Character Creation in Nightscape

[Kirk Mitchell]

Ho, I haven't been posting for a while, and haven't been spending too much time on my game (major exams in school), but during the next few weeks I should be back on track in the game. However, a couple of things have ocurred to me, actually, its only one thing but it encompasses many things: Character Creation.

I have seen a lot of character creation systems, and none of them seem to work particularly well when applied to my mechanic. What I would like to know is how I can design a character creation system (better than the one I have), that allows the player to create a play a character who has the correct morals, background, emotions and skills, and this still has an effect on play.

My current character system has four characteristics:

Physique - All forms of physicality
Intelligence - As it says
Manipulation - Charisma and social skills
Willing - Willpower and mental strength

History - Write a paragraph about your life before the Oddits came, and highlight three important sections or phrases. These are your enigmas.

Enigmas - These are your skills, they link directly to your background and have to do with your trained skills before the Rift came. These are counted when drawing your Tarot Cards for the Delve when determining the outcomes of an action.

Major and important story actions are determined via Tarot Card based system which I will explain further once it is ironed out and playtested (I just love inflicting my mechanics on my brother).

Minor and mundane actions are a Karmic system based upon the stats for your characteristics.

What I want to say is how could I design a character system which suits my goals (philosophical play, questioning Human Nature, the degeneration of humanity etc.)? I hope I was intelligible.

Thanks,
 Kirk

[Mike Holmes]

Morals do not mean anything in a context outside of the potential for judgement by others. That is, if you have a guy alone on an island, the only person who his morals matter to is himself. Given that your game seems to be about multiple characters in a sort of society, I think we can ignore that case (though internal struggle is a neat subject as well). What you need is for the character's morals to have a social context.

IOW, what you need is some mechanical way to link the character to other characters. Whose opinions does the character care about? Why?

As long as you somehow make that an integral part of play, I think the system will produce the sort of play you're looking for. This means that you have to figure out how to insert these people into the chargen.

Aside: why Enigma? How are skills enigmatic?

Mike