Char-Gen Orgy '10 - Orpheus

The Game: Orpheus
The Publisher: White Wolf Game Studios
Degree of Familiarity: Played a couple abortive games, tried to run it once or twice to doomed results. Still bloody love it, though, and it wasn't the GAME's fault there
Books Used: Orpheus core rulebook, Crusade of Ashes (Merits & Flaws), Shades of Gray (Roles), and Shadow Games (Stains)

Ahh, Orpheus. Great game, one of those (and that is admittedly a long list) I wish I'd had more chance to play in its heyday, and one I'd run again if I could ever find the group to do it... alas, other days..

For the uninitiated, the story of Orpheus somewhat ties into both the past and the (then) future of the World of Darkness; it was an unofficial sequel of a sort to the discontinued Wraith: The Oblivion (which I also absolutely adore -- I'm a ghost enthusiast, yes), and was also patient zero for the "limited run" games that would become popular and prevalent in the WoD's current incarnation, and saw the first hints of a few changes made to the core Storyteller system that would become standard features of the revamped Storytelling rules. However, we're getting a bit far afield, so I digress....

Orpheus starts out on a simple premise: in the 1980s, a cryogenics company (the titular Orpheus Group) deiscovers that some of their patients are actually 'projecting' from their frozen bodies and out into the world again -- only they're discovering that they are not alone: the shades of the restless dead wander about in a strange, purgatorial world...

Fast forward to the present (the far-off year of 2003!); and the Orpheus group has found a new corporate niche -- hiring out its agents to play Ghostbusters on the books, and off them... well, a lot of shady stuff on the side, from espionage to theft to assassination, and even ironically a few boo jobs of their own. Of course, the plot grows tenser and much more epic than these beginnings as the series progresses -- the storyline itself is worth the books' price alone in my honest opinion, with a lot of twists and turns as the Orpheus Group's checkered past comes due and the stakes of the at-first mysterious events that started with the enigmatic "Maelstrom" in 1998 become deadly-clear, as Orpheus' Spooks eventually cross the Shroud and the Stormwall alike to face....

..well, that would be spoiling, and I don't care if the game's over six years old at this point, if you like the whole conspiracy genre, ghosts, or thrillers.. you ought to pick it up at your local shop should they still have it, or shy of that order it online in PDF format. Great stuff that deserves to be read.

Anyhow, rambling again.. the first decision we have in making an Orpheus character is where to set ourselves in the series' ever-expanding metaplot, but for simplicity's sake we'll go with the corebook's assumptions and say we're new hires for Orpheus, fresh out of orientation.

Step One is to work out our Concept, which is a bit more involved in Orpheus than in some other games; I think I want a little something edgy here, something that can pull the occasional 'wisdom from the gutter' trick. All Spooks have survived (or, not, in some cases) various brushes with death, and I have cheated a bit and already know what Shade we're going for (more on Shade below), I know what sort of character we need.. a bit controlling and. take-charge. The signature character for the Shade in question is a tough, crusty old war vet, but I want something a little more sleek, a bit more elegant. Someone slick. My main inspiration suddenly comes to fruition, basing our fledling Spook around Lady Heather, Gil Grissom's somewhat-recurring contact and at times confidante, from C.S.I., so since none of the Roles (templates defining yoru character's life and brushes with death prior to joining the Orpheus Group) in the core rulebook fit, we'll pop open the Shades of Gray supplement... ah, there we are.. "Sadomasochist"... fun stuff, no? Not precisely what we're looking for, but it suits us as well as we can hope.

As hinted above I already have a Shade in mind -- our fair lady is a Skinrider, a Shade of strong will who can use that strength of personality to overtake the bodies of others, or even force their will upon the physical world by refusing to acknowledge their own limitations. That decided, we now look at Laments -- if Shades are 'classes', then Laments are our 'races', of which there are four total: Projectors (living men and women who, as it may suggest, project their souls out of their mortal bodies) are divided into Skimmers and Sleepers, whereas Ghosts (and yes, Orpheus Group is an equal opprotunity employer and does not discriminate based on one's pre- or post-mortem status) are either the traditional Spirits or the souls of the departed who sampled the hip new street drug known as Pigment during life, the Hues. Liking the image of "mind over body" that a dedicated enthusiast of the dark side of erotica could well possess, we'll go with a Skimmer here, a Projector who uses yoga and mediational techniques to go into shamanic-like trances to project.

The next step of our Concept stage is to choose our Nature; Skinriders tend to have a Nature of Autocrat, Bureacrat, Competitor, Director, Leader, Mentor, Pedagogue, or Traditionalist, but we're not bound by that in any way. Let's have a look at the recommended options... let's stay within usual bounds and go with Mentor -- our Mistress genuinely wants to spread on wisdom and help others learn to succeed and unlock their true potential, but is not above a firm hand and a bit of practical experience being brought to bear. We'll also decide our gal's Demenor, the face which she shows the world most often... in this case, she outwardly revels in her illicit pleasures, making her firmly a Rake. That has us done with the Concept

ROLE: Sadomasochist
SHADE: Skinrider
LAMENT: Skimmer
NATURE: Mentor
DEMEANOR: Rake

Okay, that done, now we move onto Attributes, which is Step Two; we prioritize Physical, Mental, and Social, then assign a total of 6 Dots to our primaries, 4 Dots to our secondaries, and 3 Dots to our tertiary Attributes, all of which start at 1. The Sadomasochist Role recommends a setup of Social / Physical / Mental, and thats fine for our purposes; we'll go for above-average competency all across the board socially, with two dots into each of Charisma, Manipulation, and Appearance; two dots into both Strength and Dexterity and three into Stamina sort out our Physicals -- our girl's used to taking a beating and dealing with pain, and it shows. Lastly, we're strictly all-around average in the Mental department, with a dot into each of our Perception, Intelligence, and Wits. That's Attributes done...

PHYSICAL
Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Stamina 3

SOCIAL
Charisma 3
Manipulation 3
Appearance 3

MENTAL
Perception 2
Intelligence 2
Wits 2

Next is Step Three, Abilities. Consulting our Role again I see a recommendation of a Skills / Knowledges / Talents split, but this time I think I'm inclined to disagree with the set template, setting Talents first, Knowledges second, and Skills in third. With 11 Dots to spend in Talents, and nothing allowed to go above a 3, we'll put 2 dots each in Empathy, Intimidation, Intrigue, Intuiton, and Leadership, and our last dot into Streetwise -- our mistress can work people like a pro and despite what some might think, she's a great choice to take control when the shit htis the fan. Moving onto Skills, we have 4 Dots to distribute; we'll set up an even spread of 1 dot each into Etiquette, Meditation, Melee, and Security -- good at dealing with high society, Skimmer training, able to play with her wicked toys, and not a stranger to the odd lock or restraint. Lastly we finish with our Knowledges, of which we have 7 Dots' worth: two dots each into Academics and Medicine, and a dot each of Finance, Law, and Politics -- she managed her own books, and can occasionally surirpse other Spooks with her insight into various sort and sundry topics from theology to Shakespeare. That has step three done...

TALENTS
Empathy 2
Intimidation 2
Intrigue 2
Intuiton 2
Leadership 2
Streetwise 1

SKILLS
Etiquette 1
Meditation 1
Melee 1
Security 1

KNOWLEDGES
Academics 2
Finance 1
Law 1
Medicine 2
Politics 1

Step Four is Advantages -- our legs up on the world, both supernatural and mundane. Backgrounds first, which are a little wonky in Orpheus, divided into Mundane and Orpheus Group backgrounds, and we have 2 dots in each. For our Orpheus backgrounds, we'll take a dot in Arsenal -- our dominatrix has an extensive collection of wicked melee weapons, restraints, and chemical aids of questionable legality, all of which might prove useful in her new vocation -- and a dot of Health Insurance -- given her proclivities, its probably recommended. For Mundane backgrounds, we'll go with a dot of Influence -- favors and secrets of past clientele -- and a dot of of Resources -- she was a small-time operator, but it paid the bills with a bit to spare. Our starting Horror (Spooks' ghostly powers) is Puppetry, and as for our Stains (the marks of our dark emotions -- usually hidden but as our our Spite grows they can become more prominent and, eventually, permenant) the only two in the core book that suit us is Martyred and we need two more; we'll crack SHADOW GAMES and take both the very evocative Hypnotic Markings, as well as the suitably subtle Stinger. That has our Advantages finished!

BACKGROUNDS
Arsenal 1
Health Insurance 1
Influence 1
Resources 1

HORRORS
Puppetry

STAINS
Hypnotic Markings
Martyred
Stinger

Step Five is our last, Finishing Touches. We start by calculating our Vitality, Willpower, and Spite, which are affected by our Shade and our Nature; Skinriders start with Vitality 4, Willpower 6, and Spite 2, and Mentor adds Vitality 3, Willpower 1, and Spite 1, so our (current) totals are Vitality 7, Willpower 7, and Spite 3. Now for Freebie Points, and although its not covered in the core book, the game's first supplement, Crusade of Ashes, gives rules for Merits and Flaws, and as this is the part of the OWoD system I miss most, bet your ass that we shall partake. Cracking CoA, we'll start with Flaws... our gal will start with a 2-point Weird Appearance Flaw -- she's got that spooky, tatooed goth thing going, and hot as that can be it's going to freak out conservative types. We'll compound this by having a 2-point Criminal Record Flaw -- maybe a few busts for minor drug possession, solicitation, or public indecency when some kinky game went too far? No matter, just like our source material, the law doesn't have much trust for our mistress. We'll also take Bully as a 1-pointer; she tries to be noble and even lies to herself about it, but if our girl's being honest, she enjoys power over others, and sometiems her games just go too damned far. Lastly, try as she might to deny it, another part of this gig is that, society be damned, our lass just enjoys her bedsports a bit too much, and so sometimes can get hoisted by her own petard as it were; we'll take Lustful at 2 Points. That gives us 7 dots to play around with for Merits before our basic 15 Freebie Points are affected; we'll thus take Enchanting Voice at 2 Points, Smooth for 1 Point, and both Flirt and Sexy for 2 Points each -- when our girl sets someone in her sights, she doesn't even need her power to control others while projecting to wrap people around her fingers like twine. Merits and Flaws seen to (and we'll stop there, with those), we'll move on to our default 15 Points of Freebies; we'll go ahead and buy our Shade's next Horror, the physically-potent Juggernaut, for 7 of those, then add a dot into each of Empathy and Intimidation, and add two dots into Subterfuge

MERITS
Enchanting Voice 2
Flirt 2
Sexy 2
Smooth 1

FLAWS
Bully 1
Criminal Record 2
Lustful 2
Weird Appearance 2

VITALITY: 7
WILLPOWER: 7
SPITE: 3

...aaand, there we go... 'Mistress' Elisabeth Coventry (yeah, that's a real name) is a recent hire of the Orpheus Group, and some wonder if she's worth the trouble she causes, for all her talents at pulling people's strings both in the flesh and out of it. Still, ever since she was recruited by an Orpheus headhunter who happened to be a client of hers, she's proven quite adept and.. enthusiastic about her work, even if the intensity sometimes makes people a bit uncomfortable -- and thats if the tattoos and piercings don't do the trick. Still, despite all her games, she's loyal to the Crucible, and does genuinely want to help them be all that they can be.. even if her methods are... a wee bit eccentric.

* * * * * * *

NAME: Elisabeth Coventry
ROLE: Sadomasochist
SHADE: Skinrider
LAMENT: Skimmer
NATURE: Mentor
DEMEANOR: Rake

-=ATTRIBUTES=-

PHYSICAL
Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Stamina 3

SOCIAL
Charisma 3
Manipulation 3
Appearance 3

MENTAL
Perception 2
Intelligence 2
Wits 2

-=ABILITIES=-

TALENTS
Empathy 3
Intimidation 3
Intrigue 2
Intuiton 2
Leadership 2
Streetwise 1
Subterfuge 2

SKILLS
Etiquette 1
Meditation 1
Melee 1
Security 1

KNOWLEDGES
Academics 2
Finance 1
Law 1
Medicine 2
Politics 1

-=ADVANTAGES=-

BACKGROUNDS
Arsenal 1
Health Insurance 1
Influence 1
Resources 1

HORRORS
Puppetry
Juggernaut

STAINS
Hypnotic Markings
Martyred
Stinger

MERITS
Enchanting Voice 2
Flirt 2
Sexy 2
Smooth 1

FLAWS
Bully 1
Criminal Record 2
Lustful 2
Weird Appearance 2


HEALTH: 7
VITALITY: 7
WILLPOWER: 7
SPITE: 3

* * * * * * *

...and there we are, our newly-minted Spook readied to go out and get her feet wet and her hands dirty.. which, honestly, sounds kinda kinky in it's own right...

..yeah, I'm terrible, I know. Don't act so damned surprised.

Char-Gen Orgy '10 - Shadowrun

The Game: Shadowrun
The Publisher: WizKids games, currently
Degree of Familiarity: Limited; a couple abortive games; knowledge of the setting is slightly higher due to secondary exposure from other players and too many Inquests back in the day
Books Used: Shadowrun 4th Edition Corebook

Ah, shotguns, sorcery, and cyborgs.. gotta love Shadowrun. One of those settings I've always wished I got more chance to play around with.. I love urban fantasy as a genre, I love punk as a sub-genre, and hey.. dystopian futuristic wetwork meets Dungeons & Dragons? Well, that's just badass.

For those not initiated, iShadowrun is currently set in the year 2070 (or it is by the corebook I own, at least) after the Mayan calendar reset itself and brought an age of magic back to the world.. a world not unlike our own at the time, only now its had close to six decades to go to shit; giant Megacorps play god and are above any law but their own, the cops are independent contractors, and if racism is bad when everyone's still more-or-less human, just wait until suddenly people who plainly aren't human at all start popping up.

Yeah, not a pretty picture, but it is cyberpunk, after all. And in the parlance of the setting, fantasy though it may be, the quests of yesteryear's fantasy are replaced by shadowruns -- well-paid, off-the-books wetwork operations performed by folks usually off-the-grid in persuasion: Shadowrunners. Thats what we're making today, then!

Okay, Shadowrun goes on a hard, true-blooded point-buy system, in other words, rather than something akin to what we did with All Flesh Must Be Eaten last week, we don't divide the points into pools quite so much -- and we start, per standard characters starting in a Shadowrun game, with 400 Build Points (BP). Since we have to budget everything a little more cautiously in a situation like this, we should have ourselves a solid concept first, and I have one: our character is going to be a good bit like Frank Martin (Jason Statham's character in the Transporter films, for those unfamiliar): Suave, professional, and resourceful, a canny bastard of a smooth operator with his own rules to play by -- sleek, skilled, and deadly.

So, we'll start with our Metatype: is our smooth operator a human, a dwarf, an ork? Choices, choices.. elf seems entirely too cliche for this sort of thing... ah, what's this? Stern, non-nonsense, strong work ethic and an adherence to principles, you say? I think we have our metatype... we're going Dwarf, which costs us a total of 25 BP,so we're at 375. Let's see, what does a Dwarf give us? As far as starting stats go, Body (physical resilience) 2, Agility (physical athleticism and grace) 1, Strength (raw physical power) 3, Reaction (reflexes and, well ireactiontime) 1, Charisma (personal magnetism and bearing, as well as looks and likability), Intuition (mental alertness and situational awarness) 1, Logic (raw brainpower) 1, and Willpower (tenacity, determination, and so forth) of 2, with a starting Edge (raw luck, skill, and that extra bit of fortune's favor) of 1; the human average (thus the measuring standard) is rated at 3, and we can spend no more than 200 BP (half our starting total) here, at a rate of 10 BP per point of increase (or 25 to max a stat out, which we can only do for one stat at this point if we go that route; Edge costs 10 BP to increase by a point, as well. And, if we want to be any sort of mystical sort, we have to buy a proper Quality (more on that later) and buy Magic as a stat accordingly. 200 BP to spend, then...

Whether we shoot 'em dead or crack their heads, we're going to need a good Agility, and so we'll spend 40 there to raise us to a total of 5 there; Body starts at 2 but its only good business to be a little tougher -- we'll add 20 more to boost that to 4, and Strength gets an extra 30 as well, to bring it to 6 also; that's 100 total, 200 left. Let's avoid any glaring weaknesses and add 2 to every other stat across the board with an extra point to Intuition with the remaining 100, and thus finishing up at

Body: 4
Agility: 5
Reaction: 3
Strength: 6
Charisma: 3
Intuition: 4
Logic: 3
Willpower: 4

All around, a tough son of a bitch; might find stronger dwarves, orks, or trolls, but he's considerably more agile than most of them could hope for. Now, we have a total of 175 BP left; before we finish up here we need to decide if our Runner is at all of an arcane persuasion... hell, why not? We'll not be playing around with an actual Mage.. tried that once and it gave me a terrible bloody headache, but since we're ripping off The Transporter here, let's make ourselves a bonafide action-movie hero here, and sink 5 points into the Adept Quality (Adepts being folks who don't throw around fancy spells -- they throw beatings, turning their bodies into mystically-empowered weapons); that means we need to buy a Magic rating, and I wouldn't be adverse myself to having a bit more Edge, either, so we'll dump 50 points into Magic 5, and 20 into Edge, raising that to a 3 total.

So that leaves us 100 points even; we add Reaction and Intuiton together to get our Initaitive (7 in this case), and thus the finished stat block reads out as:

Body: 4
Agility: 5
Reaction: 3
Strength: 6
Charisma: 3
Intuition: 4
Logic: 3
Willpower: 4
Magic: 5
Edge: 3
Initiative: 7

Well, thats a full three-quarters of our points gone. Skills next! Shadowrun does a nice thing by combing several skills into "groups", and unless we want to specify, these are great ways to pick up solid areas of general competence. Scanning them quickly, 30 BP in the Athletics group for a rating of 3 is an easy buy, giving effective ratings of 3 in Climbing, Gymnastics, Running, and Swimming, put a point into the Firearms group for 10 BP, giving us basic proficiency with Automatics, Longarms, and Pistols (a 1 in each); a rating of 2 in Infiltration sets us back 8 BP, and 2 in Dodge another 8; we'll finish our Skills with our moneymaker, Unarmed Combat, jacked to our game-imposed limit of 6 for 24 points; we have 20 BP left, so we may want to look at some Negative Qualities.. we'll see.First, we need to hit our Knowledge skills, which we get a point budget for of our Intuiton + Logic x3, so a total of 21.

Well, let's see.. I see the sort of cool, efficient style our Runner exhibits being something that would lead the Yakuza and Japanese megacorps to find him a desirable agent, even if he's a gaijin himself, so for Street Knowledge we'll put 3 points in Yakuza Politics and 2 more in iStreet Fighting Circuit as the same to reflect a past that will be explained in time; we'll add 2 more for a Interest skill of Boxing (the past, again), and in the interest of the concept, put 2 into an Academic skill of Literature; 12 skill points left... our Runner fancies himself classy and high-rolling despite being just a well-paid wetworker and the fact that though he knows the score and the shakedown of his Japanese bosses; he'd be an ill-fit in the true echelons of 2070's upper crust, so we'll assign 3 of those points into an Interest skill in Wines -- if he must obey the fantasy stereotype of dwarves and alcoholic beverages, it will be on his own bloody terms! -- and on the same note, we'll put 2 more Interest points into Classical Music. With the last 6 points we'll hit our Languages, and though our Runner speaks English natively, he also speaks Japanese quite fluently (4), and in a fit of making himself seem "more cultured" and the lack of much utility in the modern world of the Sixth Age on a day to day basis, we'll add Latin at 2. So, with our Skills settled:

ACTIVE SKILLS
Athletics Group 3
Firearms Group 1
Dodge 2
Infiltration 2
Unarmed Combat 6

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS
Yakuza Politics 3
Street Fighting Circuit 2
Boxing 3
Literature 2
Classical Music 2
Wines 3

LANGUAGES
English N
Japanese 4
Latin 2

Okay, 20 points left.. lets look at Qualities We already bought one earlier, Adept, for 5 BP, so now we'll see if we need more.. though first a few Negative qualities might be advisable. One idea imemdiately coming to mind is the reason why our good dwarf prefers to stick to his ists is that he has a notoriously bad streak of luck with most modern technology -- he's got Gremlins at 10 BP, and thus even something as simple as a gun can just amusingly fail to be much use to him, and for the love of all that's good, keep him away from computers (harder than it sounds, in the Sixth Age...); his fondness for wine shows true: a 5 BP Addiction to alcohol seems suitable. We'll round it out (doubling our points avaible, back to 40 BP, with SINner at 5 BP -- he's a known, legal citizen of wherever we happen to be, and though that helps in some ways, it makes life hell in others for a secret operative.

With 40 BP left to spend, normally we look to Contacts and Equipment next. Normally one does Equipment first, but honestly, our Runner won't likely need as much gear as some concepts might, so we'll decide on friends first. We'll put 6 points into Connections and 4 into Loyalty for our main Contact -- a powerful Yakuza boss we'll say, who often provides our Runner regular work and won't throw him to the wolves on a suicide mission without very solid cause. Another is the owner of our Runner's favorite wine bar, for a total of Connections 3 and Loyalty 2; We'll add the police detective who our dwarf's fists of fury saved from a bad spot as collateral one night in the Sprawl as a final contact -- the dame's tough as can be and would put her lfie on the line to back him up without question (Connections 4, Loyalty 6).

CONTACTS
Boss Motosuwa, Yakuza boss (Connections 6, Loyalty 4)
Simon Winterford, wine bar owner (Connections 3, Loyalty 2)
Detective Sally Maza, police detective (Connections 4, Loyalty 6)

And thus we have 15 points left for equipment and standard of living, and that gives us a budget of 75,000 nuyen. We need a suit, and since it can come with armoring installed.. why the hell not? Actioneer Business Clothes serve us as armor and fashion statement, and set us back 1,500 nuyen, leaving us with 60k. A pair of Shock Gloves sets us back 400 nuyen, and a Ruger Super Warhawk revolver for 250 nuyen (just because our runner is unlucky with guns doesn't mean he's dumb enough not to pack one), and some fancy sunglasses (25 nuyen) with Flare-Compensators (50 nuyen), vision enhancement +3 (300 nuyen), and vision magnification (100 nuyen) modifications (total of 475 nuyen -- "Those were $500 sunglasses, asshole!"). a Gold-level DocWagon contract for a year sets us back a hefty (but worthwhile) 25,000 nuyen, and three months of a High-class Lifestyle will see us living in relative comfort for the low, low price of 30,000 nuyen -- we need work, and soon, as our man Dwarf is living outside his means in a bad way; we'll dump the remainder into starting funds as much as we can -- 1200 Nuyen adds +12 to our final roll for starting funds -- and that leaves us 2,765 nuyen unspent -- and we can't take it with us. So let's see, anything we can dump into? Well, armor is always nice, so lets add a Lined Coat (700 nuyen) over our Actioneer Business Clothes, soup it up with three levels of Thermal Dampening (1,500 nuyen), add a level of Fire Resistance (100 nuyen) and then to add in a nasty surprise, add a level of Nonconductivity (200 nuyen) and equip it with Shock Frills (200 nuyen). That leaves 65 unspent.. but what can we do? Quick hit from Random.org to determine our starting funds... a very respectable total of 19 on 4d6, to which we add +12 from earlier, so per the chart for starting funds at High-class living, we've got 15,500 Nuyen in the bank -- well, it'll pay the rent another month, at least.

GEAR
- Actioneer Business Clothes (1,500 nuyen)
- Lined Coat (Thermal Dampening 3, Fire Resistance 1, Nonconductivity 1, Shock Frills) (2,700 nuyen)
- Souped-Up Sunglasses (Flare Compensaters, Vision Enhancement +3, Vision Magnification) (475 Nuyen
- Shock Gloves (Pair) (400 nuyen)
- Ruger Super Warhawk Revolver (250 nuyen)
- Gold-level DocWagon contract (1 year) (2,500 nuyen)
- High-class Lifestyle (3 months) (30,000 nuyen)
- 15,500 nuyen

Now at this point, we'd normally be about done, aside from deriving out a few more secondary stats, but our man dwarf -- who needs a name soon, as we're running out of character bits to work on, honestly... but that said, our dwarf is an Adept, and thus has magic powers (of a sort) to be assigned, 5 Power Points worth, in fact... Let's see to that. Killing Hands (0.5) is obvious, and we'll add two levels of Critical Strike (0.5 total) to that to make our dwarven Adept downright scary when he hits, and we'll make ourselves terrifying in the extreme by dumping 4 ranks (2 points) into Improved Ability (Unarmed Combat); with our last points, we'll buy 2 ranks each of Attribute in Attribute Boost (Body) and Attribute Boost (Strength) -- he can Hulk Up to horrifiying effect if pressed -- and 2 ranks of Mystic Armor to make our dwarven pugilist even tougher, and capable of taking a few hits even if someone left unarmored.

ADEPT POWERS
Attribute Boost (Body) 2
Attribute Boost (Strength) 2
Critical Strike +2
Improved Ability (Unarmed Combat) 4
Killing Hands
Mystic Armor 2

Okay, now we just need to finish up with our Condition Tracks; Stun is 8+ (Willpower / 2), so a total of 10; and with a Body of 4, Physical is also a 10; and 1 Initative Pass

So, with all that done, we need a name... and, in a fit of comedy and bravado, we'll dub our dwarf.. Mr. Big. Not his real name, of course -- but why in the hell would any sane 'Runner use that?!

* * * * * *

NAME: "Mr. Big"
RACE: Dwarf

ATTRIBUTES
Body: 4
Agility: 5
Reaction: 3
Strength: 6
Charisma: 3
Intuition: 4
Logic: 3
Willpower: 4
Magic: 5
Edge: 3

Essence: 6
Initiative: 7
Initative Passes: 1
Physical Damage Track: 10
Stun Damage Track: 10

ACTIVE SKILLS
Athletics Group 3
Firearms Group 1
Dodge 2
Infiltration 2
Unarmed Combat 6

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS
Yakuza Politics 3
Street Fighting Circuit 2
Boxing 3
Literature 2
Classical Music 2
Wines 3

LANGUAGES
English N
Japanese 4
Latin 2

QUALITIES
Adept 5
Addiction (Alcohol) +5
Gremlins (+5)
SINer +5

ADEPT POWERS
Attribute Boost (Body) 2
Attribute Boost (Strength) 2
Critical Strike +2
Improved Ability (Unarmed Combat) 4
Killing Hands
Mystic Armor 2

GEAR
- Actioneer Business Clothes (1,500 nuyen)
- Lined Coat (Thermal Dampening 3, Fire Resistance 1, Nonconductivity 1, Shock Frills) (2,700 nuyen)
- Souped-Up Sunglasses (Flare Compensaters, Vision Enhancement +3, Vision Magnification) (475 Nuyen
- Shock Gloves (Pair) (400 nuyen)
- Ruger Super Warhawk Revolver (250 nuyen)
- Gold-level DocWagon contract (1 year) (2,500 nuyen)
- High-class Lifestyle (3 months) (30,000 nuyen)
- 15,500 nuyen

CONTACTS
Boss Motosuwa, Yakuza boss (Connections 6, Loyalty 4)
Simon Winterford, wine bar owner (Connections 3, Loyalty 2)
Detective Sally Maza, police detective (Connections 4, Loyalty 6)

* * * * * * *

And there we go. Mr. Big was a low-rent boxer until after some long, complicated (and likely to come back and bite him hard on the ass) drunken misadventure he found a way to channel the energy of the Awakened world through his own flesh, bone, and sinew. Rising to the top of the heap in short order he soon found his way into Yakuza employ, and aping too many action movies, now thinks he's a lot more important than he is, and he has no real sense of planning for the future -- all the luxury he can manage, and right now. He puts on a sham act of being a man of "culture" and "taste", and will go on about the spirituality and nobility of the "sweet science", or the virtues of this wine, that classcal author, or some piece of music written half a millenia ago -- but for all his attempts, anyone of real class and education could label him as a poser pretty quick -- though hopefully not to his face. Think the eloquent thugs in Sin City, or even better, the classy mobsters from the gennius-dimension in the Sliders episode "Eggheads" -- now stuff that in a suit and a garish pimp jacket and shrink it down to concentrated size, and that's Mr. Big.

Honestly, I suspect he'd be absolutely hilarity in play. Maybe someday....

Char-Gen Orgy '10 - All Flesh Must Be Eaten

The Game: All Flesh Must Be Eaten
The Publisher: Eden Studios
Degree of Familiarity: Read the core and numerous sourcebooks, but sadly have never had the chance to play or run it.
Books Used: All Flesh Must Be Eaten Core Rules, Fistful o' Zombies

Confession time, chiiiildren: the Bard, he loves him some zombies. Ever since being mortally traumatized in the brainpan as a child by being let see some zombie flick or another (the details beyond 'zombies!' elude me, as this was, at the least, twenty years ago), I've been a great lover of all things zombie. I'm an avid Romero fan (and slightly less but still notably a Russo fan), I own and love Shaun of the Dead, and I play the hell out of Last Night on Earth whenever I can manage to scrape together players willing to give it a go. Hells, good friend (and amusingly, zombie-phobe!) DeadlyGlories even gave me a video clip recording of a birthday greeting from Eugene "Big Daddy" Clark for my birthday some years back after a visit to the Erie Horrorfest (gotta love her, she knows what a guy likes).

So, this preamble firmly in place, ever since I learned of its existence and managed to lay hands on a copy, I've been quite taken with AFMBE, even if due to lack of available player interest or gaming table opportunities in general I've never gotten a chance to play it. So, this said.. let's make a character!

For a rare change of pace.. I actually am coming into this with a character concept in mind (even if it will end up horribly twisted, I'm sure); I'll be basing this hardened survivor on my main character-avatar in the web-game Urban Dead, a hardened, salt-of-the earth preacher, Father John Grimme (and yes, that's a Deadlands reference)

So.. to work! First order of business is to pick a Deadworld... and I want to do something a little non-standard.. see, I grew up in a part of the country (remember from above, Appalachia in the early 1980's) that was not the most culturally-exposed.. Hells, didn't have cable television until I was thirteen, and in those days, the few networks we did have showed a hell of a lot of westerns. I love westerns almost as much as I love zombies. So even though I'll (of course!) be hitting up Deadlands in some future week (and Hells, Deadlands: Reload too), I think we're going to use a Deadworld from the Shane Hensley-penned Fistful o' Zombies sourcebook.

Oh, but Bard, which one? True Grit, for that more realistic touch? Maybe touch base with my ancestry through roleplaying and go with Dances With Zombies?

Nah. We're doing a horror game here, and there's a setting in that lovely supplement, a Deadworld even more terrible, twisted, and depraved than all the others combined... it's the Deadworld that plays host to something far worse than mere zombies...

Singing Cowboys!

Yes, shudder if you must! But now, we're on to bring Father John... well, that surname certainly won't work! It's too... grim! Not setting-appropriate at all, now is it? Well then.. we'll dub the Padre.... Reverend John Parson. Staggeringly original, I know!

So, by the book, the first step is to choose our Character Type. There's none of that bible-thumping to bring down the thunder in the Singing Cowboys Deadworld (or at least their ought not be), and having every damned actually-devout preacher in a setting that supports it able to cast miraculous 'divine spells' is just.. overdone. So our Padre is a Survivor: we have 20 points for Attributes, 15 points for Qualities (and the option to take up to 10 points of Drawbacks), and 35 points for Skills. Okay, moving on....

Attributes first, then: in AFMBE's Unisystem, most traits will range between 1 and 6, with 2 being the 'human average'. Well, Reverend John isn't rightly average! He worked building railroad track before the corrupt rail barons (always a corrupt rail baron.. always!) put him out of work and set him onto the path of finding his faith and walking the Earth travel to do the Lord's good work. So he's a big, stout, hardy fellow... of our 20 points, we'll drop in 4 into Strength, 3 into Dexterity, and a whopping 5 into Constitution -- in short, the man's an ox, but surprisingly graceful for it. With eight points left for Attributes, we'll put Intelligence and Perception squarely in the middle of the road at 2 points each, and thus put the last 4 into Willpower -- the Reverend is nearly as unyielding mentall and spiritually as his great physical vitality renders him corporeally. So, our Attributes assigned, we have the following:

Strength 4
Dexterity 3:
Constitution 5
Intelligence 2
Perception 2
Willpower 4

With Attributes done we move to Qualities and Drawbacks, and our Deadworld has a few required ones: namely, we need to take Hard to Kill at 3 or better and the Deadworld-specific Balladeer quality for 1 point -- Singing Cowboys do sing, after all, and in this case, sometimes that singing can have almost supernatural effects! In addition, we also have to take the Deadworld-specific Law of the West Drawback for 5 points and the Honorable Drawback at the 3 point level,which takes care of 8 of our possible Drawback points right off the bat; the Law of the West Drawback also prevents us from taking any points in the Addiction, Covetous, Cowardly, Cruel or Lazy Drawbacks. To round things out we'll go ahead and take the last 2 points of our permitted Drawbacks now; scanning the AFMBE core rules' section on the same.. we'll say that that aforementioned Rail Baron's goons have an odd tendency to show up and cause the Reverend trouble now and again (plot hooks! Yay!), thus qualifying as a 2-point Adversary Drawback. With Drawbacks settled and totals added to our default pool of 15 Points leaves us with a total of 21 Points left to spend on our Qualities. We'll go ahead and cap off Hard to Kill, putting 2 more points into it to bring it to 5; we'll keep this "tireless, tough ornery cuss" image up with 5 points into Resistance (Fatigue) 5 and another 5 into Resistance (Pain) 5 -- the Padre is a machine. 3 Points of the 9 Points left in our Qualities Bank are sunk handily into the Nerves of Steel Quality to keep the Sand in the Reverend's boots even if he finds himself staring Ol' Scratch himself down at High Noon. 6 Points left.... we'll spend half of that on a level of Good Luck to represent that occasional bit of Divine Providence, and sink the remaining 3 Points into Charisma: the Reverend's not strictly a handsome fella, but he's certainly a likable one. Qualities and Drawbacks done, and as follows:

QUALITIES
Balladeer
Charisma +3
Hard to Kill 5
Good Luck 1
Nerves of Steel
Resistance (Fatigue) 5
Resistance (Pain) 5

DRAWBACKS
Adversary (Rail Baron's goons) 2
Honorable 3
Law of the West

With that done, we move onto Skills, and as above, the rules of our particular Deadworld require a few be drawn out of 35 Point-pool right off the bat, namely Singing 1+, Guns 3+, and Riding 3+; that leaves us with b29 Points to play around with. Right off the bat we'll put 2 of our Skills into Brawling: the Reverend can throw a punch like most heroes of his genre. To represent his background mentioned above, 2 more Points go into Craft (Blacksmithing) and a single level into Demolitions. Fortune favors those who can get the out of the way when it counts, so we'll drop 4 Points into Dodge for the times we need to get the Hel -err, the- Heck out of it. 2 Points into First Aid helps when the Flock must be tended, and 5 Points into Hand Weapons (Staff) aids when the Wolves must be driven off with the aid of a stout length of hickory. We cannot be an effective preacher without some knowledge of the Good Book, so we'll dump 3 points into Humanities (Theology). Mechanic fits the Father's background, so 2 Points there, and it does a Singing Cowboy for shame if he can't Play his Instrument too, so 3 points go into just that, focused on Guitar. With 5 Points left to us, we'll add 3 more to Singing, and we'll round out the Reverend's learning with a Point each in Streetwise and Survival (Desert). Ah, and our Guns skill needs narrowed down... since the Reverend seems the calm, steady, focused sort, he seems more a rifleman than a blazing-fast ipistolero, so we'll put our Guns skill in 'Rifles.' That's got Skills done, and as they stand:

SKILLS
Brawling 2
Craft (Blacksmithing) 2
Demolitions 1
Dodge 4
First Aid 2
Guns (Rifle) 3
Hand Weapons (Staff) 5
Humanities (Theology) 3
Mechanic 2
Play Instrument (Guitar) 3
Singing 4
Streetwise 1
Survival (Desert) 1

Since there are no Metaphysics involved for the Reverend and all the factors that might change them are settled, we'll go back and figure out our Secondary Attributes: Life Points are equal to the sum of Strength + Consitution, multiplied by four and then with +10 added to that sum, or ([STR+CON x 4]+10), so the Revrend's base Life Points are (5 + 4 = 9 x 4 = 36 + 10 = 46, but our 5 Points of Hard to Kill aff an additional +15 to our total, so the Reverend's final Life Points total is a very impressive and respectable 61. Endurance Points come next, representing resistance to any physical duress inot caused by direct injury; the total is equal to the sum of Strength, Consitution, and Willpower, multiplied by three, and adding +5 to the final tally. Gods, Unisystem loves its bloody formulae, doesn't it? Regardless, 4 + 5 + 4 = 13 x 3 = 39 + 5 = 44, so that's our final Endurance Pool. Speed is Constitution + Dexterity x 2 in Miles Per Hour, so 16 MPH in our case. Lastly, Essence is equal to the sum of all our Primary Attributes, so that makes it a total of 20. So, that done:

Life Points: 61/61
Endurance Points: 44/44
Speed: 16 MPH
Essence Pool: 20/20

And, all that's left now is Equipment; by the rules laid down in Fistful o' Zombies, we have $50 to spend. A staff, by standards of the core rules, costs imore than this allowance, at a whopping $75.. but that's for modern standards of money... and, even less than unhelpful, unless I doth overlook it, there's not even a damned starting funds allotment in the core rules?! Delightful. Anyway, we'll just say its five damned dollars and go from there. $5 more for a Bible, $15 for a Sharps Big .50 (big man, big gun!), and a further $5 for 100 rounds of ammunition for that monster leaves us with $20 unspent; we'll (again, since the book can't be fucking bothered) say $10 for a proper guitar, and leave $10 in our pockets; never know when one may need to give alms, brother!

GEAR
Hickory Walking Stick (Quarterstaff)
Sharps Big .50 Rifle
Rifle Ammunition x100
Bible
Guitar

And with ithat done, all that's left is the Finishing Touches; we already have a name, and a rough idea of looks, but we'll elaborate: The Reverend's in his early forties, with a mane of greying red hair that's gotten a little untamedly long, and sports a thick but mostly well-trimmed beard of the same shade, complete with the same touches of grey; he thumps along cheerfully, a bear of a man with a booming, deep mighty voice, dressing humbly, his only affectation his minister's collar. He's a man who tries to turn the other cheek when he might, but when something threatens his Flock (with 'Flock' being 'Whatever needy townsfolk he finds in ithis week's dusty frontier town) may well end up on the recieving end of the business end of his hickory stick -- especially Gosh-Durned zombies who don't stay in thir graves like is right and proper!

* * * * * * *

NAME: Reverend John Parson
CHARACTER TYPE: Survivor
DEADWORLD: Singing Cowboys

ATTRIBUTES
Strength 4
Dexterity 3:
Constitution 5
Intelligence 2
Perception 2
Willpower 4

Life Points: 61/61
Endurance Points: 44/44
Speed: 16 MPH
Essence Pool: 20/20

QUALITIES
Balladeer
Charisma +3
Hard to Kill 5
Good Luck 1
Nerves of Steel
Resistance (Fatigue) 5
Resistance (Pain) 5

DRAWBACKS
Adversary (Rail Baron's Goons) 2
Honorable 3
Law of the West

SKILLS
Brawling 2
Craft (Blacksmithing) 2
Demolitions 1
Dodge 4
First Aid 2
Guns (Rifle) 3
Hand Weapons (Staff) 5
Humanities (Theology) 3
Mechanic 2
Play Instrument (Guitar) 3
Singing 4
Streetwise 1
Survival (Desert) 1

GEAR
Hickory Walking Stick (Quarterstaff)
Sharps Big .50 Rifle
Rifle Ammunition x100
Bible
Guitar

* * * * * * *

...and that's Week 3. Personally, in the extremely unlikely circumstance I could ever find a group running this particular brand of AFMBE (though honestly, it's a piece of comic genius, especially the truth about this particular Deadworld..) I would imagine the Reverend would be a great deal of entertainment to see in use at the table, and the image of a big, burly preacher singing 'Amazing Grace' at the top of his powerful lungs while crushing the hearts of zombies in their chests with his stout length of hickory is just priceless.

Alas, one never knows!

Char-Gen Orgy '10 - Changeling: the Dreaming

The Game: Changeling: the Dreaming
The Publisher: White Wolf Game Studios
Degree of Familiarity: A great degree, though a bit rusty. Played in numerous games, ran a handful of short chronicles; of all the old World of Darkness games, Dreaming was the one I know and love best.
Books Used: Changeling the Dreaming 2nd Edition Core Rules, Blood-Dimmed Tides, Kithbook: Satyrs

Okay, it's been several years since I created a character under the old Storyteller rules, and poor, oft-derided Dreaming never got so much as a Revised edition. Sure, the game had it's problems, and sure, folks didn't understand it at times -- the art didn't help there , in places (and that hurt it, just like it hurt Hunter: the Reckoning), and I'll even grant that the game was somewhat all over the place and trying to do too much at once with a lack of a coherent focus; in short, it's younger, grittier brother Changeling: the Lost is an improvement on it in almost every way.

But then, in fairness, you could say that Dreaming and Lost are both the same story, the story of a world that left you behind, a tale that your part has been erased from without having the good graces to erase your sad existence too, and the story of raging against the darkness and overcoming it to find your happy ending -- even if you know, in your heart, that it can't last.

Even for immortals.

Okay, okay, enough waxing poetic!

So, concepts! Well, I don't feel like playing the young teen rabble-rouser, and child characters are great -- in games that focus entirely on children. Anything else.. no. So, despite the delightful threads of ageism through Kithain society.. lets go for a Grump. That starts us with Glamour 3, Willpower at 5, and unfortunately, a Banality of 5 as well (as a sidenote.. Banality? No, I do not miss it at all. Even if it was core to the themes of Dreaming... good riddance).

So, an aging burnout still trying to hold onto the glory days of youth? Sounds like a good description for an angry old rocker or metalhead, so... heeey. Sex, drugs.. rock and roll... prodigious stamina?

Yep, I think we've got ourselves a concept... and by extension, we got ourselves a Satyr; these Greek party animals (toga toga tooooga, to make a Zeus: Master of Olympus reference) gain the Gift of Pan to allow them to turn the power of ROCK against the evils of Banality, propriety, and temperance, and on top of that, they gain the blessing of Physical Prowess: +1 Stamina, the ability to barrel along at great speeds when Straights aren't about or when calling on the Wyrd, and the blessing of being unable to botch an Athletics roll if they tried. Of course, the downside is that Passion's Curse bites a poor Goat hard, and are prone to both wild mood swings and a total loss of self-control, and so all Willpower rolls to resist temptation are at a +2 difficulty.

Next on the list.. is our rocka-billy goat (...that pun made it all worthwhile. It did.) of the Seelie or Unseelie Court, and what are his Legacies in both? Yeah, courtly love, honor, beauty, duty? Those aren't metal! So, we're Unseelie then, baby... and for our Unseelie Legacy, I think we'll go with Knave: This old goat is not about to hide the grim realities of life from the kiddies, or tone down his music to appease the media watchdogs, and few things bring him as much fulfilment as showing the unenlightened the joys of sex, drugs, and rock and roll; keeping with the Satyr aspect and dovetailing off our Unseelie Legacy nicely, we'll go with Sage as our Seelie

Okay then, the backdrop is set, so we'll get into the real hard crunch now. Attributes need prioritized, and Social is an obvious Primary; we'll make Physical our Secondary, and after a rough education and too much medicinal marijuana, we'll leave Mental in last place.

So, how do we envision our man Buck (and that shall be his name, Buck)? Well, obviously He's got to have stage presence, so we'll toss in three of our seven points into Charisma, and three more into Appearance, leaving one dot to go into Manipulation; Buck's not a subtle chap, but he'll bludgeon you with his sheer presence. That gives us Charisma 4, Manipulation 2, and Appearance 4. Next, we'll hit Physicals... We have five dots to distribute here. Buck's not a burly sort, strictly average really -- after all, carrying heavy equipment is what the roadies are for, isn't it? However, Buck's fairly agile for all his lankiness, so two dots go into his Dexterity, and we'll put the last two into Stamina, which with out Kith bonus from being a Satyr, is as good as adding three; that leaves Buck's Physicals at Strength 2, Dexterity 3, and Stamina 4. Lastly, we'll hit his less-than-sterling Mentals -- flatly, Buck's about as oblivious as you could expect, so Perception goes untouched, and he's strictly average at raw intellect, so one dot in Intelligence; his only saving grace is that once his brain finally sees through the purple haze, he's got a good set of wits about his horned head, so we'll add two dots there, finishing him out at Perception 1, Intelligence 2, and Wits 3

So now, that finished, our current spread of Attributes reads as:

.

PHYSICAL
Strength 2
Dexterity 3
Stamina 4
SOCIAL
Charisma 4
Manipulation 2
Appearance 4

MENTAL
Perception 1
Intelligence 2
Wits 3

Attributes finished, it is now time to move on to Abilities.. gods, I don't miss the old layouts from these days; Mental/Physical/Social is a far, far cleaner approach, but we'll work with what we've got. Reviewing the old lists to repair the dodgy memory banks on what is where, it becomes obvious that while a couple skills we'll want good ratings in fall under Skills, the majority of what will be our heavy duty investments fall under Talents, so priority goes there, with Talents as Secondary and.. yeah, Knowledges as Tertiary. We're making up for that braniac from last week, aren't we? Anyway, we have a generous spread of 13/9/5, and a cap of 3 in any one Ability just now -- any higher will take us some bonus points. So, lets get to work...

We've got 13 dots for Talents, and we want a good, all-around capability here, so we'll put two dots each in Athletics, Brawl, and Dodge to give us some raw physical talent, leaving us at 7 dots; though he's a little addled, Buck reads people quite well, so two dots into Empathy, two into Persuasion to back up those rockstar looks with a few honeyed words, and with 3 left we'll put a dot in Streetwise, the better to find the local pot-peddlers, for those sticky situations ("Honestly, Officer.. that television unbolted itself from the wall and flew out the window all on its own!") we'll add the last two dots to Subterfuge. Moving onto Skills next, we plainly are going to put as many as we're allowed into Performance right off the bat, so 3 of our 9 dots are spent already; since you should always have someone who knows how to fix the van should it break down, a dot in Drive and another in Crafts leaves us at 4 dots left here. Two dots of Leadership will keep the Band together, and for those times when you just gotta be Breakin' the Law, a dot each in Security and Stealth. With our paltry five dots of Knowledge, we'll say that running crisis control for a few ODs and backstage mishaps will give Buck a dot of Medicine, and breaking it as often as he has will teach one a dot of Law; we'll add a dot of Politics to represent Buck's grass-roots attempts at social awareness, and put the last two into Science.. or as he would put it.. "recreational chemistry". Well, that has Attributes done....

TALENTS
Athletics 2
Brawl 2
Dodge 2
Empathy 2
Persuasion 2
Streetwise 1
Subterfuge 2

SKILLS
Crafts 1
Drive 1
Leadership 2
Performance 3
Security 1
Stealth 1

KNOWLEDGES
Law 1
Medicine 1
Politics 1
Science 2

With our attentions now turned to Advantages, we'll start with something I truly miss under the new Storytelling System rules, even though Merits really do cover the same ground to a degree: Backgrounds Right off the bat, we'll give our man Buck a dot of Contacts -- his Major Contact is his long-suffering Agent and PR man, who doesn't tend to come along for Buck's misadventures, but can be relied on to sometimes talk Buck down from his worst ideas. Sometimes. Since Buck refused to sell out, he's never hit the big leagues despite the talent for it, and so his Resources stay at a humble one dot. The last three dots will sink into Retinue -- Buck's got a small entourage who can also double as roadies. And thus..

BACKGROUNDS
Contacts 1
Resources 1
Retinue 3

With Backgrounds done (for now), we must now face the darkest dread of any Dreaming

Yes, you did just see a shudder. Anyone who's had to deal with this mess before would shudder too, I'm sure. Anyhow...

Honestly, none of the corebook Arts really suit where we want to go with Buck, so we'll need to delve a little deeper... thankfully, our Sourcebook-Fu is strong, and thus we home in on the World of Darkness-wide supplement Blood-Dimmed Tides... it was a bit odd in places, sure, but it had some great Arts.. including... no, not Aphrodisia, but Skycraft! Thunderclaps, gusting winds, hazing fogs? Hot damn, this baby's its own heavy metal effects shop! Regrettably, since we'll mostly want to shock and awe audiences, we have to use the putrescent Actor Realm, which takes a solid four of our five dots to just use our magic on a stranger, and the last dot will go into Fae. We may need to revisit this with Bonus Points (Scene would be nice), but for now I feel vaguely dirty, and we have the following:

ARTS
Skycraft 3

REALMS
Actor 4
Fae 1

Well, normally we would do our Tempers next, but we recorded those up above, so that leaves us with what I truly miss most in the new Storytelling System, compared to the older Storyteller: Bonus Points. Sure, starting XP can compensate, sort of, but.. it just doesn't feel the same.

So, with fifteen to spend, we'll first look into the thing I miss second-most: Flaws. Again, they still exist, and from a rules-balance standpoint I can see why they got the axe.

But I still miss 'em, and so.. will I indulge, why, yes I will. A two point Addiction to Marijuana is stereotypically par for the course, and just to make it worse, we'll take a second, milder one for Alcohol; Buck's a party animal, and he occasionally pays the price for it.That's three of our allowed four dots of Flaws; for amusement, years of substance abuse and one night stands have left Buck just about as competent at life as the heavy metal god-kings of Dethklok: He's downright Absent-Minded, and as the final point, the picture of a shaggy, hirsute rock god is only fitting, so cracking Kithbook: Satyr, we'll pick up our final allowed Flaw dot as Swarthy.

So, with that said, we've gained a total of seven Freebie Points to play around with, and gained...

FLAWS
Absent-Minded 3
Addiction (Alcohol) 1
Addiction (Marijuana) 2
Swarthy 1

With the book already open to that section, we'll go ahead and buy a few Merits now; Entertainment Ties for three points is an obvious choice, and to ground ourselves in the setting and give the ST some hooks to play with, we'll say that by now Buck has settled into trying to play 'legitimate businessman' and after much protest of his agent, sank his savings into a small, hard rock/metal Nightclub, for another two points. We'll spend a point each on Animal Magnetism and Poison Resistance to round it all out; Buck's got it and knows how to work his mojo baby, and after so many nights partying and being wasted out of his mind, casual toxins, recreational or malevolent, just aren't going to take hold in his system easily. We may buy a few more later, but lets tend mundane needs, first... thus, at current:

MERITS
Animal Magnetism 1
Entertainment Ties 3
Nightclub 2
Poison Resistance 1

So, with our standard fifteen Bonus Points left, we'll spend four of them to make Buck the Rock God he should be by boosting his Performance to five dots, and three more into a dot of the Scene Realm; three more besides will boost our Glamour back up a dot, as though Buck may be getting older, he's still rocking hard and living the dream. Five dots left; we'll add an additional dot of Retainers (Entourage is important!) and we'll pick up one more Merit -- Inspiration for four points, from the Satyr Kithbook; when Buck plays his music, the audience feels something, man -- and what that something is depends entirely on what Buck decides to play.

Well, freebies are done, so that only leaves Specialties in Appearance, Charisma, Stamina, and Performance; Appearance gets "Sex Appeal" -- Buck is a Horned God, baby -- and we'll add "Confidant" to Charisma -- people just feel at ease opening up to our man Buck for some reason. Stamina is our last Attribute in need of a speciality and that goes into "Party Animal" -- Buck can rock and roll all night, and party every day; to that end, our Performance speciality becomes "Guitar Solo" -- Buck will make you wish you never dared to lay a hand on that Axe.

And so, that said, we're done save the little details.. like a last name.. perhaps more as an in-joke to the last time I made myself a hard-rocking OWoD character (though he was, in that case, a Toreador), we'll say Buck's surname is "Valentine."

And so.....

-------

NAME: Buck Valentine
CONCEPT: Rockabilly Goat

COURT: Unseelie
LEGACIES: Knave/Sage
HOUSE: -

SEEMING: Grump
KITH: Satyr
MOTLEY: -

-ATTRIBUTES-

PHYSICAL
Strength 2
Dexterity 3
Stamina 4 (Party Animal)

SOCIAL
Charisma 4 (Confidant)
Manipulation 2
Appearance 4 (Sex Appeal)

MENTAL
Perception 1
Intelligence 2
Wits 3

-ABILITIES-

TALENTS
Athletics 2
Brawl 2
Dodge 2
Empathy 2
Persuasion 2
Streetwise 1
Subterfuge 2

SKILLS
Crafts 1
Drive 1
Leadership 2
Performance 5 (Guitar Solo)
Security 1
Stealth 1

KNOWLEDGES
Law 1
Medicine 1
Politics 1
Science 2

-ADVANTAGES-

BACKGROUNDS
Contacts 1
Resources 1
Retinue 4

ARTS
Skycraft 3

REALMS
Actor 4
Fae 1
Scene 1

-OTHER TRAITS-

TEMPERS
Glamour 4
Willpower 4
Banality 5

MERITS
Animal Magnetism 1
Entertainment Ties 3
Inspiration 4
Nightclub 2
Poison Resistance 1

FLAWS
Absent-Minded 3
Addiction (Alcohol) 1
Addiction (Marijuana) 2
Swarthy 1

--------

Buck has the potential to be a lot of fun, if only for the sort of comedy his very nature could bring to the table. Maybe one of these days, if another Dreaming game comes along, he might get to rock the Kithain like a heavy metal hurricane!