Category: create a character

 

Read Part 1 Here.

Traits

Knowing all this I was ready to start assigning points to Cano’s Traits. Traits are essentially the same as Abilities in other RPGs, the primary attributes of all characters. All Traits start with a score of 2, with 2 additional points to spend. Your Nationality also gives you a choice of two stats to bump up by 1. I decided Cano was more of an agile fighter than pure muscle so increased Finesse to 3. His faith steals his mind, so Resolve was changed to 3. As a native of Castille, he could add to Finesse or Wits and decided his emphasis on diplomacy over combat made Wits the appropriate Trait to go up. This left Brawn and Panache at their standard of 2 points.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds allow you to flesh out your character’s past and add more mechanical pieces. Each Background provides Skills that your character can pull from. They come with a Quirk, an Advantage and then a suite of skills.

The first Background that seemed like a given was Soldier. The Quirk is that I earn a Hero Point when I stick to a plan disregarding any danger that might come to me. My first advantage as a Soldier is that I am an Able Drinker, meaning that alcohol will never affect me not matter how much I drink. The second Advantage will be that I’m a Riot Breaker, meaning as an individual fighter I can take on hordes of minion-like enemies without taking much damage. As a Soldier, the skills I get are Aim, Intimidate, Notice, Warfare, and Weaponry.

The second Background I chose was Orphan. My reasoning was that Cano’s father died when he was young and his mother became so devoted to the Vaticine that Cano was for all intents and purposes left to survive on his own. His Orphan Quirk is that I gain a Hero Point when I put myself in danger to befriend or accompany a person who is alone. My two advantages are Brush Pass and Reckless Takedown. Brush Pass gives me the ability to take from or place on a person a small handheld object. Reckless Takedown lets me immediately take down a Brute Horde of enemies taking 1 Dramatic Wound as a cost. Being an Orphan, the skills I acquired were Athletics, Brawl, Empathy, Hide, and Intimidate.

Skills
You get 10 points to spread out amongst the build of skills acquired from your Background. I decided that Cano is a very aware person and so Empathy, Intimidate, and Notice are his top Skills at 3 points each. Everything else will be set at 2 points except for Brawl which is at a 1 because Cano chooses to resort to that last.

Aim 2

Athletics 2

Brawl 1

Empathy 3

Hide 2

Intimidate 3

Notice 3

Warfare 2

Weaponry 2

Advantages

You are given 5 additional points to buy more Advantages. Indomitable Will seemed like a natural fit due to Cano’s devotion to his faith. With Indomitable Will Cano may spend a Hero Point to immediately resist seduction, intimidation, or any type of coercion.

The second Advantage for Cano will be Quick Reflexes. This Advantage lets me choose a Skill and lets me have an additional Raise when using it. I decided on Notice, emphasizing Cano’s heightened awareness of his surroundings, due to both the paranoia of being pursued by occult elements in the Vaticine and his own combat training.

Arcana
Every hero has a Virtue and Hubris decided by the Sorte Strega, a Witch’s Tarot deck. I decided that The Devil would be an appropriate choice for Cano. His Virtue, Astute, will be that after a Villain spends a Raise for an Action. The Action will fail, but the Raise will still be lost. Cano is always aware of his enemy’s actions and heads them off at the pass. His Hubris will be Trusting meaning Cano will receive a Hero Point when I accept a lie or lopsided deal, an interesting counterpoint to my Indomitable Will.

Story
One of the most interesting pieces of character creation in 7th Sea is your ability to develop a story path for your character. It reminded me a lot of Fronts in Apocalypse World but player-created rather than by a GM. The first step is establishing a goal. My story concept is to Cleanse, specifically to purge the evil from The Vaticine and this will involve finding sympathetic parties who can help me flush it out and destroy the corruption. My Goal is that Cano would be heralded by the Hierophant for saving the Vaticine and be made the Lord of the Holy Guard. The mechanical Reward at the end of the story would be that after passing through four steps, I would earn the 4 point Hard to Kill advantage. It’s not necessary to detail all steps at the outset so my First Step will be to locate Sister Romona Paquita, an exiled nun who was already aware of the occult sect.

Cleanse: The Vaticine is beset by evil from within. I must find those who can help me flush it out and destroy it.

Goal/Ending: My hero is heralded by the Hierophant for saving the Vaticine from the corruption and made the Lord of the Holy Guard.

Reward: This is a four step story that will earn my hero the 4 point Hard to Kill advantage.

First Step: Find Sister Romona Paquita, the exiled nun whose writings on the demonic sect were forbidden.

Details
The last few elements are Details that flavor out the character further. Cano’s reputation is of a Faithful man. This would be how others who know him describe him. He knows the languages of Old Thean, Castille, and Montaigne. He has 2 favor with Močiutės Skara and 0 wealth points to begin.

Creating a character in 7th Sea has made me much more interested in playing a campaign or even one-shot in this system. Before I cracked the pages open I was very lukewarm about playing in a “pirate game, ” but after reading more about the world and seeing how involved creating story is on the player side, I would love to jump in a game.

Next: Unknown Armies Third Edition.

Character Development – 7th Sea Second Edition

7th Sea Second Edition is a role-playing game created and developed by John Wick, Rob Justice, and Mike Curry. The game is centered around the exploits of pirate culture in a fantasy version of 17th century Europe and its associated colonies. Stories told with this system are expected to high adventure full of intrigue, romance, and some sorcery thrown in for good measure. The official setting is that of Théah, a continent rules by various nation-states that are in turn connected to a central church and its theology, sorcerous powers and magic, and the remnants of a lost civilization called the Syrene.

Conflict resolution in the game is handled by the GM declaring a player action as a Risk. The player clarifies their Intent and the GM responds by telling them the appropriate Skill and Trait. These scores are added and the corresponding number of ten-sided dice are rolled. Sets of 10 are the desired outcome and the more you can make the better (7+3, 2+3+5, etc). Each set of 10 is a Raise and can be spent to accomplish everything from overcoming the conflict to inflicting wounds and even establishing a fictional detail.

I read through the details of the setting’s nation-states to determine what sort of character I wanted to create and decided upon Castille as the place of origin. Castille is essentially Spain, even with the emphasis on the Vaticine Church as the chief governing body over the monarchy. With the Church looming so large I wanted to create a character deeply connected to it but in conflict with the powerful organization. I was intrigued by the idea of corruption within the Vaticine and thought up the idea that there could be a society within the Church that were actually worshippers of demonic occult powers. Their long-term goal would be the collapse of the Vaticine internally with their faction rising up to control the organization. My character would be someone who witnessed their dark rite and who they in turn found out saw them at work. I struck upon the idea of a church guard, like the Swiss Guards of the Vatican. This man would be a veteran of war, seeking peace as a soldier for the Church. Now the demonic conspiracy has framed the guard as a heretic, making it seem that he was the one indulging in the dark arts. The guard is now on the run, seeking the help of Church exiles who might also be aware of the conspiracy and know how to aid him in revealing this truth to the world. The guard would be named Moisés Cano.

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Once again, I used the three metrics of Maslow, Myers-Briggs, and Covey to determine aspects of my character’s psychology and needs.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Cano is definitely focused on basic needs somewhere between Physiological and Safety. His excommunication from the Vaticine and the subsequent manhunt based on false charges has our hero struggling to find a safe place for more than a few days.

Myers-Briggs – INFJ

After going through the test I found Cano was an INFJ. This means he is like less than 1% of the population, inborn sense of idealism and morality, he is a dreamer but establishes concrete steps. Cano is soft-spoken but with strong opinions and he fights, fiercely for his beliefs. In everything he does, Cano works toward balance, not advantage. He can easily play the role of an extrovert, but needs time to meditate and decompress. In his eyes, the world is full of inequity, but he does not believe it has to be that way. This religious determination can easily wear him down. He is extremely private and finds it hard to open up to others personally. authenticity in romantic relationships and a kinship of shared values is essential in Cano’s mind.

7 Habits Maturity Continuum

Our hero is still struggling with the Private Victory on his way to Independence. He is definitely being proactive (Habit 1) and has begun with the end in mind (Habit 2). However, Cano has not yet put first things first (Habit 3), getting embroiled in other’s problems and stories taking him off track from his personal goal.

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20 Questions

Part of 7th Sea character creation are 20 Questions before you even touch the numbers and mechanics of the game. I absolutely love this feature and works especially well for my approach in character creation in this series.

1. What country is your Hero from? My hero hails from Castille.

2. How would you physically describe your Hero? My hero is male, physically well built from years of military training, he has the faint trace of a vertical scar across his eye the remnants of a war faraway. Jet black hair with wisps of white through the temples. He walks with a slight limp in his right leg, another souvenir from the war.

3. Does your Hero have recurring mannerisms? My hero prefers to stand in the background and is very hesitant to step forward and make himself known, especially in intense conflicts. He will let a smile slip through when caught off guard and finds himself trying to suppress it without success.

4. What is your Hero’s main motivation? My hero desperately seeks to find any who can help him reveal the occult sect taking over the Vaticine.

5. What is your Hero’s greatest strength? Greatest weakness? My hero’s strength lies his in-depth knowledge of the secret signs and rituals of the secret societies within the Vaticine, helping him find allies no matter which port he comes to. My hero’s weakness are his anxiety attacks brought on by PTSD. Things he saw in the war and the dark rites he witnessed within the walls of the Vaticine leave him prone to these attacks when triggered.

6. What are your Hero’s most and least favorite things? My hero’s favorite thing are his morning prayers and meditations. They bring him a centered peace that he hopes one day will be permanent. His least favorite thing are onions, onions are disgusting.

7. What about your Hero’s psychology? My hero wants nothing more than to resolve conflicts without bloodshed, he has seen too much in his lifetime. He will do any and everything to negotiate and compromise even with the deadliest buccaneer or cunning scallywag. My hero often uses food and drink as a negotiation tool, always a simple meal, bread and ale, thinking it will bring he and his adversary together as equals.

8. What is your Hero’s single greatest fear? That he will lose his peace and end up killing again. He knows he may have to shed blood in self-defense and has from time to time, but he always pulls himself back from unleashing the sort of blood-fueled rage of his youth in the war.

9. What are your Hero’s highest ambitions? His greatest love? My hero’s greatest ambition was to rise amongst the ranks of the Vaticine Guard until he became one of the anointed protectors of the Hierophant. His plans were put on hold after uncovering an occult conspiracy within the church and fled from those who wish to silence him. My hero’s greatest love is that of the way of peace and sharing his faith with all those he crosses paths with.

10. What is your Hero’s opinion of his country? My hero deeply loves Castille but worries that the Vaticine has had so much corruption sewn into it that now it’s evil is leaking out into the streets. He saw signs of demonic entities plaguing the land through famine and pestilence.

11. Does your Hero have any prejudices? My hero still finds his hatred of the Montaigne raised despite his best efforts to suppress it. He saw his comrades brutalized in the war with Montaigne and is always a hair’s breadth away from giving into the violence seething through his veins.

12. Where do your Hero’s loyalties lie? Despite being far from home and the headquarters of the church, my hero is ever loyal to the Vaticine. This does not mean he believes all clergy above questioning, in fact he will challenge those he sees as committing heresy towards the Articles of Faith.

13. Is your Hero in love? Is he married or betrothed? My hero loved one of his fellow soldiers, his commanding officer, but she was killed before his eyes. The nightmares still wake him up on nights that are too still and quiet.

14. What about your Hero’s family? My hero comes from the Cano family. His father is a veteran who found no peace within the faith while his mother was devout. His father turned to drink, likely related to his own PTSD and disappeared for weeks. He was found dead, succumbing to the elements. This pushed our hero’s mother further into the faith. Because he was the son of a soldier, our hero did not come from wealth. His mother poured all their money into the church and when was of age our hero conscripted into the service. Our hero does not know much about his paternal grandparents except that his father was disowned by them for choosing to serve, as they wanted him to go into the priesthood.

15. How would your Hero’s parents describe him?

Mother: “He was a good boy, until he turned on the faith. I do not know if he can be redeemed now after what the fathers told me. The sins he has committed will require the deepest atonements.”

Father: “I don’t know what sort of man he will grow up to be, likely ruined by my own actions. I have made a place for him in this world without any sort of honor. I have buried him before he has had a chance to live.”

16. Is your Hero a gentleman or gentlewoman? My hero attempts to be a gentle within the boundaries of his faith, and this leads him down a somewhat chivalrous path. He does not seek the affections of any maiden, but to bring light and truth to the world.

17. How religious is your Hero? What sect of the Church does he follow? My hero is a highly devout member of the Vaticine Church. He has been labeled a heretic by the church proper due to witnessing the dark occult rites of a corrupted cardinal. While he still practices as a private individual, he struggles to find a way to redeem himself and burn away the corruption in his beloved church.

18. Is your Hero a member of a guild, gentleman’s club, or secret society? My hero has found himself in the growing favor of Močiutės Skara, a society driven by a compassion to help and aid others.  

19. What does your Hero think of Sorcery? My hero believes all sorcery is making concert with the devils of the earth. He is highly opposed to its use.

20. If you could, what advice would you give your Hero? Let the peace of your faith guide you, but do not allow yourself to be blinded to the truth.

Next week: Plugging all this character work into the actual mechanics of the system!

Bubblegumshoe is the work of Emily Care Boss, Kenneth Hite, and Lisa Steele. The game was published by Evil Hat Productions in 2016 and is a variation of Robin Laws’ Gumshoe system. Where Gumshoe has been used to tell mysteries based around Lovecraftian horror (Trail of Cthulhu), space opera (Ashen Stars), vampire spies (Night’s Black Agents), among others, Bubblegumshoe explores the genre of mysteries like The Hardy Boys, Veronica Mars, and Nancy Drew. The text describes the default setting as: “High schoolers solving mysteries in a modern American small-town setting.”

The expectations of the game are that your characters will all be teenagers who are Sleuths. Players spend from a pool determined by the number of total players in a game to develop a list of Investigative, Interpersonal, and General Abilities that will aid them in finding clues and solving mysteries. The type of mysteries could be anything from investigating a murder to figuring out who cheated in the homecoming queen voting. As long as it makes sense in the setting and would be something your teenage sleuth would reasonably investigate then it works.

I have read a few of the Gumshoe books and, while I have always felt there was a strong personal appeal there, I’ve never actually sat down to play or run them for my group. When I heard about the development of Bubblegumshoe, it sparked my interest because of the type of stories it encouraged. I have typically clung close to the Powered by the Apocalypse system as my choice to run and play in, but I frequently think about dipping my toes in some other gaming waters. I was lucky enough to be gifted a copy of Bubblegumshoe at Origins 2016 and decided to make it the focus of my first character creation article.

Having the framework in mind, I decided I needed to have a setting for a game to determine what sort of character to create. The book comes with eight pre-made settings to work as examples so, using my trust d8 I rolled and ended up with Strangehill Scout Troop 211. The concept behind this setting is a scout troop of both girls and boys who are doing ordinary scouting things but also solving mysteries in their community. The tone is light-hearted and all about being good people and helping.

Scouts in this setting start with two stats: Cool 5 and Throwdown 4 representing extremely high abilities to handle tense situations and navigate socially combative situations. Unlike standard Gumshoe builds, these characters have Badges which operate as Skill packages. To start, every scout has the First Aid and Community History badges. First Aid is composed of First Aid 4, Cool 3, Reassurance 3. Community History is Computers 2, Negotiation 3, Town Lore 3. From here, I have two more Badges to choose from and 15 build points to spend to buy more abilities or bump up what I already have.

Before I started purchasing more abilities or stating myself up, I needed to take a moment and figure out who this scout would be. I used an incredibly comprehensive random name generator, and I clicked through names looking for something that jumped out to me as interesting, ending up with “Alyse Leung.” Alyse,13, has been adopted by her aunt, Rachel (maternal side), who works in a local automotive factory. Rachel is a single parent who enrolled Alyse in the scout troop mostly out of a need for some form of after school care. As a new kid, Alyse hasn’t made many friends, and the scout troop is her only real positive social experience. Alyse is a latchkey kid most days and has to fend for herself until Aunt Rachel gets home, and even then her caretaker is so tired the young girl is expected to continue caring for herself.

Now that I knew a bit about who Alyse is, I could determine what Badges she has learned in her time with the troop so far. Cuisine is a given because she makes most meals for herself and she would like to make them tasty. She’s even started getting compliments from Aunt Rachel about how good the food is. This gives Alyse BS Detector 2, Cooking 2, Pop Culture 2. Cooking is “capped” meaning no more points can be spent on it. I like to think BS Detector signifies Alyse’s ability to tell when someone genuinely likes what she has prepared. For her second Badge I chose Sports, the idea being that before the tragic death of her parents, Alyse played soccer for many years. Her father was super competitive about it and got Alyse to take it pretty seriously. She still plays at school and the park “for fun” but in her head, it is always a big competition. The Sports badge gives Alyse Athletics 5, Intimidation 3, Notice 2.

Now with 15 build points, I need to decide what abilities to purchase and which to bump up. Because she is a pretty studious kid, I figured Research 2 would make sense. These points are also used to create pools for relationships so I do want to hang on to some, or I won’t have much luck interacting directly with people who are important to me. With 13 points left I will set aside 5 for her Aunt Rachel. That leaves 8, so I want to beef up my BS Detector a bit to 4. I think Alyse has dealt with a lot of adults trying to shield her from the tragedy of her parents’ death. As a result, she listens carefully to what people say to determine if they talk to her like an adult or pander. In turn, this leads me to decide that Notice should be bumped to 4 as well. Alyse is a quiet, observant kid who picks up on little details the other kids quickly rush by. That leaves 4 Build points that I would choose to save for any relationships that might come up.

Before I can see Alyse as a playable character, I’d like to use a couple of metrics to understand where her mind is at and what she wants in life. The three I’d like to use are Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs Myers’ personality type theory test, and Stephen Covey’s Maturity Continuum.

From what I have written about Alyse and my thinking about her she hovers somewhere between the second and third levels of the Hierarchy of Needs, Safety Needs & Love and Belonging. Her parents’ death has left her with trauma, but I don’t think it has manifested itself fully yet. She’s pushed past some of it out her tough nature, thanks to dad and the soccer career. As the new kid in town, she is deeply in need of friendship and isn’t getting the emotional support she needs from her aunt.

After taking an online version of the Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment, Alyse came out as INTJ meaning Introvert Intuitive Thinking Judging. This makes Alyse a very analytic person who likes to work alone rather than big groups, which should make the scout troop fascinating. Alyse enjoys working on earning badges at home and then presenting her accomplishments, but anything that forces her into a team setting will cause friction. Alyse knows her abilities and is a hell of a good researcher. Having this fact cause me spend two more of those Build Points on Research.

Now we take a look at Covey’s Maturity Continuum. Of the Seven Habits, I think is solidly nearing the stage of Independence, meaning she’s mastering the first three Habits: Be Proactive, Begin With the End in Mind and Put First Things First. I still think there are some hurdles to overcome with the self-doubt she has and the lingering trauma from her parents’ death. She is going to be very far from approaching Interdependence because of some of the pesky aspects of being an INTJ. For Alyse, learning to work with the fellow scouts of the Strangehill Troop will be her greatest lesson.

So to finish out the character creation I need to choose Alyse’s socio-economic class, clique, drive, and story arc. For class, I think she is very working class now because of Aunt Rachel’s situation but came from middle class. Her clique would be nerds or nerdy-jocks, not “meatheads” but more studious soccer player types. Her Drive is definitely “Justice for the Weak” based on the loss of her parents. Finally, she has a Story Arc of “Find Closure about Parents.” Alyse’s ability to come to a healthy place talking about her parents and expressing her emotions, particularly with Aunt Rachel who has also been pretty closed off, will lead her to a healthier and happier life.

Here’s a finished PDF of the character sheet for Alyse.

Next up: John Wick’s 7th Sea 2nd Edition