#Roleplaying Character Creation

[legionofmyth]

Forbidden Lands - Your Adventurer

Ready to forge your hero in Forbidden Lands? 🎲 Our video explains the character creation process of this dark fantasy tabletop RPG by Free League. Get the inside scoop to kickstart your adventure! Watch now! 🛡️🗡️ #TTRPG #ForbiddenLands #CharacterCreation

Forbidden Lands – Core Game A Simple Rescue – (Intro Adventure) Master the art of character creation in Forbidden Lands, the dark fantasy tabletop RPG by Free League. Learn key steps to start your adventure! Ready to craft your epic hero in Forbidden Lands? In this video, we break down the character creation process of this immersive tabletop RPG by Free League Publishing. From choosing your kin…

[prokopetz]

While I agree with the sentiment that having a character creation schema that doubles as an OC incubator is a cardinal virtue of any tabletop RPG, I think it's important to bear in mind that focusing on relatable identities and clear motivations and evocative personal histories is only one possible way of achieving that. Another is having a bunch of goofy rules toys and big stupid random tables that both encourage and facilitate creating some sort of Fucking Creature.

[thryth-gaming]

How to be a Werewolf (MotW)

How to be a Werewolf is a webcomic by Shawn Lenore centered around the experiences of a woman who was bitten by a werewolf when she was five years old and has spent much of her life dealing with how to control her wolf-side to make sure she doesn't hurt anyone. It's a great comic and when it drops (usually Tuesday and Wednesday, sometimes only one of those two) it is one of the highlights of my week. It's also one of those stories that really hits that slice-of-life alongside adventure type stories I love so much and which inspired the Mundane Monstrosities team playbook.

This write up uses material from:

the Hardcover edition of the core Monster of the Week book:

The Initiate hunter playbook

The Mundane hunter playbook

No Limits

Use Magic

Trust your Gut

The Tome of Mysteries supplement:

The Searcher hunter playbook

No Limits

Trust Your Gut

The upcoming Slayer's Survival Kit supplement:

The Mundane Monstrosities team playbook

The Changeling hunter playbook

So... it only feels right to do a build of the group as a Monster of the Week hunter team. However, one of the problems of doing this is that How to be a Werewolf has a LOT of characters and MotW is usually best with around 3-4 players. That said, one of the level-up advancements is to create a second hunter to play alongside your own. So that could be part of it.

As a note, to be honest, How to be a Werewolf doesn’t follow the same story structure that MotW series usually use. Instead of a series of short dangers, HtbaW instead has extended, ongoing arcs and troubles. But this is why it is an inspiration rather than a direct one to one conversion.

Anyway.... I'm going to do them as they are at the start, which will still involve some spoilers, but not the biggest ones. I considered having Marin as one of the characters, but decided to keep the focus around Malaya. So the characters I'm building are:

Malaya, The Changeling

Vincent, The Mundane

Elias, The Initiate

Charlene, The Searcher

I'm also going to give characters two level-ups and the Team playbook a single improvement to account for some of the early strips.

First, let's go ahead and start with the Team Playbook.

Walters Pack - Mundane Monstrosities

Three's a few team playbooks aimed at representing a case where all or most of a team are supernatural people in one form or another. Most of them written by me, all of them from the new Slayer's Survival Kit which has been on pre-order a bit and is going into sale sometime in summer:

Escaped Experiments (me) - representing a group of people who were experimented on and escaped a sinister Project that wants to reclaim them. - Definitely doesn't fit the Walters pack.

Coven (me) - a collection of supernatural beings who have made a vow to fight evil, explicitly designed to allow multiple people to play the same type of supernatural being, like being a pack of werewolves. - The Walters pack doesn't go out of their way like this.

Good Monsters (Michael Sands) - a collection of monsters who all try to keep each other in check and supported, trying to live their best lives. - Doesn't really describe the series because most of the characters don’t struggle with being a danger to humanity.

Mundane Monstrosities (me) – a collection of people who have normal, everyday lives, but also happen to have various supernatural abilities. It’s basically slice-of-life interrupted by occasional danger. – And this is what I’m going with.

For style, I’m going to go with the top of the list “Life, Interrupted” which means that at the end of each game system, the players would ask “were we able to enjoy some normal life?” which definitely sounds a bit like the theme of the story in the comic.

Something else the Mundane Monstrosity asks the players to do is set what kind of community the characters come from. And I'm going with "Weird Town".

For enemies, at the start, the team enemy is certainly Connie Greensmith, but on a more general nature, I’d say the overall enemy of the team is “generational trauma”. And for allies, I’m going with The Ross Pack.

For the initial team move I’m going to go with too normal to be weird meaning that most people overlook them when they do or talk about something weird, like magic or werewolves. Moving on to the initial two points of assets, I’m going to go with borrowing innocent front from the Suburban Watch Group team playbook and then I’m adding a clubhouse from Mundane Monstrosities. So they have both a regular business (the coffee shop) and a private location to hang out (the Walters house).

Also, as a note, each character will get an extra move from a list which is how Mundane Monstrosities insures that everybody is at least a little supernatural.

For the improvement, I'm going to give them another move: casual magic.

This accounts for places where the werewolves and witches do just casually supernatural things without having much stress about it.

Malaya Dysangco Walters – The Changeling

I considered going with the Monstrous, and it would certainly fit, because that is about struggling with a curse that separates you from humanity. But the overall story of How to be a Werewolf and Malaya’s relationship to it better fits the Changeling Playbook which is about struggling with ignorance of your own nature. And given that most of the werewolves in the story are just people, it doesn’t feel right setting them up as the Monstrous when I made Changeling to cover this general situation. If the standard werewolf was a maladjusted, cursed people barely under control, then Monstrous would feel more appropriate to me.

To start, for the ratings, I’m going to shuffle around the standard assortment because none of the five default rating lines really feel quite right. The creator of the game has said this is perfectly fine as long as you reach the same balance as the rest of the lines in the playbook.

So, I think:

Charm +1

Cool +2

Sharp +1

Tough +0

Weird -1

So, Charm makes her good with people, accounting for her customer service experience. The Cool stat means she’s better than most people at keeping a cool head and handling hazards. Cool is also the stat that handles the help out move so she’s good at teamwork. Malaya is pretty observant and intelligent, so I gave her a good sharp. Tough is about average. Actually judging how survivor stats compare to hunter stats, she might actually be better than the average person at +0. Anyway, that governs fighting and protecting people. Having her weird very low feels strange… but I do think it fits given her troubles controlling her werewolf side at the start of the series.

As a note, for those that don’t know, the most common way experience is gained in Monster of the Week is by rolling low on a move, so having a low stance on a stat you’ll be using a lot is a way to get experience quickly… and add a lot of amusing drama along the way.

For the unknown heritage, she obviously understands that she’s a werewolf, but she doesn’t really know what that means, and for the three issues she has, I’m picking erratic power, strange thoughts, and unearned reputation. This covers her power doing things she doesn’t understand, the difficult to control emotions, and also the way people that meet her expect she knows a lot more about this stuff than she does.

For her moves, all Changelings get Glamour, which lets her look human and also allows her to get one 10+ result per session in a way that immediately reveals what she is and causes her unknown heritage to give her trouble… so like what happened when she shapeshifted, scared off Aubrey, and ended up a bit regressed into her wolf-mind for quite a while. The werewolf form being her "true appearance" isn't quite right, but it's close enough to fit the situation.

Then she gets two more moves. One of these is going to be they are my people which lets her masterfully protect someone once per session and gives her a bonus when dealing with her werewolf issues. And then I'm going to give her inhuman talent and we'll have to specify a narrow sort of "magic" for her to specialize. Since her weird move is going to be No Limits instead of Use Magic I'm going to think of a narrow physical thing she's good at. I'm not entirely sure about this, but I'm going to go with endurance, so she has an bonuses when she uses No Limits to persevere against pain, fatigue, or other such things, possibly including fear. Seriously, if there's anything you can say about Malaya, it's that she's a bit of a determinator.

And, of course, like pretty much every werewolf character, her basic weird move will be No Limits because, yes, of course I want the implausible and superhuman action hero physicality for the werewolves. Just how much is "physically possible" for a character varies based on how fantastical the table wants to get and on the sort of character the person who has the move. A baseline human with no limits is going to be like an action TV or movie star while a super-soldier or werewolf is going to hold helicopters in place while they try to fly away.

(also, just look up some of the weird and amazing things real life people have done... like surviving falls from airplanes into jungles)

Now, since this is a Mundane Monstrosities team, she gets an extra move from a small list drawn from other playbooks.

And Malaya is going to take shapeshift, because of course she is. And obviously she turns into a wolf and wolf-like shapes, because werewolves.

For Malaya's improvements, I'm going to give her +1 Weird to bring that up to 0 and then I'm going to have her borrow the natural attack ability from the Monstrous, while not usually stated as a move, the creator of the game has stated he sees no reason it can't be borrowed.

So, with this, she gets either two base attacks or one base attack with an extra. I'm giving her two base attacks in the form of Claws (2-harm, hand) and Fangs (3-harm, intimate). For reference, "hand" is like sword and boxing range while "intimate" is grappling range. 2-harm is the same damage as most swords and guns, 3-harm is the same damage as big-melee weapons and shotguns. This is largely unimportant within the context of the actual comic, but adding it in makes me feel like I'm adding in something that's missing.

As a further note, I have definitely done the thing where I level-up to gain a move and then played it off as "no, I could always do this, I'd just never showed you until now."

EDIT: I originally borrowed Natural Weapon instead of Breed as a whole because the characters initially didn't seem to present the common Monstrous weaknesses, but it occurs to me that Wolvesbane shows up as a plot point in one or two storylines, so giving them that vulnerability is appropriate. I won't repeat this under Elias's section, but I will append both character sheet write-ups below.

Charlene Masters - The Searcher

I waffled a bit on what playbook to go with for Charlene. She is a witch that uses magic, so The Spooky might have fit except that her magic doesn't really have a dark side. Initiate and Hex have fortune teller moves, but those can be borrowed later. Charlene isn't part of an organization really (which rules out Initiate) and doesn't involve herself in reckless and dangerous magic, which means not really a Hex.. She doesn't really do combat magic either, so Spell-slinger doesn't fit. Spooktacular is tempting, but it's one of her parents that is the performer not her. Instead, I decided to look into how she had a sort of vision that led her north and go with Searcher. Searcher is someone that looks for answers. The normal application is to the cryptozoologist or UFOlogist, but a witch who received a vision fits.

So, with that said, I'm going with the following line for her ratings:

Charm +0

Cool +1

Sharp +1

Tough -1

Weird +2

So, she's not particularly good with people, and she's noted that she wouldn't deal with people as well as Malaya does. As a note, Charm isn't really about how likeable you are. You could be terribly rude and annoying and have high Charm and very likeable with low Charm. Charm is more about how well you leverage people to do what you want. She does keep her head on and is observant. In a fight, she doesn't go power to power, she's sneaky, so Tough isn't her forte. And she is quite good at the magic, so yeah, she's getting high Weird.

So now on to moves. Anyone who takes Searcher gets the first encounter move and has to choose one of the variations. For Charlene both psychic event and cosmic insight fit, and I'm going to go with psychic event giving her a chance to use the sensitive basic weird move if she focuses.

For her other two moves, she's going to get guardian representing her spirit crow friend and Ockham's Broadsword representing how she's a bit in the know on a lot of supernatural things.

For her main basic Weird move, she's definitely getting use magic because she's definitely a witch. For a long time, that was the only basic Weird move and it is still a good default. As a note, use magic has a long list of possible effects, glitches, and requirements so I'm just going to post the basic move here. And that can be expanded on by taking some moves (usually by adding to the list of possible effects).

Now, on to her "Minor Weirdness" option for being in a Mundane Monstrosities game. The ones that stand out are inhuman talent, the sight, and third eye. I think I'm going to go with inhuman talent and define it as her skill with illusions. See where I posted the text for it on Malaya's stuff.

For her level up improvements I'm going to give her +1 Charm (to be honest, all the characters in Malaya's pack are pretty empathic and good at negotiating and working with reasonable people) and then I'm borrowing The Show: Magic and Illusions from the Spooktacular.

She hasn't actually been part of a show, but that move still fits her powers to a tee.

Elias Ross - The Initiate

So, I considered Elias for both the Professional and the Initiate. Each of these deals with a character whose main story is about their connection with an organization, so both work for his situation. The Professional was tempting due to the bureaucratic way werewolf society operates feeling a bit more modern agency rather than ancient sect. But I decided Initiate worked better over all. Also... for stats, there's a weird rating line for the Initiate that creates one great stat, one good one, and three average ones, so I'm going with that.

Charm +0

Cool +0

Sharp +0

Tough +1

Weird +2

So, he's not particularly bad at anything, but he's good in a fight and in controlling his powers.

First let's define his Sect, giving it two good traditions and one bad tradition. For this situation, I'm going with werewolf society as a whole.

Good Traditions: Like Family, Modernized

Bad Tradition: Factionalized

I considered grabbing bureaucratic from the Professional's list of tags, but on the whole, I suspect that's a symptom of the factionalization rather than the core problem. Like Family is one of the new tags from Slayer's Survival Kit that can apply to either organization and there is a counter to that which is False Family for cases where the "like family" statement is a lie. In this case, the organization very much is like family and in many cases very much is family in a literal blood-related sense.

Now, for Initiate moves. Every Initiate gets this unnamed move I refer to as "the Sect move".

Then the Initiate gets three moves to choose from. This is different from Changeling and Searcher, each of which has a strong, beneficial mandatory move and then gives two optional ones. In the Initiate's case, the mandatory move is more neutral and could even be seen as a downside. Therefore it also gets three optional moves.

For the basic Weird move, like Malaya he's taking No Limits and also like Malaya, his Minor Weirdness pick from Mundane Monstrosities is shapeshifter. (see above where I pasted those two moves earlier)

For these optional moves, I'm going with mentor, that old black magic, and helping hand. This also accounts for him being a bit good at teaching (tough you would expect his Cool to be higher in that case, possibly improving that would be the first thing he chooses on leveling up). Mentor covers his relationship with his mother pretty well. That old black magic usually applies to use magic, in this case, I think it will represent him using his senses... which with the shapeshifter bonus could give him a +1 on top of his Weird for a total of +3 in some forms.

As a note, when a move gives someone new effects for use magic and they don't have use magic I generally assume they have use magic only for those effects or I attach it to their actual weird move. Attaching this investigative ability to his No Limits works well and would go towards him being good at investigation while also being a bit unobservant in some other situations.

For his advancements I'm giving him +1 Cool, because he's good at teamwork, and I'm having him also borrow the Monstrous natural weapons like Malaya did.

Vincent Dysangco Walters – The Mundane

So, now we come to the fourth major character introduced at the start of the story, Vincent, Malaya's protectively taciturn older brother. He's a bit younger than her, "hot in a Vulcan way" as Elias notes and while his sister's been a werewolf for as long as he's been alive, he himself is pretty normal. So, I'm putting him as The Mundane.

As to ratings' lines, every Mundane has +2 Charm, just like every Initiate has +2 Weird. Changeling and Searcher from above juggle things about. Again, this doesn't seem like a thing you'd get out of the way Vincent is very silent, but like Malaya, he does a good job at working with people, even a little bit better than her. And I am again going to play with exact placement of values a bit here and go with this:

Charm +2

Cool +1

Sharp +1

Tough -1

Weird +0

This makes him a bit more accepting of weirdness than Malaya is and thus better able to go along with it. He keeps a cool head well and is observant as well. In the context of the characters in this comic, however, he's not that great in a fight. So low Tough.

Mundanes do not have any mandatory moves and they get to choose three moves from their playbook's list. So, I'm going to go with these options: the power of heart, what could go wrong, and always the victim.

These moves cover Vincent's occasional tendency to need rescuing, his ability to tip things in the heroes' favor, and his practice of pushing into situations that should intimidate most non-magical people.

As for his Weird basic move, I'm going for something a bit low-key and taking Trust Your Gut. Which is an ability to just get hunches that point important things that will drive the plot forward.

Now, as to the Mundane Monstrosity bonus move from Minor Weirdness I'm going to give him another low-key ability and give him the Divine move soothe as it is one of those on the list. Because Vincent is weirdly good at calming people down and comforting them. (Not so weird when you consider his upbringing, but that's kind of the point.)

For his advancements, I'm going to have him take a move from another playbook and have it be The Searcher and take Cosmic Insight because even when he is scared and upset, he holds it together and doesn't usually lose his tactical/crisis mind. Important distinction, this move doesn't say you aren't terrified, it just says you don't have to roll to deal with it.

I'm also going to have him take another Mundane move, let's get out of here which lets him use Charm for the Protect Someone roll. Note that despite the name, he doesn't have to actually leave the scene, he just has to talk someone through saving themselves.

All told, the character sheets look like this:

The Walters Pack

Team Playbook: Mundane Monstrosities

Team Style: Life, Interrupted - “Were we able to enjoy some normal life?”

Community: Weird Town

Team Ally: The Ross Pack

Team Enemy: Generational Trauma (currently Connie Greensmith)

Team Move: Too Normal to be Weird, Casual Magic

Team Assets: Innocent Front, Clubhouse

Improvements

Take another Team Playbook move: Casual Magic

-------

Malaya Dysangco Walters – The Changeling

Charm +1

Cool +2

Sharp +1

Tough +0

Weird +0

Unknown Heritage: Werewolf

Unearned Reputation

Erratic Power

Strange Thoughts

Moves

Basic Weird Move: No Limits

Changeling Moves: Glamour, They are my people, Inhuman Talent: Endurance

Borrowed Moves: Breed: Werewolf (Monstrous)

Minor Weirdness: Shapeshifting

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Breed (Werewolf)

Claws (2-harm, hand)

Fangs (3-harm, intimate)

Vulnerability: Wolvesbane

Improvements

Get +1 Weird, max +3

Take a move from another playbook: Natural Weapon (Monstrous)

Charlene Masters - The Searcher

Charm +1

Cool +1

Sharp +1

Tough -1

Weird +2

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Use Magic

First Encounter: Psychic Event

Searcher Moves: Guardian, Ockham's Broadsword

Borrowed Moves: Magic & Illusions (Spooktacular)

Minor Weirdness: Inhuman Talent: Illusions

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Improvements

Get +1 Charm, max +2

Take a move from another playbook: Magic & Illusions (Spooktacular)

Elias Ross - The Initiate

Charm +0

Cool +1

Sharp +0

Tough +1

Weird +2

Sect: Werewolf Council

Good Traditions: Like Family, Modernized

Bad Tradition: Factionalized

Moves

Basic Weird Move: No Limits

Initiate Moves: The Sect Move, Mentor, Helping Hand, That Old Black Magic

Borrowed Moves: Natural Weapon (Monstrous)

Minor Weirdness: Shapeshifting

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Breed (Werewolf)

Claws (2-harm, hand)

Fangs (3-harm, intimate)

Vulnerability: Wolvesbane

Improvements

Get +1 Cool, max +2

Take a move from another playbook: Natural Weapon (Monstrous)

Vincent Dysangco Walters – The Mundane

Charm +2

Cool +1

Sharp +1

Tough -1

Weird +0

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Trust Your Gut

Mundane Moves: Always the Victim, The Power of Heart, What Could go Wrong, Let's Get Out of Here

Borrowed Moves: Cosmic Insight (Searcher)

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Improvements

Take a move from another playbook: Cosmic Insight (Searcher)

Take another Mundane move: Let's Get Out of Here

[disrespectre]

18+ VAMPIRE VS WEREWOLF DISCORD SERVER

: ̗̀➛ 𝐔𝐇𝐘𝐑𝐄 𖤐

❛ UHYRE noun. monster [noun] (also adjective) (something) of unusual size, form or appearance. a huge and/or horrible creature.❜ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦

*𝐈 . In the beginning…

Vampires and werewolves have been enemies since the dawn of time. A cat and dog rivalry, constantly chasing, attacking, and killing one another. In the past however, they were able to disguise their factions and fights, preying on humans in the shadows. The only ones aware were each other, bickering about not being careful, or splitting the rations of blood.

𝐈𝐈. Covens formed, packs were joined, and throughout history, they prevailed. However, as times would change, so did technology, and their deceptive ways had begun to grow detected. Tensions rose as wolves blamed their bat enemies for not being cautious enough, and vampires blaming their wolven rivals for rampaging in their werewolf form in the night.. over time, they resolved this conflict with an shared idea, as hunters arose as a threat.

𝐈𝐈𝐈. The covens and packs migrated deep into the woods, where they’d be hidden from humankind. This seemed like a perfect resolve.. but problems are never truly over- as now, a new night stalking Shapeshifting beast has been thrown into the ring.. having been hidden in the woods for decades since.

𖤐 18+ Literate - Novella Server on discord

𖤐 Extensive, easy to follow lore that’s continuing to grow as our RP goes on.

𖤐 Create a vampire, werewolf, human, or hunter OC!

𖤐 Friendly members and mods, ready to help you and greet you!

𖤐 welcoming server, with OOC channels to hang out in and an easy to navigate layout.

𖤐 Create storylines, character rivalries, friendships, ships, and more, and share all about your OCs in our OC info channels! were ready to get to know your characters, and you!

𖤐 Come say hello! We’re DYING to meet you.* ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦

[triaelf9]

hey folks who interact with creative works online! just a tiny PSA

If you don't like a character, that's totally fine! If you have a different reading of a situation in a show & have issues with stuff that's going on, that's also fine.

What is NOT fine is to ACTIVELY SEEK OUT fans of the characters you don't like and talk shit about them, the characters they have feelings about, or the content they've posted b/c you, Freddy McHatesalot really needs to tell everyone how much you dislike a...fictional character.

You are totally welcome to consume content in your own space in whatever way you see fit. It is disrespectful of the fandom space to try to drag other people into your space and interact with you if they don't want to. And dunking on a character in writings or art of them is fucking rude as hell to the person who put work into into the creation they made out of some feelings they were having.

Also. side note, it is possible to enjoy a character who is Wrong About Some Things or Isn't Doing The Right Stuff In The Right Situation. Sometimes it's possible to like a character and disagree with them, and shitting on people b/c you can't see what they see in a character is pretty trash garbage and is 90% of why I just make silly little art for me and my own silly feels and hope folks get a chuckle or some enjoyment out of it too.

[peopleareaproblem]

if you have been waffling on getting HeroForge Pro or holding off on getting new minis from them then this is the time. these delightful motherfuckers just dropped a bunch of updates (they do this very often) and this time they not only added a wide array of Pride decals (which are by the way explicitly here forever, not just for pride month):

they also just massively updated their entire body slider system to be radically inclusive!

Not only is it now possible to create an honest-to-Pelor fat person in HeroForge with a single click, you can now also have an old body!

if you don't care about this then you and I will never understand each other, but if this wasn't enough for you they also just added overalls and succulents.

check out all their updates at heroforge.com/treasure.

[tabletopgayventures]

Things have been happening!

First: I have sooooooooo many ttrpgs... I really need to update my list @~@;;; I also need to run more of them...

Second: I ran Never Stop Blowing Up on Monday! It was a lot of fun. I think I want to run it a couple more times... Maybe do a short campaign. I also want to edit my oneshot and maybe publish it. I call it the "Millennium Heist". I also want to try the system with DCC's zocchi dice.

Third: I played DCC with a leveled character for the first time. It was interesting... I didn't enjoy the gauntlet so much, partly because I didn't know it was a gauntlet and partly because my first 4 characters died VERY quickly. But this was a full game with a leveled character. Not sure how I feel about the how the dice chain works yet but, I'm still new to the system and I want to see where it goes. My current character did almost get killed last game so uh-oh! XD

Fourth: Currently playing Suicide Squad Descent into Avernus using DnD 2014. I enjoy my group and the adventure but yall I don't like 5e... I am talking with my group about switching to another system but I don't know which one. I don't want to go to Pathfinder 1e since it's my main and I want to try something else. Maybe Tales of the Valiant... but I'm also thinking Dungeon World... I need to do some looking.

Fifth: Still planning my Cairn campaign I just need to figure out how to draw the map.

[dinoberrypress]

Every character in Little Wolves has a history, and the player characters are no exception. This spread details one part of character creation; learning what Shadows follow your Werewolves in their stories.

This spread also features one of many art pieces by our very own Jam that you’ll find in Little Wolves!

[warriorcatsverdun]

Personality Descriptions

Photo by Vladimir Srajber

Every cat has a personality that sets them apart from their peers. Using the right verbiage is important to paint that picture as clear as possible. Are they nice? Are they kind? Are they one, but not the other? There's a big difference a few word choices can make.

Below is a list sourced from the 638 Primary Personality Traits with some of my own additions. I took examples that would be more fitting to the setting and are less descriptors of how others feel about them. The original still a fantastic resource and I recommend it.

Categories are not binding. A boon for one cat may be a curse for another and vice versa.

Positive

Active

Adaptive

Adventurous

Alert

Altruistic

Amiable

Brilliant

Calm

Capable

Caring

Charismatic

Charming

Cheerful

Clever

Compassionate

Considerate

Cooperative

Courageous

Creative

Dedicated

Dignified

Diplomatic

Dramatic

Dutiful

Earnest

Energetic

Enthusiastic

Fair

Faithful

Firm

Flexible

Forgiving

Friendly

Funny

Generous

Gentle

Genuine

Helpful

Honest

Humble

Humorous

Idealistic

Imaginative

Independent

Intelligent

Intuitive

Kind

Leader

Logical

Loyal

Mature

Mentor

Meticulous

Nice

Objective

Observant

Optimistic

Orderly

Passionate

Patient

Patriotic

Peaceful

Perceptive

Persuasive

Practical

Prudent

Rational

Realistic

Relaxed

Reliable

Respectful

Responsible

Sane

Scrupulous

Selfless

Sensitive

Sentimental

Shrewd

Simple

Smart

Sociable

Stable

Stoic

Strong-willed

Sweet

Sympathetic

Tactful

Tolerant

Trusting

Well-rounded

Wise

Witty

Youthful

Neutral

Absentminded

Aggressive

Ambitious

Androgynous

Analytical

Authoritarian

Bold

Conservative

Curious

Debater

Deceptive

Determined

Dominating

Effeminate

Emotional

Extroverted

Feminine

Impassive

Impersonal

Innovative

Intense

Introverted

Masculine

Maternal

Mellow

Moralistic

Mystical

Neutral

Non-Committal

Nonreligious

Obedient

Old-Fashioned

Ordinary

Outspoken

Parental

Paternal

Placid

Political

Predictable

Private

Proud

Pure

Quite

Religious

Reserved

Restrained

Sarcastic

Self-conscious

Skeptical

Solitary

Spontaneous

Stern

Strategic

Strict

Stubborn

Subjective

Tough

Unchanging

Unpatriotic

Whimsical

Negative

Abrasive

Aimless

Airy

Aloof

Amoral

Anxious

Apathetic

Argumentative

Arrogant

Asocial

Bland

Blunt

Brutal

Callous

Careless

Cautious

Clumsy

Cold

Commanding

Compulsive

Cowardly

Cruel

Cynical

Deceitful

Demanding

Destructive

Difficult

Dishonest

Disloyal

Disobedient

Disruptive

Egocentric

Envious

Fearful

Fickle

Fiery

Foolish

Forgetful

Gloomy

Greedy

Gullible

Hateful

Haughty

Hostile

Ignorant

Impatient

Insecure

Intolerant

Irrational

Irritable

Lazy

Moody

Naive

Negative

Nihilistic

Obnoxious

Obsessive

Odd

Opinonated

Opportunistic

Paranoid

Passive

Pedantic

Petty

Possesive

Power-hungry

Pretentious

Provocative

Puritanical

Quirky

Reactionary

Regretful

Repressed

Resentful

Rigid

Rowdy

Sadistic

Selfish

Shallow

Shy

Stupid

Submissive

Superficial

Suspicious

Tactless

Timid

Treacherous

Uncritical

Unfriendly

Unreliable

Unstable

Vindictive

Weak

[drwafton]

Made fanart of you-

I'm sorry if this version of you I made you a God-

"I have to say this art is well done! I wouldn't exactly call myself a god though. Still I appreciate it."

[prokopetz]

Inadvisable tabletop RPG character creation schema #137: Each player receives the same extremely complicated pre-filled character sheet describing an ancient legendary hero, and is obliged to black out a certain percentage of it with a marker, playing whatever remains as their character. Blacking out individual letters to form new words – and thus new attributes – is explicitly permitted.

[thryth-gaming]

Same Breed, Different Hunters: Vampires

So, in Monster of the Week, playbooks all provide a lot of versatility in how they can be put together or interpreted. In this case, however, we're going to zoom in on something more specific: the Monster's Breed.

This one is less about the mechanics of the game and more about considering the vast number of specific entities that we lump into certain famous categories we've convinced ourselves are far more narrow than they really are. Part of this is due to a decision to take folklore from various cultures and lump it together into whatever category due to certain superficial commonalities.

For example, European dragons are very different creatures both in terms of metaphysics and role in the cosmology from Asian dragons. For that matter, Norse and Greek dragons are very different, as are Japanese and Chinese dragons. About the only thing these beings have in common are they have a vaguely reptilian appearance... which often takes a bit of mental gymnastics to get even there.

However, for this case, we're going to talk vampires. And we're going to talk pop culture vampires, because I'm not going to trust my approximate knowledge of many things on actual folklore that I'm ripping off from the top of my head.

I'm going to hit the Curse, Natural Attack, and Moves rather than a full build.

Violet O'Neill - Feeding as Need

Violet O'Neill never appeared in a game in a condition where she was actually depicted as a full on undead creature. When she was first introduced she was paraded as a case where the science team had "cured" someone of undeath, much to her perpetual discomfort. It turned out later that, no, they hadn't cured her. They'd just stabilized her and made attempting any other cures a bit more dangerous. Which resulted in her just persisting as a stable-undead woman.

Here would be the characteristics of an alt-timeline Violet:

She needs to feed on life-energy through breath. If she doesn't she grows progressively more corpse-like and feral.

Her vision would start to fade and be replaced by an ability to detect life-force or breath.

So, for her, this would be her build:

Natural Attack: Breath Stealing (1-Harm Intimate Life Drain Ignore Armor)

Curse: Feed (Breath)

Moves: Supernatural Sense (Breath), Something Borrowed: Connect the Dots

So, she would need to constantly satisfy this need in order to keep as human as possible. Every time she backslides or fails to satisfy her hunger, she would lose a bit more of her past self. And as her Luck is spent, her need would get more and more demanding.

EDIT: I originally had her borrow Invincible. Instead, I had her borrow Connect the Dots to represent her skill as a data analyst.

Patricia Althius - Blood as Addiction

Patricia Althius is a character I played in a game of City of Mist and her vampirism came as a result of falling into a cursed tomb while she was deployed to The War (when we play CoM we always use vague labels of places and keep it ambiguous if this is a real physical world or some sort of dream space) and attracting attention from the Mythos of Lamashtu (a pop culture version).

Here were some of her characteristics as a vampire:

She did not need to drink blood to survive, but it made her stronger and it felt good.

She was being molded by the mythos according to the cultural of aristocratic beauty perfection Patricia grew up with.

So, for her, this would be her build:

Natural Attack: Claws (2-Harm Hand), Bite (3-Harm Intimate)

Curse: Pure Drive (Lust)

Moves: Unholy Strength, Unquenchable Vitality

In this case, the "Lust" is not sexual, but rather an overall drive to feel that enhanced sensation she experiences whenever she's drunk blood. For her, she has to manage her willingness to give in to the thirst and remind herself that it is not something she needs. And over time, her addiction would be increasingly difficult to resist. Also note that she doesn't have the Life-Drain attack. Instead her healing method comes from one of her moves.

Eloise Weaver - Master and Stalker

Eloise is a Lasombra vampire that I have not yet gotten to play and represents a twist on the normal Dark Master situation as well. Someone had hired a vampire as an assassin and the vampire had set up an escape room as a deathtrap. Eloise was one of the unfortunates that had "won" a ticket to the escape room to give it some sort of legitimacy. She managed to not only survive but escaped and caused the vampire to obsess over her, stalking her for some time before finally catching up to and turning her. And then, it turns out that he is unable to bend her mind to his will, so she escapes again and this just deepens her sire's obsession.

Looking at her traits:

Her basic traits as a vampire don't stand out much. The strongest element is the pursuit by her sire.

While her sire has no ability to command her through supernatural influence, he will continue to harass her, hoping to "convince" her to his side.

So for her build I'd go with the following:

Natural Attack: Bite (1-Harm Intimate Life Drain), Shadow Constrict (1-Harm Magic Close)

Curse: Dark Master

Moves: Something Borrowed: Predator and Prey (Host), Shadowsight

In this case, the Dark Master's influence would get more and more intrusive as time went on and any mystery might be complicated by the involvement of one of her sire's traps or trials. Some misguided attempt to make her stronger and hone her perspective to match his. If the team manages to kill him, well, maybe word will get back to his masters.

Important here, is that the other traits of a vampire aren't gone. They just don't have near the same narrative heft. She still has to drink blood, but she clearly has that mostly under control. Getting in a situation where she is tempted to drink someone's blood is not off the table, especially when it'll help her heal, but it's not as close to the surface as the problem with her obsessed sire.

Helen - Burned by the Sun

This is referencing Kikoskia's current VtM: Bloodlines run as a Toreador by the name of "Helen." Not for any particularly reason aside from the fact that I generally don't make vampires with this Curse because it is a bit on the awkward side to use. I can see Monster of the Week making it work, but in mixed company it does often make it difficult to cooperate with the other hunters.

For the vampire characteristics here I'm going with the following:

The sunlight burns her and weakens her.

I'm going to lean into the Toreador thing and how often Kiko relies on Celerity.

So I will build her like this:

Natural Attack: Bite (2-Harm Intimate Life Drain)

Curse: Vulnerability: Sunlight

Moves: Preternatural Speed, Unnatural Appeal

The first two versions of a vampire I wrote had traits that made them a direct danger to those around them. Both Violet and Patricia could be driven to harm people that in their right mind they wouldn't want to endanger. With Eloise, she is an indirect danger to those around her based on the fact that she is a target and everyone around her is basically in the blast radius. In Helen's case, the danger is entirely focused on her, though it will limit how well she can protect other people.

And as her Luck dwindles, then it will take less and less sunlight to affect her. Maybe initially she'll be fine if the sky is overcast, but after spending a luck, that isn't enough to prevent her from taking a -1 ongoing. And finally as her Luck gets very low, she can't go outside during the day and unless she's in a magically prepared sanctuary, doing anything during daylight will be at -1.

Bathori - A Blight on the World

This build is reference to a facet of true undead from my Divine Blood setting and one such individual. But we're going to deviate from that concept in the following ways. She will not have nearly as high a requirement for active feeding and she won't have an option to just stop doing it and letting herself die. Perhaps in this case, I'm going to assume at one point she was possessed by an undead spirit that performed that starts of the ritual that would have bound it to her body but she somehow fought it off, and now has to deal with the permanent effects of the bits of the ritual the undead spirit completed before being forced out. And that will come to these traits:

Bathori saps the life-force of the land and life in her general area.

Her soul is basically stapled to her body and because it wasn't her will, she doesn't know how to undo it.

And I'll do the following build.

Natural Attack: Bite (1-Harm Intimate Life Drain Infection), Unarmed (0-Harm Hand Poison)

Curse: Inimical

Moves: Immortal, Toxic

So, in this case, she will progressively kill the land she walks on, encouraging her to lair in places that are already dead and can't be hurt by further. Occasionally, her aura of blight and draining will flare to risk causing harm to the people in the area around her and they might now even be directly aware of that. In addition, as she runs out of Luck, the region of her blight will get wider and wider. And the blight will get hungrier, being more likely to siphon the people she's trying to protect.

I also took "Infection" in reference to how people who survive a feeding by an undead might be warped such that they become "dhampir". Usually they'd die shortly after, but some will manage to survive the condition and become their own sort of immortal. Within the Divine Blood setting, Wilhemina Harker is a dhampir who manages to survive the effort to adapt to the twisting. (not that she's even been mentioned in any fiction yet).

Infection is an extra benefit though, so normally, the hunter could maybe deliberately twist a person's soul as she feeds on them in order to possibly kill them even if they escape. Or maybe she can use it carefully as part of a big magic ritual to give another hunter a permanent power. But as her Luck drops, then I'd tie that infection more and more into an expression of her Inimical trait. Meaning she might accidentally create more dhampir as she travels. And while dhampir that adapt are mostly stable people rather than Monstrous with a curse to struggle with, most of the infected will just die.

Summary

All of the characters above fit the concept of a vampire, and they are all even from a variety of pop-culture things ranging from anime jiangshi to VtM characters, but they all express the concept in very different ways. I do reuse the Life Drain option of magical attack a lot, but I ignored it for one build and gave it different flavors in the others. I was also tempted to give every version of the vampire Immortal and certainly the idea of them being ageless would be a narrative thing, but it would be a more fragile sort of immortality unless they take up that move later.

[circuitfurscaleandvine]

🐴 Watching really experienced roleplayers make characters is amazing.

It's like watching someone open a massive binder of cards and throw together a competitive level deck in 5 minutes.

"Hmm, what's the setting? Modern Fantasy, well, I've always wanted to try a [Witch] [Detective] with [Hanging Vines] and [Hidden Hut]. How Modern? ohhh, 1920s, yeah maybe a [Mafia Connection] and [Lover in Every Town]. What about my teammates? A [Thug] [Doorman] with [Heart of Gold]? I'll want [Love Potion] then, that'll create moral tension."

Meanwhile I'm over here opening my first pack and crying because I don't understand how to make [Butch] [Housemaid] work with [Crystal Ball].

[questgiven]

- Mod and Muse information -

- Mod -

Kasper ; He / It / Ask ; MINOR

- Muse -

Player !! ; He/They/Any ; Adult

- Rules -

Don't criticize how we play Player ! This is our own interpretation and we will do what we want for fun.

Mod is a minor !! No nsfw, no suggestive asks !!

No drama, discourse, syscouree, terfs, etc on my blog you will be blocked

No Gaza, Palestine, or donation asks they will be deleted you will be blocked.

Muse is not up for suggestive asks.

Just be nice to mod, thank you.

- Tag list -

#— Familiar faces ; Blocktales

#— Unfamiliar Faces ; Forsaken

#— Adventure ; roleplay interactions

#— Emptying Inventory ; Askbox

#— Player ic ; In character

#— Player ooc ; ooc interaction

#— Character creation ; Headcanons / info

#— Swords of time ; Collected another sfoth

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

- Special tags -

#— warm hearts and cold exteriors ; Cruel king and Player

#— Swords and Venom ; Griefer and Player

#— Inner Demons ; Hatred and Player

#— overcoming impulsivity ; Greed and Player

#— why the long face? ; Solitude and Player

#— afraid of the dark ; Fear and Player

- Credits -

@/sister-lucifer

@/strangergraphics

[itsgrawnyanotgrahny]

Made Myself a template. Added some tips and reminders to kelp keep me on track. I hope this helps someone else maybe?

[episodes-without-incident]

9/21/2023:

1 episode since Drawfee last referenced Cats (2019)

10 episodes since Drawfee last referenced Everytime We Touch (2005)