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.