I'm trying to adapt this character I made from a Gothic Victorian campaign I ran a while back but I'm having difficultly adapting her to a modern setting.
She was originally the daughter to a pair of evil a aristocratic nobles who governed the surrounding area through murder and manipulation and fear. She fell love the gardener boy, but when her parents found out they had him beat within an inch of his life and promised to have him killed if she ever saw him again.
Naturally, they disobeyed this order and ignited the flames of rebellions in the townsfolk to get rid of her evil parents. Unfortunately, this led to an angry mob setting upon the manner where, the gardener boy died in the ensuing engagement and such was the wrath of the townsfolk that they killed the daughter along with her parents.
I can make everything work up until the the whole angry towns folk revolt against evil ruling aristocrats and murder them. Doesn't happen to much in modern times.
Does it have to be a mob vs ebil parents, and not a cult that was taken down in a shoot out with the government? That does happen, and she and the boy could have played a major role in the down fall
Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 8:43 am
Alzzak
I am here racking my brain over a virtue, so my question... what kind of actions would be worthy of faith and hope?
I'm trying to adapt this character I made from a Gothic Victorian campaign I ran a while back but I'm having difficultly adapting her to a modern setting.
She was originally the daughter to a pair of evil a aristocratic nobles who governed the surrounding area through murder and manipulation and fear. She fell love the gardener boy, but when her parents found out they had him beat within an inch of his life and promised to have him killed if she ever saw him again.
Naturally, they disobeyed this order and ignited the flames of rebellions in the townsfolk to get rid of her evil parents. Unfortunately, this led to an angry mob setting upon the manner where, the gardener boy died in the ensuing engagement and such was the wrath of the townsfolk that they killed the daughter along with her parents.
I can make everything work up until the the whole angry towns folk revolt against evil ruling aristocrats and murder them. Doesn't happen to much in modern times.
Does it have to be a mob vs ebil parents, and not a cult that was taken down in a shoot out with the government? That does happen, and she and the boy could have played a major role in the down fall
Dad owns a major corporation. You dated a worker. Started a union uprising. You could date it back a bit to the Monopoly of the oil companies.
Faith and hope are both the belief that everything will work out fine in the end, but have one key difference.
Faith believes that it will work out because of a higher power. Hope believed that it will work out because you have the power.
Edit: The sheet is blank except that you put advocate in the chronicle
Faction = Archetypes Group = Threshold
Sorry, I was trying to get my phone and myth weavers to cooperate before work. It appears I know that answer. The link should work now.
You spent 7 points on mental. Should have only been 5. Otherwise it looks good thus far.
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 4:13 pm
Mongooseh
Ravanan
Alzzak
Kowsauni
Part 3, Finalizing your character
Skill Specialties:
Pick 3 skills, they must be skills that you have at least 1 rank in. You may add a specialty to that skill. When using that skill for that purpose you get a +1.
You get to start off with 7 dots of merits. Some merits may only be taken at first level, thus using these seven dots. If you don't want to use them for merits, you can trade in 3 dots to up your Psyche by 1. This makes you more resistant to other powers and allows you to use more plasm (and thus more powers) on your turn. Since you have 7 dots, you can do this twice and raise your starting Psyche to 3 while still having 1 pt left. Merits are kind of tricky when it comes to spending your xp on them later. You have static merits, like Striking Looks, that come at set amounts, and Striking looks is the best example here because it has a 2 dot version and a 4 dot version. If you bought the 2 dot version for 4 xp, you could up it to the 4 dot version later for another 4 xp. Because its static. Most merits are not static though. These merits, and I will use Resources as an example, scale. So Resource 1-5 requires that you buy each rank. 2 for Resource 1, 4 for resources 2, 6 for 3 ect ect until eventually you end up spending 30 exp on it. So what I am saying is that if you are stuck between a static cost merit and a non-static, you will save yourself a lot of xp if you start with the non-static. Also remember that the 5th dot cost 2 of your starting dots.
If you want a fighting style, note that the following are banned: Adamant Hand - Wrong Venue Dream Combat - Wrong Venue Hedge Duelist - Wrong Venue Multi Limbed Combat - Wrong Venue Tooth and Claw - Wrong Venue Wolfpack - Wrong Venue Kendo / Fencing - To OP Dirty Fighting - To OP
Manifestations:
The other half of your powers. To Activate you roll the Key attribute for your Key + the key attribute for you Manifestation + your ranks in the manifestation.
You get 3 dots to play with for manifestations. I recommend stacking them into one that you like.
The Boneyard allows the Sin-Eater to spread her awareness of a large area and to assert control over her environment, usually by triggering “haunting” effects. Attribute: Wits • Cold Wind Boneyard: The Sin-Eater can manipulate weather and “cold” phenomena over the affected area. Key Skill: Occult • Grave-Dirt Boneyard: The Sin-Eater gains additional insights when unlocking the Boneyard within a cave system or across a graveyard. Key Skill: Occult • Industrial: The Sin-Eater gains additional insights and abilities when unlocking the Boneyard within a building or structure. Key Skill: Crafts • Passion Boneyard: The Sin-Eater can sense and influence emotions within the affected area. Key Skill: Empathy • Phantasmal Boneyard: The Sin-Eater can generate simple illusions across the affected area. Key Skill: Persuasion • Primeval Boneyard: The Sin-Eater gains additional insights and abilities when activating the Boneyard within a forest or wooded area, including influence over animals and plants. Key Skill: Survival • Pyre Flame Boneyard: The Sin-Eater gains influence over any flames or heat sources within the affected area. Key Skill: Occult • Stigmata: The Sin-Eater can perceive and affect ghosts within the affected area and can extend his perception into Twilight. Key Skill: Occult • Stillness: The Sin-Eater can dull the perceptions of others within the affected area and even make them fall asleep. Key Skill: Subterfuge • Tear-Stained Boneyard: The Sin-Eater gains additional insights and abilities when activating the Boneyard while on or within a body of water. Key Skill: Occult The Caul permits the Sin-Eater to reshape his own body as needed, often in esoteric and frightening ways. Attribute: Stamina • Cold Wind Caul: The Sin-Eater’s body adopts the characteristics associated with cold air. Key Skill: Occult • Grave-Dirt Caul: The Sin-Eater’s body gains the durability of earth and stone. Key Skill: Occult • Industrial Caul: The Sin-Eater can physically merge with mechanical devices. Key Skill: Crafts • Passion Caul: The Sin-Eater merges more fully with her geist, gaining greater intelligence and empathic abilities. Key Skill: Empathy • Phantasmal Caul: The Sin-Eater can shape his body into horrific forms. Key Skill: Persuasion • Primeval Caul: The Sin-Eater can acquire animal traits and even animal forms. Key Skill: Animal Ken • Pyre Flame Caul: The Sin-Eater’s body generates light and tremendous heat. Key Skill: Occult • Stigmata Caul: The Sin-Eater can manipulate his own blood in bizarre and esoteric ways. Key Skill: Occult • Stillness Caul: The Sin-Eater can merge with shadows. Key Skill: Stealth • Tear-Stained Caul: The Sin-Eater’s body gains the characteristics of water. Key Skill: Occult The Curse enables the Sin-Eater to afflict her enemies with strange curses and ailments and to subtly influence their minds. Attribute: Presence • Cold Wind Curse: The Sin-Eater can cause inclement weather to dog his target. Key Skill: Occult • Grave-Dirt Curse: The Sin-Eater can inflict claustrophobia, insomnia and despair on her enemy. Key Skill: Occult • Industrial Curse: The Sin-Eater can cause his enemy to suffer penalties when using technology. Key Skill: Crafts • Passion Curse: The Sin-Eater can inflict emotional turmoil on her enemy. Key Skill: Empathy • Phantasmal Curse: The Sin-Eater can change the perceptions and beliefs of her target. Key Skill: Persuasion • Primeval Curse: The Sin-Eater can turn animals against the target and even turn the target into an animal. Key Skill: Animal Ken • Pyre-Flame Curse: The Sin-Eater can cause fire, electricity and other forms of power to refuse to function for the target. Key Skill: Occult • Stigmata Curse: The Sin-Eater can inflict sickness, stigmatica and hauntings on his enemy. Key Skill: Medicine • Stillness Curse: The Sin-Eater can inflict invisibility and anonymity on her enemy. Key Skill: Stealth • Tear-Stained Curse: The Sin-Eater can give his enemy an irrational fear of water. Key Skill: Occult The Marionette allows the Sin-Eater to control physical objects, animals and even other people, manipulating their bodies like a twisted puppeteer. Attribute: Manipulation • Elemental Marionette: All four versions of the Elemental Key (Cold Wind, Grave-Dirt, Pyre-Flame and Tear-Stained) allow the Sin-Eater to create a homunculus from the element used. Key Skill: Subterfuge • Industrial Marionette: The Sin-Eater can telekinetically manipulate manmade objects. Key Skill: Occult • Passion Marionette: The Sin-Eater can influence the emotional states of those around her. Key Skill: Empathy • Phantasmal Marionette: The Sin-Eater can control his own geist, projecting his mind into its spectral form. Key Skill: Intimidation • Primeval Marionette: The Sin-Eater can directly control animals and plants. Key Skill: Animal Ken • Stigmata Marionette: The Sin-Eater can control ghosts and compel them to possess mortals on her behalf. Key Skill: Occult • Stillness Marionette: The Sin-Eater can animate and command corpses, raising them as zombie slaves. Key Skill: Occult The Oracle grants the Sin-Eater heightened sensory powers, clairvoyance and even precognitive abilities. Attribute: Intelligence • Elemental Oracle: By subjecting herself to environmental trauma associated with an Elemental Key, the Sin-Eater can astrally project. Key Skill: Occult • Industrial Oracle: The Sin-Eater can gain supernatural insights into machines and crafted items. Key Skill: Investigation • Passion Oracle: The Sin-Eater gains supernatural insights into the emotional states of others. Key Skill: Empathy • Phantasmal Oracle: The Sin-Eater gains the power to see through illusions and lies and acquires the gift of prophecy. Key Skill: Investigation • Primeval Oracle: The Sin-Eater gains powerful animalistic senses. Key Skill: Survival • Stigmata Oracle: The Sin-Eater gains insights into ghosts, geists and the spiritual world in which they travel. Key Skill: Occult • Stillness Oracle: The Sin-Eater gains supernatural insights about corpses and can even draw upon the knowledge once contained by the deceased. Key Skill: Medicine The Rage represents the Sin-Eater’s power to strike at others with pure, unadulterated power. Attribute: Strength • Elemental Rage: The Sin-Eater can make elemental attacks against another. Key Skill: Occult • Industrial Rage: The Sin-Eater can damage or destroy mechanical devices. Key Skill: Crafts • Passion Rage: The Sin-Eater can terrorize her enemy so much that he dies of fright. Key Skill: Intimidation • Phantasmal Rage: The Sin-Eater can create illusions capable of harming an enemy. Key greynecSkill: Persuasion • Primeval Rage: The Sin-Eater can summon animals to attack her enemy. Key Skill: Animal Ken • Stigmata Rage: The Sin-Eater can make the target bleed with a touch. Key Skill: Occult • Stillness Rage: The Sin-Eater can strike his enemy in subtle and indirect fashion. Key Skill: Stealth The Shroud governs effects which alter or improve the Sin-Eater’s own aura in some way, most often by strengthening it into a form of protection. The geist may materialize itself, forming around the Bound. Most versions of the Shroud add armor equal to the activation successes, but some do not. Attribute: Resolve • Cold Wind Shroud: The Sin-Eater can create a Shroud of cold air which inflicts bashing damage on those who attack her. At higher levels, the Sin-Eater can create a Shroud of electricity which inflicts lethal damage. The Cold Wind Shroud is more durable in cold climes. Key Skill: Occult • Grave-Dirt Shroud: The Sin-Eater can inflict feelings of crushing claustrophobia in any who touch him. The Grave- Dirt Shroud is more durable when the Sin-Eater stands on dirt or rock. Key Skill: Occult • Industrial Shroud: The Sin-Eater can defend more easily against weapons of any sort and can destroy man-made items with a touch. Key Skill: Crafts • Passion Shroud: The Sin-Eater can extend his Shroud’s resilience to defend against mental attacks, and she can more easily manipulate or intimidate others. Key Skill: Empathy • Phantasmal Shroud: The Sin-Eater can use her Shroud to deceive others and to hide her own features. Key Skill: Persuasion • Primeval Shroud: The Sin-Eater can augment his own physical traits and manifest animal weaponry such as claws. Key Skill: Animal Ken • Pyre Flame Shroud: The Sin-Eater can sheathe herself in ghostly flames which are intimidating to attacks. At higher levels, these flames become real and can burn those who touch her. Key Skill: Occult • Stigmata Shroud: The Stigmata Shroud grants improved resistance to Numina and Manifestations, and allows the Sin-Eater to enter Twilight. Key Skill: Occult • Stillness Shroud: The Sin-Eater can become invisible and intangible. Key Skill: Stealth • Tear-Stained Shroud: The Sin-Eater can breathe underwater and drown others with a touch. The Tear-Stained Shroud is more durable while the Sin-Eater is totally immersed. Key Skill: Occult
Example Character creation: Kat has been invited to play in Eloy’s Geist game. Eloy lets her know that the game will focus on a gang war involving both human and ghostly agents. The players’ characters will make up a krewe caught in the middle. The game’s themes will explore loyalty, paranoia, and danger, as the krewe attempts to negotiate the treacherous turf disputes while maintaining any relationships they have within the warring factions and learning about the true power behind the war, deep within the Underworld.
Kat settles down with a character sheet and a few sheets of scratch paper for notes, and starts to write down some rough ideas for her character. She discusses the setting a bit with Eloy, and bounces character concepts off the other players to get a feel for what would fit best, both into the setting and into the nascent krewe that is forming.
Step One: Concept Knowing that the story will focus on a gang war, Kat wants her character to be able to fit in on the streets. She throws out a few options and gets some back, and eventually decides to make her character a car thief who also street races for extra money and more importantly, the thrill and danger of drift racing on city streets. Kat looks through some name books and decides on the name Zita Vargas. Before she was bound with her geist, Zita was a rough and tumble car thief and street racer into drift racing, where the driver intentionally causes the rear wheels to lose traction and slide, riding a razor line between control, speed, and completely letting go. It was one of those drifts gone wrong that sent her to the other side. After the merger, she still steals cars and races them, but she’s also begun to do side work as a messenger; for the right price, she’ll deliver messages to loved ones or enemies, uncover lost or buried secrets, even take on a shady fare or two as an unlicensed gypsy cab, if she needs to.
Step Two: Attributes Now that she’s got a pretty tight character idea, it’s time for mechanics. First, Kat must prioritize Zita’s Attributes. Zita is cunning, a smart girl that fell through the cracks of the system, and her quick thinking keeps her out of trouble, so Kat prioritizes her Mental Attributes as primary. When she does get in trouble, Zita’s a scrapper, so Physical Attributes are secondary. That leaves Social Attributes as third, which fits Zita’s concept. She’s a bit rough and tumble, and not particularly good with people. Kat has five points to distribute among Zita’s Mental Attributes. Since Zita is, above all else, adaptable in the blink of an eye, Kat puts three points into Wits, giving her a Wits of four. The other two points are split between Intelligence and Resolve. She makes a note that she’d like to raise those later, as soon as she gets the experience points to do so. Next, she moves on to Zita’s Physical Attributes. Of the four points she has available, Kat puts one point in Strength and Stamina, respectively. Zita isn’t built for brute force, but she’s nimble, so Kat puts the final two dots in Dexterity, for a score of three. She’s been in plenty of fights in her time, and she’s probably won at least as often as she’s lost. Finally, she turns her attention to the Social Attributes, where she has three points to spend. What social status Zita has is entirely due to her force of personality, so Kat puts two points into Presence. Kat decides that Zita’s got a bit of a temper, so she leaves Composure below average and places the final Attribute point in Manipulation. Zita can be persuasive if she has to, but she has no patience for fools.
Step Three: Skills Next, Kat has to choose Zita’s Skills. This time, Kat chooses Physical as Primary, giving her 11 points to assign. She chooses Social Skills as the next highest priority, worth seven points there. Zita didn’t stay in school long enough to pick up much in the way of Mental Skills, so that leaves them as tertiary with only four points to spend. Zita’s concept revolves around cars and the stealing thereof, so Kat immediately drops three points in Drive and another three points in Larceny. She’s picked up a lot of other Skills in her time, so Kat puts a point each in Athletics, Brawl, and Stealth. Then, after some thought toward Firearms, Kat decides against it, and she puts her last two points in Weaponry. Zita keeps a knife in a concealed pocket in the sleeve of her jacket, and she knows how to use it. Kat moves on to Social Skills, where she has seven points to spend. A car thief has to be able to negotiate with fences and chop shops, even a Sin-Eater, so Kat puts two points each in Persuasion, Streetwise, and Subterfuge. Zita knows her way around the streets, and she can usually talk her way through a deal, whether she’s telling the truth or lying through her teeth. The final point goes into Expression. It’s not part of the original concept, but Kat decides that when nobody else is around, Zita writes rap lyrics, and she’s never had the courage to share them with anyone. It adds another facet to the character, and that pleases Kat. Finally, Kat has four points to spread among the Mental Skills. She decides to put two points in Crafts, since Zita should know how to work on cars. Kat puts a point in Occult, to reflect Zita’s curiosity about the strangeness of her own situation, and the final point goes into Computer. She’s learned a little about computers just from jacking cars, but she spends a lot of time online, checking social sites and keeping in touch with the few people she misses from out in California.
Step Four: Specialties Finished with Skills, Kat decides on Zita’s Skill Specialties, the specific areas in which she excels. To make sure Zita can actually steal cars, Kat puts a Specialty in Crafts as Hot-Wiring. For her second, Kat chooses a Specialty of Drift Racing for Drive, and for her third and final, she decides to put another Specialty in Larceny for Lock-Picking.
Step Five: Sin-Eater Traits Zita Vargas the human is pretty fleshed out now, but it’s time to transform her into a Sin-Eater. Kat reads over the Archetypes and decides, after considering the Bonepickers, that Zita is more interested in the thrill of simply being alive, so she chooses Celebrant instead. Zita’s near-death experience falls pretty well under the Forgotten, so that’s an easy choice. She chooses her Keys next. As Forgotten,she has the choice of Industrial or Pyre-Flame — Kat quickly decides that the Industrial Key reflects Zita’s technical aptitude nicely. For the Key gained from her keystone, she chooses Stigmata, liking the motif of blood and asphalt. Next, Kat looks over the available Manifestations. For now, she puts all three of her Manifestation points into the Marionette. Kat decides that Zita’s keystone memento is a lucky rabbit’s foot keychain, its fur matted with old, dried blood.
Step Six: Merits Kat has seven points to spend on Merits, either Sin-Eater specific ones or the normal human ones from the World of Darkness Rulebook. She decides to spend three points on the Stunt Driver Merit to reflect her skill driving, and she puts a point into Resources. Zita’s still not doing great, but she’s got some income, even if it isn’t exactly legitimate. Kat also takes a point of Contacts (Underground) to represent Zita’s friends in the chop shops and fences around town. Finally, she decides to take two dots worth of memento, which could give her a vanitas or two Charms. Kat discusses it with Eloy, and works out two Charms. The first is a rosary Zita found wrapped around a wrought-iron fence spike at the local graveyard, its wood blackened and the Christos rusted, that gives her a one-die bonus on Stigmata Key-related rolls. The other is a ring of broken keys for forgotten or demolished cars, taken from a jar in a junkyard that provides her with a one-die bonus on rolls related to the Industrial Key.
Step Seven: Advantages Now that all of Kat’s character’s traits are established and her Merit points are spent, it’s time for her to calculate her Advantages. Some of these are derived from other traits. Kat adds Zita’s Resolve of 2 and her Composure of 1 together to come up with a Willpower of 3. Zita’s Synergy score begins at the standard 7. Kat looks over the list of Virtues and Vices and decides that Zita may have a short temper and fall to Wrath, she also nurtures Hope for the future. Zita’s Health is 7, determined by adding her Stamina of 2 and her Size rating (5 for a human adult) together. Her Dexterity of 3 and her Composure of 1 give her a 4 Initiative. Her Wits and her Dexterity are equal at 3, so it’s a toss-up for Defense, which is the lower of the two. Finally, Zita’s Strength of 2 and Dexterity of 3 are added to her Species Factor (5 for a human adult) to give her a Speed of 10. Kat also records Zita’s starting Psyche (1), plasm (5), and Willpower points (3), the same as her Willpower dots).
Step Eight: Spark of Life Kat already has a pretty good idea of who her character is and what she can do. There are just a few more things to flesh out before she’s happy. Kat starts out looking at the list of questions on p. 67 for some ideas on how to round out Zita’s character. She decides that Zita is only in her early twenties; plenty of time to clean up and go straight or burn out in a blaze of glory. She grew up as a foster kid after her grandmother died, shuffled from one home to another across California, dumped whenever she fought too much or got caught stealing again. She wasn’t stupid, but few of her teachers reached her. She saw things just like her abuela had, down in Mexico, but nobody believed her. So she stopped telling people, afraid of being put away for being crazy. When she got old enough, she tried for a new start, moving across country to New York City. She got into trouble pretty quick, stealing cars and racing them, betting to make money to pay for a tiny apartment. Eventually she ended up on the wrong side of a bet, and found herself not-so-gainfully employed by a chop shop. They paid her to steal cars and drop them, turning them into spare parts and cash. It wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened, until a boost went bad and the cops were chasing her down the Jersey Turnpike until she rolled the car into oncoming traffic. She should have died, but she became a Sin- Eater instead. Kat decides that Zita’s geist is the Passenger, who appears in the back seat just outside Zita’s peripheral vision. She’s never seen him clearly, but she can smell him when he’s there, a mix of sickly sweet rotted blood and charred flesh. His silhouette appears in the rearview mirror, and he speaks to her through the static hiss of a dead AM radio station. No matter what she does, all of her cars gather a black stain in the back floorboard. She’s not sure of his history, but she figures that is enough to start. Kat gives her character sheet to Eloy for approval, and discusses how she’ll fit into the game. He’s happy with the character, and Zita Vargas is ready to join the game.
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 5:15 pm
PupSage
Oh hey. A Gang member like my character idea was. Lol
So where do we pop down these Specialties?
Also, with Merit skills, do we just buy from the areas? Say, Grabbing Haymaker from the boxing tree for four dots without buying anything below it?
1 dot to many on physical skills. Your 5th dot in weaponry cost 2. So either drop the 5th dot and put 1 dot elsewhere or drop a dot from another skill.
Change Elemental Rage to Tear Stained Rage. Also, you get another Key as well, but it would be Rage 3.
You can only have 1 fighting style active at a time. I recommend only investing in one.
You need to do your advantages. Size: 6 Speed: 9 Defense: 1 Armor: 0 Initiative: 4 Morality: 7 (This is your Synergy) Health is 10 Willpower 6
You have no dots in resources. Thus no way to afford a weapon. Meaning that you are reliant on your powers until you find a sword.
Langschwert covers your weaknesses more. I would raise it to 2, ditch berserker and taker Resources 1 so that you can buy a Heavy Sword.
1 dot to many on physical skills. Your 5th dot in weaponry cost 2. So either drop the 5th dot and put 1 dot elsewhere or drop a dot from another skill.
Change Elemental Rage to Tear Stained Rage. Also, you get another Key as well, but it would be Rage 3.
You can only have 1 fighting style active at a time. I recommend only investing in one.
You need to do your advantages. Size: 6 Speed: 9 Defense: 1 Armor: 0 Initiative: 4 Morality: 7 (This is your Synergy) Health is 10 Willpower 6
You have no dots in resources. Thus no way to afford a weapon. Meaning that you are reliant on your powers until you find a sword.
Langschwert covers your weaknesses more. I would raise it to 2, ditch berserker and taker Resources 1 so that you can buy a Heavy Sword.
Annoyingly for some reason berserker has a Req of 1 dot in a fighting style so its a bit naff in that sense. The idea I was having is a guy who takes everything slow and seems almost docile until he gets angreh and then he just hulk smashes things which is why I liked the look of berserker.
Edit: "Once the character has entered the berserkergang, she may use any of the maneuvers listed below. These benefits can be combined with one another or with an associated Fighting Style Merit during the same turn. These benefits can be combined with one another or with an associated Fighting Style Merit during the same turn, so long as the drawbacks or necessary expenditures do not contradict (for example, a character cannot benefit from Strength in the Fury when using a Fighting Style maneuver that otherwise costs the character her Defense)"
So I might do what you say and get the 2 point lang but I'd still get berserker.
Ultimately I'll take your advice since I know bugger and all about this but it seems that berserker does stack.
