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Character creation discussion thread.

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Post by Anja Rebekka Schultze Fri May 22, 2015 4:47 pm

So I was thinking a thread discussing character concepts could be useful, both to get ideas and to make characters fit together or if you want any advice or have any questions about character creation.
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Post by The Tim Fri May 22, 2015 4:59 pm

Ha. Jumped the gun in the other thread.

My starting concept is a former quantitative investor who applied his physics PhD to the generation of interesting new financial instruments and techniques to optimize available instruments and investments. He kept up with physics in his free time, partially to keep his abilities honed and partially to help deal with the feeling that maybe he could have contributed more by using his degree in a different way.

In his mid / late thirties the stirring to do something more exploded into an Awakening. He abandoned his position and is looking to not waste his newly acquired magic the way he wasted his degree and other talents. I'm thinking he is likely a technomage, interested in things like urban / vertical farming and pragmatic solutions to problems. He was possibly an unEnlightened Syndicate member previously given his previous occupation. Right now I'm thinking his paradigm is a mix of abstract mathematics and pragmatism about what demonstrably works. But I'm still settling around there. Part of me wants to go Vebrena or similar for a deeper break from his past, but I'm not feeling that as much as someone who wants to rehabilitate a system as opposed to entirely replacing it.

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Post by Anja Rebekka Schultze Fri May 22, 2015 5:24 pm

Interesting that could work. I had a Verbena once actually who where a former Syndicate member who had defected from the Technocracy, now she was a Verbena Spell Weaver, you know the ones who have Prime as a main Sphere instead of Life, and she saw the movement of money as quintessence and wove her magick by buying a thing on ebay here, taking a small loan there, moving money though a different account and so on and by affecting the flow of money, even in a minute way she though that affected the flow of Quintessence in the world. I could make that character older and potentially have her as your character's mentor.
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Post by The Tim Fri May 22, 2015 6:15 pm

That's tempting. I see him more conceptualizing the manipulation / movement of money as something that reflects other things, as opposed to a central metaphor or deeply connected to quintessence. I was also tempted by Virtual Adept and having him having been more involved in the Syndicate, with the idea being that efficient markets were the best way to instantiate computers that could compute NP problems in P time, and part of his tasks (and possibly Awakening) was encoding computational problems into financial instruments to get markets to do the computations on them. I think regardless of his tradition / paradigm, an ex-Syndicate turned mystic would be a good mentor or contact to commiserate with.

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Post by Anja Rebekka Schultze Fri May 22, 2015 6:36 pm

Well I do not think a apprentice will always have the same Paradigm as their mentor, so your character can have a mentor with a somewhat different Paradigm that he have developed his from, but off course there is always a stigma with having a mentor who is a turncoat so yes having her as a contact might be better and she need not be involved at all, I just thought of her since it is somewhat similar background and Paradigm.

A Virtual Adept would also be an interesting concept. Yeah I can make such a mentor for a Virtual Adept character as well.
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Post by Tane Karyak Fri May 22, 2015 6:53 pm

Hey there! Ok my character.

Over a couple of ideas i'd like to play a Dreamspeaker, in the idea of a guy that left the Kopa Loei when he moved to Boston.

He awakened when he was little and found a teacher when he was 10. HE awakened when he saw the birth of a Rokea he befriended with, and after many years he got to know the guy. THen, his mentor and him made a plan to free the Rokea and something went wrong, so he fleed from the isle, and, after long, he went to stablish in Boston where he helped the local Rokea accept his friend and stablish a base in the Port.
Then he got to know the Chantry and joined them.

His paradigm will be something in the middle of old Polinesian beliefs and storytelling as controlling a part of the global conciousness, and that being controlling the whole reality.
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Post by Warpmind Fri May 22, 2015 9:29 pm

Okay, so I'm thinking an Orphan (just hasn't formally aligned himself with any Tradition, despite a couple of offers) in his mid-40s. He's a bit shy and disfigured due to quite mundane circumstances, having been a helicopter pilot for the RAF during Desert Storm (1990-1991), where his helicopter, a Westland Lynx was shot down. It was at this time he Awakened, with an immediately strong predilection for Entropy and Forces - the combination of stress, desperation and sheer unwillingness to give up triggered a somewhat brutal first meeting with magic, but the result was that only he was injured (head injury; pretty bad scarring in the face); his copilot and the three passengers walked away without a scratch.

During his recuperation, he read a lot (more) Fantasy novels of various types and qualities, and found an affinity for the "traditional" tools of the trade - drawn symbols, wands, dog latin, etc. - and after being dismissed from the British military found himself feeling a bit out of sync with England, deciding to emigrate to the US in the fall of 1995. While he's a bit awkward around people, and a bit selfconscious about the facial scarring, he's polite and intelligent, and has over time built himself a quite pleasant Sanctum and adjoined Library. His knowledge of the Spheres is decidedly broader than it is deep, and aside from being a bit too familiar with the magics of probability (or improbability) for Reality's own good, he mostly relies on study and analysis over direct application. The money from those lottery jackpots help in that regard, of course...

So, yes, there'll be a couple of Flaws - Shy and Disfigured, at least; possibly more, and a Certification for military helicopters. Most Spheres at 1 dot, with Entropy at 2 or even 3, possibly Forces 2. Will have to spend some time reading more thoroughly up on the matter tomorrow, and come up with a good name...
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Post by Anja Rebekka Schultze Fri May 22, 2015 9:55 pm

Sounds like an interesting character I think he would fit well with the others. Where you thinking his Sanctum was at the Chantry or somewhere else. I planned for the characters to live at the Chantry but they can off course have Sanctums or even apartments separately as well, though at the Chantry they will get a small apartment, access to ritual rooms, a laboratory and a library an safety in numbers.
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Post by Warpmind Fri May 22, 2015 10:48 pm

I was thinking a small "onsite" Sanctum/Library - though, as you point out, that's already included in rent, so I can safely skip that particular investment, then. Wink

Might instead spend the points on a few enchanted trinkets...
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Post by Anja Rebekka Schultze Fri May 22, 2015 11:18 pm

Well you can always have your own Library as well the Chantry is not exactly Dositeppe (yes misspelled it is late) and the Library is not huge and you have to share with other Chantry members, but yes a library is included in the rent, I would say it would be a library rating of 3 if it was for one person but since you have to share and as such can not get full use of it I would say it would be like a rating of 1 that everyone can get out of the Chantry library. Having a Sanctum works well you can either have it in your room or been given a small room in the basement or something like that for magickal work as a sanctum.
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Post by The Tim Sat May 23, 2015 1:06 am

Definitely going with VA, paradigm around pragmatic hacking and applied mathematics. Resources as his primary background given his previous profession.

I'm going to do a fuller character write-up plus sheet once I get the kids to bed later this night.

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Post by RogueArtificer Sat May 23, 2015 9:42 am

I haven't even looked at the mechanics of it yet (past a working of spheres) and I've settled on a Chakravanti Youth Outreach Counselor, a former member of the Latin Kings (a prominent, organized Hispanic gang spanning the nation for those of you who do not know of them), starting his life over on Boston and trying to make amends for his past actions. The karma weighs heavily on him, and he hopes that his story/example can help others stay off a dangerous path.

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Post by Anja Rebekka Schultze Sat May 23, 2015 3:16 pm

I read your character write up Tim and I like it. Did I understood it right that he is not on the best terms with his mentor so I do not need to work on one for him, not yet at least?

Rouge Do not worry about it I have played Mage for 17 years but I am not well versed in M20 yet so I am mixing it with the other editions. Reading nearly 700 pages off a screen is not easy for me, so if something is unclear by M20 rules just use another edition for now, they are not that different.

Sounds like a good character, I am looking forward to learning more.
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Post by The Tim Sat May 23, 2015 4:21 pm

Jon has a tendency of disappointing mentors (undergraduate one by abandoning math for physics, graduate one for abandoning physics for finance, work one for abandoning finance for an alt life style)—and so disappointing his initial magic mentor would be entirely in keeping with his character. For now, I'd say don't worry about working on one for him.

I'll get up a full background and paradigm in the thread for him this afternoon.

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Post by Anja Rebekka Schultze Sat May 23, 2015 4:52 pm

Sounds good. Very Happy
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Post by RogueArtificer Sat May 23, 2015 6:26 pm

Quick question: Since we're all making characters that are either part of this Chantry or will be part in some fashion or another, are we going to be required to take levels in the Chantry background? If so, what level? If not, is there a benefit to being "more invested" in the Chantry than not (by the reflection of background points, to start)?

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Post by Anja Rebekka Schultze Sat May 23, 2015 6:44 pm

I had not really considered that, blame it on me never being very stat focused. Let us say that everyone start with two free dots in the Chantry background. I think that for the most part a more invested Character might have status, resources and other such rewards that can be reflected in their backgrounds, basically the more you do for the Chantry the more the leaders will trust you and it might also then be easier to get tass from storage, get library privileges and so on. Generally speaking though everyone who live in the Chantry will be expected to do some work to help keep it running, that be mundane repairs to defending it from a gaggle of HIT-Marks.

I hope I do not offend anyone if I at time stumble when it comes to stats, like I said for me stats and rules have always been a way to avoid the pang pang you are dead, no I am not situations and little else so when I have STed if the characters are a part of a Chantry, and most are I generally do not require the players to write that up as a stat, it is just the way it is, they live at a Chantry which give some benefits and some drawbacks.

This is what the Chantry have:

*Everyone get a small apartment, this is build as student apartments so they are not big, one small bedroom, and a living room and kitchenette in one and a small bath.

*Two small nodes, one is in the Chantry basement, and one is located just outside the city.

*A decent but not extravagant magical library.

*There are three rooms in the basement that can be used for ritual chambers and one that have basic alchemical laboratory equipment, these rooms are for sharing and one have to schedual time to use them, just like one would the wash room. Player can have the Sanctum background and either have it somewhere else or by that having been given a private room for their magickal work, but otherwise they have to share.

*There are a storage room for tass, some valuable books and other rare resources, Chantry members have to get permission from the Deacons to use it.

*There are some mundane facilities, a wash room, a room with a bed with straps that can be used if someone go into Quiet, a makeshift council chamber, a large room with tables and chairs that are used for socializing and a rooftop balcony.

And that is about it.
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Post by Warpmind Mon May 25, 2015 4:32 pm

Oh, hey, I'm going to make the assumption Alternate Talents, Skills and Knowledges are acceptable?
Because it'd be ridiculous if my character doesn't know how to pilot a helicopter. Wink
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Post by Anja Rebekka Schultze Mon May 25, 2015 4:36 pm

Yes alternate talents skills and knowledges are acceptable, off course within reason and they have to fit with your character's background, so yes your character can know how to pilot a helicopter.
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