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obscurity [2012/01/29 07:58] – [Creating Characters] JasonPobscurity [2012/01/29 09:49] (current) – [Creating Characters] JasonP
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   * 0, **Soldier**: Even in these enlightened times, skirmish wars break out all over the old world. Soldiers don't always stay in the military though, and those that come out are hardened men of brass with flint hearts. //The soldier's power of discovery brings brutality to the story.//   * 0, **Soldier**: Even in these enlightened times, skirmish wars break out all over the old world. Soldiers don't always stay in the military though, and those that come out are hardened men of brass with flint hearts. //The soldier's power of discovery brings brutality to the story.//
  
-Each character begins the game with a full two hands of **[[Fortune]]**, where a hand of fortune means six coins worth. Fortune is the currency of the game, you'll be tracking it a lot across play. During character creation, you spend fortune to create keywords for your character. You must spend at least one fortune, and can spend up to five, a full hand's worth. There are three things that you can buy with fortune now: **[[Obscurity:Merits]]**, **[[Obscurity:Motifs]]**, and **[[Obscurity:Tales]]**.+Each character begins the game with a full two hands of **[[Obscurity:Fortune]]**, where a hand of fortune means five coins worth. Fortune is the currency of the game, you'll be tracking it a lot across play. During character creation, you [[obscurity:surrender]] fortune to create keywords for your character. You must surrender at least one fortune, and can aurrender up to five, a full hand's worth. There are three things that you can buy with fortune now: **[[Obscurity:Merits]]**, **[[Obscurity:Motifs]]**, and **[[Obscurity:Tales]]**. This isn't the only time you can buy these, at any time the director allows, you may purchase more and sometimes trade in ones you have for fortune in return.
  
-You pay one fortune for each merit you'd like to buy for your character. A **Merit** is a special keyword in the game that gives them advantages in specific situations. These are always something the character is born with, abilities and talents. When you can apply a merit logically, it will be free to use. If you get creative though, and think of a way to apply your merit to something it would not logically assist, you will spend one fortune to do so.+You surrender one fortune for each merit you'd like to buy for your character. A **Merit** is a special keyword in the game that gives them advantages in specific situations. These are always something the character is born with, abilities and talents. When you can apply a merit logically, it will be free to use. If you get creative though, and think of a way to apply your merit to something it would not logically assist, you will [[obscurity:spend]] one fortune to do so. You can't choose your merits for your character though, so while they are unique and powerful they are random and all suffer the **[[Obscurity:Concept]]**: [[Obscurity:Concept:Hap]]. Each merit is rolled for on the [[Obscurity:Merit Table]].
  
 +You also surrender one fortune for each motif you purchase for your character. A **Motif** is a style, or theme for the character. Motifs generally suggest a particular set of equipment and skill set for the character. A perfect example would be: "//Courageous Outback explorer//" or "//Strict Naval Officer//" and so on. These aren't limited to occupations though, things like "//Witty Street Rat//" and "//Angry Old Drunkard//" both establish motifs. A motif must have an adjective as its opening, and then a descriptive term following it. You create your motifs as you like, just keep in mind that you spend fortune to combine them in play, so stacking them isn't really all that beneficial. For each motif you also select a motif compatible concept from the [[obscurity:concept list]].
  
-===== Basic Ideas =====+When you decide to create Tales for your character, you do not surrender fortune. Instead you [[obscurity:invest]] fortune into each tale, from one to three. Each **Tale** is a definitive moment in the history of a character that defines them in some way. They are written out in the first person, and are one line maximum, never more than a moment. However, they can include a second line if that explains the character's mental state and feelings at that moment. The actual story leading up to and including the moment is subject to the opinions of all players, its shared fiction in play. A great tale would be "//The light from the lantern flared as I held the pistol to my brother's head, but couldn't fire. Tears welled in my eyes.//" Each story then earns a keyword from it, a phrase or adjective that describes how the story affected the character, "//Heart of Flint//" for example. For each tale you also select a tale compatible concept from the [[obscurity:concept list]].
  
-The system is baed on the ideas of probability and powerwhich are often exchangeable in the system. Power and probability are measured in **Ranks**. **Keywords** and **Concepts** are at the root of it allwith each keyword giving the character both benefit and restriction on its application. For exampleyour adventurer may have the keyword //Heroic// with the concept //Selfless//. Heroic provides the benefit as you the player sees fit, when the concept selfless allows that to happenActions may be backed by multiple keywords, giving them more ranks. Keywords may have bangsdenoted by exclamation markswhich allow player to invoke more ranks in it when **Fortune** (the game currency) is spent.+After you have a Role, a Fortune total, and one or more Merits, Motifs, and Tales, you just need to fill in the blanks for the characterYou give them a namea look, a style. Then we are off to the races, and each character gets an initial scene called an [[Obscurity:Introduction]].
  
-Keywords always come from stories, little glimpses into who the character was and will be. The other thing about keywords is that they are evolving and highly mutable, and each time they are used in the rules they earn a rank of **bloom**. Eventually they succumb to bloom and become a new keyword, or turn back into fortune. 
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-===== Ranks & Dice ===== 
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-The game uses only ten-sided dice, and **every roll of each die uses these simple rules: 6 or more and the die is worthless, discarded and worth no outcome; 5 or less and the die is worth its shown value in __Outcome__**. How many dice you roll, and which one matters is based on the final ranks earned for any roll. If you have one rank, the roll is Likely and you take the best result of two dice. If you have two ranks, the roll is Sure and you take the best of three dice. If you have no ranks, you roll one die and hope for the best. One rank behind (-1 ranks) and the roll is Unlikely and you take the worst of two dice. Two ranks behind (-2) and the roll is Slight, in which case you had better pray, taking the worst result of three dice. 
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-===== Outcome ====== 
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-Rolls either fail terribly when they generate no outcome, or earn some amount of success when they do earn outcome. The situation determines how outcome applies, as outcome is measured as the character reaching a goal or achieving something in particular. In order to make this clearer we simply call the goal: an **Achievement**. Something simple may require three outcome and have no drag, while something difficult may require seven outcome and have two drag. The outcome requirement is how much outcome is needed to reach a given achievement, and drag is a penalty on each attempt to earn outcome towards it. A drag of two means that the outcome of each roll counts as two less, so drags are rarely over 3 unless there are ways to circumvent them. 
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-===== Achievement ====== 
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-Once you have earned enough outcome to reach the achievement, its rules are called into play. This means achievements are rarely known, automatic things. An achievement in combat may be a "Death Stroke on Foe" but you still need to roll for the outcome of it, nothing is guaranteed. Instead, the only thing you are assured, is that even if the achievement resolves terribly, the rules of the situation will change (usually in your favor). 
obscurity.1327852721.txt.gz · Last modified: 2012/01/29 07:58 by JasonP