Another challenge done!

This year the challenge was one, and just like last year TardisCaptain's daughter has made a great badge for those who managed to do so. Thanks, it is awesome! And congratulations to all the winners, and best of luck to those still on the march.

2022 Character Creation Challenge: Summary part 2

 Another post-challenge thing I wanted to do was point out a few characters made by others, with small comments why I noticed/remembered especially these. This list isn’t complete; with the deluge of characters, I am fairly certain I haven’t even seen the majority. Nearly all examples here I found in the corresponding thread in the rpg.net forums. For this post, I mostly go through the thread again to hunt down the PCs I remember. Since I want you to go to the original posts I will not spoil the contents.

Michael K has posted a series of characters for different games as Cortex conversions. Cortex Prime is a system I have been musing and toying with for a while, even ran a game or two in. It was great to the malleability of the system in practice, and it has inspired me to tackle this seeming moloch of a system once more. Here is the first post, here another.

Elsewhere, cptKadse put up a whole lot of characters for Shadow of the Demon Lord. These I read with interest; SotDL is not a game I ever really thought about. It plays in a genre I am not very fond of, and I had the impression of SotDL as some kind of high crunch DnD-like with an edgelord twist. Looking at the characters cptKadse made quickly changed my mind; I found them evocative, varied, distinct, and overall highly interesting. Even though “classical” fantasy is still not my thing, I am intrigued by what I have seen. Example characters are in post 1, featuring an explanation of the creation system, and there are the wonderfully focussed Tibby, the Skirmisher, and Huệ, the ArcaneBattery, but others are recommended as well.

Andurion made a character for Hard Wired Island on day 2, and since this is a really cool game, and was one I had planned to use as well, I paid attention. Nef Archer demonstrates that a cool concept for a Cyberpunk game works here where in more classical such games they would be dead weight. Also nice character background! Another great example came from Dawgstar. Their concept was essentially Battle Angel Alita (as they mention in the post), and showed nicely what a more combat-oriented character would be like in the system. Recommended. If you go through the thread you will find more examples of HWI characters, and the one thing they have in common is they all ooze personality and style. Yes, HWI is a keeper.

thorr-kan posted several Tiny D6 characters in the thread, and they helped deepen the appeal of the game to me. Such a cool lightweight system. The first one (I think) appeared here, and was made for Magnum Vice: Fury Force, which has been on my radar from the start. I mean, 80s action movies…! Overall Tiny D6 games made several appearances, used by several participants.

SunlessNick had many cool contributions, but here I want to highlight Tanya Mason (Esoterrorist). Not only made for a cool Gumshoe game, Tanya comes with her own nice story hook. I think I would love to see that specific story unfold one day. Later SunlessNick also posted a character for Timewatch. It was good to see such nice examples of Gumshoe!

MadWriter made me aware of the game AlmaMater. Cool character, I have to dig up the game someday.

By day 9 people were wondering about tendencies they found in their own creative choices. There are some fun observations, and the discussion made me think about my set a bit. I am not quite sure if I have one of my own. I mean, I am sure I do, but I don’t seem to be able to see it myself. The one thing I do notice is that I tend to color within the lines, so to speak – my characters are just made within the rules, my creativity does not really extend to the rules themselves. That is probably most visible in SotS, where a lot of people make cool PCs that are just doing really inventive things with the unique equipment and magic rules, pushing the system, something I do not really do.

Aegypto posted a nice idea for a character for an old favorite of mine, Over theEdge. 

Other notable mentions include TardisCaptain, who not only started this whole thing but then often dug into the systems of yore for a lot of PCs he made. More work than I would be willing to do, and the game selection was impeccable, with many rarely-seen treasures. I salute you!

Angille created a party by first making the creation a pathway following Cortex Prime. This was great to see. Others (including but certainly not limited to Archer , JoanieSappho, and SunlessNick ) also created whole parties for different games, and there were experiments where people made the same PC in different systems. I did touch on that a bit but was impressed by Hunter who started doing whole batches of characters in three different systems for comparison on multiple days.

Hafwit made a lot of cool characters as well but made me especially happy with their choice of ARC Doom for several. Such a beautiful book, and now I know I have to play it soon. The character creation as outlined in the first post played a big part in my newfound respect for rolling up characters, and the results are very much to my taste. Very nice, thank you!

SlackC made a character for the comic series Department of Truth, and used the Yellow King Gumshoe game for it. Beautiful!

There were far more notable contributions than the ones listed above, by the same and many, many other creators. I hope I can be forgiven for not even trying to list all of them. Bottom line: There was a lot of creative work done, and I thoroughly enjoyed browsing and reading the material others came up with.

2022 Character Creation Challenge: Summary

So, the games have ended, so to speak, and it is time to look back. First, some numbers:

Actual distinct characters made: 30. 

Characters with different versions: 2, with in total 5 variants.

Systems used: 14 to 23, depending on how one counts - are all Gumshoe games one system? All Tiny D6 games? All different variants of HPL Preparatory Academy?

By my count, the system with most characters made was Swords of the Serpentine / Gumshoe, followed closely by Tiny D6 games.

Now for some observations: While I was aware of some of my preferences before the games started, like not being too fond of long equipment lists, some others are new to me. For example, last year I would have said that I am not fond of rolling to generate PCs. After this exercise, I have to phrase that a bit more carefully - I prefer other generation methods with more control over the outcome, but rolling can be fun. That said, my favorites are systems that are less random and make direct use of words from character description for the mechanics, like say Tiny D6 or Swords of the Serpentine.

Another observation I have to make, though my starting recently to play in a Deadlands campaign does certainly add to that, is that I am feeling rather good about Savage Worlds, which I did not see coming. Its origin as a kind of miniatures-based tabletop wargame was hinting that I would not like it, and the rulebook is rather more mechanics-focused and abstracted than I like. But Dante Harrison (plus the not-posted SW version of White Beau) was fun to make, and in the case of HPLPA Swade is the clear winner system-wise for me. Though that does not say anything about the actual play; no idea how PIP or PDQ perform there. SWADE, however, seems to be fun to play, so might just eke out the others there as well.

Another fun thing is that in the end, all games caught my eye. Even the ones more chosen at random; I might have an issue with being easily excited. However, I have already lined up a Tiny D6 to run, and will try to get a SotS campaign off the ground - those two are just too tempting. Tiny D6 just seems like the perfect game for a quick pickup, and quick one-shots, with the option of turning things into something longer, as well as matching and mixing as needed to create the game one wants. It hits a very sweet spot of simple, meaningful mechanics and evocative character generation. And SotS just screams 'play me' - so many cool ideas to build upon, so much room to play in! It also sits on my very comfortable spot of 'GM plus Players with some narrative control'. I will be very disappointed if that one does not get showered with praise upon release, and an Ennie or two. Or five.

Now, looking back at my list of characters I can say that I would be comfortable playing all of these. There are two I am not too keen on, essentially the 'bad' guys. Though none of them are flat-out evil. But there are definitely some favorites. If I had to pick, I would go with:

Irene Langhans (KULT), who just seems like a perfect fit for how I like to play that game. She is already pulling at my heartstrings just by existing.

Imelda Minucci (Swords of the Serpentine), who is based on an image that didn't leave me alone and just became this nice character with hidden depths in both play and skillset.

Lisa Leipzig (Dark Streets and Darker Secrets), because she seems like the type of character who in-game would become very memorable very quickly. An everyday person that is secretly a larger-than-life figure screams memorable scenes.

Endre and Selina, and their Cheeselovers' Tiny Spa on the mountain. I would prefer playing Endre, I think, since I can only play one. They just seem like fun people to spend some time with, for some low-key 'daily life in fantasy land' play. A solid, quiet core to add some other PCs to who bring the shenanigans.

As for me being the GM, I'd hands down choose the Santambrogio family to run a game for, it would be a load of fun to see them try to re-establish the family fortune and status while dodging grandma. Caitlyn McGraw and Chris Lendo come in on a shared second place.

Finally, I didn't get around to making characters for maybe half the games I planned; too many repeats, too many last-second changes of plans. I am fine with that, it just means that I have more games to make characters for next year. And yes, this was a lot of fun, so I am all but certain to come back. 

Edit: 

And TardisCaptain has handed out badges to those who completed the challenge:

Great idea, and a beautiful badge! Thanks!