Character Creation / Discussion

OK.. I approved both characters. WP - I marked your skills as 'trained' (since I think they are) -- push back if you think they shouldn't be marked as trained.

WP and Remnant -- do you have a thought on how your divine nimbus manifests itself?

Sorry for the delay guys. I've been reading through the rule book today and started on a character. I'm going to go with a Savior to round out the team. I should have something up by tomorrow afternoon.

No worries! I'm not in any hurry and looking to pick up a fourth if we can. Not sure it'll happen though.

We have a new player joining us (WarDomo). I'm not sure if he has any Cypher experience or access to the Gods of the Fall material (none of which are required, imho). Domo -- let us know what knowledge/materials you have and if it's 'none' that's A-OK. We'll work through character creation with you!

(please feel free to lend a hand, team, in case I'm slower on the uptake!)

I have absolutely zero experience, but I do have a character concept, I'll get up to speed on the rules soon.

So basically I'm a God of disease, and naturally get a bad rap. The truth is that his purpose is one of the greater good. He saves humanity from itself. Population control, poor hygiene, high risk behaviors, he limits these things. Kill thousands to save millions...that kind of thing.

I want to say that he is very aware of his purpose and power, but has to contend with everyone else's perception of him.

.....Nurgle?

Googled: war hammer 40k plague God? I've never read anything about that lore. Seems close to what I was thinking but really wanted to play up the greater good part of that. Like the moral dilemma aspect. Kill some to save others.

I'm playing a god of justice who defends the week. Don't know how that will go with a God who kills, even if passively.

Two sides of the same coin if you squint a bit. Does justice not involve killing or harming one group to spare another?

Not necessarily. It involves having everything in its right place. It's about logic as much as it is about compassion.

Thing is the setting already lends itself to a grey morality (it's a world where the gods are dead and there is no hope for an afterlife, so whatever you do has no moral bearing beyond existential and immediate reasons). I wanted my character to represent the hope that justice and goodness will return to the world, even if other not so good things are coming back as well.

Okay. Whatever. I'll be God of birds or something else. What books do I need to play? Seems like gods of the fall is a sourcebook. Do I need a cypher system book or the numanera book or something?

Cypher System Rulebook. But character creation is actually pretty simple. This post kind of explains your options. Your character creation is forming a sentence with an adjective, noun who verbs. For example, my character is a Beneficent Champion who Defends the Weak. His descriptor is "Beneficent," his type is "Champion," and his focus is "Defends the Weak." You also choose a dominion. My character's is Justice (or at the very least, hope for justice).

Of the four character types they kind of correspond to DnD archetypes. Champions are warriors, Destroyers are skill based like rogues and are good ranged characters, Shapers are like spell casters, while Saviors are the charismatic characters that act like the mouth of the party.

For a list of descriptors from the core rulebook are as follows:

Appealing
Brash
Calm
Charming
Clever
Clumsy
Craven
Creative
Cruel
Dishonorable
Doomed
Driven
Empathic
Exiled
Fast
Foolish
Graceful
Guarded
Hardy
Hideous
Honorable
Impulsive
Inquisitive
Intelligent
Jovial
Kind
Learned
Lucky
Mad
Mechanical
Mysterious
Mystical
Naive
Noble
Perceptive
Resilient
Rugged
Sharp-Eyed
Skeptical
Spiritual
Stealthy
Strong
Strong-Willed
Swift
Tongue-Tied
Tough
Vengeful
Virtuous
Wealthy
Weird

I don't think you have to swing to be the God of the Birds.. ;)

Right now we have a trickster and a god of the meek, for lack of a better name. Of righteous justice rather than unfeeling justice. I think with disease we could probably find a way to make it work -- note that disease doesn't necessarily just target the weak or the downtrodden -- it can fell corrupt regimes as well (which may be righteous and just). It may be reasonable, especially if it's aspected (I made up that word) around the cycle of life, rather than just causing misery.

That said, it is important that y'all find something you like that can reasonably mesh together -- pantheons always have conflict, but for a group of 4 of you, it'd be best if the conflict was external to your group rather than internal to it. It's a pretty open field -- and I think there's a lot that will slot in nicely with a trickster and a righteous justice god.

I didn't mean to suggest WarDomo shouldn't play a god of disease. I was just wondering how that would work. It can still work nonetheless though. I'm looking forward to the game no matter the amount or kind of inter-party conflict.

Maybe I wasn't clear earlier. The idea was disease as a vector for enforcing natural order which I think fits in rather well... It even fits as Destroyer which we don't have yet. As falryx was saying, disease is indiscriminate it affects the rich, the poor, the weak, the strong, etc. Do the right things and generally you're fine...wash your hands, eat right (for mundane things), but it wouldn't take much to think up ways that disease would limit other things that if left unchecked would be detrimental to humanity.

That being said...disease tends to be a blunt instrument and often has collateral damage. :)

OK, I think I have a character ready to work with, Dimitri. He's a humble savior who finds the flaws in all things and has dominion over wisdom. Some of it was randomly rolled and then other pieces I finagled a bit to make the character make sense. I was thinking that a god of wisdom would be humble because he would be acutely aware of weakness and shortcomings in both others and himself. I think Dimitri's ability to find flaws is helpful for persuasion but also keeps him from speaking too much because he tries not to offend others. I think that he could mesh pretty well with all of the existing characters, particularly justice, and I could imagine a nice back and forth with the trickster trying to one up each other.

In regards to the earlier discussion about God of Disease, I think that sounds like a great concept, and I see your point about two sides of the same coin if you squint the right way.

I don't have the cypher system book, so if you guys think I put together anything incorrectly, let me know. I tried to stick to what was in the GotF book for character creation.

Seems interesting!

Remnant and WP -- Kristofer doesn't have the CRB -- so he may have some questions. Please feel free to jump in and help answer them. Additionally, WarDomo doesn't have the GOTF sourcebook, so he'd like a little help pulling together his character. I'm going to do what I can, naturally, but given the nature of PbP, community aid is welcomed!

Enthrall (1 Intellect point) - While talking, you grab and keep another creature's attention, even if the creature can't understand you. For as long as you do nothing but speak (you can't even move), the other creature takes no actions other than to defend itself, even over multiple rounds. If the creature is attacked, the effect ends. Action.

Mental Link (1+ Intellect points) - You open a pathway to another creature's mind via a light touch, which allows you to transmit thoughts and images to each other. The mental link remains regardless of distance and lasts for one hour. Instead of applying Effort to decrease the difficulty of this ability, you can extend the duration by one hour for each level of Effort applied. Action to initiate.

Fast Talk (1 Intellect point) - When speaking with an intelligent creature who can understand you and isn't hostile, you convince that creature to take one reasonable action in the next round. A reasonable action must be agreed upon by the GM; it should not put the creature or its allies in obvious danger or be wildly out of character. Action.

Erase Memories (3 Intellect points) - You reach into the mind of a creature within immediate range and make an Intellect roll. On a success, you erase up to the last five minutes of its memory. Action.

Background Connection -- WarDomo, please roll 1d20 if you want a random background connection. Or let me know if you'd like to pick one from the list (there are 20) and I'll type 'em out in a note to you.

Note: the Destroyer is constructed primarily from the Explorer in the core system (if you have the CRB).

Stat Pools:
- Might: 10
- Speed: 9
- Intellect: 9

-- you have 6 additional points to divide among your stat Pools however you wish.* All destroyers have the Stealth Skills ability
* Choose 3 Abilities in addition from this list: (I'll give a quick description - for any you choose I'll provide more detail)

- Block - you automatically block the next melee attack made against you within the next minute (takes an action to initiate)
- Danger Sense - you roll better initiative rolls.
- Decipher - if you spend some time examining some writing in a language you don't understand you might be able to get the gist of it with a roll.
- Extra Edge - you have a might edge of 1 and a speed edge of 1 (edge is used to reduce the cost of effort, or the cost of activating an ability)
- Fleet of Foot - if you succeed at a difficulty 2 speed roll, you can move a short distance and tak an action in the same round.
- Physical Skills - you are trained in a couple physical activity skills (there's a list). training in a skill reduces the difficulty of actions related to that skill (e.g. jumping, running, swimming).
- Practiced in Armor - you can use armor and reduce the penalties (armor typically incurs a speed penalty), this reduces it (but may not remove it on heavy armors)
- Practiced with All Weapons - you can use any weapons.
- Surging Confidence - when you use an action for your first recovery roll (it regenerates your stat pool) of the day, you get an immediate action.
- Trained Without Armor - basically, when you aren't wearing armor, you're better at speed-related defense actions.
- Erase Memories - detailed in my post above to kristofer
- Goad - improved speed defense rolls against a successfully attacked creature
- Overwatch - use a ranged weapon to make an attack that enters a specified (limited) area with some advantages
- Pierce - well-aimed penetrating attack, +1 damage
- Quick Draw - after using a thrown light weapon, you draw another weapon and make another thrown attack
- Spin Identity - basically you can convince people you are someone other than you are.
- Travel Skills - you are trained in two skills in which you are not already trained related to travel. Skills training helps lower the difficulty of rolls related to those skills.Hideous - means you are physically repugnant by almost any human standard. To make up for this you've got sneaking/disguising bonuses. Specifically:

- Versatile: you get 4 additional points to divide among your stat Pools
- You are trained in intimidation and any other fear-based interactions (skill)
- You are trained in disguise and steal tasks
- The difficulty of all tasks relating to pleasant social interaction is increased by one step.Siphons Power

Hrm. In reviewing this there's a definite 'machine' component to this as well as the living energy side.

A couple of quick thoughts about the Hideous Destroyer--I think disease works well with thematically the mechanics of the destroyer. Disease is sneaky and can come up and attack you even when you try to prepare for it. Character wise, I think Dimitri would not have a hard time grouping up with Disease. Not that he would necessarily like Disease, but that he would see the necessity and balance of it--the frailty of the body makes it something to be appreciated, even admired and cultivated. I don't imagine there would be much intraparty conflict with Dimitri and the others, but I think he would definitely be happy to step in and try to smoothe things over if it came up. Admittedly he probably has a hard time not pointing out flaws that make people angry, so maybe that wouldn't go well for him either.