This is from a game I’m currently GMing in Fate Core. The last game was put on indefinite hold due to one of the players being taken away from gaming due to life events. The new game features an alternative Earth where Systems run amok, coming from other dimensions via breaches. They take human beings as hosts and may or may not harm the host. They also have various goals, which may be harmful to Earth or not.
I had to raid my childhood memory for a premise for character generation and the one I went with was just Daily Lives of Immortals with frequent visits to the Mortal Realm and no basic plot, just scenes that we wanted to act out on a given day (I was the Flower Immortal, my classmate was the Butterfly Immortal and her little brother was the Swan Immortal). I decided to dispense with Skill and Stunts.
This is from the premise of my second novel project that was based on a line that popped into my head from a daughter to a mother, “I don’t have to be like you to love you.” I have decided they are both mages and below are their separate FATE profiles:
Mage mother
Description: short woman with strong aura
Aspects:
High Concept- Protective mother sticking to tradition
Trouble- Immature because she values mischief
Hedonistic > traditionalist
Aggressive
Loyal
Skills:
+4: Fight
+3: Will, Physique
+2: Athletics, Notice, Contacts
+1: Resources, Rapport, Deceive, Lore
Stunts:
Fiery warrior. Use the power of Fire to gain +2 when Attacking with Fight.
Mage daughter
Aspects:
High Concept- Leisurely mage carving a new direction with mage craft
Chinese society is very hierarchical and one of the aspects that evidences this is the number of wives allowed between different social classes. The lowest class or commoners tend to practice monogamy while the wealthy have a wife and various concubines. And depending on the dynasty, sometimes merchants are considered to be a cheap social class and forbidden to take on concubines even though they can afford it, at least technically. I’m also not sure how you can enforce stuff like this when a rich merchant can just sleep with a bunch of maids and not take them on as formal concubines.
According to the Zhou Etiquette, an Emperor should have:
1 Queen
3 Fu Ren (or Fei). Depending on the dynasty, they might be granted the title of Kui (high status) Fei, Shuo Fei, DeFei and XianFei that all translate to the Virtuous Royal Concubine, Hui (kind) Fei, Li (beautiful) Fei, Hua (flowery) Fei, Rou (gentle) Fei, Wen (literature) Fei,Yuan (first) Fei, Zhen (true) Fei or Chen (Imperial) Fei. By far, the most common combination is a three or four Fei being made up of Kui Fei, Shuo Fei, De Fei and Xian Fei. They are in charge of female virtue and etiquettes
9 Pins, with two-character titles made up from the 3 prefixes of Zhao (bright), Xiu (cultivate) and Chong (fill) and the 3 suffixes of Yi (manners), Rong (looks) and Yuan (beauty). They are in charge of the areas that comprise female virtue- virtue, speech, looks and achievements.
27 Shi (generational) Fu (married women) separated into three stratas: nine Jie Yu, nine Mei Ren (Beauties) and nine Cai Ren (person of talent). They are mainly in charge of funerals and foreign dignatory visits.
81 YuQi (Imperial Wife), again forming 3 equal sub-stratas including Bao (Treasure) Lin (Forest), NuYu (Maiden under Control? Yu can also mean Imperial but here probably referring to control in the context of riding a horse) and Cai Nu (Colourful Maiden). They are responsible for sleeping with the Emperor and internal affairs
In total, this is only 121 females that a Chinese Emperor can have at the Imperial Palace. But in reality, many far exceed this number. But mostly, each dynasty adheres to the Zhou Etiquette tiers at least if not in number.
Continuing with 7th seas because I was really thinking of two character concepts.
High Concept: Charming rogue/crafter
Nation: Inismore (+1 Panache)
Basic Traits:
Brawn (strength+physical power): 2
Finesse (coordination+agility): 2
Resolve (willpower+endurance): 3
Wit (how quickly think on feet): 3
Panache (charm): 3
Backgrounds:
Criminal: Earn a Hero Point when you break the law in the pursuit of a noble endeavor.
Farmkid: Earn a Hero Point when you solve a complex problem in a simple, tried and true method from back on the farm.
Skills:
Athletics 3
Empathy 2
Hide 3
Intimidate 1
Theft 3
Convince 1
Perform 1
Ride 1
Weaponry 2
Tempt 1
Perform 1
Notice 1
Advantages:
Camaraderie (from Criminal background)
Streetwise (from Criminal background)
Legendary Trait (from Farmkid background)
Survivalist (from Farmkid background)
Second Story work (2 points): You can spend a Hero Point to locate a way into a building or restricted area. You can bring up to one other character along with you, but everyone else has to find their own way in—or wait for you to open a path for them
Masterpiece craft (3 points): Choose one type of item—weapons, armor, paintings, etc. When you create such an item, you may increase the time you work on it in order to create an item of greater quality. If you are using typical, mundane materials, this has no additional effect aside from cosmetic—the item is noticeably higher quality than similar items, and may even bear your mark, earn you notoriety for your fine work, draw a higher price if it is for sale, etc. If you use exotic materials—such as creating a sword using metal from a fallen star, for example—you can create a Signature Item for yourself or another Hero. The time required to create a Signature Item, and whether or not a material is “special” enough to qualify, is always a GM’s discretion.
Arcana:
Virtue: Wily
Activate your Virtue to escape danger from the current Scene. You cannot
rescue anyone but yourself.
Hubris: Arrogant
You receive a Hero Point when your Hero shows disdain, contempt, or otherwise looks down on a Villain or someone who could cause harm to friends.
Hero Story: Romance
Concept: I want to find someone to settle down with
Ending: I will always be a playboy
Reward: This is a four step story that will allow my PC to earn the Athletics skill at rank 4
Steps:
Step 1- Consult the Fate Witch to find a likely candidate
Step 2- Track her down
Step 3- Pursue her and win her heart
Step 4- Give the relationship a trial period to see if it lasts
I had to travel to the city to work in the past 2 days and I have in general neglected the character creation challenge but sometimes I do two characters a day so I’m still hopeful that I might make it.
Anyway, below is a character I’ve generated for 7th seas, again being slightly bored with Fate Core. But for the character concept, I really can’t be bothered with answering 20 questions so I just cheated and replaced it with a description ala Fate Core’s high concept.
Concept: direction blind bar fighting bogatyr
Nation: Ussura (+1 Wits)
Basic Traits:
Brawn (strength+physical power): 3
Finesse (coordination+agility): 2
Resolve (willpower+endurance): 3
Wit (how quickly think on feet): 3
Panache (charm): 2
Background:
Cossark
Quirk: Earn a Hero Point when you leave behind something
important so you can travel light.
Skills:
Brawl 1
Intimidate 2
Notice 2
Ride 3
Weaponry 3
Athletics 1
Tempt 1
Convince 1
Hide 1
Advantages:
Strength of ten (from Cossark background):
Reckless takedown (from Cossark background)
Survivalist (1 point): If you are in the wilderness, you can forage or hunt and find enough food for yourself and up to five other people. Under extreme circumstances—lost in the middle of a desert, or abandoned in the Ussuran tundra, for example—you find enough food for yourself and up to two other people.
Extended family (1 if Ussuran) Spend a Hero Point to reveal you have a distant cousin who lives nearby and can help you with materials, information, or shelter.
Bar fighter (3 points): You gain 1 Bonus Die when you make a Brawling Risk to fight using an upturned table, a barstool, a plank of wood or some other improvised weapon.
Arcana:
Virtue: Astute
Activate your Virtue after a Villain spends Raises for an Action. That Action fails. The Villain still loses the Raises she spent.
Hubris: Loyal
You receive a Hero Point when your Hero goes back for a fallen comrade or refuses to leave a wounded ally.
Hero Story: Obligation
Concept: I owe Nat for saving my life
Ending: The debt is repaid
Reward: This is a five step story that will allow my PC to earn the “Together we are are strong” advantage
Steps:
Step 1: Track down Nat who has gone missing.
Step 2: Ask Nat what he would deem fit payment.
Step 3: Do the task assigned by Nat.
Step 4: Go back to Nat to demand why he lied to me about the task and find out the truth.
Step 5: Sever future ties with Nat, with the debt considered repaid.
This is the alternative version of the parkour instructor that I was contemplating for the zombie game except that the gender is female. I passed it over because the character concept is not conducive to PC cooperation.
Description: Female, 25-6, long-limbed, medium height, on the thin side
Aspects:
High Concept: Insecure parkour practitioner and rock climber
This is the same PC for the same game but generated through random dice rolls under the Fate Core system that was the precursor to my actual PC under Cortex and I didn’t quite make it to completion :
Description: Male, 20s, short and lithe
Aspects:
High Concept: Narcissitic parkour practitioner
Trouble: Rigid in thinking
Values certainty
Petty
Skills:
+4: Athletics
+3: Notice, Fight
+2: Physique, Provoke
+1: Will
Stunts:
Artful dodger. Use Athletics in combination with Physique to Defend against physical attacks
This is a character for a new zombie apocalypse game that I will be participating in as a player:
Agility: d10
Strength: d6
Vitality: d8
Alertness: d8
Intelligence: d8
Willpower: d8
Initiative: d10+d8
Life points: 16
Endurance: 2d8
Resistance: 2d8
Assets:
D6 allure: You’re hot. You either got good looks or sex appeal that defies explanation. Your Trait die is added to any Influence actions involving someone who might find you appealing. Only works in person though; phone calls don’t count unless the Game Master says so.
D6 Natural athlete: Your Trait die is added to actions involving endurance, physical training, or fitness. This Trait don’t help with combat directly, but if you spend a lot of your fights leaping over tables or running from demons, it can come in handy.
Complications
D2 absent-minded: It don’t matter whether you’re a genius or a dumbass … you forget stuff all the time. It’s hard for you to remember appointments or what you had for breakfast. Most of the time you’ll just role play this, but when attempting to remember things or concentrate while distractions are present, your Trait die is added to the Difficulty.
D6 honest to a fault: You can’t lie to save your life. Maybe it’s how you were raised, perhaps you’re just too simple to come up with something clever. Regardless, you don’t have a poker face and have hard time lying even when you wanna tell a good whopper. When there’s a call for using the dice, your Trait die is added to the Difficulty of any action attempting to conceal the truth or pull one over on somebody.
Originally we were planning on a Greek trip at around October and the original pairing was with Turkey but after some back and forth from Mum, we decided to change the pairing to be Greece and Italy instead. The current plan is 12 days in Italy and 2 weeks in Greece.
The 3 home bases of Italy are Milan, Naples and Sorrento, spending 4 days in each place. The Greek part is still up for revision because the major takeaway from the Spain/Portugal trip is that each home base has to have at least 3 days in order for the trip to be not too rushed. So I had fixed up the Italy part with that in mind and now I have to go over the Greek itinerary with the same goal in order to correct the pacing. I will have more to report later in the year, before the trip. But that’s it for travelling this year.
Moonlake's Fiction Space 