PhD Acceptance

Well, today was a big day - I finally found out whether or not I would have any future in a PhD program. I have been given provisional acceptance into my program, and the conditions seem entirely possible, but it's also been a long day, so I don't have a character done for today. Tomorrow, though. hopefully I'll have the time - and the energy - to knock out a couple to make up for it. At least one of them will be from Decipher's Star Trek RPG.

Stormbringer

Stormbringer is an RPG based on the stories of Elric of Melnibone, the dark fantasy character created by Michael Moorcock. It was made by Chaosium, and the edition I have was printed in 2001, so it could conceivably still be in print. In Stormbringer, you play a character set in the world of Elric, amidst the Young Kingdoms; you aspire to become a champion of the primal forces of Law, Chaos, or Balance. Perhaps you could even aspire to becoming the current incarnation of the Eternal Champion. You discover the secrets and prophecies that criss-cross the Young Kingdoms, the Unknown Lands, and the gods of Law and Chaos - if, that is, you manage to keep yourself alive.

It uses the same system as other Chaosium games, like Call of Cthulhu, so the skills are percentile-based. There are seven principle attributes: Strength (STR), Constitution (CON), Size (SIZ), Intelligence (INT), Power (POW), Dexterity (DEX), and Appearance (APP). You determine those by rolling 2d6+6 for each. Then you determine the derived statistics Idea (INTx5), Luck (POWx5), Dexterity (DEXx5), and Charisma (APPx5). Since I won't be making a magic-user, I don't need to raise my Power, the attribute that governs magic. I determine my Damage Bonus in combat by adding STR + SIZ, and determine hit points by adding CON + SIZ and dividing by 2. My magic points, useless though they will be to me, are equal to my POW score. I can then choose 13 skills, and add 20 skill points to each. Then I choose an occupation for my character; since I generally tend to play fighters, I can go with Mercenary or Soldier, and I think I'll go with Mercenary. This means I can divide 250 points among the skills Brawl, Dodge, Ride, Throw, 3 weapon skills, and a personal specialty skill, as well as 200 bronzes. I then roll for a distinctive feature, and roll 1d6, add that to 17, and find my age. Since I'm not taking magic, I'll go for Law, and add 20 skill points to between 1 and 3 skills, adding 1 point to my Law allegiance for each skill. I then get my equipment, including 600 bronzes, a horse and tack, and something that shows my character's relationship with his family. So, putting that all together:

Sayem Osrode
Age: 20
STR: 15
CON: 14
SIZ: 15
INT: 11 Idea: 55
POW: 9 Luck: 45
DEX: 13 Dexterity: 65
APP: 12 Charisma: 60
Distinguishing Feature: facial tattoo

Law: 3
Damage Bonus: +1d4
Hit Points: 15
Skills
Brawl: 75%
Broadsword: 50%
Climb: 60%
Dodge: 71%
Hide: 40%
Jump: 45%
Listen: 45%
Maul: 50%
Move Quietly: 60%
Ride: 60%
Sailing: 35%
Scent/Taste: 35%
Search: 60%
Throw: 70%
Throwing Axe: 50%
Track: 55%
Trap: 25%
Young Kingdoms: 55%

Equipment
Horse w/tack, broadsword, maul, throwing axe, half-plate, backpack, rope, sandals, shirt, laborer's clothes, family ring

Hellas: Worlds of Sun and Stone

Hellas is an odd, but very cool, game. It's odd in that it is a mix of very different types of games; it mixes the classical Greek heroic game with the sci-fi space opera game. It is cool in that it does it very well. Essentially, in the game universe, the Hellenes (or Greeks, as we'd think of them) were pushed into high-tech society when their gods manifested and helped them out, and so within 500 years they were flying around their own solar system like champs. After a nasty run-in with Kronos the Titan, who made them abandon their home system, they spread out to many systems and worlds - often corresponding to the city-states of the Greeks as we think of them, with the Athenians, Spartans, Corinthians, and other all having their own systems. The trouble came when some of their own, the Atlanteans, decided they knew best and wanted to take over - and very nearly did it, before being dumped into the setting's equivalent of hyperspace. Like Greek mythology, their are a number of monsters, but many of them present themselves as alien species - the Amazorans, for instance, or the man-serpent race of the Goregons, the insect colony hive-mind Myrmidons, and others. Play is set up in such a way that you follow a god and gain glory in his or her name, and if you get enough, they take you into the afterlife - or kill you out of jealousy, because Greek gods are like that. But it's cool, because you can pick up playing as your previous cahracter's son, nephew, best friend, or whatnot, as the game is meant to stretch generations. It uses a variant of the OMNI system, used by Talislanta - though I don't know, since I've never played Talislanta.

In any case, let's create a character. Much as I'd love to fiddle with the insect colony of the Myrmidons, I think I'll stick with a Hellene for now. There are ten Attributes: Intelligence (INT), Perception (PER), Will (WIL), Charisma (CHA), Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), Speed (SPD), Combat Rating (CR), and Dynamism Rating (DYN); the last is the statistic that governs the 'magic' of the setting, but I won't really be dealing with it. I have 5 Attribute points, and since I'll be making a warrior, I'll put 2 in Strength, 1 in Constitution, 2 in Combat Rating, and I'll take a -1 to Dynamism for a point in Dexterity. As a Hellene, I get to choose between 4 skill packages, Athenoian, Delphoian, Boetian, and Spartan; I'll take Spartan, which gives me Command +2, Evade +2, Pankration +2, Parry +2, Lore (tactics) +2, Etiquette (Hellene) +3, Speak Language (Hellene, native), and Weapon (of choice) +2. As a Hellene, I also get +2 on all Command and Diplomacy rolls, and as a Hellene I can also force a reroll of any dice action pertaining to my character a number of times per game equal to my Will score (minimum once).

Now we come to the fun part, the Lifepath, where I roll to determine many of the important things. First, I roll for month of birth; it comes up Hekatombaion, in the summer, the month of Athenia. As a Spartan, this is Sparta. My father is dead, but he was a Retired Hero; this gives me +3 Glory, and +1 in a skill of my choice. My family is well-loved, and we have many allies. I am an only son, and have received my father's hoplite sword as an inheritance from my father. A grandparent on my mother's side, it seems, had a divine parent, and so I gain 5 Glory; the divine mark I gain from this is Strength of Mind, which gives me +1 Will. When my character was a child, he met a ghost that told him of his tragic fate; he is fated to die at the hands of a noble, though a noble from where is unknown. And now, I choose a god. Being born in the month of Athenia, I will choose her over the war god Areson. Now, I choose a profession, and as a Spartan, I will go with Hellene Spartan; this gives me +1 to STR or CR, and the skills Brawling +3, Command +2, Evade +1, Intimidate +2, Parry +4, Survival +2, Weapon (spear) +4, Weapon (rifle) +4, Weapon (blade, large) +4, and Profession (warrior, STR) +4. I gain the Talent Advanced Militia Training, and starting gear in the form of a Spartan tactical cuirass vest, Hoplon shield, Spartan infantry spear, Spartan slug rifle, and military clothing, as well as 250 dm in money. I have several choices for Callings that proceed from this profession: Legionnaire of Delphoi, Noble, Rogue, or Warrior; this tells me what I have done in my chosen profession, and how long I have spent in it. As I want to be a great hero, I will choose Legionnaire of Delphoi, and my roll tells me I have spent 4 years in their ranks; as a major event in my time, I have fought a great battle; I fought pirates on the planet Elis, and stories tell of how I threw a spear through ten men; I gain +1 STR or CON.

Now, I come to disadvantages; every character has some, 5 points divided between the categories of Relationship, Internal, or External Problems. I will put 2 points in Relationship: I abandoned a lover to join the Delphoi League, and she plots against me; 1 point in Internal: my character is hot-blooded and quick to take offense; and 2 points in External Problems; I owe a debt to a high-ranking Strategos, who helped to spread the tale of my deeds on Elis in exchange for occasional favors. After that, I have 30 Freebie point to spend; I will spend 5 points to add 1 to STR, and 5 more to add 1 to DEX, and 5 more after that to add 1 to CHA; this leaves me with 15 points. I will then take the Danger Sense and Hardiness Talents, for 5 points each, and spend the last five points on skills. I start with 7 Hero Points, which I can use to help out on my rolls. As a hero (PC), I can start out with three Heroic Ambitions, like 'Find and take my revenge on the Zoran General Bydeles, the murderer of my cousin'; if I ever complete the Ambition, I get 10 XP on the spot. I won't think any up right now, but maybe later. I start out at age 22, and I will choose the name Aristeides; all I have left is to choose my heroic epithet, which I will relate to my great battle and become Aristeides Spear-Hurler. So, at the last:

Aristeides
Hellene of Sparta
Epithet: Spear-Hurler
Glory: 8
Age: 22
Favored of Athenia
Profession: Hellene Spartan
INT +0, WIL +1, STR +3, CON +2, CR +3, PER +0, CHA +1, DEX +2, SPD +0, DYN -1
Hit Points: 31
Hero Points: 7
Skills
Command +4, Evade +3, Pankration +2, Parry +6, Lore (tactics) +3, Etiquette (Hellene) +3, Speak Language (Hellene, native), Brawling +3, Intimidate +2, Survival +2, Weapon (spear) +4, Weapon (rifle) +4, Weapon (blade, large) +6, and Profession (warrior, STR) +4

Talents
Advanced Militia Training, Danger Sense, Hardiness

Equipment
Spartan tactical cuirass vest, Hoplon shield, Spartan infantry spear, father's hoplite sword, Spartan slug rifle, military clothing, Plate helmet, 40 dm

Edit: I haven't been doing this for other games, though I probably should, but here is the website for Hellas. Also, if you find yourself interested in the game, the first supplement, Princes of the Universe, is being ransomed, and you can find that here.

Delta Green

Delta Green is a game related to Call of Cthulhu - which is a game about finding out all about the horrible things that lurk just beyond our imagining, waiting to destroy our minds and blast our sanity, and that's if we're lucky. Delta Green takes that, and adds new elements - it assumes that some government agencies know about the Cthulhu mythos and all that goes with it, and some of them are trying to keep it from coming to light and coming to pass - while some of them are actively trying to make it all come true. you play a member of one of those agencies - the titular Delta Green - which recruits agents from every government agency in order to combat the groups that oppose it - whether the mythos-corrupted Majestic-12 or the formerly Nazi Karotechia, or the SaucerWatch group that tries to find out what it shouldn't know - and also the mythos itself, whether the alien Mi-Go of the icthyoid hybrids of Ipswich, or the horrific presence of Nyarlathotep. Delta Green uses the original Call of Cthulhu game, rather than the d20 version, so I will post a character from the original.

Agent Scott Jaeger
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Age: 37
STR 13 CON 17 SIZ 14 INT 17 POW 14
DEX 14 APP 11 EDU 19 SAN 70 HP 16
Damage Bonus: +1d4
Education: Doctor of Jurisprudence (Law Degree)
Occupation: FBI Special Agent
Skills: Computer Use 28%, Drive Auto 52%, Fast Talk 51%, Law 63%, Listen 54%, Martial Arts 56%, Psychology 77%, Spot Hidden 72%
Languages: English 95%, Spanish 23%
Attacks:
Colt Delta Elite Auto 70%, 1d10+1
Colt M16A2 Assault Rifle 60%, 2d6
Fist/Punch 55%, 1d3+db
Grapple 55%, Special
Head Butt 35%, 1d4+db
Kick 55%, 1d6+db


Scott is, obviously, an FBI agent, one who got a law degree before joining up. As a special agent, he gets training in the skills Drive Auto, Fast Talk, Handgun, Law, Listen, Psychology, Spot Hidden, and any two of the following: Accounting, Computer Use, Electronics, Martial Arts, Other Language, Rifle, and Submachine Gun. Scott, obviously, took Computer Use and Martial Arts. So he joins Delta Green, becoming a part of their organization and preparing to face things which defy explanation - and sanity.

Spycraft

Spycraft is a game that started out in the d20 craze, and is still pretty cool. Unlike a lot of d20 games, Spycraft abandoned the whole fantasy background, and decided to go with another area entirely - the spy game. It's for everyone who ever watched a James Bond movie, or a movie like the Bourne films, Sneakers, Spy Games, or any number of other movies based on the espionage industry. Like d20, the game uses the six primary attributes - Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma, but after that it swerves away from the D&D character. you get to pick your character's Origin - which consists of two parts, picking a Talent and then pickign a Specialty - which replace the normal race selection of a D&D game, and then you get to pick a class. These classes aren't the typical D&D classes; they are created specially for Spycraft. They consist of the Advocate, the Explorer, the Faceman, the Hacker, the Intruder, the Pointman, the Scientist, the Scout, the Sleuth, the Snoop, the Soldier, and the Wheelman. Most of those are somewhat self-explanatory; they cover most of the general archetypes you see used in spy movies and similar media. So, let's create a character based on this stuff.

First, we'll use point-buy to buy our stats; this is the old 3rd Edition point-buy system, so we have 36 points. I'll spend 6 points to get Strength 12, 11 points to get Dexterity 15, 3 points for Constitution 11, 8 points for Intelligence 14, and 8 points for Charisma 14. since my highest attributes are Dexterity and Charisma, I'll aim for the Wheelman class. For Origin, I'll take the Daring Talent, which gives me +2 Dex, -2 Int, +1 to initiative checks, and +1 to action die results. For Specialty, I'll take Hot Rodder; it grants the Lane Dancer bonus feat, the Drive (Standard Ground Vehicles) skill focus, 1 forte relating to that focus, and a +1 bonus to Drive and Streetwise checks. So, the character will start to look like this:

Johnny Rocket
Origin: Daring Hot-Rodder
Class: Wheelman
Stats
Str: 12, Dex: 17, Con: 11, Int: 12, Wis: 8, Cha: 14

Skills: Drive 8, Electronics 5, Impress 6, Mechanics 5, Notice 4, Security 5, Streetwise 6

Saves
Fort: +0, Reflex: +5, Will: +0, Def: +1

Initiative: +5

Base Attack bonus: +1

Vitality: 8 (1d10 + Con bonus)

Wealth: 1

Gear: 1V

Core Ability
Driven: Each time you spend 1 action point to boost a Maneuver or Mechanics/Repair check, roll and add the results of 2 dice; also, when you suffer an error with a Maneuver or Mechanics/Repair check, the GC must spend 1 additional action point to make it a critical failure.

Class Abilities
Daredevil: At level 1, gain the Daredevil feat as a bonus feat
Custom Ride: Choose Vehicle gear picks as if the current mission Caliber were 1 higher

Feats: Daredevil, Lane Dancer, Defensive Driving

Johnny started out as a street racer, but because of his natural Charisma and skill, he got recruited by the Agency. Now he is the go-to guy for getaways, because he is a wizard with cars, bikes, and anything else that goes on land.

There are other options for characters, and other bits I haven't covered, like equipment, but that's all a little much for an entry like this. I'll likely be doing another entry tonight, as well, to make up for missing yesterday.

Unknown Armies

Unknown Armies is an odd game, in that it essentially revolves around your character being on the way to madness. The default character, at the 'Street' level, must be obsessed with something, though it is up to the player as to what that something is; if he or she wants to become an Adept (a worker of modern-day magic) or an Avatar (an example of a popular archetype that gives you power), you must be more obsessed, often to the point of madness or even total insanity. But let's start slowly. To create a character, first you must have an obsession; this can be something general, like 'Toughness' or 'Religion' or even 'Knowing it All'. Then, you must have three separate passions - a Fear passion, a Rage passion, and a Noble passion. Fear can be something like arachnophobia, or fear of foreigners, but each must be tied to a mental stress track, of which there are five: Violence, Helplessness, The Unnatural, Isolation, and Self. Rage passions can be things like Bad Drivers, Laziness, or Cell Phones. Noble passions are things like Protecting Children, or Historical Preservation, or World Peace. After you have those, you get to determine your stats, of which there are four: Body, Speed, Mind, and Soul. Finally, you determine your skills, and those can be virtually anything, since there is really no set skill list; each stat has a couple skills, but others are made up by the player. So, let's start out.

Jerry Kopp

Obsession: Vampires (yeah, sue me)
Fear Stimulus: (Violence) Bees
Rage Stimulus: Racism
Noble Stimulus: Book Preservation

Stats (220 points)
Body: 50
Speed: 60
Mind: 70
Soul: 40

Skills (15 bonus points, and 15% in all basic skills)
Body Skills (50 points)
General Athletics: 40%
Struggle: 40%
Speed Skills (60 points)
Dodge: 35%
Driving: 25%
Initiative: 30%
Multi-task: 20%
Mind Skills (70 points)
Conceal: 20%
General Education: 50%
Notice: 30%
Photographic Memory: 25%
Soul Skills (40 points)
Charm: 20%
Lying: 20%
Hunches: 15%
Vocal Imitation: 15%

Jerry is a very intelligent, quite nimble guy who isn't all that empathetic; he's good with doing multiple things at once and keeping track of all kinds of things in his head, but a lot of human interaction puzzles him. He has a bizarre fascination with vampires, in art, in literature, in movies, and so he is driven to see or read anything containing them, from Anne Rice books to Bram Stoker to Vlad the Impaler's history to the Twilight books. He's had some bad experiences with bees, because his presence seems to drive them wild, and so he's afraid of them. He's a white guy, but racism just sets him off; he's never seen a reason why people hate each other because of skin color, when there are so many better reasons. And he loves books, and works in book preservation to keep books old and new from falling apart. He's just beginning to learn about what lies underneath the world everyone else knows, but he hasn't become obsessed enough with anything yet to uncover the secret pathways to magic that are the paths to being an Adept.

Reign: A Game of Lords and Leaders

I'm a big fan of Greg Stolze's work. I liked it when he wrote for Godlike (a game I will likely try to do tomorrow), and I an currently enamored of his fantasy game Reign. It uses a system known as ORE, or One Roll Engine - essentially, the idea is that you can use a single roll to resolve just about anything. You use a pool of ten-sided dice, and instead of aiming for a target number, as with White Wolf games, you go for matching sets. The number that is matched tells you how well you do, while the amount of matches tells you how fast you do whatever it is you are doing; so 2 10s would be represented as 2x10, and 4 5s would be 2x5. Being the One Roll Engine, you can also create your character this way, and while I'd love to use some of the supplementary material, I shall restrain myself and keep to the core book. For this kind of character generation, you start with a score of 2 in the six primary stats: Body, Coordination, Sense, Knowledge, Command, and Charm. Then you roll 11d10 - to ensure that you get at least one matching pair; the matching pair(s) determine the professions your character has held. So, lets roll: 7, 7, 7, 6, 6, 3, 3, 10, 8, 4, 2. 3x7 gives me a career of Canny Sage, meaning I get +5 ranks of the Student skill in whatever field I choose, as well as +1 Knowledge, +2 Language skill, +1 Lore skill, and +2 Heal Skill. 2x6 gets me Foot Soldier, so I get +1 Body, +2 Fight skill, +1 Dodge skill, and +2 Parry skill. 2x3 is Street Entertainer, which gives me +1 Charm, +2 Perform skill, +2 Fascinate skill, and +1 Jest skill. That's it for professions; now comes the fun part. for each non-matched number, I can choose an outcome on one of three charts for my character's unusual experiences. So, for 10, I will choose Diplomatic Incident: I somehow caused a diplomatic incident, and got someone's attention; I get the Patron Advantage (5 points), but also gain Problem: Enemy. For 8, I'll go with Kidnapped by Barbarians, which gives me +1 Ride skill, +1 Endurance skill, +1 Plead skill, +2 in the Language of my kidnappers. For 4, I'll go with Caravan Debacle - a caravan I was with never reached its destination, and went terribly, terribly wrong; this gives me +3 Student: Navigation, and +2 Direction skill. Finally, for 2, I'll take Escaped a Death Sentence, giving me the Fool Lucky Advantage.Put together, this gives us:

Attributes
3 Body, 2 Coordination, 2 Sense, 3 Knowledge, 2 Command, and 3 Charm

Skills
Language 2 (Truil), Language 2 (Dindovaran), Lore 1, Heal 2, Fight 2, dodge 1, Parry 2, Perform 2, Fascinate 2, Jest 1, Ride 1, Endurance 1, Plead 1, Student: Navigation 3, Student: Astronomy 5, Direction 2

Advantages
Patron (5 points), Fool Lucky

Problems
Enemy

As I can arrange these in any manner that suits me, let's spin it like this: Myruk Orser was, in his teens, a street performer, doing tricks for all that would stand and watch. It was a decent living, at first, but then, his nation, Uldholm, went to war with the Truil tribes, and the money began to dry up. It all came to a head when Myruk had the misforutne of telling a slightly-too-off-color joke in front of one of the leading guildmasters of the land; while he gained secret praise from the guildmaster's chief enemy, he also felt it wise to take up a new profession, and so he joined the army.

He marched and drilled with the best of the mediocre, but Myruk was never cut out for soldiering; his mind was always somewhere else. This was never clearer than when he went scouting in the wrong direction and was captured by the Truils. he found they were decent people, really, but his humor was not his best quality as a prisoner, and eventually the Truils decided to get rid of him - by tossing him off a nearby cliff. Luckily for Myruk, the cliff was not as steep or as deadly as the Truils thought, and so he thought himself lucky as he rolled down the hillside - especially when he ran into the Dindavaran caravan.

Sadly, the Dindavaran caravan was terribly lost, and despite his best efforts, Myruk was not a navigator, though he picked up quite a bit fromt he caravan's navigator before he died. Lost, alone, and near starving, Myruk stumbled back to civilization, and decided to put all his new skills to work - he became a sage's assistant, learning quickly of astronomy, herbs, and even picking up some of the language of his unlucky caravan. Now, though, his feet are itching for something else, and he is inclined to listen to them.

Myruk is not the best character ever, but he's certainly interesting enough. And if you like new and interesting games, I highly suggest Reign' the game world is different from almost every other fantasy world I have seen, and most of the material, besides the core book can be found for free on Greg Stolze's website. It's an easy system to learn, and a fun game to read, so check it out if you can.