Character Creation Challenge 2025 Overview

I got a wild hair this year, plus I need something to keep me busy in the evenings while I’m traveling, so I’m going to take a shot at the 2025 Character Creation Challenge. Basically: one TTRPG character per day. Details here.

Then I missed the first day because I got very distracted by Trenque Lauquen. No regrets. That’s okay, I can play a bit of catchup! Completed entries are tagged as character-creation-2025.

Sorry about the relatively frequent posts in your RSS feed. It’s OK, it’s likely there won’t be more than ten of these.

[Crossposted from Population: One; go here for the original post.]

CCC 01: Tunnels & Trolls

Day one is Tunnels & Trolls, in honor of my very first RPG. I’m using the Deluxe rules, no complications. Stats are 3d6 in order and all that jazz. So what do we get?

Strength 12
Constitution 5
Dexterity 8
Speed 11
Luck 11
Intelligence 9
Wizardry 8
Charisma 18+10 = 28

Phew, that’s poor. Except Charisma, which is ridiculous. This particular version of the rules allows you to roll and add when you get triples, so when I rolled an 18 on Charisma, I rolled again and added. If I’d gotten triples on the second roll I would have kept on rolling and adding. It’s ludicrous and it means my yet unnamed character starts at level 2, since level is determined by the highest first digit of any stat.

Charisma, alas, is strictly a social interaction stat so Kevin here is going to be one of those people who gets by on charm. I don’t think he really realizes it, though. He thinks he’s a bold warrior type. Quirkily enough, warriors get +1d6 per level on any melee weapon damage so Kevin will be a bit less hopeless than he would be without his spectacular Charisma.

I am briefly tempted to make him an elf to multiply his Charisma by 1.5. That’d actually also boost his magical stats to something plausible for a wizard… but nah, let’s lean into the flaws, it’s more interesting.

What are his personal adds (which are effectively a combat bonus)? One point for each of Strength, Luck, Speed, and Dexterity that are above average… so no adds at all.

Back to dice. Randomly generating his height and weight, I discover that Kevin is 5’7″ and a skinny 150 pounds. He starts with 110 gold, which should be easy to spend. The weapons lists are not the weird joy they were in Fifth Edition, but they’re still pretty cool. Kevin’s limitation is his Dexterity, which will vastly limit the weapons he can use. For example, he’s too clumsy to handle a medium sword: if he wants a blade, it’s a short sword or nothing.

The mini-max choice would be a medium pick of some kind, which does 5d6 and requires a mere 12 Strength and 8 Dexterity. It just doesn’t seem flashy enough. An axe could be cool but he’s under by 1 point on both Str and Dex. It’s fine: 55 gold goes to a small sabre, which is flashy and does 3d6 of damage (plus 2d6 for his level). Another 50 gold gets him a full suit of light leather armor, which will take 3 hits for him. Puny but that’s life as a new T&T character. His last five gold is exactly the cost of the “basic delver’s package,” which is a cheap backpack, a waterskin, some chalk, and so on.

Since Tunnels & Trolls experience points are spent on improving stats, there’s hope of a substantial improvement in combat damage someday. And the one advantage to low stats is that they’re cheap to improve.

Finally, a bit more choice: I get to pick a talent! Cool. Actually two talents because he’s level 2. These are sort of like skills or areas of knowledge. Kevin’s first talent is Culture Knowledge: bars. He’s good at those; he understands the typical patrons, he knows a lot of bartenders, that kind of thing. His second talent is, let’s see, Outdoorsmanship — it’ll come in handy now and again and reminds me that Kevin isn’t useless. Just… oddly shaped. I suspect he learned it camping with his father before he grew up and glowed up.

I’m not sure who told Kevin he had a future as an adventurer. Maybe people just hate to disappoint him and tell him it’s a bad idea. Regardless, there he is: bold, stupid, and absolutely the life of any party. He’s going to wind up as one of those characters whose success depends on how well I can sweet talk the GM.

[Crossposted from Population: One; go here for the original post.]

CCC 02: Mothership

Mothership gets to be my second character because a pal of mine wants to playtest a scenario sometime this year. I won’t use this character for the purpose — at the table, I’d rather make PCs with everyone else around — but it’ll familiarize me with the rules a bit.

Stats come first. This is another one where you roll stats in order, using 6d10 this time. I get:

Strength: 21
Speed: 32
Intellect: 41 (31 + 10 from my class)
Combat: 30

So clustering around the mean, sure. Interestingly I just noticed that the character sheet I downloaded says I should roll 2d10+25 for each stat, which must be a change from the initial rules. Well, I’ve got the initial rules so I’m using them and will cope.

I feel like playing a scientist; that’ll be my class. That gives me a +10 to Intellect, keen. My saves are:

Sanity: 40
Fear: 25
Body: 25
Armor: 35 (30 + 5 from gear)

Note that stat checks and saves are just roll under on 1d100. I sense plenty of exciting failure in this dude’s future.

Also my character — let’s call him Sal, he’s a xenobiologist who specializes in developing useful new drugs from alien lifeforms — deals with stress and panic by, um, freaking out people nearby when he fails a Sanity Save. I think he talks too much because he’s used to lab situations where communication is more important.

I get to choose some skills now. As a Scientist, I pick two of several basic skills, then spend 3 points. I’m taking Biology and Hydroponics as my basic Trained skills — that gives me +10% on their skill rolls. So 50% base, not so bad. Expert skills cost 2 points per and Master skills cost 3 points. Xenobiology is a Master skill, that’s a bummer. Let me revise a little: Sal wants to be a xenobiologist, but isn’t there yet. Thus, I spend 2 points on Genetics (a prerequisite for Xenobiology). If my GM will let me hold a point and spend it on the Expert skill Botany when I earn another point, I’m doing that. Otherwise I’m buying Scavenging.

Actually, no, I’m just buying Scavenging. Let’s be simple here. I get 2 skill points when I level up after the first session so I can go to Botany immediately. Xenobiology is a long ways away; that’s OK! Gotta have dreams.

Gear is super-easy, because Mothership is all about getting right down to play. There are four standard loadouts and you pick one. Sal gets Examination: a scalpel, a tranq pistol, pain pills, a diagnostic scanner, stuff like that. I also get a randomly selected trinket and patch: Sal has some kind of token, let’s call it a challenge coin, with “Is Your Morale Improving” written on it and a cool patch depicting a Fun Meter. The Fun Meter’s needle is in the Bad Time zone. I think Sal’s morale is not improving.

Sal has 20 credits, rolled on 5d10. I guess I could gotten a much better roll for starting credits if I selected gear piecemeal but it’s gonna be a long month, let’s not do that. His hazard suit boosts his Armor save by 5%; his tranq pistol does no damage but can knock the target unconscious. I bet it works very well on xenos. The stun baton does some damage along with a chance of unconsciousness but you kinda gotta be next to someone to use a stun baton on them so I know where Sal’s instincts lead.

Finally, secondary stats:

Stress: 2
Resolve: 0
Max Health: 42

In theory I’m supposed to pick a name at this point but I’m too much of a filthy storygamer to wait until now. Good luck, Sal, you’re gonna need it.

[Crossposted from Population: One; go here for the original post.]