Character Generation Library - Kobolds Ate My Baby ... in Colour!

I remember buying this thing when it was held together with a piece of construction paper and a staple. Yipping like a kobold was such a big part of my game playing when I was younger it may be why I have kobolds (though not these kobolds(tm)) in Critical!: Go Westerly. Because I think they can be kind of intrinsically funny even if we went in the complete opposite direction of KAMB.

If you've never heard of it, this game was on of the first "Beer and Pretzels" games where you played Kobolds who were attacking a nearby village for food to prepare for the feast that King Torg (All Hail King Torg!) was going to prepare this evening. The best food for kobolds, human babies! So you were to go forth and find things that were delicious and bring them back.

With that in mind, it's time to make a Kobold who will go forth and get food for the feast for King Torg (All Hail King Torg!)

Step 1 roll for stats. Roll 2d6 for the four stats. Brawn, Ego, Extraneous, Reflexes, or as they call it the BEER system.

Brawn is for how big, mean, and tough your kobold is. Ego is how smart your kobold is. Reflexes are how agile, dexterous, and flexible your kobold is. Extraneous is the roleplaying stuff, I guess.

Using random.org I roll 2d6 four times. There's a stat array but ... this game is meant to be ridiculous so wild random stats are part of that. I have a 6, 5, 9, 8 which is applied to them in order. Which makes it Brawn 6, Ego 5, Extraneous 9 and Reflexes 8. I ... don't think I would have picked it another way. These stats turn into the Handy Numbers which gives me a MEAT of 2, a CUNNING of 2, a LUCK of 3, and a AGILITY of 2.

Now onto the Skills! You only ever get a maximum of six skills. I have to at least take one skill from every stat range before I take a second one. Technically, I can only have as many skills as I have ego, which would mean five but there is a way to honour the ancient kobold hatred of math by giving my 7 skills. I'll take it! There are everykoboldskills that I can take. I don't have to, but everyone I don't take gives me a cheque on the horrible kobold death record chart.

Thankfully there's only one and that's cook.

Also, if I start to min max, like using the seventh skill for my 5 ego, then that's a cheque! Also, if I find myself trying to overthink this that's a cheque, and if ... you get the point.

I think I'll stick to six, because I can. So here's my list:

Cook
Lift
Speak Human
Hide
Speak Critter
Sneak

I like the idea of being the one that sneaks around trying to get the humans to fight so I can take the tasty, tasty things. Also, no Dangerous Skills for me because that's not for sneaking.

There are +Edges and -Bogies that you get like +Bark Like a Kobold where if you bark like a kobold in game then you get a bonus die. +Kobold Senses which means you can see well in the dark and work off of an amazing sense of smell. -Fearless which means you're not afraid even when you should be. -Tastes Like Kobold, which means if you take damage all critters will love to take more bites out of you. Any non humanoids have to make a check or even the cows will start to stampede to get to your little kobold. Beyond those, you get one random +Edge and -Bogie. Rolling I get a 1 and a 5.

+Animal Chum which means that animals like me and they won't attack me unless I attack them.

-In Heat. *sigh* I was having so much fun up to this point too. I guess it's a thing? Basically dogs follow you around and you have to roll to prevent yourself from "humping" human legs. I just ... really? I'm going to keep it because I rolled it but this could have been better.

Now that I think about it, it was probably there in the original too and I was just 15 so I thought it was funny.

*sigh*
Moving on. No magick for me since I'm not a Lackey! Which means straight onto gear.

Continuing onto my cowardly theme, I'm not going to roll for any dangerous stuff. I'm just going to get regular gear.

1, 5, 5

1 Armor gets me Small Shield! which can take 4 hits but has the drawback of -Item which means it takes up a slot in my paw, which means I'm only going to take a weapon and with a 5 it's a Dead Rat which is -Foul Smelling which means my kobold is foul smelling while I hold it, and I will hold it for such a long time. We're friends.

I have 6 hits because I don't have any Edges that will work, plus the 4 from the shield.

Now I just need to come up with a name. I figure I'll go with Klath, Destroyer of Tastebuds which has to be used at all opportunities.

Anyway, it was a lot shorter, amusing until that speedbump and the character sheet is below.

Character Generation Library - Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

So this is me trying to do my first Character for the Character Generation Project. If you don't know what it is, you can look at this page for all the details of what's involved.

With that in mind let's start with Marvel: Super Heroic Roleplaying. I want to start here because I love this game, but also because a lot of people were like "Uuuhh, there isn't a character creation system here" and that always annoyed me because it does, it just doesn't have a lot of rules that we've come to expect with character generation.

Instead of coming up with some stats, it's probably best to come up with a concept for what I want and then see how the game can make that a reality. To be honest, that's how I usually came up with characters for systems like Champions, but what's great about MHR is that I don't have to worry about how it fits under a point system. I can make the exact character that I want.

Since this is Marvel, most of my exposure and love of those comics were through the Mutants rather than through say Captain America and the Avengers. I don't really want to deal with the "adult" x-men though, I think doing something at the school would be fun. That makes it a young character, but what kind of powers should they have? I'm usually playing speed/smart characters so I'm going to try playing a large, power character. I think the idea is that they've got a lot of muscles, and strength but it's grown in such a way that it's covered their body in weird way. What would be odd for us comes naturally to him, and vice versa. Included is that he can't really talk, because of how the muscles of grown around his mouth.

He's 15 and I'm going to call him Slingshot, real name is Maurice Francois Benoit.

Now comes the character creation part. I have to put a D6, a D8 and a D10 into Solo, Buddy and Team. I think he's one of those people who works really well when someone knows him, so the Buddy gets a D10, and better on his own because he's unpredictable which makes for the D8. The team gets the D6 because he's just too unpredictable to work well in a team.

Next comes the Distinctions, you get three of them. My thoughts are:

-Moves in mysterious ways
-Frightening Visage
-Wallflower

The way he moves can be both a good thing and a bad thing, same thing with the ways his muscles have grown over his face. If he wants to be comforting it will be harder, but if he wants to be intimidating then it's going to be something he can use.

Wallflower is fun because I can see him being really kind of shy and nervous about people because he's probably had nothing but bad reactions from people. Which makes one emotional, and two physical distinctions. The game doesn't differentiate, but it's nice to have some variety.

Now comes the powers. He really only has one powerset, which is his over and strangely developed muscles. That means he's going to have a lot of strength, speed and reflexes,

Title: Slingshot Muscles

Enhanced Durability (D8), Enhanced Reflexes (D8), Enhanced Speed (D8), Superhuman Strength (D10).

Lots of physical stuff there because that's really all his power is. Nothing outstanding, but the great thing about Marvel is that this is perfectly fine. Sure Slingshot can't go up against Galactus, but really who can? (Rocket can, seriously had a great time and my plan was to shoot Galactus in the face. It almost worked).

Anyway, time to add SFXs and Limits:

SFX: Unconventional Attack. Step up your effect die by 1 when involved in hand to
hand combat.
SFX: Side Stepping. Add d6 to your reaction roll when attacked by anything physical.
Limit: Mutant. Gain 1 PP when affected by mutant-specific Milestones and tech.

I like the fact that his odd way of moving gives him extra effects when dealing with combat, and since he is a Mutant he should get the Mutant limit.

Next it's time for specialties. He's still only 15 so he's not going to have a pile of them.

Acrobatic Master D10
Combat Expert D8
Menace Expert D8

I think his musculature allows him to do some extra special acrobatic things. He's learned how to fight, but you wouldn't have him go toe to toe with the best ones out there, and he's learned how to use his face and his walk to intimidate people but those who really know what menacing is won't be intimidated.

Finally Milestones.

This is a fun part of Marvel. What do I want to signal to the other players how I want to play this character. I think the first one should be about how he feels about himself, so I'm going to call it Where the Heart Calls and it's going to be all about how he can push people away for being friendly with him.

The second one is going to be about violence, because I don't think he's particularly aggressive as a person but the way his powers work tends to put him in those situations.

And that's done. First one out of the way, hopefully the others can be done a little faster. The completed character sheet is below.