Saturday 21 October 2017

Play Example - Character Creation

I probably should have posted this one first, but - best laid plans and all that.
BREAK!!'s character creation is intended to be brief and fun while still yielding an interesting result; I think we managed that pretty well!


Starting off

Pink is eager to sink her teeth into the new campaign, so she decides to make her character a few days before. Naturally, she makes sure she has everything she needs before starting.
  • Pink starts by sitting at a table with this book, a d20, a printed character sheet and pencil.
  • She writes down all the basic values for Speed, Defense and Allegiance points.
  • She also notes down she has a standard weapon (she’ll decide what it looks like later) and rolls to see how much money she has. She ends up with 13 coins.
  • She decides that her character will be a young woman named Mariah, but wants to leave (most of) the rest up to chance.
  • She goes to Step 1.


Part One: Mariah’s Calling

Pink begins by scanning the Calling Chart, since that’s part of the first step outlined. She thinks she could have fun with all of them so she decides to Roll for it randomly.
  • Pink rolls a 9. That’s a Battle Princess.
  • She puts Battle Princess on her character sheet and as she is starting from the beginning puts her Rank as 1.
  • She checks the Progression Table and notes down the base Aptitudes on her character sheet. Might 8, Deftness 8, Insight 7, Grit 9, Aura 10.
  • She also notes that her character starts with 3 Hearts and an Attack of +1
  • Finally, she records the calling’s Starting Abilities. They all sound so cool!
  • Mariah’s Heart’s Blade is a Sky Steel Mighty Weapon (The Heroine’s Sword).
  • Her Heart’s Companion is a Guardian Toy named “Akky”, based on a doll she cherished as a child.


Part Two: Daughter of Shadow

Pink is tentative at first, as a solid image of Mariah is forming in her head and not all the available species fit it. She eventually decides to roll for it anyway when the Game Master reminds her that she can always re-roll or choose if the result seems off to her.
  • Pink rolls a 10: Tenebrate. She is delighted, as she likes their ethereal appearance and decides to keep the result.
  • She turns to Species section and records the two Tenebrate Species attributes: Night born and Shadow sight. Pink also marks off that she has a single point of Dark Allegiance and strangely sharp teeth as a result of her Night Born Ability.


Part Three: Humble Beginnings

Now that she has a very good idea of the the sort of character she wants, Pink has decided to pick a few things rather than roll for them.
  • She wants Mariah to be a shining light of hope in a troubled land, so she chooses the Wistful Dark as her Homeland.
  • She checks the appropriate Origin table, rolling this time. She gets a 11, which means Mariah was a Starlight Farmer.
  • Pink notes the Purviews from the Origin table and writes them down.
  • She chooses a bag of Homemade Cookies and her family's heirloom Shovel as her bonus starting gear.


Part Four: Strengths and Weaknesses

Feeling daring again, Pink decides to let the dice decide Mariah’s Traits.
  • Pink rolls for her two positive Traits, getting a 19 (Aura) and a 10 (Grit). She decides that Mariah is Determined and Fascinating, which goes well with her idea of her being a potential beacon of hope for the downtrodden.
  • Now Pink rolls for her negative Trait, getting a 13 (Insight). She decides that Mariah is gullible and occasionally unobservant.
  • Pink records her Traits and adjusts her Aptitudes accordingly.


Part 5: She gets knocked down, but she gets up again

Anxious to have her character completed, Pink turns to the dice again to decide Mariah’s Quirk.
  • Pink rolls and get’s a 17. Mariah is a Tenebrate, so this means she has a Fate Quirk.
  • She moves to the Quirk section and checks the Fate table, rolling a 1. She has the “Survivor” Quirk - she’s probably just too optimistic to be broken down!


Part 6: The finishing touches

Finished, Pink is left to fill out the details while the Gamer Master helps the other players create their Characters.

  • Pink decides to take full advantage of the odd coloring offered to the Tenebrate, and gives Mariah has purple skin and mint colored hair. She has hand-me-downs for gear and a fondness for hopeful old stories.
  • Akky, her heart’s companion, acts a bit cynical and sarcastic to be the foil that Mariah’s relentless spirit needs here and there.
  • Mariah’s family is alive and well, she just got in some trouble while running an errand (mainly picking a fight with a bullying patrician) so she ran off on adventure to keep them from getting dragged into it. Blue takes note of this and writes a few things down when Pink lets him know...
  • Satisfied with the results, Pink sketches a little picture of Mariah on her character sheet as a finishing touch.

5 comments:

  1. I've been enjoying reading these examples, and I like this one especially for some reason. It sounds like you've got the use of tables really streamlined to generate a great deal of customized character content with a minimum of decision-paralysis.

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    1. Thanks! :D I think of all the things in the book, I agonized over these the most so It's great to hear people have a good impression thus far.

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    2. From the description, it looks like the big decisions, like calling and species, have relatively few options, but then you get exploding customization by referring to nested tables for the final few details like traits and quirks.

      This seems really smart. For the really defining and mechanically-important characteristics, there are only a few options, and they're determined right away. Then the possibilities from personalization expand outward from there, very quickly selecting from among a wealth of finishing details. The two things that look like they work very well (based on your report here) are that you have few options for the most important things, and many nested options for the most personal things, in exactly the way that someone making a character would want; and that you have basically automated the whole process by separating it into random tables that the player can move through quickly to get a feel for their character.

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    3. That was more or less my intent, and I am absolutely chuffed to see someone point it out! I hope it works out that way for everyone in practice.

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  2. I am digging how this works. Roll or pick allows a lot of different kinds of player to feel good about chargen.

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