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electricpaladin) wrote2009-01-17 07:08 pm
electricpaladin) wrote2009-01-17 07:08 pm
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Character Creation XXX: Desolation - We're Back!
It sure has been a while since I posted one of these. Let’s just say it’s good to be back.
The Game: Desolation
The Publisher: Greymalkin Designs (www.greymalkindesigns.com)
Familiarity: Medium. I read the book cover-to-cover on the way home from GenCon ’08, but I haven’t played with it, yet.
The premise of Desolation is quite simple. Take that most classic of fantasy tropes – the cataclysm that wrecked the world – and give it a little spin. Instead of happening generations ago, the disaster happened eighteen months ago. Every character in the game remembers what the world used to be like and is still mourning it, but they still have lots of work to do.
The game has its flaws. It falls into some of the most damning tropes of fantasy without a backwards glance – rather typical fantasy races, for example, and the conflation of ‘race’ and nationality – but in my mind, the genius of the primary premise carries the game.
Another fun note: the game doesn’t actually tell you what the world is like after the cataclysm – the Night of Fire, as it’s called. The world before the Night of Fire is detailed exhaustively, but the book only presents bare and easy to ignore suggestions of what the world is like now. Golden.
Let’s get this show on the road!
Step One: Decide on an archetype
Archetypes are like classes, but with all the teeth and claws removed. That is, they are basically non-determinative guides to character creation. I could just as easily skip it altogether, but I’m following the rules here.
Now, I’m fond of the magic system in Desolation, because it’s not often that you see fantasy games with freeform magic. I also like the elves in Desolation, because I find them another interesting inverted trope – rather than haughty SOBs, the elves were rejected by nature a few hundred years ago and have lived as nomadic outcasts ever since. They are one of the few communities who experienced something good with the Night of Fire – their magic came back. Perhaps nature is beginning to forgive them.
But, since the elves didn’t have magic until after the Night of Fire, I can’t make someone who was a dedicated magic user. Instead, my character was a thief. A burglar, to be precise, someone who broke into the houses of the wealthy and took their stuff.
His name is Illuth
Step Two: Select your character’s race
Done and done.
Step Three: Outline your motivation, personality, and history
We already know a little more about this character’s history, but let me add a little more.
Illuth was nomadic, like most elves, until he was twelve, when his father fell sick. His family stayed in a big human city for the year it took him to die. Then, Illuth’s mother Ivera and older sister Anillura turned to prostituting themselves to survive, trading on their elven grace and beauty to attract customers.
Illuth, desperate to contribute, turned to crime. Illuth was the lookout at a robbery that went poorly. He was the only one caught, and since they couldn’t find the actual killers, they threw the book at him. When Illuth emerged from two years hard labor, he discovered that his family had finally moved on. He doesn’t blame them – probably another band of elves passed through and took his family with them – but he was in trouble. So, Illuth turned back to the same career path that had gotten him in trouble in the first place. He hoped another elven band would pass through soon and take him away from all this, but the Night of Fire happened a few years later.
For motivation, I am asked to select a one word or so blurb that describes why Illuth does what he does. I’m going to go with Redemption, but with a twist. He doesn’t feel too bad about his brief life of crime. He did what he had to do to survive. Instead, Illuth wants to redeem the world. Clearly, the old world was broken. This is the opportunity to build a new one.
Likewise, for personality, I’ll jot down “jaded & newly hopeful.” The last six years have really sucked, but with the Night of Fire and the blossoming of magic within him, Illuth has begun to find something to be hopeful about. For history, I’ll write “abandoned by his people.”
That completes the MPH – Motivation, Personality, History – on the front page of the character sheet which acts as a reminder of the longer descriptions I’ll just keep in my head for now. Onward!
Step Four: Choose Primary Attributes
I have 15 points to divide up amongst six attributes. Attributes range from one to five (well, six, but that’s beyond the purview of starting characters), with two as the average. Well, that’s familiar…
I’ll go with Body 1 (youth of deprivation left him a little frail), Dexterity 3 (thief), Strength 2, Charisma 4 (Elven magic centers of Charisma, also, just a cute, compelling dude), Intelligence 3, and Willpower 2.
Step Five: Calculate Secondary Attributes
Just some math here. Nothing to see. Move along.
Step Six: Choose Skills
Now I spend 15 points on skills, from a whole big list. I’ll go with: Acrobatics 2, Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Con 2, Gambling 1, Larceny 2 (with a specialization in Lockpicking), Magic 1 (with a specialization in Elemental magic), Melee 1, and Stealth 2.
Step Seven: Choose a Talent and Flaws
Now I get one special talent for free and one or more flaws. My one talent is, unfortunately, basically chosen for me: Magical Aptitude – Elemental Magic.
Flaws work like this: for each flaw you take, you get a style point. Flaws are how you get style points; when you suffer for them, you get a point. I’ll take Perfectionist. After his time in prison, Illuth developed a serious tendency to overplan so that it wouldn’t happen again.
Step Eight: Spend experience points
I get 15 experience points to play with. Let’s see… I’ll buy my Magic skill to 2, a Melee specialization in Knife. The last three points I can’t figure out what to spend on, so I’ll save them.
Step Nine: Fill in the details
Name… check!
Physical description… check! (tall, willowy – elf! – with green eyes, fair skin, and blond hair)
One last thing I need to work out is magic. Elemental magicians can only access two elements, one as a primary element and another that is harmonious with that element. Illuth is an Earth Elementalist, which means he also has access to Water magic. I’ll make a note of it.
I’ll jot down some reasonable equipment, and that’s it. Ready to go.
Step Ten: Calculate starting Style points
I took the one Flaw, so I get the one Style point. If a GM wanted to be nice, or was particularly fond of a backstory writeup I sent in, I might get more.
And that’s it. I’m ready to play in the world of Desolation, one of the few fantasy games on the market today that isn't a heartbreaker, and one I fondly look forward to playing with!
The Game: Desolation
The Publisher: Greymalkin Designs (www.greymalkindesigns.com)
Familiarity: Medium. I read the book cover-to-cover on the way home from GenCon ’08, but I haven’t played with it, yet.
The premise of Desolation is quite simple. Take that most classic of fantasy tropes – the cataclysm that wrecked the world – and give it a little spin. Instead of happening generations ago, the disaster happened eighteen months ago. Every character in the game remembers what the world used to be like and is still mourning it, but they still have lots of work to do.
The game has its flaws. It falls into some of the most damning tropes of fantasy without a backwards glance – rather typical fantasy races, for example, and the conflation of ‘race’ and nationality – but in my mind, the genius of the primary premise carries the game.
Another fun note: the game doesn’t actually tell you what the world is like after the cataclysm – the Night of Fire, as it’s called. The world before the Night of Fire is detailed exhaustively, but the book only presents bare and easy to ignore suggestions of what the world is like now. Golden.
Let’s get this show on the road!
Step One: Decide on an archetype
Archetypes are like classes, but with all the teeth and claws removed. That is, they are basically non-determinative guides to character creation. I could just as easily skip it altogether, but I’m following the rules here.
Now, I’m fond of the magic system in Desolation, because it’s not often that you see fantasy games with freeform magic. I also like the elves in Desolation, because I find them another interesting inverted trope – rather than haughty SOBs, the elves were rejected by nature a few hundred years ago and have lived as nomadic outcasts ever since. They are one of the few communities who experienced something good with the Night of Fire – their magic came back. Perhaps nature is beginning to forgive them.
But, since the elves didn’t have magic until after the Night of Fire, I can’t make someone who was a dedicated magic user. Instead, my character was a thief. A burglar, to be precise, someone who broke into the houses of the wealthy and took their stuff.
His name is Illuth
Step Two: Select your character’s race
Done and done.
Step Three: Outline your motivation, personality, and history
We already know a little more about this character’s history, but let me add a little more.
Illuth was nomadic, like most elves, until he was twelve, when his father fell sick. His family stayed in a big human city for the year it took him to die. Then, Illuth’s mother Ivera and older sister Anillura turned to prostituting themselves to survive, trading on their elven grace and beauty to attract customers.
Illuth, desperate to contribute, turned to crime. Illuth was the lookout at a robbery that went poorly. He was the only one caught, and since they couldn’t find the actual killers, they threw the book at him. When Illuth emerged from two years hard labor, he discovered that his family had finally moved on. He doesn’t blame them – probably another band of elves passed through and took his family with them – but he was in trouble. So, Illuth turned back to the same career path that had gotten him in trouble in the first place. He hoped another elven band would pass through soon and take him away from all this, but the Night of Fire happened a few years later.
For motivation, I am asked to select a one word or so blurb that describes why Illuth does what he does. I’m going to go with Redemption, but with a twist. He doesn’t feel too bad about his brief life of crime. He did what he had to do to survive. Instead, Illuth wants to redeem the world. Clearly, the old world was broken. This is the opportunity to build a new one.
Likewise, for personality, I’ll jot down “jaded & newly hopeful.” The last six years have really sucked, but with the Night of Fire and the blossoming of magic within him, Illuth has begun to find something to be hopeful about. For history, I’ll write “abandoned by his people.”
That completes the MPH – Motivation, Personality, History – on the front page of the character sheet which acts as a reminder of the longer descriptions I’ll just keep in my head for now. Onward!
Step Four: Choose Primary Attributes
I have 15 points to divide up amongst six attributes. Attributes range from one to five (well, six, but that’s beyond the purview of starting characters), with two as the average. Well, that’s familiar…
I’ll go with Body 1 (youth of deprivation left him a little frail), Dexterity 3 (thief), Strength 2, Charisma 4 (Elven magic centers of Charisma, also, just a cute, compelling dude), Intelligence 3, and Willpower 2.
Step Five: Calculate Secondary Attributes
Just some math here. Nothing to see. Move along.
Step Six: Choose Skills
Now I spend 15 points on skills, from a whole big list. I’ll go with: Acrobatics 2, Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Con 2, Gambling 1, Larceny 2 (with a specialization in Lockpicking), Magic 1 (with a specialization in Elemental magic), Melee 1, and Stealth 2.
Step Seven: Choose a Talent and Flaws
Now I get one special talent for free and one or more flaws. My one talent is, unfortunately, basically chosen for me: Magical Aptitude – Elemental Magic.
Flaws work like this: for each flaw you take, you get a style point. Flaws are how you get style points; when you suffer for them, you get a point. I’ll take Perfectionist. After his time in prison, Illuth developed a serious tendency to overplan so that it wouldn’t happen again.
Step Eight: Spend experience points
I get 15 experience points to play with. Let’s see… I’ll buy my Magic skill to 2, a Melee specialization in Knife. The last three points I can’t figure out what to spend on, so I’ll save them.
Step Nine: Fill in the details
Name… check!
Physical description… check! (tall, willowy – elf! – with green eyes, fair skin, and blond hair)
One last thing I need to work out is magic. Elemental magicians can only access two elements, one as a primary element and another that is harmonious with that element. Illuth is an Earth Elementalist, which means he also has access to Water magic. I’ll make a note of it.
I’ll jot down some reasonable equipment, and that’s it. Ready to go.
Step Ten: Calculate starting Style points
I took the one Flaw, so I get the one Style point. If a GM wanted to be nice, or was particularly fond of a backstory writeup I sent in, I might get more.
And that’s it. I’m ready to play in the world of Desolation, one of the few fantasy games on the market today that isn't a heartbreaker, and one I fondly look forward to playing with!