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Sep. 23rd, 2006 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bryantSpirit of the Century (which is cool, buy it if you like pulp gaming) has an interesting character generation system that reminds me a tad of Lexicon. Hm, Wikipedia has failed yet again; there's no page for Lexicon. That one, I might actually fix. Anyway.
Spirit's character generation is a group activity that ensures pre-play connections between characters. I think it can be played out in blog entries. Let's try it.
Comment here with:
A concept. Pulpy concept. It's the 30s.
A name. Pulpy name. You know.
Then write up your character's youth, from birth to age 14. (You were born in 1900, by the by.) Talk about your character's family's circumstances, the size of your character's family, how well he or she gets along with his or her family. Where is your character from? What region? How was he or she educated? What were your character's friends like?
Also, write down two Aspects which are tied into the events of the character's childhood or the character's upbringing. What's an Aspect? It's a tag that helps explain who a character is; it's stuff you wanna see in the game. "Aspects can be relationships, beliefs, catchphrases, descriptors, items, or pretty much anything else that paints a picture of the character." Quick Witted, "You'll Never Catch Me Alive," Raised by Wolves, Champion of the Golden Temple, etc., etc., etc.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-23 03:21 pm (UTC)Concept: Drugstore Cowboy Actor whose serials are the Real Deal.
Name: Colt Montana
I'll fill in the rest later when I have time (about to run out to the Phantom Gourmet Food Festival! Woot!)
So anyways, SotC is worth it, eh? I have to admit, it was not so much the price tag that caused me to balk, but the page count... is it really super crunchy rules? Or is much of the book flavor?
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Date: 2006-09-23 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 04:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 05:39 pm (UTC)Here's a brutally frank question- the $50 hardcover... is the binding high quality? Is it def. worth the addtional cost? I ask because the binding of some hardcover gaming books (Castle Falkenstein leaps to mind) have disintegrated over the years, and I take really good care of my books.
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Date: 2006-09-24 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-23 03:44 pm (UTC)Maggie "Red" McConnell, Fastest Race Car Driver in the West!
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Date: 2006-09-25 02:36 pm (UTC)The minute the baby could roll over, she was trying to crawl. When she could crawl, all she wanted to do was walk. Walking meant she was just this close to running. By ten, she was a miniature hellion in her brother’s cast-off clothes, with a tangle of red hair matted around her sharp little face. Ann despaired of the girl ever going to church, school, or into marriage. Maggie, being Maggie, was oblivious.
Riding horses on her cousin’s farm outside town was okay, but the animals were too slow. Wagons ambled. She watched the first airplanes fly over Wichita with her jaw hanging open and a look of awe on her face, but that wasn’t quite right either. What did inspire her were Wichita’s wealthier citizens zipping around in their new automobiles.
They were perfect. Well, not perfect. That’s where her father came in. Brian was widely known as a man who could get any machine running, and probably improve it in the process. Maggie suddenly found herself more fascinated by her father’s workshop than by baseball, exploring places she shouldn’t be, and making her mother worry. After a few weeks of handing her father tools and looking over his shoulder, he turned and looked at his youngest, wildest child.
“I’ll teach you, if you do three things,” he said. Maggie was nodding before the words even came out of her father’s mouth. “Get your schooling, go to Mass, and stop making your mother cry.”
“Done,” she said, sticking out her tiny hand to seal the deal. Three years later, she still keeps to the bargain, and so does he, with one exception. On her fifteenth birthday, he promises to begin teaching her to drive.
Aspects:
Faster is always better.
If it’s broken, it can be fixed.
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Date: 2006-09-23 04:44 pm (UTC)Lara is the daughter of immigrants who moved to the states from Eastern Europe while she was still a girl. Born in Poland, her family name is really Laramzeski but was Americanized by her parents when she went to school. Her family lived in the city in Poland and her first few years were spent in the fractionalized and poor areas of a city undergoing industrial revolution. The only child of an uncharacteristically small family, Lara spent a lot of time on her own finding entertainment in her own imaginings. Her infancy and first five years passed with the kind of erratic ups and downs that come of living hand to mouth. When her father had work, and pockets were flush, food was plentiful and the mood within the apartment was one of ease and cheer. When her father was unemployed, the hollow ache of an empty stomach was a constant reminder and life within their small apartment was tense and fraught with argument.
When Lara was five, her parents had managed to scrape up enough money to buy steerage on a ship going to the Americas. "The streets are paved with gold," her father boasted to his friends. The crossing as cramped and lacking much in the way of ammenities. As third class steerage passengers, Lara only managed to glimpse the ocean vistas on brief visits above decks when the fashionable passengers were unlikely to be offended by the sight of the poor. While many others found the seemingly featureless expanses intimidating or alarming, Lara thrilled at them. The ship reached New York harbor and Lara's first view of her new world was a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty through a porthole.
Life in New York City was not quite the egalitarian paradise her father had expected. The streets were not paved with gold. Sometimes, one could barely see the cobblestones for the muck. They ended up in a poor, Polish neighborhood while both her parents worked in one of the many factories. Although her father became rather embittered to find their circumstances not much improved, her mother was determined to see that Lara had a chance for something more. She worked two jobs to make sure that Lara could be educated in a private academy for girls. At the age of 7, Lara moved into the boarding school in a much swankier section of town. As part of her tuition, Lara had to help in the kitchens for meal times, and between that and her education, she quickly found all of her time swallowed up. Although her mother managed to visit every month, she only saw her father at holidays. This isolation from her family allowed her to see just how much all the working was wearing them both down. Determination was Lara's keyword and she set her nose to the grindstone, intending to make the most of this education her mother had bought for her.
The next seven years were spent in intensive lessons in deportment, as well as a more progressive education in bookkeeping, literature, history, and science. Lara grew into a lovely, polished young woman with barely a trace of her original Polish accent. She took care in her presentation, making sure her sable hair was carefully coiffed and that her appearance offered no opportunity for complaint or objection. Though she had the same education as the monied girls who attended the academy, she was never allowed to forget that she was a pretender only gaining the veneer of the well-to-do. Lara, like the few other scholarship students, was isolated from becoming true friends with most of the rest of the student population. She did manage to form a close friendship with another scholarship student, a Russian girl (Anna) with claims of distant royal blood, and with a regular student (Merilee) who was the daughter of a railroad tycoon out west. Thick as thieves, the three of them were constantly into some trouble or another, but as they all excelled in their academics, and Anna and Lara were scrupulous about seeing to their duties being complete, and with Merilee's father's money to smooth over ruffled feathers, the girls managed to remain at the Academy.
Aspects:
"Determination Can Buy What Money Can't"
Adaptable
no subject
Date: 2006-09-23 04:46 pm (UTC)Lara Laramy, Girl Friday :)
Edward St Raphael
Date: 2006-09-24 01:39 am (UTC)Edward St Rapahel, Occult Super-Spy
Born to a British diplmat Edward grew up in an Empire wher the sun just might have bee starting to set. His father's postings in Africa, the Middle East and India led to a boy familiar wih many cultures, lanuages and most import different ways of viewing the world. His fatehr always semed to be poed to the weirder bits of the Empire and young Edward was exposed to thuggee remanants, zombie-plagues and djinn speaking from wells.
Each new place meant new friends, new compaiots so its a good thing younf Edward made friends so easily. This included a group of circus folks in India that he spent a gloriou six months with.
Aspects:
Lexicon on Wikipedia
Date: 2006-09-24 01:58 am (UTC)Using as a game in itself
Date: 2006-09-24 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 04:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 11:34 am (UTC)Concept: A Science Hero, cured of serious injuries at a young age, and intensively trained and educated since.
Dr. Nicholas "Nick" Smith, Man of Science and Action.
11 June 1904: Doctor Maxwell buries his emotions as he examines the child. Fate would have been kinder to have killed the boy with the rest of his family when their train derailed four days earlier.
Leading the woman from Children's Services out of the room he finally answers her question. "Yes, he will live. You say he has no family left? It will be hard being orphaned and crippled at his age. Heaven forgive us for saving him."
20 May 1906: The headmaster welcomed the gentleman warmly. It would not do to offend one of their best donors. "The Phoenix Foundation School and Home for Orphans welcomes you Mister Smith. It is always a pleasure to meet one of our patrons. What may we do for you?"
"When I lost my wife and child, I wanted some good to come from my pain. My first donation to your came on what would have been Thomas's second birthday..."
The headmaster nodded as the gentleman seemed to become lost in thought. "A grand birthday present. These children have no family. But the kindness of strangers feeds them and gives them an education. If you would like to see more of the school, I am sure they children would be eager to thank you for your generosity."
"Actually there is someone I would like to see. A friend of mine came here last month and told me about a most extraordinary little boy..."
18 June 1906: James Smith smiled to Nicholas as he lifted him from the little wheeled chair onto the table. "Soon child, you will walk again, and you will do much more." Holding the boy's hand while the anesthesiologist covered Nicholas's mouth and nose with a rubber mask. Fitting his own surgical mask in place he turns to the rest of his team. "We have much to do, shall we start?"
Nicholas Smith's birth name is unknown. It is believed that he was the child of an immigrant family, packed with many others in one of the cheapest cars of the west bound train when disaster struck. The train left the tracks right before a bridge, dooming many of the passengers to drown. When help arrived Nicholas was found only inches from the water with the remains of half a rail car pinning his legs.
Orphaned he survived and was lucky enough to be placed in one of the better orphanages in the area. Paralyzed from the waist down he spent most of his time studying rather than playing. These two things eventually brought him to the attention of Doctor James Smith. Impressed with the way Nicholas had not given up, James decided to make use of his most advanced and experimental treatments to help the boy. Through surgery and a combination of experimental medicines and therapy, Nicholas was able to stand again before the end of his first year with Dr. Smith. The Doctor also saw to it that Nicholas had tutors to continue his eager quest for knowledge and soon enrolled him in a local private school.
By the time he's fourteen Nick is equally comfortable hanging out with his fellow students, or a group of engineers and scientists. He could have already graduated from high school if he wished, but he doesn't want to go to college quite yet. The homework now is easy enough it gives him time to do his own studies.
Aspects:
Body perfected by science - The therapy that followed the operation has continued ever since. What started with the struggle to let him walk again has shifted to making sure he is in peak physical shape.
There was an article about that in last months journal - Nick is not an ignorant jock. Before the surgeries he had little else to do but read. Afterwards he has continued to study for the joy of learning itself.
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Date: 2006-09-24 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 10:37 pm (UTC)Spirit of the Century caught my attention pretty quickly, and now I'm just waiting for the money to pick up more than the preview pdf (*grumble* car *grumble* check engine light *grumble*).
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Date: 2006-09-25 12:23 pm (UTC)-- placeholder since I'm in Belgium and will need to spend some more time thinking about this. Perhaps over the next couple of days; things have finally slowed down that I can think about other stuff.