Warning: Minor Tone Clash.
• Premise, Concept, and Archetypes
If the CiC has not already set a premise for who the characters are, the player should discuss what their connection is, if any. Are they special forces agents on the same team? High school kids on a field trip gone bad? The Emperor’s personal samurai guardsmen? Completely unrelated strangers from all over the world?
Once a general connection and scale is established (if any), each character should be given a one-or-two-word Archetype label. This archetype will quickly define the role their character plays in the story at hand. Again, just make up something fitting, and it should fit closely with the concept. It’s a good idea to get inspiration from kung-fu and zombie action movies, which are chock full of these stock archetypes. The Archetype is primarily here for descriptive purposes, giving the players ideas on how to best role-play the characters they have created.
Here are some example Archetypes:
• The Yuppie Playboy
• The Pregnant Lady
• The Grizzled Cop
• The Awkward Nerd
• The Knife-Wielding Asshole
• The Gun Bunny
• The Girl Who Won’t Stop Screaming
• The Katana Guy
Now, each player should take that basic Archetype and build upon it to come up with a quick statement of who their character is (aka, a character Concept). Some examples:
• I am Carla Tomlinson, disgruntled waitress, a mother who needs to find her missing kids in this chaotic desolation of a city.
• I am Roger Devries, focused businessman and skilled climber of the corporate ladder.
• I am Jian, the Japanese pretty-boy badass, and I’ve got a bone to pick with a shadowy figure from my dark past.
• I am Mei Li, an exchange student from China, and little do they know, but I’ve seen this happen before, and we’re all doomed.
If you read the first few paragraphs of this chapter, you know how important a concept is to the game. When creating a concept for your own character, it might be helpful to just think of a character from a movie or comic and use them as inspiration. I’ve encountered players who find that picturing what actor would play this character helps, too.
• Goals
Every character in a game of Cannibal Contagion should have at least two major goals. The first goal is the Scenario Purpose, which is predetermined by the CiC. During character creation, the CiC will define the basic purpose of the scenario, and you should use it when creating the rest of your character. This Purpose sets a basic overall goal for all the players. It will likely be something simple, such as “escape the island” or “destroy the source of dark power” or some other such easily-stated goal.
The second goal is the Character Goal, which you should pick now. This is a special motivating desire that drives your character, a personal agenda that you should follow (and if applicable, try and accomplish) during this scenario. You could be searching for your missing kids, or trying to find a woman to start a new family with. Maybe you’re trying to stockpile as many weapons as possible, or locate as many other survivors of the apocalypse as you can. This can be as simple as a focused mindset (“I must protect these people!”) or as complex as you like (“I must get The Brown-Paper Package to Dock 23 before the stroke of 21:00 hours on the fourth day, or all is doomed!”).
As the game is played, you should try and focus on your character’s objective personally, while working with the other players to accomplish the scenario goal. Since each Survivor will have their own personal goal, it can be really fun to try and make them clash. This could lead to some great moments of in-game awesomeness!
• Characteristics
After you have the concept, it’s time to determine your character’s characTeriSTic scores. This part should move pretty quickly, as it is simply a matter of assigning some numbers. Every character has four major Characteristics:
• kill: This active Characteristic is used to win Showdowns through force and action, and usually by being totally badass. Mechanically, kill will most often come into play when trying to cause direct pain and suffering – usually through creative applications of weapons and fists – but
it can also be called upon in Quickies when taking direct action to change the scene somehow. You should boost Kill if you want to be good at combat and direct action.
• Savvy: This active Characteristic is used to win Showdowns through brains, by being resourceful and seeing the Big Picture. Your Savvy score will frequently be used for most non-combative attempts (improvised Quickies) to influence the setting, as well as for making Juice checks when your weapons run low on ammo. You should boost Savvy if you want to succeed on lots of out-of-combat Quickies, keep your weapons loaded, and carry lots of Gear.
• griT: This passive Characteristic is used to keep yourself alive. Your griT score will come into play should you ever choose to attempt to resist incoming Hurtin’ and Infection, and it gives you more Survival tokens at the beginning of each scene. You should boost Grit if you want to stay alive.
• cool: This passive Characteristic is used primarily to set the number of points you have in each of the five stages
of your character’s Crazy-Go-Psycho meter. With a cool rank of four, for example, you will have four points per each stage of your CGP meter, for a total of 20 points on the whole meter. You should boost Cool if you want to stay sane.
At creation, you should rank these scores of 4, 3, 2, and 1 as you see fit. The easiest way is to just order them in a list in the way you see more appropriate to your character, and then rank them 4, 3, 2, and 1 right down the line. Below are some general guidelines on how these ranks relate to your
character’s actual abilities.
• Rank 0: Your character is Limited to the Whims of Fate. With Rank Zero, chances are your character has taken damage and might be approaching death. You can’t evoke this Characteristic, and in related Quickies and Showdowns you must resort to Negotiating with your Mad Half if you wish to participate. For more information on Negotiating, see page 91.
• Rank 1: Your character is capable of actively influencing the world to a mild degree by resorting to this Characteristic.
• Rank 2: Your character is fairly adept at getting her way using the relevant Characteristic.
• Rank 3: Your character rarely fails in her intentions when this Characteristic comes into play.
• Ranks 4+: Your character is nigh unstoppable when exerting this Characteristic, and practically always accomplishes her goals.
• Gear and Weapons
Does your character have any useful gear? Think of some things your character might have in his possession that he might somehow find useful. These can be personal items, tools, survival gear, soda cans, gas cans, bubblegum and just about anything you can possibly think of. Run these by the CiC first, and if she approves, write them down on your sheet. You can start with a number of items equal to your Savvy rank.
Don’t forget to keep track of those Gear slots! Every character has a limited number of slots, and each piece of Gear uses a slot. Hand-held things like Pistols, Lighters, Walkie-Talkies and anything smaller take up one slot, shotguns and rusty pipes and shovels take up two slots, bazookas take up three, and so on. Some items like sidepacks and backpacks and survival vests don’t take slots, and instead give additional bonus slots – one from a fanny pack, three from a backpack, etc.
Gear doesn’t have to be just “items,” either. You can get creative with your Gear, and have things like “Nice Rack” and “Thighs That Kill at 40 Paces” and “Winning Smile.” Each of these would still take up a slot, but the CiC or an opposing player would have to be really creative should they ever try and take them away from your character.
Keep in mind, though, that no matter how creative it is, the Gear has to be a thing you can actively and directly apply to a situation in order to be mechanically legal.
If you so desire, you can choose to voluntarily decline any or all of your starting Gear. For each piece you don’t take, you give yourself one bonus Survival Token at the actual start of the game.
For more information on Gear, see page 65.
• Advanced Rule: Allies
If your group consists of seasoned Cannibal Contagion players, your CiC may allow you to start the game with Allies. You must sacrifice Gear in order to do this. Each two pieces of Gear that you choose not to take can buy you one Rank of an Ally. Players can combine their ranks in order to purchase Allies, but no Ally Rank can exceed 4. Ask your CiC before assuming this is an option for you!
• Mojo
Next, draw a random card to determine your character’s mojo power. This is a special boost that serves to give your character some kind of edge. The scope and apparent usefulness of the powers included in this book vary widely, so don’t be surprised if yours seems really
amazing or really crappy. Write your Mojo power down on your character sheet.
• Mad Half, Psychotrigger, and the CGP Meter
After all of the characters have been created, every player must choose another player at the table to play their mad half. The Mad Half is responsible for handling all of your Negotiations when you want to push your character beyond her normal abilities. As the game flows, this player will very likely gain an increased level of control over your character’s actions and sanity. I suggest picking a player who is known for crazy wild exposition, as they will have the most fun with your character’s madness, and in turn everyone else will have a lot of fun being there when it happens. Every character must have a Mad Half, and no single player can be the Mad Half for more than one other player; each player must choose a different Mad Half for their character.
Once you have your Mad Half, it’s time to designate your character’s Psychotrigger. This is a simple statement of what it is that drives your character crazy in this game. It can be just about anything, from an addiction to an obsession, to a driving goal that is more important than anything or anyone else. This will be evoked by your Mad Half each time you want to Negotiate for empowerment.
Because the Psychotrigger will most likely be evoked quite frequently in the game, this needs to be something solid and evocable. When creating your Survivor’s Psychotrigger, you yourself need to be able to state aloud three or four ways that you can see it being narratively used against you. If you can’t think of such examples, then the Psychotrigger is probably not solid enough.
Below are some examples:
• Addicted to Cigarettes
• I must find my missing kids!
• Obsessive-compulsive inventory organization
• Problems trusting strangers
You can use the Quick-Draw table in the back of the book for more examples. Next, look at the Crazy-Go-Psycho meter on your character sheet and note that your cool rank +1 determines how many CGP points you can accrue for each stage of madness.
• Survival Tokens
Every Survivor begins the game with a number of Survival Tokens determined by their griT Characteristic rank. Additionally, if they gave up any Gear options, they may have a few more points.
• The Secret Votes
The final step of the creation process involves you answering each of the four Secret Votes. Either use some note paper or one of the special custom vote cards from the website, and fill in the name of the character you choose most likely to fill each of the answers. During the game, if any of these answers come true, you gain an immediate eight-token bonus to your Survival token stash! The Questions are:
• Which character will die first?
• Which character will betray the others first?
• Which character will be turned by the Contagion first?
• Which character will reach Stage Five Madness first?
And for the record, yes, you can totally write yourself into any of these slots, if you think it will happen (or you think you can make it happen). When done, pass the cards/notes to the CiC, who will keep track of them and reward you when/if your vote succeeds.
oPtional stuff
Is your game using any optional rules, like Custom Weapons? Ask your CiC. If this session is using the Custom Weapons rule and the CiC allows it, then it is now time to draw for your character’s starting weapon. This is handled by drawing some cards from the deck and then comparing them to the table of weapons. If the CiC feels that certain weapons are a bit unlikely or disallowed for initial characters, she can remove the associated cards from the deck before shuffling and letting the players draw. Or, if she wants them all to have pre- set weapons, she can simply give them a weapon of her choice and move on from there. She is also perfectly within her rights to start you off with no weapons at all!
So, to re-cap, every character should have the following information:
• Name
• Archetype
• Concept
• 4 Characteristic Scores
• Useful Gear & Weapons
• Mojo Power
• Psychotrigger
• Crazy-Go-Psycho meter
• Place to write down the name of your Mad Half
• Optional: Additional handy cards for Pawn info,
Token Costs, etc.
• 2: Adaptability Under Fire: Before any Quickie or Showdown, you can gain a point of CGP to permanently swap any two Characteristics’ current Ranks. This does not swap their starting maximums, though.
• 3: Always Keep One in the Chamber: Whenever the standard rules say you run out of Juice with your weapon, you can gain a point of CGP and say you didn’t actually run out of Juice, and continue using your weapon as normal. Your actual Juice tally remains unaffected by this Mojo, however, so watch out for the next time you use your weapon again.
• 4: Balls of Steel: In Showdowns and Quickies, you can gain a point of CGP to substitute your cool score for kill or Savvy. You must declare this before the cards are dealt.
• 5: By Will Alone: In Showdowns and Quickies, you can gain a point of CGP to substitute your griT score for kill or Savvy. You must declare this before the cards are dealt.
• 6: The Calming Repose of Death: Each time you kill an opponent in a single Showdown with no assistance from your teammates, you can erase a point of CGP from your meter.
• 7: Carrier Immunity: You are immune to the effects of
the game’s Contagion, but you can still carry it. If you
ever become infected, ignore any Effects, Threshold, and Aftermath of the Contagion. Once infected, you can transmit it through normal means.
• 8: Effing Hard Core: You’re so hard core, you can sacrifice your own well-being just to hurt your opponents. When
you win a combat Showdown against an opponent, you
can voluntarily take any amount of direct Hurtin’ in order
to deliver an equal amount of Hurtin’ to your opponent. You cannot attempt a griT check to resist any of your self- inflicted Hurtin’. Any Hurtin’ you apply to yourself is divvied among your Characteristics as you see fit.
• 9: Get Out of Hell Free Card: Like a cat that’s used up seven of its lives, you’ve got two remaining. The first time anything in the game ever causes your death, you bite the bullet, but only for a short while. At the beginning of the next scene, you are back in the game with one rank in each of your Characteristics. Keep in mind, this does nothing about existing Infection or CGP, but it might just stave off that Turning for a little while longer.
• 10: My Kung-Fu Is Better Than Yours: Once per opponent per session, you can evoke this Mojo to force your opponent to discard the last card they just played. You can only ever use this once on the same opponent, ever. Using this power gives you one point of CGP.
• J: One Tough Sumbitch: When making griT Quickies to attempt to nullify incoming Hurtin’, each face or ace drawn nullifies two Hurtin’, instead of the usual one.
• Q: Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Scene: If you have been narrated into a scene, you can gain a CGP point
and write yourself out of it at any moment before you play any cards. You must be able to narrate
your departure somehow, such as how you vanished while no one was looking, or how contrary to what everyone believed, you were never there in the first place. Once you’ve played even a single card in this scene via Quickie or Showdown, you lose the ability to evoke this during this scene. Note that being dealt cards does not count as actually having played them.
• K: Time Bomb: You’ve got one last surprise for whoever kills you, one last trick up your sleeve should you ever have to bite that proverbial bullet. Whenever your character is killed in the game, everyone near her takes Hurtin.’ The Amount of Hurtin’ dealt is equal to your current stage of Madness multiplied by your cool rank, Divided among everyone present. You have to narrate the nature of this unexpected Hurtin’ – maybe it’s a bomb in your head, maybe it’s a particularly violent death spasm, or maybe even your blood is filled with highly corrosive poisons, it’s up to you.
• A: Voice of Reason: You are adept at calming those around you, reducing their madness in the face of dark times. You can “take” points of CGP from others, erasing one point from their current CGP tallies for each one you add to your own.
• Joker: Take your pick!
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Topic: The New Manifest Destiny (Read 691 times)