Character creation

Please use this thread for character creation.


In character creation there are some steps to be taken (besides the mechanical ones).


1. It is in general better to first know some more details about the town before finalizing your character. That way you can incorporate town stories into your character.

2. Decide on your character's mechanics, name, description, story etc.

3. Post a draft introduction to your character.


Once everyone has done these 3 steps and posted their draft introduction and once town is taking shape, we can progress.


4. Players should decide if their characters know each other and how they do. Friendship, family relations etc. can be shaped here.

5. Everyone will get a random question about another character. This can be based on a positive or negative feeling or an "I hardly know you". The question is random, but you can pick between the positive/negative/don't know list. I will post these lists when we get there.

6. Finally, players who have characters who are close to each other should decide if they want to share a Bonded Action.

I noticed that someone posed a Kids on Bikes 1E sheet here
https://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/21532/?p=1103244#p1103244

I tried to modify it to 2E.

Feel free to comment / adjust

Will hold back on detailed character creation until I know what other people are playing / what our town is like. I might be interested in playing a Popular Girl, since that's an archetype I enjoy, but I'm open to different directions. Maybe a geeky kid, or a bully could also be pretty fun (though maybe troublesome to integrate into a group).

The rulebook I have is 1E. How different is 2E from that?

Both the Popular Kid and Brilliant Mathlete trope haven't changed in 2E compared to 1E.
If you have the 1E book, you can basically copy them from there,

In 2E they have added the bikes to the tropes.

For Popular Kid that would be
Teen: Blue, Trading Cards
Adult: Purple, Bell

For Brilliant Mathlete
Child: Red, Tassels
Teen: Purple, Basket

Of course you can customize these.

Fears, Knacks and possible Bonded Actions are not listed by default in the tropes.

One of this game's selling points is being inclusive. How much do we want to include issues of prejudice or oppression in our story? I would be interested in playing with something like that with my character: Maybe I am a minority race, maybe I am trans, maybe I am autistic? (Probably only one at a time though.)

I would only do this if the whole group was interested in having such topics be a part of the game, and wanted to do their best to treat such topics with respect.

What do we think?

I was thinking of playing a girly goth chick. Dad works as a mechanic somewhere and taught her some stuff. Mom wants her to wear pink, dresses, and frills.

Cool. I probably won't go trans then, so not to step on or overshadow Smiley's concept.

I'm definitely interested in that kind of stuff. I am and have been playing some trans characters in different games on GP (and I'm even playing one in real life 🤣). I'd say go for it if it interests you, vague! I think it can add some interesting dynamics to a game. And it doesn't have to overshadow Smiley's concept. They could even commiserate over it together.

No objection to including it, but I'll probably play someone pretty close to myself (a straight white cis guy). I'm new to PbP, so I'll make that my focus instead of going out on an RP limb as it were.

I'd like to play a high Grit/Brains new-to-town kid. My dad's a scientist who works at the fish farm (moved here for the project); mom's a genre fiction writer (who writes under a pseudonym and is successful, but not particularly famous). I'll have moved to town a few months ago, so could definitely have a connection with another PC or two if we hit it off, but broadly folks don't know me (and probably pick on/exclude me).

Everyone should play what they like and I am fine with any of the topics vagueGM suggested.

That reminds me that I completely forgot to add a thread about this. Let's fix that right now.

Cool. If not here, we can look into that elsewhere at some point. And I am always open to guidance.
Agreed. Though possibly. sometimes, to the point where it becomes a bigger thing than we want.
That would be completely up Smiley. Having a parent that wants them to wear 'slightly more girly clothes' might wane in comparison to 'my daughter insists she is a boy and refuses to wear a top!' (this is the 90s:).
@Smiley: Only if you are actually interested in exploring this trans idea:

We could be siblings (half siblings?). Our parents were relived when I did not show interest in your 'goth aesthetic' and are now starting to worry that they may have 'been worrying about the wrong kid'.

Let me know if you want to go with this, else I can easily do something completely different.

Cool. Good to know.
That is often a good idea, especially when also tackling new ideas (like RPGs or PbP). 'Playing other' is an additional challenge that can detract from the overall enjoyment.

I have no problem with your character having problems with or struggling to come to terms with anything my character is. Some tension can be fun.
It could be that the island/town is small enough, or has few enough kids that we are sorta assumed to be forced together by our parents arranging play-dates or class schedules and such. So we can easily come up with reasons for a new kid to be included in our group and our adventures.

So, deviating from what I mentioned at first, I'm thinking of adapting a character I had for a different kids game where I didn't really get to go much into the character before it ended for this one.

She'd be the daughter of divorced parents, living with her alcoholic mother and so she had to be the one to step in and take charge of the family and of taking care of her little sister. That concept would also play into the poverty theme vague brought up in the detours thread, if people are okay with that.
She's a really bright and cheerful person in public to kind of hide her troubles at home.

But I'm also happy think of something else if people don't feel this idea.

That sounds really interesting, bowl.

I don't know how much I will get into the Trans Idea. Might just be a phase for her...


As for Half/Siblings I would prefer cousins over Siblings.

I was not, in any way, implying in that scenario that your character would be trans. I was suggesting that my character being trans might upstage your character not conforming and dressing as your parents want.
We don't have to be related at all. It was just an idea around similar parental disappointment/concern. We don't have to do anything like this if you are not into this.

If you want to be cousins --or related in some other way-- I am completely open to discussing that.

Totally. A school assignment always works forming groups.
I love it :)

What is the difference between

Treasure Hunter: May spend 1 Adversity Token to find a useful item in your surroundings.
&
Prepared: May spend 2 Adversity Tokens to just happen to have one commonplace item with you (GM’s discretion).

Which of the two are more useful?

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For my Knack I was going to have Mechanical. Being able to fix things like bikes or small motors. Does that work?

Is there a way to link Character sheets to this game, or do we just copy paste them somewhere?

Edit: found the submit character form on the game page.

I'm leaning towards silver spoon. Mom is a super model, always away traveling the world, and dad is civil litigation attorney, or as the kid says "he's a lawyer". Probably has an older sibling...I welcome a pc here, OR some kind of nanny/au pair. Thirteen going on 20, caucasian.

You can submit a sheet on the Game Detail page.
Sounds fun. Stark contrast to my character

Seems to me the second costs twice as much, but says you 'have the item with you', while the first needs you to play out looking for and finding something useful. The second does not require you go out and look and the item need not be appropriate to the location, you are unlikely to be able to find something like 'the right batteries for your torch' out in the wilds, but you could say you have them in your pack, for instance?
Makes sense given your dad.

This indeed.
with treasure hunter you could find things that fit the surroundings, but can also be bigger or more intesting than common place.

Based on our conversations so far, I have gone with the trans idea and submitted a character, which should be visible to you all.

My parents are outgoing tour-guides, mainly outdoor stuff. So that might make my place a fun place to hang out and we may have opportunities from that.

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masterdwarf: Are your parents originally from the island? If so, maybe our families were friends, and in a similar comfortable-middle-class economic bracket before your mom got famous and super rich? Maybe they still try to hang out together, but have less in common now? Are they both from here, or did one of them go and find a suitable mate on the mainland?

This Could make us 'old friends'. Or there may be tension between our families if the split (enrichment) happened before we were around.

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natknight: I don't know what masterdwarf's character's gender is, but as the other boy in our (forced) group of friends it may be assumed that we should just hang out together. Your character probably does not know anything about my being trans and that could be a shock and a (brief) 'problem' when you find out, however that happens.

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bowlofspinach: Maybe we are (or were) close friends before? But maybe 'your father got my family in the divorce', as the saying goes? Do my parents still try to take you and your sister camping with us when the 'client-situation' allows? I don't think they approve of your mother, but not enough to do anything about it. Does the town at large, or family friends know about her drinking problems?

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Smiley: Do you want us to be related? Else we can just be friends. Your being a deviant as well might make you someone I look up to.

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I checked all the boxes in the consent section because I give consent. But I don't think I am in a relationship at the start of the game.

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Edit: Removed link to facilitate character sheet reuse.

I was thinking that my dad is involved in the tourism business as well, so that connection between our families would work great. And I like the idea that we have kind of drifted apart after the divorce because your parents are closer to my dad than my mom but that they still try to sometimes offer the two sisters something nice.

For my mother, I was thinking she works at the school as a cleaning lady. I would say it's probably kind of whispered about that she has an alcohol problem, but it's not big news in town.

Cool. Do they maybe work together or do they do different things in slightly different fields (and occasionally have overlap)?

I think my family is still 'comfortably well off'. Is your dad also suffering from the poverty theme or is that just a problem with your mom drinking all the alimony?
Cool. Let's say that.

I'd say he's better off than my mom, but not doing great either. He can sell himself well, though, so people think he's better off than he actually is.
I'm kind of thinking of my dad as Ken...They're probably not working quite closely together, but would know each other from when they do overlap.

Draft character submitted!

vagueGM: I'm good with not knowing that your character is trans, but I'm imagining my family as very educated progressive white collar Californians, so my intention would be to anachronistically cool with that ("My dad's a biologist and he says biological sex is more of a spectrum anyways").

In terms of playing with class, since both my character's parents work (and dad's a scientist) I took the "Wealthy" strength; I'm happy to play the foil in that theme.

I kind of like the idea of being cousins. My Mom is related to your Mom.
My dad is a Mechanic and my Mom is the secretary at the School.

My father, Cris, is from the island. He grew up there. He met my mother when he was practicing law in New York. Because my parents don't want me to be alone/latchkey kid/find trouble they have me live with my grandparents, Lonnie and Stew, during the school year. My father may have had a thing for your mother back in high school. Perhaps they were prom king/queen?

Excellent! My character does not know that you would be cool, so they have no reason to open up and be pleasantly surprised. It will be interesting to see that all happen in play.
Really? In the mid-90s? A very progressive biologist. I would prefer if he only states these ideas (to his son) after he has a reason to, that way your character does not initiate the topic.
Hmm... We have two fairly rich families and one struggling, I think I will put my family 'in the middle': not struggling, but a little envious of the other two (and all the rich clients they cater to), but possibly also not quite as well off as they appear to be.

Cool. Let's do that.
Just 'related' so not actually 'my aunt' (mother's sister) or anything? Maybe they are cousins?
Maybe, since he is 'married into the family' my family turn to him a lot for "can't you quickly fix this vehicle/generator/whatsit" and expect 'family discounts' and such? Does he resent that or is he well compensated in non-monetary ways?

Interesting. So your mom and dad are considered sorta 'outsiders' on the island, while you and you grandparents are 'locals'?
Ooh. Exciting. I think it was mutual, but then your dad left. But maybe we don't know about this? My dad is outwardly friendly enough with you but there has always been a strange tension there?
Done! That adds some extra character to my mom and her expectations/disappointments with me. :)

I am thinking my dad was runner-up for prom king. (If such a thing exists, I don't actually know how that works.:)

Let get my head back there to high school. All the students vote for people to be on 'court'. The two with most votes are crowned King and Queen. Fyi.

I figured as much. So they don't have to be a couple --going to the dance together-- (though that is a system I have also encountered). But they happened to also be 'the it couple' (which I suppose does help garner them votes). My dad was still, maybe, runner-up as both king and date. :)

Sorry. My Mother is your Mother's Sister. Were you thinking Older, Younger or Twins?

Cool. So we are closely related.

'Cousin' is easy because it is non-gendered. All I expect from your character is that they go along with my choice of pronouns and don't correct people when they call me 'he'. I have been presenting as a boy in this town for long enough that most people (aside from some crotchety old relatives who are indignant at the travesty) use male pronouns for me.I don't think 'twins' really grabs me, but I am happy for that if you want that to be true.

With regard to age, their ages don't need to follow ours, but it might be easier to work that out after we know how old we are. How old is your character?

I am still a 'child' by this games definitions, which makes me 11,12, or 13? I will just go with close to the same age as the other characters to keep things simple.

I went Teen. Was thinking around 13-14 for age though.

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I started building my character the following is what I have so far.

Name:|Zoey
Age:|13.5
Age group:|Teen
Fear:|Fear
Flaw:|Hot-tempered
Knack:Mechanical
Motivation:|Motivation
Obligation:|Obligation
Trope:|Trope Or Custom
Description:|Description

FIGHT | 1d8+1
FLIGHT | 1d10
BRAINS | 1d6
BRAWN | 1d12+1
CHARM | 1d4
GRIT | 1d20

Bike
# Silver
Description: [You have the Protective strength.]
# Pedal-Powered Lights:
Description: [You get +1 to all checks after dark.]

Strenghts
# Rebellious
Description: Add +3 to rolls to persuade or resist persuasion from Kids. Add +3 to rolls to resist persuasion from Adults.
# Prepared
Description:May spend 2 Adversity Tokens to just happen to have one commonplace item with you (GM’s discretion).
# Protective (From Bike)
Description: Add +3 to rolls when defending one of your friends.
# Intuitive
Description: Intuitive: May spend 1 Adversity Token to ask the GM about your surroundings, an NPC, or the like. The GM must answer honestly.

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For Bounded Action I was thinking

Tag Team: When making a relevant Fight check together, use either character’s roll, then add an additional +3 to that roll.
Sworn Protector: Either character can suffer the effects of the other character’s failed check to protect them.
Calming Presence: When one of you is exposed to a Fear, the other can talk them down, allowing them to ignore any impacts of that Fear.

But It is up for opinion with ever wants to have a bounded action with me.

Cool. I am a bit younger then, but it might be interesting if my mom was the older sister? Maybe she did not plan to have kids but your arrival made her all broody?

Was your mother also the prom queen in her year?
If you want us to be able to see your character sheet you need to Add them to the Library.
To do that mark the grey 'note' icon that says Add to Library on your character list.

Red means others can see the sheet.

This is not limited to people in this game, everyone can see the sheet. You will also need to provide a link to the sheet since we can't click on them in the Details page.

Thanks for the tip!

Here’s my sheet: https://gamersplane.com/characters/custom/27145/

Unfortunately we can not see the contents of that sheet, it has not been 'Added to the Library'.

@natknight: We can see it now.

Cool, thanks for helping me debug that 👍

My character. Just 1-2 things to do, but most of it is complete.

https://gamersplane.com/characters/custom/27226/

Been pretty quiet here. Am I missing anything?

Unfortunately our GM, AlwaysBlue, has been absent from the site for nearly two weeks.

This sort of thing happens more often than I would like, but there is always a risk of people ghosting when we are playing with strangers who we have no way of contacting.

I optimistically still submitted a character and continued discourse after the GM had been gone for two days, but it is looking dubious that this game will get off its feet.

A pity, I really liked the interactions with all of you and think we had an interesting town and people going.

I admit I've also been slower than I would have liked with getting my character done and submitted, but it is still a shame. She might still return, but considering how new her account was, it's more likely than not that she won't.

Ok. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't just me. I figured it happens. Ppb is easy in it's make up, but I'm noticing how time consuming it can be. Thanks everyone.

That is true. It can take a lot of discipline to keep things balanced and not let it become a burden on the rest of our lives.

How have you been enjoying it so far?

That is too bad.

@vagueGM Would you be willing to run this? You see capable.
I am debating about running it. I have not run Kids on Bikes but I have ran a lot of 5e games.

'Kids' games (though mainly 'school' games) and 'horror' games are areas I am really not good at running, was hoping to get a little more exposure.

I have mentored many similar games (mainly a whole lot of Monsterhearts back when it first came out), so if you want to try running it, I am happy to play your guide, @Smiley.

It's different. I knew it would be. I have done it once before, a long time ago. I am in another game and need to get into that one a bit more than I have been, that's for sure.

Particularly sad to have your first experiences plagued by issues like this game fading away. Hopefully your game with Harrigan gives you a better idea of how these things can work when they work.

Harrigan is a great and reliable GM. That other game should go well