For character ideas, discussion, and cooperative background creation.

Hey, everyone. Thanks for having me and thanks for the game, GM.

My concept is of a young woman - probably around 20 years old; old enough to know how to survive but young enough to hold onto a modicum of naivette about the world. I want her to be from Bakersfield (since that is my hometown LOL) and I would not be opposed to starting the game there as well since it is so familiar to me. But of course, that is not set in stone if people have objections.

My PC is going to be attractive, but very tom-boyish. She will be small and most likely not very strong, but dextrous as hell and have a presence to her that she has yet to master. I am thinking high dex and power, medium intelligence and constitution, low strength and something else.

For Skills, I am not sure yet, but I am thinking she will be good in the wild. Good with dealing with natural hazards, animals, tracking, surviving. Things like that. She will probably have something of a green thumb as well. These were things passed down by her father and mother - both of Apache decent from Mexico several generations removed.

I have just opened the basic RPG book that was mentioned for us to download. So, right now I am not sure how to go about taking skills as they pertain to the book.

But so far, that is my broad concept.

For skills, let's do this with a healthy dose of freeform.  Pick some things you'd like her to be good at to fulfill her total concept, and we'll make the points work.  Also pick whatever freebie common sense skills related to her concept. If she's an outdoors type of character, she'll be at least decent at hiding and sneaking in the wilderness, wilderness survival skills, wilderness 'lore', tracking, first aid related to outdoor dangers, hunting, things like that. If you want her to be a great archer, then that goes under her 'good at' skills.  Let me know if you need any questions.  Create a list and then we'll discuss it.  For example, I don't think being a salvage expert would be a part of her outdoors concept, and she wouldn't have any particular skill at it unless you wanted to make it one of her 'good at' or 'decent at' skills.  Again, we can just discuss things until she's ready for play.

Feel free to personalize and don't feel like you have to make her as competitive as possible.  Yes, we're using some rules but the goal is for the characters to have an exciting involving story instead of getting screwed over by a bad dice roll.  She might really know how to survive in the wilderness but be the noisiest person in the underbrush.

OK, cool. I like that better.

Good at: Basically what you said. Wilderness survival, tracking, silent movement. Things in this category, she can be free form written as pretty damn good. Combat wise - archery. I want her to excel at ranged archery. Katniss Everdeen up in this bitch. Freebie common sense in this category might be animal handling - knowing that the rad-bear probably shouldn't be pet and what its lair looks like.

At first, I was thinking ranged firearms - which makes sense due to high Dex - but when you mentioned Archery that made so much more sense.

Decent at: Social interaction. She can shit talk and haggle, usually work a situation to her advantage because of a quick wit, but she isn't going to be getting into lengthy ontological debates with anyone any time soon. Certain firearms, say rifles (hunting and guard duty can't ALWAYS necessitate a bow and arrow). This kind of fits the freebie common sense: I can work a rifle well enough because that is easy, but pistols are another story altogether.

Meh at: She never had too much of a passion for things automotive or mechanical. This is where she is something of an odd ball in this new world. In a junkyard for example, she might spot some smashed fruits in a barrel fermenting and use the alcohol for medicinal purposes, but completely miss the cherry-condition Carburetor sitting just beside it.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:32, Wed 20 May 2015.

Sounds great.  So far we have the...

Good/Excels:

Archery (good at skill number 1).  This also includes the making and repair of bows, arrows and other archery gear.


Silent Movement (good at skill number 2).  Includes expert sneaking in all environments and indoors, since you want it to be one of the skills she excels at.  Her dad jokes with her that she's a mutant because she was born with feet as quiet as a cat's.

Wilderness Skills (good at skill number 3).  Includes Wilderness Lore, the understanding and observation of her natural world.  This includes weather guesstimating, orienteering, tracking, hunting (includes stalking/hiding, field butchering and cooking) and pretty much everything low-tech camping.  Includes Animal Lore.  Includes moving and climbing in natural environments.  Includes very basic First Aid, like what to do in case of a sprained ankle, a snakebite, cuts and gashes, and other wilderness emergencies.  This list is not all inclusive.  If you think of something during play that seems reasonable, like figuring out where to set up camp to avoid a flash flood, just ask.


Decent:

She's a decent shot with semi-auto rifles and shotguns.  She knows how to keep them clean and perform basic maintenance, but not how to repair them or fabricate parts.  She is unskilled with other types of firearms, and she doesn't know how to hand load ammunition or other things like that.

Subsistence Agriculture.  I'm suggesting this skill because you mentioned how she would be much more attuned to fermenting berries that assessing salvage.  I like long term games, and it would be completely within the scope of this game for a skill like this to bear fruit over time, hardy har.

Social Interaction, just as you described.  She can fit in with a group like anyone else and she can generally move without trouble among townies, homesteaders and other people inclined toward the golden rule.  She knows enough about people to catch dangerous social vibes.


Meh:

Anything mechanical, electronic or otherwise technological.  I'm sure she can tell the difference between new and beat-up items and other obvious things.  There are no doubt things she can use, but anything outside her experience she would have to be shown how to to use, like a DVD player, a different kind of light switch than what she's used to, etc.  She won't have an intuitive knowledge of how to operate things that older people seem to take for granted.



Some questions:

Can she read?  Does she know any basic math?

Does she speak Spanish as well as English or even some Apache?

Are there any other daily life type skills you think she would have?

You still have a space left for a Decent skill, since I added Subsistence Agriculture (which you don't have to keep if it's not a good fit).

Loving the concept so far. For an added visual, she looks like Yolandi Visser from the band Die Antwoord if she wasn't white. Basically, same hairstyle and bleach blonde, and same features, but dark skinned - probably some facial tattoos as well.

She knows how to read. She isn't total tribal dummy, being from a decently "civilized" locale. If it is OK, I would like her to be able to speak both English and Spanish fluently as well as one other regional language (most likely something that has become popular in the surrounding areas rather than her ancestral language). However, if that IS a native dialect, I will go with Apache.

Another Decent Skill: Hmm, I need to put more thought into it. Right now, Subsistence agriculture sounds good, because the opportunities there are endless and it is a serious skill that people need to know. I can already envision coming upon withering communities who don't know why their crops won't grow and my PC becoming the saint of that town for telling them that the fields need Brawndo because It's got Electrolytes.

Daily Life Skills: Personal Hygiene which falls into her survival, wilderness background. Knowing what plants to chew to help clean your teeth. What can cover your natural scent. What can stave off infection or simply just keep oneself clean.

Again, going back to animals, training dogs maybe? I read an anthropological artical that postulated human agricultural evolution shared a symbiotic relationship with the domestication of dogs to guard crops (as well as protect herds of livestock). Perhaps she knows how to train dogs? Or simply caring for livestock.


Again, I am drawing a blank. I am trying to think of what I do in my day to day that makes me live. It isn't helping.


Edit: Here are some tentative characteristic rolls. I wasn't sure how you wanted to handle this, so I figured I would roll some and simply place them where they are most appropriate for my PC. Let me know if you would rather we do it some other way.

5x 3d6 rolls: 15, 12, 12, 10 & 7.
2x 2d6+6 tolls: 18 & 13.

Based on this, I would put the highest in Dex, Power, Appearance, Constitution and finally Strength in that order. Although, that 7 is pretty fucking abysmal. Are you down to re-roll lowest or is it not too big of a deal?

For the 2d6 rolls: 18 in Intelligence (which is just stupid good, but I attribute it more to how the book describes it as capacity for knowledge and reasoning power as opposed to book smarts in her case) and 13 in Size.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:19, Wed 20 May 2015.