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innocent_man's format hardcore, why do you ask? :)
Today's initial stab at character creation starts with WoD: Innocents. I was fortunate enough to be asked to work on this book. I enjoyed it immensely, even if I did end up totally wussing out and flaking on part of the assignment (though it was able to be reassigned without pushing everything back too badly). I had reasons. I've been largely forgiven by the people who mattered. Life goes on. I'm really pleased with how the book turned out, though. I can take very little credit for it, but the crew put together to work on this thing really made it sing. I don't think it gets nearly as much love as it should, frankly; I guess the idea of playing kids is pretty foreign to a lot of people. It really works, though.
The Game: World of Darkness: Innocents.
The Publisher: White Wolf
Degree of Familiarity: Wrote parts of it.
Books Required: The Innocents book actually covers everything I needed for character creation. You might use the core WoD book for reference if you go very far afield during actual play, but this is really a complete game in and of itself.
The thing that evidently turned out best of the parts I wrote for the book was Sahara's letter to Santa. I'll admit I didn't think too terribly much about it when I wrote it. It seemed marginally creepy, but nothing spectacular. I have had reports, however, of parent gamers being totally creeped right the fuck out and deciding they needed to hug their children Right Now after reading it. This pleases me greatly, for I apparently have a mildly sadistic side when it comes to my writing.
Ahem.
Anyway, with that in mind, I thought I'd go ahead and start this adventure by fleshing Sahara out a bit, possibly including why her parents thought that naming her after a desert was a smashing idea. We'll see. It's early days yet. :)
Sahara is an only child from a middle class, middle income family. Her parents aren't rich, but they aren't feeling the hurt either. She doesn't get everything she wants, but she gets enough of it that she's never scared to ask for something on a special occasion. She's from the U.S., although I'm not convinced that where is hugely important. It's more urban than rural, and we know this because she states that she isn't allowed to ride her bike on the sidewalks at the park. If she lived in a small town in the country, the city likely wouldn't care about sidewalks in the park and she'd be already riding her bike in the streets all over town.
Sahara's mom and dad both work. Her mom is a teacher and is actually home with her most of the time she isn't in school, while her dad works with computers or something and works a 9 to 5 plus another 5 or so each week. She's 9 and a bit spoiled, her best friend's name is Jen, and she really likes to help her mom around the house... well, sometimes, anyway, especially if cooking is involved.
Step One: Character Concept.
I guess "Mommy's Little Helper" is appropriate, but I really hate boiling it down to a three-word tag. See above for more information. I had a really hard time coming up with an appropriate boiled down idea, so I went to the Assets and Flaws section in hopes of settling the matter.
Asset: Creative. She thinks outside the box.
Fault: I didn't like any of the faults for her, so I talked with my imaginary GM and we came up with a new one: Impulsive. This is different than Hyperactive in that she isn't hyper, she just doesn't naturally have a buffer between thought and word/deed. She can focus, but she hasn't altogether learned not to just say the first thing that comes into her head.
Step Two: Choosing Attributes
5/4/3 split with 1 specialty. She's smart and she's athletic, but I think that her social skills aren't her strongest suit, so it's Mental, Physical, and Social.
Mental: Int 2, Wits 3, Resolve 3 -- Sahara can be very stubborn when it comes down to it, and she's quick witted. Her strengths aren't really in academics, though.
Physical: Str 2, Dex 3, Sta 2 -- She's not terribly strong or tough, but she's quick and agile.
Social: Presence 3, Manipulation 1, Composure 2 -- She's got something about her that can just light up a room, but she's very trusting (and very bad at lying). She's got a decent amount of composure and can keep her head together in average situations.
Step Three: Choosing Abilities
Mental: Crafts 3, Investigation 2 (specialty in Body Language), Study 1, Medicine 1. She's not a stellar student, but she gets by. She's in Girl Scouts so she's learned some rudimentary first aid. She loves art and cooking and just sort of tinkering with stuff, hence Crafts 3.
Physical: Athletics 2, Stealth 2. She loves to ride her bike and jump around and climb stuff and run all over creation. She's also gotten pretty good at being sneaky; you sort of have to when you have a possessed doll in your house whom you suspect doesn't like you too much.
Social: Socialize 2, Subterfuge 1. Sahara's pretty good at making friends, all told. She's not the most popular kid in her class, but she knows how to go up and talk to people and isn't shy about when someone catches her interest. She's working on learning to lie well if she has to, but it doesn't come easily to her. Jen says it's really important, though, and her mom doesn't want to hear anything more about the doll. What else is a girl to do?
Step Four: Advantages
Merits first. She knows there's a ghost, even though she doesn't really know what it is or why it's there (it's her first one, you know). For that reason, she gets Unseen Sense. She also gets 2 dots in Fast Reflexes and 1 dot in Fleet of Foot. This should up her survivability considerably. Of course, she doesn't have any skill in fighting, but then she's got no reason to.
Defense 3, Health 6, Morality 7, Will 5, Init 7 (Thank you, Fast Reflexes), Speed 10 (Thank you, Fleet of Foot).
And there we have it! Sahara Jones, who still believes in Santa. Godspeed, Sahara. In your world, you're going to need all the help you can get.
innocent_man's format hardcore, why do you ask? :)Today's initial stab at character creation starts with WoD: Innocents. I was fortunate enough to be asked to work on this book. I enjoyed it immensely, even if I did end up totally wussing out and flaking on part of the assignment (though it was able to be reassigned without pushing everything back too badly). I had reasons. I've been largely forgiven by the people who mattered. Life goes on. I'm really pleased with how the book turned out, though. I can take very little credit for it, but the crew put together to work on this thing really made it sing. I don't think it gets nearly as much love as it should, frankly; I guess the idea of playing kids is pretty foreign to a lot of people. It really works, though.
The Game: World of Darkness: Innocents.
The Publisher: White Wolf
Degree of Familiarity: Wrote parts of it.
Books Required: The Innocents book actually covers everything I needed for character creation. You might use the core WoD book for reference if you go very far afield during actual play, but this is really a complete game in and of itself.
The thing that evidently turned out best of the parts I wrote for the book was Sahara's letter to Santa. I'll admit I didn't think too terribly much about it when I wrote it. It seemed marginally creepy, but nothing spectacular. I have had reports, however, of parent gamers being totally creeped right the fuck out and deciding they needed to hug their children Right Now after reading it. This pleases me greatly, for I apparently have a mildly sadistic side when it comes to my writing.
Ahem.
Anyway, with that in mind, I thought I'd go ahead and start this adventure by fleshing Sahara out a bit, possibly including why her parents thought that naming her after a desert was a smashing idea. We'll see. It's early days yet. :)
Sahara is an only child from a middle class, middle income family. Her parents aren't rich, but they aren't feeling the hurt either. She doesn't get everything she wants, but she gets enough of it that she's never scared to ask for something on a special occasion. She's from the U.S., although I'm not convinced that where is hugely important. It's more urban than rural, and we know this because she states that she isn't allowed to ride her bike on the sidewalks at the park. If she lived in a small town in the country, the city likely wouldn't care about sidewalks in the park and she'd be already riding her bike in the streets all over town.
Sahara's mom and dad both work. Her mom is a teacher and is actually home with her most of the time she isn't in school, while her dad works with computers or something and works a 9 to 5 plus another 5 or so each week. She's 9 and a bit spoiled, her best friend's name is Jen, and she really likes to help her mom around the house... well, sometimes, anyway, especially if cooking is involved.
Step One: Character Concept.
I guess "Mommy's Little Helper" is appropriate, but I really hate boiling it down to a three-word tag. See above for more information. I had a really hard time coming up with an appropriate boiled down idea, so I went to the Assets and Flaws section in hopes of settling the matter.
Asset: Creative. She thinks outside the box.
Fault: I didn't like any of the faults for her, so I talked with my imaginary GM and we came up with a new one: Impulsive. This is different than Hyperactive in that she isn't hyper, she just doesn't naturally have a buffer between thought and word/deed. She can focus, but she hasn't altogether learned not to just say the first thing that comes into her head.
Step Two: Choosing Attributes
5/4/3 split with 1 specialty. She's smart and she's athletic, but I think that her social skills aren't her strongest suit, so it's Mental, Physical, and Social.
Mental: Int 2, Wits 3, Resolve 3 -- Sahara can be very stubborn when it comes down to it, and she's quick witted. Her strengths aren't really in academics, though.
Physical: Str 2, Dex 3, Sta 2 -- She's not terribly strong or tough, but she's quick and agile.
Social: Presence 3, Manipulation 1, Composure 2 -- She's got something about her that can just light up a room, but she's very trusting (and very bad at lying). She's got a decent amount of composure and can keep her head together in average situations.
Step Three: Choosing Abilities
Mental: Crafts 3, Investigation 2 (specialty in Body Language), Study 1, Medicine 1. She's not a stellar student, but she gets by. She's in Girl Scouts so she's learned some rudimentary first aid. She loves art and cooking and just sort of tinkering with stuff, hence Crafts 3.
Physical: Athletics 2, Stealth 2. She loves to ride her bike and jump around and climb stuff and run all over creation. She's also gotten pretty good at being sneaky; you sort of have to when you have a possessed doll in your house whom you suspect doesn't like you too much.
Social: Socialize 2, Subterfuge 1. Sahara's pretty good at making friends, all told. She's not the most popular kid in her class, but she knows how to go up and talk to people and isn't shy about when someone catches her interest. She's working on learning to lie well if she has to, but it doesn't come easily to her. Jen says it's really important, though, and her mom doesn't want to hear anything more about the doll. What else is a girl to do?
Step Four: Advantages
Merits first. She knows there's a ghost, even though she doesn't really know what it is or why it's there (it's her first one, you know). For that reason, she gets Unseen Sense. She also gets 2 dots in Fast Reflexes and 1 dot in Fleet of Foot. This should up her survivability considerably. Of course, she doesn't have any skill in fighting, but then she's got no reason to.
Defense 3, Health 6, Morality 7, Will 5, Init 7 (Thank you, Fast Reflexes), Speed 10 (Thank you, Fleet of Foot).
And there we have it! Sahara Jones, who still believes in Santa. Godspeed, Sahara. In your world, you're going to need all the help you can get.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-17 05:59 pm (UTC)From:Any chance of just a brief paraphrase of why it's so creepy? I love creepy stuff, particularly as it relates to kids (always regretted not ever getting around to playing Little Fears).
no subject
Date: 2009-06-17 08:44 pm (UTC)From:[[A wrinkled piece of paper -- butterfly stationary, actually -- like it's been wadded up and thrown away, then retrieved and smoothed out. Written on it in childish handwriting (although fairly neat, all things considered) is the following:
Deer Santa,
This is Sahara. I am nine now. Thank you for teh bike last year. It is a lot of fun. How are you? I hope you like the cookies I baked for you last year. Mom helped Please tell Mrs. Clause that I like the apron she sent. It looks just like Moms.
I would like a barbie house and a car and a scooter. Jen has a scooter but she never lets me borrow it. I like my bike, but we can't take bikes o the sidewalks at teh park. It is a grate bike though.
I have a favor to ask. Could you please take back the doll you broght last year? I liked her very much at first, because she is pretty, but I think she does not like me back. She watches me all night, and I do not like that. If I don't play with her first, she gets mad. I do not want her to be mad. She made my cat Angel go away when she got mad. I hope you don't mind. If you have another doll, may be we could trade.
Please don't tell her I asked you.
Sahara
no subject
Date: 2009-06-17 08:46 pm (UTC)From:Thanks! :)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-17 09:12 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 02:06 pm (UTC)From: