Character Creation Challenge 2022

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Day 23

"Bronze" (GURPS 4th thief)

“Bronze” is an orcish blood sneak thief in the Big City, another 75 pt character to use as an example for the fellow on the Reddit GURPS board. This is all pretty self-explanatory.

ST 10 DX 13 IQ 11 HT 12
Speed 6.25, Move 6, Dodge 9, Parry 10.

ADVANTAGES: Base, Born Thief talent/2.

DISADVANTAGES: Code of Honor (Stays Bought); Enemy / local street gang, 6-; Social Stigma: Second-class citizen; Struggling Wealth; Unattractive; Unluckiness.

SKILLS: Area Knowledge-12; Brawling-14; Climbing-13; Cloak-13; Cooper-11; Filch-12; First Aid-12; Jumping-13; Knife-14; Merchant-10; Search-12; Sleight of Hand-13; Smuggling-12; Stealth-14; Streetwise-11; Thrown Weapon: Knife-13.

QUIRKS: Fetish for bronze metal; Leaves trademarks (trivial); Mouthy to the wrong people.

I look at this guy as the stereotypical street thug, good enough to kick ass in a tavern brawl, but only just barely good enough to make a living on the streets: not a pickpocket, not a second-story man, not a con artist, and things never go smooth anyway. Likely with Cooper+Smuggling he gets by with running a false bottom scam on the authorities. "Base" is a GURPS perk that basically means you have a bolthole, based off of your Status level, which for a guy like this is a makeshift rooftop cubbyhole, and between Climbing and Jumping "Bronze" probably spends a lot of time on the rooftops of the City.
 
Day #22
Morrow Project (1980 edition?)

Carl Mays Pharmacist
STR13
CON16
DEX11
ACC6
CHA13
PSI9
LUCK18
Sp/Bp308
Blood TypeO+
Movements3
Endurance176


OK this is one really weird one. More than any other attempt at chargen I have no idea if I have done this right. As far as I can see I just roll up some stats. No skill system in the non expanded game (the middle contains an expansion system)
 
Day 23: Dark Streets & Darker Secrets

I struggled a bit with which game to do today. Unlike the rest of the characters in this challenge, I knew the concept before I knew which system to use. The character I wanted is the cold war era psychic soldier archetype for modern day dark conspiracy stuff. My initial thought was to go with Conspiracy-X. But it's been so long since I've even looked at that game, I'd have to reread the book and essentially relearn the process. And for these challenges, that's not really something I can dedicate the time to do most days. Then I thought of the Chronicles of Darkness. But I actively dislike the storyteller system, and wouldn't be doing a character in that system for myself. I went through a few other systems and discarded them for similar reasons. So ultimately I went back to Diogo Nogueira's fantastic little game engine to make the character, but with some of the setting assumptions from Conspiracy-X thrown in.

Name: Trevor Curtis
Concept: MKUltra Operative Gone Rogue
Archetype: The Gifted

Physique: 9
Agility: 13
Intelligence: 11
Willpower: 13

Vitality: 10
Sanity: 11
Luck: 3
Money: 2

Special Abilities:
---------------------------
I Sense a Disturbance - The Gifted can sense supernatural activities and effects in their vicinity. Making an Intellect test with a Difficulty equal to the HD of the creature or the Power Level (PL) of the effect, the character can detect supernatural effects up to medium range.

I Make My Own Reality - Through their innate connection to the supernatural, The Gifted is able to manifest astonishing powers. They begin gameplay with 3 known powers and can learn a new one each Level thereafter. To use these powers, The Gifted makes a Willpower test with Difficulty equal to its PL.

There is Power in Blood - Using these supernatural powers is really taxing for The Gifted’s body and mind. To improve their chances to use their powers, the character may sacrifice points of Physique or Agility to add the same amount to their Willpower for a single Attribute Test. After the check, these points are lost and need to be recovered normally

Supernatural Heritage: Atlantean - Positive Die on physique tests to resist disease & poisons.

Other information:
-----------------------------
Complication: Hunted by shadowy government agency.

Where is he from: Unknown. Base of operations was a secret location in upstate New York.

Age: Uncertain. Best estimates are early 30's.

Personality: Deeply suspicious and alert; hyper-vigilant but calm, collected and confident.

Appearance: Shaved head, hazel green eyes, five o'clock shadow. Hair has likely begun to regrow, but would be short. Wears dark grey cargo pants, a flannel shirts and a beige jacket made of camel wool.

Trevor is a trained super-soldier, who somehow broke through his conditioning on his last mission, and has gone Unauthorized Absence. His last known whereabouts were in the area of downtown Rochester, and may be headed for New York City. He may be suffering from some sort of mental break.

Subject should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. Contact federal authorities immediately should you spot this individual.
 
Since I'll be back at work this week, I'll be in danger of falling behind on this project again. So I am getting a little ahead by posting my 24th character on the 23rd.

Character 24 will be made using In Darkest Warrens: Minimalist Fantasy Roleplaying. This is another game that’s just a few pages. Fantasy is my least-favorite of the typical RPG genres, but if the GM is enthusiastic and I don’t have to learn a bunch of stupid lore, I can get into it. So when it comes to fantasy, the shorter the rulebook is, the better.

You get a handful of numbers to distribute amongst your stats. I’m thinking of making a distilled version of a Ranger I once played in D&D 3.0, so my stats will be

Brawn 3+
Nimble 5+
Mind 3+
Person 4+

For Class, from the 5 this game has, I’m obviously choosing Ranger. This means I get 4 Wounds and can make an extra ranged attack. I also start with 1d6x10 gold pieces, which ends up being 40.

That’s all the steps of character creation, which means this is yet another game that doesn’t actually say to name your character. Nevertheless, I will. My D&D Ranger was a woman named Kora with one “r.” This version will be Korra with two “r”s. In true stereotypical PC-fashion, old Kora was an orphan, so new Korra will also be one. Since she had no family, for a surname, she’ll choose one from a feature of the land where she grew up. Meet Kora Cordillera, wayward Ranger.
 
Day 23: Paranoia XP.

Note: This uses a handful of my house rules although the difference will appear slight. It's aimed at a more "straight" campaign. Anything that wouldn't be known to the player is in italics.

Name: Ernie-R-LSJ-1

Clearance: Red

Service Group: PLC

Service Firm - Artisan Union (Artistic License)

Perversity Points: 30

Tics: Hums to self when working on something, Incredibly clean fingernails

Management 10

Bootlicking: 14

Stealth 6

Violence 6

Laser Weapons: 10
Projectile Weapons: 10

Demolition: 1

Hardware 8

Nuclear Engineering: 12

Weapon and Armour Maintenance: 1

Wetware 9

Software: 10

Bioweapons (BLUE): 14

Psychotherapy: 1

Mutant Power: None (This is in fact true, believe it or not. Ernie-R is genuinely clean. The player will almost certainly suspect it's being hidden from him though).
Power: 12
Control: 4

Secret Society: Pro Tech
Rank: 3
Codename: Doctor Conduction

Secret Skills: Experimental Equipment Repair & Mait 14/Sculpting 12/Advanced Mathematics 17/Pro Tech Propaganda 11

Access: 1
Loyalty Rating: 1

Assigned Equipment

Laser Pistol Body
Red Reflec Armour Overalls
PDC
ME Card
Sculpting Kit

Personal Equipment:

875 Credits
Calculator (INDIGO)
Personal Hygiene Kit
First Aid Kit Hottorch
Experimental Hottorch (TREASONOUS) In five seconds it's hot enough to cut through flesh like butter. It's also terribly insulated so will be too hot to hold after ten seconds.

Background: Ernie-R actually likes life in Alpha Complex; all that high tech! (Even if most of it could be improved, possibly with more sculpting). He is largely loyal to The Computer and is proud to have been appointed a Troubleshooter.
 
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Day 22

Dragonfly (26D)

ORIGIN: Hi-Tech

RESISTANCES (6D)
Composure 2D, Fortitude 2D, Reaction 3D, Will 3D

APTITUDES (4D)
Academics 3D [Due to Super Brain], Athleticism 3D, Fighting 2D, Technology 3D [Due to Super Science], Vehicles 2D

POWERS (15D)
Super Brain 3D, Super Science 3D, Wizardry 4D (Boost: Additional Powers 1D, Complication: Must Fit on Utility Harness 1D).

ADVANTAGES (3D)
Base of Operations 1D, Super Vehicle 3D (The Pest)

DISADVANTAGES (-2D)
Thrillseeker (Minor Social Hindrance) 1D, Public ID 1D

COMPETENCY DICE: 4D

BACKGROUND: Scott Dolan began his career as Dragonfly as the sidekick to the Bronze Age superhero the Green Fly. During his years in this capacity, he and the Green Fly had occasion to ally with members of an extraterrestrial federation who visited Earth to apprehend a group of galactic criminals that were hiding out on the planet. At the end of that caper, Scott decided to strike out on his own by accepting an invitation to join his newfound allies and see the galaxy. After several years away, Scott returned to Earth and founded Hero Group International - a superhero group that would bring supers from all over the world together to fight planetary threats and to prep Earth for a more official relationship with the broader galactic community.

Dragonfly was kind of a surprise character for me. I made him for what I thought would be a one-shot. Consequently, he didn't have much of an origin story and was initially little more than an homage to one of my favorite superheroes, the Blue Beetle II (Ted Kord). However, Dragonfly quickly became one of my favorite characters to PLAY in a sort of improvisational way. Something about him just brought me alive at the table in the best possible ways. He also brought me great luck with the dice. There were at least two instances where he faced impossible odds (one involved going mano-a-mano against a god), when his only chance of survival lay in rolling a natural twenty on the die. In both cases, I said something like, "Well guys, this is it! Only a natural twenty can save me now!" before chucking the dice and getting just that.

Anyway, like with Paladin, Dragonfly was for a higher power campaign, so I've opted to go with 25D + 5D Competency for this SUPERS! Revised version of the character. (Normally, I like to start my SUPERS! Revised games at 20D + 5D Competency. For what it's worth, I always allow players to spend some or all of those Competency Dice during character generation if they REALLY need them to round out their character concepts, but I don't normally tell them that they have these Competency Dice at their disposal until after they've spent their original Creation Dice. In this case, Dragonfly needed to spend one of those Competency Dice to round out his concept.)

Below is a version of the character designed by the late and great Joe Singleton. I commissioned Joe to do this rendition of Dragonfly in the midst of our collaboration on The Superverse, which is more than 20 years after I played the character, but Joe nailed him in typical Joe fashion. (The wings, BTW, are technological, collapsible, and would be generated using Dragonfly's utility harness.)

Dragonfly4.png

All the best,

TGIDragonfly
 
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Day 22 (Delayed): Midnight Boulevard, Michael Brown
(A film noir Cepheus Engine variant)

Davina Delacroix, Age 26, Entertainer 1/Prison 1

Strength: 4
Dexterity: 10
Endurance: 7
Intelligence: 3
Education: 6
Social Standing: 7

Background: Working Class (Drive-1)

Skills: Carouse-1, Deception-1, Drive-1, Liason-1

Gear: Knife, Sedan, $500

Backstory: Davina was a dancer at a ritzy downtown nightclub who rubbed shoulders with many of the city's wealthy denizens, both the reputable and the disreputable. One day, though, she was blamed for a theft that she didn't commit, and was sent to prison for several years, unable to clear her name. When she got out, after an early release for good behavior, she vowed to take down people like those who had framed her. Now she works as an information broker, fixer, and occasional con artist, comfortable in both the high echelons and low reaches of society. She's not the brightest bulb, nor is she much good in a fight, but her skill at manipulation and working marks more than makes up for it.
 
Sorry to have dropped out of the challenge. Winter weather has kept my son and one of his friends out of school all week and we've been gaming every day. I'm truly enjoying seeing everyone else's creations though, and I will continue looking through them for ideas to steal borrow for interesting NPCs.
 
Day 23: Terror Tales - X, Beyond Belief Games
(Pulp Adventure OSR)

Name: Donovan McBain
Class: Adventurer
Level: 1

Strength: 7 (-1 penalty)
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 15 (+1 bonus)
Dexterity: 9
Constitution: 16 (+2 bonus)
Charisma: 11

Hit Points: 10
Armor Class: 12 (+2 class bonus)
Base Hit Bonus: +0 melee/+1 ranged
Sanity: 55

Class Abilities:
-- Ace Pilot: drive or fly any vehicle at +2 to the roll; can make basic repairs if needed
-- Survivalist: can recognize tracks, orienteer, and follow trails at +2 to the roll; can fish/forage/hunt for food for up to 4 people per day
-- Lead Barrage: one additional attack per round against foes of <1 HD or fewer (up to number of shots in gun)
-- Weapon Trained (Rifle): +1 to attacks with rifles

Advantages:
-- Skilled: Languages (knows a wide variety of languages and can almost always communicate at a basic level)

Disadvantages:
-- Age (elderly and sometimes suffer the effects of old age)

Equipment: Rifle with ammunition, Machete, Backpack, Binoculars, Compass, Flashlight, Small Tent

Backstory: Donovan McBain is a grizzled old adventurer who has been around the world and is adept at making his way through the wilderness. Decades ago, he was a cowboy in Wyoming, before he decided he'd had enough of ranch life and wanted to travel the globe. McBain is a rather well-rounded individual, having picked up a wide range of skills and abilities over the years. But old age comes to everyone eventually, and McBain is starting to feel the effects, with his muscles weakening and his reflexes not quite what they used to be. That said, the flinty and tough McBain knows he still has at least one or two more adventures left in him.
 
Jamfke said:
Sorry to have dropped out of the challenge. Winter weather has kept my son and one of his friends out of school all week and we've been gaming every day. I'm truly enjoying seeing everyone else's creations though, and I will continue looking through them for ideas to steal borrow for interesting NPCs.
Click to expand...

Eh, stuff happens. I don't think many people have come up with 23 characters so far!
 
And just keeping track of the entries so far ...

Black Leaf, Dyrnwyn, Savage Schemer, E-Rocker and myself have 23 characters in (this being the 23rd).

Bunch and TGIDragonfly have 22.

Stan has 16, Jamfke has 15, AsenRG and Silverlion each have 12, RaniE and The Convenient Skill each have 11, Picaroon Jack and Caesar Slaad each have 9, ffliz has 5, Jenx and Mankcam 3, The Butcher has 2, and Fenris-77, David Johansen, Endless Flight and Ynas Midgard each have 1.

So far, that's 271 characters created in Cthulhu knows how many different systems. Pretty awesome!
 
Day 23

I might return to SUPERS! Revised tomorrow, as my days are only getting busier and busier, but today I've got a LITTLE extra time, so I'll turn my attention to something else. A quick glance at my PDF library, and Go Fer Yer Gun by Beyond Belief Games (i.e. Simon Washbourne) catches my eye. Simon, of course, is the creator of SUPERS! 1st edition, so I guess this is still spiritually connected to my last several offerings. This lilte experiment will be connected in another way too - I'll use this fun little Western RPG to create an old character. In this case, it's my first (and only) Boot Hill character, which I worked up back in 1981 (or maybe early 1982). I remember drawing him on a wanted poster, on the other side of which were drawings of various weapons each of which had little stick figures representing the number of people he'd killed with that type of weapon. All I remember is that the dynamite stick had the most number of kills! My dad found that and was highly disturbed. He was already struggling with the "satanic panic" stuff, poor guy. He felt better the following year when Champions saved my soul. Anyway, without further ado I present to you ...

Black Bart

Class: Drifter
Level: 1 (0 Experience Points)
Gender: Male
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 178 lbs.

Features: Eye patch

ATTRIBUTES
STR 11 (+0), INT 10 (+0), WIS 16 (+3), DEX 12 (+1), CON 10 (+0), CHA 10 (+0)

ABILITIES
Survival (WIS), Move Silently (DEX), 6th Sense (WIS), Hawkeye, Prairie Tales (WIS)

WEAPONS
Stingy pistol, pocket pistol, medium pistol, heavy pistol, shotgun, carbine, rifle, bowie knife, hatchet, dagger and improvised weapons

COMBAT STATS
Base to Hit: +0, Base to Defense: +2, Hit Points: 8

EQUIPMENT
Medium Pistol, Shotgun, Bowie Knift, Dynamite Stick (x2), Canteen, Hat, Coat (Duster), Kerchief, Shirt, Gun Holster, Pants, Long johns, Boots, $1.40

The more I think about Bart, the more I realize that he's one of my first characters ever! I remember making a dwarf fighter for AD&D before him. I must have made a few other D&D characters before I made him, but I can't remember them. I don't recall if I played Boot Hill before or after playing Traveller and Top Secret, but it was around that time.

All the best,

TGIDragonfly
 
TGIDragonfly said:
I remember drawing him on a wanted poster, on the other side of which were drawings of various weapons each of which had little stick figures representing the number of people he'd killed with that type of weapon. All I remember is that the dynamite stick had the most number of kills! My dad found that and was highly disturbed. He was already struggling with the "satanic panic" stuff, poor guy.
Click to expand...

Happily, the only hard time my family ever gave to me over gaming was my mother muttering about how much I spent on the hobby. (This being, by the bye, a couple years after I moved out for good.) Having just visited the family campsite in Plymouth the day before, and cleaning up over a hundred beer cans -- we counted -- from my two younger brothers from the previous weekend, I answered somewhat caustically, "You'd rather I spent all that money on alcohol like my brothers do?"
 
Day #23
Gangbusters

Vinny Spumone

Muscle 77
Agility 100
Observation 92
Presence 9
Driving 96
Luck 15

Hit Points 23
Punching 4

No one misses Vinny. He walks into a room and ladies want him, men want to be him. He's the full package. So why doesn't he end up running things. Well that's where ol Vinny has some issues. Lady luck isn't so enamored with him. He works for the Boss and gets the job done no matter what it is but trouble always follows him. Fortunately he hasn't met a problem yet he couldn't fight or talk his way out of.
 
Day 24:

(Lamentations of the Flame Princess random gen character)

Just now having found out you can get a stripped-version PDF of the rules free, I just now downloaded it, and thought I’d give this a try for day 24. Right off the top, I can see something I wished was put into RPGs from Day One: a line like this – “Intelligence does not measure a character’s memory or ability to solve puzzles; it is the player’s wits that must be used in these situations.” Similar disclaimers for Charisma and Wisdom. Well said, Mr. Raggi. Anyhow.

Stats are CHA 16 (+2), CON 13 (+1), DEX 14 (+1), INT 13 (+1), STR 9 (+0), WIS 11 (+0). Whoa, hot dice hand this morning.

I’ve never seen “Specialist” as any kind of character class before, so why not, let’s pick that. I roll 5 HP, the minimum possible for the class. Ugh. Not so hot dice hand. Hm. So I get to improve this basket of skills by 4 pips. Let’s go with improving Bushcraft to 3 in 6, and Tinker to 3 in 6. Everything else is 1 in 6, and I have the sinking feeling that this system is one of the OSR types when low level people pretty much suck at doing anything. This does not fill me with confidence.

Alright, I found a mention of Bushcraft; my putting half my skill points into it means that if I'm leading the party through the wilderness, I have a 50% chance of getting everyone lost each day of the trek, but only a one-third chance per day of not finding any food! And Tinkering is apparently Lockpicking/Disarming Traps (but not FINDING traps); that's 50% chance of failure too.

Alignment. Huh. Even less confidence. I pick Neutral, but only because it doesn’t give me a choice. Grr. Despise alignment and all its works.

My hot hand resumes in rolling for starting coin, which winds up being 160 sp. Hrm. Leather armor and shield to start (35 sp). I’d get a whip, because whips are cool, except that the damage is listed as 1d3, and I lack a three-sided die. A rapier does over twice as much damage (1d8) and costs only 15 sp. Darts are cheap for throwing weapons, so I’ll get three (= 3 SP). Add a backpack (1 sp), a belt pouch (1 cp), a friendly dog (1 sp, and why are city prices twice as expensive as rural for dogs?), two bottles of good brandy (2 sp), a week’s worth of standard rations 3 sp), a bedroll (1 sp), block and tackle (2 sp), blank book (5 sp), 5 candles (5 cp), a spare set of normal clothing (2 sp), a spare set of poor clothing (5 cp), cooking pots (5 cp), a crowbar (2 sp), two flasks of lamp oil (1 sp), a wooden recorder (1 sp), a mallet (3 cp), a steel mirror (1 sp), pipe and tobacco (1 sp), 50' rope (3 sp), soap (1 cp), “specialist’s tools” (50 sp), a personal tent (5 sp), a tinderbox (1 sp), and a waterskin (1 sp). 132 sp in all, just as well I rolled well. That’s a lot for a backpack, but I carefully note that the capacity for containers isn’t defined.

And now I take a look at the rules, and am even less heartened. “All characters have a base 1 in 6 chance to use the Climb skill ... Failure means that the character falls from a random point in the climb.” Hey, that’s a skill I could’ve bumped, and if I used ALL my skill points on doing so, I’d only have a one in six chance of plummeting to my death while climbing – 1d6 damage/10' – at the cost of not being able to do much of anything else.

I do need to pick a name, so in honor of the author, I’ll use Tuomittu, which is “Doomed” in Finnish. I’d pick some character traits, but it seems to be a throwaway system where a 1st level type can’t do squat, so meh, why? Damn, that’s 45 minutes of work. And people claim that GURPS characters take a lot of time to create. I've heard a lot as to how cool this game is, but so far, not seeing it.
 
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Day 24 Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e

(This is actually a character for my partner Rhi for a possible future game, so it's made to her specifications).

Name: Callista (Callie) Skelfsider
Gender: Female
Species: Halfling
Class: Burgher
Career: Rat Catcher - Rat Hunter
Motivation: Excitement
Age: 54
Height 3"7
Eye Colour: Green
Hair Colour: Honey
Experience: 50

Weapon Skill: 23 (+2)
Ballistic Skill: 40 (+1)
Strength: 18
Toughness: 39
Initiative: 29
Agility: 41
Dexterity: 44
Intelligence: 27
Willpower: 42 (+2)
Fellowship: 37

Wounds: 10
Fate: 1
Fortune: 1
Resilience: 4
Resolve: 4
Movement: 3

Skills

Animal Training - Dog (+5) 32
Athletics (+4) 45
Charm (+3) 40
Charm Animal (+6) 43
Consume Alcohol (+5) 44
Dodge (+5) 46
Endurance (+3) 42
Intuition (+3) 32
Language (Mootish)
Lore (Reikland) 27
Melee - Basic (+5) 28
Perception (+5) 34
Ranged - Sling (+10) 50
Sleight of Hand 44
Stealth - Underground (+7) 48
Stealth - Urban (+8) 49
Trade - Cook 44

Talents

Acute Sense - Taste (Perception test to notice minute details)
Lightning Reflexes (+5 Ag)
Night Vision (See 20 yds in natural darkness)
Pure Soul (May gain an extra corruption point before making a test).
Resistance -Chaos (Automatically pass first test in a session)
Resistance- Disease (Automatically pass first test in a session)
Small (See rules)

Trappings: Cloak, Clothing, Dagger, Sling with Ammunition, Hat, Pouch, Sling Bag containing Lunch, Sack, Small but Vicious Dog, 26 Pennies
 
Ravenswing said:
Happily, the only hard time my family ever gave to me over gaming was my mother muttering about how much I spent on the hobby. (This being, by the bye, a couple years after I moved out for good.) Having just visited the family campsite in Plymouth the day before, and cleaning up over a hundred beer cans -- we counted -- from my two younger brothers from the previous weekend, I answered somewhat caustically, "You'd rather I spent all that money on alcohol like my brothers do?"
Click to expand...
I hear that! I remember having similar thoughts. To be honest, though, I have a lot of sympathy for my dad. Ultimately, he came to appreciate the creative, artistic, intellectual, and social benefits of TTRPGs, but those early days were confusing for him due to what was being churned out by the broader culture. He was more worried, at first, than he was critical.

All the best,

TGIDragonfly
 
Ravenswing said:
Day 24:

(Lamentations of the Flame Princess random gen character) ...

I've heard a lot as to how cool this game is, but so far, not seeing it.
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I've never played, read, or created a character for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg (although I did use to read the Lamentations of the Flame Princess metal zine when it existed), but my understanding is that the coolness is in the adventures & not so much the system itself.
 
E-Rocker said:
I've never played, read, or created a character for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg (although I did use to read the Lamentations of the Flame Princess metal zine when it existed), but my understanding is that the coolness is in the adventures & not so much the system itself.
Click to expand...

Mebbe so. There are certainly some things I like in it, and some ways it's an improvement on OSR standard: that "Specialist" class, for instance, effectively is thief/ranger/assassin/scholar. It lists a bunch of skills set forth as "default" skills every adventurer knows: Architecture, Bushcraft, Climb, Languages, Search, Sleight of Hand, Sneak Attack, Stealth and Tinker. Other characters get a 1 in 6 chance to use them; a Specialist starts with 4 pips that can be used to improve those skills in whatever combinations the player prefers. Fair enough.

Problem is that I've been playing TFT/GURPS for 40 years now. I'm used to even new characters being able to be competent in their skills, and where a two-thirds chance of doing something simple represents a skill that a newbie hasn't put much effort into, not something that only a single character class is putting ALL their points into ONE skill to manage that little.
 
Golden Age:

The Human Torpedo (later the Atlantean)
Drive: Guardian

WWII/Circa 1956.
Might: Spectacular Superhuman/ Spectacular Planetary
Agility: Average Superhuman/Exceptional Superhuman
Toughness: Exceptional Planetary
Intellect: Exceptional Human/Spectacular Human
Knowledge: Exceptional Human/Spectacular Human
Resolve: Exceptional Human/Spectacular Human

Power(s):
Due to the ancient science and sorcery his father utilized the natural Atlantean abilities were surpassed in his son: The Human Torpedo aka The Atlantean has Spectacular Superhuman Aquatic abilities: He can breath underwater, survive immense pressure, and swim faster than any known fish species. (Pushing 65 knots or near 75 MPH) as part of these adaptions he is immune to narcosis, and can leap upwards of 100' with running or swimming start. He could also resist attacks with Exceptional Superhuman Body Armor

Before his death (in '57) he had pushed these abilities to Exceptional Planetary abilities, could run and leap at Exceptional Planetary speeds, and swim at Spectacular Planetary speeds (though this disrupted the ecosystem.)
In addition he could at his most potent level resist most terrestrial attacks with Exceptional Planetary Body Armor. (Though he was weaker against attacks that could impact the nervous system like electricity. having only Exceptional Superhuman resistance to those.) The ancient metal hepitzon when enchanted could also penetrate his physical resistances with ease.

The Atlantean has he came to be known for the longest time believed himself to be Joshua Callahan, and Irish immigrant to the U.S. This however comes from his rescue by Irish fisherman. He (as a babe) and his mother had departed Atlantis to escape the continuing conflict of Princes under the Ocean, his mother suffered from toxic shock due to the polluted air (due to factories of the Era) and died. Joshua survived and was reared by a large family in the Irish immigrant section of New York. Until he discovered his powers and sought out Edgar Cayce who he believed held the answers to his past. Unfortunately that all ended in failure.

It was only during WWII, after he was captured by Nazi soldiers (at significant loss due to casualties), and he tortured to learn the origin of his powers, did any memories of his mother and father returned (while just an infant he had remarkable clear memories.) It was after his escape that he discovered Atlantis in ruins from the War of Princes, but his father's most loyal people had escaped into pocket reality where they were held in stasis. Once rescued he was told that both Mu and Lemuria were real, and were also undersea survivors of Atlantis, though Mu was full of pacifist artists, tradesmen and the like, Lemurians were criminals and warlords exiled from Atlantis during the wars. (Lemurians had used sorcery to furthur their physiology leaving them with scales and serpentine tails and a different over all reptilian appearance to the Atlantean 'human' stock.)

The Atlantean married Melata, from Mu, and they brought about democracy to Atlantis and Mu.

Note: Obvious similarities to the first 'super' powered hero are intentional, while he's not the same, hewing a bit closer to the original one (lacking the huge array of powers and is somewhat weaker even then.) It is notable that he's almost literally the embodiment of the 'fish out of water' trope :grin:
 

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Day 24: Traveller (Mongoose 2e w/Traveller Companion)

Today it's back to my beloved Traveller. This time I'll be using the package-based character creation method. This method took me maybe six minutes, and most of that was copying skills from the book. The difference in time between this and the standard method is impressive. The cost, however, is that you don't develop a since for who the character is via random events, so everyone at the table needs a firm idea of who their characters are before employing this method.

As usual, I did not. All I know about our friend Seamus here is that he grew up in a major metropolitan city (I'm thinking maybe on Regina) and that he joined up with the scout service. The exploration crew he was a part of specialized in locating and cataloging Ancient ruins & artifacts. I imagine somewhere along the way Seamus and his crew found something they weren't supposed to, and they were all dismissed from the service with strict instructions that they were never to tell of what they found. Nor are they ever to have contact with one another again.

Name: Seamus Woulfe
Age: 37
Background: Metropolis
Career: Scout
Credits: 35,000

Str: 8 [+0]
Dex: 7 [+0]
End: 6 [+0]
Int: 11 [+1]
Edu: 12 [+2]
Soc: 7 [+0]

Skills:
Admin 1
Advocate 0
Astrogation 1
Broker 0
Carouse 0
Diplomat 1
Drive 0
Electronics(computers) 2
Engineer(life support) 1
Gun Combat(slug) 1
Investigate 1
Jack-of-all-Trades 1
Medic 0
Pilot(starship) 2
Profession(hydroponics) 2
Recon 2
Streetwise 2
Vacc Suit 1

Gear:
Portable computer
Cloth Armor [TL 10; Prot: +8]
Auto pistol [DMG: 3D-3; Range 10m; Magazine: 15]

Benefits:
Contacts x3 (dunno who they are at this time)
TAS Membership
 
Day 24: Modern Warfare, Zozer Games
(Yes, another Cepheus Engine variant, this time with a modern military theme)

Name: Chet Dawson
Role: Grenadier
Nationality: American
Unit: 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division
Rank: Private First Class
Age: 23

Strength: 6
Dexterity: 4
Endurance: 10
Intelligence: 7
Education: 5
Social Standing: 7

Skills: Carouse-0, Heavy Weapons-1, Melee Combat-1, Recon-1, Rifle-1, Streetwise-0, Wheeled Vehicle-0

Trait: Chet is the "new guy" in the squad (despite being older than many of them).
Reason for Joining: He wanted to get out of a bad neighborhood.
Appearance: He has chiseled, model-quality looks.
Recent Event: One of Chet's comrades took the blame for a mistake that everyone knows was caused by Chet.

Standard Gear: M4A1 Carbine with M203 Grenade Launcher, 10 Rifle Magazines, 20 Assorted 40mm Grenades (varies by mission), Boots, Combat Knife, Body Armor with Level III Plate Inserts, Poncho, First Aid Kit, Hydro-Pack 2L, Backpack, Combat Fatigues, Squad Radio, 2 Fragmentation Hand Grenades,
Helmet, 20m of Paracord, Snacks

(Since I rolled up characteristics like his key trait, reason for joining, etc as part of chargen, I'm not going to do a full backstory writeup for Chet)
 
There are a number of systems I was hoping to use to make characters for this thread, but I only have the Quickstart rules and not the full rules, and the Quickstart just gives you pre-gens to choose from, rather than character creation rules. Which is totally fair, they are Quickstarts, after all and just picking something premade is usually going to be faster than creating something. It's just disappointing for my purposes.
 
I likewise had planned a number of systems I'm beginning to think I won't make it to. Making a character every day necessitates that I make them quickly, which means that more involved character creation systems that take a long time won't make the cut.

I've really come to appreciate B/X and like systems in this regard.
 
Yea, I could maybe manage a character a week in any but the simplest systems.
 
I haven't even had the time to get started. But as with last year, I'll probably continue it past the month, so it will even out. :smile:
 
Savage Schemer said:
I likewise had planned a number of systems I'm beginning to think I won't make it to. Making a character every day necessitates that I make them quickly, which means that more involved character creation systems that take a long time won't make the cut.

I've really come to appreciate B/X and like systems in this regard.
Click to expand...

Pretty much why I've been using TFT a fair bit. I spend about ten times as much time coming up with the personality trait sections, because damn, if it takes longer than about ninety seconds to come up with TFT stats and talents, I'm having a REALLY bad day. GURPS, well, if I don't know the system cold by now, after GMing nearly a thousand sessions, I'm screwed. But it really did take me about 45 minutes to get through creating a character for Lamentations of the Flame Princess last night, a system I was reading for the first time. (That being said, my disses of the system notwithstanding, it's very cleanly written and easy to follow.) For the same character in GURPS, with quite a few more details, I wouldn't have needed more than about 4-5 minutes.
 
Yeah, any of the crunchier systems I've used have been ones I practically know off by heart. The only exception was WFRP 4e and that was a character for a potential future campaign so needed doing anyway.
 
Savage Schemer said:
I likewise had planned a number of systems I'm beginning to think I won't make it to. Making a character every day necessitates that I make them quickly, which means that more involved character creation systems that take a long time won't make the cut.

I've really come to appreciate B/X and like systems in this regard.
Click to expand...

There's a reason why I've only done one Palladium character so far. :smile: I've started a TMNT character, but haven't gotten around to finishing it. It's been easier to do OSR or Cepheus-derived characters, plus I own a number of those systems.
 
Day 24

Okay, I'm back to making SUPERS! Revised characters because life is too busy to do otherwise! Sticking with conversions of old Champions characters, I'm going to work up stats for Bolt. Bolt was the character I made for the third campaign run by my original Champions campaign. If "Arachnid and his Amazing Friends" was circa 1982-1983, Bolt was from an X-Men-like game that we played from 1983-1984. (The first campaign was the one where I played the Mole from 1981-1982. Anyway, here he is ...

Bolt (19D)

ORIGIN: Mutant

RESISTANCES (6D)
Composure 2D, Fortitude 2D, Reaction 4D, Will 2D

APTITUDES (3D)
Awareness 2D, Technology 2D (Tradeoff: More Electronics 3D Than Anything Else 1D), Presence 2D

POWERS (12D)
Damage Aura 3D, Energy Control 5D (Electricity; Boost: Split Action 1D), Teleportation 4D (Boost: Split Action 1D, Complication: Only Through Conductors of Electricity, No Offense)

ADVANTAGES (1D)
Occupation (Electrician) 1D

DISADVANTAGES (-3D)
Enemy (Savage), Mutant (Major Social Hinderance)

COMPETENCY DICE: 6D

BACKGROUND: Raymond Winger was a young man when he inherited the family business - a small electrical repair shop in a declining part of town. He also inherited his father's loyal clientele and did a good job of connecting with them, cutting them breaks when they couldn't afford repair work and otherwise cultivating a sense of community. He kicked it up a notch once his mutant electrical powers kicked in after suffering a shock at a workplace accident. Taking on the identity of Bolt, he protected the neighborhood from criminals and corrupt officials alike. Eventually, his actions drew attention - first from government-sponsored mutant hunters and then from his biological mutant Savage, who sought to band Bolt and other mutants into mutant force to strike back at their would-be oppressors. Caught in between these factions, Bolt struggles to survive while protecting his community from the collateral damage caused by these struggles.

I'm going to bed!

Goodnight!

TGIDragonfly
 
Day 25:

Le Revenant (GURPS Scarlet Pimpernel character)

ST: 10
DX: 12
IQ: 12
HT: 12

ADVANTAGES: Accent; Base; Contact Group/Peasants; Fearlessness/2; Hard To Kill/2; Heroic Feats; Language: English (A/B); Language: Italian (A/-); Night Vision/3; Penetrating Voice; Signature Gear / Black Sword; Social Regard: Feared/2; Status/2; Terror (-2 to Fright Checks, hearing-based, Only at night, front hexes only, Pact).

DISADVANTAGES: Bloodlust; Enemy / French government; Social Stigma: Outlaw; Struggling Wealth; Trademark/Cuts out eyes of victims; Major Vow/Vengeance!

SKILLS: Acting-13; Area Knowledge-13; Brawling-12; Carousing-11; Current Affairs-12; Dancing-11; Disguise-13; Fast-Talk-11; First Aid-12; Guns-13; Intimidation-14; Law-10; Literature-10; Musical Instrument (piano)-10; Observation-12; Occultism-12; Propaganda-13; Public Speaking-12; Riding-13; Saber-14; Savoir-Faire-12; Stealth-12; Survival-11; Tactics-11.

QUIRKS: Callous, Doesn't care about appearance, Intolerance/Jacobins.

Lord Robert-Antoine de Joliat is the third son of the ci-devant Count de Rethel-Mazarin, Provençal nobility only elevated in the early 18th century, and twice as haughty for all of that. Before the Revolution, he was a diffident student, caring little beyond roistering, hunting, drinking and wenching. The fall was swift, and the arrogance of his family ended in the burning of their chateau, instigated by tricolor-bearing Revolutionary officials. The old Count was flung screaming into the flames, while Robert-Antoine was made to watch as the mob cruelly violated his sisters and cousins before burning them alive as well.

He died too, that night – or so they say – screaming that he would come back for vengeance, that Satan himself was welcome to Robert-Antoine’s soul if only the Dark One would grant him that.

They also say that de Joliat was answered, that night. By something. A voice that sounded like the marrow of the earth shearing apart in ruin, laughing hideously in the dancing flames.

What emerged from the ashes was a man calling himself Le Revenant. The shuddering peasants say many things about Le Revenant. The mere sound of his voice, in the black night, can send strong men running for their lives. The black saber he wields is said to drink men’s souls, and feed them to the dark powers Le Revenant serves. They whisper, in superstitious horror, that his victims still live while he carves out their eyes, and eats them before the dying foes expire. It is said that he cannot die; that mere lead bullets will not harm him; that he will not rest until every man who wears the tricolor screams out their last. Eyeless.

-----------------

Anyway, that’s the premise. A good bit of it is actually true. Le Revenant does have some supernatural powers (although it really just is a Fine quality black saber, not Stormbringer), which aid him in his vendetta against the Republican regime. It’s all a means to an end. Le Revenant really is committed to his cause of vengeance, and while he’ll rescue aristos from the government’s clutches if he's got nothing else going on, he’s far more focused on butchering if he has the chance. He’s had dealings with the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, but they consider him far too bloodyminded to trust fully, and he considers them far too soft to rely upon wholly. Beyond that, the cowed royalist peasants of the district fear him, and will give him qualified aid, but don’t love him.

He also pitches a better game than he can bring. This is a 125 pt build, none too much for a cinematic SP campaign, and as you can see, his skill levels aren’t that high. He’s quite ready to push his legend in consequence, but that too is a means to an end: terror is a weapon, and he’s aware that he needs all the help he can get. Objectively, he’s a good swordsman, a good rider, a good actor, a decent shot, and his powers give him a strong edge. But ultimately, perhaps his greatest strength is that he just doesn’t give a damn, about much of anything, any more. He doesn’t even really hate his enemies that much; he just means to kill them all.
 
Hmm, can we post a character worksheet? I am slowly working on some Cold Iron characters to show, but in the meantime, I put together a little character worksheet for Cold iron:



If you want to play with it, make a copy.
 
Day #24
CORPS 1st Edition
NameMiles Holmes
Age26
LevelAptitudeCost
STR4116
AGiLity5125
AWaReness7249
WILlpower5125
HeaLTh5125
POWer214
144
Advantages
Level 3 Contact (Police)
Disadvantages
Level 2 Enemy (Police)
Level 1 Enemy (Press)
Level 2 Enemy (Neo Nazis)
SkillsLevelCost
Projectile Weapons23
Pistols11
Melee Weapons23
Knife11
Unarmed Combat23
Punch11
Vehicle Operation24
Automobile11
Locksmith35
Lockpicking11
Philosophy521
Arcane Religions24
English70
Spanish35
American Culture40
Investigative Research35
Electrician35
Security Systems11
Mathmatics35
Numerology11
History11
Secret Societies14
75

Miles freshmen year didn't turn out like he expected. He thought he'd be an engineer but that was before he witness something he wasn't supposed to see. He thought he was following the guy to a Frat hazing ritual. What they did to that poor boy. Miles will knows it's connected to something deeper.
 
Day 24: One of Grim Jim's better bits of edgelordism in my view, with Total Fucking Monsters.

Name: Timothy Wallace
Monster Name: Void
Nature: Torture (You can draw this out, being cruel and horrible to multiple people over a longer time. +2 Satiation per session

Mind 1d8/Body 1d8/Spirit 1d6
Mask d4: Web Designer
Skills: Computer Programming d8, Web Design d10, Hacking d6
Initiative: 8

Powers:

Shadow Control d4 (Slippage - Independent Shadow)
Light Control d6 (Slippage - Light Sources Dim in your presence)
Electrical Discharge d6 (Slippage - Crackles and buzzes with energy)

Bane: Backing Soda (d8), Silver (d6)

Equipment: Bug Out Bag

Background: Timothy Wallace was an antisocial (and rather lonely) computer nerd until one day he stumbled across an archive of forgotten files on the darkweb. Something attracted him to revenge.exe and he downloaded it. The "program" (he's still not sure if it's intelligent or not) transformed him into the monster he is now. As Void he uses his web skills to make attractive dating profiles, so he can draw innocent victims into his torture dungeon. He claims this is because of the way society has treated him, but deep down he knows he just enjoys torturing people.
 
Day 25: Traveller (kinda)

For day 25 I wanted to showcase how I often take the Traveller base and push it to games & genres beyond just space opera. For today's write-up, I'll use a semi-historical Celtic-themed fantasy setting. For games like this, I frequently will jettison the character life path roulette and follow a greatly simplified process as follows:
  • Roll attributes, which have been customized to fit the setting
  • Pick a career. This can be any career that fits the theme. Characters can attempt tasks appropriate to the career without penalty (often requires up-front discussion)
  • Spend 6 "points" on skills on a 1 for 1 basis. No skill may be over 3 at character creation, and only one such skill may be that high.
  • Roll for money (in this case 2D x 10)
  • Pick gear
  • Finalize
For this game, Intelligence and Education were collapsed into "Knowledge". Social was renamed to Presence, and Psi is now a standard attribute called Power.

Regarding skills, the thinking here is that you don't need exhaustive lists of what you can or can't do. The skills you choose are those things you're not only good at, but will excel at even under pressure.

My games run old school (more like Classic Traveller) in that you may or may not get a bonus for your characteristics based on appropriateness to the situation. The games themselves are run fairly fast and loose. You can pull off an awful lot without ever needing a dice roll.

I do different magic rules for different games. For this setting, I steal the intensity chart from Jaws of the Six Serpents and transpose it to Traveller's difficulties. The system is ritualistic in nature. The way it works is that each round, you gather energy sufficient to pull off the desired effect. If you successfully gather all the required energy, you may "release" the spell as your action on the next round. To build energy, you start at the top of the chart for the first round and each subsequent round you work your way down. Failure anywhere along the way results in backlash that may either be absorbed by the caster, or by nearby people/creatures. The amount of backlash depends on the last successful level on the chart. Roll the number of dice for the effect level and distribute damage normally.

Magic Ritual Chart:
TN 4+ - 1 action / 5 minutes / touch range / 1 subject / candle energy - 1D effects
TN 6+ - 1 turn / 30 minutes / near range / 10 subjects / campfire energy - 2D effects
TN 8+ - 1 scene / 1 hour / short range / 100 subjects / bonfire energy - 3D effects
TN 10+ - 2 scenes / 6 hours / long range / 1000 subjects / forest fire energy - 4D effects
TN 12+ - 4 scenes / 24 hours / extreme range / 10,000 subjects / volcano energy - 5D effects

This is, frankly, more in line with what I wanted out of Sword of Cepheus than what it provided. It is also a glimpse into how I've been making Traveller my own game since before Cepheus Engine even existed.

So without further ado...

Name: Mia
Career: Druid
Coin: 30 silver

Strength 6 Dexterity 7 Endurance 7
Knowledge 9 Presence 8 Power 10

Skills: Craft(elixirs) 1, Investigate 1, Lore 1, Persuade 1, Sorcery(nature) 2

Gear:
Staff denoting her station
Clothing, leathers & furs befitting her place in her adopted family
A long, curved dagger [Dmg 2d]

Benefits:
Status (both as a druid, and as a member of the chieftain's family)
Followers (younger students of the druidic arts)

Career info: As a druid, Mia is equal parts historian, judge and shaman to her tribe.

Motivation = "Antagonize" + "Animals"* = Something is disturbing the balance of the natural world in the region closest to her home. Mia is determined to seek out whatever it is and put it right.

*Actually rolled this. Funny how stereo-typically appropriate this is to the character concept.

Background event = "Harm" + "Attention" = Mia was an abandoned child. Discovered one cold morning in the woods by the queen of the Otual tribe, she was taken in and adopted into the chieftain's family. As she grew into childhood, the druids were quick to note the sharpness of her mind and began training her into the order. Over the long years that followed, Mia demonstrated an uncommon aptitude and advanced as quickly as was allowed. Now an adult, she is the chief druid of her tribe and is a fierce defender of her people's customs and their freedoms.
 
Black Leaf said:
Background: Timothy Wallace was an antisocial (and rather lonely) computer nerd until one day he stumbled across an archive of forgotten files on the darkweb. Something attracted him to revenge.exe and he downloaded it. The "program" (he's still not sure if it's intelligent or not) transformed him into the monster he is now. As Void he uses his web skills to make attractive dating profiles, so he can draw innocent victims into his torture dungeon. He claims this is because of the way society has treated him, but deep down he knows he just enjoys torturing people.
Click to expand...

Y'know, the IBM PC program that summoned Satan's been lying dormant since Clint Howard's character fired it up in the camp classic Evilspeak (1981) to slaughter everyone at his military academy. Plainly, Timothy ran into the beta 2.0 update!
 
Day 25: Silent Legions, Sine Nomine
(OSR Lovecraftian Horror from the creator of Stars Without Number and Worlds Without Number)

Name: Jared Fox, aka "Fox the Bounty Hunter"
Background: Bounty Hunter
Class: Tough

Strength: 14 (+1 bonus)
Intelligence: 9
Wisdom: 9
Dexterity: 14 (+1 bonus)
Constitution: 13
Charisma: 8

Hit Points: 6
Attack Bonus: +2 melee/+2 ranged
Armor Class: 6 (-2 armor, -1 Dex)

Skills: Athletics, Combat/Primitive, Combat/Projectile, Combat/Unarmed, Culture/Criminal, Culture/United States, Stealth

Class Abilities: Ravenous for Life (can automatically stabilize at 0 HP)

Saving Throws: Physical Effect 12, Mental Effect 16, Evasion 14, Magic 15, Luck 13

Languages: English

Wealth: Average

Gear: Armored Longcoat, Taser, Club, Revolver with 24 Rounds, Holsters for Taser and Revolver, Smartphone, SUV

Backstory: Fox is a bail bondsman and bounty hunter, and truth be told, he prefers the latter to the former. He spent his youth running with a rough crowd, but managed to turn things around before getting into trouble he couldn't get out of. Since he doesn't get paid if his target dies (to say nothing of the legal difficulties), he's adept at nonlethal methods of taking down an opponent, but carries a gun just in case. While he knows nothing of the occult or supernatural himself, he knows a number of people who involve themselves in such things, and one of these days, they just might need someone like the Fox.
 
Tonight, I'm really tired and don't have much time, so for Character 25, I'll be using the 15-page game BYO Dungeon.

Following the formulas, I get...

Skill 6
Stamina 19
Luck 10

There's a list of gear with a few choices, and I end up with...

1 knife
1 flashlight
1 power pack for flashlight
1 backpack
6 rations
11 Silver

Unique background (player-defined): Arrogant asshole from outer space. Manager at the spaceship docks, but only because his daddy owns the company,

Get some skills (player defined)...

Knives 4
Lying 3
High Society 2
Boxing 1

Then you get some more points to do cool stuff with. I'll spend one to integrate Katalop's knife into his right fist, in a manner similar to Wolverine's claws. Spend one to get basic armor and one more to upgrade it to advanced armor. And I'll spend the remaining 3 to get more Silver. I get 19, which brings me up to 30 total silver. Done.
 
Day 26:

Tari Nenuvar (GURPS fantasy character, 100 pt build)

ST: 9
DX: 13
IQ: 11
HT: 11

Speed 5.5, Move 5, Parry 9, Dodge 8.

ADVANTAGES: Attractive; Eye For Distance; Fit; Iron Hands; Less Sleep/2; Signature Gear/ Magic horn; Single-Minded; Status+1/Knight's daughter; Strongbow/ST 11 draw; Weapon Bond/bow

DISADVANTAGES: Code of Honor (Errantry); Minor Medical Ailment/diabetic; Reduced Speed/2; Sense of Duty: Harnastins; Social Stigma: Minor

SKILLS: Accounting-9; Area Knowledge (Valley District)-12; Armoury (fletching)-12; Boating-13; Bow-14; Brawling-13; Climbing-12; Current Affairs (Vinarian military)-12; Dancing-12; Falconry-13; Fast-Draw (arrow)-13; First Aid-12; History-9; Literature-9; Religious Ritual-9; Riding-12; Running-10; Savoir-Faire-12; Shortsword-13; Singing-11; Soldier-10; Swimming-13; Tactics-10

QUIRKS: Fervent about errantry; Still totes Mr Hop in pack; White Knight syndrome

Remember the character I did earlier (likely you don’t, but anyway), Tom Waflo, the teenage spirit master/necromancer? Tari is his childhood friend and agemate. She lives at the next manor over, the hereditary holding of the Marshal-General of the Imperial Army. Her father is the Knight Captain of their household guard. Tari’s been steeped from infancy in the military-mad culture of the Elven Empire.

One of their customs is "errantry" -- one gets together while At That Age with your best buds and wander about for a season or two, under assumed names like "Snowviolet" or "Morningstar" or "Nightflame," and Do Worthy And Good Things, only traveling with what they can carry and accepting no pay for their deeds. While the tales have it that people on errantry are fighting dragons and battling for the rights of the downtrodden, the Empire has secure internal borders and good government, and no one’s crazed about young folk wandering into the truly scary lands beyond them. So for the most part, those on errantry wind up teaching schools, helping farmers bring in the crops, building barns and the like ... which is rather the true lesson behind it all. Some make errantry their life, and indeed go out to take on monsters and war against the over-mighty. Sometimes the teenagers get uppity and want to go out too.

Tom and his friends are planning on doing just that next summer, and the more sensible parents (including Tom’s) are aiding and abetting this rather than seeking to thwart it. His folks are building a gypsy-style vardo, and suitable plans are being made. Tari’s an avid participant. She trains hard, and her skills are pretty good for fifteen-going-on-sixteen. Problem is that Tari’s a bit of peanut – Brienne of Tarth she is not. So Tari’s trained hard as an archer, with the best bow her father can afford to buy for her, and a wicked draw for her strength. She’s also an avid falconer, and plans on bringing a trained hunting hawk. Miscellany:

* No, she’s not sweet on Tom, angling to marry up by snaring him, sleeping with him, or any of that: they’re FRIENDS. PERIOD. Hmph. (She really isn’t, but 2/3rds of her indignation is that Tom has a reserved streak and she doesn’t intend to see him hurt, and 1/3rd is her fear that he might believe the rumor and it’d affect their friendship.)

* She knows that her heirloom hunting horn is magic, but not what it actually does; the Signature Gear investment in it would allow for an item cost up to 200, which isn’t very much.

* She gets fainting spells every now and then, and some days just feels a bit weak; she doesn’t know that she’s diabetic.

* Mr. Hop is the somewhat-dilapidated stuffed rabbit she had when she was little. She feels weird about leaving Mr. Hop behind, but has no intention of being teased about it. High Lady’s grace, Vilmo’s coming along and bringing his pet rabbit, in a hutch lashed to the vardo, yet!

* Tari’s errantry-mad, and the most gung ho in their band, but she’s neither an airhead or a fool. She plans on keeping an expense ledger on the road to better manage their money, is willing to listen to advice from wiser heads, and doesn’t have unrealistic notions.
 
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