Colorful Characters

[Shostak]

It might be fun to have a thread devoted to character backstories and how they give meaning to stats and talents. To kick it off, here's one for a PC I created for a new campaign I'm playing in (a tweaked version of The Crown of Eternity) His character sheet is below, and I've posted a greatly elaborated backstory on my blog (some language MNBSFW). Note: in our group, PCs get a mundane talent for fee.

Ikuru Yositsudo
a.k.a.: Father Kegs, His Holiness (this last one usually when people are upset with him)

ST 14
DX 12 (adj 10)
IQ: 11
MA: 10 (adj 8)

Weapons: Two Handed Sword 3D6 - 1, dagger 1D6 - 1
Armor: Leather: 2 hits
HTH: 1D6
HTH w/ dagger: 1D6 +2

Handicap: Oversexed (2 points)

Talents
Mundane Talent (0): Brewer
Language: Nataro (0)
Language: Elyntian (1)
Sword & Knife (2)
Toughness (4)
Swimming (1)
Priest (1)
Sex Appeal (1)
Seamanship (1)

Ikuru's parents were sea merchants from Nataro, who placed him in a monastery to become a priest. This monastery is famous for its beer and its martial arts training, and he became adept at both brewing and the art of the sword. Ikuru also grew to be quite handsome, so much so that he constantly attracted the attention of local shepherdesses. After sneaking several young washerwomen into the novices’ quarters on the night of an important holy day, Ikuru was expelled from the monastery. Needing to make a living, he capitalized on his skills and became first a sailor, which took him to the distant port of Arcsom, where he became a brewer. But, he soon realized that he got more girls if he worked as a bouncer, and that the money from being a mercenary kept the girls even more attentive.

Father Kegs is a large man, nearly seven-feet-tall, with the body of an athlete; he exercises and meditates with devotion. He is considerate, personable, and calm. He often answers questions and banters in combat with opaque koans. He will always take time to say a prayer for those he has killed, and he seldom misses the chance to chat up the fairer sex.

[larsdangly]

Superb! I have a few I'd like to post; I'll see if I can find the half hour to write them down later this weekend.

[ParadoxGames]

We play differently: giving only a sketchy backstory, and letting them develop through the roleplaying and reaction to the world they're in.

[Tenex]

Originally Posted by Shostak

Handicap: Oversexed (2 points)

I assume handicaps are a house rule akin to GURPS disadvantages?

[larsdangly]

Check out the TFT Companion; it reprints some old 'zine articles on handicaps. It is very 'proto-GURPS' like, but with a shorter, simpler list of options.

[Shostak]

Exactly so. Our GM encouraged us to make use of disadvantages found in the Companion.

[Tenex]

Thanks guys.

[larsdangly]

The way the flaws work in the Companion article is different, in an interesting way, from how advantages and disadvantages work in GURPS. Basically, you take on a lifetime quirk or disadvantage in exchange for getting to start play with 33-36 attribute points. Which sounds really helpful, except if you had been patient and lucky you would have gotten to that attribute total within a few adventures anyway, so pretty quickly your non-disadvantaged friends have caught up with you ... but you are still blind or have a peg leg or are a fall-down drunk or whatever. My players have't made use of these options, but I think they can work within a TFT campaign without being too disadvantaging.

One way you might game the system, if all you wanted to do was survive until you got to some high stat total before you started a life of more balanced adventuring, would be to start with a big disadvantage and 35-36 stat points, enter the arena as a Melee or Wizard contestant and use their accelerated advancement schedule to work yourself up to 40 or so, and then 'retire' to normal campaign play. Basically, this approach would be like re-enacting the first half hour of the original Conan the Barbarian movie before you launched your campaign.

[JohnPaulB]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

The way the flaws work in the Companion article is different, in an interesting way, from how advantages and disadvantages work in GURPS. Basically, you take on a lifetime quirk or disadvantage in exchange for getting to start play with 33-36 attribute points. Which sounds really helpful, except if you had been patient and lucky you would have gotten to that attribute total within a few adventures anyway, so pretty quickly your non-disadvantaged friends have caught up with you ... but you are still blind or have a peg leg or are a fall-down drunk or whatever. My players have't made use of these options, but I think they can work within a TFT campaign without being too disadvantaging.

Another way to look at it is to have a vision of what you want your character to be. If the character was going to have a limp anyway as that is how you envisioned the character, then you might as well get some points for it.

And if the GM wants to run an NPC that is not the run-of-the-mill healthy humdrum, this is a good way to add spice to them.