Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I really need to buy PDF's and save them into a memory stick

PDF's are great format for RPG's. Well, I prefer books, as you can see them, feel them and read them comfy in your bed. But what is good in PDF's that you can take them with you. Anywhere. You can stuck hundreds of RPG books in the size of your finger.

One thing I don't like in PDF's is that I have bought already that RPG book, and then again I should buy it again to get a PDF version of it. There are few bundled sets where you get also PDF after buying the book, but it is rare. Different case is if I first buy PDF, but I got several RPG books already bought, so it buggers me to buy them again to get kilobits on my hard drive. That sucks.

But anyways, I now have some spare time at work and I did read RPG Archive and got really, really inspired to do some NPC's. And I got those 1000 and 1 characters to do. So, I thought that yeah, I will do one, two or few of them.

Only problem is, that I am here at my work and my RPG books are at home. Hard to do characters without referral, meh. I could do one for Vampire: the Masquerade, as I can find character sheet to refer in internet and I remember how to share dots and what disciplines are, but I'd like to answer those character creation questions I don't remember. And my plan was to do a Nosferatu, so I'd also appreciate Clanbook Nosferatu for merits and flaws. So, no can do. Well, I could if I'd find both V:tM and Clanbook Nosferatu from Drive ThroughRPG or similar site and bought them. But I don't want to spend money to obtain two books just to make characters I have already bought (both as new btw if it matters).

I thought also making a jedi (why would I want to do space pilot, negotiator or such when I could do a JEDI) for Star Wars SAGA. I know basically how rules work and have read few pages from here and there, so I could for fun scrap a character for the game. But same problem as with Vampire. I got the book - at home - don't wanna buy another copy (well, different format but still) of it.

So, that basically sucks. I own many RPG's in book but not single of them in digital format. Freebies I have, even from commercial games (Witch Craft is free, as World of Darkness core was at the time).

So, there is a moral dilemma in copying a book. I could scan and print pages from my RPG books to use (you can print and copy for your own use amirite?) but doing this for my all books would be a pain in the butt. But there are torrents as someone has also done it. Torrents are illegal and violate copyrights though.
I clearly understand, that downloading a game as a torrent you don't own is morally unclear territory. Or if you don't plan to buy it. Well, if you aren't buying the book in the first hand, it doesn't make harm taking a peek inside it, but many people download illegal copies and then think they don't have to buy the actual books.

But in music and movie business I have heard, that those who download stuff the most also buy the most.

So, problem is, that if I have bought a book (in this case Vampire: the Masquerade, Clanbook Nosferatu and Star Wars SAGA) companies have had already money for the products from me. So if I want a PDF of them, I need to buy the products again. I could easily take a copies of them for my own use (or copy parts of them) but aswell I could just download them from internet to use. I know the format is different in book and digital media, but still, the content is same.
Checking the prices in Drive ThroughRPG I find that:
Vampire: the Masquerade (revised) is 14,98 money
Clanbook Nosferatu (1st edition what I own) costs 5 money.
And SW SAGA I couldn't find with quick find at all.

So, it would cost me roughly 20 money to create a Nosferatu character now. If I'd wait till home, I could do it for free (well not free as I have already bought the books for roughly 50 money total).

Piratism in internet is very gray zone for me. I kind of do appropriate it, if it does no harm for the company. In example if I would get a PDF of RPG I already own. But still, I could buy the PDF also, when company would have more profit from the product of my interest. But in the second hand, I am not going to buy those two Vampire books again as PDF, so White Wolf is not loosing anything.
Situation would be different, if for example I'd like to have Vampire: the Requiem (or any other game) and download it for free and never buy actual printed book or PDF. That would be stealing. But if I just take already made copy of it so I don't have to copy my book, is it that wrong?

So, now I don't have Vampire books or SW SAGA with me. And I won't buy them. And I won't download them free. I just have to wait to get home to do those darn characters. I am a good person now, I don't pirate the books I own. But I will not either buy PDF's of them as I already own them and usage of PDF's for those games would be limited.
Someone could think that if I bought PDF's now I could use them again and again with my computer, but I don't like buying stuff I already got. Instead buying those two Vampire books again for 20 money I would rather buy new product(s) I don't already own.

This sucks. Literally, if I was a Vampire.

[FS] Pregnant in space - could happen to anyone

When Chiasm met Sarwen and was introduced for the crew of old Vorox spaceship called "Dragon", she little knew how her life would change.

Everyone suspected, that Chiasm and outgoing, extrovert, helpful and charming Sarwen would end to be together, but Chiasm only felt Sarwen as a friend. No romantic feelings, but a good friend indeed.

But that mysterious, silent and introvert Ur-Ukar called Arpi (Scar in engl.) was something that catched her eye.

Space can be a lonely place. Even though you have your crew and friends, but lonely in a warm intimate way. Many do find comfort from courtisans in different spaceports or might ever get their one nights warmth after few drinks after bar at the motel. But that is just a moment, and after it loneliness is back.

Rarely crew members have intimidate relationships. They are co-workers, friends. And romance turned bad could ruin the mood in the spaceship. No one knows what happens inside cabins after a shift. But if something happens, it is kept as a secret. A moment of warmth with a person you know and after the comfort feelings pushed away to continue the work.

But sometimes someone catches your heart. You know it is wrong or hard. It wouldn't work. It would be too complicated. But if you cannot stop thinking another?

That's what happened between Chiasm and Arpi. A moment of lust. A moment of comfort and warmth. But that did not end there. Chiasm ended to be pregnant after that one night.

She did struggle long with her feelings to keep or not to keep the child. Half-breed to be. Mother human and father Ur-Ukar. She did ask Feala, the Ur-Obun priestess and healer for her opinion and seeked insight in her words. Priestess was strict that abortion would be murder but when Chiasm started to concider doing it in some clinic as just another anonymous customer, Feala had no option but to give child atleast proper end.

But Chiamsh hesitated. He and the father of child had a conversation. Ups and downs of having a baby. Raising it in as unstable enviroment as spaceship would be. And how would others in crew react. Arpi was against the abortion but was ready to bow in the will of mother.

They decided to talk to the crew, tell what's happened and they got acceptance. Even though they feared repressiveness crew was either supportive or accepting. Or  both. Decision was easy to make.

Chiasm will carry her unborn child to the birth, and crew of Dragon will have new crew member in nine months.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Fooling around with DnD + MGME

I took my DnD 3. Player's Handbook in purpose to make character for a fun. I didn't have printed character sheets so I decided to make character sheet for Excel. My girlfriend came to watch what I am doing and she got bored quite soon and asked me to show how that Mythic Game Master Emulator works. So I saved the file I was working on and opened GM emulator tool.

I tried to explain her showing both GME tool and MGME core book, but she did not quite understand how it works (I am bad at explaining stuff, 1pt flaw) so I told her let's try it out. As I was making DnD character sheet, I declared my character to be dwarf warrior. I told options for characters and suggested elf druid for my gf and she accepted it.

With GM emulator tool I rolled "details" to get inspiration for openin scene. Result was: Progress on 'Celebrating Past Victories': the Revelation of Nature. We decided, that it was some druidic holiday our elf druid was celebrating and dwarf was only companying her drinking ale at distance.
Are we only one there? "YES". So it's just dwarf and druid. Druid doing her celebration alone.
Are we in wilderness? "YES". Forest it is. We made a joke that druid girl had made a birch whisk used in sauna and is dancing around a birch tree.
Is there disturbance? "NO". Druid can do her stuff without disturbance, and when she is ready, dwarf warrior announces that he is out of ale and would appreciate a good pint. Druid nods her head and they head towards the town.
Is town close? "YES".
Disturbance?" EXCEPTIONAL NO" So, the town is close and absolutely nothing is happening on their way there. In town dwarf and elf decide to find a tavern and decide to try their luck in one of them.
Is there people in tavern? "EXCEPTIONAL NO" The tavern is absolutely deserted. No one is there so they decide to find another tavern.
Is next tavern empty? "NO" Situation there is a bit better. It is not full, but there are some people. They decide to sit there, and dwarf wants to take a table from the corner. Druid doesn't quite understand that, but dwarf explains how a good warrior never sits back not on the wall. That's for not being ambushed. Dwarf decides to take large jug of beer and asks druid what she wants. Druid has a bit strange taste and she wants mead. Dwarf pays them both.
Sipping our drinks we decided to ask GM details, and got answer An Insufficient Amount of Innovation, Dwarf Fighter. After short negotiation we decided that a fight broke out at tavern and someone involved in fight accidentally pushed dwarf warrior so he spilled his beer on his beard. As dwarven are short tempered we decided it's 50/50 change for dwarf to loose it and join the fight. Die tells the truth, and dwarf attacks. There was 2D3 person involved in a fight.
Are they fighting 'till the end? "NO". As it was not exceptional no, we decided that they take few good punch before stopping or fleeing, but aren't willing to get hurt.

This is where we did quit. We had no character sheets and I am not sure how rules work. This is second test with MGME and I think it is pretty fun tool to use. You have to use somewhat your own imagination as need a bit creativity, but it is fun to use.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Timetravelling squirrels with gadgets

In one forum there is a competition where you must write a game or an adventure. The topic for the competition is time and requirement is animal. At first I had hard time inventing something for the requirements, but then the idea hit me!


The forest is destroyed by human and animals living there are left homeless. Wise owl who escaped from human research institute came back wiser than ever. Wise owl developed time machine to travel in past to make a change. A company of couragous squirrels took the quest with aid of owl's gadgets.

So, the squirrels are in an adventure to prevent humans for destroying the forest.

This will be mini-game slash scenario for younger players. Mechanics will be easy using regular playing cards.

I haven't yet written a single word for his, but will take the challenge quite soon. This will be a blast.

Rules - examples or not?

I personally like when there are examples of rules in the rulebook. I think, that same time you read and try to digest the rules and after a new thing there is example how it works, it is faster and easier to learn when you actually see how that works. You might do few test rolls to try the mechanics, but if there are examples you see how the mechanics work while you read.

One quite recent example of this is Call of Cthulhu 6th edition. It was a while since I last time played it. Actually several years, almost a decade. I did remember the basics of the rules but didn't quite remember the insanity mechanics. Luckily, there was long example what explained everything from loosing minor amount of SAN to taking a small rest period in asylum. That example covered everything needed without need to read all the sanity rules. Really convient.

But now I'd like to know what you guys think about examples. Are they for good or for some reason bad? Share with me.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Got Dungeons and Dragons books

I have critisezed D&D in few posts. It is not a game for me, but meh, I am a rpg collector. And got this good opportunity to get two D&D books for my collection. So, here those are:

Dungeons & Dragons 3. Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. I am not sure, if Forgotten Realms is the best setting out there for D&D. I quess there are better basic fantasy settings, as those a bit more "weird" settings. But currently I am playing Baldur's Gate 1 with PC, and it is really a good game. So, I thought, that Forgotten Realms could be this basic adventurous fantasy setting for company my D&D.

Anyways, now I got it. I haven't read it and not sure will I anytime soon. I flipped it through and its quality is as high as in basic books. Layout is sweet and artwork, really, really great. It is pretty book. I thought it might be a bit thicker though, but less reading is good in this case. I am happy with this product.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual by Gary Gygax. I actually got AD&D 2nd edition Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, but I never owned the Monster Manual. They two looked orphan together, so I had to make a change for that. I tried to get AD&D MM 2nd edition, but it was already sold. So I thought that what ever, AD&D MM 1st edition is good enough to replace it. And I got a gap filled on my bookshelf.

I haven't read this either, but wow, some of the illustration is really... umh how would I say it. Impressive. One thing I noticed flipping it through, there is no exp value for monsters. But there are on some monsters pencil marks of exp value. That's a bit confusing, but maybe reading it clarifies it a bit. If someone can tell right away what's this experience thing here, I'd really appreciate it.

Does by the way anyone know what is the difference between 1st and 2nd editions of Monster Manual?

In general, I am happy with these two products.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

[MGME] Vanguard the investigator

With zero preparation I decided to finally try out Mythic Game Master Emulator, after reading about it again from rpg.net. (rpg.net search results)

I also found this really handy tool for it. *klick*

So, here is the short 4 scenes story I got:

Vanguard the investigator is sheltering from rain in his local pub drinking hot tea with whiskey. Bartender seemed to be a nice guy, even though a bit feminine in his pink scarf. Bar seems to be quite deserted, even if in one corner there is a couple. Woman is crying and it seems like she is leaving his man. Vanguard looks at the situation for the while before continues to fill his crossword. "That word, it's technology. Right there." Wrinkled finger is pointing out a word. Vanguard thanks and says: "Thank you for your help, but I can do this very well without help. Keeps my mind focused." Old man sneezes: "Focused, you say. For what?" Vanguard rises his eyes to see old mans wrinkled face. Wrinkles, what look more like ruins of a warzone. Vanguard folds his magazine and puts his pen in his jacket's pocket and asks: "Mister, did you have something..." Man grins: "I have something, what might interest you." "Tell me more," Vanguard courages old man. Old man grins: "It's cold and wet outside. Drink might be nice."

Scene 2

Vanguard carries two whiskeys. One for himself, another for the old man. "I prefer drinking alone. Actually, I wasn't even drinking. Just keeping rain," Vanguard explains trying to get old man to tell what his business is. Old man takes a sip of his copper brown drink and says: "Have you ever heard of the book. The book of Nazhalash?" Vanguard thinks hard. "I suppose no. Doesn't sound like something you get from the bookstore for a dime, does it?" Old man shakes his head violently. "No, definately no. The book, it contains many mysteries. Mysteries of the spirits." Vanguard takes long gulp of whiskey and rises his eyebrow. "Spirits, you say?" Old man nods his head. "That crossword of yours, it's in Parapsychology magazine." Vanguard nods his head. "So you interested?" Vanguard thinks and decides, that he doesn't have better things to do right now. "Okay old man. Tell me more." "Gobin, the name is Gobin."

Scene 3

"But the book, it is not easy to get," old man Gobin tells. Vanguard doesn't look that surprised: "Well, I didn't except it would be. I am not even sure, why I am listening to this. You just came and talk about this spirit-book or something for a stranger." Gobin curls his eyebrows. "Not interested then," he gets up to leave. Vanguard watches as he leaves making decision. To follow or leave that old guy in his own peace. He seems to be a bit dusty in addikt. In the other hand, there hasn't been anything interesting lately, so Vanguard decides to follow. He leaves few changes for the bartender and rushes to catch the old man: "Old fellow, uh, Gobin. Wait!" Gobin doesn't stop, but slows his walk so Vanguard easily catches him.

Scene 4

After walking a while Vanguard starts to feel a bit irritated about getting soaked when the warmth of whiskey escapes his body. “Where are we heading,” he asks from Gobin. “To your house?” Gobin shakes his head: “No, not to my place.” Vanguard watches him: “You have a place, right?” Old man stops: “I don't understand why you ask that. What does it matter, as I am not taking you there? Would it make me less reliable if I was a homeless man?” Vanguard says hastily: “Absolutely no. Where are we going then?” Old Gobin continues his walk: “To old bookstore.” This suits Vanguard. If what ever this old fool man has becomes nonsense, he could buy himself something interesting instead.

That was actually pretty cool! I did not decide what game to play, or didn't ever create a character. Just wanted to play it with quickly but wow, it totally sucked me in!
There might be continuum for Vanguard's adventure, who know.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Dreams of after apocalypse

Everyone knows what happens if you concentrate on something before going to sleep. Yes, your night is full of it. I call this the tetris-effect (have you in you mind put those darn blocks all the night?).

Thanks for starting to write my post-apocalyptic setting last night before going to sleep for first, I couldn't get sleep. Too much ideas going in my mind. When I finally fell asleep, what do I dream about? The fluff of my system. Basically my night was pretty restless.

But there is a good part also in it. Okay, I am tired, but I am also full of ideas and I cannot wait my working day to end to get to write them down. I just wish I had some plug-in recorder to put cord into the socket on my temple and just kinda print all stuff out during the day and only edit it afterwards. I get confused when starting to write. Don't know where to start, want to write several ideas down before I forget them and so on.

I was thinking also to rush into the challenge of writing it in english. My grammar in english is not perfect, but I have a clever solution for that. There might be grammar mistakes in the text I will write, but it can be explained in the setting. I will write my whole roleplaying game as it would have been written in the game world by an character. And for the setting reason, that character isn't that good in grammar. So, I can write all the fluff, setting and rules in not so perfect grammar, and it would suit the game. Clever me.

I also add new label here: Project After Destruction, so You can easily follow how this is making progress.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Writing post-apocalyptic

I started to write my post-apocalyptic setting. It is fun, as I have made the rules already, just to let imagination flow and write ideas down. I don't need to think rules at all at this point, I can just write.

I was thinking, what would be my special catch of this setting. It is not that something has happened, and world is ruined (that is included though, as post-apocalyptic heh) but how it happened. Well, there's the twitch. People don't know what, how and why did happen to cause this apocalypse. There are several theories through from religion to war to science. But there is no proof of what happened.

I didn't want to put this setting too far to future. And because the destruction happened, game master can easily take mp3-player and make it a valuable artifact. Also you can find things to clear the blur of past of what happened.

In the focus are these vaults where people woke up without memory of why they were there. Only memories of world before awakening is what they have learned from the books they've find already. I focus on one vault.

Special part here is, that I write the manual as in diary. Everything in the manual including items list, rules, history, setting etc. will be written like a character in the setting would have written it. So, you don't read rules manual, but a collection of insider's view from the world of post-apocalypse. Really fun to write stuff this way.

Zombies are cool, but meh, including zombies would be so predictable. But do you know what would be more predictable? Mutants! There will be mutants, who are like zombies. There will be mutants, who will be more organized and somehow intelligent yet cannibalistic. There will be mutants, who would be like you and me but avoided by others like plague or leper. Oh, and you need random charts for mutations, don't you?

Item's list will be fun to write also. You don't need that many pre-written items, as stuff are rare. I will give game master a freedom to look around the room he is gaming and saying: "In the ruins of old gas station, you find a plastic thing what leaves markings on the paper as you draw them. That would be really valuable, especially with the peace of paper you found earlier." It's boring to collect artifacts of alien origin or treasures of golden statues and gems, but finding a mp3-player, toolpack and 10 cans of dog food is a real treasure!

What will characters do then? They can be adventurers finding other vaults or doing quests to find new treasures and artifacts. They could be soldiers or mercenaries fighting robbering clans or killing mutants. They can be merchants finding and trading items and making new trade routes. What would you like to be in post-apocalyptic world?

This game will be using some sort of variation of my YDIN game. Not sure will it use Mini with only D6's or Generic with D6's, D8's and D10's. Unfortunately, as you dear readers know, my english sucks, so this will be in finnish.

Post-apocalyptic, eveyone has seen that one already

I want to write my first rpg supplement for my own rules set. But now the genre or setting I'd like to write the most is post-apocalyptic one. But there is one problem.

World is full of post-apocalyptic stuff. Movies, games, roleplaying games, books, comics and so on. Why should I write yet another post-apocalyptic setting? Someone might say, that if it has an unique twist, it is worth it. But meh, if there is no special twist or something new?

I mean, I am not sure do I have any new ideas. I am not sure could I bring something new into post-apocalyptic genre. Or do something better than it's already done.

Why would I like to write one then? Well, for my own accomplishment. I realized thinking this urge of mine, that if I got inspiration and motivation for post-apocalyptic stuff then I should do it. It wouldn't be good to write a setting only to please other players if you don't have passion for it. I think setting you have seen dozens of times might be better if writer wanted to really do it, than a setting what was written only to sell out.

So, should I think that I write what I want to write, even if it's nothing new. Or should I try to find something what is interesting to greater masses and try to squeeze something new... in cost of my own passion?

Even though this post-apocalyptic dream of mine would be dull, it is writing. And I suppose everything you write down will advance you in some direction. No writed thing is a waste of time, is it?

Retro time

I have wanted for some time do it retro style. Luckily, there is plenty of OD&D retro clones available, most of them for free. So I had just to google some options through and pick one up what I liked the most.

Mazes and Minotaurs is good, I have heard. And it looked nice. Only problem was though, it was quite big book with two separate parts for player's and gamemaster. So I decided to skip that for it's amount of read.

A little more digging and I found Swords & Wizardry. 118 pages so not that bad. And spell lists take a great slice out of page count. Illustration is fun and oldschool and what I quickly flipped it through, rules seemed to be really simple.

This is my choice. Now I just need to learn it and learn the differences between S&W and D&D so I can see how I could use D&D material with S&W. Do I need to convert it and is it simple.

Maybe some nice saturday evening my player's character wont be this space smuggler slash thief in love with alien who she is pregnant to (yep, current situation in Fading Suns campaign), but a warrior or a mage who just want's to... gain xp and better stuff. Hell, that would be cool!

So, starting to read S&W.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

White Wolf swapping, got H:tR

I am not that into sourcebooks, I like to collect main rulebooks more. But White Wolf is exception, especially old World of Darkness series. That is currently only games line I like and want to collect also source books.

Some time ago I got a nice deal of Werewolf: the Apocalypse sourcebooks, I posted earlier (link to post).

Last week I saw a sales advertisement at roolipelit.net about some White Wolf stuff. There was also Hunter: the Reckoning I have been wanting for ages. I didn't want to put money for it (well, I would have, but my girlfriend doesn't allways appreciate me buying lots of rpg stuff) so I thought I could exchange some Werewolf: the Apocalypse items for it. I know, that I want to collect WoD stuff, but still, I appreciate main books more, so decided to offer Project Twilight and Pentex!: Monkeywrench for it.

We made a deal. I lost two W:tA sourcebooks, but got Hunter: the Reckoning. Even if I lost something I like to collect, I am quite happy, because I got core book instead.

So now, I have additional oWoD mainbook in my collection. Yay! I quess I'll post more about this game after I have read it.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Creating a character with newbie

I have this internet friend I met playing one mmorpg. Even after we both basically quit playing it we have been keeping touch via Facebook and messenger.

So, he knows that I am a table top roleplayer and I quess everything he knows about playing roleplaying games what aren't computer based is from me. Same time I am testing my own system YDIN N6 Mini so I asked him, would he like to make a character for it. He agreed.

I have been sending my system for various people I know over the internet who do play roleplaying games, but I thought it might be interesting to try to create a character with a person with no experience in actual roleplaying. So, here is what we did:

I told him basics of creating a character, that characters have values in different attributes. Basically same than in computer games. But in tabletop roleplaying games all attributes aren't necessarily needed for performing action typed things, like usually computer rpg's tend to go.
Then I told him, that this is just a basic system without a world, so he could do any kind of character he would like to do. I gave several character concept examples from pizza deliver boy to soldier. He chose to do a chinese plumber. First I was a bit confused, that does he think p&p roleplaying is a joke and he doesn't take this serious but in the other hand, it is not ment to be serious and I just wanted to try to create a character with a person who hasn't done a single pen and paper character in his whole life. So chinese plumber it is then.

Then I explained him attributes and what they mean and stand for. I also explained point buy system, how it works and what it means. I also told what it means to have high or low scores in certain attributes. This is how he divided them:

ATTRIBUTES:
Power: 3
Body: 2
Dexterity: 5
Perception: 5
Intelligence: 3
Charisma: 2

He spots the poop, is agile, but not that big in frame. And not the charismatic person in the party. And he got this and the meaning of values in the different characteristics.

Next thing in character creation list is to calculate hitpoints, wounds, initiative and defence which was quite easy. Just tell that hitpoints for damage, wounds how much serious damage you can take, initiative in what phase of the turn you act and defence paired with skills dodge or parry. Simple.

After that it was turn for skills. I described skills and their use similarly to attributes. They tell what your character can do, and how well he can do it. I also told that you can try to attempt to do something without a skill, but it ofcourse is harder. He understood this and started to divide them points gettings this list of skills:

SKILLS:
Firearms S(mall) 1
Melee 2
Hand-to-hand combat 1
Dodge 2
Parry 1
Mechanics 2
Burglary 1
Focus 1
Heavy vehicles 2
Boats 2
Survival 2
Computers 1
General knowledge 2

I didn't question why he did choose these skills, because I think they made sense in character. So we moved on. Next thing to do was divide 3 points to hobbies. Hobbies are skills out of skill list. Something small to flesh out your character. I thought that hobbies are like chess, gambling, horseback riding, cooking, knitting and so on, but he came up with these:

HOBBIES:
Reading Small Red Book (what's that in english, Mao's book or something) 2 points
Inventing Political Slogans 1 points

That got me confused for a second. But hey, this is a rich of person who has never played. He can unintentionally twist the rules, or think out of the box. I have to admit, that this was pretty cool and indicated that he was committed to this character creation and actually was thinking about it in this process. So, this far we have chinese plumber who is obvious and quite fanatic communist.

Next step was gift. Another thing in character creation player should invent himself (in this demo). This took a bit longer time, even if I gave him few examples of gifts (sight of an eagle, booze head). He came up with these:

GIFTS:
HVAC-knowledge 1p
Cleansing 2p

This guy knows his job and he is born natural to it. Pretty cool, that when he got this concept of a plumber he actually is writing and imagining and creating it. I thought that starter would like to create warrior or agent or something like that, but this is quite cool and I was excited about it.

Last touch was inventory. In my demo you determine inventory based on your skills. Every 2 point skill is worth of lesser item realted to the skill and every 3 point skill is a major item. So here is his item list he had to invent himself:

ITEMS:
Discount coupon for Mao's little red book volume 2
Monkey wrench
Leather gloves
Rubber boat
Keys to Scania R730
Leatherman
Encyclopedia (pocket size)

Items were quite innovative. Discount coupon? That's cool. Quite useless as it is, but it flesh out the character. Monkey wrench is quite obvious for a plumber who takes his job serious as is Leatherman. Leather gloves are cool, and could be used in work also even if I think rubbery ones could be a bit more useful. If these leather ones aren't used for... brawling. Rubber boat was fun and can be used in sewers. He has skill heavy vehicle on level 2, so he cannot own his own truck but hey, he could have keys for his working truck right? That was really, really innovative.

Conclusion. My friend Lanttu understood this character creation process very well. There were some obscurity from time to time, but I blame my skills of explanation. And I quess this was first time he read the book, or parts of it.
I think he got the idea pretty well. I know this wasn't the easiest character creation available, as in few places you had to use your own imagination to fill the empty spots. But he did it. With some clever twist.

To, this is Ta Hun Kwai, chinese plumber who is obviously fanatic about communism. He is good at what he is doing.

This was fun. Thank you Lanttu for taking part to this.

Now I cannot stop imagining about urban legends about alligators in sewers... What would our chinese plumber say about that?