The Forge Archives

As introduced here, I present chapter three of my design effort.

Comments greatly appreciated. The text is a bit more rushed than last time, since I'm more interested in getting you a more complete picture of the whole at first, before polishing that whole.

Your character

What makes up a character?

Well, what do you think a character might be? You might have previous experience with games such as this – and you can certainly use that experience, but let's set that aside for a moment. To live in a story, what does a character need? An inspiring description surely helps:

You have no idea who the swaggering, staggering, well-dressed man is, but the quality of his clothes and the big splotch of what is probably red wine makes it easy to guess, Those babyblue eyes, their gaze roaming without focus, in a dulled but clean-shaven belong to one of the young scions of the city. His tender build is the last element you need to cast him in your mind: Prey.

You'll notice that this description is partly based on previous actions (heavy drinking in the bad part of town). Those actions come out of a certain way of life, out of background, and they imply a certain set of motivations for the drunk in question.

Your character is your point of strong interaction with the game. She should:

-  be alive, vibrant, with a 'look' you enjoy looking at,
-  have some motivation to keep her in motion and give her a personality to filter things through, and
-  have learned skills and developed abilities, to help meet the challenges coming her way as well as give her a bit of history and a place in the world.

When you're reading a book, or watching a movie, the characters are clear, but not overly detailed. There's room for your own interpretation and imagination, and that of the other characters in that story (and all the possible mistaken assumptions).

This game tries to give your character these necessary things, but not any more, to keep the flow of the game easy. The only thing there are no rules for is the look of your character – so build what you like. All these things are noted down on one piece of paper, which you keep yourself – your character sheet.

[Provide character sheet]

Stuff that defines your character (Concept)

You could be anyone in the medieval fantasy world. To keep things clear in your head, it can be a good idea to come up with a one-sentence concept of your character – for instance, 'Unwilling noble son of a brilliantly militant father', 'brawny and lewd circus artist' or 'off the deep-end arsonist with humanist interests' could be interesting concepts. Once you've got that, fleshing out the rest of the character should be fun and easy.

Core: Value & Goal -> Karma & Push

At the core of every person, there's something she believes, holds dear, a way of life. It does not show in every action she takes, but it's there, and it's what keeps her going. In this game, this is known as the characters Value. Some examples are 'Competitiveness', 'Charity', 'Friendship', 'Domination', 'Community', 'Fun'.

This value, which is very stable for a character, something a friend would know her for, leads to Goals the she would like to accomplish. Examples are 'Being the first woman to win the jousting competition', 'Rebuilding the temple of agriculture', 'Getting as many kicks as possible by stealing from the five most powerful people in the capital.'

During Rain Day, when the final fragments of power were strewn across the planet, something in the strength of her Value drew a bit of power to the character. Now, when she acts there's a bit of that power left to help her. This is known as Karma, which a character can have up to 5 of. By doing things that are in line with her value, a character can regain Karma. Karma is used after a draw from the Bag to get extra successes, exactly how is explained in the next chapter. New characters start with 3 Karma.

Also, the character's commitment to the Goal she's trying to achieve allows her a certain grit that allows her to occasionally Push just a bit harder. Push also runs up to 5, and starts at 3. Push is used at the start of an action to try to make it succeed, exactly how is explained in the next chapter. Push is regained by getting enough rest – the character recharges her batteries.

Contact: Forming, Flowing and Dreaming

Something filled you up during Rain Day – and it's changed you. You still feel the same, there's no voice, god, demon, or anything you can sense in your head, heart, or soul. However, you just seem more connected to reality – like your presence matters, there's a contact between how reality works and you.

That's exactly the case. This contact comes into effect when one of the special tiles in the Bag is drawn. There are three types of contact, of which your character has one:

-  Forming: your character is very good at something, and your perception of reality is filtered through this skill. To say it crudely: you're a hammer, so problems look like nails. However, you're the definition of a GOOD hammer. Whenever your contact comes into play, your way of doing things is imposed upon reality. For the current goings-on, any other acting character within a few steps reach gets one less draw in your specialization – and will thus be less able to oppose you.
-  Flowing: your character is very good at picking up the 'vibe' of his surroundings – the things that matter in the place he's in. Whenever contact happens, you get 2 extra draws in any skill/effort that closely matches the goals and values of the surroundings
-  Dreaming: your character is child-like. When contact happens, fantasy happens. Things that that are no rules or skills for might happen. The more successes, the more fantastic the occurrence might be.

Career & Birth

The final part of a character is the life he had before you started playing him. This life is formed by three aspects: aspects of birth, your career, and certain benefits and hindrances that happened during your life.

You get to pick birth benefits (positive aspects) and hindrances (negative aspects) first. Two benefits are free. To get any more (if you want them), you'll have to balance them with hindrances, which will flesh out your character by giving him challenges to overcome.

Birth will also determine your social status. If you take no aids or hindrances, your status will be average to start with.

After birth, your character started learning and working. In this game, it's assumed that your career starts around age 12. Growth is in 'blocks' of roughly 3 years. For every block, you get to pick one general description – this is your general education, or work. Also, for every block, you get to pick one hobby – which is a rather specific activity. Examples of careers are 'promising circus youth', 'schooled young prince', 'soldier', and 'traveling alchemist'. Hobbies could be horse riding, fencing or cooking.

The things you decide in this phase will help you with draws later. For instance, if you were in a swordfight, any martial career or swordfighting hobby you have will give you an additional draw. If you are mingling with the upper class, any education you have as a courtier, or hobbies in, say, fashion, might help make a positive impression – giving you extra draws.

Your character could also be really dedicated to his career, with no time for hobbies. In that case, your character automatically earns a promotion to a higher level of the career – which translates to a higher social status. Mirroring this, your character might also be really uninterested in social niceties, and more interested in hobbies. In that case, you gain an extra hobby, but lose a level of social status. (An alternative explanation is that something forced a lower status on you – and because you had to compensate for this event, you picked up another hobby).

If the storykeeper finds your sequence of careers appropriate, you may also take benefits and hindrances that your character developed during his career, from the same list.

Your character must take at least 1 block of career – thus the youngest starting age is 15 years old. You may take at most 5 blocks, which would make you around 27 years old.

The list of birth aspects and life developments has intentionally been kept somewhat short, so if your group and storykeeper agree on adding new benefits and hindrances, that's excellent.

Short sample character: Eugene

Eugene is actually a re-make of one of my friends' characters. Eugene was born as a circus artist, a really strong and nimble lad. He grew up in the circus, showing much promise, and he's always been a driven performer. Around age 15, Rain Day happened, and he was awe-struck, and stayed in the circus, bringing cheer to distraught people. These were harsh times, though, and sometimes he was forced to engage in less-than-legal activities to stay alive. His career then started peaking – he was really popular, a big name. However, in his early twenties he was struck by a harsh disease, and chronic pain as well as facial deformities became part of his life. His career ended as abruptly as it started. Searching a solution, he became the bodyguard of a traveling alchemist, his services repaid by food, lodging, and hopefully one day, a cure.

Eugene's character sheet would be:

Value: perfectionist.
Goal: finding a cure/recovering

Birth:
-  Low social status (-1)
-  Really Strong (+2)
-  Nimble (+1)

Career:
-  promising circus youth
-  circus artist (push for promotion, social status +1)
-  famous circus artist (reflecting his promotion)
-  bodyguard

Hobbies:
-  riding
-  lockpicking
-  knife-throwing

Life:
-  Famous artist (+1)
-  Underworld connections (+1)
-  Fragile (-1)
-  Ugly (-1)

Sample birth/life benefits and hindrances list (incomplete).

Benefits and hindrances that may only be taken at birth are labeled with an asterisk:

Benefits:

Really Strong* – also less penalties when fighting in heavy armor, etc.
Nimble* – supple
Fast* – tends to have his actions resolved first
Smart* – good for formal education, info from books
Charismatic* – bonus on social interactions
Tough* – lots of staying power, doesn't get hurt easily
Born into higher social status* – more income, respect, power, responsibility
Initiate into restricted order –
Member of nobility –
Good senses* –

etc.

Hindrances:

Weak –
Slow –
Clumsy –
Frail –
Ugly –
Blunt –
Born into lower social status* –
Condemned Criminal –
Bad Senses –

etc.