence for his actions would have been nice - by disobeying orders he set in motion the whole plan that leads to the code-breaker betraying the Resistance, which gets a lot of people killed who didn't need to because Holdo's plan was working. Basically I like the themes and the events that happen, I just wish some shit had gotten called out a little more.

And then there's whole Luke/Rey/Kylo plotline, and like, I think it works. Luke's being an ass, yes, but Yoda actually does call him out. I've always liked that Rey's family were just nobodies, even if that whole thing gets muddied in the next movie (and I don't remember the particulars very well; I only ever saw Rise of Skywalker once when it was in theaters, so although I don't own it I think I want to watch it again just to complete the set). Basically there's a lot to like in Last Jedi, and, as with Force Awakens, it's a shame that so much of the movie's discourse was obscured by the dude-bro screaming about there being WOMEN and NON-WHITE PEOPLE in their MOVIE about SPACE WIZARDS. 

My Grade: B
Rewatch Value: Medium 

Next up: Stardust

Character Creation: Things That Go Squeak in the Night

FOR THE SIXTH GAME OF XMAS, TWENTY-TWENTY-THREE, 
SIX MICE A-SQUEAKIN',
FIVE GOLDEN HAINTS,
FOUR UPLIFTED BIRDS,
THREE GODSENDS,
TWO DUST BOWLS,
AND CHUUBO'S MARVELOUS WISH-GRANTING BOOBER.

Squeaker-squeakedy-squeak-squeakit. Wow. Panthers. Brutal.

The Game: Things That Go Squeak in the Night
The Publisher: Gallant Knight Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

It's not a million miles from Knights of Underbed, actually - you place mice who belong to the Micean Council (yep), and they protect human children. There's some world-building - other animals know to respect the red beads that Councilor mice wear, mostly; owls are in on the game too and help mice protect people which seems weird to me because...owls eat mice; ducks are necromancers, etc.

What I don't necessarily love about the game, and this is pure instinct, not supported by fact since I haven't played it, is the confluence of systems and narrative load. See, first of all, mice can't die. There's no health track, no any kind of damage track. You can take consequences, but the only thing they do is affect the narrative - you have a broken leg, you can't run. When you roll, you're rolling a pool of d6s on "moves" (which the book claims are inspired by PbtA moves, but truthfully they don't work much like those - they don't have triggers, and they feel more like a restricted set of actions in a trad game). But then you spend "points" (5s or 6s) to buy results, one of which is always some form of "I succeed" and another is "I don't pay a cost." 

What it really reminds me of is Legend of the Elements, another game where there's no damage or mechanical effect of consequences, and my experience of that game was that it didn't work as well at the table as you'd think it would. But, as always, I haven't played Squeak, so maybe it plays just fine. And it's pretty easy to grasp as far as both setting and system, for what it's worth. So let's make a mousie. 

Huh...well, this is gonna be quick. Basically I just fill out the stuff at the top of the sheet, and everything else on the sheet is rules of the game. Sure. Well, I pick a class (interesting side note: there are four classes which means you can't play this game with more than four players, because you don't double up on classes). I think that I would like my little mousie to be a Scout, specializing in stealth, because I have a type. My mouse's name is Cagney Flourtail. Cagney got that name because he accidentally ran through a patch of flour, it got all over his tail, and he led a rogue cat straight back to a Council meeting! No one was hurt, fortunately, but he's never quite lived that down. Cagney has black fur and his tail is black, thanks very much. He wears a long shirt woven from spare threads he's nicked from humans, and he carries a set of thin needles that he's filed down to make aerodynamic. 

And that's it, kids. Squeak-squeak!

Character Creation: Old Gods of Appalachia

FOR THE FIFTH GAME OF XMAS, TWENTY-TWENTY-THREE,
FIVE GOLDEN HAINTS!
FOUR UPLIFTED BIRDS,
THREE GODSEND,
TWO DUST BOWLS,
AND CHUUBO'S MARVELOUS WISH-GRANTING THINGIE!

I have no idea if there are any golden haints in Old Gods, but it's probably not out of the realm of possibility. 

The Game: Old Gods of Appalachia
The Publisher: Monte Cook Games
Degree of Familiarity: Not as much as I'd like! I just started listening to the eponymous podcast
Books Required: Just the one (like The Strange it's self-contained and doesn't need Cypher System)

Buying (or backing) RPGs that are based on other properties is always a gamble; whether or not you like the underlying property, there's the question of whether it will translate well to a TTPRG. But even though I've only listened to the first few episodes of Old Gods of Appalachia, I can see how the setting would make for a nice Trail of Cthulhu-esque RPG, especially given the practical support that Cypher games usually have. 

Old Gods games are, by default, set in the 1920s or 30s, and that's fine. I've got a theme song I want to use:

Graveyard Train apparently isn't together anymore, which is a shame. I really love this song and the video is chilling as hell, pun intended. 

So: I kind of like the notion of immortality or longevity as a curse, as depicted (with varying degrees in quality) in The Last Witch-Hunter, The Green Mile, The Seventh Seal, any story about Cain, and just about every vampire story ever. So I'd kind of like to make a character with those themes, but since doing a character who's been around forever would necessarily be more knowledgeable than starting chargen really allows, let's say that he believes he's been around for hundreds of years and he has vague memories of coming here from another land, fighting in wars, and just occasionally getting "reset." And now he's here in the town of Stonega, Virginia (I don't know, that's the town where one of the sample adventures is set). His name is Zebulun Smith. Folks call him Ol' Zeb, even though he really doesn't seem that old. 

As usual, Cypher characters are expressed as "I'm a(n) adjective noun who verbs." So we choose the noun first, and I think Ol' Zeb makes the most sense as an Explorer, though I will express that as "Wanderer." As such, I get 10 Might, 9 Speed, 9 Intellect, and 6 more points to split up. I shall put 3 each into Speed and Intellect. I get Effort 1, Might Edge 1, and I can carry 2 cyphers at once. 

I get training in one of several different areas. I shall take mapping. I'm practiced with light and medium weapons, but have an inability with heavy weapons. And then I get four abilities off the Explorer list. I'm looking for abilities that fit into Zeb's mysterious, rather patchwork and blurry history. 

Well, I definitely want Decipher (Zeb can read anything, even if he doesn't really remember the languages). I want Improved Edge to take Edge 1 in Intellect. Oh, I think I should take Living Off the Land, partially because it makes Zeb immune to natural disasters and having him walk out of a forest fire and dust himself off would be cool. And finally I'll take Skilled Learning, making him trained in history and mythology.

Next, descriptor! "Cursed" is an option, as is "Mystical." Let's see. Oh, no, wait, "Uncanny" is perfect. I get +2 to Intellect, I'm trained in perception, and once per recovery I can act even if it's not my turn because I just know what to do. Nice. 

Focus! Lots of good options here. "Cannot Escape the Darkness" is cool narratively, but in practice it gives you shadow-controlling powers and that's not what I want for Zeb. "Knows the Unknowable" has the right vibes, but I dunno, I think I'd like something with a little more flavor. Ooh, "Speaks in Tongues," that's nice. I'll go with that. That means I'm trained in one of a number of skills; let's say intimidation. Zeb can channel the weird wash of history inside him to be scary when he needs to. I also get Inside Voice; I can communicate with distant people. 

And finally I need a character arc. I really like these. They're kind of personal stories for the characters, and I think in play it'd be a nice way to have a character relate to the events of the game. For Zeb's starting arc, though, I'll take Help Your Neighbor. Zeb has come (returned?) to Stonega because someone needs help. He might not know that, but that's the path he's on. (I also considered Find Your Family, which if I were actually playing Zeb I would either take first or as a second arc.)

Everything else is details. Specifically, Zeb has a valise with a change of clothes, a pair of worn leather gloves, a revolver with "SC" engraved in the handle (he has no idea where he got it, or who "SC" is), and a well-made pair of boots. He's got the face and body of a younger man - 27 or so - but his hair is ash-gray. He's got a quiet, polite, friendly if not jovial way about him, but he's prone to staring into firelight and getting lost in memories that aren't his. 

And that'll do it! Might have to run this game after I listen to more of the podcast.

Epyillion: Giant Dragons and Scary Snakes

After something of a hiatus, we managed to play Epyllion last night. More fantasy hijinks abound!

Our dragonic heroes bed down for the night. OB wakes up early to start working on the beavmingo tapestry, and gradually as the sun rises the other three rouse, too. Stars goes to dris pack, and finds it entirely empty - all the food is gone, which dre figures was probably the raccocelots, but so is dris book! Panicked, dre asks Toverinn to go ask the raccocelots what's going on.

Toverinn goes to the tree and taps on it, but no raccocelots are hiding there, just some very nervous-looking chiptopi. Toverinn asks them nicely what happened to Stars' stuff, and the chiptopi reluctantly reveal that a drake - bigger than the characters but still not an adult - snuck in and stole it. Dre also warned the chiptopi that they would be turned into chipomari if they squealed, so they ask for Toverinn's protection. Toverinn asks for a description of this dragon, and the chiptopus stretches out its tentacles to look like wings and changes color - deep purple on the back and creamy white on the underbelly. The drakes recognizes this dragon - Cyclos! They met them back here when they first got to Woodsedge. 

The dragons start climbing up the plateau, looking for other dragons to ask about Cyclos. They find an elder dragon with dris snoot poking out of a cave in the wall, asleep and snoring. OB flies up and says "EXCUSE ME" in a loud, clear voice, and the dragon wakes with a start and sneezes. 

Unfortunately, the force behind the sneeze blows all four drakes back into the air. Even less fortunately, Stars doesn't have wings. Dre drops, and Zeblek and Toverinn swoop down to caught them. Zeblek doesn't notice, but something in the underbrush below seems to notice...

Anyway, the drakes talk to the elder dragon. Stars explains the situation, and it turns out the elder, Jallain, was once quite an avid reader but now dris paws are too big to turn pages. Dre takes a big breath and bellows "CYCLOS", the sound echoing over hill and dale. Cyclos swoops up a moment later and clings to the wall. 

The drakes interrogate Cyclos, and while they're younger, Jallain is very obviously watching. OB asks Cyclos where the book is, and Cyclos indicates a spot off to the east where the ground glitters - that's a lake. ("IT'S IN THE LAKE?!" "No, no, by the lake.") Clearly there's more Cyclos isn't saying, but dre flies off and the drakes are more interested in finding the book than chasing them. Stars thanks Jallain for dris help, and Jallain asks that when Stars gets the book back, maybe dre could come back and show them the new entries dre has made. 

Now with some direction, the drakes decide to glide from the plateau as close to the lake as they can. Trouble is, again, Stars doesn't have wings. OB grabs some spare fabris and rigs up a harness so Zeblek and Toverinn can carry Stars, and they fly out!

They get a ways toward the lake, but then something tackles Zeblek! Dre realizes its dris shadow (which you may recall dre severed last time after an elder dragon brought it to life and told it to snitch on them). Zeblek and the shadow wrestle and tumble towards the ground, and the harness fails. Stars drops like a brick, and Toverinn tries to grab them but fails. 

Stars panics and screams, but also summons moon magic and uses the power of the Stone Moon to turn dremself into a sparkly, rocky projectile. Dre hits the ground with a whumpf not far from the lake. Zeblek and OB land as well, and Zeblek, furious, tears dris shadow into smoky, wispy shreds. OB tries to save a few ("you need a shadow!") but it's like trying to grab, well, a shadow.

Toverinn lands and Stars extricates dremself from the ground, and the drakes hear gargly bleating from the lake. They walk over and check, and see a school of goaltfish (yellow/gold scaled fish with little horns and beards). They also see the footprints of a very large dragon by the lake, but no book. Toverinn asks the fish where the big dragon went, and the goaltfish signal for the drakes to follow them. 

OB flies above the lake, and the other three swim to the other side. They arrive to find a very large dragon snoozing on a hillside, orange-red scales resplendent in the sunlight. Stars looks around the dragon and sees dris book under the dragon's paw. Zeblek considers ways to sneak it out, but Stars chooses a more direct path and wakes the dragon. 

The elder regards Stars with some bemusement, and does return the book. The drakes inform them that they were cataloging unique or rare creatures ahead of the ritual burn, and the elder nods and flaps dris mighty wings, taking off. The drakes, not entirely sure why this dragon felt the need to get Cyclos to take the book in the first place, head into the woods, following the stream off the lake to the waterfall with the beavmingos, and then deeper into the Black Forest.

Zeblek watches and listens, surveying this ancient place, but realizes dre has become lost and dre has no idea where the others are. Dre chooses not to get concerned by this and just keeps wandering. Meanwhile, the other three find an archway made of twisting vines and branches, adorned at the top with the crest of House Myndoth. Stars surveys it and figures that there's probably a code phrase or gesture to get the place to reveal its secrets. OB just heads right in, and the crest at the top of the archway twists and reshapes into a dragon's face. 

The wooden dragon talks with the drakes; they ask it about the serpent, and it responds that it's a monster that would as soon eat them as look at them - does it deserve to be saved from the flames? Stars says it does, it's a living creature. The wooden dragon reveals that their companion (that is, Zeblek) is wandering right into the serpent's lair. If it eats Zeblek, does it still deserve saving? The drakes stick to their guns, and so the wooden dragon says to follow the path through the archway to find Zeblek. Along the way they see statuary and carvings covered in years of overgrowth, but they stay focused!

Meanwhile, Zeblek finds the walkway into this hollow, but chooses to walk the other way. The drakes hear them up ahead and calls up. Zeblek turns...and sees the fearsome, open maw of the serpent flying at them!

The serpent bites into dris leg and coils around dris body! Zeblek tries to call on the Storm Moon to zap the serpent, but can't quite do it. Dre is missing something, something that allow communion with the moons, something that now slips through dris fingers like...a shadow.

The others arrive just as the serpent is starting to swallow Zeblek. Toverinn, thinking quickly, convinces the serpent that Zeblek is poisonous, and the serpent spits them out. The serpent hisses that the drakes owe it food, something at least as big as Zeblek. "Sssswear, dragon," it says. "I swear," replies Toverinn.

The serpent slithers off, and the drakes take stock. They need to bring food to this serpent, something big, and they really don't want to feed it anything they've talked to. They discuss their options, and they decide to go and find a herd of dison (very large winged herd animals) - their eggs are huge, and one of two of them would do the trick. Of course, dison don't like to part with their eggs...

Character Creation: Eclipse Phase 2nd Ed

FOR THE FOURTH GAME OF XMAS, TWENTY-TWENTY-THREE, FOUR UPLIFTED BIRDS,
THREE GODS A-SENDIN'
TWO DUST BOWLS,
AND CHUUBO'S MARVELOUS ETC ETC BURBLE.

Been a shit 24 hours, really, but I'm feeling better. I'll probably wind up doing a post about it when I'm feeling a little less tired and little more composed, but for now:

The Game: Eclipse Phase 2nd Ed
The Publisher: Posthuman Games
Degree of Familiarity: None. I think I played first ed once at a con, but I might just be thinking of chargen
Books Required: Just the one

RIGHT SO ANYWAY Eclipse Phase is a sci-fi/post-acocalyptic-horror-sci-fi-again sort of thing. And looking back at my character for the first edition, apparently I did play it at Arisia once, but I have no specific memory of that game or even what year it happened (must have been prior to 2010, so like really the Before Times). 

I have to say, this edition is a lot cleaner and more accessible to me, which is impressive for a 400-page hardcover. The basic (very basic) idea is: there was this Fall, y'see, and 95% of humanity was wiped out. There are still a lot of "infugees," refugees whose minds were uploaded into digital form that are stuck in VR until some arrangement can be made to give them bodies ("morphs"), although the VR around here is pretty groovy. PCs are assumed to be working with Firewall, a protective sort of group that assessing and handles x-risks (short for "existential risks", that is, shit that could end the species). 

There's very much a prevailing vibe that humanity is on its way out; that's actually what the title of the game is referring to. I don't mind a little bleakness in my sci-fi.

Now, I'm doing this game as the fourth in my 12 Games of Xmas this year for much the same reason that I did Pirates of Pugmire at this point last year: I can make a character who is a bird, calling or otherwise. Character creation mostly consists of picking packages (lol), and I can get behind that. So!

So, Step One: Background. I know I want to be an uplifted corvid, so my background is Uplift. I get:

That's easy. Step Two is Career, and I'm thinking I want my corvid to be a hacker.

Step Three is Interest, basically "what else ya like." I was all set to roll this randomly, but 

I just really like the image of this big ol' birb flying a spaceship. For Step Four, I must pick one of the Factions. Mercurial makes sense, since they're the ones working to liberate uplifts and AGIs, but I'm gonna go with Argonauts. I like the idea that my bird-pilot is for liberation of his people, sure, but he's generally more moderate on scientific risk. Sure, uplifts worked out and they should probably be treated more like people, but that was a calculated risk, right? 

Anyway, that gives me Argonauts+ as a motivation and Know (Argonauts) 30 as a Skill. And on we go!

Step Five is Aptitude Template; basically I get to pick a stat array. Inquirer, I think, is what I want: 

Step Six is the most labor-intensive step so far: total up my Skills. 

Athletics 50, Fray 40, Kinesics 45, Perceive 80, Provoke 35, Survival 40, Know (Uplift Culture) 80, Know (Sociology) 50, Infosec 80, Interface 60, Program 50, Know (Mathematics) 80, Know (Network Engineering) 50, Hardware (Aerospace) 50, Pilot (Ground) 40, Pilot (Space) 50, Know (Flight Crew Ops) 60

I can't go over 80 for any of these, but I haven't, so that's fine. Probably I'm going to want to raise my Pilot and/or hacker Skills, but I'll wait to do that until the end.

Step Seven is Languages; mostly irrelevant because everyone's got a magical translator in their neck or whatever, but in case we're beyond the reach of the Mesh, my bird speaks three languages. I'll take English, Skandinaviska, and Japanese. 

Step Eight: Flex. HRRRGGHH. I start with 1 Flex. That was easy.

Step Nine: Reputation. Well, not only am I persona non grata but evidently my name is a killing word. No, wait, they mean the character (wakka wakka). I get 100 points to split up, and the book recommends 50/50 or 50/25/25. So, sure. We'll take 50 in r-rep (research network affiliates), 25 in i-rep (the Firewall network) and 25 in x-rep (explorers). 

Step Ten is customization. I get 20 points to divvy up amongst Aptitudes and Skills and whatnot. Well, I know I want to be better at hacking and piloting. 1 CP is 5 Skill points, so I shall raise Program to 60 (2 points), Hardware and both Pilot skills to 60 (8 points, so 10 spent), and I'll spend 1 to get a Specialization in Flying in Athletics. I'll spent 6 more to buy Guns up to 30 (so 40 with Reflexes). Three more. I'll spend two and buy another point of Flex, and put the last one into Kinesics to bump it to 50. 

Step Eleven: Derived Stats! Initiative is (REF + INT)/5, or 6. Aptitude Checks are equal to their controlling Aptitude x3. Lucidity is WILx2, or 30, and Trauma Threshold is Lucidity/5, so 6. Insanity is double Lucidity (60). 

Step 12 is starting morph and gear, and here's where things probably get a little more complicated. Or maybe not. I get two gear packs, one based on career and one based the kind of campaign we'd be playing. Let's assume we're doing gatecrashing (exploration), so I get that one, and the hacker pack.

And then morph, which is the type of body I'm in. I get 6 morph points, but I can buy multiple morphs if I feel like forkin' (lol). I can also buy extra perks for my morph. So let's say I have the neo-avian morph and I've got two identical morphs I can use to fork. Oh, wait, no, I can't; the starting morph has to cost more than 0. Fine, fuck it. Neo-avian morph, and I'll put 2 points each into Acumen, Fitness, and Quickness. I get a +10 to Cognition, Reflexes, and Somatics. 

Step Thirteen is Motivations. I have one already (Argonauts+), so I need two more. They can be expressed either as favorable (+) or not (-). 

Well, I think my guy is in favor of Uplift Rights, so that can get a +, and also in favor of Exploration. That's easy enough.

And everything else is finishing touches. So: Callix is an uplifted raven, hatched or fashioned as a messenger for info in the Mesh. He's had other ideas, though - he feels like he's got a lot more to offer. Like, he's looking for a way to get a couple of forked copies of himself, so he can pilot and crew a ship without help (read: interference) from bipeds! So far there hasn't been a lot of interest; after all, forked copies take up more resources, but Callix thinks its worth looking into further.

Callix is a neo-raven, so he's a raven the size of a human child. He's got prehensile feet and those weird hand-like things on the joints of his wings. He prefers to perch rather than sit when he's flying or driving a vehicle. He doesn't have a consistent alias yet, but he's trying out "Murder" (yes, technically he's a raven, not a crow, but "Unkindness" just sounds meaner than "Murder" somehow). 

That'll do it! Caw-caw.