Color-first character creation project

[lumpley]

(Imagine Ron kicking me under the table.)

Oh right! I'll be happy to host character sheet scans for anybody who wants. Email 'em to me at lumpley at gmail.

Hell, send me a physical copy, I'll scan it for you too. PM me for my address if you want to do that.

-Vincent

[Frank Tarcikowski]

I'll bite. I was also thinking of The Pool, but I'm not creative enough for that today. Therefore, I'm using the Unisystem Lite, specifically the Angel RPG, by C.J. Carella. I could just use the "Barbarian Queen" Archetype, assign a name and be done with it. But I will go through the full process of character creation – obviously, this girl is not only a barbarian from some other dimension, but also a half-demon! (I mean, seriously, look at her hair.)

DEMON PACKAGE

As she's a half-demon, I have to create a demon package first before I can make up the Protagonist. I get to chose from a number of supernatural Qualities and Drawbacks that all have a point cost that is simply summed up to see what cost the Demon Package will be at. Looking at her hair and eyes, I'm thinking "ice". Looking at her sword, I'm thinking "physical combat". There we go. I pick:

Antisocial Impulses (violence), severe, 2 pt Drawback
Enhanced Attributes (+2 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +3 Constitution), 8 pt Quality
Hypnosis (Gaze Into My Eyes; defense zero for one attack if successful), 5 pt Quality
Immortal (not getting older), 0 pt Quality
Increased Life Points (+30), 3 pt Quality
Reduced Damage (limited: frost, half damage), 1 pt Quality (also allows her to walk around half naked in New York in December, or so I figure)
Vulnerability (major: fire, five times damage after armor and modifiers), 3 pt drawback

This leaves me with a 12 pt Demon Package.

CHARACTER TYPE

I have to pick a character type. Usually the Veteran type is not eligible, leaving me with the choice between the ass-kicking Champion and the sidekick Investigator. Of course I pick the Champion, which means I can spend 20 points on Attributes, 20 points on Qualities (plus up to 10 from Drawbacks), 30 points on Skills, and start with 10 Drama Points.

ATTRIBUTES

I can spend my 20 points on 6 Attributes, up to 5 on a 1-for-1 basis. My bonuses from the Demon Package get awarded afterwards. Here I go:

Strength 4 + 2 = 6
Dexterity 5 + 3 = 8
Constitution 3 + 3 = 6
Intelligence 2
Perception 3
Willpower 5

Based on her Strength and Constitution, I look up her Life Points in the Life Point Table, and add the ones from the Demon Package.

Life Points 58 + 30 = 88

QUALITIES AND DRAWBACKS

Now I can choose a number of Qualities from a list. All of them have a point cost. I can also choose some Drawbacks to buy more Qualities. I have to spend 12 points on my Demon Package. After some shuffling, I end up with:

Half-Demon (as above), 12 pt Quality
Adversary (her father the frost demon), 3 pt Drawback (the point cost is GM's discretion but I made it up by my best judgement)
Attractiveness +2, 2 pt Quality
Fast Reaction Time (+5 Initiative), 2 pt Quality
Hard To Kill 5 (+15 Life Points, +5 to Survival Tests), 5 pt Quality
Humorless, 1 pt Drawback
Love (relationship starts shortly after season begins), 2 pt Drawback
Resistance 5 (pain; -5 wound penalties, + 5 to stay conscious), 5 pt Quality
Resources (hurting), 2 pt Drawback
Situational Awareness (+2 Perception to sense danger), 2 pt Quality

I have to go back and add the Life Point bonus from Hard To Kill now:

Life Points 58 + 30 + 15 = 103

Yeah, three digits, that looks right. Girls are always most tough in the Buffyverse.

SKILLS

Now I get to spend my 30 points on skills. Up to level 5 it's 1 point per level, after that it's 3 points per level. I pick the skills from a list of 18 skills on the Protagonist Sheet, and get to decide what my Wild Card is. In the end, I've got:

Acrobatics 4
Doctor 2
Getting Medieval 6
Influence 2
Kung Fu 3
Languages 1 (English)
Notice 4
Occultism 3
Wild Card (Arctic Survival) 3

COMBAT MANEUVERS

I am asked to fill in the Combat Maneuvers on the Protagonist Sheet. I pick the ones that appeal to me from the appropriate chapter in the book and jot down the bonuses. While I'm at it, I also fill in the "useful information" section.

Initiative d10+13
Perception d10+9 (for spotting danger)

Decapacitation d10+9
Disarm d10+12
Dodge d10+14
Grapple d10+13
Head Butt d10+9
Kick d10+10
Knockout d10+9
Melee Weapon d10+14
Parry d10+14
Punch d10+11
Stake d10+14
Takedown d10+9
Target Limb d10+12
Through the Heart d10+11
Toss d10+8
Whirling Sword d10+10

In order to make sense, I'd also have to make notes on how each of these work. More likely, in play, I'd just be looking them up in the book. Therefore, I don't really need these numbers on my Protagonist Sheet, but the book says I should write them down and so I do, for the purpose of this example.

DRAMA POINTS

I get 10 Drama Points as a Champion, which I can spend on rolls, plot twists or other fun stuff and which I gain in specific ways appropriate to the source material.

FINISHING TOUCHES

Finally, I am asked to look beyond the numbers and make up some basic things about my protagonist.

Name: She is called Svenja. Back where she came from there is no second name, but when asked for, she goes by the name of Frost.

Look: See picture.

Other Characteristics: She always stares at people. Her laugh is cold and short, without humor. Her voice is deep and husky. She speaks in a Swedish accent.

THAT'S IT!

I would fill in and scan a Protagonist Sheet but I'm at home now and would miss the deadline if I did.

Hey, that was fun! Now I'd like to play her right away. She's a real combat monster, easy to portray, and very Angel-style! Okay, normally the girls in the show are thinner, but I like her curves.

- Frank

[lilomar]

My real name is Jacob, although, I answer to Lil' Omar in real life, so, your choice.

I created a character sheet, although it is not a 'real' sheet, in the sense of being an official The Affairs of Wizards character sheet, since there is none. I whipped it up on my computer in a few minutes, so the quality isn't high. I haven't gotten a chance to play Affairs yet, but when I do, I'm not planning on using character sheets at all.

I also hope that it's alright that I typed the values onto the character sheet instead of printing it off, filling it out by hand, and scanning it back into the computer. I can do that if you would like, but this is more legible, and eco-friendly.

Praveena, my Affairs of Wizards character.

[Vulpinoid]

Let's see if my own game system can be put through its paces using this set of criteria. Once I've managed to upload a pdf of the character's final sheet, it will be available at http://www.vulpinoid.com/colourfirst.pdf.

This doesn't seem to be working...so the character sheet can now be found here.

V

[Joel P. Shempert]

Vincent, I must know: does "Skimpy Fashion" count as "nearly naked" or "non-armor fashion" for the purpose of "Impossible Reflexes"?

Also, what does Hx stand for?

[Darcy Burgess]

Hey!

Here's the thing. I always thought that Traveller felt a lot more like Moebius/Taarna than any 'hard' scifi. I never got to play it that way (thanks, MegaTraveller...), but I always wished that I could have. Ergo, good ol' Black Box Traveller.

Although the hardcore character-gen rules don't specify that you need to detail backstory events as-you-go, I always did (and so did Millar in the example!) And the rules certainly do ask for "special assignments (interesting episodes in the individual's career)." The rules are completely silent on exactly when this stuff is meant to be invented; I'm putting it in the context of the lifepath (which is exactly when it jumps into my head anyway!)

Die rolls are in red.  For the uninitiated, Traveller statistics are all in hexadecimal. 1-9 as normal. 10=A, 11=B, etc.

Roll Stats:
Strength 7
Dexterity 9
Endurance 4
Intelligence 6
Education 9
Social Standing B

Name:
Dame Kuula Ben'on

Age 18, begin first term of service:
- apply for enlisment in Merchants (7+): 7+3=10, successful.
- Survival (5+): 8, ok.
- apply for Commission (4+): 9+1=10, successful. Kuula is now a 4th Officer.
- apply for Promotion (10+): 9+0=9, unsuccessful.
- skills (3):
  personal table: 3, +1 Endurance
  personal table: 6, Bribery 1
  personal table: 4, +1 Strength
- Special Assignments: Some sort of striking out from home. Definitely seeing the grubby side of service. Probably some scrapping, hard labour and wheeling-dealing going on. Interesting question is why is a noble-born girl consorting with these hooligans?

Age 22
- Re-enlistment (4+): 7, choose to re-enlist.
- Survival (5+): 6, ok.
- Promotion (10+): 8, unsuccessful.
- Skills (1)
  Advanced Table One: 2, Mechanical 1
- Special Assignments: Kuula gets in some sort of an altercation with her crewmates and gets beaten pretty badly. She gets reassigned to the engineering detail and shows some acumen.

Age 26
- Re-enlistment (4+): 6, choose to re-enlist.
- Survival (5+): 8, ok.
- Promotion (10+): 7, unsuccessful.
- Skills (1)
  Service Table: 4, Steward 1
- Special Assignments: Kuula must be really irritating.  That blown Promotion roll explains why she gets busted down to waiting tables for a term.

Age 30
- Re-enlistment (4+): 7, choose to re-enlist.
- Survival (5+): 9, ok.
- Promotion (10+): 5, unsuccessful (ouch!)
- Skills (1)
  Advanced Table Two: 3, Engineering 1
- Special Assignments: After spilling some drinks (It was an accident, honest!) on some obnoxious passengers, the brass re-think their previous disciplinary action. They assign the problematic Kuula some real scut work; she's leading a janitorial detail in the engine room. Out of spite, Kuula keeps her eyes and ears open and learns as much as she can while her deckhands are scrubbing.

Age 34
- Aging
  Strength (8+): 9, ok.
  Dexterity (7+): 8, ok.
  Endeurance (8+): 7, -1.
- Re-enlistment (4+): 10, choose to re-enlist.
- Survival (5+): 10, ok.
- Promotion (10+): 4, unsuccessful.
- Skills (1)
  Personal Table: 2, +1 Dexterity

Age 38
- Aging
  Strength (8+): 6, -1.
  Dexterity (7+): 4, -1.
  Endeurance (8+): 8, ok.
- Re-enlistment (4+): 8, choose to muster out while the UPP is still tickin' (and James' picture doesn't look old anyway.)
- Mustering Out (6 rolls)
  Benefits: 1, Low Passage
  Benefits: 4, Body Pistol 1
  Benefits: 2, +1 Intelligence
  Cash: 2, 5000cr
  Benefits: 2, +1 Intelligence
  Benefits: 2, +1 Intelligence
- Retirement Pay: 4000cr/a
- Special Assignments: Looks like over her career Kuula has learned a fair bit of self-restraint (the hard way!) She's definitely no honour to her family name, that's for sure. The 5000cr should buy her some meager equipment (where did that sword come from, anyway?) That low passage is undoubtedly thanks to one of the few friends she has from her service years; she'll be lucky to get smuggled into a cargo hold.

Birthworld
  Sepsis Minor
  No Navy Base
  No Scout Base
  Gas Giant in System
  Starport C
  Size 5 (5000mi diameter)
  Atmosphere 4 (thin, tainted)
  Hydrosphere 4 (40% coverage)
  Population 5 (100s of thousands)
  Government 6 (captive government, ie: colony)
  Law 3 (military weapons prohibited)
  Tech +2 (Starport) +1 (Population) +3 (roll) = 5 (circa 1930 earth)
- Special Assignments: hunh.  Kuula's family is some sort of puppet regime on what's essentially a coaling stop overseeing a fuel source (the gas giant). There are probably some shipyards and privateer-type law enforcement. Their spacefaring capabilities are clearly thanks to the colonial powers, as the actual settlement is too rudimentary. I could see a starry-eyed young Kuula wanting to get out of here! She must have lied about her identity when she signed on with the Merchants. I wonder if her family's looking for her...

Dischargeworld
  Garto Prime
  No Navy Base
  Scout Base
  Gas Giant in System
  Size 8 (8000mi diameter)
  Atmosphere C (Insidious)
  Hydrosphere 3 (30% coverage)
  Population 7 (10s of millions)
  Government 7 (Balkanized world, factions to be detailed)
  Law 9 (Weapons for home defense only. This may vary by faction, but it's a pretty draconian baseline!)
  Tech +1 (Atmosphere) +5 (roll) = 6 (circa 1950 earth)
- What a hell-hole to get dropped off on. The once-proud planet has been backwatered by internal bickering (I'm picturing some iteration of Palestine/Israel) and strife. Kuula has no choice but to go underground.  She probably picked up that big-assed sword because it says "FUCK OFF" really well, not that she knows how to use it...drop a few more creds on a body pistol and some accoutrements and she's hustling with the worst the black market has to offer.

This is really cool.  I'm digging Kuula a lot. She's beaten down and loaded for bear. It'll be keen to meet her fellow Travellers...and see how quickly she needs to use that Low Passage to get the hell outta dodge...

Apologies for dropping the ball on recording the planet generation rolls...I guess you'll have to trust me.

The character sheet (will upload on January 6).

Excelsior!
D

[Ron Edwards]

Hey Willow,

Given the Boffer LARP survivor group, what survivor group would you make up? For everyone reading, each person playing Escape From Tentacle City makes up a survivor group, so this is part of prep for play.

Best, Ron

[Willow]

Environmental Protestors.  I'm envisioning some sort of wooded area (Tentacle City National Forest), where one can hold a boffer LARP, or chain oneself to a tree, or both, with hilarity ensuing.

[lumpley]

Kingston Cassidy's character sheet scan is here: Ulora.

Joel: Just look at her! She's clearly nearly naked.

Hx stands for history, like Rx stands for prescription.

-Vincent

[Joel P. Shempert]

Joel: Just look at her! She's clearly nearly naked.

Well, duh. You just confused me with your uses of the word "Fashion." I don't know my way around Apocalypse World descriptors.

Your answer meets with my approval.

Hx stands for history, like Rx stands for prescription.

Gotcha.

[Christopher Kubasik]

So, I looked and looked at the picture, and then realized that the cartoon woman before me had nothing to do with Picts from Pendragon (I was about to order a PDF version of Beyond the Wall to stat her...) 

And when if I tried to writer her up in Primetime Adventure, I couldn't imagine her in anything but a kind of Ralph Bashki animated TV series.  But I would never watch a Ralph Bashi animated series!  So that put the kabash on that.

I also tried In a Wicked Age...  But as Joel predicted, the only way to pull it off would be to fudge the Oracles.  So that was out.

So, I went with The Pool.  If the task was to work with the image first, that seemed like the best choice.  I could create directly from my response to the image.  (And I just played The Pool with my niece and nephew last week – twins, age 10 – so it was fresh in my mind!)

BAROOSA in THE POOL

As a GM, I set conventions for the game world. 

This is a notion taken from James' fantastic Pool variation, The Questing Beast, but not described in the basic Pool rules.  The purpose is to set the "baseline" of what is real for the game world – a kind of focus for player creation and play.

The setting is a dry, dusty red world with two moons, purple and black
There are humans and lizard men
Generations of war
Barbarians
Glimmering cities of glass that shine in the starlight, falling into decay
Air ships skip over the surface of the world using forgotten technologies
The two moons are Gods, and people worship them

That might be enough.  I'd most likely discuss the list with the players, and as they created characters.


As a Player, I create a character.

First, I write a 50 or so word description of the character (As a GM I allow a little leeway if the Player isn't going all list crazy with the word count!):

Baroosa is the daughter of a Barbarian chieftain killed by a lord of a crystal city. Even as her mother flees with the tribe deeper into the desert wastes, Baroosa stubbornly set out to gain vengeance.  She is armed with Magocck, her father's sword, which speaks the seven languages of wind.  With her prayers to the Purple Moon to guide her, she sets forth to kill the man who killed her father.

Second, I draw from the list key words or phrases that describe the character.  These will be Baroosa's traits.  They can range from abilities to characteristics to objects to relationships to whatever. 

The traits do not describe quality.  One can't be "the best swordsman in the world."  The die rolls determine effectiveness. 


These are the traits I pull out of the description:
Daughter of Barbarian Chieftain
Stubborn
Vengeance
My Father's Sword, Magocck
Seven Languages of the Wind
Purple Moon
The Man Who Killed Her Father
Mother
Tribe

Third, I distribute values to any of the Traits I want.

In the Pool I start with a Pool of 12 dice I can use to increase my odds of success.  (Basically, I can bet them into a die roll.  If I succeed in the roll, I get them back.  If I fail, I don't.)

I can spend these dice as values to my Traits, marking a trait as 1 Die, 2 Die, or 3 Die.  Any dice from the Pool left over are dice I get to carry into the game and gamble as I see fit.

For example, I could have a Trait: The Man Who Killed My Father 2; which means that every time I do something where I could invoke this Trait, I get to roll in two more dice to my die roll to succeed at my action.

(The way the game's odds work, it doesn't make much sense to make any trait a value of 3)


I distribute my dice like this:
Daughter of Barbarian Chieftain 2
Stubborn 1
Vengeance 1
My Father's Sword, Magocck 2
Seven Languages of the Wind 1
Purple Moon 1
The Man Who Killed My Father 2
Mother 1
Tribe 1

This means I've spent all 12 dice from my Pool, and will have to succeed at some tasks to build my Pool back up.

[sirogit]

Hey Ron,

My name is Sean Musgrave.

Someone really has to do the Prime Time Adventures Ralph Bakshi show character. It should be a combination of Wizards and Heavy Metal and be cancelled during the first season due to too many veiled drug references.

[Christopher Kubasik]

Someone should!

It just can't be me.

[Paul Czege]

...I couldn't imagine her in anything but a kind of Ralph Bashki animated TV series.  But I would never watch a Ralph Bashi animated series!  So that put the kabash on that.

Does anyone own this?

Paul

[Christopher Kubasik]

Here's the character sheet for Baroosa.

Also, you'll note that the sword, Magocck, speaks the languages of the seven winds.  In HeroQuest style, that is as yet undefined.

http://playsorcerer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/baroosa.pdf