Poker RPG Character Generation: Past Lives
What Makes a Lost Soul?
Today marks the first round of posts fleshing out character generation/delineation for this game. Characters are Lost Souls, people who wagered their souls to some supernatural Creditor at some point in their lives and got involved with a seedy secret society of problem solvers. My current mental model for the game is fairly player-driven and sandboxy so that players can choose to pursue personal projects and follow through on demands from their Creditors.
My intent is for character generation to be randomized/oracular. Today's topic, Past Life, is suit-based. We'll talk through a general descriptor of the Past Life concept, then offer three example Talents associated with that Past Life, then close out with the description of the Legacy for that Past Life. Right now characters probably start with a single Talent from their Past Life, and have chances for progression in their Past Life that involve either learning more Talents and/or investing in their Legacy. Talents are a mechanical representation of their mastery of Past Life, Legacy is a narrative representation. My guidance on writing talents is largely from Rise Up Comus great post on how to write character abilities for NSR games.
Past Life
Your past life represents your experiences in the physical world that brought you to the point of wagering your soul. Your past life provides you with knowledge and expertise in your field as relevant, but your past life reflects more about how you solve problems and interact with the world than a specific job. Example jobs are provided as recommendations, but a teacher can be a bruiser and a small business tyrant can be a mediator. Investing in your past life opens up avenues to build infrastructure, a Legacy, and make a name for yourself in the real world if you can earn your soul back.
Spades: Mediator
If you were a mediator in your past life, you were someone who worked to build bridges and mend relationships. This emotional labor is rejuvenating in a lot of ways, but a major stressor in others. When you bet your soul, it was probably for just one day of peaceful rest. Mediators are a favorite lost soul for Creditors who want to spread their influence far and wide. Mediators are force multipliers for the other people in their lives; they are team players who work to bring out the best in everyone in a social situation.
Example Mediators: Pastors, physicians, social workers, and teachers.
Mediator Talents
Counsel
Once per turn, you may discard a card into another player’s hand rather than into the discard pile. This may be done as part of a Redraw or in order to charge Armor. During the exploration frame, you may [incur a cost] to recommend a course of action; if the fellow player follows your advice, you may change the suit of the last drawn card.
Mend
When you perform a combination action with another player, you may [incur a cost] to use the resulting hand to perform a Patch Up action on that player character. Both the combination action and the Patch Up action resolve simultaneously. During the exploration frame, you may automatically stabilize a wounded individual if you have appropriate tools or medical supplies.
Stop. Collaborate. Listen.
People feel very comfortable collaborating with you. You may [incur a cost] to simultaneously receive the benefits of all allied NPCs during a single turn, even if they are currently partnered with other players. During the exploration frame, you may spend a round gossiping with an NPC to become knowledgeable about the local goings-on.
Mediator Legacy: Mutual Aid Network
Mediators build a legacy via support networks that grow through word of mouth and compassion. As you invest in your past life as a Mediator, you make it easier for your party to find hospitality in places that you’ve visited and eventually places that you have not yet visited. Your mutual aid network does not have to be tied to your specific past employment history, and you can spend a downtime action standing up a working group to target specific types of hospitality offered by chapters of your mutual aid network.
Hearts: Bruiser
Bruisers don’t solve every problem with violence, they just find that violence is one way to change the state of the problem. When you bet your soul, it was probably to rewind by one day and retroactively pick peace. Bruisers are a favorite lost soul for Creditors who resent their inability to physically affect the world on their own, because Bruisers excel at physically affecting the world.
Example Bruisers: Veterans, physical laborers, athletes, and bouncers.
Bruiser Talents
Crumple Zone
All the strength in the world is useless if you don’t know where to direct it. You may [incur a cost] to identify and exploit the weak point of a structure. This may not be used to deal extra damage in combat, but it can be used to change the environment.
Seize the Moment
If you completely block damage from an incoming attack by taking the Fold action, you may either Restrain the opponent (reduce HS by X cards?) OR you may automatically increase the rank of your next action against that opponent by 2. If you [incur a cost] you may use both effects. During the exploration frame, if you avoid an incoming threat, you may [incur a cost] to redirect that threat and/or parlay it into gaining the upper hand in a social interaction.
Flex
You can use your physical imposition to inspire awe or fear. In combat, you may deal weapon damage to a target’s Clubs stat. During the exploration frame, you may use your Hearts in place of your Clubs to intimidate or persuade an NPC, but recognize that this changes the terms of the interaction.
Bruiser Legacy: Living Legend
Bruisers build a legacy when their feats of strength and larger-than-life actions are witnessed and shared, even especially if sometimes they are shared with embellishment and flair. As you invest in your past life as a Bruiser, your reputation precedes you for good or for ill. Your legend does not have to relate to your specific past employment history, and you may spend a downtime action carousing or blogging to shape the legend.
Diamonds: Fixer
Fixers are technically-minded problem solvers with a knack for identifying parallels between various fields of expertise. When you bet your soul, it was probably for just one more day to figure out that issue at work. Fixers are a favorite lost soul for Creditors who favor a light touch that gets the job done every time. Fixers are able to single-mindedly concentrate on tasks and are quick studies with fields outside of their background.
Example Fixers: Musicians, park rangers, first responders, mechanics, and burglars.
Fixer Talents
Rule of Thumb
You may [incur a cost] to modify the rank of a Diamond card held in hand. This occurs during the Miscellaneous Actions step of combat. During the exploration frame, you may [incur a cost] to modify the rank of Diamonds cards drawn during the travel hand draw.
Metis
You may [Incur a cost] to modify the suit of a Jack rank card held in hand. This occurs during the Miscellaneous Actions step of combat. During the exploration frame, you may treat a Jack rank card drawn for a Save as a [critical success].
Focus
You gain a new combat action, Focus. You may choose to Fold your hand and, rather than gaining a defensive bonus for the round, you may draw up to RD cards from the Discard pile during the next draw step. During the exploration frame, if you draw a 2-16 for Very Slow Progress, you may gain a free [lore bid] about your surroundings.
Fixer Legacy: Immortal Technique
Fixers build a legacy when they are able to synthesize their experiences in order to find common sense solutions to otherwise intractable problems. As you invest in your past life as a Fixer, you start to find the common threads and laws that govern problems in every field, and those you aid can’t help but be impressed. Your technique does not have to relate to your specific past employment history, and you may spend a downtime action rolling your recent adventures and explorations into your repertoire of techniques.
Clubs: Bullshit Artist
Bullshit Artists are socially-minded problem creators with a knack for getting under the skin of people between various fields and backgrounds. When you bet your soul, it was probably for just one more day to pay your myriad other debts. Bullshit Artists are a favorite lost soul for Creditors who just enjoy seeing mortals operate on the same standards as their own. Bullshit Artists manipulate attention and mood; the best way to solve a problem is to convince someone else to solve it for you.
Example Bullshit Artists: Town councilmen, small business tyrants, fortune tellers, and close-up magicians.
Bullshit Artist Talents
Center of Attention
You may draw all attention to yourself. You gain a combat action, Hear Me Out, which modifies the ability of an opposed NPC to physically harm your allies this round. During the exploration frame, you may [Incur a Cost] to convince an NPC capable of understanding you to at least give you the time of day. If you ask to see some form of authority figure, the NPC is inspired to comply if it is a reasonable request.
Inspire Aggression
When you perform a combination action with an ally, you may discard extra cards from your hand to improve the ally’s Base Damage (BD). During the exploration frame, you may [Incur a cost] to modify the disposition of an NPC with whom you can communicate toward anger.
Anecdotal Evidence
You gain an additional combat action, Anecdote. You may choose to Fold your hand and, in addition to gaining a defensive bonus for the round, you may contribute any remaining RD for the round to an ally as you spin a yarn about a time that you dealt with a similar problem. During the exploration frame, if another player busts on a travel hand, you may [incur a cost] to replace the first drawn card to see if it changes the outcome as you provide long-winded guidance on the situation. You must keep the new draw.
Bullshit Artist Legacy: The Dynasty
Bullshit Artists build a legacy when they are able to launder their ill-gotten gains into something verging on legitimacy. As you invest in your past life as a Bullshit Artist, you spend enough time and resources cleaning your reputation that you might as well have just started with elbow grease in the first place, but the results – be they a business, a political role, a cult, or an indistinguishable combination of the three – are undeniable. The Dynasty does not have to relate to your specific past employment history, and you may spend a downtime activity planning a hostile merger to expand the scope of your domain.
Lessons Learned
The nice thing about working through this activity right after we wrote a first draft of exploration rules is that it gave us a more unified exploration mechanic to write talents against. It also showed "completeness" gaps that for now we paper over with shorthand like [incur a cost], "saves", "combat actions", "disposition", "critical success", "lore bids", "[stat] damage". These are all language from games that I love to run and play so they are a useful vernacular to describe behaviors I want to evoke, even if we haven't found a unified resolution mechanic for actions. My gut feeling after writing these up is pushing toward a combination of Bastionland saves and Cypher-style "Effort", where spending resources from your pool activates abilities and makes things possible.
Lore bids are a mechanic from His Majesty the Worm that I can see myself using pretty directly as a mode of knowledge transfer; I don't like knowledge "skill checks" in games, I'd rather have it just be a spendable resource.
The last thing that came up here today is combat actions; I like the codification of actions that can be taken in combat in His Majesty the Worm but the difference in action economy means that I probably need my own subsystem. I think that in this setting, where we have lightly supernatural characters in a fairly modern day, players should have codified tools to deal morale damage and intellect damage in addition to swinging a lead pipe at everything with a pulse. That's going to have to be a different blog post for a different day, but it's something that I have on my radar now!
Let me know what you think!