Conclusion: The Character Creation Game Jam, A Retrospective!

I did it! 31 characters in 31 days! I used a total of 35 systems, because of times when I made the same character in multiple systems, and that one time when I got beaten by a game being too complex. It was a slog at times, but it was also extremely fun: revisiting old favourites, or trying out new games. At the start of the whole series I made a list of the 31 games I'd do. The list changed over time - due to the pressure of learning enough of each game to be able to make the characters and write about them, I wound up cutting a lot of the crunchier systems and putting more rules-light, indie things on to the list. 

There are still more games I haven't covered - because they were just too in-depth for the time I had available (Vampire: The Requiem), or they used the same system as a game I'd already covered (Avatar: Legends), or they don't really have character creation rules (The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen) or because they're derived from D&D, which I deliberately omitted. I'm going to give it a break, but I might go back and make characters for some of them later, though definitely at a more relaxed pace! 

Now for some awards and shout-outs!

Most Popular Game, Favourite New Game, Game I Most Want To Play... let's just call it Overall Grand Winner: Thirsty Sword Lesbians by Evil Hat Games

This was my most popular post by a landslide, thanks to all my wife's social media network getting involved, and Evil Hat Games sharing my post too. Also this game is amazing, I loved making the characters, I loved reading through the other option, I loved imagining the drama and comedy and adventure that this game would create. Watching She-Ra and the Princesses of Power at the same time didn't hurt!

Favourite Character Made: There's a few shout-outs here: Maud Allingham for Kids on Bikes made me cackle at the thought of Anne Shirley vs. the Mythos. 'Wee' Weither Lang for Fantasy Roleplay amused me at the thought of the one literate flagellant who writes everyone's placards for them. I want to know how Captain Oskar von Auerbach is going to resolve being a loyal Hussar and a fervent Anarchist for Castle Falkenstein. The grand winner, though, is Mark Melville, a.k.a. the superhero Bookworm, for Fate Core and Fate Accelerated. This was a really fun Marvel-style character and it was easy to imagine an entire world around them. I'd be interested in recreating him for other superhero games (Champions was another one I wound up skipping) and seeing how they handled him. Fate handled him just fine.

Favourite Character Creation: Anything that made me think about who my character was rather than what they can do. I also preferred things that held my hand a bit by giving me options or asking me targeted questions - some of the broader games left me waiting for inspiration to strike. And definitely simple over complex, because I only have so much brain space over after kids and work! There were a few games that I really enjoyed, but since I've already mentioned all the others I'm going to give the shout-out here to Dragonlance: Fifth Age, specifically with the Saga Companion added in. This game NEEDS a retroclone!

Favourite Game: Pendragon, but you knew that already.

Least Favourite Game: Runequest, but you knew that already too.

Thanks everyone! Extra big thanks to Courtney 🌻 The Sunflower Court - itch.io for organizing the whole thing! 

Day Thirty-One, Addendum: Prince Valiant

Greg Stafford actually released two games about being a knight in the age of King Arthur. This is the lesser-known one!

Years ago, I met a lovely old gentleman who was selling his collections of the Prince Valiant newspaper strips. It's a fantastic saga that's been running since 1937 and is still going today. Valiant, Prince of Thule joins King Arthur's knights and travels all over the world in search of adventure. Hal Foster's art is jaw-droppingly good, and his script often unexpectedly hilarious. 

The TTRPG, which came out in 1989, is designed to be an introductory game. Its basic game rules are only a single page long. Players build pools of coins to flip and count heads or tails to determine their success or failure. In the basic rules, all players are Knights; in the advanced rules, you can follow other careers, more non-Knightly skills are introduced, and a very basic personality system appears. More interestingly, in the advanced rules players gain the ability to take over as GM and run adventure episodes!

Character Creation: A Prince Valiant character sheet could probably fit on a business card. You have two statistics: Brawn and Presence, and split 7 points between them. You then allocate nine points between six skills, and you're ready to play. Below you'll see Sir Florence, remade for Prince Valiant.

Final Thoughts: I think Prince Valiant was ahead of its time. It's a shame that it's out of print, due to the license. There was a second edition back in 2019 through Kickstarter, also out of print. I really wouldn't be surprised if Chaosium strips the Prince Valiant setting from it and re-releases it in a generic format, like they did with HeroQuest / QuestWorlds. If they do, it'll be worth checking out.

My other final thoughts are that with this review, I am DONE! 31 characters in 31 days, done and dusted! I have one final entry to go, which is a retrospective of the whole project.

Day Thirty-One: King Arthur Pendragon

I've finally made it to Day 31! Right at the beginning of this challenge, I decided I'd save my favourite RPG of all time for the final day and now, at last, here we are...

King Arthur Pendragon is the best RPG I've ever read or played. Created by my Greg Stafford (who also created Glorantha, from all the day back on Day 4), this game is laser-pointed at emulating being a knight in King Arthur's Britain. Everything about this game is perfect. The core mechanics is blackjack - roll a d20 and try to roll as high as possible without going over your skill; for contested rolls, the highest roll that doesn't exceed their skill is the winner - which creates a beautiful web of possible outcomes without any complexity. 

In addition to your usual attributes and skills, characters also have personality traits and passions. Traits are arranged in opposites, like Trusting/Suspicious, and both sides add up to 20. Characters earn Glory (basically Experience) by having extreme personality traits, but extreme personality traits can also have influence a knight's behaviour - just like in the literature. You can also have your character roll personality traits against one another to decide how you're feeling about things, a level of mechanical nuance about conflicting emotions I haven't seen anywhere else. In addition, different religions and philosophies value different combinations of personality traits and offer very worthwhile rewards. Should you be Modest, as Chivalry demands, or Proud like a good Pagan? Or should a Chivalrous Knight value Justice or Mercy higher? Pendragon demands that players interrogate their morals and make meaningful, difficult decisions more frequently that anything else I've played. 

In addition, characters also have Passions. These are like additional personality traits: you can show Loyalty to your Lord or Hatred towards the Saxons or Love for your damsel, for instance. These can also lead to further conflicts. You can also use them to give you very significant bonuses but at the risk of becoming melancholic if you fail to invoke them, or worse yet, succumb to madness as you're overwhelmed by your emotions.

The most important aspect of Pendragon, to my mind, is its scope. Every adventure takes a year in game time, and between adventures your knight returns to manage their estate. Characters age rapidly; if they don't die in combat, old age will claim them eventually. So you have to ask how you want your character to live, and also how you want your character to die. You have to plan for a family so you have heirs who can take over after your inevitable defeat. With the Great Pendragon Campaign covering 80 years (!!!) of legendary history, you will have multiple generations over the course of telling your own saga. I've played through the first half of the Great Pendragon Campaign before our group drifted apart: it took over five years in the real world and forty years in Britain, and it was the best game I've ever played.

Character Creation: I find character creation in Pendragon to be a breeze, though part of that might be my familiarity with the system! Basic character creation assumes that you are a squire in Salisbury on the verge of being knighted. I decided to create my character, Sir Florence, as if they had already finished that first session.

Note that there is now a 6th Edition, but this is based on the 5.2 edition. New Zealand didn't get many copies of the new edition and I'll need to order it from overseas one day.

I began by distributing 60 points amongst five Attributes: Size, Dexterity, Strength, Constitution and Appearance. I want Sir Florence to be capable in combat, but also to be quite a courtly character, so I gave him a 15 in Size and Appearance and distributed the rest amongst the other stats roughly evenly, then added an additional +3 Con for being a Cymric knight. I used these stats to work out my derived stats - my damage, healing rate, movement rate, hit points and threshold for unconsciousness.

Next, I decided Sir Florence's personality traits. I decided that he would be raised British Christian, but wouldn't be particular devout, so I underlined his religious virtues (Chaste, Energetic, Generous, Modest and Temperate) and set them at 13, and the opposites to 7. I got to pick one Trait to be my famous trait, and I decided to go for Merciful, putting it at 16 and the opposite, Cruel at 4. Valorous starts at 15 and Cowardly at 5 because I'm a Knight, and everything else is at 10.

Next are his Personality Traits. We start with the virtues of Loyalty to our Lord, Love of our Family, Hospitality and Honour. This also tells me the values of my society! They all start at 15, and I have three points to distribute, which I spread evenly. I also will get Hatred of the Saxons, but that's generated later.

The next step are skills. All the skills have given starting values. I get to pick one skill to be my famous skill, and make it be 15; I picked Courtesy. Next I can add +5 to four skills, and I used this to increase my Horsemanship, Lance and Sword skills (critical combat skills) and also my Awareness. Next I can pick any four numbers to increase by 1, or 5 if it's a skill, so I get my last passion up and put some more points into skills. Finally I have 10 more points to distribute amongst skills. 

I have a few more things to fill in - starting equipment, horses, my squire Lorel. Then I get up to my favourite part of character creation: family history. My players LOVED generating their family histories. These are a series of charts that go through the lives of their grandparents and parents, showing what major events they took part in, and quickly telling the story of their lives. It ties the players to the world and tells them the metaplot events. It connects them as a party as they see their ancestors fight in the same battles. It also gives them their starting glory, which is derived from the glory of their father. I decided to use the tables from 3rd Edition, and just roll for my father - this would let me start the game at 510 AD, when King Arthur draws the sword from the stone. (5th Edition starts the campaign back in 485 AD in the reign of his father, Uther Pendragon.) My father, Sir Floridas, fought in the Battle of Windsor in 490 AD and from there I inherited his Hatred of Saxons, at a measly value of 9. He then served garrison duty, and survived Saxon raiding, before dying young in 493 AD in battle with a neighbouring land. Having played before, I'm sure it's those dishonourable curs of Levcomagus who are responsible for my father's death, and with my GM's (mine!) permission, I take the Directed Trait of Vengeful +5 vs. the knights of Levcomagus. I also roll to discover my family's inherited trait: we're skilled with Naturecraft and get +5 to our Hunting skill, taking me up to an excellent Hunting 15! I also inherit an heirloom saddle worth 1 librum, as well as the estate of Stapleford.

The final step is choosing my coat of arms. With that done, Sir Florence is ready to quest for honour and glory!

Final Thoughts: Pendragon is the best RPG I've ever played and probably the best I ever will play. I can't wait to get my hands on the 6th Edition. I can't wait until my son Arthur is old enough to create his first knight.

Day Thirty: Jiangshi: Blood In The Banquet Hall

 Sometimes the past haunts you, and sometimes the past literally haunts you!

Jiangshi is a TTRPG about Chinese immigrants in the 1920s who are run a family restaurant by day and fight hopping vampires by night! The book goes into lots of detail about Chinese immigrants, Chinatowns in different American cities, and Chinese restaurants. It inspired me to do some research about Chinese immigrants here in New Zealand too, which I never got around to using. Things are getting better, but there's still a lot of culture shock and racism to be faced. As well as vampires! The game is divided into a day and night phase. During the day, the players have to complete tasks to keep the restaurant running, and at night they have to fight the vampires. As stress accumulates, characters lose access to their abilities until it's managed.

Character Creation: One of my favourite parts of character creation comes right at the beginning. Characters must decide what generation of immigrant they are, what their role in the family is, and their language skills. Characters have 14 points to spend on language, putting 0-3 points in Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing - once for Chinese, and then again for English. This right here does so much to convey the immigrant experience. You can be very capable at Chinese, but extremely poor at English. You could have excellent English skills, at the expense of your native language. Or you could be sub-par at both. It's pretty tough! I made my character Hung Ah-Ming, he's a bit of a wheeler-dealer. Since he's first generation I've given him good oral Cantonese and average literacy; on the other hand, he has average English listening skills, but he's poor at speaking and reading, and can't write in English at all.

Beyond that, characters have seven other abilities, all of which can be overwritten to complete tasks or as you have bad dreams. Ah-Ming has his wok which he's brought over with him from Guangdong, and he's skilled at Cooking and Negotiate. He's an Entrepeneur, and a bit of a poet - I imagine this as more of a good turn of phrase than literally writing poetry. His heirloom is a jade bracelet from his grandfather, and his hopes and dreams are that he can start a family and start a successful restaurant that he'll be able to pass down to his children.

I hope the jiangshi don't get him!

Final Thoughts: This is a very niche game, but it's a fascinating niche; it puts you in someone else's shoes, and it prompted me to learn more about my own country's history. For that alone it's a wonderful game. I actually have a friend who'd really like to play this, so fingers crossed, maybe one day I'll get it to the table!

Day Twenty-Nine: Nobilis

Some books you just know are something special when you hold them. There's something beyond beauty, beyond dreams, about them. Nobilis is one of those books.

Nobilis is a game about being a Sovereign Power, a sort of demigod personification of some aspect of existence. It could be trees, or laughter, or wistfulness, or anything else. Your characters wield almost unfathomable power. You belong to the Mythic Earth, the truer reality that lies behind the Prosaic Earth in which humans live. Within it, you fashion your Chancel, your personal demesne.  You can also imbue an aspect of your power in Anchors, mortal servitors. Of course, there's always bigger fish out there, like the Imperator who imbued you with your Domain, or Lord Entropy who rules all the Nobilis. Amongst his decrees is one that states that no Nobilis is allowed to love another being. Worse still, there are things from outside reality trying to get in, the Excrucians, and so you must also fight to withstand them.

Nobilis has no dice or any other randomizers. Characters have Attributes, which give them a considerable amount of power, and Miracle Points, which let them go beyond that already formidable power. Contests are won by whoever is more powerful, or more willing and capable to invest resources in them. 

Also, it's worth saying that this book, the 2nd Edition, was phenomenal for the time it was produced. There's big splashy black and white art pages. There's little sidebars with story snippets that elaborate on what is being said. It's a very cool book. It won the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming in 2003.

Character Creation: One more time, my wife Hiria joined me for character creation, because she's always been very interested in Nobilis. She decided to make Justin, the Nobilis of the Unadulterated Now - inspired by our children and how fully they can live in the moment, and by a story of a Taylor Swift concert where fans were so present that they couldn't remember it afterwards.

Nobilis is a points-buy system, and you will not have enough points to go around! There are four Attributes: Aspect (your corporal abilities), Domain (your command over your estate), Realm (your personal demesne) and Spirit (your ineffable nature, which also affects your use of ritual). Justin has only one level of Aspect, making them physically and mentally equivalent to a minor metahuman. Three levels of Domain gives Justin a deep and powerful control over the concept of 'the unadulterated now.' Living so deeply in the moment, Justin does not have a Chancel, so there's no points in Realm. Finally, Justin's unadulterated nature means he has four points in Spirit. Justin has five Miracle Points for each attribute, except Domain, where we purchase another two for a total of seven - he can use these to temporarily perform more powerful miracles than he would normally be capable of achieving.

Gifts are special powers belonging to each Nobilis. There's a guide on how to create your own powers, but we liked the look of one of the example ones - Perfect Timing. With the lower level of this, now is always the right time. (With the advanced version of this, Justin could affect the rules of temporal causality!) We also have Handicaps, which limit Justin's abilities. We took Disabled on Justin's Aspect - because he lives in the now, he has extremely limited long-term memory. He also takes Manifestation - Justin is unable to affect those who are diametrically opposed to him. Those who don't live in the now and are long-term schemers are immune to his abilities.

Next, we pick our Bonds and Anchors. All characters have 20 points of Bonds to distribute, which represent the things they care about. Hiria felt that Justin's Bonds would be constantly shifting, so we didn't bother to record those. We also are able to pick five Anchors, mortals who are tethered to our power and through whom we can act. I imagine that these five are also literally anchors for Justin, stopping his mind from completely vanishing into 'now-ness' - what long-term memory he has comes vicariously from them.

Finally, we pick our Design. Nobilis has a highly developed language of flowers. (The GM is called the Hollyhock God, because hollyhock represents vanity and ambition.) Looking through the associated symbolism, Justin's design would be a fir flower, closed, with a double row of petals, on a crescent moon and dark blue background. Beautiful.

Final Thoughts: Beautiful and unique. I'd love to play Nobilis one day, though I think it would need a very special group to run it.

Day Twenty-Eight: Dialect

 This is one of the most beautiful and most unique games in my collection.

Dialect is about an isolated community. You tell the story of the community, but more than that you tell the story of the language that you create. When the isolation ends, the language is lost, but maybe some aspects of it remain. There are lots of examples in the core book for different communities, such as the first colony on Mars. There's also cards that you use that give you prompts for the development of your language. 

Character Creation: Character creation is secondary to developing your community. Your Isolation consists of three Aspects. Two are given for you, with prompts; the last is a free choice. I looked at the Isolations and decided I liked the look for Solar Slums 2081. Global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer means that humanity has moved into corporate-owned biospheres. Those who stay outside perish. But we are a slum-dwelling gang that remains in the old metropolitan area because we don't want to sell out to the corporations.

The three aspects are:

ARTIFICIAL SHADE: We live underground or in the bottom of abandoned high-rises. We use the subway system tunnels to move around, or we have some scavenged above-ground tunnels which link different buildings.

SLUM SAVVY: We scavenge for valuable scraps, which we trade in to the biodomes for resources, especially food. Some people think this feels like selling out.

WHAT WE BELIEVE IN: This was my free-choice one. With no government and no corporate culture, we're reclaiming old cultural practices and values systems. Old religions are making a revival. We're practicing 'neo-matauranga Māori.'

Next, you draw three character cards, pick one you like, and answer the questions on it. I saw the Zealot, and liked the look of it because it links to the 'what we believe in' aspect.

The Zealot: There is a right way for the Isolation to live. You know what that way is. You will convince the others. People talk to you about your followers.

I pick one aspect which I take much too far. Obviously, it's 'What We Believe In.'

I'm named Hone Apirana, but my assumed name is Te Atua Wera, the Fiery God (which was the name of a Ngāpuhi tohunga.) I'm a tohunga ahurewa, a religious leader. I approve of the artificial shade because it's a necessity, and I explain it in terms of tapu and noa (restricted/sacred and unrestricted/mundane). I hate how we are Slum Savvy and push for hard-line independence and self-sufficiency. I'm also the main religious leader of our Isolation, I'm strongly in favour of the What We Believe In aspect and I have a lot of influence over people spiritually.

And that's my character. 

Final Thoughts: Beautiful and unique, this game gets you thinking about languages. It even has a whole section in it about action that you can take in the real world once you've played the game. I think you'd need the right group to play it, but you'd have a really amazing and unique experience. Well worth checking out.

Day Twenty-Seven: Castle Falkenstein

Every time I pick up Castle Falkenstein, I love it a little bit more! 

Castle Falkenstein (written by Mike Pondsmith in 1994) purports to be the diaries and notes of Tom Olam, a game designer who vanished years earlier. The first half of the core rulebook is the story of how he was magically kidnapped to an alternate-reality 19th century. He has various adventures as he restores the true Prince to the throne of Bayern, fights the nefarious agents of Otto Von Bismarck, woos a beautiful adventuress, and saves New Europa from Prussian conquest. There are also frequent digressions which explore aspects of the world. Normally I'm not a huge fan of fiction in game texts, but this is very charming and serves as a very good example of play. This section is also fully in colour, in a time when this was not commonplace, so it was quite lush!

The second half of the book is also in character, and it's Tom saying how he invented an RPG for his new 19th Century friends as a parlor game. As a result it's a bit different from traditional RPGs. Dice are considered vulgar, so it uses a regular deck of playing cards instead. Abilities are descriptive rather than numerical, which feels more natural - so you can be an Extraordinary Fighter, and you can play a card to temporarily do better than you usually could. There are no character sheets, because data entry forms aren't a thing yet, so instead you have a character journal. This is why the first half of the book being a story was so appropriate! I also love that there's a note saying, "If you're nervous about journalling because you're a bad writer, so were most 19th century diarists and it didn't stop them!" And then there's special rules for magic, sword duels, inventing crazy devices.

I also love the setting. It's a very early steampunk fantasy in a world where everything is a bit better brighter and happier than our world. Unlike a lot of steampunk, it focuses on Bayern rather than Britain, and it's a lot more romantic and swashbuckling. Also there's magic, fairies, dragons, dwarves, Sherlock Holmes, Emperor Norton I of the Bear Flag Republic, Pushmi-Pullyus, the Nautilus and Captain Nemo, and all sorts of other fun. For years I've wanted to write up New Zealand, where I'm from, for Castle Falkenstein - a New Zealand where history went better and indigenous rights were respected. 

Character Creation: So, so easy. There's a list of 29 different character archetypes, with more in supplements. Pick one of them - or don't! They're just suggestions with a few skills that might be useful, some possessions you might have and some ideas for the sort of things you might write in your journal. I decided to roll for which template I'd use and got an Anarchist. Interesting! But there's something very Suzie Izzard about going up to someone and saying, "Hello, I'm an anarchist!" I felt like I'd need a cover identity, so I rolled again and got a Dashing Hussar. Perfect! 

I need to pick one skill I'm Great at and four I'm Good at, as well as one at which I'm Poor. As it happens, there's five recommended skills between Dashing Hussar and Anarchist, one repeating. So I'm Great at Marksmanship and Good at Athletics, Charisma, Education and Fencing. Looking at the other skills, I decided to be Poor at Sorcery. No sixth sense or déjà vu for me!

And apart from that, there's a whole list of questions to answer, including such excellent genre-appropriate choices as "Who is your Nemesis?" But I'll answer them in the appropriate format, along with extra capitalization for emphasis. No promises about the prose style, but then that's rather the point! In the diary entry below, you'll find answers to all the character generation questions, as well as all my skills, which I underlined for clarity.

Image: Hussar of the Magdeburg Hussar Commando (1763, drawing from Richard Knötel, Uniformenkunde, 1893.) Sourced from Wikipedia.

I am driven, in this year of Our Lord 18--, to put pen to Paper so that I may address some of the peculiar Circumstances that have befallen my life. My name is Captain Oskar von Auerbach, and it was my honour to be a dashing member of the 117th Hussars of Bayern. However, my Troubles began when I was drawn to the Philosophy of Marx, and secretly aspired to Anarchy, and to topple the tyrants of Europa so that the Working Man may rise, all in the name of the Principle of Equality.

My upbringing was not an exceptional one, as I spent my Boyhood in my family's home on the outskirts of München. I was the youngest of five, from a Family renowned for its military service. Even as a boy I was renowned for my resolute and determined Nature, although I also suffered from the Vice of Obstinacy. When I grew to be a Man I defied my family's wishes and travelled to University, there gaining a Good Education. It was there that I met my sweet Angelika. It was She who first introduced me to Marx and opened my Mind to the Oppression of the Working Classes. Although I am now Bereft, I still treasure the last Letter which she sent me. 

Upon finishing my Studies, I found myself a Man at loose ends, and surrounded by friends who felt likewise. I have always possessed a Good Charisma. Those who knew me described me as Square-Jawed and Intense, with a healthy Physique, and a Serious and Dour Personality, even Gloomy. Some of my friends now meddled with spiritualism, but even as I tried it I discovered I was Poor at Magic. At this juncture I Yielded to the pressure of my family and joined the Army, swiftly earning my Commission. I became Good at Fencing and Athletics, and Great at Marksmanship. I cut a fine figure in my uniform, as did my trusted Friend Hans Ritter, who likewise joined with me. However, I retain a love for books and Scholarship, even as I detest Dishonesty, even that which men call 'Tact.' 

My unit served with Distinction during the Invasion of the dastardly Prussians, and my fellows became as Brothers to me. It was during the Fighting that I first crossed sabers with a Certain Hussar Captain of Prussia - of whom more later. My greatest Deed was my role in the Battle of Konigsberg, where we broke the Prussian invasion. 

Following the Battle, I received a Strange Letter from Angelika, and learnt that she had perished. Now I found myself Torn between serving my Prince and Country, and the Principles which had douibtless led to her Untimely Death. So I forewent further Promotion, which I had long sought, and begged leave to Uncover the Truth and maybe strike some Blow for the Revolution as well...

Final Thoughts: Love it. Castle Falkenstein is perfect. It's another one I've never played (how?! why?!) but I have finally tracked down all the books, and it's such a fantastic game in a fantastic world. Creating a character was a blast. This game is an unappreciated gem. It desperately wants a new edition, just to reintroduce it to the world.