It’s Ken Hite (Trail of Cthulhu, Adventures into Darkness) writing his own version of a post-apocalyptic pulp future, drawing inspiration from men’s adventure novels, Mad Max, Robert E. Howard, Nazi occultism, and the Norse Eddas. What more do you need?

Unconvinced? Fine, let’s run this down.

In 1945, Nazi occultists – fueled by amphetamines, Pleistocene herbs culled from Finnish bogs and mead from “unknown insects” – succeeded in an occult ritual designed to sever America’s role as the “Rope of the Norns” and bring about Ragnarok. This, they swore, would enable the Aryan race to rule as the new masters of Midgard. Garm howled, Loki slipped his chains and the head of Jörmungandr rose from the Arabian sea. The creature proved unstoppable, easily shattering both the material and the morale of the Allied forces in its venomous jaws.

Truman, in a last-ditch decision which would forever change history, ordered Operation John Henry: a lone B-29 (the Strange Cargo) left Iceland with the Trinity Device on a one-way flight straight into the snake’s brainpan.

The world-serpent died, crushing much of Europe (including the bulk of the British Isles) under its coils. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, however, most of its 8000-mile long bulk landed in the Atlantic – creating tsunamis the likes of which had gone unimagined. Most of America to the east of the Rockies drowned in the deluge – an America already sickened by the cloud of venom, blood and fallout settling over it, twisting and sickening much of its flora and fauna.

Eastern America today is a a monster-haunted wasteland of free cities (who model themselves after Chicago and Houston), scavenger camps and jungles growing where cities once stood, thick with the chanting of snake cultists carrying out unholy rites. Over in Russia, Stalin seeks to reanimate the Frost Giants as an unstoppable army with which to bring the world under his sway. The Japanese Empire holds Manchukuo and the Philippines, where they experiment with weird tonics and gene therapies distilled from the rotting corpse of the Midgard Serpent. Thankfully, Britain endures – though relocated to South Africa, Australia and the Indian states who rejected Ghandi’s congress– and its Rhodes University leads the free world in its own ophi-tech research: giving its fighting men body armor woven from the great snake’s tendons, jetpacks fueled by its distilled bodily humours, and microwave guns which use fuel cells crafted from its intestinal bacteria.

So that’s where things stand now: Earth has become a world of strange technology, broken cities and savage jungles laden with reptilian monstrosities and the cultists who worship them. But mankind endures. Will you help rebuild the world in the face of Fimbulwinter, or will you take what you can and watch the rest burn?

Curious? Excited? Strangely aroused? Get thee to the preview materials over at the Atomic Overmind Press website.

Game: Fireborn
Published: 2004, Fantasy Flight – line cancelled 2006
Books Used: Just the Player’s Handbook. The Game Master’s Book is almost entirely setting fluff, and Book of Aspects was (sadly) never published.

Wow, it’s been far too long since I’ve done one of these. In my defence, I spent much of May either in a funk or in a mental haze brought on by allergy issues. However, I’m back on the ball now – something I’m sure you’re all thrilled to hear.

One advantage of this challenge is that it forces me to return to games that I glanced over, possibly mined from, and promptly left on the shelves and spared nary a second thought. I actually picked up Fireborn shortly after its release based on RPG.net buzz – and because it seemed to have an interesting premise: an urban-fantasy game midway between Shadowrun and World of Darkness, only with a cinematic combat system seemingly inspired by fighting videogames and mechanical support for flashback scenes where you play your character at the height of their former incarnation’s glory, in a time of mythic fantasy before the last Ice Age wiped clean humanity’s slate.

Oh, did I mention that you get to play a dragon?

Setting

Well, okay… Technically, you only play a dragon during the flashbacks to the high-fantasy “mythic age” (think Hyperboria, Atlantis, Lemuria or Mu). In the modern world, it’s early in the 21st century, and humanity is dealing with the social and financial ramifications of a new power source: sorcery. Seemingly overnight, tabloids went from reporting on the Royals’ sexual liaisons to running lurid photos of werewolf attacks in the slums, corporations began funding research programs into the market viability of goods created ex nihilo though the application of this new (or rather, very old) technology and people found themselves crossing themselves when crossing dark tunnel mouths – just in case.

However, life for your average Londoner is largely unchanged. People still go to work, pick up takeout curry on the way home, fall asleep in front of the television … the whole nine yards. Though under the hum and bustle of everyday life, there runs a current of fear and apprehension – as if the world is slowly remembering why our ancestoAs if a threat older than man or dragon both, and powerful enough to end an age, hungered once again.

Purple prose aside, that’s where you come in. You play a scion: human-born, but more than human. You, and your compatriots, bear the essences of the mighty dragons who ruled the last age. In time, you will learn to shape your bodies and your will to regain this lost heritage. Though research and through recovered memory, you will race to piece together the secrets of Earth’s forgotten past – hopefully in time to prevent the cycle from repeating. However, it won’t be easy. Your adversary is already awake, and Those Who Dwell Below are already plotting the world’s demise.

Alongside this desperate struggle, characters relive scenes from the mythic age in the form of flashbacks, where they play their characters’ former incarnations at the height of their power. For example, a character and her friends might find themselves engaged in a running firefight inside a tube station, chased by cultists enslaved by an evil sorcerer, only to have the train arrive in a wave of blood, gore, and inky black spines – at which point they flash back to the mythic age, where they banded together to root out a nest of these things at the behest of their human wards. Suddenly, their characters remember how to fight these beasts: cleanse them with fire!

Overall, the setting works well enough. Magic aside, it’s basically our world, five minutes from now and seen through the lens of an action movie. As we’ll see in the combat section of this write-up, rooftop swordfights interspersed with bouts of parkour wouldn’t be out of the question for scions. Instead of Dragon: the Burninating, think of it as Shadowrun immediately after the Awakening and directed by Corey Yuen.

System

Fireborn uses what Fantasy Flight refers to as the “Dynamic D6″ system (henceforth DD6). Instead of traditional attributes, characters have four statistics, rated from 1-6 and based on the classical Greek elements. These serve as their dice pools for mental and physical actions, each subdivided into ‘active’ and ‘reactive’ tasks. For example, a PC might roll their Fire (active physical) pool to throw a punch, or their Earth (reactive mental) pool to resist a conman’s spiel. Fours or better are treated as successes, and dice don’t explode.

So far, it’s a pretty barebones dicepool system. What’s unique is how DD6 treats skills. Instead of directly adding to your pool, skills indicate the maximum number of dice you’re allowed to move from your other pools into the one that’s being tested. So to make that jump, you could use your Athletics skill of 3 to move two dice from Water (representing your balance and coordination) and one die from Earth (your ability to push through the pain of landing and keep going) into Fire before rolling. Here’s the catch, though: these dice remain in their new pools until the start of your next turn. So part of the strategy is wrapped up in properly managing your focus so that you don’t leave yourself venerable in any one area.

Thankfully, you have an edge: scions can make these pool alterations (called stance changes) twice per turn, rather than just once like mere mortals. So conceivably, you could flow dice from Air and Water to Fire in order to skewer some punk on the end of your sword, then free the blade and flow dice back to Water in time to block his friend’s tire iron.

This brings us to…

Combat

Fireborn, like Burning Wheel, uses scripted combat. Within a single turn, a character may attempt a single Physical Action, a single Mental Action and as many Reactions (be they mental or physical) they like, with a cumulative -1 die penalty to all reactions after the first rolled for a given aspect.

So what do I mean by “scripted combat?” I’m glad you asked, because this is probably one of the coolest things about the DD6 system. Instead of limiting characters to a single physical act per turn or relying on narrative stunts, Fireborn instead lets players declare their action as a set of specific moves, sort of like a combo in a fighting game. Generally, characters are allotted a number of moves per action equal to their base Fire score, they can use a give skill up to its rating in a combo and they’re allowed to shift a number of dice equal to the lowest-rated skill in the set.

For example, let’s say that a scion is standing on a rooftop overlooking an MP’s entourage, while on the next roof over, an assassin is setting up her rifle. On his turn, our scion could make a combo of (Dash + Jump + Fire Pistol + Power + Foot Strike) in order to run to the building’s ledge, jump across the alleyway, fire on his target in midair then land with a powerful mulekick to her chest. Let’s say that Athletics is his lowest skill, at 3. He’d have to roll (Fire + Athletics dice allocated from other pools) in an attempt to meet or exceed the combo’s length in successes (more, if the GM is feeling mean. Jump technically only allows you to cover 2 feet per success). Actions read from left to right, with one or more successes allocated to each move. Therefore, if our character only earned three successes on his roll, he’d be able to pull off the running jump and the midair gunshot, but not the finishing kick.

Defensive sequences work essentially the same way, with one caveat: the sequence must contain at least one defence action for each attack (jump, crouch, spin, dodge, weapon block, etc.). If successful, defensive actions subtract from the attacker’s net successes, effectively rewinding his action back to the first undefended attack. However, active defence rolls cannot rewind movement actions made before the first attack. Therefore, even if the assassin dodged the gunshot in our first example, the hero would still land on the rooftop beside her.

The game does feature martial arts, and they’re treated like a fighting game character’s combo list: specific move chains, which “pay off” with a special effect: be it extra damage, a status effect or even instant death. As an example, the third action in the Gun-Fu style – a move referred to as “Taste Recoil” – is a point-blank gunshot followed by a strike upside the opponent’s head with the same pistol. In mechanical terms, it’s a (Fire Pistol + Ready + Power + Pistol Strike) which applies a -2 die penalty to all the target’s mental actions in addition to its base damage. The Ready move represents the delay and concentration necessary to bring a weapon to bear after using it once in a given turn. Larger and heavier weapons require more Ready moves in order to use multiple times per turn.

Beyond their basic fighting styles and skills, scions have access to a “karma pool,” which functions much like Essence in Exalted. Characters can spend points from their pool on a 1-to-1 basic to provide autosuccesses (up to their base Attribute score), manifest draconic traits (claws, wings, armoured scales) if they’ve unlocked them or to power other supernatural abilities. It’s one more edge possessed by player characters, reflecting their superhuman nature.

All told, it’s a fairly unique and interesting take on the cinematic action genre. Moreover, it runs pretty fast as well; especially if you print out a set of cards listing the actions, their linked skills and any special rule requirements. (available in the errata document)

Character Creation

For our sample character, I’m imagining a Jason Statham type: a gruff, direct individual retired from the underworld with no bullshit tolerance and a cache of illegal firearms under the boot of his black cab – just in case his former employers come knocking.

Step 1: Aspects

As a scion, we’re given 28 points to buy dice in the four base Aspects, on an ascending cost scale. I want our hard boy turned cabbie to be fairly dynamic in combat and stubborn as a mule, though I also imagine that he’s not the quickest wit. He can drive the Knowledge like no one’s business, but he probably loses out at quiz night nine times out of ten.

To reflect this concept, I set up his pools as:

• Fire: 5
• Water: 4
• Air: 3
• Earth: 4

Step 2: Background

Next, we have to pick a background – representing our character’s life before the mantle of adventure descended upon him. This will give us his starting skill ranks, his edges, wealth and a number of points for purchasing fighting styles.

For our character, the choice is obvious: the Thug package is exactly what we’re looking for.

Thug gives us 4 points in each of Melee, Ranged and Stamina, 2 points each in Trickery and Will, our choice of the Action Junkie, Brutal and Follow-through Edges (we’re going with Follow-through so he can add his extra net success to damage without using Press moves), a starting Wealth of 3 (upper lower class) and 3 Fighting Style ranks.

Step 3: Sire

Every scion must choose a sire to represent their draconic heritage. These mythical dragons embody the varied nature of the beast’s aspects: from the wise councilor and collector of war to the brutal warrior who burns everything in his path. While not his literal ancestor, a sire represents a character’s guiding principles. More importantly, it also provides us with another Edge, more Fighting Style ranks and a bonus to our starting Karma.

For our character (let’s call him Travis), we’re going to go with Caronach, the Serpent of Lough Derg: the embodiment of patience and resiliency in the face of adversity.

While she doesn’t grant us any additional Fighting Style ranks, she does give us an Edge important to our character concept: Resilient, which grants us one extra Minor Wound and increases our ability to keep going through a beating.

Caronach also grants her patrons +5 bonus karma, which we’ll record later.

Step 4: Dependent Traits

Now we have to compute secondary traits. Most of these are simple uses of Aspect pools, which are covered in the rules governing action scenes, so I’m only going to touch on three in detail: our character’s health chart, his karma pool and his bonus skill points.

Health Chart

For health, we can take up to our Water in damage without actually taking any penalty dice. We can also completely soak any damage equal to less than twice our Water as a minor wound, up to a number of times equal to our Earth score (+1 thanks to our edge). From there, the damage thresholds continue to climb equal to our Water score, assessing a cumulative +1 Wound Die at each step, starting with 1 WD at double Water and up to a max of +6 WD. We can sustain a maximum of 6 WD before we’re down, 7 before we’re dying and 8 before we’re taking that last dirt nap. In game terms, this means that a point-blank shotgun blast will likely blow us back to slide unconscious down the side of a building, but it won’t kill us outright – keeping with the game’s action movie tone. Worn armour, of course, directly reduces damage.

In our case, Travis can ignore any attack hitting for up to 4 points of damage, has 5 Minor Wounds and his damage track increases by steps of 4; meaning his health chart looks something like this:

• < 4 = no effect
• 4+ = minor wound (5 boxes)
• 8+ = 1 wound die
• 12+ = 2 wound dice
• 16+ = 3 wound dice
• 20+ = 4 wound dice
• 24+ = 5 wound dice
• 28+ = 6 wound dice

As you may have guessed, wound dice act as a penalty to all rolled actions.

Karma Pool

As I mentioned before, scions have access to karma – the breath of the Earth – with which they can supplement their abilities and power their magics. A character’s starting karma pool is equal to 5x his base Earth score, plus any points granted by his sire. Travis, for example, begins play with 25 karma points.

Bonus Points

Next we’re given the sum of our base Fire and base Water, and of our base Air and base Earth to spend on physical and mental skills respectively. It’s one point per skill rank, up to a maximum of 4 ranks in any skill. If we need to, we can also ‘cross-spend’ points between physical and mental for double the cost.

Travis has 9 bonus physical and 7 bonus mental ranks. Since he’s already maxed out on his combat skills and stamina, let’s give him 3 points each in Travel, Quickness, and Athletics. On the mental side, let’s give him a rank of Medicine (since I’d imagine he’s able to patch himself up after a throwdown), four ranks of Senses and a rank each of Interaction and Stealth

Step 5: Finishing Touches

As a scion, we’re also granted an additional Edge – in our case, we take Arsenal to reflect his underworld connections for the weapons he keeps in a hidden compartment under the luggage area of his cab.

We also have 3 ranks to spend on Fighting Styles, which we use to take Street Fighting and Entrapping Defence. This gives us a grab bag of dirty tricks, groin shots, joint locks and throws – appropriate for a brutal character like Travis.

We could write up his draconic form at this point, but that’s usually done after the character experiences his first flashback, since its traits are really reflective of the character in play. Besides, I think this is long enough.

If you guys want me to, I’ll follow up this post with one covering dragon creation.

Character sheet:

Travis, ex-gangster turned cabbie and occasional world savior
Fire: 5
Water: 4
Air: 3
Earth: 4

Karma Pool: 25
Edges: Follow-through, Resilient, Arsenal
Health Chart (see above)

Skills:
* Melee: 4
* Ranged: 4
* Stamina: 4
* Senses 4
* Travel 3
* Quickness 3
* Athletics 3
* Trickery: 2
* Will 2
* Interaction 1
* Medicine 1
* Stealth 1

Wealth: 3
Fighting Styles:
* Street Fighting
* Entrapping Defence

For years, fans have been clamouring for an RPG set on the dark age science-fantasy battlefields of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000. This… isn’t exactly it. Instead of the Space Marines and other military arms of the Imperium, the game instead focuses on the Inquisition. And like in Warhammer Fantasy, your characters are outmatched, start from little more than nothing, and death and madness both come cheap.

Or as the back cover puts it:

You are an Acolyte in the service of the Emperors’ Inquisition. You stand in the front line of a great and secret war where your duty is to hunt out the foul stench of heresy, the vile alien, and the twisted influence of Chaos. You will tread where others fear, venturing to distant planets, ancient space hulks, and the unsavoury depths of hive cities.

You will never know fame or reward, yet if you stand resolute your deeds will be whispered to the God-Emperor of Mankind and your name will be revered for millennia.

(Though more likely, you’ll end up dead, daemon-possessed, enslaved to Chaos, or worse. This is Warhammer we’re talking about, after all. Have I mentioned the absurdly awesome and over-the-top critical hit charts yet?)

For the record, I think that Dark Heresy could actually be a lot of fun, so long as you played up the threads of jet-black humour which run through the setting – running it as something akin to Judge Dredd crossed with Dune, or a version of Paranoia written by Orwell or Kafka. In fact, I’d be tempted to run a game where the players’ acolytes are sent out to investigate charges of heresy and daemonic worship in the shadows of one of Calixis’ numerous hive-cities – only the PCs are all secretly heretics themselves. Either they’ve made a pact with one of the Four Chaos Gods, they’re unsanctioned Psykers, or they belong to a denounced sect practicing death worship or technology research outside of the auspices of the Adeptus Mechanicus … something along those lines.

But I digress. You’re reading this to see how a DH character gets put together; not to hear me blather on about games I’ll never get to run.

Stage 1: Home World

Before we do anything else, we have to decide our character’s homeworld. This will give us a set of starting skills, Traits, and determine which career paths are open to us. (Feral worlders can’t play tech-priests, for example) There are four broad world types in the corebook, with a couple more in the companion (which I’m not using): Feral World, Hive World, Imperial World, and Void Born.

Now, we can either pick our home world type, or we can do as the book suggests and “trust in the Emperor” to guide our random roll. Since distrust in His will is tantamount to a minor heresy, we’ll go with a random selection.

So we roll a percentile die against Table 1-1 and get a 22, which tells us that we’re from a Hive World. We’ll narrow down the specifics of the character’s home in a bit, but for now we write down Speak Language (Hive Dialect) (Int) as as starting skill, along with the following Traits:

Accustomed to Crowds
Hivers grow up surrounded by immense herds of humanity. They are used to weaving through even the densest mob with ease.
Benefit: Crowds do not count as Difficult Terrain for hivers, and when Running or Charging through a dense crowd, hivers take no penalty to the Agility Test to keep their feet.

Caves of Steel
To a hiver, surrounded at all times by metal, machinery and industry, the arcane mysteries of technology are not so strange.
Benefit: Hivers treat the Tech-Use (Int) skill as a Basic Skill

Hivebound
Hivers seldom endure the horrors of the open sky or the indignity of the great outdoors.
Penalty: Hivers take a -10 penalty to all Survival (Int) Tests, and while out of a “proper hab” (e.g. places without manufactured goods, solid ceilings and electrical power) the hiver take a -5 penalty to all Intelligence Tests

Wary
Hivers are constantly alert for the first hint of trouble, be it a gang shoot-out, hab riot, or hivequake.
Benefit: All hivers gain a +1 bonus to Initiative rolls.

Stage 2: Generate Characteristics

Dark Heresy utilizes a roll-under percentile system, where checks are made against a character’s Characteristics. A character’s skills allow them to roll using their full Characteristic rating; otherwise, in the case of skills outside of a character’s forte, the success threshold is either half the governing Characteristic (rolled up)(for Basic skills) or an automatic failure (in the case of Advanced skills). As expected, situational modifiers add or subtract from the character’s Characteristic rating.

Since we’re dealing with a percentile system, it should come as no shock that Characteristics are rated on a scale from 0 to 100. However, instead of just rolling a percentile rating for each stat, you instead use 2d10, modified by the character’s Home World bonus. In our case, these bonuses are +20% for every Characteristic except for Fellowship (+25%) and Toughness (+15%).

We roll each stat in order, and are granted a single reroll – with the stipulation that we must keep the new result, even if it’s lower.

Weapon Skill: (8 + 20) = 28
Ballistic Skill: (11 + 20) = 31
Strength: (5 + 20) = 25
Toughness: (11 + 15) = 26
Agility: (3 + 20) = 23
Intelligence: (12 + 20) = 32
Perception: (7 + 20) = 27
Willpower: (13 + 20) = 33
Fellowship: (12 + 25) = 37

Hm… That Agility score is worryingly low. Let’s take that for our free reroll; it’s not like we can get much worse.

Agility: (15 + 20) = 35

Ah, that’s better. Yeah, it’s still low, but what do you want? If this were Fantasy, we’d be deep in Ratcatcher and Mud Farmer territory here.

Step 3: Determine Career Path

A character career path is their role in the Inquisition, from silent Assasins to terrifying Psykers to the ground-pounding Imperial Guardsman. The player’s guide adds the Sisters of Battle as a playable career, but – again – we’re sticky solely to the corebook.

As a Hive Worlder, we have a pretty free selection of careers – all but Adept, in fact. Again trusting our fate to the Emperor, we roll a 03 … apparently we’ll be playing an Arbitrator: a sort of Judge Dredd-type figure who’s been inducted into the Adeptus Arbites – the ultimate law in the galaxy. We are judge, jury and executioner for all the scum and heretics in our sight, and our jurisdiction knows no bounds.

We also begin play with the following:

Starting Skills: Speak Language (Low Gothic) (Int), Literacy (Int), Common Lore (Imperium) (Int), Inquiry (Fel)
Starting Traits: Basic Weapons Training (SP), Melee Weapons Training (Primitive) and either Quick Draw or Rapid Reload
Starting Gear: Shotgun and 12 shells, club, brass knuckles, knife, chain coat or flak vest or mesh vest, uniform (Good Quality Clothing), 3 doses of stimm, injector, Arbitrator ID, chrono, pack of lho-sticks or flask of amasec.
Starting Rank: Trooper

Stage 4: Spend Experience Points, Buy Equipment

Now that we have our homeworld, our stats, and our career, we must determine our Wounds, Fate Points, Movement and starting Wealth. Once all that’s done, we’re then given 400 XP to spend on advancing our career path.

Our Wounds represent the amount of damage we can sustain before the GM gets to roll on those aforementioned lurid and deadly crit tables. In our case, it’s 1d5 + 8. or 12

Fate Points let us reroll failed checks, add to our damage rolls, and may even – in extreme cases – save our lives. To determine how many of these lovely points we begin with, we roll 1d10 and check the result on a table. In our case, we rolled an 8, netting us 2 Fate Points

Movement speeds are governed by our Agility bonus (the 10s digit of the Agility Characteristic). There are four movement speeds in total, and I’ll note them on the character sheet, below.

Arbitrators begin play with a stockpiled Wealth of 50 + 2d10 Throne Gelt – 66, for our character.

As I mentioned, all characters begin play with 400 experience points to spend on career advancements. These can improve Characteristics, allow a character to acquire or improve their Skills, acquire new Talents, etc. The exact nature of these advances are beyond the scope of this article, so I’ll instead refer you to Chapter II in the Dark Heresy corebook. Instead, I’ll just list the advances I took for our hypothetical character:

Ballistic Skill Advance (Simple) (+5%)
Awareness
Scrutiny
Sound Constitution

This sets them up as a fairly decent investigator, but one who can hold their own in a gunfight and even take a shot or two.

Stage 5: Bringing Your Character to Life

So far, we’ve defined our character’s strengths, weaknesses, and areas of competence. Now it’s time to flesh them our as an individual. We’re presented with a series of percentile tables to generate everything from their gender to their family’s past.

From these tables, we determine that our Arbitrator is a 21 year old (15 + 1d10), scrawny (36) female (rolled low on 1d10). She has tan (34) skin, dyed (68) hair, and grey (42) eyes. She also has a bullet wound scar (65) somwhere on her body – just a price of living for your average Hiver

And fittingly, given the bullet wound, we see that she grew up a member of one of the multitude gangs which infest the underlevels of hives across the Imperium. She’s already seen her share of death, battle, and horror at the hands of her fellow gangers. And now she’s an Arbitrator – let it not be said that the Emperor is without irony!

However, we still need a name. Looking at the table of typical female names, we settle upon Rhia for our ganger turned Arbitrator and Inquisitor Acolyte.

Now, there’s just one last step. Upon entrance to their service to the Inquisition, Acolytes are given a divination by one of the Emperor’s seers. This instructs them as to their purpose and calling. In Rhia’s case, she was told that “Truth is Subjective.” While this divination raises her starting Intelligence by 3, it also opens her mind to the seductive lure of Chaos – where everything is relative. This is reflected by starting her with 3 Corruption points. Let’s pray she earns no more. It would be a shame if one of her fellow acolytes had to grant her a final mercy.

Character Sheet

Name: Rhia
Career Path: Arbitrator
Rank: Trooper
Divination: “Truth is Subjective.”
Quirk: Bullet wound scar
Characteristics
Weapon Skill: 28
Ballistic Skill: 36
Strength: 25
Toughness: 26
Agility: 35
Intelligence: 35
Perception: 27
Willpower: 33
Fellowship: 37

Wounds: 12
Fate Points: 2
Corruption Points: 3
Insanity Points: 0
Basic Skills
Awareness
Inquiry
Scrutiny

Advanced Skills
Speak Language (Low Gothic)
Speak Language (Hive Dialect)
Literacy
Common Lore (Imperium)

Talents
Caves of Steel
Hivebound
Wary
Sound Constitution
Basic Weapons Training (SP)
Melee Weapons Training (Primitive)
Quick Draw

Gear
Shotgun + 12 shells
Club
Brass knuckles
Knife
Flak vest
Uniform
Injector + 3 doses of Stimm
Arbitrator ID
Chrono
Pack of lho-sticks
66 Thrones

Description: 21 year old, scrawny female. She has tan skin, dyed (purple) hair, and grey eyes.

Next up is Robin D. Laws’ superhero police procedural game, Mutant City Blues. It also marks the first of four games in this challenge using his GUMSHOE system.

This one’s for Mel.

William E. Macin, NYPD (9th Precinct):

Transferred to HCIU after expressing gills and testing positive for further S-cell complexes in the subsequent medical examination, primarily in his skeletal musculature and throat. Formerly a beat cop walking the Bowery.

Bill Macin is a tall, physically fit Caucasian, apparently in his early 30s, who wears his black hair closely cropped, exposing both his unnaturally-pointed ears and the gill slits at his throat. Due to the placement of his gills, he’s unable to wear the traditional police uniform. HCIU has responded to these concerns by allowing him to work essentially shirtless – wearing an open vest and slacks as his work attire.

In his free time, Bill volunteers as a Shakespearean actor at the nearby Atlantis Theatre, where his refined features and forceful bearing make him quite the presence on the stage. In fact, some of his peers have even started referring to him as the “prince” of the Atlantis.

With the move to HCIU, Macin received a corresponding promotion to Detective. Currently, he’s pursuing a serial murderer the press have dubbed the “Aquara-man:” a bemulleted, genetic expressive former aquarium janitor who’s turned his water-breathing powers and his command of sea life to destructive ends. So far, he’s killed 6 people: the most recent being his old manager, who was found covered in welts. Forensic examination of the body revealed that the marks were made by octopus suckers, and that the vic died via strangulation.

As a new character, Detective Macin has 60 points to spend on general abilities, 40 points worth of superpowers, and (let’s assume we’re playing a 4 player game here) 24 points of investigative abilities.

Investigative Abilities

Since these skills don’t incur a chance of failure when uncovering clues central to the mystery, even a single point reflects a general mastery of the subject. Superstar detectives will posses multiple points in their key strengths, however. This allows them to extract additional details from evidence and witnesses which their fresher colleagues might miss. Generally, HCIU squads are put together to cover all core competencies. Remember, they do their own crime scene analysis and interrogations.

I’m picturing him as a fairly solid beat cop who doesn’t take guff from anyone, and who has an appreciation for the arts. As such, I set up Bill’s Investigative Abilities as follows:

Interpersonal
Bullshit Detector: 3
Cop Talk: 4
Flattery: 1
Interrogation: 2
Intimidation: 3
Streetwise: 2

Academic
Art History: 1
Law: 2
Research: 1
Trivia: 2

Technical
Data Retrieval: 1
Photography: 1
Ballistics: 1
Evidence Collection: 1

General Abilities

These are the skills which can fail without possibly derailing the investigation. While the results my introduce drama or additional complications, they won’t stop the game cold.
General skills are treated as point pools. To roll a skill, the player spends one or more points, to which a 1d6 roll is added. The standard target number to beat is 4, though of course modifiers can change this. Like all other skills, spent points are refreshed between cases.

Specific to General abilities is the requirement that a character’s second highest skill must carry a rating at least half that of their highest.

We want Bill to be fairly healthy and mentally stable, so let’s spend 15 points each on Heath and Stability (Yep, GUMSHOE treats HP and SAN as general skills). For the remainder, let’s put 10 each into Scuffling and Sense Trouble, and an additional 5 each into Shooting and Athletics. Though I’d imagine he’s also been on a stakeout or two in his time, so let’s drop Stability by 5 points to give him a Surveillance pool.

Actually, a Health of 15 is a bit high (the non-expressive human average is about 4). Let’s drop it down to 9, so he can have 6 points worth of Preparedness.

Mutant Powers

So far, we’ve created a fairly competent but not superhuman detective. Let’s change that.

We start by selecting a starting power. This can be any ability listed on the Quade Diagram. If it’s a General Power, it costs us 4 points, while Investigative Powers (the ones marked by a magnifying glass) cost 1 point. From there, we can branch out along the diagram via related (solid line) or correlated (dashed line) powers. It doesn’t cost anything to travel via a solid line, but we pay an additional 4 points for any dashed line we follow. Additionally, we may choose to skip powers we don’t want by paying a cost of 2 points.

If we run into a black box, we are required to note it. This is a defect (usually mental) correlated to our power grouping, and to which our character is consequently susceptible. This doesn’t mean that he’ll start play as an autistic, say, but that he is just genetically predisposed to an adult-onset version of the syndrome.

Buying a power from the diagram nets us a single point in its pool. Additional points may be allocated by spending them on a 1-to-1 basis. Since powers generally operate similarly to their corresponding skill type, this is a good idea.

In our case, we’re going to start by giving him Gills, which is located at A4 on the Quade diagram. It’s a General power, so it costs us 4 points – reducing our total to 36. We take a dashed line to the correlated power Toxin Immunity [Inhaled], which we skip. This costs us another 6 points. Another hop across to the correlated power Regeneration costs us another 4 points. We buy the power for another 4, dropping our remaining points to 22. Thankfully all the remaining powers we want are related! Traveling up the body powers at B4, we take both Strength and Flight, leaving us with a further 14 points to upgrade our powers.

To recap: our path through the Quade Diagram looked like this:
gills – -> Toxin Immunity [Inhaled] – -> Regeneration -> Strength -> Flight

Character Sheet

Interpersonal
Bullshit Detector: 3
Cop Talk: 4
Flattery: 1
Interrogation: 2
Intimidation: 3
Streetwise: 2

Academic
Art History: 1
Law: 2
Research: 1
Trivia: 2

Technical
Data Retrieval: 1
Photography: 1
Ballistics: 1
Evidence Collection: 1

General Abilities
Athletics: 5
Health: 9
Preparedness: 6
Stability: 10
Scuffling: 10
Sense Trouble: 10
Shooting: 5
Surveillence: 5

Powers
Gills: 6
Regeneration: 4
Strength: 5
Flight: 3

(Anyone care to guess William Macin’s middle name?)

REIGN marks the first appearance of Greg Stolze’s (Godlike, Unknown Armies, several White Wolf products) One Roll Engine (ORE, henceforth) in this challenge. True to its name, the system strives to resolve any action in a single roll of up to 10d10 – from skill checks to combat. It does so by grouping like numbers into sets, then taking the measure of each set along two axes: the number on the dice (called the height), and the number of dice in the set (its width). Generally, the height determines the speed of a given action, with its width illustrating quality. In combat, damage is also based on width, and hit location on the roll’s height.

If a character rolls multiple sets, they’re free to choose which they’d like to apply. In addition, multiple actions are handled by rolling the smaller skill’s pool, minus one die for each additional action after the first, and shooting for enough sets to cover the number of actions. However, supplementary sets can be tactically advantageous in combat, even if they’re not used for active defences – you see, getting hit in combat “knocks” a die out of one of your sets. Since any set reduced to a single die is considered destroyed (and the corresponding action an automatic failure), it’s generally a good idea to keep at least a 2-width set around to soak this effect.

Anyway, that’s the ORE in a nutshell. There are special dice and rules for utilizing the unmatched dice as AoE damage, but that’s really beyond our current concern: namely, Greg’s epic fantasy game REIGN.

Billed as a “Game of Lords and Leaders,” it’s pretty much what it says on the tin. Instead of wandering adventurers, players are expected to take the role of leaders – generals, mercenary commanders, politicians, etc – in a roughly bronze-age setting, albeit one where the continents take the shape of lovers reclining in an endless sea. Magic is fairly abundant, from the Death-Forgers of Dindavara to the Flame Dancers, who can transform themselves into a 10 meter tall juggernaut of flame through sinuous dance and the eternal fire burning in their hearts. If you’re curious, Greg has a fairly comprehensive overview of the setting’s magic on the game’s wiki.

To complement magic, every skill in the game is given at least one Martial Technique (for combat skills) or an Esoteric Discipline (everything else). These are small bits of lore, secret techniques, or internal magic which allow their users to surpass average human skill. For fans of Exalted, think of them as Charms – about at the Dragon-Blooded level.

One other thing needs to be mentioned, I think. While there are 11 or so supplements out for REIGN, they’re all free to the public, thanks to the fans. You see, Greg Stolze decided to use the ransom model for all the supplementary material: he’s put up a teaser containing a given volume’s contents, then give gamers about a month to raise a collective $1000. If met, the money was collected and the supplement was released to the world; free, in perpetuity.

True to its aims, REIGN allows players to generate a mechanically-sound, random character with a single dice roll; in this case, 11d10. Normally, this would violate one of the core rules (limit of 10 dice per roll), but we need that extra die to guarantee us at least one 2-width set.

So we roll, ending up with: 4,4,4,5,6,6,7,8,9,9,9

Now, I want to create an Imperial (a somewhat decadent, scheming, and militarily powerful nation, at the beck and call of the child Empress and the Crimson Guard; her cadre of jawless warrior-priests.), so I check those sets – including the single-die “waste” sets! – against the table for random characters from this nation. (in supplement #2, if you want to play along)

In height order, here’s what we have to work with:

3×4 Student of Pahar Culture
Knowledge 1
Counterspell 3
Eerie 2
Graces 1
Language 1
Sorcery 1
Advantage: Spells 2

1×5 Attended Elite Athletic Academy: Morning runs, hourlong stretching sessions, tightly monitored behavior to prevent ‘impure acts’ — all to make you a superior competitor. Did it succeed? Did you make any particular friends or enemies at school?
Coordination 1

2×6 Occult Dabbler
Knowledge 1
Eerie 1
Graces 1
Sorcery 2
Advantage: Spells 1

1×7 Dangerous Liaison: What made the romance so perilous? What made it worth risking the danger?
Listen 1
Stealth 4

1×8 Lengthy Foreign Journey: You’ve spent a lot of time somewhere else, somewhere distant and interesting. Where was it? Why were you there? What stories do you have to recount?
Fascinate 3
Language 2

3×9 Battlefield Leader
Body 1
Endurance 1
Fight 3
Graces 1
Parry 3
Tactics 2

Body, Charm, Command, Coordination, Knowledge, and Sense are all attributes – and their uses should be fairly self-evident. Practically everything else listed is skills, and it looks like we have a fairly well-rounded character. Totaling things up, I notice that he has a Coordination + Stealth pool of 7: pretty nice, but not superhuman. From the looks of things, we have a battlefield sorcerer on our hands – a leader of men, but who’s not afraid to sneak into the enemy compound to foul their supplies with some low magic he learned from his Pahar lover should the need arise.

Depending on how the game goes, we may want to invest some XP in a specialized combat skill (probably Spears, to stay thematic with the Imperial image), as there are no Martial Paths for the general Fight skill.

In any case, it looks like we have here a young man who, after graduating from an Athletic Academy in the south of Empire, decided to strike out on his own for a bit. After wandering the length and breadth of his nation’s holdings, he eventually found himself in the shade-haunted province – formerly nation – of Pahar. It was here that his lifelong fascination with the occult began, and it was here that he first tasted love, in a daughter of the noble family. Being but a commoner – and one from outside Pahar, at that – his tryst had to remain a secretive affair by necessity. He continued his dalliance thus for months, under the guise of a wealthy dilettante studying the “quaint customs” and occult lore of the Empire’s newest holding.

Discovery, of course, was inevitable. And when it came, it came swiftly. Roused from his sleep and beaten, he found himself tenuously clinging to life in a mountain ditch, somewhere on the provincial border. Miraculously (and thanks to a spell or three taught to him by consort fair), he managed to survive exposure and the savage punishment he’d endured. Now, hardened and driven, he wanders the Empire; hiring out as a mercenary and assassin even as he raises an army with which to raise the Pahar nobility’s grand palace to the ground, and to reclaim his true love so unjustly taken from him.

Body 3
Charm 2
Command 2
Coordination 3
Knowledge 4
Sense 2

Counterspell 3
Eerie 3
Endurance 1
Fascinate 3
Fight 3
Graces 3
Language 3
Language (Native) 0+Master
Listen 1
Parry 3
Sorcery 3
Stealth 4
Tactics 2

Advantage: Spells 3

‘Round about 1905, humanity found itself on the brink of its own extinction. Across the world, from the genteel cities of Europe to the rough-and-tumble colonies to the American West, humanity fought their greatest foe – their own loved ones, risen from the grave to consume the living. As the Blight spread its corruption, none were spared: unless cremated or decapitated, the fallen invariably rose to join the ranks of the animate dead.

But we persevered; fighting back with flame and steel, instituting policies of mandatory cremation to forestall secondary outbreaks, and building great walled cities to defend us from the dead. Behind the walls, science advanced down previously unexplored avenues. Soon, great sparking Tesla towers bristled from the walls, broadcasting galvanic power to radios, lights, tube trains, lightning guns and other inventions both fantastic and terrifying. Additionally, medical science continued apace, fueled by compounds formulated from the strange new flora of the Wastes. In clubrooms and darkened laboratories, there were even whispered rumors of darker alchemy: compounds that could return the dead to life, or even life created ex nihilo in great bubbling vats.

In the face of utter dissolution and chaos, the survivors grasped for moral guidance, and in doing so they looked back fondly on the last great age. Quickly, Victorian mores and fashion – tempered by the new reality – spread throughout society. It’s in the heart of this neo-Victorian Empire – in the great and ancient walled city of London itself – where the game is set. Mankind has been living with the walking dead for 200 years now, and England – though she is no longer a green and pleasant land – endures.

One last word of advice: when taking the tube, please do Mind the Gap. You never know what might be lurking below, and Ghoul attacks are up 60% this year in the vicinity of Charing Cross despite the best efforts of Her Majesty’s Deathwatch and bonded Undertakers.

You know why I love UnMet? Sure, it’s a gloomy, apocalyptic setting where the shattered remnants of mankind huddle inside their walled cities, away from a wasted world that’s been almost entirely stolen from them by the nigh-unstoppable hordes of the undead . . .

But it’s also a setting which fully embraces the freewheeling nature of Victorian-era SCIENCE! A setting where mad scientists and armor-clad, gasmasked vampire hunters can comfortably rub shoulders beneath the artificial lightning of old London town’s array of Tesla towers. And it’s that, more than anything else, that raises the setting above the level of mere gaslight World of Darkness heartbreaker fancied up in rotten lace and PVC corsets.

As an example; London’s finer surgeons sell clockwork artificial hearts for wealthy patients in dire need of transplant. Hearts which have to be wound promptly every six hours to remain functional. Of course, they also recommend the heart be used in conjunction with a patented alchemical distillate which will help prevent the body’s immune system from rejecting the implant. Side effects may occur.

But let’s not dither any longer. Time to get down to brass tacks, don our respirator, and join the huddled masses.

Step 1: Character Concept

UnMet uses a point-buy character creation system, modified by character templates (called Callings) which provide starting equipment, skill bonuses, etc. While there is perfunctory information on playing a character outside the provided Callings, it’s best to think of the game as a weakly class-based system.

The following Callings are made available in the corebook, with an additional Detective calling provided as a free download:

• Aristocrat: A blooded member of Great Britain’s aristocracy, fighting to preserve the traditions of the past in this New Dark Age
• Criminal: One of the many thieves, paid murderers, spies, and informants who give that special flavour to London’s seedy underbelly.
• Dhampir: Passionate and doomed, these half-vampires are fated to rise from their graves as the very undead abominations they seek to destroy
• Doctor: Explorers into that undiscovered country, doctors work tirelessly to unlock the secrets of life and death.
• Mourner: Silent, stoic, and chaste. These women (and occasionally men) of the Quiet Service are hired by the wealthy to sit vigil over newly-departed souls, insuring that they do not rise again. With their wickedly-sharp Exculpus knife, if necessary.
• Undertaker: Freelance bounty hunters licensed by the Domestic Security Office to hunt the animate dead wherever they lurk.

In our case, I think I’m going to go with a Doctor. I really like the mental image of an obsessed man; a gaunt figure driven by his suffering and his mania to find a cure for death itself, stalking the back alleys of the West End on the prowl for sufficiently-fresh specimens for his research.

Let’s call him…. Dr. Lawrence North.

Step 2: Attributes

Skills and attributes are both rated from 1-5, and are used as a bonus to a 2d10 roll against a set of escalating target numbers. The dice mechanics, while serviceable, are nothing terribly remarkable. Where the game’s system really shines is in the savage brutality of survival horror combat. However, that’s slightly outside the purview of this post.

Attributes in UnMet are as follows:

• Vitality: a character’s physical health, strength, stamina, and resistance to physical harm and illness
• Coordination: measures the character’s natural grace, reaction time, agility, manual dexterity, and hand-eye coordination
• Wit: gauges the character’s perception and mental reaction time.
• Intellect: is a measure of the character’s raw intelligence
• Will: is a measure of the character’s strength of mind, focus, and composure
• Charm: gauges the character’s poise and personality.

(Notice that physical appearance doesn’t get its own attribute. Yet another thing I love about this game.)

New characters start with 1′s in all Attributes, with a further 25 points to customize their spread. The cost is cumulative, with each rank costing a a number of points equal to its new value. So to buy an attribute at 3, it would cost five points. At 2, however, it would only cost two points, as the first rank is free.

For our ghoulish Dr. North, I think I’m going to go with the following spread:

Vitality 2, Coordination 3, Wit 2, Intellect 4, Will 3, Charm 2

There’s a seventh attribute, Prowess, which reflects a character’s skill in combat. It’s derived by adding Coordination and Wit: 5, in our case.

He’s a brilliant medical mind, with an average charm – he probably seems mild-mannered or even a little introverted when not on the prowl, where he acts as an ambush predator.

Step 3: Skills

We’re given a further 25 points to spend on skills, above and beyond those provided by our Calling. Skills start at 0, and the cost is the same as buying Attributes.
Dr. North’s skill spread before spending points:

Alchemy 2, Etiquette 2, Language – English 5, Language – Latin 2, Medicine 2, Occult Lore 2 and three other Academic skills at 2 (In our case, Natural History, Forensics and Thanatology)

I know that we’re going to want to max out his Medicine at 4 (Academic skills are capped by Intellect), so that’s 7 points spent. I also want to bump up his Alchemy to 3, since I see him experimenting with mercurial reanimation in a secret basement room of his house or office.

Ten points left… Let’s give him a Melee Combat of 3 so he can actually bag specimens. Additionally, Pistols at 1 isn’t a bad idea for a backup in case things go pear-shaped. That leaves us with (15 – ((1+2+3) + 1)) 8 points remaining. We’ll spend our last few points on Shadowing at 3, Disguise at 1, and – what the hell – Torture at 1. It won’t come up at first, but when he gets further along in his Corruption track, Dr. North will eventually bring his subjects back alive in order to better perfect his art.

Additionally, each rank in a given skill gives us either a specialty or (mostly for combat skills) a stunt. Specialties are flat +1 situational bonuses for specific areas of study under the broader skill, while Stunts are special tricks or fighting maneuvers. In our case, the Doctor calling provides for a grab-bag of Medicine stunts as part of the Calling’s “Black Bag” feature. You’d better believe that we’ll be taking them.

With stunts and specialties factored in, that gives us a final skill list of:

Alchemy 3 (Reanimation, Manufacture),
Disguise 1 (Blending In),
Etiquette 2 (Decorum, Bedside Manner),
Forensic Science 2 (Forensic Pathology, Toxicology),
Language – English 5,
Language – Latin 2,
Medicine 4 (Credentials, Euthanasia, Peerless Surgeon, Reanimist),
Melee Combat 3,
Natural History 2 (Biology, Botany),
Occult Lore 2 (Theosophy, Golden Bough),
Pistols 1 (Headhunter),
Shadow 3 (Lurking, Chasing, Crowds),
Thanatology 2 (History, Animate Anatomy),
Torture 1 (Knives)

Step 4: Corruption

Every character in Unhallowed Metropolis is tainted by the touch of corruption – what else would you expect in a world where the very earth itself is Blighted? Whether this is expressed in their desires, their drive, or their physical appearance, it’s the devil at the door, always seeking their ruin.

Like attributes and skills, the paths of corruption are rated from one to five, with increasingly severe penalties. However, a character can call for a reroll any dice roll which affects him (that is, both his own rolls and rolls targeting him) a number of times per session equal to his highest corruption rating. Actually, he can go one beyond the rating, but doing do results in the automatic gain of another point of corruption. It’s a devil’s bargain, to be sure. But when your character’s ass is on the line, sometimes it just may be worth it.

For Dr. North, I think we’ll start him down the road to ruin on the Drive corruption path, with the Twisted desire to unlock the secrets of flesh and blood. He’s only at rating 1 right now, which basically just manifests as a morbid fascination in anatomical specimens. However, his mind will soon be consumed by obsession with the inner workings of the human body. And he’ll debut his blood opera in the alleys and workhouses of London’s poorer districts soon enough.

After all, the specimens must be fresh . . .

Step 5: Select Qualities and Impediments

Unsurprisingly for a game with point-based chargen, UnMet has a system of merits and flaws (Here called Qualities and Impediments). Qualities may be purchased with Custom Points or offset with points from Impediments. A character may take as many Qualities as he can afford. Impediment points in excess of the character’s Qualities are added to the character’s Custom Points. A character may offset up to 10 points of Qualities with Impediments. In addition, a character may gain up to 10 Custom Points from Impediments.

As a Doctor, we already have the Resolve quality for free, so that’s a start. After flipping through the book, I think I’m going to give Dr. North the following:

Qualities
Private Anatomy Theater – 2pt
Private (Alchemical) Laboratory – 3pt
Veteran – 2pt (Dr. North fought as a medic with the Deathwatch in the tomb-cities of Crimea)
Quiet – 3pt (+2 to Shadow rolls when stalking a human or vampire)

Impediments
Secret – 2pt (If he’s caught on his nightly sojourns, loss of his license to practice will be the least of his worries)
Ward – 2pt (He has a wan, frail daughter he keeps at home under his personal care after the loss of his wife)
Malignity – 3pt (This bumps his Drive corruption up to 2. Now he suffers a -1 penalty to Charm rolls unless he’s seen someone bleed, and he’s slightly quick to prescribe radical or invasive procedures, which he conducts himself)
Plague-Kissed – 2pt (Unless decapitated or burned, his corpse is guaranteed to rise as an animate 1d5 minutes after death)
Minor OCD – 2pt (-1 to all rolls for 1d10 hours if his routine is disrupted)

All told, that gives us a net balance of 1 more point to play with.

Step 6: Spend Custom Points

In addition to the point we gained from his flaws, we’re given an additional 5 points to play with. I think I’ll use it to raise his Natural History to 3 (taking a specialty in anthropology) and to open up Unarmed Combat at 2 (Improved Knockout, Trip)

Step 7: Putting it all Together

So after all that, here’s our finished UnMet character (note: I’ve taken the liberty of equipping him ‘offscreen’)

Name: Dr. Lawence North
Calling: Doctor
Attributes: Vitality 2, Coordination 3, Wit 2, Intellect 4, Will 3, Charm 2, Prowess 5

Skills: Alchemy 3 (Reanimation, Manufacture), Disguise 1 (Blending In), Etiquette 2 (Decorum, Bedside Manner), Forensic Science 2 (Forensic Pathology, Toxicology), Language – English 5, Language – Latin 2, Medicine 4 (Credentials, Euthanasia, Peerless Surgeon, Reanimist), Melee Combat 3, Natural History 3 (Anthropology, Biology, Botany), Occult Lore 2 (Theosophy, Golden Bough), Pistols 1 (Headhunter), Shadow 3 (Lurking, Chasing, Crowds), Thanatology 2 (History, Animate Anatomy), Torture 1 (Knives), Unarmed Combat 2 (Improved Knockout, Trip)

Qualities/Impediments: Private Anatomy Theater, Private Laboratory, Resolve, Veteran, Quiet, Secret, Ward, Malignity, Plague-Kissed, Minor OCD

Corruption: Drive(Twisted) 2

Wealth: 7
Assets: A medical valise containing the tools of his trade, a wardrobe containing respectable clothing, including at least one fine suit and one fine brass respirator, felt top-hat, a modest home in the vicinity of Kensington staffed by two full-time domestic servants (who try to forget that they found the secret room behind the library’s false fireplace)
Weapons and Armor: Kramer Break-Top .455 Revolver (+5 damage), 1 box ammo (20rd), Sword Cane (+1 Damage), Liston Knife (+1 damage), Combat Syringe x 3, Leather Combat Corset (torso armor +1), Reinforced rubber combat boots (foot armor +3), Rubber armored labcoat (arm, leg, torso armor +1)
Pocket Change: 2p 4s

Published: 2008, Khepera Publishing
Books Used: There’s only the core

Hellas is a game I desperately want to like, despite its flaws. Its reimagining of the Greek epics as space opera SF is certainly unique, and the author is passionate about his product. However, the game is critically in need of errata or a second edition, as the rules don’t always live up to the quality and care present in the fluff. Most of this I attribute to the fact that Jerry Grayson switched the game away from the D6 system late in its development cycle – most of the rules oddities are the result of an incomplete or imperfect port rather than questionable game design (unlike Alpha Omega, which we’ll cover later).

So what we have in the finished product is a fascinating but deeply flawed game which perfectly fills a niche I never even knew existed (Or maybe I’m blind and the market is flooded with Epic-scale space opera games based on Greek myth and featuring world-changing heroes duking it out across the stars). However, enough editorializing: I’ve already reviewed the game once, and we’re here to roll up a hero.

Step 1: Determine a Race

Hellas, being a SF game, presents players with a multitude of humanoid (-ish) races – eight, to be exact. And while we’re given the option of playing everything from a stock human to an amphibious cephalopod wearing a cybernetic humanoid carapace to a sentient insect colony, I think I’m going to go with the Amazorans: a fearsome race of 2 meter tall, blue-skinned warrior women.

Our selected racial template gives us a baseline set of attributes, skills and abilities, which we’ll build upon with the randomly-rolled lifepaths over the next couple of steps.

Amazoran

(I wouldn’t worry about these low stats. Hellas is a zero-normative game, where your attribute + skill (or double attribute, if there’s no relevant skill) is added to a D20 roll as a bonus/penalty)

Attribute Adjustment: none (Not shocking. That’s one of the advantages reserved for Hellenes (read: humans))
Hit Points: 20
Skills: Computers (personal) +1, Cultural Studies (Amazoran) +7, Ride +1, Speak Language (Amazoran, native), Speak Language (any) +3, Stealth +1, Weapon (Rifle) +2

Step 2: Roll Background Lifepaths

Here’s where things get interesting. Hellas uses random lifepath tables to determine a Hero’s background, including their place of birth, heritage, etc. I know that some people dislike this approach, but it suits me fine. It gives me a character that already feels slightly lived-in, and fixes them in the setting. (Plus, I’m lazy.)

Based on our lifepath rolls, it appears that our Amazoran was born on the planet Stymphalos, in the winter month of Skirophorion. Referring to the setting information, it appears that her homeworld is covered in lush forests – the local government prohibits the destruction of any plant life, so the Hellenes who settled there constructed their cities within and around the massive trees. I also note that it’s in the Arkadia region, solidly in Hellene space, and that the Temple Moon of the huntress goddess Artesia is nearby.

Now that we know where she was born, let’s see what her family was like. According to our rolls, she was orphaned on Stymphalos, where she raised herself. However, she comes from a stock of great warriors (+1 to any fighting skill), and her house is destined for greatness (or unbelievable failure). She’s an only child, and she carries with her the last reminder of her mother: her spear. Unbeknownst to her, her Hellene father carried divine blood in his veins. – his grandmother was Artesia herself (+3 Glory).

She carries proof of this union on her very body in the form of a birthmark shaped like the goddess’ bow upon her right thigh. Though it’s half covered by ritual scars and blackwork tattoos, it’s still strangely visible (+10 Glory). She also carries herself with the bearing of a noble or a hero; even when on the hunt, half covered in muck and leaves. (Aura of Nobility Talent).

As a child, she was witness to family intrigue: her mother was denounced as a traitor to her people after she married the Spartan warrior who bested her strength and her heart upon the fields of Platea. They fled together to Stympahalos, where they sought refuge in the lawless, lightless Undercity which sprawls across the forest floor. Eventually, however, an Amazoran hunting party located them: executing them both upon the traitor’s golden spear – but not before they managed to conceive a child and raise her in the ways of both their proud warrior traditions.

She will avenge them.

Of course, the Fates can be cruel… and if they have their way, our heroine will die mad and alone, her destiny unfulfilled.

Step 3: Choose a Profession

Now that we have a background for our (as yet unnamed) Amazoran, we need to select her profession. This is the role she filled in society before she heeded the call to glory, and determines which lifepath tables we use to flesh out her past exploits.

Now, there are race-specific professions, but our character grew up outside her native culture. So let’s stick with the defaults – say, Scoundrel to represent the time she spent scrounging in the alleys of the Undercity.

Scoundrel
Attribute Adjustment: DEX +1 or CHA +1 (player’s choice)
Callings: Noble, Rogue, Sailor, Scholar
Skills:Appraise +1, Deception +3, Deduce Motives +2, Disable Mechanism +4, Evade +3, Forgery +1, Gamble +4, Seduction +4, Sleight of Hand +4, Profession (scoundrel, DEX) +4
Talents: Social Chameleon
Starting Gear: Doric Chiton and Hitmation of high fashion quality, Electronic keys, Hoplite pistol
Money: 500dm base

Step 4: Callings

The next step is to use the available Calling charts to map out our character’s professional life up to this point. We can take up to 5 Callings, with each one aging our character from 1-5 years.

1. For the first 4 years of her adult life, she lived basically hand-to-mouth among the broken and the lost. That is, until the crazy soothsayer who preached the word of the gods in the street accosted her to warn her that she was in dire peril: Heuson, father of the gods, had received word that she was fated to kill him. “Even now,” the mad-eyed, toothless prophet half-screamed into her fact, spittle flying with every word, “he commands the Fates to weave together your enemies into the tapestry of your destruction! Beware!”
2. This stirred her into action. Feeling pressure to get off-world, she ran from the old man. After stealing a new set of clothing, she cleaned herself up as best she was able and signed on aboard a Hellene freighter. For the first 5 years, everything was fine – she was on the move, away from her enemies, and she found the roiling violet clouds of Slipspace strangely soothing. Then, disaster struck. One night when she was standing watch, she heard a curious song from off the port bow – a Siren! Arrogantly believing that she was immune to the charms of women (supernatural or no), she refused to go belowdecks or even plug her ears. Were it not for the swift intervention of the crew, this would have proved fatal. In the night, she still occasionally longs for the Siren’s touch. (+1 bonus while piloting in Slipspace)
3. This shook her view of herself, and of her life. She deserted her post at the next port and spent the next two years travelling the stars alone, seeking understanding. (+1 to any two skills)
4. Eventually, she returned home, where the hoplites of the merchant marines were waiting for her… The next two years were a constant cat-and-mouse game as she eluded their patrols until they finally decided that she wasn’t worth the effort. (+1 in Evade)

Now, at the age of 31 (Amazoran adult age + 13 years of Callings), she’s ready to begin her destiny. But Heuson never forgot about her, and he is always watching…

Step 5: Spend Freebie Points

To partially offset the random nature of the lifepaths and callings, characters are given 40 points to spend on Attributes, Skills, and Talents. Attributes and Talents are +5 per, and Skills are +1.

None of the callings we rolled really gave our character the fierce warrior nature I was hoping for, so I spend 10 of those freebie points to raise her CR from 0 to +2. Additionally, I’m going to give her the Opportunist and Tough as Bronze talents to reflect the training instilled in her by her parents. That leaves us with 20 points.

Let’s spend 5 to raise her Weapon (Rifle) skill up to +7, and let’s give her Weapon (Spear) at +3 so she can use her mother’s heirloom. Hm, 12 points left. Let’s raise Evade to +6, then spend the rest to raise STR and CON both to +1.

Step 6: Other Details

Now that all the heavy lifting is out of the way, we just have to finish fleshing out the character. First though, let’s name her. Hmm… let’s go with Antiope, after her mother.

Now that we have that messy detail out of the way, it’s mostly just a game of sums. We have to figure Hero Points, Glory (the character’s renown), and total HP. There’s nothing remarkable about the process, so I’ll just drop them on the finished character below.

While I’m at it, I’ll also give the Antiope the ambitions “Kill the Amazoran warrior Molpadia and her entire retinue in revenge for her parents”, “Secure the assistance of the fabled sword of Peleus, lost to the Hellenes in their ancient flight from Knossis,” and “Cure her heart of its longing for the Siren’s cold embrace.” Ambitions basically work like situational bonuses, providing a +2 to all dice rolls made in their pursuit.

Since our character is a Hero in the classical mode, we’re required to give her a few … quirks. We have 5 ranks to distribute over 3 disadvantages, which give us Hero Points equal to their value whenever they pop up.

For Antiope, I’m going with:

* External 2: She’s still listed by the merchant marines as a deserter, and is wanted to stand trial accordingly
* Internal 2: Temper. She really doesn’t like it when people stand in her way. Especially not men.
* Relationship 1: Always, the lure of the Siren…

I also have to give her an Epithet, or a descripter of something she’s known for. In Antiope’s case, I’m going with “Vengeful.”

Putting it all Together

Vengeful Antoipe

INT +0
PER +0
WIL +1
CHA +0
STR +1
DEX +3
CON +1
SPD +2
CR +2
DYN -1

Skills: Appraise +1, Computers (personal) +1, Cultural Studies (Amazoran) +7, Deception +3, Deduce Motives +2, Disable Mechanism +4, Evade +6, Forgery +1, Gamble +4, Pankraton +1, Ride +1, Seduction +4, Slight of Hand +4, Profession (Scoundrel, DEX) +4, Speak Language (Amazoran, native), Speak Language (Hellene) +3, Stealth +1, Weapon (Rifle) +7, Weapon (Pistol) +2, Weapon (spear) +3

Ambitions:
* Kill the Amazoran warrior Molpadia and her entire retinue in revenge for her parents
* Secure the assistance of the fabled sword of Peleus, lost to the Hellenes in their ancient flight from Knossis
* Cure her heart of its longing for the Siren’s cold embrace.

Disadvantages:
* External 2: She’s still listed by the merchant marines as a deserter, and is wanted to stand trial accordingly
* Internal 2: Short-tempered. She really doesn’t like it when people stand in her way. Especially not men.
* Relationship 1: Always, the lure of the Siren…

Glory: 13
Hit Points: 20
Hero Points: 5

Talents: Aura of Nobility, Social Chameleon, Scavenger, Tough as Bronze

Gear: Mother’s spear, Doric Chiton and Hitmation of high fashion quality, Electronic keys, Hoplite pistol, Amazoran flame lance (7′ long plasma rifle)

Money: 45dm

Encounter Critical is… Well, let’s just let the game describe itself. I doubt I could do it justice. You see, it comes from that special time back in the 70′s when games really didn’t have to make sense, despite claims of True Scientific Realism.

Quest into the slaver kingdoms or hurl yourself into the galaxies of space to find wealth and destiny. Your tactics and your character are yours to control as you undertake ENCOUNTER CRITICAL.

This rules manual includes complete rules for both fantasy and science fiction in a single game, combined as you’ve never seen them combined before, into a coherent whole with true scientific realism on every page. Imagine the excitement you can enjoy with the freedom to play an Elf or a Klengon – as you choose! Even combine them for something even more incredible.

The combat systems are based on both actual experience and deep research, and in all ways ENCOUNTER CRITICAL exceeds what you have come to imagine a role-play game to be. There is no difficulty combining the excitement of fantasy with the elegant and natural laws of science fiction when you have these rules for your scenario.

Quite a lofty goal, huh? Well, let’s see how well it works in practice, shall we?

Step 1: Roll for Stats

As is appropriate for a game from the era, stats are randomly determined using 3d6 in order. The game doesn’t mention anything about rerolls, so I’m going to take whatever it gives me. In Encounter Critical our stats are Adaptation, Dexterity, ESP, Intellect, Leadership, Luck, Magic Power, Robot Nature, and Strength.

A quick turn with the dice yields us the following scores:

Adaptation: 13
Dexterity: 18
ESP: 11
Intellect: 9
Leadership: 14
Luck: 9
Magic Power: 9
Robot Nature: 12
Strength: 14

Step 2: Roll for Race

What, you thought that you’d get to pick your race? Fool! That’s far too namby-pamby new-age for a True Scientific game like Encounter Critical. What, are you from Planet White Wolf’s drama club or something? We ROLL our race here, just like god and Gygax intended!

And that’s just what we’ll do. Race is determined by a percentile roll on a chart that includes Humans, Hoblings, Klengons, and Planetary Apes. We roll an 86, which means that we’re playing a…

Vulkin: A peaceful race of aliens, founder of a vast star empire and often called “the half-elven,” though true elves deny any shared relations. Adjust stats: +2 INT, -1 LEA, +2 ESP, -1 LUC, -2 MAG, +2 ROB, +1 STR. In addition, a Vulkin gets -10% Steal, +20% Logic, +5% Alchemist, and +10% Robot Friend.

Step 3: Optional Features

The book includes optional features which can be taken to simulate various races, such as Cave Primitive, or Evolved. However, there’s only one that gives us access to unique abilities: Mutation. It’s all well and fine that it gives you the option to make your Wooky into a fearsome caveman, but this is the only way we’re going to potentially end up with Armor Piercing Fists!

We can roll 1d100 against the mutation chart up to 3 times, with the understanding that we MUST take the results of each roll in turn.

We roll 74, 50, and 34, giving our Vulkin the following mutant powers:

* Limbs Detachable (May trade with others like you)
* Additional Secret Eye (choose where)
* You Melt in Water (a bucket will do 3-30 damage)

Okay… That’s not quite as awesome as if we could punch a tank with our bare hands, but I guess I’ll just have to live with it.

Step 4: Select Class

Oddly enough, there’s no mechanic in the extensive 28 page rulebook for determining class. However, I really doubt that Battle Star Games would have wanted you to just PICK it. That’s not realistic at all!

Hm… six classes. Let’s roll 1d6 against the order they appear in the book. That feels right.
And we roll a 2, for Warlock. Not ideal, given the Vulkin resistance to Magic, but not horrible.

The class gives us 2d4 (3) Hit Points and 8d100 (558) Gold Credits starting out.
We also know 1 spell, and our magic attack does 1d4 damage.

Encounter Critical, unsurprisingly for its era, uses D&D style Vancian casting, where Warlocks have to memorize spells between encounters. However, it shows some forethought which presages the more organic spellcasting systems of the ’90s, such as Shadowrun: a Warlock may also use magic to attack or to perform any feat he could reasonably be expected to accomplish though normal skill use, for a flat cost of -1% to the skill in question. To offset this loss, a Warlock gains 10 percentile points to distribute among his skills each time he levels up.

Speaking of leveling up, that’s another place where Encounter Critical was ahead of its time: instead of just requiring a flat XP goal to gain a level, EC also requires that you perform a task appropriate to your class. For example, our Warlock must design a new spell and scribe it in his grimoire. If I didn’t know better, I’d almost have a hard time believing that this rule came out of a 30-year-old game. Go old-school!

Step 5: Calculate Skill Percentages

The Encounter Critical rulebook contains a tear-away section listing the percentage modifiers for each skill, based on attribute scores. Thankfully, the copy of the game S. John Ross scanned still contains an intact copy of these tables, or we’d be in trouble!

Some skills are modified by multiple attributes, so I’m just going to run through these score by score. I’ll tabulate their final totals on the “character sheet” below.

Adaptation
Camping: 63%, Consume Alien: 10%, Appease: 56%, Invisibility: 72%

Dexterity
Ranged Attack: 86%, Sneak Attack 84%, Sneak: 60%, Steal: 66%, Saving Throw: 38%, Missile Damage: +7

ESP
Psychic Implant: 18%, Command Matter: 32%, Command Energy: 36%, Read Minds: 23%, PSI Resist: 18%, Interaction: 6%, Saving Throw: 3%

Intellect
Logic: 69%, Scholarship: 51%, Argue: 58%, PSI Resist: 11%, Experience Bonus: 4%, Clue 23%

Leadership
Command: 64%, Restore Courage: 48%, Seduce: 52%, Crowd Manipulate: 42%, Invisibility: -9%

Luck
Survival: 38%, Saving Throw: -2%, Enrich: 15%, Happenstance: 18%, Mistaken Identity: 10%

Magic Power
Magical Attack: 13%, Ensorcel: 47%, Conjure: 0%, See The Future: 4%, Alchemist: 12%, Monster Friend: 12%

Robot Nature
Unpleas. Odor: 70%, Logic: 10%, Seduce: -10%, Invisibility: 10%, Guard: 69%, Labor: 92%, Machine Friend: 40%

Strength
Melee Attack: 73%, Melee Damage: +4, Lesser Feat: 90%, Great Feat: 17%, Logic: -2%, Scholarship: -2%, Saving Throw: -8%, PSI Resist: 1%

Putting it all together

Herr Spöcke
Level 1 Mutant Vulkin Warlock
3 Hit Points

Attributes:
Adaptation: 13
Dexterity: 18
ESP: 13
Intellect: 11
Leadership: 13
Luck: 8
Magic Power: 7
Robot Nature: 14
Strength: 15

Skills:
Alchemist: 17%
Appease: 56%
Argue: 58%
Camping: 63%
Clue: 23%
Command Energy: 36%
Command Matter: 32%
Command: 70%
Conjure: 0%
Consume Alien: 10%
Crowd Manipulate: 48%
Enrich: 15%
Ensorcel: 47%
Experience Bonus: 4%
Great Feat: 17%
Guard: 69%
Happenstance: 18%
Invisibility: 73%
Labor: 92%
Lesser Feat: 90%
Logic: 97%
Machine Friend: 50%
Magical Attack: 13%
Melee Attack: 73%
Melee Damage: +4
Missile Damage: +7
Mistaken Identity: 10%
Monster Friend: 12%
Psi Resist: 18%
Psychic Implant: 4%
Ranged Attack: 86%
Read Minds: 23%
Restore Courage: 54%
Saving Throw: 31%
Scholarship: 49%
Seduce: 56%
See The Future: 4%
Sneak Attack: 84%
Sneak: 60%
Steal: 56%
Survival: 38%
Unpleasant Order: 70%

Mutant Powers:

* Limbs Detachable (May trade with others like you)
* Additional Secret Eye (choose where)
* You Melt in Water (a bucket will do 3-30 damage)

Starting Funds: 558 Gold Credits

I’d buy gear, but it looks like the scan I’m working from is missing pages. If I manage to track down another copy of this forgotten gem, I’ll finish the character.

*Okay, okay… Encounter Critical isn’t actually a lost game from the ’70s. It’s actually a hoax put together by S. John Ross as a loving parody of games from the hobby’s Dark Ages.

So in order to get myself back on track, I’m migrating the challenge over to a new gaming-focused blog, rather than my general purpose personal journal. Expect a flurry of posts as I play catchup, with a new character and overview of Fireborn to follow.