Session 0: Character Creation

[Marullus]

We do need a Corporal, though... It costs your MOS. (Must take Squad Leader MOS.) It was not my intention to take it, but I honestly think everyone else is cooler, so I am willing to tweak/redesign. Does anyone else want to be Corporal? If not, I am willing. Since we're doing Session 0, we could also make a house rule method... everyone starts here the same and as this thread's story evolves, someone is awarded the promotion to Corporal from their MOS? (I don't know how the GM intends this to work.)

My general approach is to be a fan of the players. If you design a character built around heavy weapons, I will make an effort to make sure you have the opportunity to use them.

So, if we have a mechanic who is about vehicles, and then a gunner who is about heavy-mounted cannons, we are likely to have adventures with Stryker armored vehicles?

[Enoch]

Yes, a vehicle operator/mechanic and a heavy gunner would probably result in seeing armored vehicles more often.

I don't want anyone to feel shoehorned into a particular role. If someone wants to play the senior NCO, great. They'll also have advances to improve a skill other than Leader if they want to (such as Admin, for Marullus). However, I promise not having a Corporal PC will not be a gamestopper.

[Marullus]

I'm happy to retool as the Corporal, but only with everyone's assent. My original thought was to have her as a newb under another PC's leadership, but she is the driven-for-the-Corps type more than the others and having her be a little more hard-bitten works as well.

The Smartgunner, Corpsman, and Scout-Sniper are spoken for and each have specialities and kits. The Weapon Crew guy could easily also refit to be the leader, and that's cool by me if he wants to. (Monkeywrench?)

Looking at the gear, the Smartgun is amazing. Glad we get one.

[Enoch]

Step 2: Backgrounds

We're going to skip over Nature for a moment and move on to backgrounds. Backgrounds are, obviously, where you come from: were you a criminal? A drug addict? Somebody well-educated? Each background gives you a choice of 2 traits (pick 1) and 2 wise (pick 1).

Unlike a lot of games, traits in Torchbearer don't have unique effects--each trait works the same way. They can be used once per session to grant you +1D to a roll (if you describe how it helps), and it can be used against you to gain a check (which gives you the ability to enter the Camp phase and make tests there).

Characters
Here's what we seem to have so far:

• MonkeyWrench: Dedicated
• Rusty: Addicted
• Marullus: Military
• Stirling:
• Antman9: Orbital or Colonial
• StephenTarheel:

[Marullus]

Elizabeth Resen

Military You and your family jumped from base assignment to base assignment throughout Earth and beyond. Traits: Disciplined, loner Wises: Relocation-wise, rules and regulations-wise

Daughter of General Resen, Elizabeth spent her entire life moving from base to base, growing up a 'military brat' among the Colonial Marines. She has gone to great lengths to separate herself from her legacy and prove she can do it on her own. She is no stranger to false assumptions, working to overcome stereotypes of gender, size, and privledge by proving herself as a soldier by merit.

Trait: Disciplined
Wise: Rules and Regs-wise

[Rusty Tincanne]

Addicted
You were or are addicted to some powerful chemical substance. If in the past, you suffered horrible withdrawal symptoms.
Traits: Shaky hands
Wises: Empty promises-wise

Having been stuck enough times without an easy high, my character* realized it would be better to have an easy access to the main supply. That way he wouldn't need to interact with greet dealers or scrounge up money by robbing people.
His addiction has given him the shakes and first hand knowledge of what it means to give and receive empty promises.


* I find it odd the character creation promise for this game leaves naming your character until the end.

[Enoch]

I'm not wedded to the order in the PDF. Feel free to give your character a name up front if you like.

[Marullus]

I LOVE the Shaky Hands trait for him. Too cool.

[Rusty Tincanne]

I'm not wedded to the order in the PDF. Feel free to give your character a name up front if you like.

I figured as much. I haven't found the right name yet. I remember waking up last night and having thought of something great, but I cannot remember now, and seeing as it was the middle of the night, it probably wasn't as good as it felt anyhow.

I was leaning towards a past addiction and he is just carrying around a bag full of temptations. But how does it work if I choose to be still addicted to substance(s)? Is it just fluff, or are there actual in-game side effects? (Or are the in-game effects to be added by you in terms of conditions if I fail a test?)

@ Marullus: Thanks! Cannot wait to use that against myself as I am trying to patch up a slashed carotid or the like! Just kidding. I wouldn't do that to anyone's character. I am looking forward to the challenge of finding how I could possibly use that trait to my advantage...

[Enoch]

We can work out in-game consequences if you want, but I should warn you that Torchbearer can be pretty brutal without added difficulties. I would suggest it being color, but you can also work it into Goals and Beliefs (which we'll get into in a later step).

That said, because I like designing stuff, we could always add an additional Condition: Jonesing. Not sure how this would work, but it would probably have to be removed via a decently difficult Will test (or by scoring your drug of choice). This is kind of interesting: in a way you have added survivability because generally you don't die unless all your Conditions are filled--but I expect it would act as a factor in all tests, and be easily added and difficult to remove.

[Rusty Tincanne]

That makes me think of using "jonesing" as an addition to hungry and thirsty, so food, water or drugs could alleviate the condition.

But you are right. Steven has sufficiently demonstrated to me that TB is tough enough without adding undue difficulty!

[MonkeyWrench]

I'm happy to retool as the Corporal, but only with everyone's assent. My original thought was to have her as a newb under another PC's leadership, but she is the driven-for-the-Corps type more than the others and having her be a little more hard-bitten works as well.

The Smartgunner, Corpsman, and Scout-Sniper are spoken for and each have specialities and kits. The Weapon Crew guy could easily also refit to be the leader, and that's cool by me if he wants to. (Monkeywrench?)

Looking at the gear, the Smartgun is amazing. Glad we get one.

My character isn't really the leadership type at first. Basically he isn't going to volunteer to be leader but if things aren't getting done he will step in.

[MonkeyWrench]

Step 2: Backgrounds

We're going to skip over Nature for a moment and move on to backgrounds. Backgrounds are, obviously, where you come from: were you a criminal? A drug addict? Somebody well-educated? Each background gives you a choice of 2 traits (pick 1) and 2 wise (pick 1).

Unlike a lot of games, traits in Torchbearer don't have unique effects--each trait works the same way. They can be used once per session to grant you +1D to a roll (if you describe how it helps), and it can be used against you to gain a check (which gives you the ability to enter the Camp phase and make tests there).

Growing up in a major city, father was a cop that had been working the streets for too long, becoming abusive and a drunkard. Mother was an nurse for the nearby hospital's surgical emergency ward and worked double shifts like it was going out of style. Unable to stop the becoming more frequent beatings of him and his siblings he decided it was either get out or probably kill his dad, so he joined up.

Dedicated
You come from a long line of first responders—cops, firefighters, EMTs or other folks in a high stress, low
pay line of work.
Traits: Defender, Fearless
Wises: Drinking-wise, brotherhood-wise

[Marullus]

*bump*

Characters
Here's what we seem to have so far:
MonkeyWrench: Dedicated [posted]
Rusty: Addicted [posted]
Marullus: Military [posted]
Stirling:
Antman9: Orbital or Colonial
StephenTarheel:

Stirling?
Antman9?
StephenTarheel?

[Enoch]

Guys, we're going to pick up the pace a little, because I know everyone's eager to get started. From now on we'll do one step a day. If you fall behind, you can just answer whatever questions that you haven't yet answered. If we get an answer from everyone before the day is up, I'll go ahead and post the next one.

Step 3: Nature

Nature takes the form of a series of questions. Your answers to these questions will either increase your Nature or give you an option for a Trait. Nature grants three descriptors. For Marines, these are Carousing, Escaping and Griping. The higher your Nature, the more Marine-like you get: you become the model Marine. Nature is useful because you can use it in place of a skill you don't have.

Normally, when you need to make a test for a skill you don't have, you use Beginner's Luck. You use the associated attribute (Health or Will), plus Help and other benefits, and roll half of those dice. With Nature, you roll all of them. If you test Nature and the test falls within your Nature descriptors (the test involves Carousing, Escaping or Griping), you roll all of your Nature dice. If it doesn't fall within those descriptors, you still roll the full Nature. However, if you fail your Nature is temporarily reduced by the amount you failed by (we call that Tax).

This means a high Nature is great: it provides the ability to be great at Carousing, Escaping and Griping, and a useful escape hatch even outside of that. However, a high Nature also inhibits learning new skills, so there's a downside as well.

Nature Questions:

Please answer each of the following questions:

1. When you are off-duty, do you party and live it up because life is short or do you train and prepare for your next mission?
2. When your mission gets into some real pretty s***, do you complete the mission no matter the cost or do you bug the f*** out of there?
3. Do you let everyone around you know what you think of this chickens*** outfit or do you button up and take it all as it comes?

(You'll notice that I masked the obscenities that show up in the PDF. Cursing is part of a Marine's lifestyle, but board rules do prohibit cursing. I suggest we either use euphemisms (you've all been called 'maggot' more than once) or otherwise mask profanity.)

Characters:

• Marullus: Train and prepare, complete the mission, button up
• MonkeyWrench: Party it up, complete the mission, let them know
• Rusty: Party, bug out, button up
• AntMan9: Party, complete the mission, button up
• StephenTarheel:
• Stirling:

[MonkeyWrench]

1. When you are off-duty, do you party and live it up because life is short or do you train and prepare for your next mission?
2. When your mission gets into some real pretty shit, do you complete the mission no matter the cost or do you bug the f*** out of there?
3. Do you let everyone around you know what you think of this chickens*** outfit or do you button up and take it all as it comes?

1. Party it up
2. Depends, He'll stay until the job gets done unless he is ordered to move out and retreat
3. Due to his sarcastic nature, I would say he would let his fellow squad mates know

[Enoch]

Sounds like your answer to #2 would be "complete the mission". With Nature questions it needs to be one or the other, since either answer will have a mechanical effect. Also, it appears I missed a profanity in there...

[Marullus]

Nature grants three descriptors. For Marines, these are Carousing, Escaping and Griping. The higher your Nature, the more Marine-like you get: you become the model Marine. Nature is useful because you can use it in place of a skill you don't have.

Marine nature? Elizabeth knows better. That's Human nature, and being a Marine is a calling to be something more. "To err is human" and we don't have time for that ****. She was raised on bases, pushed to perfection by her father, and saw more than enough cases of how these traits caused Marines to be an embarrassment to the Corps.

Carousing? Keep it in your pants, private. I don't need no swingin' *** when there's a job to be done.
Escaping? It is called WINNING. Take a memo.
Griping? That's for the Air Force. You don't complain that it sucks, Marine. It can't SUCK ENOUGH for you. That's a proper attitude.

Soldiers are more-than-human. It is our nature to rise above the desires of human flesh and perform duty. It is our creed:
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.

1. When you are off-duty, do you party and live it up because life is short or do you train and prepare for your next mission? Train and prepare.
2. When your mission gets into some real pretty shit, do you complete the mission no matter the cost or do you bug the f*** out of there? What kind of Marine ARE you? Finish the ***in' mission!
3. Do you let everyone around you know what you think of this chickens*** outfit or do you button up and take it all as it comes?

We forge the weak links, or cut them from the chain. Elizabeth, however, has grown up a petite girl in a land of testosterone. Dressing down sub-standard performance is the prerogative of officers, like her father. She has learned to button-up and take it, proving herself by merit and skill quietly and with purpose.

Elizabeth comes out with a Nature of 1. She is a firm believer in Ethos over realities, in the power of training and skill over human frailties. As such she is an exceptionally quick learner, but by refusing her humanity to be a better marine, she lacks the internal reserve that others might call on. As she matures in the corps, she'll eventually need to learn to overcome this -- accept a little carousing, understand the need for escaping, and stop being such a tight-***. As of now, she's not there.

[Enoch]

That's not actually how Nature works: you will all start with a Nature of at least 3, and possibly with additional Traits, depending on your answers. We'll tally the results when everyone has had a chance to answer. There will also be an opportunity to modify your answers if you're dissatisfied with the result.

[Marullus]

That's not actually how Nature works: you will all start with a Nature of at least 3, and possibly with additional Traits, depending on your answers. We'll tally the results when everyone has had a chance to answer. There will also be an opportunity to modify your answers if you're dissatisfied with the result.

Sorry, confused the starting number with circles. Assume I meant "minimum nature" and math stuff is done later. The logic for her concept and hurdles should be the same...