Character and World Creation

Welcome.

Feel free to submit a character sheet and I will 'approve' it, sight unseen. Make it visible and we can work on the character there when that is convenient.

Most of the character creation will happen in this thread, but having a sheet can help.

Welcome, Verrain! :)

Well let's get started with my intro questions I guess.

How old were you when your visions began?

Malachi's first vision was on his 14th birthday. He touched his first present and he not only knew that it contained the video game that he asked for but he felt his parent's worries about the money it cost and the furious argument they had over a boy his age still enjoying children's things at his age. They would be divorced within the year and he knew that too.

How long have you been in the city?

Malachi has lived in London for about 5 years now. He had led a more nomadic lifestyle before that but his visions and his benefactor led him to set up shop in London.

How did you originally convince your benefactor to trust you and your visions?

Ultimately by being truthful in my foretelling even when it was something she did want to hear. To many around her only shared flattery or echoed what she wished to be. My honesty was a slap in the face but one that spared her scars.

Who seeks to sway you from your service?

That is the one thing my powers refuse to show me and my investigations have failed to uncover. That someone is trying to interfere is obvious but it is always through minions and minor powers with no real knowledge of why they have been asked to meddle in my life. My best guess is enemies of my benefactor but that hardly narrows it down.

What signs hint your prophecy grows near?

It is perhaps no surprise that many of his visions of London occur in the rain but he knows the rain is not natural and that the persistent rain heralds a greater storm. Despite the wet, every roof top seems to have a raven or crow, gathering in anticipation of later feasting. Malachi can feel London is on edge in every stone his touch lingers on for too long.

How old are you now? Roughly? I.e.: Roughly how long ago was this?
Are you still in touch with your parents?
Where did you grow up? Another large city? A rural community? Does it matter?
How extensively have you traveled? Abroad?
Even before you came to London?

Does actually being out in the rain help? Or is it more about the mood?
Interesting...
Since when?

The persistent rain has only been a few weeks. Has this feeling of impending doom been bothering you for longer than that?
When you are ready we can talk about your Benefactor and iron out the details.
Maybe you knew Jacob? His shop dealt in old books and such. With him suddenly absent, maybe that creates a link to Benji who is 'looking after the shop while it is closed'? Or maybe we don't bother with that connection?

Whether you knew Jacob or not does not affect how you wish to introduce your character to the group. It could through that connection; or it could be because you had a vision about one (or both) of them; or it could be that they come to you, looking for your help. Whatever tickles our fancy can easily work to get you into play when the time comes.
Can I ask why you selected Dual Loyalty for your second Move? Having a second Circle association can be useful, but, just so you know, the City Move stuff is not going to come up very often. We can leverage that in the fiction as greater influence over what is happening to compensate, but that is mainly flavour text, so no promised you will get the full benefit from that Move.

I am always generous with allowing changes to these starting picks (Moves, Stat allocations, whatever), so long as they have not had a measurable impact in the story. So, if it does not work out, you may be able to swap this Move for another down the road.

---

---

Remember that you add 1 to a Stat and Circle Rating as part of the Character Creation.

---

---

Do you need anything from me or the other players? There is no rush and we don't want to nag you, but we also don't want you to feel like you are being left out in the cold. Let us know how much input and involvement you want, at each step of the process.

How old are you now? Roughly? I.e.: Roughly how long ago was this?

I was picturing him as early thirties so about 15 years ago.

Are you still in touch with your parents?

Email and social media contact mostly. They tend to keep their distance lest I glimpse their future again.

Where did you grow up? Another large city? A rural community? Does it matter?

He was raised in Manchester near the area known as Little Germany. His family were German Jews that fled to England just before WWII broke out. His grandmother's visions played a role in that.

How extensively have you traveled? Abroad?

Malachi has spent more time abroad than in England since he finished school. He started in Germany tracking down where his family used to be and kind of spiraled about Europe from there.

As for the visions, I see I explained poorly. His visions of the future that are tied to his big destiny center on a rainy London. At first, this did not seem unusual but over time, Malachi realized that the rain in his visions was the same long storm and that it was somehow unnatural. So when the persistent rain started, Malachi started looking for other signs that this is THE storm from his visions. The feeling of doom started shortly after the rain.

I have no objection to having the missing Jacob as a point of contact.

I chose Dual Loyalty because I like the idea of Malachi being a paranormal investigator as was a given example. I like the notion that the GM can drop mortal problems in my lap as needed to direct the story. And the mechanical usefulness of double Circles was there as well.

If I didn't do Dual Loyalty, I would switch to Foresight. I don't really want to be a mind reader with Skim the Surface and we agreed on staying away from Soothsayer.

As for my Benefactor, I was wanting it to be one of the Wild. I like the idea of having ties to three out of four Circles and since everyone else seems to have gone Vampire I thought I might buck the trend.

I am open to what kind of Prophecy I have seen for my Benefactor. I am leaning toward "They alone can destroy a uniquely evil foe within their own Circle" but all of them sound cool if there is a better one that fits behind the scenes stuff.

Strengths: They speak truthfully and honor their word (Rare in a fae and the fact that I am truthful about my visions earned their respect), They wield significant supernatural power.

Flaws: They are at war with powerful enemies. They are madly in love with you.

I've also got some Starting Debts to work out,

 Someone helps decipher your visions with unique insights. You owe them 2 Debts.
 You had a dark vision about someone, but gave bad guidance. You owe them a Debt.
 Someone interfered with your destiny. They owe you a Debt. Tell them if you’ve forgiven them—they owe you another Debt if
you still hold a grudge for their actions.

Either of the PCs want one of those to be them?

There are no Fae in England. They are off the table.

Unfortunately the composition of the player character choices at the start defined a low Wild game, and much of the current story centers around that lack of Wild (though the characters don't know that, yet).
Agreed. That is a cool idea. We will need to work something out, though. So far none of the Wild that we have really fit as Benefactors, but we can make something that does.

• We have The Statues of Parliament Square (and other statues all around London), but they are mainly passive observers.
• The Servitors are constructed people, but they appear to be mainly servants, and not really Benefactor material.
• We heard rumour of a Dragon in the Thames, but that was linked to a PC we don't have anymore, and the dragon was insular and not involved. There may be something we can do there, but it feels a little hard to make this work. If you really want it, we can see what we can do.
• The Night Sisters are Wild (don't let the name confuse you, and Benji is about to see them shortly). They are mysterious and we don't know a lot about them yet. They seem to be intent on destroying dangerous artifacts. We can work something out there, if that catches your fancy?

Being as you are (somewhat) Jewish, maybe a shem powered 'golem'? Full of ancient secrets but needing help to act in this world?
That is very sad.
Cool!

So it is hereditary? Maternal or paternal grandmother? Does it matter? Are male seers as common as female ones?

Does it often skip a generation? Maybe it used to be common for these things to do that, because two many seers at the same time leads to wars and schisms?

(Yes, I know it should be 'too' Don't @ me! :).
Not at all. It is my job to take what you say and build on it, to ask probing questions.
Cool. We may find that, after we resolve the current rain issue, that what you thought was your vision of doom was just the harbinger... (up the stakes for the sequel after the end of season 'save the world'. :)
It is there as an option, as is Beji's imminent meeting with Amira (speaker for the Night Sisters, and who they represent). If we can bring your character in based on their visions and they own abilities, that would be cool, but we have options if that does not end up working.
Sounds good. That is fiction, so you could, of course, do that anyway, but it is stronger —even in the fiction— if it is mechanically backed up as well.
OK, good. Me too (as a player). But I did not want you suffering the 'downsides' with only seldom 'mechanical benefits'. Some Moves give extra options when used with a Circle you are part of, so there is always that benefit.
You can always pick it up later. Foresight might help more later when we have higher Stats and will be rolling more 12+s, anyway.
Fair enough.
Cool. Don't tell anyone (it's a secret), but we have a fairly uniquely evil foe in the form of the Fae (Wild) who are threatening (and actually attacking, but they are subtle, so people don't know this yet) London (and England).

I am always dubious about 'they alone' and such, but they have a special, vital function.

Your listed Benefactor Strengths and Weaknesses could well fit the power behind the Night Sisters. If you want to go that route we can talk about it and reveal details. Else I can see ways to make this work with a 'rabbi-golem' or something similar.
You can put more than one on someone. They can even all go on the same character, though that is probably not ideal and spreading them around has benefits.

If the other PCs want any of these, and we don't start with them already knowing each other, we can make these happen around the time we introduce your character. It is also possible that they don't know about this, they might help you decipher your visions without having met (weak I know), or you might have given bad guidance through someone else, and they might unwitting interfere with you.

We can also take the general shape and number and make up our own reasons.

We can also take a look at Benji's and Emma's Starting Debts and see if any of the ones assigned to absent PCs should be transferred to the new PC to give them a boost.

Re My Benefactor: If the Night Sisters are weird, mysterious and inscrutable, then it sounds like a good fit. Having said that, a golem living among the statues of London acting because the rest of Statues will not has a nice ring to it. I would be happy with either so let's go with GM excitement level as the tiebreaker.

Re Family History: Family lore claims that we are descended from the biblical Malachi and that prophets arise in our family line as they are needed. No one in the family really believes that these days but it is known that members of the family do manifest these powers from time to time.

I will wait for Benji and Emma's input on the debts. I think I would prefer to be a known quantity to both of them at the least.

I could make either of the other two work, I think. For the 'unique insights' one, Benji has lived in London for 200 years so he knows the city very well. It's possible Malachi could use his help to identify obscure locations or factions within the city that feature in his visions? Otherwise, we could come up with some way that Benji (probably inadvertently) interfered with Malachi's destiny.

All of Benji's starting debts are available, if any of them are of interest to you:
• Someone makes sure you get fed regularly, without attracting too much attention. You owe them 2 Debts.
• Someone relies on you for their fix. Ask them what you provide that keeps them sane. They owe you a Debt; add them to your Web.
• Someone recently sold you out to one of your enemies. You avoided the worst of the attacks, but your betrayer owes you a Debt; add them to your Web.