[Mortal Coil] Characters

[Matt-M-McElroy]

Hey,

Would it be possible for you to post a sample character two? It would be interesting to see what they might look like and help guide me through character creation a bit so I know I'm on the right page when I explain it to others...

Thanks,

Matt M McElroy
"What Are You Afraid Of?"
http://www.flamesrising.com

[Brennan Taylor]

No problem!

Here is one that Thor came up with in a recent playtest:

Tahir Shah (novice)
Half-British/half-Afghani son of an imperialist and a warlord's daughter. Studied in Cambridge, but knows the streets of Asia too.

Faculties: Power: 2, Grace: 3, Wits: 3, Will: 2

Aptitudes: Competent occult scholar (2), novice swordsman (1), competent persuasive speaker (2), competent adept of ancestor magic (2)

Passions: Duty: to my ancestors to prevent the imperialists from controlling Shamballa (2), Love: for the knowledge of the language of creation (1), Hate: of Hafiz Bey (1), Fear: of Ravanna (1)


Hafiz Bey is a T.E. Lawrence type (European posing as an Asian), and Ravanna is The Demon King. These details came from the theme discussion and post-passion setting development.


Drozdal's character from the same game:

Blake (veteran)
Son of the head of the Hellfire Club (a British secret society), Baron Francis Orlack.

Faculties: Power: 2, Grace: 3, Wits: 2, Will: 3

Aptitudes: Skilled anthropologist (3), expert Hellfire Club magician (4), competent duelist (2)

Passions: Duty: to my father; I owe him everything and I will find Shangri-La for him (1), Fear: that I will not be able to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world (2), Hate: of the shadow people; they took away my mother (2)

[Matt-M-McElroy]

Thanks, that does help out somewhat. It also gives me more examples to show if I can get a game going...

Regards,

Matt

[Brennan Taylor]

Sure. I'll post some more here later. I have some from my Old Gods game, to give an idea of characters who are higher power.

[Matt-M-McElroy]

Sure. I'll post some more here later. I have some from my Old Gods game, to give an idea of characters who are higher power.

Looking forward to checking them out.

I need more ideas on how to explain/create Passions for some of these characters. How do I get folks to really get creative in regards to character creation?

Thanks,

Matt

[Brennan Taylor]

Character creation and theme creation should all be one big, seamless thing. I don't know which version of the rules you have, but I have arranged it in order to get everyone's creative juices flowing.

Here's how I suggest you go about it:

Start with the theme document and discuss tone. What's the feel you are going for? Hopeful? Bleak? Gritty? Truly disturbing?

Once the group has settled on that, move on to setting. Where is it set? What time period? How does this tie back to tone?

After setting, discuss the supernatural. How does in intersect with the world? What is the feel of magic itself?

When you have these details nailed down, it's time to discuss situation. What are the core problems and conflicts in this world? Set up some opposing dichotomies, where players will need to make a choice or be pulled in two directions. Conflicting loyalties are great for passions.

Final step in world-building is villains. Some powerful figures, some bad guys.

After you've done all this, you are ready to make characters. Tie the passions back into the situation and the villains, as well as using them to tie player characters together.

Hope this helps. All of this is explained step-by-step in the final rules.

[Judd]

For some reason I thought this was a game of modern gods, rather than a modern occult magic thang.

Sounds neat, Brennan.

How would you pitch this game...or, how are you going to pitch this game to folks who wonder on by at a con?

[Brennan Taylor]

For some reason I thought this was a game of modern gods, rather than a modern occult magic thang.

Sounds neat, Brennan.

How would you pitch this game...or, how are you going to pitch this game to folks who wonder on by at a con?

That's probably because my first playtest and AP posts were about the sessions where we created a world of modern gods, plus the Dreamation game had the same theme.

My one sentence pitch: Mortal Coil is a game about magic and passion.

If that hooks them, then: When you play Mortal Coil, you create your magical world from the ground up, starting with the setting, all in about half an hour. It's wide open, you can create games with ancient gods, flying carpets, student wizards, or all of the above. Every player is able to add new magical facts to the world during play, so the setting evolves and grows as you are actually playing. The only rule is that magic always has a price. It takes hardly any prep, and you get good stories out of it every time.

From there, I'd dive into the details.

[Matt-M-McElroy]

I am very much looking forward to final product of this game...

I'll hook you up with some promotions on Flames Rising when you get that far, so keep me posted.

Regards,

Matt