Character Archetypes?

I was asked to create a filler game at short notice this week and wanted to try out a new character creation concept (well new to me anyway), character archetypes.  It's a halfway house between letting your players roll up their own characters or presenting them with fully written characters.

The archetypes are printed onto small pieces of card in the form of a TITLE, PRIMARY STAT & SKILL (or in the case of SBA a Primary Skill (at Superb +5) and a Stunt) and a BACKGROUND SENTENCE to provoke the players into writing their own background.  For example:

THE DASHING ARMY CAPTAIN

RAPPORT / Intergalactic Ladies Man

"Last one to rescue a young lady is a rotten egg"

or

THE YOUNG PLANETARY SCIENTIST

SCIENCE / Scientific Genius

"Those fools at the Royal Society don't appreciate the possibilities of my discovery"

I used this method because:

• I didn't have the time to pre-gen a bunch of characters for the game and write the scenario.
  
• The players were relatively unfamiliar with the system (Starblazer Adventures) and the genre (Victorian Sci-Fi).
  
• I find that players are less reckless with characters they've had a hand in creating rather than ones they're just given and this results in better roleplay.

So how did it work out?

I was quite pleased with the results.  I gave the players a few minutes to digest their choice and then did a small piece of 1 to 1 roleplay with each player to introduce their character into the game and to discuss some options which they might consider.  Each player then spent about 10 minutes or so fleshing out their character before we began with the opening scene.  I'll certainly be using it again and might consider it for other systems.

Papercraft Obelisks

Sersa V at Save Verus Death posted some nice papercraft obelisks which I had to build.   Perhaps this will be all the encouragement I need to run the Desert of Desolation again.  Here's a pic of how they turned out:

Cliche avoidance... or 4 ways I've put a party together through enforced captivity.

I know I've been guilty of using the "Bar Brawl" or the "Adventurer's Noticeboard" cliche's every once in a while but here are a few of the other ways I've brought a party of PCs together:

"It's a lovely summers day and the grass is even tastier than it was yesterday."

This was the opening line in a Justifiers RPG scenario where the PCs were all beta-humanoid sheep. They had been on a mission, to investigate the dissappearance of a fellow Justifier team, which had gone horribly wrong and they began the adventure in a pasture having been subjected to a neural wipe without any memory of themselves, their past or their species. Over a couple of sessions they gradually discovered their identities and skills as the neural wipe wore off.

"The guy in the unseasonal outfit seems to have wires running from his sleeve to something in his hand..."

In this Squadron UK scenario (see Project Daedalus postings) the PCs are the only survivors of a terrorist dirty bomb in Trafalgar Square.  The bomb awakens their latent superpowers (the genetic legacy of their grandparents) and during their recuperation in a secret government facility they get to know one another and explore their new found powers.

"You notice that the ship's motley crew are carrying short lengths of chain with manacles at each end.  Something tells you that you should start running..."

I started one of my The Lands of Dual fantasy campaigns by collecting together each of the players from their respective homelands with a slave pirate ship.  It's amazing how quickly a party bond with each other when they're chained together rowing for 18 hours a day!!

"You best be getting up to the Castle before the Siege starts..."

In this campaign opener the PCs were press ganged into becoming siege defenders by the Baron of a coastal town.  The PCs were unaware that the Baron was being controlled by the forces of darkness and that the King's forces, massing on the hills outside of town, were being led by a particularly devout Warrior Priest with strict instructions to erase the castle and it's inhabitants from history.

Papercraft: Adventurer's Cart

Something I've been meaning to put together for a while and with the help of Sketchup and the Unfold plugin (see my previous post for details) here it is...

The Adventurers Cart!!

Every party needs a cart to get from Town A to Village B and when you've slain the Dragon you need something to haul away it's horde.  For DM's sometimes it's just nice to make the PCs have a good old punch-up around a few wagons.

• The Adventurer's Cart (PDF)
• Cart Accessories (PDF)

Build instructions:

Normal rules apply; cut along solid lines, score along dashed lines, put tab A into slot A etc. 
I used chopped down cocktail sticks to secure the optional roof.

Enjoy

Iron Sky

After scanning the interweb for Nazi UFO pics I stumbled across some teaser posters for IRON SKY currently slated for a 2011 release.

The basic premise is that in 1945 the Nazis landed on the moon and set up a secret base where they have hiden out.  Cut to 2018 when the Nazi's try to invade Earth in their huge flying saucers and impose a Fourth Reich.  I hope the film turns out as good as some of these images:

More info on IMDB.  Oh those crazy Finns!!