CharGen (Leitz's game)

[Leitz]

Our first Scenario Simulator "encounter" will be character generation. To succeed at Fate Core chargen, set aside the idea of rolling for stats and picking a class based on what you get. Instead, think of what you want to play, and then choose skills, aspects, and everything else with your character concept at the core.

First things first; look at, but do not study, the character sheet. Yes, that's the entirety of the character sheet, and we'll go through all of it in turn.

Next, look at the setting info, and glance at but do not memorize the skill list.

Now, look at the character creation worksheet.

We are going to focus on the first section, "Character Idea", first. A character should be a proactive and interesting individual, and it's your job to make him or her that way. No wall flowers, please. Think of some things that would fit the setting.

Before we look at examples, let me define the term "aspect". In Fate, an aspect is something significant, THAT DEFINES REALITY. It says why your character matters. For example, if your High Aspect is "Best Swordswoman in Duke Freidrich's Iron Guard", they there is a Duke Freidrich, who has a unit called the Iron Guards, that includes women. Of course, you need to choose skills to back up your claim, but your High Aspect, your concept, has helped define the world.

Here are some High Aspect examples, based on Bruce Willis movies (courtesy of Reddit):

• Die Hard: Stubborn Maverick Cop
• Hudson Hawk: Undercaffinated ex con
• 5th Element: Struggling cabbie
• Sixth Sense: Troubled psychologist
• Lucky Number Slevin: Merciless Hitman
• Red: Retired, extremely dangerous
• Expendables: CIA fixer

A good aspect tells you why you are important in the game, is double-edged (Duke Freidrich's enemies sometimes attack his guard), says more than one thing, and is clear. A lot of chargen time will be spent in players and the DM working out the character's High Concept and Trouble.

Once you have the High Concept, pick the Trouble. Maybe not all the guys in the Duke's Iron Guards like having women in the unit? Maybe you beat a few of their ego's into the mud? Or maybe the unit is fine, but Duchess Serana's assassins get top gold for an Iron Guard head, with or without the formerly attached body?

Lastly, pick your name.

[Pulpatoon]

Okay, here's a concept: A character who was a spy for some patron (noble/royal/military/church?) with the cover of being an itinerant portrait painter. The patron was at least a little nefarious, and came to a bitter end, leaving this character out in the cold with nothing but the portrait-painter cover to fall back on. Remorseful about the crooked deeds done as a spy, but can't help exercising the old skullduggery skills, especially when there's a mystery about. Was happily recruited by the League of Adventurers as a way to set right past deeds and to have a purpose again.

So, would the high concept be "Itinerant artist spy?"

And is it premature to allocate skills?

Burglary (Fair +2)
Contacts (Average +1)
Crafts (Good +3)
Deceive (Good +3)
Drive/Ride (Average +1)
Empathy (Average +1)
Investigate (Fair +2)
Notice (Fair +2)
Stealth (Great +4)
Will (Average +1)

[Leitz]

Nice! Consider the nationality to add some more characterization. You will have the native language, as well as a habit of dress and accent, which may or may not become useful in the game.

Allocating skills is fine, as long as you don't set things in stone. There's a three part growth plan that I need to type up tomorrow, and it may impact how you see the character. Or it may not, and that's fine, too.

What sort of trouble might catch up to our wonderful spy? What about "Remorseful artist spy", to connect an emotion to the character?

[roryb]

I’m thinking something of a gentleman student of the sciences…a figure on the cutting edge of invention and artifice during the formation of the Academy of Sciences who serves as a forensic investigator of the League with deep interests (and beliefs) in the esoteric as well. Those taboo interests have gotten him in hot water with the church, and thus he is regularly attacked and slandered as a madman (though he’s in control of his faculties). Naturally, as a gentleman, he excels in hunting, fencing, and repartee. He regularly rubs elbows with the elite in the courts of France…at least those who will speak to him. One of his rivals is the young Jean-Baptiste Colbert.

Jean-Pierre Loreau

High Concept. Accomplished Gentleman, Obdurate Theorist, and Avante-Garde Innovator
Trouble. Obliterator of Ecclesiastical Maxims

I’ll do a skill allotment tomorrow.

[Pulpatoon]

Nationality: Italian (Tuscany)
Habit of dress: Courtly but discrete
Trouble: Faces from the past
High concept: Compunctious artist spy

Oh, dang, if he's from Tuscany, his nefarious former-patron was probably one of the Medicis or the Borgias!

[Leitz]

As you work on your characters, think about the encounters planned. How will your character concept meet these challenges? That will help inform your skills selection and prioritzation.

• A social/rp challenge (negotiate, persuade, intimidate, or deceive a group of NPCs)
• Combat, group
• Combat, big bad
• Puzzle/Trap/Environmental challenge (any sort of open-ended creative problem-solving obstacle)
• Movement challenge (stealth, chase and pursuit, etc.)
• Investigation challenge (hidden door, hidden objects, clues, etc.)

Take the skills you've picked, the challenges you know you're going to face, and how your character might solve those challenges, and order your skills. You get:

• 1 skill at +4
• 2 skills at +3
• 3 skills at +2
• 4 skills at +1
• The rest at +0, unless the skill says you must have +1 or better to use it.

Read the bottom paragraph on the Character Worksheet, about Physical and Mental stress. That's how long you last in conflicts.

Now the fun begins! We are going to ignore Stunts for the moment, but start the work on other Aspects. Your characters have known each other for a while, and have worked together. Each of you will impact at least a couple of other characters.

We are going to simplify things a little, and start the dialogue. Write up a two or three sentence recent adventure for your character, that shows how your character faced a challenge. You may have won easily, or failed miserably, doesn't matter. The exercise is to delve into your character for an Aspect that defines who they are and why they matter.

When everyone has their adventure sentences posted, look at everyone else's character and adventures. Work out with them, in private if you like, how your character may have participated in that adventure. This should give them a chance to define an aspect, and you'll be doing the same with them.

[Leitz]

Oh, dang, if he's from Tuscany, his nefarious former-patron was probably one of the Medicis or the Borgias!

I've been through that area, and there are lots of places a body wouldn't be found...

[Rex]

I am going to go with a self imposed exile from Lebanon (Ottoman Empire). He will be a Druze supporter of Fakhr ad Din II.

Druze general from Mount Lebanon in Exile.

[Rex]

Skills
Athletics +2
Drive/Ride +2
Fight +3
Investigate +1
Lore (Military Tactical/Strategic) +4
Notice +1
Rapport +1
Shoot +2
Stealth +1
Will +3

Wasn't sure how to handle military command so feel free to offer other ideas on it.

[Leitz]

I am going to go with a self imposed exile from Lebanon (Ottoman Empire). He will be a Druze supporter of Fakhr ad Din II.

Druze general from Mount Lebanon in Exile.

Great! I like having a variety of character cultures, that's one reason I chose the date. Keep going, what drives the character? Why does he matter?

On the Lore skill, just leave it plain. We know your Lore will be informed by your background, but you are well educated, and not limited to just one thing. If it was something seriously esoteric, like Qabbalistic Rituals, then maybe specializing would fit.

From your skills list, he seems like a man who earned his spot on the front lines. He's not a political appointee, but a trusted soldier. Is that close?

[Rex]

Yes that is my thoughts. I didn't go with contacts and resources since he is in exile.

[Leitz]

Just to make sure I'm reading up on the right person, Fakhr ad Din II died in 1635, correct? Twenty years before the game starts. This isn't an issue, but I'm looking at what is shaping your character and want to make sure I'm on track.

If correct, then the character has a lot of European access, and probably a wider understanding of politics, culture, and geography than most people of his time. That would also play into his Lore.

[Rex]

He would definitely had good European access, but I was actually thinking of his nephew now that I look at timelines. Running off of memory can get you in trouble. Mulhim Ma'n

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulhim_Ma%27n

As it happens my Grandfather was born and lived his youth in Mount Lebanon, before immigrating to the US in 1913. He was a Maronite not Druze but the history of the area has always fascinated me.

[Leitz]

Very cool! I really like the fusion of personal history and gaming, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

[roryb]

I’m thinking something of a gentleman student of the sciences…a figure on the cutting edge of invention and artifice during the formation of the Academy of Sciences who serves as a forensic investigator of the League with deep interests (and beliefs) in the esoteric as well. Those taboo interests have gotten him in hot water with the church, and thus he is regularly attacked and slandered as a madman (though he’s in control of his faculties). Naturally, as a gentleman, he excels in hunting, fencing, and repartee. He regularly rubs elbows with the elite in the courts of France…at least those who will speak to him. One of his rivals is the young Jean-Baptiste Colbert.

Jean-Pierre Loreau

High Concept. Accomplished Gentleman, Obdurate Theorist, and Avante-Garde Innovator
Trouble. Obliterator of Ecclesiastical Maxims

I’ll do a skill allotment tomorrow.

Thinking for skills:

Great (+4). Rapport
Good (+3). Crafts, Lore
Fair (+2). Fight, Investigate, Will
Average (+1). Athletics, Contacts, Resources, Shoot

[Pulpatoon]

Could you describe Troubles a bit?

[Leitz]

Could you describe Troubles a bit?

Soitenly!

[Pulpatoon]

I'm not sure this works for the intended purpose, but this s what happened when I tried to write a sentence or two of past adventure for the as-yet-unnamed painter:

As soon as the Dowager Elysande sat for me, I thought to myself, “Don’t fuss about with much underpainting. Best to get this one done quickly.”

If you, sir, had spent as much time as I staring into the faces of the nobility—plotting the constellations of their pores and pock-marks—you would be equally familiar with the cerulean shadow of acute carnifice poisoning. It’s a curious venom, derived from Mediterranean fish spines and quite en vogue among the aristocracy a few seasons back.

And what if she was being poisoned? Was that any business of mine, past the need to complete my commission while the old woman was still in sufficient fettle to shove some ducats in my direction?

But painting is a curious half-engaged half-idle pursuit, the long hours of toiling over pots of pigments affording the mind freedom to worry at any little thing, turning over the slightest riddle and examining it from every angle, getting more intrigued despite all prudence. And I found myself unable to resist puzzling over why anyone would waste good draughts of carnifice on this creaking pile of a dowager. It was clear that nature was intent on doing the job soon enough. Why would anyone need her dead in Spring instead of Autumn? Her wealth and holdings were all in the control of her oldest child, the Duke. She was far past the years when passion might stir a jealous heart to murder. I simply couldn’t help it, my curiosity had been piqued.

And so it was, a little after midnight, I let myself back in to the Dowager’s apartments—oh, don’t look so scandalized, locks as simple as those are universally recognized as an invitation to let oneself in. That is the first four locks were that simple. She splurged on a finer breed of lock-smithery for the letter box under her bed. And there, by the light of a candle guttering in the raucous nocturnal winds of the snoring Dowager, I found a treasure trove. The old woman was no mere gossip, no simple kitchen-side collector of petty slanders. She was an extortionist of the first water. From merchant to marquis, knight to knave, bishop to battalion master, she had the goods with plenty of pepper. The devil’s nurse would have blushed.

Well, I liberated the contents of the letterbox—I admit a weakness for scandalous reading, and beside, I knew of safer hands for such sensitive intelligence. And for the remainder of my commission I offered the Dowager a cup of wine before each sitting to help bring a little color to her cheeks. And if the wine happened to be laced with the antidote for carnifice, well, I’m sure that was no business of mine, either.

[Rex]

Slight change to his skill list.

Skills
Athletics +2
Drive/Ride +2
Fight +3
Investigate +2
Lore +4
Notice +1
Rapport +1
Shoot +1
Stealth +1
Will +3

Trouble: On the Ottoman Empire's most wanted list.

This is looking like an interesting group.

[Leitz]

I'm not sure this works for the intended purpose, but this s what happened when I tried to write a sentence or two of past adventure for the as-yet-unnamed painter:

A very nice couple of sentences, I LOVE IT!

You've probably noticed that the group isn't following normal D&D tropes. That's fine, I want you to play interesting characters that you are interested in. We really only have two boundary parameters; the ScenSim encounter list, and Fate's internal "genre". Here's a quote from the "Welcome to Fate!" section of the book:

"Fate doesn't come with a default setting, but it works best with any premise where the characters are proactive, capable people leading dramatic lives."

Look at the encounter list, and be thinking about how you and your compatriots might overcome each encounter. There will be at least one combat, so we all can get the feel of it, but you don't have to kill everything in sight.