Day 31: Pigeon’s Eleven - Adler, The Greaseman

Adler the sparrow grew up in a Bix Box Store. From an early age all birds knew that he was a bit different - where they learned to hide and blend in, only coming out to quickly peck up a few crumbs here and there, Adler soared. Flying brazenly through the warehouse, and sometimes even the shop, he showed an elegance and a thirst for danger that was completely alien to his family. And after some time even he realized that he might be better off elsewhere. Somewhere where his antics are more appreciated. 

Adler is The Greaseman, who specializes in stunts etc. He has the Edges Sparrow, Big Box Store, and Disturbing the Peace. 

And he has a sheet.

And with that, I declare the challenge won, the third time in a row! This year was a bit painful, for various reasons I was running out of steam around halfway. Still, fun was had, and I am happy I managed to finish on time.

Day 30: Pigeon’s Eleven - The Beak, The Muscle

The Beak was held in a Country Club west of the city, a playtoy for rich people called ‘Fluffins’. Fluffins! Needless to say, their days weren’t easy. And then one day they broke, and viciously mauled their trainer, taking off to escape. There are the remains of a leather strap still wrapped around their left claw, and quite a few birds who asked dumb questions about it learned why that is a bad idea. The Beak is the second Muscle, and they are fond of Arson & Destruction. And no one knows that they were once called Fluffins.

They are The Muscle (D8) and have the Edges Hawk, Country Club, and Arson & Destruction.

And there is a sheet, of course.

Day 29: Pigeon’s Eleven - Goose Springsteen, The Highroller

Goose Springsteen - I stole that excellent name from the rulebook - grew up on The Strip, where she was the lucky companion of an older gambler called Lydia who taught Goose everything she knew about games of chance, and how to manipulate both people and games. When Lydia’s luck finally ran out fully, at a time when she had just crossed some people so bad that they would ignore that she was an old lady, Goose found herself alone in the world. Now she has one goal - to take the casino of the people who took Lydia from her for all the bread they have.

She is The Highroller (D10) and has the edges Chicken, The Strip, and Fraud / Forgery.

She also has a sheet.

Day 28: Pigeon’s Eleven - Hyacinth, The Muscle

Next up is Hyacinth, the Muscle. Hyacinth is a young swan who grew up on The Farm but has since left for the big city and a life of crime. Life in the close-knit community of The Farm has given them a strong sense of community, and he is good at reading people. That said, he has a special interest in Grand Theft Auto since cars have always magically attracted them. 

His Role is Muscle (D8), and his Edges are Swan, The Farm, and Grand Theft Auto.

And here the sheet.

Day 27: Pigeon’s Eleven - Quigley, The Pro

My original plan was to land this challenge on a five-PC party for Kult: Divinity Lost. But I have run a bit out of steam, and so want to instead highlight another fun game for which character generation is a bit easier. As a plus, it is a game I haven’t worked with before - Pigeon’s Eleven, the bird heist RPG. From the introduction to the game:

“Getting robbed by a bunch of birds is never high on somebody’s to-do list, but if you hang around long enough in this town, it becomes an inevitability. Oh, they’ll trick ya. They got mummer’s trunks full of little costumes. No warmth in the eyes. Just blank, unassuming stares….”

Yes, this is a game in which you play a crime gang made up of birds, committing crimes for food. Luckily, very few humans are aware that this can be a thing, which helps. 

As usual, let’s get some basics of the system on the table so the numbers mean something. Each character has a Role and Edges. The Role defines the type of dice the player rolls. Yes, each character is fixed to a specific die by their Role. To do something, they need to make a Move; success happens if the die rolls within the range of values for that move. Note: These are not PbtA Moves, but are more akin to abilities or skills. Sometimes you also need an Effect, i.e. how well something works, and that is just a die roll. However, for this one dice explode when rolling the highest possible number on them. Similar to DnD 5e there are Advantages and Disadvantages, meaning you roll two dice and choose the best or worst outcome - this is how Edges work, which if applicable gives you Advantage on your roll.

Let’s start with the leader of the group, Quigley. A weathered crow who was caught and sold to a magician when young, they played the prop/assistant for a year. Once they had learned all the tricks Quigley escaped. They are now The Pro, who specializes in getting into things and bypassing security measures. As The Pro, they get a D4. 

Quigley has the Edges Crow, Magician’s Assistant, Breaking & Entering.

And that is Quigley.

Day 26: Neon City Overdrive Tangier 2064 - Cézar “C” Freire

Born in the Lisbon Metroplex, Cézar Freire worked there as a fixer until the one job that went south really, really hard. As the person who always had something to trade and some way out, he was suddenly in a spot without either. Escaping with his life cost him everything, his reputation, contacts, and cozy life he had built for himself. He did manage to get out with his life, but only in return for the Trujillo Inc. corporation who deal in Data and Media getting a lease on his life. Now he is trying to rebuild in Tangier, hampered by having to regularly sell out clients and mercenaries to Trujillo. He is a man in his late 30s, wearing light western-style summer clothing - polo shirts and slacks never quite went out of style. He tends to be businesslike and charming.

Trademarks: Background: Metroplexer (Just a face in the crowd, Take notice, Haggle, Flaw: Don’t trust anyone), Role: Fixer(Charming smile, Read motives, Keep them talking, Flaw: Greedy), Advantage: The Old Bar (Dark & dingy, Safe, Crowds, Noisy, Flaw: Deep in debt). 

His Edges are Connections in Europe and Believable (Fixer), Vanishes into Crowds (Metroplexer), and Local Contacts (The Old Bar). His flaws are Reputation for Double Crosses and Pawn of Trujillo Inc.

His Drive is to Be a Big Player in Tangier.

Gear-wise he has a limousine and a small black book with contacts. His special equipment is a submachine gun (concealed), and a drone (quiet, portable, fast). And due to bad luck that’ll be it.

And here is the sheet of C.

Day 25: Neon City Overdrive Tangier 2064 - Devina "Katar" Radhakrishnan

Katar came up in the streets of Bangladesh and worked her way up to a comfortable place as a special operative in the Achgan security company. When their current charge came to Tangier, where their main competitor Pantheon Ltd. had a major presence a crucial contracts in city security and tried to make headway into the market, problems happened. In the end, Katar was left to die when their charge escaped. Broken and nearly dead, she is filled with deep anger for both Achgan and Pantheon and wants to take revenge on both. Broadschouldered and buff, Katar hides her many scars under flowing traditional Berber clothing. Her face has been replaced with a cybernetic faceplate for a while now, showing a perpetual slight sardonic smile. Within the group, she is the one ending threats, often as decisively as noisily. 

Trademarks: Gunfighter (Guns akimbo, Targeter, Steeleyed stare, Flaw: Wanted), Skin: Mil-Spec Grunt (Combat reflexes, Dermal plates, Flaw: Bloodthirsty), Cyberwear: Cosmetic Replacement (Threatening, Unreadable, Flaw: Unable to connect)

Edges: Tactical thinking (Gunfighter), Musclegrafts and Precision Shooter (Mil-Spec Grunt), and Threat tracking (Cosmetic Replacement). Her flaws are Rude and Secretly Lonely. Her Drive is to Kill the Local Branch Head of Pantheon.

For normal gear, she has a motorcycle, a weapons stash, and a medkit. Her specialized gear are Heavy Pistols (Quickdraw, Explosive Rounds, Intimidating, Dual), Combat Armor (Bulletproof, Stun resistance, HUD), Grenades (stun), and a Sniper Rifle (Precise, Armor-piercing). Good rolls for her!

And we will go with Katar for her callsign.

Have a sheet.

Day 24: Neon City Overdrive Tangier 2064 - Siriman “Circuit” Idrissa

The next member of the NCU party will be Siriman Idrissa. He combines deep spirituality with a hacker's intellect - a child of refugees from Mali coming to Tangier around 20 years ago he knows the El Menbar slums all too well. Originally he embarked on a journey to become a digital imam, giving spiritual guidance to his community, using modern technology to even reach those who otherwise would not be able to participate. Still, living is costly, as is helping his community. For a few months now Youssef has added an understanding of cyberspace to support and protect the data streams and spiritual integrity of his community. He wears a smart caftan interwoven with nano-fibers and circuitry, his beard neatly trimmed, and eyes that gleam with knowledge and cybernetic display echoes. Within the group, he will be the hacker but also provide spiritual guidance. Also to the ones who are not believers.

His Trademarks will be Background: Digital Imam (Distributed Community, Spiritual Flaw: Generous), Grid: Dreamcatcher (Signal Hacking, Distract, Flaw: Slow), and Optimist (Confident, Inspiring, Flaw: Overlooks people's flaws). 

His Edges are Connected for Digital Imam, Evasive and Deep Grid Understanding for Dreamcatcher, and Likeable for Optimist. His first Flaw is “Facultative Pacifist” - he will defend himself but not attack, and does not expect others to hold to his standards. He knows the world. The second is Philanthropist, which should be obvious.

He is Driven by his wish to protect his community and help them build up their lives. For basic gear, he has a car. For special gear, he has a Taser (Stun, Concealed), a Cyberdeck (Observer protection unit, Neural defense matrix), a Data Infiltration attack program (track, analyze, infiltrate), and a Parachute defense program (escape, fast eject). As Gehan, he lost a roll on the Taser.

And here is the sheet.

 

Day 23: Neon City Overdrive Tangier 2064 - Aziza "Sahara Ghost" El-Amin

For the next party, I will use Neon City Overdrive, in the words of the developer a  “fast-playing RPG of cyberpunk action. With a focus on story and action, character creation is fast and the rules are intuitive.” Let’s see what that is all about. As a setting, I will use Tangier in 2064, which I made a few months back to try out the setting generation tables of Cities Without Number. The rules turned out to be great, though I did not like the system itself too much in play. Maybe NCO will be a better fit.

For orientation, the basic way to roll in NCU is to grab a bunch of Action Dice and Danger Dice, both D6 and roll. Each time a Danger Die matches an Action Die, the Action Die is eliminated. The highest remaining die is the result. A 6 means success, 4 & 5 partial success, 3 or less failure, and if all Action Dice are gone or show 1s, the roll is a botch. Each roll starts with 1 Action Die, and then dice are added based on dis-/advantages the PC might have, or for abilities, etc. they have. Simple enough. The game is also fully player-facing, so no rolling for the GM.

A few more thoughts on the party within the setting, then let’s go make characters. Tangier 2064 was based on predictions about climate change; Morocco will be far less affected than many other areas in Africa, leading to a large accumulation of refugees in Tangier. This is further pushed by the EU giving in to xenophobia in combination with demographic problems, locking their borders down with the Frontiers program, making it far more difficult for people to flee there. Tangier becomes interesting for international corporations to pick up cheap labor, even as a testing ground for various products, all the while dangling the possibility of escape to other areas of the world in front of people. General problems elsewhere have also led to the destabilization of other areas of the world, with China and India on the rise as new important powers that still suffer from a variety of their own issues. This has led to Tangier also becoming an important area for reasons of diplomacy/espionage. The city itself has increased in size, swallowing surrounding villages/cities, with a giant slum in the south-east. Several districts in the city are separated by walls, depicting a direct stratification of society in the geography. Still, the city is a massive melting pot of people from around the world, with police/military mostly interested in keeping the ‘peace’, and corporations wielding enough influence to keep the whole city corrupt and willful. In short, fertile grounds for shady criminal/freelance work.

Now on to our party. Made up of a mix of people of various backgrounds, they are lower-level operators working together as a patchwork group. More during generation. And with that let’s look at Gehan "Sahara Ghost" Hajji. Gehan is silent and resilient, with a presence that's both commanding and elusive. She has a sleek, athletic build, her skin adorned with digital tattoos that shimmer with holographic patterns reminiscent of traditional Moroccan designs. She was born in the city, growing up in the lower middle class in the Hadiqa Gueznaida district, which is named after the small town it is built around. It is an area where lower-wage workers toil in industrial mass production. Gehan wanted a different future and joined the military. Now, kicked out for reasons she won’t talk about, she is a street mercenary. Her specialty is scouting and physical infiltration, utilizing advanced tech in combination with specialized training. She is motivated by the will to be independent; she sees the cost, and the suffering caused by corporation rule, and wants none of that. Her path is that of burning bright, in the hope of being able to get out and retire early. Let’s stat her up.

First, each character gets three Trademarks, which define things like the character's past, occupation, unique talents, or special equipment. These are the core features of the character. Trademarks come with triggers, which include flaws and are used to fine-tune what they are. 

Let’s go with Background Soldier (Military contacts, Controlled, Dishonourable discharge), Role: Infiltrator (Stealthy, Awareness, Trusts no one), Cyberwear: Scout package (Notice, Hack Security, Jittery). Mechanically, these can (and two of them are) freeform, and triggers can be changed and adapted in the game in agreement with the GM. The last trigger listed in each case is a fault.

Next, each character receives four Edges, which are based on the Trademarks and represent further specialization and abilities. For Gehan, I will go with Silent Killer for Soldier, Ghost-like and Silenced Needle-gun for Infiltrator and Camouflage for Scout Package. Similarly, each character has two Flaws, which are the inverse - essentially especially bad flaws. I am going with PTSD and Unreliable Cyberware for Gehan.

Her Drive will be ‘Retire in old Tangier’, which is where the upper-class people live. Not the actual movers and shakers, but the people with comfortable lives in higher management positions and the like. This will be a track in the game that is used to manage her progress towards that goal.

Next up is gear - there is basic gear, which gives permission to do things but no additional advantage, like a gun allowing you to shoot people. Gehan gets an assault rifle, a motorcycle, leather clothing, and mirror shades. Each character can also have up to four items of specialized gear, which get tags that provide mechanical benefits. However, they need to acquire this gear using a roll. They roll up to four times and need to exceed the number of tags on a D6. If they do, they get the item. Otherwise, the roll is lost. She has Infiltration gear (Concealed, Quiet), an Armoured jacket (bulletproof, stealth, light weight), and Wired Reflexes (Agile, Fast). She lost one roll on Wired Reflexes, so that will be it.

Finally, she needs an operator callsign. Let’s look at a name generator, and we end up with "Sahara Ghost".

And that is Gehan.

Day 22: F.I.S.T. Ultra - POINTER, cyborg without a perspective

As a Wretch, POINTER is suffering from some horrible misfortune. Given that his traits are Cyborg and Listen that misfortune pretty much writes itself. He has Forceful 0, Tactical 0, Creative 0, Reflexive 3, 6 Max HP, and 5 War Dice. He has a Cyborg Exoskeleton and a Blindfold.

POINTER grew up in a lab, a government experiment from day 0 of his life. Things were bad. The goal was apparently to create some kind of superspy, and while they were slowly changed to receive more and more implants, special attention was paid to their senses. Things looked up a bit when a new kid was brought into the lab, the one who would later use the callsign LUCKY. The two hit it off and became good friends. By then the constant training and brainwashing had made POINTER fairly docile, but LUCKY managed to reignite some of their will to resist. And then F.I.S.T. appeared and got them out. LUCKY and POINTER were fostered by the same family, and that allowed POINTER to heal a bit. Still, he has no real history and has a hard time fitting in, and the unfinished work on his sensory system means that he is often overwhelmed. The exoskeleton means he has to mostly stay hidden. Still, he never begrudged LUCKY the ability to go out. But there was never a way forward for POINTER except to become a member of F.I.S.T., no option for a simple, quiet life.

And with that the party is complete. What remains to say is - play F.I.S.T.!

Day 21: F.I.S.T. Ultra - NARWHAL, extreme movie director

NARWHAL is a Muddler, which is a fun role. She advances if within a session she “describes a piece of simple, common knowledge which is in fact wrong, and attempts to describe the infinitely more complex correct answer.” To advance that has to make things for the team more majorly complicated, or maybe cause catastrophe by obfuscating something. Hope the other players like complications coming their way!

Traitwise she has a Pet, which can give one of three boni. Let’s go with adding +1 to Creative if fed a treat. Let’s say it is a sugar glider that helps with social interaction due to its cuteness. The other trait is Director, which means once per mission she can say ‘Cut!’, roll back the current scene while giving directions to the NPCs and other players, and redo the scene as if on a movie set. Fun! The two traits mean that she has Forceful 0, Tactical 0, Creative 1, and Reflexive -1, a stupid hat, and three uses of pet treats. She opted for adding some HP but rolled a 1 for a maximum of 7 HP.

In the past NARWHAL was a small indie movie director. Typical CV for that profession, really - dreams of becoming the new Felini at a young age, doing their time as a student, making a few gorey horror and art movies, and then a small production company financed their first movie. Given that they hadn’t managed yet to leave their home country of Australia, not exactly known for internationally renowned movie work at the time, they were thrilled that this happened. The movie would be a combination of two very disjunct genres - film noir and alien invasion disaster movie. Only something went wrong with a prop, and when the smoke cleared all members of the small crew were dead or missing, and NARWHAL found themselves on a grassy hill in Dallas, waking up as a small animal licked their nose. Waking up their mind was racing with possibilities and realities, and they didn’t realize anymore that the two weren’t always the same. Shortly after F.I.S.T. recruited them.

The party keeper.

Day 20: F.I.S.T. Ultra - LUCKY, ultra-human activist

Mercenary three is called LUCKY; they are a Representative, someone who wants ultrahumans like themselves to be accepted by humanity. His traits are Mimic, which means that they can shift shape into a full-functional inanimate object up to the size of a car, and Seduce, which means that if someone offers they can get with someone off-screen, and might then count on their help and support sometime later. These traits lead to Forceful 0, Tactical 0, Creative 1, Reflexive 0, 8 HP (with Mimic adding 2 to the base 6), 2 War Dice, Varnish, and a little black dress. The Varnish is a limited healing item that can be used on them when they are mimicking an object.

LUCKY was a gifted child, sadly of the kind that freaks people out and gets little support. He did manage to keep things hidden after freaking out a babysitter made him realize that people do not like what he can do. At all. People at school still found out shortly after LUCKY hit puberty - hormonal surges made it hard to control the change at times. Shortly after he was not only kicked out of school but sold by his freaked-out parents to a shady government organization. Then came the experiments. But when things were about to become dangerous, a small group of mercenaries took out the facility. F.I.S.T. does not condone that kind of thing, and on learning that the facility existed came down on it like a ton of bricks. LUCKY then spent a few years with a new adoptive family, one where both parents were ultrahumans. And once that had worked with F.I.S.T. in the past. Still, LUCKY has spied on his old family. He has younger siblings now that have never met him, and probably do not know he exists. While he dearly loves his foster parents, there is a deep ache in his heart. One that he hopes F.I.S.T. might help him close one day.

And the keeper is here, of course.

Day 19: F.I.S.T. Ultra - CLEAVER, former thief on the road to redemption

Now the second F.I.S.T. party member - the squad cannot only consist of one hacker.

This one will be called Cleaver, and as a Repentant character, they want to make amends for some past misdeed and will advance if they manage to work towards that goal in a session. Their traits are Bounce, which allows them to toss an enemy quite some way if they hit them in melee combat, and Number, which means that they see meaning in numbers where others cannot. They roll a 1d6 at the start of a mission and can use it to replace a number once in the session. Both in a roll and outside of it - if the referee says that they need 10 minutes to defuse a bomb, and their pre-session roll was a 1, they can change it to 1. She starts the game with a kinetic gauntlet, and a sudoku workbook, 11 HP, and 0 War Dice, and her basic attributes are Forceful 1, Tactical 1, Creative 0, and Reflexive 0.

Clearly, CLEAVER was the close friend of a scientist who in their spare time had clobbered together the kinetic gauntlet. And CLEAVER, a small-time thief using numbers as her personal horoscope to get away with that work stole it, hoping to use it to steal money from a bank without her friend noticing. The numbers, especially the date of that day, the pigeons she counted outside her window at breakfast, and the amount of money in her pocket said it would be the best path to take. She went and stole the money, confident that she would get away with it. Only to arrive back at her friend's place to put the gauntlet back, and find a penny she had overlooked in her pocket the moment her friend furiously challenged her on the robbery. She was shocked and ashamed, and when her friend came to slap her face she wanted to push them away. And accidentally punted them out of the window, to plummet to their death.

Cleaver joined F.I.S.T. in the memory of the friend she killed, wanting to atone for her life of crime.

Day 18: F.I.S.T. Ultra - Crypt, hacker extraordinaire to be

This is the first RPG I am using this year that I did use in the past, even for a past challenge. Since that post, I have run the game a few times, and had a blast each time! The ULTRA edition has come out as well, which is rules-compatible, but with a whole lot more material, especially for the GM. Lots of random generation tables, that kind of thing. F.I.S.T. is a gem of a game, and I recommend anyone even vaguely interested in Cold War bonkers covert action in the general vein of Metal Gear Solid to take a look. Even better, the game has been in some of the past large charity bundles on itch.io, and if you own it already you got an automatic upgrade to the Ultra edition. So, if you like it be a pall and spring for a community copy, or the print version, or some of the very cool expansions the devs have put out by now. Bonus: There is a load of material that can be found on Itch, and there is this collection to help point you in the right way.

As with so many OSR games, random generation can be a thing. There is a Discord bot called Sonder that I will use to generate some characters randomly and spin a yarn around them. There is also a fan-made character keeper (which also happens to contain a cheat sheet and some other stuff, and has official approval), and I will use it to store the whole party.

Let’s go.

To make a character means choosing two traits and a role, then either rolling for a basic item to get, or to get +1d6 hitpoints, or to get a few War Dice, which are rather helpful meta currency. The two traits determine some equipment and change the base attributes. The whole process is also described in the character keeper. Sonder takes care of all of that, but we still have to make sense of it ourselves.

Character Number 1 has the Codename Crypt, and his Role is that of an Icon - Crypt is interested in becoming famous, and an icon of their profession. And they advance after a session if they do something that brings them closer to that goal. Their traits are Hacker and Dirty. They can hack into computer networks and computer-controlled machines - remember that these are the 80s - and they do fight as dirty as possible if they have to. That means they have Forceful 1, Tactical 1, Creative 0, and Reflexive 0. Their starting items are some sand in their pocket to throw into an enemy's eyes, a briefcase computer, and a pistol. Since they rolled the pistol instead of War Dice or HP, they have 6 HP and no War Dice.

Bottom line - Crypt has their name since they broke into the system of Wells Fargo when 15 years old. Sadly they were caught and therefore got the kind of reputation no one wants. Still, their break-in into the Crypt was a good learning experience, and once out of house arrest and allowed to use electronics again they set out to eliminate the shame by becoming the most famous hacker ever. And then a recruiter of F.I.S.T. showed up and made them a very cool offer - use their abilities in the fight against horrible, horrible people, change the world, and have pals around who understand being different.

And thus, Crypt joined.

Day 17: DoubleZero - Patricia Casey, entrepreneur

Patricia grew up as the younger daughter of a mid-western couple. Her youth was … fine. Nothing special, really. Like many children, she felt the need to get out and see the world. So, much to the surprise of her mother, and the pride of her dad, she signed up for the military, on a whim. In the military, she did well and met a lot of interesting people. For a while, she thought she had found her life’s calling. Not squeamish, efficient, and with a good sense of what can be done when she also had enough luck not to ever find herself in a bad situation. She also made a lot of friends, some of them there instead of going to jail. 

Then she ran into a bad situation. Not a combat one, but an officer who really, really hated her guts for reasons she didn’t understand at the time. And the pressure from Cpt. O’Neil made her not re-up her contract. And then she got an invite from one of her friends, and joined the family business in Miami - the local criminal organizations could always use someone to provide needed firepower, someone also willing to remove problems if needed. 

At the moment she is in New York since after her latest caper things got a bit too hot for a while. She is a bit bored and lazily decided to look for some jobs while here. Soon she will find herself in a taxi when Henry comes in, bleeding profusely.

For her Professions, I will give her Assassin and Criminal. Her Aptitudes are Athletics 6, Creativity 4, Fighting 6, Influence 2, Knowledge 4, Perception 6, Technology 2, and Transportation 5.

Skillwise, let’s go with:

Concealment 4, Disguise 6, Firearms 6, Lockpicking 4, Stealth 5, Surveillance 4

Camouflage 4, Discipline 6, First Aid 4, Hand-to-Hand Combat 6, Military Tactics 3, Physical Fitness 4, Survival 4

Her Advantages are Fearless, and Paranoia, and for Wanted and Paranoia

Four Hero Points, and a character sheet, and she is ready.

Day 16: DoubleZero - Lucia Arnal, woman-behind-the-scenes

When her dad was involved in a scandal involving bribed politicians, organized crime, and his construction company, leading to his ruin, she learned a truth about the world. Real power comes from the combination and contacts. You see, the company involved a fixer. Who made sure that the one holding the torch in the end was her dad, even though he was pretty much the least important person peripherally involved, a small foreman, nothing more. In return, he got a payoff that kept the family afloat for a few years. But the pressure also led to him taking his own life a few years later. Martine swore to herself to never be in the same spot and did everything to become the kind of dealmaker that determines who gets out of such situations well, and who does not. After all, when you play Russian Roulette, the best spot is to be the one handing the gun to the players, and taking the bets.

For her Professions, I will give her Executive and Grifter. Maybe a bit redundant, but it should work. Her Aptitudes are Athletics 4, Creativity 6, Fighting 1, Influence 6, Knowledge 6, Perception 6, Technology 2, and Transportation 4.

Skillwise, let’s go with:

Business 4, Conflict Resolution 4, Crisis Management 6, Decision Making 4, Negotiation 6, Networking 6, Time Management 4

Acting 4, Con Artistry 4, Deception 4, Persuasion 5, Reading People 5, Social Manipulation 4

Lucia’s Advantages are Knows Where The Skeletons Are Buried, and Important People Owe Me Favours, and for Disadvantage she has Many Enemies, and Soft Spot For Those Ground Under A Heel

Four Hero Points, and off she goes.

Day 15: DoubleZero - Joey Durban, former paratrooper and taxi driver

Joey Durban went to Iraq to defend his country. He found boredom, death, and lies. Thoroughly disgusted with the whole things he left the military once back home. Physically, he was still able to serve, and mentally he was far better off than most others who had undergone the same thing, but in the end, he saw too many people suffer. And not all of them had US citizenship. Back in New York he managed to land a job as a taxi driver and is trying to get back on his feet. He doesn’t know yet that a wounded Henry will soon land in his taxi, and that his life will spiral wildly out of control.

His Professions will be Soldier and Driver. For his Aptitudes, he has Athletics 6, Creativity 2, Fighting 6, Influence 4, Knowledge 3, Perception 5, Technology 3, and Transportation 6.

For his skills, I think the following would fit:

Driving 6, Evasion 4, Mechanical Repair 2, Navigation 4, Road Knowledge 4, Vehicle Maintenance 4

Camouflage 4, Discipline 2, Firearms 6, First Aid 2, Hand-to-Hand Combat 4, Military Tactics 4, Physical Fitness 4, Survival 4, Teamwork 6

Joey has Former Comrades in Arms and Knows New York Like His Back Pocket, and his Disadvantages are Maybe Too Loyal and Scars From Old Wounds.

And with 4 Hero Points, he is ready to join the fray.

Sheet.

Day 14: DoubleZero - Dr. Farouk Madani, surgeon

The next member of this little New York spy party will be Dr. Farouk Madani, once a renowned surgeon from Najaf, Iraq who is currently working in the U.S. Since he wasn’t able to afford a medical license that would allow him to continue his career he started working as an assistant pathologist in a New York hospital. He worked hard, but the cost of living is high in the city, and he is supporting his family home. At the moment he is still hoping that he will get a lucky break at one point, though he is also trying to let his dream of being a surgeon, saving lives again go. He does not know that a lucky break is in the cards for him, but it will be accompanied by a lot of danger.

His Profession will be Medic. Just Medic, he never really wanted to be anything else.  

For his Aptitudes, he has Athletics 5, Creativity 4, Fighting 1, Influence 4, Knowledge 6, Perception 6, Technology 6, and Transportation 3.

His skills, taken from the Profession, will be:

Bedside Manner 4, Emergency Response 4, First Aid 6, Medical Diagnosis 6, Medical Technology 4, Medicine 6, Patient Care 4, Pharmacology 6, Surgery 6, Triage 6. Observation 4, Drive 4.

I did add Observation and Driving, just to have a few more skills to spread points to.

Dr. Madani has Contacts in Medicine and Access to Hospital Pathology as Advantages, and his Disadvantages are Driven to His Dream and Pacifist.

As Henry he gets 4 Hero Points to start the game with.

And that would be Dr. Madani.

Day 13: DoubleZero - Henry Peck, analyst

For the next party I will use DoubleZero by Lightspress Publishing; as far as I know, the game is based on an old espionage RPG, is pretty lightweight, and very, very modular. It comes as a series of PDFs, which can be bought and assembled as needed, and as far as I can see allow the creation of pretty much any modern setting. I will use the base rulebook plus a few core expansions to create modern espionage characters. The game is regularly being updated, and the version I have is V3; I might look at some older V2.3 files as well if I need inspiration. The game will be set in New York, ca. 2010.

Not to start with a superlative, but Henry Peck has always excelled at what he did. As long as it involved his brain, that is. Math, physics, geopolitics, all topics on which he became incredibly competent rather early in life, and due to a variety of scholarships could easily improve on with some scholarships. Physically no slouch, he was less interested in sports and partying than figuring out complicated puzzles. With his father a retired Navy officer and Henry possessing an excessive sense of precision and wish to follow rules and regulations, Uncle Sam became aware of his abilities pretty soon, and certain people started carefully nudging his career into a specific direction. His high school guidance counselor, for example, got certain strong recommendations shortly before she met Henry for the first time. That kind of thing. As a result, Henry has become a model employee of the NSA, working in a hidden facility close to the UN in New York. He was happy and felt that he made important contributions to keeping US citizens, Western Society, and people in general safe. Until he noticed some irregularities - it started with an instance where a decision was made about taking out a presumed terrorist cell without him being able to find the basis of the decision, though the evidence was found on location after the fact. Sitting as he was in a core facility for that kind of analysis, finding out what happened should have been easy. It wasn’t.

Henry Peck was incapable of letting such a nagging little thing go. He found more evidence, ultimately finding that there must be a secret third party that had access to NSA data feeds and was somehow feeding unprecedented analysis to high-ranking officials in certain intelligence organizations one would be pressed hard to find in official documents. 

Henry Peck decided to talk to some of these people, a decision he would regret very, very soon.

Let’s stat him up, shall we? First, he needs a Profession, which is essentially a package of suggested Skills, Advantages, and Disadvantages. They are also ranked. The normal way to do this is to take one profession and use it as a basis. But there is the suggestion to choose multiple ones and combine them. This is possible for more advanced characters, and since I want a game of at least Competent PCs this would fit - it allows characters to take two starting professions. But let’s aim even higher - Henry is an Expert, I would say. And since Henry is somewhere between a Scientist and Secret Agent let’s go with those two. The focus will be on Scientist, though. 

Before we continue let me explain the basic roll. When a PC tries something, they roll 2D10. One die determines the success, the other the outcome, i.e. how well things worked out. To succeed, the first die has to beat a target number; depending on what needs to be compared, the second die might need to beat a number as well. Let’s say a PC wants to climb a wall. The GM says they need a 4 to do so, so if the first die rolls a 4+ they succeed. The second die could determine speed. If they are racing another person, let’s say as part of a chase, they might not only have to succeed but also beat the second person's second die. And now let’s move on.

Next in the creation process, we get to distribute points among the Aptitudes, which seem to be pretty much Attributes. When rolling, the respective Aptitude determines a number the PC gets if they do not want to roll, i.e. for an automatic success. So, someone with Athletics 4 would just automatically succeed in climbing the wall, but not rolling also means no determined speed, etc. Experts get to distribute 35 points, with no Aptitude higher than 6. Henry has:

Athletics 3, Creativity 5, Fighting 2, Influence 2, Knowledge 6, Perception 6, Technology 6, and Transportation 2.

Next up are Skills; these determine the Outcome if a PC decides not to roll. So, let’s say a PC has the Aptitude Athletics 4, and skill Climbing 6, they could decide not to roll for climbing the wall in my example, and would automatically succeed with an Outcome (read: speed) of 6. The skill list isn’t determined, though there are lots of suggestions in the book(s), especially in the Professions. Expert characters get to distribute 60 points, with a maximum of 6 in each skill. I will just copy the lists from the two Professions and see how far we get with those.

Codebreaking 6, Counterintelligence 6, Espionage 4, Evasion 4, Firearms 2, Infiltration 2, Stealth 2, Surveillance 4, Undercover Work 4

Data Analysis 6, Hypothesis Testing 4, Research 6, Political Science 6, Technical Writing 4

That seems quite fitting.

Next are Advantages and Disadvantages. Advantages add a +2 to specific success rolls determined by the Advantage, but it needs to be bought in each instance using the metacurrency, so-called Hero Points. Disadvantages can be invoked to create Hero Points but subtract 2 from a roll. I am not sure how many of those are supposed to be added at character creation. Later they are both earned from the narration. Let’s assume two each, just for some color. As with skills, there are no complete lists, but some suggestions.

Henry has Keen Intuition and Pattern Recognition as his Advantages and his Disadvantages are Can’t Let A Puzzle Go, and Too Focused.

Finally, an Expert character gets 4 Hero Points to start the game with. Former editions used Injury points, essentially HP, but this system is not in place anymore. Instead, injuries are treated as Disadvantages associated with a specific body part or something else (like a destroyed cell phone), and a specific malus that can be invoked as usual.

And that would be Henry.

Day 12: Blue Planet - Alyssa Caultron, free woman / Alyssa Collins

Alyssa was a proud citizen of Haven once, born on Poseidon, another descendant of the first settlers. When Earth got into contact again, sending new people, she was initially elated. Life on Poseidon wasn’t exactly idyllic all the time, and she had grown up on stories of the home planet. But when the corporations appeared, and the military, and more and more people, she felt less and less like this was still her home. So she did the only sensible thing, in her opinion, and moved far away to the frontier. Which was pretty easy for her - she worked with a small trading company and had saved up enough to purchase a small transport hydrofoil with her partner Peter. It took the two of them a while to gain the trust of the locals, but for a few years now Alyssa has been a fixture of the area, making sure the people got access to goods and equipment they otherwise wouldn’t have. She has a meager income, but it works for her. Pity that Peter didn’t live to see it; he died in a small altercation with a Lesser White two years ago.

Of course, it does help that Alyssa Caultron is actually the cover identity of Alyssa Collins, a Gendiver agent who is keeping an eye on the general area. The biggest competitor of Anasi, Gendiver seeded large parts of Poseidon with such agents, and this program has paid dividends in most cases. The area Alyssa is keeping an eye on is pretty low on their list, but that might change soon. Like other agents of that program, she has the Survivor Genmod, which means she can survive in environments where most people would struggle. Originally Alyssa was in since she honestly believed that her work would prevent violence from locals due to misunderstandings and that Gendiver would be a benevolent influence. By now she is far less sure of that - unlike other agents on the list she has developed suspicions of her supervisors and the motivations of the corporations, and has real sympathy for the locals.

Attributes

Cognition 1, Psyche 0, Coordination 1, Physique 0. The Survivor mod gave her +1 Physique, already been added.

• Cognition 1     ->    Observant 3 Calculated 2
• Psyche 0      ->    Charismatic 1 Intuitive 1
• Coordination 1 ->    Graceful 2 Precise 2
• Physique 0  ->    Fit 1 Unassuming 1

Strain

She has 1 Mental and 2 Physical Strain, with her genmod package raising Physical by 1 (calculated in).

Skill sets

• 3 Native Trader -> Local Fixture -> Convincing
• 4 Gendiver Agent -> Surveillance -> Physical Intrusion Expert
• 4 Charismatic ->  Experienced Negotiator -> Subtle Questioning
• 3 Boat  Captain -> Navigation ->  Hydrofoil Maintenance
• 2 Combat Training -> Weapons Specialist -> Hand-To-Hand Expert
• 2 Native Daughter -> <Island> Resident ; Knows Everyone in <Area>

Tags

Alyssa has:

• Secret Agenda (she will avoid drawing attention to herself)
• Suspicious (+2 to resist persuasion)

Tracks

COVER IDENTITY

Second skin (+4/-4), Tested (+2/-2), Holding (0/0), Suspected (+2/-2), Blown (+4/-4)

Ties

Alanis Greber Friend Trading Partner

Windsong Friend Storytelling

Biomods

The survivor biomod complex provides the equivalent of the improved blood oxygenation respiratory filter, anti-poison, and immunological symbiote. She heals 25% faster as well. She also has an Extrasensory Perception Enhancement (giving her a Danger Sense and Empathetic Connection), meaning that she can read people around her far more reliably. Finally, she has Telescopic Vision. Not counting the Survivor Mod (which counts as ‘species’) she has spent 95k.

And here is the Google Doc.

And that will be it for Blue Planet; I was thinking about making a Cetacean character, probably a Dolphin, to round out the group, but the rules for that are not complete yet. Since I cannot think of a good replacement, the four characters I made so far will have to suffice.

Day 11: Blue Planet - Olaitan, native village doctor and eco-protector

OK, this year I have some timing issues, so I will cut down on the description here. Olaitan is a descendant of colonists from the first wave - ca. 2115, we have 2199- and had lived in a small village very similar and somewhat close to the one we met in the last posts. His community has a lot of dolphins, and he has always felt closer to them than the other humans. His home wasn’t destroyed, but instead saw Anasi planting down a small mining outpost. Life… changed. Olaitan understands what the corporations are about to do, and has decided to fight early. His parents, as most first-wave colonists, were aquaforms, essentially treated genetically and with minor surgery to give them aquatic-mammal-like characteristics. Their blood binds more oxygen, they tolerate cold better, see in low light conditions - they can dive longer and more deeply, and stay in the water a lot longer than unmodified humans. The genetic changes were coded to be dominant, and so Olaitan inherited all of those; the surgical changes were done using medical facilities well before Recontact. Since the advent of Long John, more modern, better-designed Aquaform modifications exist; alas, he has the old-school one.

Attributes

he adds +1 to Physique due to Aquaform. 

• Cognition 2     ->    Cunning 4                Knowledgeable 3
• Psyche 0      ->    Approachable 1          Brave 1
• Coordination 1 ->    Dextrous 2 Precise 2
• Physique 0  ->    Handsome 1 Tough 1

As an Aquaform he also gets +2 when rolling aquatic skills.

Strain

He has 1 Mental and 1 Physical Strain

Skill sets

• 3 Native Culture -> Local Villager -> Cetacean Culture
• 4 Local Doctor -> Emergency Medicine -> Cetacean Biology
• 2 Aquatics -> Free Diver -> Harpoon Hunter
• 3 Poseidon Wildlife -> Ecological Warden -> Rifle shooting
• 4 Survival Training -> Poseidon Frontier -> Hunting
• 2 Hydrofoil Pilot -> Navigation -> Chases

Tags

Olaitan has:

• Charming Smile (+2 to persuade manoeuvres)
• Negative attitude (constantly complains, and will focus on reasons why a plan will fail)

Tracks

Oliatan is all about protecting his community so let’s go with:

My village

Sacrifice Anything +4/-4, Dedicated +2/-2, Loving 0/0, Distant -2/+2, Estranged -4/+4

Ties

• Alanis Greber Romantic interest Friends
• Stargazer, Lamprey, Windsong Close Friends Shared experiences
• Leonard Ungolu Adopted Child Protect and Nourish

Biomods

• Magnetic Orientation (can sense strong magnetic fields and use them for orientation)
• Adrenal Shunt (eliminates penalties on Cognition or Psyche due to surprise, stress, or fear. Can allow an adrenaline rush afterwards which gives +2 to Coordination and Psyche for [Attribute] rounds).

And here is the Google Sheet.

Day 10: Blue Planet - Darshana ‘Shane’ Deol

Darshana Deol grew up as the middle child in a GEO military family. As a military brat she dreamed of her mother’s exploits, while she and her siblings dutifully followed her analyst dad’s advice and went to school. But Darshana was her mother’s daughter, and more interested in the physical side of life. She also developed a keen sense of justice, often daydreaming about old stories of truth and the strong protecting the weak. Rambunctious, athletic, and having a hard time sitting down and studying an academic life was never in the stars for her. But the stars were. 

More or less drifting along the path that was open to her, Darshana did well. Her five-year GEO military career led to an offer by Anasi, who were looking for well-trained soldiers. And they offered her genetic modification, to be precise the rather novel Postnatal Herpetogenetic Enhancements treatment. PHE is meant to give the carrier some advantages based on lizard physiology. A variant of many hybrid genetics programs that had recently entered the high-end market, PHE is a bit less extreme and meant to make the carrier more durable, stronger, and more dexterous. Ideal for a soldier or guard, in other words. In exchange, Darshana would have to be willing to fly to Poseidon and help protect Anasi personnel and assets. Shane, as her peers called her by now, really liked the idea - working to protect settlers of the last actual frontier was a dream come true, and the genetic modification - usually far out of reach for someone with her financial means - was only the cherry on top. It did help that she had heard that Poseidon had many, many hybrids, and far less prejudice against them. Modification went very well, and 6 months after the first needle poked through her skin, Shane walked onto the shuttle for the next step of the journey. When she looked into the mirror her face was partially tinged blue, as were other parts of her body, and she had developed scales. She had already mastered controlling her more substantial strength, under careful supervision - the medical facility had taken excellent care of her. Anasi was clearly where she was meant to be. She noticed that no one else sported such modification, and sometimes idly wondered if Anasi had plans for her. Going above and beyond on behalf of her benefactor seems ok with her, though, and she trusted that she’d have ample opportunity to pay them back.

Once underway Shane made friends quickly, and she even befriended a French researcher, a slightly klutzy Marine Ecologist we already know. It was very obvious that Neva would need someone to protect her, and at one point Shane admitted to herself that she got a slight tingly feeling in her stomach at these thoughts. But she is a professional and was determined to do her job and make her parents proud. 

Once in Haven, the job turned out to be more monotonous than she had hoped for, although she always knew that it wouldn’t be as exciting as her favorite stories. Lots of guard work, patrolling, checking equipment. Still, the air was cleaner than any she had breathed before, and when you went out for a swim there was always this intoxicating feeling of being whole. It was her favorite place to be. Every once in a while, someone needed to be handled, a thief or someone a bit too enthusiastically yelling anti-corpo slogans. Nothing bad, really, just normal guard stuff. And then there was the announcement of a prospecting trip, as they happened from time to time, and that she and another new guard would join a larger team of more experienced guards. Neva had specifically requested her presence, and Shane would protect her and a few prospectors as part of a small team. No issues were expected, but she did notice that the general loadout was a bit heavier than seemed appropriate. The older guards were also weirdly stand-offish, obviously bothered by her inhuman features. Once on location, her team was sent to a location at the border of the village to set up some sensors. They were nearly there when the engineer with them asked to go back - he had forgotten some equipment. Halfway back they suddenly heard weapons fire. Based on the sound, the first shot wasn’t fired by the locals. Shane steered Neva and the engineer who was with them into a smaller, easily defensible side street. Then she turned and saw one of her fellow guards gun down a fleeing, unarmed family. The guard noticed her, and barked orders - the locals ‘were all terrorists’, they had run ‘into an ambush’, and she was to indiscriminately “defend” herself against the locals. 

She shot the murderer. Then she grabbed the wailing teenager who had survived the attack, grabbed Neva and the engineer, and worked to save as many innocents as she could.

Shane is a hero. She saved eight people that day and killed two more murderers. She managed to get all eight far enough away from the village in a stolen boat and managed to keep them alive until rescuers from another island arrived. And she is filled with a purpose she didn’t have before - Shane finally knows precisely who she is, and why she is here.

Let’s stat up Shane. 

She didn’t realize it at the time, but part of the reason she was chosen was her charisma and appearance, the ideal person to roll out and tell a story about all the good things the company does - pale, tall, with long blonde hair and a good if cost-efficient fashion sense, and charismatic in a slightly self-conscious way. During her time on Poseidon, she has developed a strong tan, her hair tends to be a bit wild and kept in a strict ponytail to stay out of the way. Clothing-wise she goes with whatever is practical, something that comes easily to someone with the amount of field experience she has. People who meet her tend to like her immediately, and she has an assuredness in her manner she didn’t have before. But some also see her other side, the one that comes out when she has had enough, the nasty, take-no-prisoners side. There is little middle ground.

She is angry that she believed the lies she was told and wants to find and punish those responsible. On a larger level, she has no idea how to protect Poseidon and is too aware of how monumental that task is. But something has to be done, and she can’t look away anymore. 

Reputation-wise, few people in the frontier know of her. Some know she switched sides, but many do not. Those who do not tend to see her as a harmless egghead with dangerous bosses.

Attributes

Shane will be fit, but maybe not quite as good with people. How about Cognition -1, Psyche 0, Coordination 1, Physique 0. As an exceptional person, she also adds one rank and increases Psyche to 1. The PHE genotype adds another +1 to Coordination, and +2 to Physique. Physique now exceeds baseline human maximum; Shane is extremely strong. For her focus attributes (which are +1 higher than base, one of them +2) she gets:

• Cognition -1     ->    Focused 0                Humorous 1
• Psyche 0      ->    Easygoing 1            Gutsy 1
• Coordination 2 ->    Explosive 3              Fast 3
• Physique 3  ->    Fit 4                          Unassuming 4

Note that the PHE also means that she gets -1 on social maneuvers. Not a direct attribute malus, but it does affect her rolls.

Strain

There are mental and physical strain. These are not hit points, but points that can be used to indicate additional effort, and therefore can be spent to either slightly nudge a target number or reroll a failed roll. With Psyche -1 she has 1 Mental Strain, and Physique 3 means 3 Physical Strain. PHE adds another point to Physical Strain. Shane will also heal in half the normal time.

Skill sets

Her six skill sets will be:

• 4 GEO Combat Training -> Small Unit Tactics -> Hand-to-Hand Combat
• 4 Incorporate Free Zone -> GEO Liberation Facility -> Urban Survival
• 3 Newcomer Culture -> GEO Culture -> Incorporate Survival
• 4 Stand-Up Gal -> Social Butterfly -> Friendly
• 3 Media Buff -> Conviction -> Sense of Justice
• 2 Poseidon Corpo Guard -> Anasi Culture -> Driver

Tags

Shane has two tags

• Aches for Justice (+2 to rolls when directly dispensing such)
• Born Romantic (easily distracted by love and relationships)

Tracks

She also gets one track, with the group track TBD. I will give her Loyalty, a suggested example track that I think fits - Shane is sure Anasi are bad people, but she is also not quite sure yet that the insurgents are necessarily better. The stages are: 

Would Die For You +4/-4, Got Your Back +2/-2, On the Same Side 0/0, Mistrust -2/+2, Knife In Your Back -4/+4

Ties

Her ties are:

• Ken Garret              Ally              Protect
• Stargazer                Friend          Emotional support, blowing off steam

Ken Garret is another escaped Anasi employee, the engineer who was with Shane when the attack started - he is a non-combatant, also a lot older. Stargazer is a young dolphin who is part of the insurgents. Shane and he got along immediately, they have a similar outlook on life

Biomods

Biomods for hybrids cost 25% more, the hybridization itself doesn't cost.

• Defensive Subdermal Plates (+1 to protect hand-to-hand-maneuvers)
• Rib Covers (Armor +1, in addition to other sources)
• Night Vision

All of these are pretty low in cost (the total for Shane is < 22k) and seem fitting for an elite guard that is already primed for hybridization, which itself costs 10x more. Note: Yes, Anasi had plans for Shane that she does not know about.

As before I will skip Gear, Weapons, Armor, and will link to the Google Doc for Shane.

 

Day 9: Blue Planet - Neva Gros

Day 09: Blue Planet - Neva Gros

Next up I will create a crew for the game Blue Planet: Recontact. Blue Planet is a bit of a white whale of mine - I discovered the previous editions just as life forced me to drop ttrpgs as a hobby for a long time, and I never got to run it. Although the background is a bit too much my thing - the game is set in a future in which humanity nearly wiped itself out with badly understood technology and wanton destruction of Earth’s ecosystems. Shortly before things came to a head a probe discovered a stable wormhole on the outer edges of the solar system, with a planet suitable for human life on the other side - the water planet quickly named Poseidon. Colonists were sent and managed to set down, just as the aforementioned disaster struck, and Earth stopped thinking about any colonists out there. Decades later, after humanity managed to somehow claw back from the brink, they remembered. New vessels were sent and discovered that the previous colonists survived and thrived, establishing a kind-of-solarpunk society. Small groups of humans living while minimizing their impact on the environment, meshing old and new technologies. The newcomers also discovered a weird substance that turned out to be a massive multiplier in boosting genetic engineering, including human longevity. A gold rush for this ‘Long John’ has set in. An organization was founded to organize mitigation of the consequences of ecological exploitation of Earth as a quasi-Earth government, and they have a strong presence on Poseidon as well. Alas, the planet is very large, and there are still very few people here. In other words, the GEO cannot be everywhere at once. The setting is pro-environmental protection, anti-colonialist, suffused with cool ideas about alternate ecologies and lifeforms, and is a heady mixture of cyberpunk, solarpunk, horror, Wild West, you name it. For the purposes of this specific set of PCs, I will ramp up the already present anti-colonialism themes quite a bit, by the way. Just a fair warning.

The third edition of the game, featuring a modernized system and background, was kickstarted a while ago, and while the publication is still some time of -. I am hoping for later this year - a lot of content has been released to the backers. A QuickStart exists for the edition and is freely available for example at DrivethroughRPG.

Anyway, I am thinking about a crew of people who find themselves in bad situations, a varied mix that have one thing in common - reasons to massively dislike or even hate one of the companies spearheading the exploitation of the planet. Their enemy will be Anasi, a company specializing in various genetic treatments that is a big player trying to get as much Long John into their hands as possible, no matter the consequences to ecology and people. Our crew will consist of Exceptional people, which is the middle of the three possible starting tiers. The others are Everyday and Elite. Exceptional means our characters get 1 bonus attribute rank, 1 bonus focus attribute rank, 6 skill sets, and 18 skill set ranks. They also get up to 125,000cs worth of biomods.

The first character will be Neva Gros. Originally, she is a marine ecologist who was hired as a consultant to ‘advise on ecological matters’ for their efforts on Poseidon, on the recommendation of her supervisor in grad school who is close friends with a geneticist at the company Anasi. Bright-eyed, motivated, ink on her diploma still wet, she was admittedly a bit blinded by the very flattering hiring process, the promise of unique research opportunities on the first planet humanity ever settled, and a very nice salary. It took Neva several months to allow herself to see what she was actually hired to do: provide a thin green/blue veneer for rampant ecological exploitation and destruction. And then she was sent along on a prospecting trip, and witnessed what would later appear as a line item in a company report on the acquisition of site LH_T3  that read ‘altercation with local terrorist forces, 8 guards KIA, 2 researchers and 3 guards MIA, 40+ native elements removed.’ 

During that event, she was made fully aware of how brutal the company she works for actually is in the worst possible way. How she changed sides at the time will become clearer in later entries. Important for now is that she is one of two people who ditched Anasi and decided to side with the fledgling insurgency that started that day.

Neva is an unmodified human. The system and background have various genetically modified varieties of humans and uplifted species, all of whom can be played, but she is just a plain old baseline human. She didn’t realize it at the time, but part of the reason she was chosen was her charisma and appearance, the ideal person to roll out and tell a story about all the good things the company does - pale, tall, with long blonde hair and a good if cost-efficient fashion sense, and charismatic in a slightly self-conscious way. During her time on Poseidon, she has developed a strong tan, her hair tends to be a bit wild and kept in a strict ponytail to stay out of the way. Clothing-wise she goes with whatever is practical, something that comes easily to someone with the amount of field experience she has. People who meet her tend to like her immediately, and she has an assuredness in her manner she didn’t have before. But some also see her other side, the one that comes out when she has had enough, the nasty, take-no-prisoners side. There is little middle ground.

She is angry that she believed the lies she was told and wants to find and punish those responsible. On a larger level, she has no idea how to protect Poseidon and is too aware of how monumental that task is. But something has to be done, and she can’t look away anymore. 

Reputation-wise, few people in the frontier know of her. Some know she switched sides, but many do not. Those who do not tend to see her as a harmless egghead with dangerous bosses.

Attributes

As all characters, she has four Attributes (Cognition, Psyche, Coordination, and Physique). As an unmodified human, she starts with 0 in each and gets to shift up to two ranks around. Mmhhh. Cognition 1, Psyche 0, Coordination -1, Physique 0. As an exceptional person, she also adds one rank and increases Psyche to 1. She also gets to choose two focus attributes for each of the four, which are 1 rank higher. As an exceptional person, one of these eight focus attributes is actually two higher. She goes for:

• Cognition 1 ->  Knowledgeable 2, Resourceful 2
• Psyche 1  ->  Charismatic 2, Strong-Willed 2
• Coordination -1 ->  Agile 0, Sure-footed 1
• Physique 0 -> Adorable 1, Healthy 1

When attributes are rolled the player rolls a D10 and has to be below or equal to 5 + the (focus) attribute.

Strain

There is mental and physical strain. These are not hit points, but points that can be used to indicate additional effort, and therefore can be spent to either slightly nudge a target number or reroll a failed roll. With Psyche 1 she has 2 Mental Strain, and Physique 0 means 1 Physical Strain.

Skill sets

As an exceptional character, she gets six skill sets, with 18 ranks to distribute among them. Each skill set has three levels described by words, roughly sorted by increasing specialization. When rolling against a skill, the most focused specialization determines the amount of d10 to roll. The lowest die has to be lower or equal to an applicable attribute + the skill set rank.

Her skill sets will be:

• 4 Researcher -> Biologist -> Marine Ecologist
• 2 Earth Culture -> Central European -> Middle-Class
• 3 Outdoors lover -> Survival -> Sailing
• 2 Corporate Orientation for Poseidon -> Basic Combat Training -> Small Arms Training
• 4 Public Speaker -> Negotiator -> Presentation
• 3 Hobby athlete -> Team sports -> Hydroshot

Hydroshot is a sport that emerged on Poseidon, a more aggressive and faster version of Water Polo.

Tags

Each character gets two tags (the PDF says two or three, another says two, and it was clarified a few days ago on Discord that two is correct). Tags are words or short phrases that describe beliefs, old wounds, political clout, or whatever. They can or cannot have mechanical meaning. 

Neva has Distrustful of corporations (+2 when resisting corporate social maneuvers) and Eco Defender (cannot ignore serious harm to the environment).

Tracks

Characters start with one or two tracks, which can be determined by the campaign/GM. They represent concepts that PCs can move towards or away from, like goals or moral stances. Complicated, I know. The bottom line is that they have a normal state, and then two steps towards opposite ends. Each state has two numbers that represent a bonus and malus to target numbers that might apply to actions involving that stance; the normal state has 0/0. So, let’s say we have a character with a track from Sell-out (-4/+4) to Insurgent (+4/-4) via Centrist (0/0), and they are at Insurgent, they could get a +4 when trying to convince other insurgents to help them with something, and a -4 if they would try to convince some government or corporate official. Tracks can be shared between PCs, for example for a group goal.

I will give her Wanted (Underground +4/-4, Trail gone cold +2/-2, Wanted 0/0, Hunted -2/+2, On the Run -4/+4) and omit the group one for the moment.

Ties

Every character has ties, people they are close to. Typically, a PC should have two of them, though depending on the narrative more can be made. Each tie has a name, a description of how they connect, and an obligation. The latter described what the PC does to maintain that relationship. Relationships can also be to organizations.

Not counting people on Earth (and therefore years of travel away) and PCs Neva has ties to:

Vanya Matthai, off-and-on girlfriend she had in Haven, the largest settlement of the planet where she lived until the day, she went AWOL. Since this is a mostly broken relationship, I will not give it a way to maintain, not count it, and just note it here.

• Sierra Nueva Insurgents         Allies               Provide information and analysis
• Iker Collazo                            Friend              Emotional support, blowing off steam

Biomods

This one should be pretty straightforward. Biomods are modifications of the body. 

Neva has:

• A Neural Jack with Uplink (allowing her to connect directly to machinery that has the counterpart, wirelessly).
• An Implanted Micro-Toolkit with medical tools, though she used it mostly in her scientific work.
• Swim Bladder, small pockets along the body that allow control of buoyancy and add +1 to swimming/diving rolls.
• Immunological Symbiotes, which help the immune system and accelerate healing a bit.

We are well below the 125k, but I think that is a fitting set for her. I think only the Neural jack is usually visible, since even with the uplink a port will still exist to connect to anything that can’t receive a wireless signal.

Finally, she would get some gear, but that depends on the GM and the campaign. I will omit it here, and note that she’d have typical field equipment, be part of a ship crew, and therefore would have access to more. She also would have a small gun.

Since there is no character sheet available yet outside a low-resolution image of one, I will link you to this Google doc instead.

Day 8: Liminal Horror - Stephen Graham

Stephen is a porter who came to deliver an unusually heavy package. Luckily he has a fold-up dolly, now he just needs some manager to sign his electronic signature pad - management was adamant that he cannot come back without a signature. He is 33, with STR 13, DEX 14, and CTRL 7. He has a whopping 6 HP. 

He is rather short, with a sharply angled face. His diminutive stature contains a(nother) booming voice. He is very tolerant of others, but a bit vain.

And there is a sheet, of course.

Day 7: Liminal Horror - Kelly Williams

Mrs. Williams is a Compliance Officer who has arrived on the scene since The Monolith has missed the last 51 safety inspections.  She has brought an inspection form, a flashlight, and an all-in-one measurement/testing tool. Her attributes are STR 7, DEX 8, and CTRL 13 - she seems to have spent a lot of time in the office. She also has 3 HP. Compared to the other two she is rather young (23). Her appearance is statuesque, and her speech is choppy. She tends to be nervous but acts with honor. Part of her behavior might be that she has recently been demoted.

And have a character sheet.

 

Day 6: Liminal Horror - Joseph Schmidt

Joseph finds himself in the same foyer, at the same time as Ashley. The two do not know each other. Joseph (Joe or Joey to his friends and family) has STR 10, DEX 9, and CTRL 11. He has 4 HP. As for operational experience? He just wandered in - suddenly there was this weird building in the middle of the city, and he got curious. That means that he gets a backpack, a raincoat, and a walking stick. Just like Ashley, he is 31 years old. 

His rugged physique is coupled with a dimpled face; he probably likes to laugh. Which with his booming voice might be impressive. He has a serene demeanor but can become aggressive from time to time. And he is pretty much described as is.

Here you go, Joseph Schmidt.

 

Day 5: Liminal Horror - Ashley Lee

Liminal Horror is an OSR game for generic modern horror. As such, it can be adapted to a variety of different setting ideas. In this instance, I will utilize The Bureau, an expansion that provides a dungeon crawl reminiscent of the video game Control in theme. The Bureau is an organization founded by former president <redacted> to secretly combat supernatural forces; the player characters are new recruits who have just entered The Monolith, aka the Bureau's headquarters, when chaos erupts. The exact date is unknown, but it is likely set in the 1980s.

The game features a random character generation system, so I won't begin with a specific plan for Ashley. There are a few options I could choose, but I always opt for rolling dice instead.

First, we roll for attributes using 3d6, and we get Strength (STR 11), Dexterity (DEX 7), and Control (CTRL 12). Ashley's Hit Protection is 1d6 (HP 6). Her operational experience is marked as "Writer's Block" – her manuscript, which would surely have become a bestseller, was confiscated by The Bureau. This operational experience means that she possesses a heavy flashlight, a snub revolver, and a thermos. Ashley is 31 years old. She strongly believes in the power of community. According to the dice, she is curvaceous, with an elongated face. Her voice is slightly gravelly. She adheres to a disciplined lifestyle but can also be quite lazy at times. Going a bit beyond the dice I envision her as an attractive black woman clad in mostly sand-colored attire – a light jacket, slacks, and a white blouse. 

And that's Ashley. Wasn't that quick?

Day 4: Outgunned - Thras, stellar bodyguard for hire

Thras liked his crew; together they took on a variety of jobs. Originally, Keyan, the captain, hired them as bodyguards for a tense mission to the Keray, but when everyone realized how well they fit in, they joined for good. All of that changed recently. You see, the Intrepid Partridge (*) took on any job not too dangerous, and there is often good money in salvage. Only this time, they found one of the weird wonders of the galaxy - they went deep into the exclusion zone following some information on an old drifter from the Zzarch empire. They even found it. But it turned out the treasure ship, as ancient and seemingly dead as it was, was actually filled with “corpses”. And when they explored the ship, the corpses woke up. Thras’ crew was taken prisoner, and they saw the woken corpses bring a giant creature on board. In the following day cycles, they all were fed a milky substance from that creature's hind gland, and their crewmates slowly succumbed to it, becoming willing servants of whatever that creature was. Only Thras got away - they felt the mind-expanding effects, but their people do not suffer addictions. But they started to pretend. In the end, this allowed them to break out and try for the bridge.

Long story short, a random unplanned jump later, the ship crashed into the waves of an ocean on some remote planet marked as a hinterland. When Thras woke, they barely escaped the wreck. When they reached the closest beach, they saw large tracks and some of that milky substance - the creature is alive. And while they saw quite a few bodies on the wrecked Intrepid, they are fairly certain some people survived. With this place being a hinterland, it is unlikely anyone civilized will ever find them. Worse, if the creature is still alive, there is no telling what it could do to the people living in this place. It took Thras nearly ten of the day cycles of this planet to track down someone from the ship. It was Keyan, clearly selling some of the white drug to a local. Thras observed, and when Keyan tried killing Robin, they intervened. You know the rest.

For Thras, I will use the Action Flicks expansion, to be precise the Star Raiders expansion. We will make Thras as we would a human hero. Their Role will be the Star Raider. They get a point in the attribute Nerves and in the skills Fight, Stunt, Cool, Drive, Shoot, Flirt, Speech, Style, Fix, and Streetwise. For Feats, I chose Alien Diplomacy (Thras is better at interacting socially with aliens) and Shoot First (Thras is excellent at ambushing and surprise attacks). Usually, they’d own a Starship, but I will replace that with an Intertranslator implant that I just made up - it will need a few minutes of listening, then can translate any audible language. Thras also owns a Laser Pistol that he saved from the wreck. Lasers have some special rules, they do not have ammo, and can overload to deliver full auto or covering fire. Overloading means they need to cool down a turn to be used again. Their Trope will be Lonely Stranger, also from Star Raiders. This will give them Brawn or Focus, so Brawn, and one point each in Endure, Fight, Stunt, Cool, Shoot, Survival, Leadership, and Detect. For the final Feat, I choose Marksman - Thras is excellent with anything to do with his guns. Then I add points to Endure and Awareness, and the usual point each for Spotlight, Adrenaline, and Cash. His Catchphrase is “Way of my People”, he cannot turn his back on the weak as his flaw, and his job is Stranded Alien.

And that will be Thras.

 And with that, we have our party for the game of Outgunned.

(*) Very rough translation.

Day 3: Outgunned - Robin Khan, aging partygirl in a bad spot

Robin Khan always loved Spring Break in Miami. She loved it so much that she is still going, now rapidly closing in on 30. But now she is on the side of the counter that serves the drinks. In school, she didn’t amount to much, and she has mastered the art of surviving in the urban jungle by taking on any kind of work that one can do without a degree. She always planned to focus on enjoyment, partying, that kind of thing, not money. Bartender, waitress, those are her kind of work. But now she has a string of increasingly bad jobs and bad relationships behind her, and reality cannot be denied any longer. And now the situation has hit the fan.

You see, she had realized that her latest partner, a guy called Brad or something, was really bad. As in “slinging drugs to teenagers” bad. So she decided to break it off. But she learned long ago that timing and choice of place are crucial in these kinds of things, and ‘middle of the night in a small alley behind the local IHOP’ does not work. You see, Brad was meeting someone about some supplies. There was the noise of some argument, then a flash, and then Brad’s head rolled out of the alley. She screamed. And then a tall man with a weird gas mask came out of the alley, walking with purpose towards her. He had an honest-to-god spear in his hand, and murder in his eyes. Robin decided to run and tried to get into Brad’s car. Except something struck the car, and a giant hole with glowing edges appeared in the door before her eyes. She turned, shocked, and saw the stranger taking aim with his weird spear, and knew she was dead. That is when suddenly someone threw themselves into the path of the shot, firing some other strange weapon. The tall man who had tried to kill her looked at the crumpled mass, dropped his spear, and fished out a large knife. Robin grabbed the weird lizard-like creature that had just saved her life, heaved to help it into the car, and somehow made an escape. The knife the stranger wielded left a large scar in the side of the car.

Robin is sure that she somehow got involved in a fight between aliens, but the weird lizard tried to save her. And now it is lying on her couch, breathing erratically, and she doesn’t know what will happen next. She has bound its wounds; maybe it’ll help.

Robin’s Role is that of The Nobody; she gets a point in the attribute Smooth and in the skills Fight, Shoot, Survival, Leadership, Speech, Detect, Fix, Heal, Know, and Dexterity. Her Feats from the role are Silver Tongue (she is good at lying, charming people and so on), and I’ll make a Phone Call (she knows a lot of people and can call them to get information, clues, and the like). She owns a beaten-up station wagon that her last boss gave her instead of her last two months of salary; it has a speed of 0. She got rid of the broken car of Brad or whatever. Choosing a Trope was tricky, but in the end, I went with Good Samaritan. That gives her Smooth or Focus (so Focus), the Feat Selfless (which means she is very good at helping others, for example dragging them into a car to help them escape), and a point each in the skills Endure, Cool, Shoot, Speech, Style, Detect, Heal, and Know. Her two free skill points go into Flirt; it seems criminal to just leave it at 1.

Now for the final detail; she gets the same 1 Cash, 1 Adrenaline, and 1 Spotlight everyone gets. She is 29, so an adult. Her catchphrase is ”Heya!”, and her flaw is that she avoids confrontation until she snaps.

And that is Robin.

 

Day 2: Outgunned - Izayah Greer, fed-up bureau veteran

When Saniyah arrived at the Miami office and introduced herself, she was still pretty optimistic. Then, when the SAC led her to introduce her to her new partner, she saw the looks of pity and heard the snickers and her heart sank. No one here knew her, so they must have thought of her partner. And then she was introduced to a middle-aged man with a slightly rumpled suit, who barely spoke two words to her, and was left at the other desk in the out-of-the-way office.

Izayah is a bit of an outcast. Strictly speaking a veteran agent, he played the political game until one day he reached a limit to what he was willing to overlook. When the dust cleared, a few people were dead, another agent had lost her job, and Izayah had made a lot of enemies. But he also knew about quite a few buried bodies and wasn’t dumb about what to do with those secrets. So he wasn’t fired, but transferred away and buried in meaningless tasks. Officially, he has a pretty high rank, but he is also fully aware that this will only be the case as long as he doesn’t rock the boat. And since the local agents do not know how good he is, or maybe was, they have been a bit careless around him - he already knows that corruption runs deep in the Miami office. But he knows that he will only be left in peace as long as he keeps his head down. Still, there are some things he overheard that just do not sit right with him, and now someone has sent some rookie here for god-knows-what reason. Officially it is to help him scout for a larger new investigation. There is a brand new synthetic street drug that makes meth look like gumballs, with a suspected source in organized crime. The boss wants to assemble a task force and has ordered Izayah to take the rook to the streets and get some more information so Miami can ask Quantico for more resources. But Izayah has his doubts that this is all there is to it - it feels like someone pulling strings for other reasons. It feels like he is being set up. Something is about to happen.

This will be the second hero for Outgunned. His Role will be The Agent, giving him a point in the Nerves attribute. This also gives him a point each in Endure, Fight, Stunt, Cool, Drive, Shoot, Leadership, Detect, Heal, and Awareness. He will get the Feats Get Down! (allowing him to get himself and another hero into cover immediately for 1 Adrenaline) and Lie To Me (making him a lot better at reading people and spotting lies). For equipment, he starts with a pistol, handcuffs, a badge, and a telephone. To be honest, as a GM, I would just give all of those to his partner as well. His Trope will be Party Killer - he is very curmudgeonly and not fun to hang out with. Saniyah has her work cut out. In any case, that means that he adds a point to either Nerves or Crimes (obviously Crimes for him) and to the skills Force, Stunt, Cool, Shoot, Leadership, Awareness, Stealth, and Streetwise. His Feat here will be Head on a Swivel; it seems most fitting to him. It means that he is quite a bit better when preempting dangers or ambushes, or when trying to locate lurking enemies. His two final skill points go into Survival and Detect.

He also gets the 1 Cash, 1 Adrenaline, and 1 Spotlight. His catchphrase will be ‘I really should have stayed out of it,’ and his flaw is that he cannot ignore corrupt lawmen.

And that is Izayah done.

 

Day 1: Outgunned - Saniyah Burkett, rookie FBI agent

Usually, you read about some life-changing event involving drugs that sets the hero on the road to who they are now. There is no such thing for Saniyah Burkett. She studied criminal law and maintained a strict athletic regimen not due to trauma, but simply because she was raised to always do her best. And since she always liked cop shows when she was a kid. By now, she is a lot older, of course, and fully aware that working for the FBI has next to nothing in common with the way it is portrayed in most shows. But she still wants to be a part of it. To be honest, she was never too fond of the whole violence part of it, so even better! She applied herself in school and got the grades to show for it. She also never really managed to fit in all that well. And that continued until the day she was accepted to Quantico.

Recently, she graduated from the academy, not top of her class, but she still did pretty okay.  Well, the middle of the pack is okay, right? Granted, that was a harsh lesson - she is pretty used to being among the best. Just as much as she is used to other people talking and laughing about her behind her back. While she barely passed on the shooting range, she did excel at all the non-physical tests. She felt pretty good about that, at least. Or she tells herself that she does. Then she received her diploma, and a bit later her orders to join the office in Miami, Florida. Not really her favorite place, and the office there is rumored to be the place where careers go to die. But she is determined to make the best of it. To prove that she has what it takes. To learn whatever the office can teach her. And to be a valuable and valued member of her new team in no time. Maybe, just maybe, she will fit in this time.

Instead, she found herself a hero in a game of Outgunned.

Outgunned is an Action RPG released last year and published by Two Little Mice. The game uses the same basic system as Broken Compass and Household and is designed to tell Action Movie stories. It seems like there will be a lot more flying bullets in Saniyah’s future than she envisioned.

Character creation in Outgunned is fairly straightforward. Each character has five Attributes at either 2 or 3. They also have twenty skills that are loosely associated with the attributes, which also range from 1 to 3. When making a hero, we first choose a Role. In Saniyah’s case, I’ll go with the Brain - she could be an Agent, but for one, I want to avoid having two of those, and I also think she should have been an analyst, but made a bad career choice. That means that she gets a point in the attribute Focus. She also gets one point each in the skills Drive, Leadership, Speech, Style, Detect, Fix, Heal, Know, Dexterity, and Stealth. Then she gets two Feats out of a selection provided by the Role and gets High Culture (meaning she is far more likely to recall general information and the like) and Intuition (for 1 Adrenaline giving her a shot at identifying weak spots in enemies and allowing her to ask for clues when stuck). The role also determines that she starts with a portable computer, a notebook, and a pencil. Next, I choose a Trope she embodies and go with Neurotic Geek. This gives a choice between Focus and Crime for another Attribute point, and since Focus is already maxed, she gets Crime. She gets another choice of Feats, and this time I give her Outsmart, which allows her to pay 1 Adrenaline to roll Know instead of another skill. She also gets another point each in Drive, Speech, Detect, Fix, Know, Awareness, Dexterity, and Stealth.

As for Personal Information, we have a name, a job (FBI new agent trainee), and age (28, adult). Her catchphrase is ‘Not like on the TV at all’, and her flaw is that she cannot ignore injustice - she is a true believer in the official FBI line. She gets to add two points in skills, and I give her Shoot and Stunt - she needs a bit of that, I think. And to finish everything off she gets 1 Adrenaline, 1 Spotlight (both of these are metacurrencies), and 1 Cash.

And that is Saniyah done.