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Totem perk seems good but maybe either +2 weekly, or +1 if you want to be able to use it whenever.

Alternatively, maybe take traditional healing ? You seem quite shamanic soul based magic might be an option - and perk with an animal familiar - perhaps transform ?

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Originally posted by Doublethink:
Stone Miller needs to be tweaked to an 18 point build. I don't think you can have toothpick take over as a skill - too powerful, you can steal a dragon with that ! Dutch courage is fine as a perk but x1 per week. Eseentially he is the teams strongest fighter.

I suggest scavenge as a skill, can find small useful stuff and make useful mundane items. E.g dives into the town dump and comes back with bits he makes into a new outfit or a bed roll, or a torch etc.

Thematically it would help if Stone worse grimy trousers and a jerkin - or grimy robes. I am thinking that it is pretty much possible to fit all these characters into a sort of late medieval / renaissance tech level.

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Hmm... Dang it, I wanted the group to have a hobo as its face... But that's ok, I wasn't too sure what to make of him. I still sort of am not, given that Ariston just volunteered to provide us with a fighter/meat shield. I'll remove toothpick takeover and replace it with something else. (Just remember, children, to always fear swarthy men with toothpicks on airplanes!) I might also add a "scrounging cannot be denied" perk if Stone is not to be a fighter. But I'll rethink and rewrite as I read and think about what Ariston's character will do for the group dynamics.

Also, Stone is not a drunk, nor a tramp. He's a ...
(one long stroke on a blues lute is heard, followed by four quick ones)
Highway Child.

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"I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable."
Walt Whitman
Formerly JFH

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Originally posted by Jay-Emm:
Ok modified

Character Name: Prince Testwe Rakta

Weak(2) Rank Wits
Good(4) Rank Finesse
Excellent(5)Rank Charm
Ok(3) Rank Soul
Useless(1) Rank Muscles
Ok(3) Rank Vigilance

Night-watchperson (vigilence) Testwe is a better watchperson than expected at night as he can't sleep in 'rough' conditions
Reputation (finesse) skilled at conversations with those deferential to royalty (or otherwise affected by 'pulling rank')
Conversationalist (charm) skilled at broaching conversations with the most unlikely people in the most unlikely situations who may say more than they mean
Regal-Hunting (soul) riding horses is obvious royal training and is slightly better with royal birds than expected (can't do the boring stuff, though)
Fencing (finesse) more skilled at fighting when dealing with people who fght according to 'rules'

Perk
Always their fault.
Not sure how to operate yet,

Please list equipment you acquire, with any bonuses it may give.
(if can start with stuff)
Princely fine rapier
Flute
Spinning thing

Other notes:

At the beginning he hasn't learnt the dangers of the real world and has unrealistic expectations.
Thus giving a chance to confirm that things work ok (and he loses when he should), but he will learn quickly (before it gets boring)

The parody backstory is to be taken as more metaphorical, to match a more serious fantasy.
Rather than the original attempt to exploit cliches to justify silly (exploratory) behaviour, while trying to satarise the cliches.
Will try to keep the interesting traits, but add aspects of the 'Face' prism.

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Originally posted by Ariston:
Guardian Jetse Vos, formerly of the Mystery, Fellowship, and Company of Merchant Adventurers in the Canton of Ijzerhaven, Duchy of Joux and Mørkborg Palatinate.

While not especially tall, Jetse is still an absolute bear of a man, seemingly occupying the whole of any room he walks into. His black hair and mustache are turning grey at the corners, and his face, hands, and arms show the signs of long exposure to the elements, as well as a few fights that could have perhaps gone better for him. Whatever caused that necrotic wound, now a nasty scar, on his left arm couldn't have been even remotely friendly. Yet somehow, through his many campaigns on land, sea, and underground, Jetse survived.

His arms and equipment are as unusual for these parts; perhaps, in the fjords and cold of the far south, they might be more common, but here, their strange design stands out, especially the sun emblem on his breastplate and (you think—it's hard to tell, as battered as it is) the chief of his shield. Why would a soldier from Joux wear that device? Isn't the Duchy supposed to be underground?

Stats:
Useless charm
Useless wits
Okay soul (I'm assuming "soul" is something like wisdom, horse sense, instinct, or internal fortitude, rather than something like a mystical connection to the Beyond—Jetse is not a magic user of any kind)
Good finesse
Good vigilance
Excellent muscles
Jetse is generally gruff and curt, sometimes bordering on rude. Being around him is slightly frightening—it's clear that he's watching you, judging your actions, determining how likely you are to attack him, and, if you are fool enough to try, how he's going to make you very much regret it. Something about being around a gruff, heavily armed, hypervigilant, and not especially friendly (ex?) mercenary who seems to be quite capable of landing a blow exactly where it would hurt the most tends to make people shy away

Notable Equipment
Halberd (pole weapon, slashing/piercing, hook can be used to disarm or trip opponents, effective against charging and mounted enemies). The blades and haft of this fearsome looking poleaxe are jet black.
Short sword (bladed weapon, slashing). Jetse's sidearm, rather than being straight, has a series of waves in the blade, and, like his halberd, is also black.
Longbow and 20 arrows
Shield (wooden). While the arms originally painted on the shield have been mostly obliterated in combat, you can barely make out a sun symbol in the chief.
Breastplate. Though battered and repaired, a coat of arms depicting a three-peaked mountain over a field (a plain, or perhaps a lake?), with the same sunburst design in the chief as his shield, is still visible, etched above the front of his right shoulder.
Helmet. Both the breastplate and helmet are made out of a strange metal that seem more like pale and faded shadows than glittering steel. Or maybe they just need a good polish before the next parade. A really good polish.
Heavy oilskin cloak. Wherever Jetse's been, it doesn't seem like it was especially warm or dry.

Skills
Transport (wit): working as an escort on merchant convoys has given Jetse some ability to pilot, if not navigate or command, boats and small ships; drive carts and pack animals, and, in a pinch, kinda ride them; and pack, load, and unload goods. Now, if he could only remember what he heard belowdecks…
(While Jetse can do these things, and do them well, thanks to his low wit score, he can't do anything that's too complicated. Piloting a riverboat or steering a small ship while someone else navigates and gives orders, sure; warships and ocean-crossing cargo vessels, no. Riding a well-trained horse to war or even, if it's a good one, in battle is fine; handling a spooked horse while fighting is out of the question)

Cover (finesse): having fought in so many environments and situations has given Jetse a knack for using whatever advantage he can gain from wherever he might find himself. When defending—and when he has the initiative—in those cases where Jetse might normally gain a bonus from terrain, cover, or concealment, he gains a small (+2 in D&Dspeak) additional bonus.

Climb (finesse): whether it be a ship's rigging, a tree, or a rockfall in a cave, Guardian Vos has had to get up it. In armor. With his weapons. While it was moving. And under attack. At this point, he's kind of good at it.

Fortitude (muscle): when you've been beaten up as often as he has, you kinda learn to ignore it. While damage still happens, the tangential, non-physical effects of that damage (e.g., being distracted by pain) are lessened.

Alertness (vigilance): our good Guardian is always looking around, always assessing threats, and always has a plan to kill everyone he meets. All else being equal, he'll draw first.

The Human Wall (muscle): sometimes, it's good to be an imposing, hulking Presence. In exchange for staying put and planting himself in one spot (i.e., as a full-round action), Jetse gains a small, but not insignificant, defensive bonus (+3 or 4) and enemies can't pass within five feet of him without getting the absolute living snot beat out of them. Trying to charge past him while he's planted like this (and, especially, able to take advantage of the environment) is a good way to find yourself on the spiky end of the halberd.

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1. A concise description of the various "potentials", and what they are typically good for. Stuff like "finesse" is close to meaningless to me (hold your puns ). If I want to open a lock, does that require "finesse"? If I want to woo a lady, does that require "finesse"? If I want to pull off a difficult spell, does that require "finesse"? If I want to fence rather than bludgeon, does that require "finesse"? Only "Charm" is somewhat clear to me, and that mostly because it is a "traditional" trait and I assume that it would have impact as usual. Even "Muscle" could mean different things (does a ballet dancer have 5 Muscle?). Without a better idea what I need "potentials" for, I cannot tailor the point distribution to the character that I'm building. (Are we by the way distributing 20 or 18 points?)
2. To invent our own skills seems like too much of an invitation to go nuts. This needs a lot balancing, which tends to be hard (and to some extent depends on the environment in which the adventure will happen). I suggest instead that most skills should be assigned implicitly by "class". If I make my character a wizard then this should mean to the GM that I'm better at wizard stuff than say a thief, even if I didn't specify the specific skill needed. For example, we find an ancient tome. Who gets to read it? If I am the wizard of the group, then it should be logical that I should try to decipher it. Whereas our druid should not be the go to guy, because he doesn't do books much. But the druid may well have the same "Wit" and "Soul" stats, and we both may not have thought of including "reading ancient books" as skill. So we would be equal in terms of the game mechanics. But that makes no sense at all. Given a class system, both the group and the GM can quickly figure out who is the logical choices for a certain task. This would also much simplify the initial character development, instead of inventing all sorts unbalanced skills we simply pick a class.
3. Special gear, perks and special skills: I suggest everybody gets one, and only one, at least to start with. Decide whether you want a super-weapon, an extraordinary buff or an incredible skill. Pick one. Then negotiate that with the GM (Doublethink) for balance. Nothing stops characters from picking up extra gear, perks or skills in the game. You raid the ruins of Ashrgoth and find the Hammer of Doom. You save a wood spirit and get the perk "bark skin" as defensive buff. You stay up late in the tavern and learn how to cheat almost everybody out of some money with a card game. Fine, that's all game-internal, it develops out of the story and since it will be provided by the GM it will be in tune with the environment and balanced. But I don't think we should all start out as fantastic heroes. We should start out humble, and grow more powerful as we go along...
4. There's no guidance on available races and their interactions with the various powers available in the game. Is it purely ornamental whether I declare myself to be human, orc, elf, gnome, goblin, dwarf, troll, what have you? Or is a troll warrior consistently going to beat a gnome warrior? Does an elvish ranger have keener sight than a dwarven one? Does an orc have the innate ability to eat tainted food without getting poisoned? Etc.

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Originally posted by IngoB:

In short, I think we should not overload the character creation with creativity as far as powers and stuff goes (creative descriptions is a different thing entirely). I think it would be better to have that clear and simple, and let the complexity grow within the game. And we could off-load some of individual mods on choosing a class / race.

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Originally posted by Doublethink:
It is 18 point buy for the 6 potentials

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Originally posted by me:
[Arabella Adventurer]has never met a Dragon in her Cave, and furthermore a Cave is not a Dungeon. So she thinks she'll watch the other characters before trying it for herself.

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Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
At the moment I feel the way I feel at baseball games when a fly ball comes my way: everyone else is reaching out to grab it, and I'm cowering in my seat with my hands over my eyes. I don't think I could contribute anything at all towards anything remotely task-oriented.

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Your writing is funny. Our characters will work as a team, and as such we'll help one another build stories. Including yours. So your character will be somewhat existentially confused? So was Napoleon, St. Simeon the Holy Fool, and Robert Plant ("I AM A GOLDEN GOD!" when looking out over Sunset Boulevard). We'll help give you choices to make, help you know when to do what, not as parents but as team-mates of a team that's going to be dysfunctional whether you're in it or not. And it'll be fun having you in the group.

I'll admit I have myself secretly waited, looked at others, and tried to have an even selection of pure adaptations of their skills and added some that seemed reasonable. And Doublethink helped me out to get it better balanced. (IMMENSE THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK, DT! REALLY! YOU'RE INSANELY HELPFUL AND GOOD AT THIS!) The 18 points are sort of an attempt to boil down a personality to 6 different areas of strengths/weaknesses. Skills are natural areas of expertise, whereas the perk is more of a super-ability, specially created for your character. If a skill demands overly intricate description of precisely what it does and at what times, it's probably a perk rather than a skill.

Also, again, I think the main fun lies in (dysfunctional) teamwork creating an unfolding story of both individual and team development. As part of that, even if you're existentially confused, somewhat with a bit of intellectual endowment (wit) or a good perception of what you're capable of (vigilance) or just a general good feeling can of course invite you to participate in a plan judging from your ability to contribute. It's not just your own duty to provide your contributions but for us to release it as a team. Also, who knows, maybe your character will just become best friends with someone else in the game and bring general mirth to the group. That's also a contribution, one that will unfold in the upcoming game which I look forward to a lot. So please join in, AR, and most importantly, have fun!

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"I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable."
Walt Whitman
Formerly JFH

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Character Name: Crazy Clawdine

Brief Physical Description:

A troll woman of indeterminable size, thanks to the many layers of tattered shawls that hang from her large frame. Her wild black matted hair has a life of its own, owing to the insect life that lives in it. She may look crazy, but her beady black eyes rarely miss much of what is going on around her, and she has a number of hidden and surprisingly useful talents.

Potentials:

Weak Wits
Useless Finesse
Weak Charm
Excellent Soul
OK Muscles
Excellent Vigilance

Skills:

Stealth (finesse)
Light weapon (muscles)
Find hidden (vigilance)
Spot deception (vigilance)
Survival (soul)
Hypnotise (soul)

Perk: Call Water, you sense water at all times and x1 per week can cause something withered to grow.

Special ability: A compliment turns Clawdine into a tall, leggy, well endowed and fast young woman, with blonde hair and a desire to run naked through water. Your finesse and vigilance ranks swap and you turn into a young naked woman. You can trigger this x1 per week in a situation where you have received a compliment - but if you are talking to yourself you can choose to compliment yourself, provided you roleplay a convincing reason.

Equipment:
Divining Rod (+1 to your roll when used as a weapon)
Distinctive blue caravan

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