Random Monster Creation

As I mentioned in an early post I played a lot of Runequest way back in the day, and I still have a liking for random creation (even for NPC’s). Because of that I came up with this system for creating random monsters using the various motifs given in GURPS 3rd edition Fantasy Bestiary.

In my world of Domibia there are no “natural” monsters. All monsters are the result of magical energies spilling into the ecosystem and warping it in some way. This is the result of magical fumbles. My magical fumble table for Domibia uses 1d100 so it isn’t pure GURPS (I will probably rewrite it to used 3d at some point).

Magical Fumble Table

The different classes of monsters that appear on the chart are used with the monster creation tables. I had originally used the somewhat tongue-in-cheek acronym of CRUNCH (Creating Random Universal Nasty Creatures Heuristically).

Here are the charts and tables:

GURPS motif tables

This one is to determine how many rolls to make on the following motif lists.

Monster Motifs

This one lists the various motif types that are listed in in the motif table.

 

Sometimes it seems that the results aren’t very impressive, but don’t discard them without giving some serious thought to how the result could be intelligently played.  For example, in the Domibian campaign I ran for some time the characters were given a landholding on the outskirts of the small kingdom they lived in.  When they moved in they heard from local farmers that the area was menaced by a black-winged wolf with glowing red eyes and the ability to produce clouds of smoke.  The locals would leave offerings of food for the beast which was called the Baleful Hound of the Twin Pines.  It was actually a rather plump dog that had near-human intelligence, could speak, and had large owl type wings on its shoulders.  It could cast two spells, Charm Person and Darkness (this was a 3rd Edition D&D game…).  With these rather unimpressive abilities I was able to have the characters running scared for several game sessions.  They were setting traps, posting guards all night and generally fearing this awful beast.  Even though they never saw glowing eyes, smoke or anything demonic about the dog they still assumed he was really tough.  Of course they could blame that on the farmers, but what farmer is going to say that he was menaced by a fat collie with wings?

In general the more magical energy was used the worse the fumble (obviously), but even a Class 1 monster could theoretically be more powerful than a Class 6 monster, with the right rolls.  In general though, the greater the class, the more likely the monster will be some sort of grotesque blimp, laying waste to all in its path.

 

One thing that I haven’t come up with yet is a way to select what kind of animal (or plant) to have be affected by the magical fumble. The choice of exactly which animal or plant is left to the GM’s discretion, based on what would be most common in that area and using the general pattern of higher classes to larger creatures. The plant or animal involved need not be within sight of the casting place or even closer than several miles (generally no more than 1 mile per class). I am pondering digging up the old Animal Encounters from the original “black book” Traveller from GDW. That would give a class of animal geared to the ecosystem (if I am remembering it correctly…)

Dimension Hopping Game, Session 1

I compiled this from several posts on my game’s Facebook page, so please forgive any formatting errors, inside jokes, etc… Hopefully everything still makes sense.

 

Finally I was able to kick the campaign off this last Friday! I had fewer players than hoped for, but there were three which is enough to give the game critical mass.
We had Tony V playing his still-to-be-named primary character, known from here out as “Tony’s PC” while I ran his NPC Ally wife.
Patrick P playing Steven Abbott Jackson, “Abb” for short.
And Sara P playing Kokoko “Koko” Onnen

The game started with all the PC’s (including the folks who were unable to attend) camping in Yellowstone Park on Oct 18th 2018. Ominous events began slowly with an NPC announcing that they shouldn’t call it Old Faithful, because they waited for half and hour and the geyser never blew.
Next were a couple of minor earthquakes (the PC’s from California id’ed them as being around 3.5 or so). A couple of NPC’s decided to head home because the tremors spooked them. They showed back up within 30 minutes stating that the roads were so jammed with people that they couldn’t get more than a couple of miles.
All the PC’s started gather up survival gear from their cars at this point. After another couple of larger jolts, a ranger’s truck went careening down the nearby access road. Abb at this point decided to investigate things and took Tony’s PC (who is 7’5″ tall) and followed the ranger to the ranger station they knew was down the road.

So after getting to the ranger station and finding the ranger inside talking frantically to someone on the phone about getting a helicopter sent to pick him up, “Abb” confronts him and informs him that “my friend is wondering what is going on” while gesturing to Tony’s enormous character.
The ranger (named Allan) hemmed and hawed and asked them to leave. Abb, on leaving, checked the guy’s SUV and found it unlocked… so he took the shotgun and went back inside to confront Allan. Understandably alarmed by this guy pointing his own shotgun at him, Allan admitted that he knew a guy with access to a Chinook helicopter and was trying to get out of the park, finally admitting that Jackson Lake had “drained” and he was afraid that the entire caldera the park sits in was going to explode.
After disarming Allan, it was decided that they would collect as many as they could from the campground (close to 40 folks) and await Allan’s friend. Tony’s PC went back to the campsite and gathered up his wife. Koko (Sara’s PC) started helping folks gather useful equipment and herding them down the dirt road to the ranger’s station.
At this time there had been several larger quakes and a fairly large fire seemed to be burning in the west. Most of the group were understandably nervous and happy to hear that the ranger had someone with a helicopter that would rescue them.
Fast forward through more preparation and alarming events (quakes, burning rocks falling from the sky, and what felt like a two-foot drop in the ground), Abb is trying to keep folks from panicking and Koko is monitoring the radio and Tony’s PC was just kind of observing while trying to keep his wife safe.
As things continued to get worse, the helicopter pilot radioed Allan to let him know that the whole northern part (where he was coming through from) was filled with smoke and ash that he needed to go around to avoid damage to the helo. All this time they were getting sporadic bursts of what seemed to be CB radio interference announcing the immenent arrival of the End Times and other apocalyptic statements. Most of these only last a brief period but then Tennessee Ernie Ford’s version of Bringing in the Sheaves started blaring out of the radio no matter what Koko did to re-tune it.

A few minutes after Bringing in the Sheaves began one of the NPC’s announced that there was someone walking out of the forest. A group (including Abb and To Be Named) went out to meet what turned out to be an older gentleman wearing what appeared to be Puritan outfit. When closer they could see that the legs of his pants wear burned off below the knees and he was shoeless. The man greeted them by stating that he was “indeed a man of my majority, though I find myself in short britches”. He then introduced himself as Aleazar Mather, and he was there to help everyone.

Against his better judgement Abb let the odd fellow into the ranger station where he proceeded to inform everyone that they should attend his words as he had a bargain for them. He told them that soon a pyroclastic flow would be sweeping through the park and kill all in its path. To avoid this fate, all that was required was that they take his hands, or those of their neighbor and accept the offer being made by his benefactress (he wouldn’t reveal her name).
Right around this time a really big quake hit, (maybe an 8.0+) and people started to panic.
A glance out the window revealed a giant wall of ash hurtling at them (still a couple of miles away, but hundreds of feet high). A variety of NPC’s chose not to take his “devil’s bargain” and fled, as he explained that certain death awaited. The PC’s all reached out to grab nearby hands as the wall of ash approached them, figuring they had nothing to lose. Then the windows blew in at 450 mph.

After a brief unconsciousness (perceived), all the characters awoke, submerged in 4 feet of sea water off a nice sandy beach. All were nude (their players no doubt cursing me for letting them write down equipment from the ranger station), and obviously disoriented. Aleazar was nowhere to be seen, but three men were standing on the beach behind a folding table covered with robes.
Two of the men, who were all wearing suits, helped everyone by handing them robes and gently directing them out of the mild surf. The third man just sat and watched the naked women.
They announced that they were solicitors of the firm Lant, Dunn & Bray and that they represented the PC’s benefactress, named Rigantona (ree-ann-tona) and they were there to help.
After herding everyone up to an abandoned-looking resort hotel, they announced that the local year was 1983 and they were on the island of Herm in the Guernsey chain (in the English Channel).

Cue disbelieving confusion and hand-wringing…

Over glasses (or bottles for Koko) of whiskey, it was told to everyone that they were now indentured servants to Rigantona, who would be having them act as interdimensional trouble-shooters. The world that they found themselves in had suffered a WWIII that evidently included nukes and chemical warfare. The Isle of Herm was safe from radioactive and chemical damage because it was a pre-historic holy site for Rigantona (a Celtic goddess) and she was protecting it.

More disbelieving hand-wringing…

So, the short version is that the characters are stuck here on a pleasant island, with horsies to ride, a partially sunk US naval transport ship to loot for goodies, and a way to visit some place called Nakashima-sans for rest and relaxation.
They just can’t leave the island for longer than 30 days without becoming ill and eventually dying. They also have some cool abilities to help them survive being interdimensional trouble-shooters:
Modular Ability [20]
10 pts (Skills and Mental Advantages only) [100]
Immediate Preparation Required (Requires 1 hour of Meditation) -75%
Fickle (use the Meditation roll as the reaction roll) -5%
Patron [12]
Frequency of Appearance <6
Requires Reaction roll
Damage Resistance 5 [5]
Ablative -80%
Duty [-7]
6 or less [-2]
Extremely Hazardous [-5]
Dependency (Herm Island) [-30]
Monthly: Lose 1 HP per day after missing a monthly dose. x1

Next session will be some exploration and then their first mission!

 

Character token follow-up

Just a quick add-on to my previous post.

For non-humans that are not just a one-hex creature I purchased some wooden rectangles from the same company I got the wooden circles from.
http://www.craftparts.com/wood-rectangle-cutouts-p-2777.html?cat_id=253

I simply split it in half lengthwise with an Xacto and a straight edge, and voila! A deinonychus all set to menace my time-travelling adventurers in 1910 Maryland…

The World of Testudo

In addition to my world of Domibia (currently sort of languishing) I also have the world of Testudo which I created as something to work on while burned out of Domibia.

The world is on the shell of a gigantic turtle (though the inhabitants don’t really know that). Each of the different plates of the shell are separated from each other by a phenomenon known as the Veil, a magic cloud bank that is filled with wraith-like creatures that drain fatigue and magical energy.

The outer edge of the shell abuts an ocean, but the Veil blocks most folks from doing any real exploring.

Long in the past the world was discovered by a race called the Alezer (sort of like high tech Melnibonean elves). They explored and colonized this clearly magical world and imported humans as servants. Over the course of a thousand years or so, the humans came to outnumber the Alezer and ran most of the day to day business. Then about 50 years ago the humans revolted and a war was fought for the next 30 years until the humans defeated the Alezer.

Each of the different “shards” have a distinct feel and their own gods that oversee that particular realm. A couple of the shards were never really settled by the Alezer and were used as a sort of pressure valve for human groups that didn’t make useful servants (like the Roman legion that they gathered from Dalmatia circa 300 AD).

My campaign has been limited to the southern most shard, called the Saltlands (Bumanzshur) and one of the only places that was ruled by humans before the great war.

It is about the size of New Mexico and Arizona together, and is somewhat like Ethiopia/Somalia as far as terrain and climate goes (the primary reason the Alezer never settled here).

Like I mentioned, it is home to groups that made poor slaves to the Alezer. The following description is taken from my player handout for the campaign. Player Handout

There are five major cultures in the Saltlands.
◦ The Ruzina, who are the dominant group (think a less stratified Roman culture with a thing for privacy [emotions and such are not advertised]). There are about 1.5 million in the lake basin and river valley.
◦ The Eagle People dominate the central mountain range (the Eagle Mountains). They are not numerous (188,000 or so) and are loosely Tibetan. They speak U-Tsang and are divided amongst different monasteries, each of which teaches a different martial art. The monastary nearest your land is the Fangshido temple.
◦ The Oamoon culture is loosely pre-Islam Arabic. They speak Luaith and have been mostly pushed to the periphery of the region. They are mostly nomadic but there are several towns and a small salt & fishing city on the eastern boundary (part of the ocean is within the Veil). There are around 130,000 on the eastern side of the Eagle Mountains.
◦ There are numerous “barbarian” tribes that are scattered between the lake and the western boundary. They are made up of outlaws from the Ruzina kingdoms and immigrants from beyond the Veil (there have been many mercenary types that have known only war and have taken to banditry). There are around 500,000 in a variety of tribes and “kingdoms”.
◦ The Zulu are a separate tribe from the other “barbarians” and try to interact as little as possible with the other cultures that are around them. They speak isiZulu and number around 30,000 (mostly nomadic shepherds). They are somewhat feared by their neighbors for their height, black skin and skill as warriors.

I made up naming languages for all these cultures (based on their original tongues), which you can peek at here:
word list

I also made cultural mini-templates for each culture as well as professional templates (heavily modified from Dungeon Fantasy on the Cheap) and the various Martial Arts styles that would be common.
You can check that out here: Testudo templates

That is all for the moment.

 

Character tokens

I like the idea of using miniatures in my games, but I just don’t have the money or painting skillz to make them as nice as I’d like them to be. So I have taken to making wooden tokens for the PC’s and NPC’s.

Here are the steps in case this sounds like something you would like to try.

Character portraits! I love scouring the internet for pics of NPC’s (and PC’s if my players are ok with it), so I always have tons of pics at hand. For this project I imported all the pics into MS Word and resized them to have their height or width equal 0.75″ (whichever measurement was larger), and arranged them in rows. Then I printed it out on an Avery full page shipping label (8165 if you are curious).

For the wooden discs I purchased a bunch of 1″ x 1/8″ style from this place: http://www.craftparts.com/wood-circle-disc-p-3837.html?cat_id=461

Then I cut each row into strips and used a 3/4″ hole punch to remove each portrait. I suppose I could worry about the white edges on some of the narrower pics, but it *is* just a game…

Then peel and stick. Voila!

Sturdy, easy to transport and completely personalized!

 

 

 

Playing Card Initiative System

After the last campaign that I ran came to a close one of my players suggested that I bring my Playing Card Initiative System up to 4th edition standards. We had tried using the Action Point system from The Last Gasp and found that it seemed a bit too fiddly ( I mainly saw the players not moving very much or, in one case not running from a cave lion at full speed to avoid running out of AP… I loved the idea, but it just didn’t seem to work with my group.

The Playing Card Initiative System (PCIS) was originally made for 3rd edition and I used it a lot back in the days before 4th edition was released. So it has been playtested over 15 years ago with the older system.

The PCIS recreates the ebb & flow of a chaotic fight in the same way that The Last Gasp does with Action Points. It also adds some meta-game excitement with the card draw each “round” (in the PCIS you draw a hand for a 13 second “round”).

The only drawback is that each player needs their own deck of playing cards. I just bought a bunch of packs and provide them for everyone.

There are two files. The version that is for players and single NPC’s (or just important ones) and a GM version for multiple NPC’s (which would be crazy-making to draw hands for and keep straight).

Initiative 4th 2.0

NPC Initiative 2.0

GURPS Hit Location Chart

Since I have had several months of prep time for my new dimension-hopping campaign I have been hard at work making various player aids. I have a folder for each player, holding both character sheets and a bunch of, well, play aids… like I said.

The postcards that are paperclipped to the folder are the character backgrounds translated from the Central Casting history. The little stickers at the bottom are individualized FP tracks. I am going to be using glass beads to show the accumulation of FP (I am using my own implementation of the wonderful Last Gasp article by Douglas Cole in Pyramid 3-44). The beads are color coded for Mild, Severe and Deep fatigue, and the little cheat sheet helps the players figure out what level of fatigue thay are at (along with any penalties).

One of the aids is a hit location chart that lets the players see the modifiers to hit a location and the random dice roll results as well as room to list and armor that  they have there.I thought it might be useful for other GM’s…

Here it is.

****EDIT****
I just realized I had the random location numbers for Face and Skull mixed up… Ooops
Thankfully, nobody probably reads this 😉

Hit Location Diagram

I was unable to add the damage multipliers for various attack types, but I have my own GM sheet for that (not my own design).

Dimension Hopping Campaign

I really need to come up with a catchier name than that…

The basic premise for the campaign is that a group of strangers (except the PC’s with NPC spouses or friends) are visiting/camping in Yellowstone National Park when the giant super volcano it is atop becomes active. The primary reason for this is to make sure that the players have a very good reason to go along with the offer they receive from this man:

Eleazar Mather

Who comes walking up to the ranger station that the crowd of PC’s will be taking refuge in and inform them of their impending doom. He does, however, have an alternative to being incinerated by the explosion and that is to agree to work for his patron.

Assuming that the players go along with this idea they will all be asked to hold hands while he sings Bringing In the Sheaves. As they watch the pyroclastic cloud hurtle towards them, they suddenly find themselves under water on a shallow beach. They are all nude and confused, and can see three men waiting on the beach with robes for them.

The three men introduce themselves as solicitors of the law firm of Lant, Dunn & Bray and they are the intermediaries for the mysterious benefactress (they use female pronouns when refering to her) who has rescued the PC’s. The beach is located on the island of Herm which is about 2 miles from the isle of Guernsey in the English Channel. In this version of Earth there had been a massive third world war between the Soviets and the west in 1985. Nobody else lives on the island and the characters will have free reign to make it into whatever kind of base they like. There is a smallish hotel and a partially sunk container ship filled with food and equipment a few hundred feet from one of the beaches.

Anyways, that is the bare bones of the introductory scene.

The campaign will focus on the PC’s being sent on various errands/missions. Most of these are going to be “righting wrongs” of one type or another. Stopping demons and black magicians, fixing grave threats to some timeline, etc.

The first mission is going to send the group (whichever PC’s the players who are present choose to send) back to 1910 Rhode Island where an 11 year old boy with a brain tumor is opening a portal to the distant past and letting dinosaurs through. Actually only one dinosaur so far. A deinonychus that has already killed a hunter and is cruising around the vast woodland around the town (Burrilville).

I suspect that just one deinonychus will be more than a match for the party (I don’t want to kill anyone this early in the campaign, but it should scare the crap out of them). I am going to run this like a GURPS Monster Hunter scenario, with the party looking for clues and making rolls for deductions.

I found a great pic of the dino!

More to follow…

Back again!

Well, I did move, but I lost track of my blogging and now it has been two years since my “short hiatus” began.

I have been working on some non-Domibia projects in the intervening years, including another world-building effort for a place called Testudo. And now I am prepping for a large-scale dimension/time travel camapign (for GURPS). I say large-scale because there are 24 PC’s (a handful of whom haven’t been chosen by a player) and 4 NPC Allies.

I once again used a Central Casting book (Heroes Now, this time) to create the PC’s and NPC’s. Because the campaign is involving people who were not planning on becoming dimension/time jumpers I decided to just randomly create all of the characters. I have nine players who have picked two PC’s each (a primary and a secondary). It is highly unlikely that all nine will ever be playing at the same time, so I am planning on having several concurrent plots going and decide which I will run at a given session by who is going to be there. The non-chosen PC’s will be there if there is ever a guest player who doesn’t have a character to play.

I provided the players with a list of the characters, but no real game stats, so they would choose them by background and personality. It seemed to work out pretty well. We’ll see what happens when I actually get a chance to run the thing…

Here are the descriptions that I provided the players to pick from:

1. [129] 27 year old African American who grew up in the Seattle area. Always dreamed of being a ship’s captain, but didn’t get farther that serving on some large fishing ships. Instead they ended up going to University of Washington and getting a degree in Business Management. This isn’t a very nice person, they have a lot of disadvantages (ex: Greedy, Laziness, Selfish, etc) that make them unlikable. They do speak Japanese and have really good attributes. Seems like a good back-up character for someone.

2. [66] 26 year old American (mutt) who grew up in the Visalia CA area. They were raised by an older sister and have a twin. They went to vocational school and are now working as a stone mason. There isn’t a lot to sell this character, they have some goodish survival skills and is smart and dexterous.

3. [83] 24 year old Hispanic American (Costa Rican descent) who grew up in Redding CA. They ran away from home at 12 and never returned. They became involved with a gang in Buffalo NY and besides acting as low-grade muscle the gang leadership saw that the character was pretty smart so they investing in sending the PC to college. The PC has tons of electronics skills and is fairly well rounded. Again, an excellent back-up character.

4. [65] 22 year old American (mutt) who grew up in rural Tennessee. They have some good survival skills and are smart and perceptive. Other than that, they don’t have too much going for them (they work at Walmart). They could be good in an outdoorsy situation.

5. [80] 25 year old of Laotian descent who grew up in Bellflower CA. They can do a little bit of everything, but none of it very well. They are a HS drop-out and have worked driving trucks around the LA-OC region. They can sing really well, and can handle themselves in a fistfight. This is another “utility infielder” who might be a good back-up for a main PC.

6. [21] 24 year old American (mutt) from San Francisco. Besides a high IQ, this character has lousy attributes and is missing their left ear (Hard of Hearing) and was badly burned on his face, arms and chest when a piece of hospital tech the PC was working on caught fire and lit their clothes up. They also have some book learning which could be useful and they have done some fencing (so they sorta have a sword skill…). This one is probably doomed to be an NPC.7. [23] 26 year old American (Canadian descent) who grew up in an Anabaptist community in western Maryland. The community was mostly sticking with 1700’s technology, so the character is Tech Level 5 (rather than the standard 8 for the current day). After your infant son and spouse were killed when one of the few propane tanks in the community blew up, you left the community and went out into the real world. Now, this is kind of interesting, the character saved the someone’s life and now that person is their constant companion. The companion is an NPC Ally worth 102 points. They are a 23 year old gung-ho journalist and computer geek of Iraqi descent. I am starting to feel that the roles should be reversed for these two. The Iraqi-American journalist sound much more fun to play than the depressed ex-Mennonite. Whoever chooses them can make that decision.

8. [216] 32 year old American (mutt) from rural New Hampshire. They did a lot of rock/mountain climbing as a teen. Attended West Point and served in Afghanistan and saw combat during the war as an Apache pilot. This character has a ton of useful skills (besides his Piloting: Helicopter-18). They are pretty smart and very dexterous, and no attribute is below 10.

9. [123] 31 year old Native American (Abenaki tribe) from Concord New Hampshire. The PC is good with computers and has a degree in Business Management focusing on charities and other non-profits. They have a ton of useful skills from their rural upbringing and can sail a sailboat.

10. [42] 27 year old African American (very proud of their Zairian ancestry) from Philadelphia. This character is hard to pin down. They have some useful skills from their background (stranded on a tropical island, Lost style, for several weeks) they don’t have a ton of adventurer type skills. They *are* in amazing shape with a HT (Health) of 14 + Fit (which allows faster fatigue recovery). One possible wrinkle is that the PC was married and their spouse cheated on them *while* on the vacation that is going to be the starting point of the campaign. Whoever picks this character will have to decide if they want to have the spouse as a Dependent (or Ally) that they are not very pleased with at the moment, or let their until-recently-beloved spouse suffer whatever fate I have in store for everyone… I won’t actually create an NPC until I know that they will be with the group.

11. [169] 39 year old Belgian-American ex-track and field “star” from Bowling Green KY. This character is sort of a badass. They are very strong and extrememly healthy, as well as being 25% taller than average (details to be determined by the gender that is chosen). They have some negative personality traits, but would be kind of fun to play. They are also really good to have around in a fight. They have some psionic abilities, but I don’t want other players to know what those might be, so I will not describe them here. They have a spouse who is a [79] point NPC who has a pilot’s license and is an expert horse rider (and is skilled in knife fighting!). To be honest, I pictured the PC as a guy (looking like Ninja from Die Antwoord) which would make them 7’5″ tall and weigh 300 lbs. but that can be modified if needed, if someone wants to run them as a female.

12. [5] 37 year old American (mutt) from the Sacramento area. The point value is slightly misleading, as they have some below average attributes that really lowered their point cost. They were a professional jewelry dealer with a pilot’s license prior to joining the Air Force. They served as a ground crewman for a ground attack squadron in Iraq. So they have a lot of useful skills, but aren’t anything but average in them. But they would make a good back-up character for someone that is a non-combat type.

13. [156] 28 year old American (mutt) from New York city. This character grew up in a tough neighborhood and knows how to take care of themselves. They managed to get into college and became an archaeologist (specializing in North American Plains Indians). They have some good skills (adventuring applicable) and decent attributes (including some criminal type stuff from their youth). They also have a [96] point spouse. A member of the Onandaga tribe from Canton OH, the 27 year old spouse is a locally well-known MMA style fighter who fights with Brazilian style Jiu-Jitsu. A scholarly (but roguish) character with an ass-kicking Ally could be a fun character to play.

14. [239] 31 year old American (mutt) from a small town outside of El Paso. They have *really* good attributes (and skill levels). Besides some hobby skills and work related skills (they are a steel worker) they have Fencing and Cooking (specifically Baking) at high levels. They also are very good with animals (but like dogs most of all).

15. [140] 37 year old Arab-American from Denver. This is what I would call a “player character” if I met them in reality. They have some computer skills and some criminal type skills from a misspent youth. They moved to Israel after inheriting a house from a Palestinian family member and get recruited by the Mossad. The character works with Mossad and gets put through IDF training. They spent a lot of time in Romania and think of it as a third home. So they have combat skills (Krav Maga!) and a handful of languages and some spycraft. Unfortunately, they did lose their right eye in a firefight with some Hamas members.

16. [117] 31 year old Arab-American from Odessa TX. This character technically a Kuwaiti sheik, but is so far down the family totem pole that they are just wealthy ex-patriates. The character has a good education with a degree in psychology. Instead of practicing that he instead is a guide/pilot in the Philippines (which they fell in love with). They also have some experience with ships (from serving on a tramp steamer for a while). They also have a wee bit of occult knowledge (but no spoilers).

17. [101] 43 year old child of Swedish immigrants who grew up in Terre Haute IN. There isn’t a lot of adventuring type skills with this character. They worked as a leatherworker for a long time and then went culinary school and became a chef (Cooking skill 14). Dexterity and IQ are both 12, but they are the best of the bunch. Another possible back-up character for less dangerous missions.

18.  [173] 34 year old member of the Potowatomi tribe in central Michigan. This character is tough to describe without giving away secret stuff that the player may not want the other players knowing. They are extremely strong so when you get punched by them it is likely a fight ender. They have some small psionic ability and have made a living as a bounty hunter for the last decade. This a perfect primary character for someone, as they have a bunch of cool stuff…

19. (165] 52 year old American (mutt) from Detroit. This is a really good non-combat type character, they have a ton of social skills and some minor psionic abilities. They attended Cornell and have a degree in Business Management. While in school they part of a breaking and entering type burglary group (so they have some thief type skills). They were very active in local politics and was a friend of the mayor of Detroit. There is also a spouse. A [113] point journalist from Missouri with some useful skills.

20. [156] 63 year old American (mutt) from Shreveport LA. While old for an adventurer, this character has good attributes (specifically Health and Perception) and was an FBI agent in their past. Now they are a semi-retired journalist. They have a LOT of useful skills (as well as a bunch of interesting but not vital skills such as swing dancing and playing the fiddle). I pictured this as a female character (looking like Helen Mirren when she was 63), but as with all of these, the player has the final choice on gender.

21. [124] 21 year old American of Spanish descent from Marquette MI (in the northern part of the state). This character is a minor celebrity and has done a lot of local theater since they were 13. Now they have had some small parts in a couple of movies and are a regional spokesperson for the American Alliance for Theater & Education. They are really good at acting, singing and public speaking. They also have a background involving a lot of survival skills (Survival and Hiking and Boating, etc). They are also very attractive and would be a good “face” for the party.

22. [61] 12 year old African American kid from Waterford CT. This character is about what you would expect from a modern American kid, some sports, some games and computer skills and not too much else. They are probably going to be relegated to being a plot device (unless someone wants a real RPing challenge).

23. [7] 11 year old American (mutt) from Phoenix AZ. Another pretty typical modern kid. They grew up very poor so they don’t have as many techie skills as the 12 year old. They are pretty dexterous and smart though, even for an adult. Again, probably will become a plot device.

The characters are made for GURPS and the [#] is the point value of the PC.

Antente sample character

I decided that I will post an example/sample character for each of the races as I write them up. Currently GURPS 4th is my game of choice, so that is what I will be writing them up for (after rolling them randomly using SAFUG (for fun)).

So, here is an Antente character.

I rolled Zepherine up using my SAFUG system and then converted her to GURPS (I find it more fun to roll NPC’s randomly and then create the backstory for their attributes). I also used the old Central Casting: Heroes of Legend book to generate her background (again, I like being surprised as the GM). The lower Speed and the Ham-Fisted disad were taken to simulate the fact that her whole body agility is greater than her fine motor skills (per the SAFUG rolls).

Zepherine was born into a very poor family, the third of ten children. Her father, Henri, made a bare living as a wood cutter, clearing land for other poor farmers. By the time she was five she had started helping out and by the time she was a teen she was at home in the woods and supplementing the family income by poaching in the royal game reserves.

When she was 12 she began selling poached venison to a local crime boss who was so impressed with her avarice and pluck that he introduced her to a criminal colleague by the name of Jacque Un Oeil. Jacque was a smuggler and sometime pirate who operated in the main port of Mandelemer. She worked for Jacque on a pirate ship for a year, sailing all along the coast and looting foreign merchant ships.

When traveling home to show off how well she was doing to her siblings and parents she was arrested for her association with a known pirate and being a probable smuggler. After several weeks of fairly mild torture she still did not confess anything and her situation came to the attention of the Comtesse Fanchette DuBois who owned the land that Zepherine had grown up on. She admired the girl’s willpower and loyalty to her bosses and decided that she would be a useful pawn in the daily intrigues that bubbled around Reine Anais XIII’s court.

Comtesse DuBois who was 76 was surprised that she enjoyed the company of Zepherine, who she was pleased to learn was intelligent and perceptive. Thus began an unusual friendship that continues to this day. The Comtesse taught Zepherine to comport herself amongst aristocrats (somewhat) and also instructed her in theology. When Zepherine was 16 she was given a ring bearing the Comtesse’s seal and a letter explaining that she was to be treated as a landowner. Even though this is largely symbolic, Zepherine is extremely proud of her semi-landed status and is extremely careful of the letter and ring.

During her continued exploits as a low-level pirate she met and befriended a Treori (think faun) circus performer named Short-horn the Juggler. She and Short-horn spent a lot of time carousing and getting into small scale adventures while she traveled with the circus. She and Short-horn remain friends and try to get in contact whenever possible.

Zepherine is impulsive, greedy and somewhat thoughtless, but has a good heart when you get past her tough exterior. She is not a stand-up fighter and prefers ambushing and then taking prisoners when possible. She spends her money as fast as she makes it and always seems to be broke. She would make a viable PC, but her lack of real armor could make it tough in a combat heavy campaign.

Zepherine la Puce (the Flea)
20 year old Antente female

ST : 10 HP: 10 Speed: 6.00 [-5]

DX: 14 [80] Will: 13 [10] Move: 6

IQ: 11 [20] Per: 13 [10] Height & Weight: 5’7” 130 lbs.

HT: 11 [10] FP: 11 SM: 0

Dodge: 9 Parry: 10

Social Background
TL: 3 [0]
Cultural Familiarities: Antente (Native) [0].
Languages: Ahngli (Accented/None) [2]; Lan (Broken/None) [1]; Wansi (Native/None) [0].
The Ahngli she learned from her Treori friend and Lan is a sort of lingua franca in seafaring regions.

Advantages [29]

Ally (Short-horn the Juggler) (75% of starting points) (6 or less) [2], Appearance (Beautiful) [12], Patrons (Comtesse Fanchette DuBois) (6 or less; Special Abilities: extensive social or political power) [8], Status (+1) (Gadget/Can Be Stolen: Thief must win a Quick Contest of DX or ST) [4]

Disadvantages [-60]

Duty (Comtesse DuBois) (6 or less (quite rarely)) [-2], Greed (12 or less) [-15], Ham-Fisted (-1) [-5], Impulsiveness (12 or less) [-10], Overconfidence (15 or less) [-2], Selfish (15 or less) [-2], Sense of Duty (Comtesse DuBois) (Individual) [-2], Sense of Duty (Short-horn the Juggler) (Individual) [-2], Social Stigma (Criminal Record) [-5], Wealth (Poor) [-15]

Quirks [-3]

Easily Frustrated [-1], Proud (of status) [-1], Romantic [-1], Shows off with her foreign cutlass [-1]

Skills [59]

Area Knowledge (Coast of Bradelemar) IQ/E – IQ+0 11 [1], Area Knowledge (Local woodlands) IQ/E – IQ+2 13 [4], Armoury/TL3 (Bowyer/Fletcher) IQ/A – IQ+0 11 [2], Axe/Mace DX/A – DX+0 14 [2], Bow DX/A – DX+0 14 [2], Brawling DX/E – DX+2 16 [4], Carousing HT/E – HT+1 12 [2], Climbing DX/A – DX+0 14 [2], Fast-Talk IQ/A – IQ+1 12 [4], Holdout IQ/A – IQ-1 10 [1], Knife DX/E – DX+2 16 [4], Knot-Tying DX/E – DX-3 11 [1], includes: -3 from ‘Ham-Fisted’, Naturalist (Domibia) IQ/H – IQ-1 10 [2], Navigation/TL3 (Land) IQ/A – IQ+0 11 [2], Professional Skill (Wood Cutter) IQ/E – IQ+1 12 [2], Running HT/A – HT+0 11 [2], Savoir-Faire (High Society) IQ/E – IQ+0 11 [1], Seamanship/TL3 IQ/E – IQ+1 12 [2], Shortsword DX/A – DX+0 14 [2], Stealth DX/A – DX+1 15 [4], Streetwise IQ/A – IQ+1 12 [4], Survival (Woodlands) Per/A – Per+1 14 [4], Theology (Riante) IQ/H – IQ-2 9 [1], Thrown Weapon (Knife) DX/E – DX+0 14 [1], Urban Survival Per/A – Per+0 13 [2], Wrestling DX/A – DX+0 14 [2]

Stats [125] Ads [29] Disads [-60] Quirks [-3] Skills [59] = Total [150]

Hand Weapons

1 Cutlass $500 Wgt:2
Swing Dam:1d cut Reach:1 Parry:10 ST:8
Thrust Dam:1d-1 imp Reach:1 Parry:10 ST:8
Hilt punch Dam:1d-2 cr Reach:C Parry:11 ST: Skill: Brawling

1 Dagger $20 Wgt:.25
Dam:1d-3 imp Reach:C Parry:10 ST:5

1 Hatchet $40 Wgt:2
Dam:1d cut Reach:1 Parry:10 ST:8

1 Small Knife $30 Wgt:.5
Swing Dam:1d-3 cut Reach:C, 1 Parry:10 ST:5
Thrust Dam:1d-3 imp Reach:C Parry:10 ST:5

Ranged Weapons

1 Dagger Dam:1d-3 imp Acc:0 Range:5 / 10
RoF:1 Shots:T(1) ST:5 Bulk:-1 Rcl:- $20 Wgt:.25

1 Hatchet Dam:1d cut Acc:1 Range:15 / 25
RoF:1 Shots:T(1) ST:8 Bulk:-2 Rcl:- $40 Wgt:2

1 Short Bow (ST 10) Dam:1d-2 imp Acc:1 Range:150 / 200
RoF:1 Shots:1(2) ST:7† Bulk:-6 Rcl:- $50 Wgt:1.5 Notes:[3]

1 Small Knife Dam:1d-3 imp Acc:0 Range:5 / 10
RoF:1 Shots:T(1) ST:5 Bulk:-1 Rcl:- $30 Wgt:.5

Armor & Possessions

10 Arrow $20 Wgt:1 Location: Quiver
1 Boots, Light Leather $50 Wgt:1.5 Location: Feet
1 Leather, Light (Torso) $180 Wgt:3.3 Location: Torso
1 Ordinary Clothes (Status +0) $120 Wgt:2 Location: Body
1 Shoulder Quiver $30 Wgt:1.5 Location: Shoulder