UncleBear Media

In my experience, successful character creation happens in two ways: in one-on-one sessions pre-game, or as a group activity that counts as a game session in itself.

The first method has a lot of merit. The game master meets with the players one-on-one to walk through character creation, and gets to know (and approve) the character, suggest tweaks, and talk about what the player wants to accomplish and what the role of this character will be in the campaign. This method works well for campaigns intended to be ongoing, long-term things. It establishes a rapport between the player and the game master, and gets some buy-in and commitment from the player.

The second method is great when you have a mixture of experienced players (or, at least, players trusted by the game master) and newbees. The veterans know the best rules hacks, as well as the game master’s style, and can help newcomers create a character that’s going to not only mesh, but thrive. Everyone can help each other out, compare notes, and build a team rather than individual characters. I’ve found that in this method, backstories and goals start to interconnect and overlap and you get a higher level of cooperation in-game. While this works well for long campaigns, it’s superior to the first for one-shots and short “mini-series” campaigns where players and characters won’t have as much time in-game to feel each other out.

For the Pirates campaign I’m planning, I want to use the one-on-one method. The roles within the crew are fairly well defined — navigator, boatswain, surgeon, etc., so I’m less concerned about how people will interact. Because I’m pretty much recruiting from scratch, I want to get to know the players better before the first session and allow them to get to know me.

Regardless of which method is used, I have two expectations of players when we sit down at the table for the first time:

1. Know what your character can do.
2. Be able to back that up.

When you write up the character, make sure you understand how all of his or her abilities work. This is true of any system, any sort of abilities from feats to edges to spells to superpowers. Read them over. I, personally, jot page numbers on the character sheet next to things I think I’ll have to reference later, and make notes in a notebook to refer to in-game. If you envision your character performing funky moves or fancy stunts, read over the rules for it or, if there is no rule, discuss it with the me (the game master) ahead of time. There is no bigger buzz kill in tabletop role playing than combatus interruptus while everyone flips through books to find a specific rule. Yes, I’m generally a big softie and if I have to fudge it I’ll do so in your favor if it will be really, really cool and add to the mood or story (and if you want to bog down the pace to do something that isn’t made of pure awesome, I’m just going to say “NO” and move on, because I can also be a prick GM as needed), but I’m just as likely to give you a Hero Point (or system equivalent) if you declare your move followed by “It’s on page 128, I roll at -4 but if I beat your Agility score I do double damage”. You will be my hero.

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This is the crew I put together. Seven characters total. I’ve written them on the bland side, to be used as supporting cast, although they can be used as pre-generated player characters. If a player creates a character to fill one of the roles, the character below becomes the “mate” (i.e., if someone writes up a Master of Guns, then Mr. Goodman becomes the Gunner’s Mate). While I was tempted to make the Captain a veteran, keeping him the same character rank as the player characters makes it easier for me to potentially kill him off and have one of the PC’s assume command.

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First, I’d like to deny any allegations that I planned to name the player characters’ ship the Brimstone and their NPC Captain Gall. This is not a 1970s cop show. They’re pirates; they don’t fight crime.

Originally I’d planned to go through through the Pirates Pocketmodels in my collection and use one of those. I decided I was better off creating a new ship, to avoid conflicts with rules lawyers or future “official” write-ups of canonical ships I came up with the ship name by going to Random Word Haiku and hitting reload until something I liked came up. I picked “USS Daltrey” because I was listening to The Who at the time, and according to Wikipedia there has never been a USS Daltrey in the US Navy so I won’t offend anyone by turning her into a pirate ship. Technically, I guess, she’s still the Daltrey in disguise.

The Laughing Falcon
4-Mast Frigate
Acceleration: 3 Toughness: 16(4)
Top Speed: 6 Wounds: 4
Crew: 12+48 Travel Speed: 3
Cargo Space: 10 Handling: 0
Guns: 8 Cost: $30,000
Notes: Heavy Armor
Guns: 8-pdr Cannon Range:12/24/48 Damage:3d6+3 RoF:1 AP4
Edges: Long range guns (+50% range) , powerful guns (+2 damage)
Hindrances: Poor crew (d4 Wild Die for Group rolls)

The Laughing Falcon is a *cough* captured military frigate, formerly known as the USS . She only has half as many guns as most 4-masters, but the gun’s she’s got are bigger and possess longer range and she handles better as well. The ship was chosen because she requires half the crew of a standard 4-master, decreasing the odds of the command crew’s cover being exposed. The current crew was also selected because they’re not particularly bright, explaining the Hindrance listed.

The Laughing Falcon turns out to be an actual species of bird found on coastal slopes of Mexico through Central and South America. It’s not particularly badass, but it does prey on poisonous snakes (hmm, God-Serpent legends anyone?) and it looks really cool (see painting by Andrew Jackson Grayson inset).

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The treasury has begun releasing a series of dollar coins dedicated to the Presidents. For the past few years they’ve been doing something similar with quarters and states, one commemorative quarter for each state. These things are collectible, apparently, and a number of companies put out cardboard holders.

A few weeks ago I got into an argument with a woman who was upset that the holder she got for the Presidential dollars was defective. She looked the thing over three times, and couldn’t find a spot for Benjamin Franklin. I told her that’s not a defect, because Benjamin Franklin was never President of the United States. I mean, I like Franklin; he’s my favorite Founding Father and all. But no, never President.

With great passion and incredible fury she told me that I was wrong, horribly, terribly, the wrath of God will fall upon me for being so wrong wrong. She cited, as proof, the fact that Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 bill and “we” only put Presidents on our currency.

There are the things that make me want to move to, oh, I don’t know, places that aren’t America.

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On the Panamanian Island of Pharu lives a tribe known as the Ithuacth, who in appearance, culture and language closely resemble Pacific Islanders. The Ithuacth worship Anaotlaaelo the God-Serpent, who is revered as both father and mother to all the world’s sea monsters. According to their mythology, Panama was once a solid land mass connecting North and South America. An advanced civilization, whose name has been lost to time, lived upon this land. They sought mastery over the seas and dominance over the sea serpents, and fell away from the worship of the God-Serpent. This displeased Anaotlaaelo, who struck at the land and shattered it into hundreds of fragment, destroying the ancient civilization.

Anaotlaaelo then rescued the faithful Ithuacth people from their home in the far south, which had become frigid and inhospitable, and carried them upon his back to their new home on the island of Pharu. It is their job to continue the worship of Anaotlaaelo, and to insure that the legend of the islands lives on as a warning to other who would incur the God-Serpent’s wrath. continue reading…

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The name of the Pirates of the Spanish Main campaign I’m working on is Brimstone and Gall. It’s from Peter Pan, a line uttered by Captain James Hook. I’d like to say that I recently reread the book/play and pulled it directly from there, but in reality I got it from the Pirate Primer (a most awesome book) under the section on Oaths.

An oath comparable to “hell and the devil”… both substances are unpleasant in odor and appearance… “Brimstone and Gall” packs into four words the worst of both this world and the next.

The premise that I’ve come up with is that the player characters are the officers (Master of Sails, Boatswain, Surgeon, Master of Guns, etc.) on a pirate ship, with an NPC Captain. Unknown to even their crew, they secret work for the United States government as secret agents, not only preying on enemy ships but gathering information in ports and going on assorted adventures to recover fabulous treasures and artifacts. I decided on this because it gives the characters purpose other than “you’re pirates — kill people and take their stuff”, and it gives me an in-story reason to send (force?) them on adventures.

Because Spain has the most colonies in the New World, and I want to play with Incan, Aztec, and Mayan treasures and mythologies, the Spanish are the major Bad Guy power. The player characters’ opposite numbers are the secret agents of the Spanish Inquisition.

It’s not going to be a spy game; it’s going to be more like an “Indiana Jones having to get to the Ark before the Nazis” treasure-quest vibe. You need rivals.

I went with Americans and Spanish because I wanted something other than the Napoleonic Hornblower/Aubrey-Maturin meme or the Pirates of the Carribean English-vs-Pirates meme, or the Elizabethan Spanish-vs. English meme.

This is very much an alternate history. One significant change I’ve made is to geography.
There Is No Panama. Well, it’s the Strait of Panama. Rather than a solid land mass, it’s a chain of hundreds of islands. This allows a direct, short route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, increasing the region’s military significance and value as a trade route. It lets me bring in Asian, Pacific Islander and other elements to the Caribbean. The islands provide plenty of places for pirates to hide. I need to load a map program and design that.

There will be weirdness, but used sparingly. The strange mystical artifact. A mad scientist. An occasional monster. I want to use that stuff like a spice, though. No player character magic, only low-powered item or gadgets falling into their hands. My model here is the old Wild Wild West TV series, where bizarre stuff could happen but not so often as to drive the show completely over the top. I want to stay on the side of pulp, rather than falling full-on into fantasy, if that makes sense.

The only rules hack I’m making is the introduction of some campaign-specific Backgrounds as Hindrances. Things that tie directly into the plots I have in mind, that bring the character more fully into the setting, like “I’m working for the Americans because __________” or “The Inquisition put a price on my head after I __________”. These are motivations with consequences, like Barbossa needing the last gold coin, Hook wanting the crocodile that took his hand, or Inigo Montoya hunting the Six-Fingered man who killed his father. It makes the adventures personal, rather than just dungeon hacks with ships.

While it’s true that I’ve used some old D&D modules for inspiration, I’m not planning to run them verbatim. That just wouldn’t work. I’ve got me a lot of ideas, though. The big stolen idea is the faction of the Slavers. They’re pretty much the crime syndicate that runs the Caribbean. In addition to African and South American native slave trade operated by “legitimate” merchant companies, they help pirates ransom kidnap victims, have a piece of European penal colonies, and any other activity vaguely related to human trafficking. They’re also tied up in some Weird Projects, which will be revealed during the campaign. If there’s any common ground between the PC’s and the Inquisition, it’s a hatred for the Slavers.

That’s the core. I’m working on a Grizzlywiki page, and I’ve got a Tiddlywiki with my gamemasdter’s note that I’ll release at some point.

Questions? Comments? All feedback appreciated.

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Wherein I unexpectly make a second blog post in a single week, as I have both the time and the enthusiasm as well as a burning desire to write on a topic that’s not just more whinging about finding a good gaming group.

The campaign I’m planning is for the Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG. That’s no big reveal, as I’ve talked about it a little bit at The Dire Cafe. At the moment I’ve trying to work up some characters for a supporting cast. As I’m not intimately familiar with the rules yet, I need to have the book around. This can be unwieldy, because I’ve been doing most of my campaign planning on breaks at work or sitting in coffee shops. I’ve already got a lot to lug around, and I’m trying to lighten my load. I thought about just carrying the Savage Worlds Explorer Edition and copying the chargen options from PotSM, but then I hit upon a better idea.

I’m going to type up chargen essentials — a list of point costs, skill list, edges, hindrances — and print them on 3×5 cards. I figure I can fit all of it on 3 or 4 cards at most, front and back, using a font small enough to fit but not so small as to be unreadable. Pick a color of card I’m not using for anything else so they’ll stand out, and slip them into my Hipster PDA. Maybe I’ll laminate them so they’ll last longer, but I’ll just print new ones as they wear out. Then I’ll have what I need in my pocket, can work on characters (writing them on other cards) when I have a moment here and there, and look like I’m just flipping through my notes. No need to waste precious time on a coffee break rummaging through a courier bag or backpack.
Due to intellectual property concerns I won’t make the files available when I’m done, but it shouldn’t be too hard to recreate. This should work with nearly any system, although those with concise ability lists will use up fewer cards.

I’ll also copy the lists into the Tiddlywiki I’ve created to manage the campaign, but that’s a whole other blog post.

This could be the beginning. I can see copying other campaign-building materials condensed onto file cards as well. The Big List of RPG Plots, by S. John Ross, with just the plot titles. I frequently hit up two Writer’s Digest books, 20 Master Plots and 45 Master Characters, which could be listed front and back on one card. While it wasn’t designed to be a gaming- or writing-aid, I also keep a deck of Archetype Cards near my desk for creating personalities of unexpected characters (both in writing fiction and roleplaying scenarios); this could also be reduced to a list.

Of course, anything that’s a list can be numbered and used to random generation as well, just to boost creativity and shake things up.

That’s today’s idea storm.

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