Today’s game is Hellcats and Hockeysticks, in which player characters are students at St. Erisian’s School for Girls, which is based on St. Trinian’s from the cartoons by Ronald Searle and the series of films adapted from said cartoons. St. Erisian’s girls have a longstanding reputation for misbehavior that player characters are expected to uphold, and the game gives players plenty of tools to do so.
The first order of business is to select a Clique, which is the functional equivalent of a character class. The nine Cliques are:
Fixer (as in “I can hook you up,” not “I can repair that”)
Goth/Emo (who do both music and magic)
Hockey Girl (i.e., melee combat expert)
Sweetheart (perfect on the outside, not so much on the inside)
Nerd (also hacker)
Prefect (aka ringleader)
Scientist (of the “mad” variety)
Coquette (human-relations expert?)
Exchange Student (invariably from Japan, and one of those instances where mocking stereotypes looks uncomfortably like indulging them, since they’re all either ninjas or samurai)
Your choice of Clique will influence your Curriculum (or core skill selection) and grant you certain special abilities. I’m feeling a little rough-and-tumble at the moment, so I’ll build a Hockey Girl. Hockey Girls are “sporty,” which in game terms means that they get a bonus on attempts to engage in violence. Their Curriculum skills are Games (team sports), Games (track & field), Games (marksmanship), and Observation.
Skill-building starts with five points apportioned among my Curriculum Skills. Each point spent raises a skill by one level. I’m going to focus on Team Sports (2 points), Marksmanship (1 point), and Observation (2 points).
Next I get fifteen more points to spend on Skills from the entire list, once again on a 1 for 1 basis. The full list comprises 26 Skills, but I’m going to try to stay focused on a few specialties. Most of the violence skills are covered under the Games curriculum, so I’ll spend some more points beefing those up: Team Sports up to 5, Marksmanship up to 3, and Track & Field also up to 3. 8 points spent—whew, these are going quickly. Another point to Observation, up to 3. The remaining 6 I’ll divide among three Skills: 2 each in History (which includes Strategy and Tactics), Leadership, and Biology (for sports medicine).
To review:
Games: Team Sports 5
Games: Marksmanship 3
Games: Track & Field 3
Observation 3
History 2
Leadership 2
Biology 2
Now, all characters begin with 10 points of Willpower, which serves as an all-purpose endurance meter. You spend Willpower to deal with setbacks, fear, pain, and powering through actions that your skills might not be quite up to. It's replenished by success and other ego-boosting events.
I also have the option of giving my character one or more Personality Traits, which don’t have any mechanical weight but which can make play more interesting anyway. I could go against type, but I’m already seeing my Hockey Girl as a cheerfully brutal jock who thinks broken bones and concussions are all in a day’s good fun. We'll shorten that to "cheerfully violent."
Next I am supposed to select a Rival and a Best Friend from among my fellow PCs, and since I don’t have any fellow PCs I shall have to invent some. These are not necessarily reciprocal relationships, and they are very likely to cross Clique lines. For a Rival I posit a character from the Prefect clique (let’s call her Marjorie Stokes), whose natural command of a room and tendency to step into the lead on planning I have come to resent. Am I not a games captain? Do I not know how to lead a team? Why does everyone always listen to Stokes first, then? I believe she’s trying to hold me back, but then again I could be imagining that part. Now my Biffle shall also be from a different Clique, this time the Scientists. Alicia Rutherford likes designing advanced sporting gear that the rules committees haven’t thought to ban yet, and she always brings her prototypes to me for testing, which I love. I have not reflected on the possibility that for Alicia this is merely a convenience and not the basis of a true friendship, but why would it be anything else?
In addition, I am supposed to jot down a list of Secret Loathings, one aspect of each other player character that totally gets under my character’s skin—except for your bestie, you get to come up with a thing you particularly like about her. We’ve already covered Stokes and Rutherford in describing those relationships, so I’ll add a fourth character to our circle—a Goth named Melody Davies who’s basically all right, but whose creepy little voodoo-dolly backpurse makes me want to smash it with a cricket bat.
Finally, I need a Secret Fear. The only people at the table who need to know this are me and the Headmistress (i.e., GM). Whereas in facing ordinary fears I get a base die that I can augment by spending Willpower, for this fear I must spend Willpower to face it at all. I’ll give my character a fear of basements and cellars—she irrationally believes the building above will collapse and trap her below the ground.
Oh, still need to name our young warrior. Gretchen Hastings seems to hint at the combination of heartiness and brutality I'm looking for. Well, to me anyhow. All right, then, statblock time!
Gretchen Hastings, Hockey Girl
Willpower: 10
Skills: Games (Team Sports) 5, Games (Marksmanship) 3, Games (Track & Field) 3, Observation 3, History 2, Biology 2, Leadership 2
Personality Trait: Cheerfully Violent
Rival: Marjorie Stokes, Prefect
Best Friend: Alicia Rutherford, Scientist
Secret Fear: basements and cellars
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