Friday, January 6, 2023

Character Creation Challenge (2023), day 6: Lashings of Ginger Beer (2 of 5)

 

 

For our next member of the Primrose Lane Irregulars, we once again start by rolling d6 +9 to discover their age. 2 + 9 = 11, just a year older than Lizzie. In fact, I'm going to make age rolls for the rest of the group so that I can build this gang with a little more confidence. The next two rolls are 5 and 6, which gives us a 14- and a 15-year old. I had originally planned on four characters, but if I make two of them siblings I think I'll want a fifth; another 5 gives us a second 14-year-old. Lizzie's oldest brother is 14, so I can work with that match, but I'm going to present the characters from youngest to oldest and tell you about our eleven-year-old Truant.

At age 11, a Kid's starting attributes are Tough 2, Deft 2, Clever 1, Charm 3. I'm going to priotitize quickness over strength and assign the bonus point to Deft:

Tough 2, Deft 3, Clever 1, Charm 3

As noted before, this member of the Irregulars is going to be a Truant, the sort of Kid who is noted for mischief but not actually bad in any meaningful sense of the word. Mechanically, Truants are distinguished by a different skill list than Good Kids (or Swots); skills from the Good Kid list cost them double, but skills from the Swot list are three times as expensive. The Truant skill list includes Fight, Wriggle (from Grasp), Climb Trees and Walls, Catapult (or Slingshot in US parlance), Throw Things, and Lie Convincingly. In addition, our Truant will (like all Kids) start with two dice each in Snoop and Hide.

So we shop for eight points worth of Skills. Fight seems a little wasted on an eleven-year-old who'll mostly be facing off against wicked adults; Wriggle is a much better match. Climbing seems like a good general-use skill, and although one could make a good case for throwing by hand, the slingshot seems like a great anchor to build on. I'll put three in Catapult, two each in Wriggle and Climb, and drop the last point into Lie Convincingly. That shoukd complement Lizzie's skill set pretty well.

Catapult 3, Climb Trees and Walls 2, Hide 2, Lie Convincingly 1, Snoop 2, Wriggle (Out of Grasp) 2

Now for some Useful Items. Weirdly, catapult is not on the list (possibly because you're supposed to make it yourself); I'm going to take it as this Kid's automatic item anyhow. I'm going to try for a Rope; it's only a one-in-three chance (2 or less), but nothing ventured et cetera. I roll a 6: no rope. Apparently I need the Ride Bicycle skill to ride a bike at basic competence, so I won't bother trying and instead try for fishing gear, which is weirdly easy to obtain at a 4. 6 on the die--still beyond my grasp. All right, then, how about a pen-knife? That's a 5--almost every Kid should be able to get one. But the die says no: 6 again. Nobody trusts our Kid with anything fun, it seems. Trumpet is my next idea, another 4. And I roll exactly that: two out of three items secured. Perhaps I can lay hands on a bag of marbles? a 4 is under the required 5, so my bundle of Useful Things is finally complete. (Also the marbles make a nice complement to the catapult, if I ever run out of proper ammunition.)

OK, now it's sibling time. A roll of 4, minus one, leaves three siblings: sister, age 12; sister, age 13; brother, age 16. We'll make our PC a boy to even it out. 

Billy Tucker isn't a bad Kid, he just has a little trouble coloring inside the lines. He's impulsive and easily distracted--even for an eleven-year-old. He doesn't like being told what to do. His parents spend a lot of time apologising to neighbors and teachers, and Billy spends more than a little bit of time grounded. But he's generally kind to other Kids, thoughtful after a fashion (stealing an apple for a friend is thoughtful, right?), and genuinely sorry when he causes any damage. He just tends to get a little carried away. His parents worry a little about this "Irregulars" club, but the other Kids seem like a good influence, and they help keep Billy's extra energy pointed in a socially useful direction.

Again, ethnicity doesn't really come up in character generation (and, though this is more a comment on the source material than on the designer, probably because the characters are assumed to be white), but I am paying attention, and Billy is a white English boy of English parents, grandparents and probably great-grandparents as well.

Statblock:

My name is Billy Tucker.

I am a Truant.

I have one brother and two sisters, all of whom are older than me, and I am eleven years of age.

My Attributes: Tough 2Deft 3Clever 1, Charm 3

These are the things I am good at:

Catapult: 3

Climb Trees and Walls: 2

Hide: 2

Lie Convincingly: 1

Snoop: 2

Wriggle (out of Grasp): 2

This is my stuff:

A catapult

A bag of marbles

A trumpet


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