Character Creation Challenge (2023): Postmortem

 

So in 2023 I did not complete the challenge. I started pretty strong with Warhammer 3e, but I lost momentum during the Lashings of Ginger Beer group, struggled a little more with Basic Action Super-Heroes, and finally got stuck on Broken Compass (which is ridiculous given that game's simple character generation system) and only finished that trio. In all I produced 15 characters in 4 games for 31 days, 12 of them before January 15th.

I'm not really sure what got in my way. Probably a combination of things: the looser structure I set myself, my determination not to let the challenge interfere with other parts of my life, more demands on my energy from other quarters, and maybe just being in a psychological place where putting in the effort to make another character and blog it was more than I wanted to deal with. 

This past year a combination of work, travel and medical incidents took over the month and I didn't even seriously consider participating. I haven't decided whether to get back on the horse this coming January, but I have several new games I'd like to explore so I hope I can find the energy this time.

Current Characters: Ulysses Rockford (Tiny Gunslingers)

Cover image via DriveThruRPG

Tiny d6 is a very simple system that has available variants for a whole lot of settings; it began with a D&D-alike (Tiny Dungeons) and has since expanded to cover a wide range of genres. Including Westerns, in the form of Tiny Gunslingers.

The base mechanic for Tiny d6 is very simple; for a Test you roll a 2d6 pool that counts 5s and 6s as successes, and one success is generally enough to get the desired result. If you're acting at a disadvantage, your pool is one die smaller, and if you're acting at advantage your pool is one die larger. That puts the your chance of success at approximately 33% with disadvantage, 56% without modifiers, and 72% with advantage.

Characters are distinguished from each other by Traits. Traits occupy a design space similar to Feats in contemporary D&D/Pathfinder or Edges in Savage Worlds; they're special abilities that (in most cases) either give you an advantage in certain situations (such as determining when another character is telling the truth) or allow you to do something other characters can't (such as providing skilled medical care). The game provides a list of Traits, and the players can come up with others as needed.

The Tiny Gunslingers game I'm currently playing in began with the PCs seeking shelter in a New Mexico cave, from a sudden storm, in the year 1870. Upon exiting the cave, they found themselves in the year 1874 of an alternate timeline, and have since encountered various other refugees from yet other (mostly similar) timelines. All this dimensional hopping is somehow connected to the machinations of supernatural entities, in whose schemes the player characters have, through their attempts to return home, become enmeshed.  

But that all came to light only after play began. We started by creating mundane humans for a fictional/historical Old West setting. And, like so many other players, I found inspiration in pop culture.

James Garner as Bret Maverick (wikipedia)

I'm not a particularly big fan of the western genre, and I wasn't keen on playing Just Another Gunfighter. But I did have one promising role model: James Garner. As itinerant gambler Bret Maverick (and later as modern private eye Jim Rockford), Garner played a wily, charismatic, self-deprecating hero who preferred nonviolent resolutions but wasn't a fanatic about it. This was a frame I could happily build upon. As a tip of the hat to Garner I gave my hero the last name "Rockford;" to further emphasize his wiliness I added the first name "Ulysses." 

With a concept in hand I was ready to engage the character-building mechanics, which mostly involve selecting Traits. Our GM provided a customized list, which he had modified somewhat from the one the designers had included with the rulebook, so I'm going to mark those homebrew or imported Traits with an asterisk for the sake of clarity.

Beginning characters start with three Traits. Following the Bret Maverick template, I started with Gambler, which gives our hero advantage on Tests that involve games of chance or making bluffs. I also chose the converse Trait Insightful*, which provides advantage on Tests to discern others' truthfulness. As a plot hook generator, I ended with Nose for Trouble, which provides an extra starting point of Grit (about which see below), but which creates complications each time the character spends Grit. 

Although there are combat-specific Traits (which I ignored because "averse to violence"), general fighting ability is covered by Proficiencies, which cover three broad groups of weapons: Melee (knives, clubs, etc.), Light Ranged (pistols, basically), and Heavy Ranged (rilfes & shotguns). You can choose one, then select a more specific weapon within that group as your specialty (or Mastery). Figuring that Ulysses' most likely combat situations would occur over the card table, I chose the easily concealable Derringer as his mastered weapon, which meant of necessity that his Proficiency would cover Light Ranged weapons.

Grit is a metagame currency that can be spent to reroll a failed Test (at a cost of one point), for advantage in a Shootout or formal duel (1 or 2 points), or to evade an enemy's successful attack roll (3 points). The default starting value is 3; Nose for Trouble bumps that up to 4. Grit regenerates between sessions, but in the course of play it can only be regained by capturing or killing bad guys, thereby earning Bounty that converts to Grit at a 1:1 ratio.

Tiny Gunslingers uses Hit Points as an endurance meter for its characters; player characters begin with 6 HP, and when combat or other damage brings you to 0 HP the risk of death rears its ugly head.

After selecting Traits and Weapon Proficiencies, characters can then choose starting Gear. The game's unit of exchange is the handwavey dinero, and in the spirit of minimalist game design the lists of gear and prices are mostly suggestions and divided up into broad categories of scarcity and cost (common, uncommon, rare). There is a starter Cowpoke's Kit, a variation of which our gamemaster provided as the default gear selection--plus a weapon (2, with the GM's blessing). So Ulysses Rockford began his adventures in the Mythic West with a Traveler's Kit that included a bedroll and basic supplies (toiletries, change of underwear, that kind of thing) and two weapons: the aforementioned derringer and a basic revolver. (We assumed he also had a deck of cards, since it seemed like a common item and directly related to his profession.) Ammunition is not individually tracked; instead, characters make Tests after each altercation involving gunfire to see whether they've run out.

In addition, a player character is supposed to have a Profession, which functions as a sort of custom Trait. At character generation, we overlooked this aspect (as well as Drive, which follows), and the GM decided to have us backfill it a few sessions into the campaign. I decided that Gambler suited that slot just fine and selected an additional trait to fill out Ulysses' skill set:  Nimble Fingers, which provides advantage on Tests to pick locks or pockets or otherwise engage in acts of larceny that depend on small motor skills.

Drive is a short description of the character's overall approach to life and the problems it brings, and if we had addressed this at the time Ulysses Rockford's would probably be something like "Can't we talk this out first?"

So at the start of the campaign (and excluding both the Drive and the Profession that we retconned later on), the starting statblock for Ulysses Rockford look something like this:

Name: Ulysses Rockford

Grit: 4        HP: 6

Traits:

Gambler: gains Advantage on Tests involving bluffing or games of chance

Insightful*: gains Advantage on Tests to discern other characters' truthfulness

Nose for Trouble: gains an extra point of Grit, but whenever the character spends Grit something bad seems to happen in the vicinity--not necessarily to him, but around him, and not to his advantage

Gear: Traveler's kit (bedroll, basic necessities, deck of cards), derringer, revolver

We've been gaining new Traits after every three sessions played, and Ulysses has found himself developing some medical skills to deal with wounds, poisons, and so forth, so as of last week his statblock looks like this:

generated on HeroForge

Name: Ulysses Rockford

Grit: 4        HP: 6

Traits:

Gambler: gains advantage on Tests involving bluffing or games of chance

Insightful*: gains advantage on Tests to discern other characters' truthfulness

Nose for Trouble: gains an extra point of Grit, but whenever the character spends Grit something bad seems to happen in the vicinity--not necessarily to him, but around him, and not to his advantage

Nimble Fingers: gains advantage on Tests to open locks, pick pockets, or engage in other acts of larcenous manual dexterity

First Aid Specialist*: gain advantage on Tests to heal people, and can make such Tests as a non-action 

Sneaky: advantage on Tests to hide or move about undetected. If detected, can act first.

Healer**: can take an action and make a Test to heal another character for 2 HP, or possibly treat illness or poison

Gear: Traveler's kit (bedroll, basic necessities, deck of cards), derringer, revolver (His original derringer was damaged as fallout from Grit expenditure (see Nose for Trouble above), but he was finally able to replace it once the party reached an actual city after several sessions in the boonies.)

Note that it probably would have made more sense to take Healer before First Aid Specialist, and perhaps it should have been a prerequisite (though I suppose one could use it on oneself without the Healer/Doctor Trait).

**called "Doctor" in the original Tiny Gunslingers manuscript. 

 

 

 

Character Creation Challenge (2023), day 30 (characters 13-15): Broken Compass

screenshot from PDF version

I seem to have lost some time here, and it's pretty clear I'm not going to make it to 31 any time soon. But I still want to post the characters I started working on before I lost focus, so today I have a trio of adventurers for Broken Compass, the game of action-film treasure hunters set at the end of the last century. Lara Croft, the Mummy series, Romancing the Stone, that kind of thing. I want to subvert the premise a little, however. The default doesn't necessarily assume your PCs are amoral, greed- or glory- driven tomb raiders, but that's certainly the ballpark the game plays in. Instead, I'm creating a UNESCO Antiquities Recovery Team, specialists sent in to stop looters and ensure heritage treasures stay in their home countries. Only, you know, with death traps and gunplay and car chases and so forth. Also, the action-film vibe inspired me to do some casting with real-life actors, which is a first for me in this challenge.

Character generation in Broken Compass is actually pretty simple--it wasn't the complexity that stopped me in my tracks, though I always find working from a PDF kind of a hassle. The first mechanical step, which can help you form a concept if you haven't got one going in, is to select two Tags. Tags are career-type descriptors that bundle a primary and a secondary field of endeavor together with a set of skills and a specialty (or Expertise). Two Tags per character will let me cover a pretty wide set of bases for a team of three. The game provides eighteen Tags to choose from, though there's a lot of overlap. 

I begin by playing mix-and-match to see what feels good together while covering the bases I want to make sure I've got. I know I want an actual archaeologist, so I start my list with "Professor." I want a driver or pilot; "Daredevil" and "Pilot" seem like the best tags for that. I'd like the "Medic" role covered. Social skills will be important, so "Playboy" or "Cheater" ought to be in the mix. Violence skills seem pretty well distributed, but if I want to specialize "Soldier" "Gunslinger" "Hunter" and "Action Hero" all fit that slot well. "Techie" also has a lot of potential and I want that to stay an option, also I want someone who can disarm deathtraps and bust locks, so "Thief" comes into the pool (though I suppose "Techie" might be able to carry a lot of that).

As I play with those pieces, the violence specialties end up dropping out of the mix, and these are the combos I come up with:

Professor and Techie

Medic and Playboy

Pilot and Thief

Each tag has a primary field and, if both your tags share the same primary, a secondary field. And we run into that issue immediately, since both Professor and Techie share Knowledge as their primary. The secondaries are Society and Wild, respectively, and now I'm faced with a choice of emphasis. I think I'll leave the social skills to Doctor Sexy* and take Wild as my Techie field. 

The primaries for Playboy and Medic are Society and Knowledge, so the secondaries aren't relevant (though both are Action, in case you were wondering). Which doubles us up on Knowledge--I hope that's not going to hurt the team at the end of the day.

Finally, our larcenous wheelman has Guts (pilot) and Crime (thief) as primaries. Hopefully that will make up for some of our violence deficit. If not, we'll have some optional skill slots available before we're through

Next, we'll note the Skills that come with each pair of Tags. On the character sheet Fields and Skills are represented as sets of three open diamonds, which you fill in as you add fields and skills. Characters begin with two of the diamonds filled in each Field and the first diamond filled in for each Skill. Each diamond filled represents a die in your pool for relevant thing-doing rolls (in addiiton to any situational modifiers, which might add or subtract dice from the pool). Everything maxes out at three diamonds, hence the existence of secondary Tags to prevent Field overlap. 

Our techie archaeologist's Skill list includes Leadership, Culture, First Aid, Tech, Eloquence, Observation, Alert and Stealth from the Professor tag; then Fight, Drive, Shoot, Culture, Tech, Survival, Tough and Dexterity from the Techie tag. Overlaps (Culture, Tech) let me fill in two diamonds to max out the skill. 

Doctor Sexy's list on the Medic side includes Leadership, Cool, Culture, First Aid, Eloquence, Observation, Survival and Dexterity (that's a lot of overlap with Professor; I probably should have checked into that before I committed). From Playboy they get Leadership, Stunt, Drive, Charm, Eloquence, Observation, Dexterity and Stealth. 

Finally, Getaway Man's Pilot list includes Stunt, Cool, Drive, Shoot, Tech, Charm, Alert, and Dexterity; their Thief list has Stunt, Drive, Tech, Eloquence, Observation, Alert, Dexterity and Stealth. 

Each character will also get to fill in two Skill diamonds with wild-card choices; these can be anything as long as your total in any one skill doesn't exceed three. Professor Potsherd boosts Leadership to 3 (can't have Dr Sexy outshining the actual leader of the team) and fills in a second diamond for Scout under the Wild field. Dr. Sexy raises Fight from 1 to 2 and Charm from 2 to 3. Getaway Man has nothing but default under Wild and opts to boost both Scout and Tough to two diamonds. That leaves us able to lay on some hurt in a pinch, though nobody really qualifies as a specialist there.

Our next step is to give three Expertises to each character: one from each Tag, and a third wild-card. An Expertise allows for a reroll if you fail in a situation covered by the Expertise. These are moistly self-defined, though the book provides several examples. Professor Potsherd takes Archaeology as the Professorial option and Information Technology for Techie--a pioneer in imaging and data analysis for archaeological sites and finds, with a side order of hacking when needed. As a third we take Orienteering in case the group gets lost; can't rely on Getaway Man for all our navigational needs. Dr. Sexy takes an expertise in Medicine to justify that MD degree, another in Seduction for his playboy reputation, and for a third we take Support (defined roughly as "helping other people with thing-doing") from the Wingman/woman list. Our sticky-fingered pilot opts for Lockpicking (within which I'm going to include safecracking, since it's not listed separately) as a criminal specialty, Off-Road Vehicles as a Piloting specialty, and Sabotage as a wild card.

The next step is to issue each adventurer with one Luck Coin, which they can spend when they fail a roll against a Danger (deathtrap, natural hazard, etc.). Luck Points refresh once characters return to safety and can rest.

Now it's time to start fleshing out our heroes' personalities. I wanted all three characters to come from what the archaeology and museum fields call "source countries," i.e., places where there are a lot of archaeological resources that have been exported--ok, usually looted--to places that got a lead on producing archeologists and archeological museums, which generally means countries that were imperial powers in the 19th and 20th centuries. And somewhere around this point is where the casting comes in; I saw actors' faces for these characters before I came anywhere near to coming up with names or other details. So my Professor and team leader became Sandra Oh, my Pilot became John Leguizamo, and the role of Dr. Sexy went to none other than Idris Elba.** 

So let's pick up with the character-generation mechanics again. Personal data in Broken Compass consists of a name, three places you're connected to, and a motto, plus a shorthand characterization, derived from your Tags, of what it is you do. I want to start with Places I Call Home, which comprises a Heritage (your roots), a Homeland (where you grew up), and a Workplace (your current home base). I'm going to base my Antiquities Recovery Team at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, so that'll be everybody's Workplace. Korea is a perfectly suitable source country for my purposes, so we'll recruit the Professor from South Korea and a Korean heritage. Our playboy Doctor can come from West Africa (like Elba's own parents): a Ghanaian of Akan ethnicity. And although John Leguizamo is from Colombia I decide to root my driver in Mexico both by heritage and by upbringing.

Those decisions give me leads on names, which I put together with a little help from Wikipedia. Our Archaeologist will be Professor Baek Na-ri; our Medic will be Dr. Kwesi Boateng, and our driver will be Arturo Ruiz. 

Between "I Am" and "Places I call Home" on the character sheet is the line prompt: "Call Me If You Need A," which is where you explain what you do. Prof. Baek is a Tech-Savvy Archaeologist; Mr. Ruiz is a Safecracker with a Land Rover, and Dr. Boateng is a Sexxxy Doctor. 

That brings us to Words to Live By. In the section for generating characters randomly, there's a selection of samples, none of which quite fit the characters I've developed here. None of these people are going to be highly-nuanced characterizations; they're action heroes whose personalities can be organized around one or two key points. Prof. Baek is the careful planner who gets testy when things go awry; Dr. Boateng the easygoing, confident charmer who rolls with the setbacks; and 'Turo Ruiz is an adrenaline junkie who's most comfortable flying by the seat of his pants. Now, to turn those into mottoes:

Baek: "Don't pick it up before you know where you're going to put it down."

Boateng: "You'll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar."

Ruiz: "Unless you're living on the edge, you're not really living."

At this point, gear seems almost like an afterthought, but we still need it, and it's the next step in character creation. In addition to whatever the team might buy or be issued for a specific mission, each adventurer can start with a Bag (like a shoulder bag) or a Backpack for carrying gear, as well as three Useful Items that they habitually keep with them. (The main distinction between a Bag and a Backpack is accessibility; it's easier to reach things in your Bag, and easier still if you can keep an item in your Pockets.) 

Prof. Baek usually carries basic archaeological tools, a compass, and a broad-brimmed hat.

Dr. Boateng usually carries a digital camera, a lighter (the suave man's icebreaker!), and a first-aid kit.

Mr. Ruiz usually carries a toolbox, a set of lockpicks, and a semiautomatic pistol.

For specific missions, as I note above, they'll add to these lists as needed. Likewise for vehicles; although 'Turo loves his off-roading, sometimes a boat or a plane will be the most appropriate way to get someplace, and we'll handle that on a case-by-case basis. 

OK, so let's do some statblocks:

Screenshot from Umma via IMDB.com

I am Professor Baek Na-ri. Call me if you need a tech-savvy archaeologist. 

Places I call home: Korea (heritage), South Korea (homeland), and Paris (workplace).

Words I live by: "Don't pick it up before you know where you're going to put it down."

 

 

Fields (Skills): 

Action 2 (Fight 2, Leadership 3, Stunt 1)

Guts 2 (Cool 1, Drive 2, Shoot 2)

Knowledge 3 (Culture 3, First Aid 2, Tech 3)

Society 2 (Charm 1, Eloquence 2, Observation 2)

Wild 3 (Scout 2, Survival 2, Tough 2)

Crime 2 (Alert 2, Dexterity 2, Stealth 2)

Expertises: Archaeology, Information Technology, Orienteering

Habitual Gear: Backpack, Archaeological Tools, Compass, Broad-brimmed Hat

Screenshot from Beast via IMDB.com

I am Doctor Kwesi Boateng. Call me if you need a sexxxy doctor.

Places I call home: Akan (heritage), Ghana (homeland), and Paris (workplace).

Words I live by: "You'll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar."

 

 

Fields (Skills):

Action 2 (Fight 2, Leadership 3, Stunt 2)

Guts 2 (Cool 2, Drive 2, Shoot 1)

Knowledge 3 (Culture 2, First Aid 2, Tech 1)

Society 3 (Charm 3, Eloquence 3, Observation 3)

Wild 2 (Scout 1, Survival 2, Tough 1)

Crime 2 (Alert 1, Dexterity 3, Stealth 2)

Expertises: Medicine, Seduction, Support

Habitual Gear: Bag, First Aid Kit, Lighter, Digital Camera

Screenshot from Land of the Dead via IMDB.com

I am Arturo Ruiz. Call me if you need a safecracker with a Land Rover.

Places I call home: Mexico (heritage), Mexico (homeland), and Paris (workplace)

Words I live by: "If you're not living on the edge, you're not really living."

 

 

Fields (Skills):

Action 2 (Fight 1, Leadership 1, Stunt 3)

Guts 3 (Cool 2, Drive 3, Shoot 2)

Knowledge 2 (Culture 1, First Aid 1, Tech 3)

Society 2 (Charm 2, Eloquence 2, Observation 2)

Wild 2 (Scout 2, Survival 1, Tough 2)

Crime 3 (Alert 3, Dexterity 3, Stealth 2)

Expertises: Lockpicking, Off-Road Vehicles, Sabotage

Habitual Gear: Backpack, Toolbox, Lockpicks, Pistol

*Credit to the Supernatural writers' room.

**I was surprisingly unable to find a photo of Idris Elba in a lab coat via Internet search. Apparently he hasn't played a lot of doctors.

Character Creation Challenge (2023), day 12: Basic Action Super Heroes (3 of 3)

 

We'll finish our BASH super-team with a bruiser, a streetwise brawler with a criminal record and a bad attitude. Starting Stats will focus on the physical: Brawn and Agility each at 3, with a 1 in Mind for a cost of 14 build points.

Brawn 3, Agility 3, Mind 1

Now for Powers. Unlike her two allies, our bruiser won't go in heavy on skills, but she'll still take some Martial Arts Mastery off the Intensive Training table. Three points for five styles is still a good bargain. The same table provides Fleet of Foot (running speed boosted to from 9 to 12 squares and jumping range boosted from 9 to 10 squares) for 1 point and for 1 more point Heightened [Stat], which gives a +3 Result Bonus (after multipliers) to rolls in the appropriate Stat, for which I shall choose Brawn. Moving on to the Combat table, I choose Armor (variable-cost), which provides a bonus to my ablity to soak damage, and Push, another variable-cost power that does knockback tinstead of straight damage. I add Jump from the movement table (1 point for 10 squares/panel jumping rate, for a maximium leap of 90 squares). I max Armor out at three points and spend two on Push to fill out 11 points worth of powers:

Martial Arts Mastery (five styles): 3 points

Fleet of Foot: 1 point

Heightened Brawn: 1 point

Armor 3: 3 points

Push 2: 2 points

Super Jump 1: 1 points

OK, now I'm going to complicate this further by tinkering with Push. If I make it a close-range area attack (such as pounding the ground Hulk-style to create a shockwave), it'll reduce the damage multiplier to just my Brawn, but make the power more interesting without raising the cost. (Those enhancements and damage/accuracy tradeoffs are listed in the power description rather than the Enhancements/Limitations section of the rules.)

With no investment in Skillful, I'm left with the three physical and one mental Skill slots my Stats grant me. On the Mental level I'll take Streetwise with a specialty in Gut (i.e., instinct). And I'll put all of my physical eggs in Athletics: two general levels, with Climbing as the free specialty and an extra slot to Throwing. 

A criminal record is a Social Stigma, which is a Disadvantage that I'll want to balance with a corresponding Advantage. I select Never Surrender, which lets me bounce back from near-certain defeat once per story. Our bruiser doesn't really need any equipment, just the regular clothes on her back, so let's move on to Mental Malfunction, background and names. Melissa Chen always stood out in a crowd--too tall, too broad, too muscular, too stiff-necked and proud. And, very quickly, too angry. Too many assault convictions for probation to be a solution. And one volunteer experiment too many to ever, ever be taken for normal. She managed to swallow her rage long enough to get the promised parole, but hadn't found her center to make it in the world. Until she met the Whisper, who pointed her anger in a useful direction and helped her find the discipline to channel it--most of the time. And now Melissa Chen has a focus, a cause, and a new name: Sister Sledgehammer.

Stat block:

Codename: Sister Sledgehammer

Private Name: Melissa Chen

Mental Malfunction: Trying to make a positive difference with limited anger-management skills

STATS: Brawn 3, Agility 3, Mind 1

Priority: x4; Defense: x3; Mental Defense: x1; Soak: x6+3; Hits: 100

Lift: 15 tons; Run: 12 squares; Jump: 90 squares (10/panel); Climb: 3 squares; Swim: 3 squares

Powers:

Armor 3: +3 to Brawn for soaking damage  (3 points)

Push 2 (Shockwave) Agility + 0Dm to hit, 2x Brawn + 0DM knockback (x3 to hit, x6+3 knockback) (2 points)

--Ranged (close, 5 squares)

--Area (small burst: 2x2 squares)

Super Jump: Jump up to 90 squares, rate 10/panel (1 point)

Martial Arts Mastery: Five Styles (Fast, Tough, Defensive, Grappling, Tricky) (3 points)

Fleet of Foot: Run speed 12 squares/panel; Jump distance 10 squares (1 point)

Heightened (Brawn): +3 results bonus on Brawn checks (1 point)

Mental Skills: Streetwise/Gut 1 (1 slot)

Physical Skills: Athletics 2/Climbing, Throwing (2 slots)

Advantages: Never Surrender (recover from one negative status and restore HP to 20, once per story)

Disadvantages: Social Stigma (criminal record)

Notable Equipment: street clothes

Character Creation Challenge (2023), day 11: Basic Action Super Heroes (2 of 3)

 

The second member of our street-level super team will be a gadgeteer of some sort, a teen prodigy whose powers (apart from a massive intellect and ludicrous technical skills) are all embodied in devices he wears or carries. 

The recommended distribution of our 25 street-level build points is to put 14 in Stats and 11 in Powers, but that's going to be a little harder with a character who's an average normie apart from his brains. Scores of 1 each in Brawn and Agility will cost just 4 points, and even a 4 Mind (which is a superhuman intelligence) is only going to cost another 8. So we'll spend those 12 points and see what we can do with the remaining 13 in Powers--that's not far off the recommended pace.

That spread of Stats will give us 4 Mental and one Physical skill slot, which we should keep in mind because Skillful is one of our top Powers priorities. I'll probably dump the maximum 5 points allowed into it, but that will still leave us eight points to play with (which we might extend with Limitations). Omni-Linguist and Omni-Reader (one for speech, one for text) cost 2 and 1 points respectively for access to all known languages. I want to build this kid a suit, or at least an exoskeleton, to house the rest of his powers. Flight is fun, but it's also variable-cost so we'll work the details out later. Defense is going to be important, our boy being relatively fragile; I'll invest in a Force Field, which not only soaks damage but also reflects a little bit of it back, at least against hand-to-hand attacks. It's also variable in cost, but I'm likely to stay near the low end on all of these. Add a Special (ranged) Attack, something in a repulsor-ray line, and also variable-cost. Super-Senses and Scan are also great device-driven powers and good complements to the Whisper's abilities. If we can spend 1 point on each, we can afford all five. Which we can; here's how that shapes up:

Flight (1) confers an air speed of 5 squares per round; not fast, but good enough.

Force Field (1) will have 40 hit points and soaks 10 points of damage each time it's hit. Taking it as a damage shield would forgo another 30 hit points, but it will do only 1 damage-multiplier worth of damage (so a flat 2d6, with a threshold of 10 to get any real effect). Not worth it--we'll take the 70 HP and rely on Special Attack for offense.

Special Attack (1) increases either the accuracy or the damage of the hero's basic attack values by one level and add the Ranged and Area qualifiers. Since accuracy is Agility-based, I'll take the accuracy boost for x2 to hit and x4 damage.

Scan (1) boosts my multiplier on Scan checks from 4 to 5. 

Super-Senses (1) lets me enhance one sense--I'll take hearing to complement Whisper's super-smell. 

OK, now to start on Skills. Actually, hold that thought. This character's going to have the Age (Young) Disadvantage, and that's going to cost me a skill slot. So, quick recalculation: Five skill slots for Stats, minus 1 for Age, plus ten for Skillful, gives us a total of 14 slots. All right, let's carry on.

There is one Physical skill that attracts my eye: Craftsmanship. I'm going to be making things, so that will be useful. Take Metalwork as a specialty, and that's one slot covered.

The rest will be Mental skills, and the most important will be Computers, Technology, and Science. In fact, I can probably spend all 13 remaining slots on those three, between extra levels and extra specialties. (And given my solid Mind multiplier, it makes sense to buy more Specialties rather than general levels.) I'll take 2 general levels in Computers, with specialties in Building, Hacking, Programming, and Repairing; that uses up 5 slots (two for the levels, three more for the extra Specialties beyond the first). Then two more in Sciences, with a specialty in Physics (for 2 more slots, since the first specialty is free). Finally I'll take 3 levels in Technology, with specialties in Inventing, Jury-Rigging, Modifying, and Repairing: 3 levels plus 3 extra specialties makes 6 slots. Five plus two plus six equals 13. Budget spent.

This brings us to Advantages and Disadvantages. We already know we're taking the disadvantage Age (Young); I'll balance that with the advantage Gadgeteer, which lets me swap out old Gadget powers for new ones. (Though technically none of my powers have the Gadget limitation, so in theory I should go back and address that so I can get some use out of it.) I've also built him as a Normal, which means his Brawn and Agility can't go higher than 2--which they don't, so no retcon called for here. Against that I'll play Photographic Memory, which I kind of wanted for Whisper but it makes as much sense for our whiz kid here.

And Whiz Kid will make a fine codename for our teen phenom. Child prodigy Vladimir Diaz  combined his prodigious intellectual and technological talents with his love of comics and his naïve idealism to build a powered exoskeleton embodying several advanced devices. He has been recruited by the mysterious crimefighter known as the Whisper to help defend his neighborhood from the forces of evil as a member of Neighborhood Watch.  His Mental Malfunction is that he constantly struggles with the disappointment that his reality is not actually like the comics he loves so much.

Now for the statblock:

Codename: Whiz Kid       

Private Identity: Vladimir Diaz

Mental Malfunction: Trying to make the real world live up to the promise of superhero comics

STATS: Brawn 1, Agility 1, Mind 4

Priority: x1; Defense: x1; Mental Defense: x4; Soak: x1; Hits: 100

Lift: 50 lb; Run: 3 squares; Jump: 1 square; Climb: 1 square; Fly: 5 squares; Swim: 1 square

Powers:

Skillful 5: 10 extra slots (5 points)

Omni-Linguist: speak all known languages (2 points)

Omni-Reader: Read/write all known languages (1 point)

Flight 1: fly 5 squares/panel (1 point)

Force Field 1: 70 hits, soak 10 (1 point)

Special Attack (ranged) 1: +1 DM to hit, +0 DM damage (x2 to hit, x4 damage) (1 point)

Super Senses 1: enhanced hearing (1 point)

Scan 1: +1 Mind multiplier when scanning (1 point)

Advantages: Gadgeteer (swap Gadget powers, create new Gadget mid-story for 1 hero point); Photographic Memory (what it says)

Disadvantages: Age (Young) (-1 skill slot); Normal (max 2 Brawn/Agility)

Notable Equipment: Exoskeleton, smartphone, laptop, tool kit

Character Creation Challenge (2023), day 10: Basic Action Superheroes (1 of 3)

 

Basic Action Super Heroes (BASH) feels like a highly streamlined hybrid of Champions and TSR's old Marvel Superheroes RPG: point-buy character generation combining stats, skills and powers wedded to a resolution system with color-coded charts and a scale ranging from street-level to cosmic.

For this exercise I'll be building a team of three "street-level" heroes, called Neigborhood Watch. Characters are built (mostly; see below) on a point-buy system. Street-level heroes start with 25 points (just above the 20-point "mystery men" level) to purchase attribute scores and powers. The rules recommend reserving 14 points for attributes and 11 for powers. Both Stats and Powers are ranked by Levels, which serve as multipliers for the 2d6 rolls that power the game engine. (The results are referenced to a color-coded chart that looks like a highly simplified version of the Marvel FASERIP results table. Roll dice, add bonuses if any, apply multiplier, consult chart for results.)

BASH characters have three Stats: Brawn, Agility, and Mind. The baseline score is 0, which indicates a significant disability in the given area. The human average is 1, costing 2 points; two more build points will bring you up to 2, indicating peak non-super performance. Superhuman ability comes in at level 3 (6 points), with a maximum of 5 (which we're not going to even approach with street-level characters). 14 points will buy a total Stat level of 7, divided among the three Stats.

We'll start with a leader, a Batman-type who's basically a peak-performance normal (maybe with a little extra, since we're budgeted for it) with top-notch detective skills. Twos across the board will cost 12 points; add a point of Agility to make 14. That makes our Stat line:

Brawn 2, Agility 3, Mind 2

Powers are next on the list--skills are a little complicated and depend partially on what Powers you buy. There are seven categories, including an "Intense Training" list for your Batman types; we'll start there. Skillful adds two skill slots per build point spent (to a max of 10) to those already conferred by your Stats, so we'll put a pin in that when we figure out how many skills we want and what they'll cost. In addition, we'll want martial arts training. Three build points buys Martial Arts Mastery in all five available styles. I want to add a couple of utility-belt type gadget powers; a grapple gun can give me Swinging (at a cost of 2) and Immobilize (at a variable cost, but since it's mostly for tying up mooks I don't plan to spend a lot on it). 

I've got eleven points to spend here, and only five committed for certain. the Immobilizing power is ranged and area-effect by default, but what I want is a single-target version. Let's look at Limitations to see what we can do here. Limitations reduce the point cost of a power by slapping limits on its utility. Gadget is the obvious choice here: Gadgets have their own hit points and Soak scores (Soak is a threshold attacks have to breach in order to do damage) and can be independently targeted, in addition, they have an additional limitation (or limitations) to be chosen from a list. Reducing an area-effect to single-target isn't on that list, so we'll have to customize, but I do think an ammunition limit would be appropriate. That's 2 limitations, but you can only discount a power once, so we'll buy a 3-point Immobilize at a cost of 2 build points. That gives me a total x4 multiplier on my attack rolls with the power and a target number of 20 for escape attempts, which should be more than adequate for most street-level needs.

All right, so we've spent seven build points so far and have four left. It's time to go shopping for skills, and if we have anything left at the end we can pick up something small but useful. 

Skills come in Mental and Physical flavors, and you get a number of initial slots equal to your Mind (2) and Agility (3) stats, respectively. Committing one slot to a skill means you can make rolls on it using your relevant Stat as a multiplier, plus you get one Specialty with which you get advantage (i.e., roll twice and take the higher result). You can commit another slot either to purchase another specialty or to raise your multiplier by one. (If you want to use a skill without having a committed slot, you use the appropriate stat minus 1 as your multiplier.)

At minimum I want Athletics, Drive, Escapology, and Stealth off the Physical list, and Deception, Investigation, and Security off the Mental list. That's seven altogether, which means I'll need at least two more slots. After that, and it looks like I can afford it, I'll want  Medicine for First Aid and an extra level each in Stealth, Security and Investigation. That makes a total of eleven slots, so I'll need to spend 3 points on Skillful and will have a point left for something else.

I'm going to apply those second skill slots in Stealth, Security, and Investigation to general levels, so each skill will have one specialty. For Athletics I'll take Acrobatics; for Drive, Control; for Escapology it'll be Improvising; for Stealth, Prowling; for Deception, Detect Deception; for Investigation, Questioning; for Medicine (as noted above), First Aid; and finally, for Security, Surveillance. 

For my final point, Keen Senses is certainly an appropriate power; since it affects one sense per purchase, I can afford it once, and I'll apply it to smell, which will enable our hero to identify all kinds of interesting evidence.

The next part of character creation, Advantages and Disadvantages, is completely separate from the build-point economy, and the rule is that for each of the first group you must take one from the second. There are some very appropriate choices in the Advantages column: I like Contacts, Jack-of-all-Trades (reduced penalties for untrained skill use), Leadership (I can give my Hero Points--which are not build points--to other characters), and Photographic Memory. Unfortunately, I can only find two Disadvantages that suit the character concept without stretching it too far: Age (old), which puts me at over 50 years old with a corresponding reduction in stamina and endurance, and Secret, which is exactly the sort of thing a retired spook might want.

So, let's look at a backstory and try to put some names to this character. This should get us to a motivation or, as the game calls it, "Mental Malfunction." Our heroine is a retired covert operative--CIA, NSA, military intelligence, something along those lines, whose past has enough awkwardness in it that she required a new identity: new name, new background, pension disguised as an insurance settlement, that kind of thing. She tried to settle into the quiet life, but she kept noticing things that seemed wrong about her new home--not just crime left unpunished, but signs that pointed to something much bigger and more corrupt than mere street crime or even gangs. Attempts to leverage the system having failed, she fell back on her own deadly skills and a menacing disguise to find out the truth and protect the innocents around her. "Joanna Vachs" became "The Whisper," and began looking for allies to help her in her quest. We'll meet those allies over the next couple of days.

Statblock:

Codename: The Whisper     

Private Identity: Joanna Vachs, Retired Corporate Middle Manager

Secret Identity: [name redacted], Retired US Covert Operative

Mental Malfunction: Trying to protect her new world without letting her old life erupt into it

STATS: Brawn 2, Agility 3, Mind 2

Priority: x4; Defense: x3; Mental Defense: x2; Soak: x2; Hits: 80

Lift: 400 lb; Run: 9 squares; Jump: 4 squares; Climb: 2 squares; Swim: 2 squares, Swing: 12 squares

Powers: 

Swinging 2: 12 squares (2 points)

Martial Arts Mastery (5 styles): Fast, Tough, Defensive, Grappling, Tricky (3 points)

Skillful 3: add 6 skill slots (3 points)

Immobilization 3: AGI x 4 vs target AGI to immobilize; Brawn check 20+ to break

--Limitation: Gadget/Ammunition (60 HP, Soak 30, 4 uses per scene)

--Limitation: Single-target rather than area-effect

Keen Senses 1: heightened sense of smell (+3 Mind on relevant checks)

Mental Skills: Deception/Detect Deception x2; Investigation/Questioning x3; Medicine/First Aid x2; Security/Surveillance x3

Physical Skills: Athletics/Acrobatics x3; Drive/Control x3; Escapology/Improvising x3; Stealth/Prowling x4

Advantages: 

Contacts: former handler, former rival spook, former colleague in adjacent agency

Leadership: Spend hero points on behalf of others; have effect of two points. Start with five team points.

Disadvantages:

Age (old): Over 50 years of age; start with 80 hit points instead of 100

Secret: retired covert agent; activities under former identity considered top secret classified information.

Notable Equipment: Grapple gun (Swinging, Immobilize), dark bodysuit with full mask, cowled cape

There's a free BASH character generator available online (bashcreator.net), and I have availed myself of it for this exercise. Registration (with email address) required; no fee.

Character Creation Challenge (2023), day 9: Lashings of Ginger Beer (5 of 5)

 

And now it's time to finish up with Lashings of Ginger Beer. The oldest member of the Primrose Lane Irregulars, really too old for this childish nonsense, is fifteen and will be a Swot, which is Boy's/Girl's Own for "nerd." 

The starting Attributes at this age are 3 each in Tough and Clever and 1 each in Deft and Charm. Our Swot gets an extra point in Clever, because that's the point of being a Swot. 

Tough 3, Deft 1, Clever 4, Charm 1

Swot Skills include Sciences, History, Geography, Languages, Music, and Useless Facts. This character is going to be a sort of Phineas J. Whoopee for the group, so I'm not going to bother boosting Snoop or Hide for somebody whose primary function is reference. We'll put one point in each Swot skill (costing six) and put the two left over into Sciences and Languages. All but perhaps Music key off of Clever, so that should provide good chances of success.

Geography 1, Hide 2, History 1, Languages 2, Music 1, Sciences 2, Snoop 2, Useless Facts 1

Siblings: I keep rolling fives, so four siblings it is, as much as I'd like to see just one only child in this neighborhood. Younger sister, age 9; younger brother, age 13; older brother, age 18; younger brother, age 11. 

And now for Stuff. The useful items list, alas, does not favor Swots at all. For my starter item I'll take a microscope. The I'll try once again to get some rope (4<2, so no), an electric torch (1<5, so yes), and finally a sketchpad and pencils (barely: 5=5). 

Marta Sobieski is the second child and eldest daughter of Polish immigrants. She and her older brother Tadeusz were born in Poland; her younger siblings Casimir, Paul, and Kasia were all born in the UK. She has a reputation among the kids of her neighborhood of knowing everything there is to know, and that's how she got tangled up in Trey Hill's weird mystery-solving club. It's kind of childish, but they have caught a couple of real criminals, and if not for Marta's grasp of facts and scientific method they'd be constantly running off after red herrings and causing who knows what havoc.

Now let's set Marta out in statblock format:

My name is Marta Sobieski.

I am a Swot. (I am a good student. The other kids call me a swot.)

I am fifteen years of age, and I have three brothers and a sister. I am the second oldest child in my family and the oldest daughter.

My Attributes are Tough 3, Deft 1, Clever 4, Charm 1

I am good at:

Geography: 1

Hide: 2

History: 1

Languages: 2

Music: 1

Sciences: 2

Snoop: 2

Useless Facts: 1

This is my Stuff:

Microscope

Electric torch

Sketchpad and pencils

So, to review, here are the Primrose Lane Irregulars, in descending order of age:

Marta Sobieski, Swot, age 15

Meena Khan, Good Kid, age 14

Trey Hill, Good Kid, age 14

Billy Tucker, Truant, age 11

Lizzie Hill, Good Kid, age 10