Create-A-Character Challenge: Chohoqua the Beast-Mistress
A character for Beasthunters. See the Character Creation Process here.
Name: Chohoqua
Initiative:
Physical: 2
Mental: 2
Social: 3
Traits:
The Animals Speak to Me (Mental) +4
Fight Like An Animal (Physical) +3
Push it to the Limit (Physical) +2
All the Hunt is a Show (Social) +2
Resources
Wild Boar Companion (Physical Offensive) +4
Finely Crafted Armor (Physical Defensive) +2
Psychological Warfare (Social Offensive) +3
Your Words Fall on Deaf Ears (Social Defensive) +2
Damage:
Physical: 3/2/1/1/1
Mental: 2/2/1/1/1
Social: 2/1/1/1/1
Backstory:
Chohoqua hails from a long line of beast herders, amid a fairly localized tribe deep in the Northern Wastes. Her family’s work has allowed their tribe to settle down and live easily, changing the nature of the Hunt for them--it’s now more of a show of dominance, with skilled Hunters escalating quickly among the ranks of society. Those born into the lifestyle, like her nemesis Raqh’Falah, are treated as spoiled aristocrats, whereas working folk like her must scrape by to enter the Hunt. But scrape by she did, and she crawled to the top of her tribe with her unorthodox skillset--and now that she’s here, she won’t let anyone take it away from her.
You are an elite warrior who stalks the monstrosities
that threaten your tribe and savage your land.
With every tattoo inked in the blood of the beasts,
you claim more power.
With every kill, you prepare to face stronger foes.
Only the most skilled and
most cunning Beast Hunters survive.
Will you?
Name:
Chel'qhuri names often include harsh consonant sounds. CH and QH are also common.
Alright, so… Chohoqua.
Three kinds of initiative--Physical, Mental, and Social--all rated at 1 to start. And 3 damage tracks--the same categories--with one box in each level (light, medium, heavy, incapacitating, and fatal).
Step 1: Parents
How did Chohoqua’s parents influence her life? This gives her one trait (Physical, Mental, or Social), one resource (Physical Offensive, Physical Defensive, Mental Offensive, Mental Defensive, Social Offensive, or Social Defensive), one Initiative level, and two damage boxes (one light and one medium).
Let’s do something unorthodox--we’ll say Chohoqua is the descendent of a long line of beastmasters, dating back to the old world. As such, we’ll give her a Mental trait, “The Animals Speak to Me,” to represent her unique understanding of wildlife, and a Physical Offensive resource--a “Wild Boar Companion”. We’ll bring up Physical Initiative and Damage, however, to represent the rough-and-tumble lifestyle it takes to handle animals.
Step 2: Tribe
How did her tribe shape her upbringing? One trait, one resource, one point of initiative, and one light damage box.
Well, let’s think--if her tribe has livestock covered, why hunt? I think it’s for sport, to prove who is fit to lead. As such, we’ll give Chohoqua the trait “Push it to the Limit,” representing the need to rise above her peers in physical contests of strength and speed. For a resource… let’s go with “Psychological Warfare” (Social Offensive), so she can psych out her rivals. And we’ll add her Initiative and Damage both to Social.
Step 3: Enemies
A hunter is defined by their enemies. Chohoqua’s granted her one trait and one resource, as well as one Initiative and one light damage box.
Chohoqua’s not a natural hunter; she came into the Hunt late in adolescence. So her nemesis Raqh’Falah, wealthy and privileged son of a Hunter. Her trait will be “Fight Like An Animal” (Physical), which marks her as different from more polished combatants with her feral, vicious combat style, and her resource will be “Your Words Fall on Deaf Ears” (Social Defensive) to resist mockery and pranks. We’ll up her Social Initiative by 1 (she doesn’t wait for them to insult her first), and up her Physical damage by 1.
Step 4: Beasthunter Training
Chohoqua picked up one final Trait and Resource on the road to being a Beasthunter, as well as one last point in Initiative, and 2 damage boxes (light, and medium).
She came into hunting well trained physically and mentally--but the performative aspects of the Hunt eluded her until the very end. We’ll make her trait “All the Hunt is a Show” (Social), to reflect the need of Hunters to impress the Elders with epic tales and feats of showmanship. Her resource, on the other hand, will be the “Finely Crafted Armor” (Physical Defensive) given out to all the up-and-coming Hunters in her tribe upon their first hunt. Finally, her initiative and damage will go into Mental, as she has… seen things.
Step 5: Finalize
Now, we assign some numbers, and we’re all done.
Definitely not the shortest chargen process, but I love how it produces a ton of backstory for your character that you can take from game to game.
What it is: The only RPG directly inspired by Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies, Sword and Backpack is a minimalist-maximalist RPG designed to be played with only a pen, d20, and a 3.5" x 5.5" notebook. Once you create your character, you fill out the rest of the notebook with monster sketches, adventure notes, dungeon maps, and more--creating your own copy of the Young Adventurer's Almanac.
Specifically, I like the idea present in S&B--also in Beasthunters, and FLAILSNAILS D&D (which we'll hit soon)--of a sort of emergent campaign. Where you make your character, then take them from one independent adventure to another, and your saga goes from there. I like that kind of serialized feel more than I like Guestbook's approach, which is very one-and-done.
Complexity: Pretty complicated. Not something you could teach on the fly. That said, it's a really cool system; very flexible, with a cool emphasis on negotiation, and fits in the setting well (in that neither the Challenger nor Hunter REALLY knows what's out there, because everything is being spun on the fly, in terms of Challenge Token purchases). But definitely something where both players'd need to know the rules pretty well, and even then, I'd probably want a copy of the rules nearby.
Stuff Requirements: Tokens, dice, character sheets, scratch paper, maybe a copy of the rules (see above). So a fair amount.
Group Requirements: Specifically designed for 2 players, but can be expanded to more. Can't get any better than that.
Time Requirements: Could be done during a lunch trip, or if you have an hour between panel at conventions, but it's a detailed enough game that you probably won't be able to do it in less.
Lonely Fun: Creating your character is a fairly detailed process, but after that, everything is done at the table.
Continuing Play: After killing beasts, players recieve powerful tattoos which grant them special powers. A very cool mechanic that I wish was expanded to non-hunt adventurers as well (just because the gamist in me wonders "what's the point of other adventures then when I get my better prize from hunting beasts?") There is SOME advancement for any adventure, though.
But is it fun?: Totally. Once you get a hang of the system, it's a neat, versatile little thing that can fit in a wide variety of situations. I like that you negotiate how difficult your journey is going to be in advance, and how long the adventure will last, and from there, the Challenger (great term for a GM, by the by) is allowed to go nuts, but still has limits to help rein them back in. Player action is simple, but they have tons of options. And I love any game which lets me play as PC and GM in the same evening.
Verdict: As a game overall, awesome. As a two-player RPG (a distinct rarity), even awesomer. Has some of that Impromptu charm I'm looking for, but we're not quite there. But ultimately a game I could see myself coming back to regularly.
I've decided I'm going to focus next week on reading and reviewing my current list of Impromptu RPGs, rating them on the criteria we previously established to see where they fall in comparison to one another, and what we can take away from them. Ideally I'll do one a day, but we'll see what pace we make.
The criteria!
Complexity:
Space Requirements:
Group Requirements: (Newly added; how many people can play the game in question easily?)
Time Requirements:
Lonely Fun:
What Works:
What Doesn't:
What Can We Learn:
And the games (this is an incomplete list, so if you have one you think qualifies that I missed, let me know!):
