Pilot creation (OOC thread)

Aha! Thanks. Hands for pigeon. I’ll edit in.

I've pitched a work-in-progress character sheet for

'Lari' Larisa Rostovich
Nature: Sparrow
Role: Misanthrope
Gender: concealed
Uniform: incorrect
Body: beautiful
Hands: manicured
Home Town: a series of orphanages
Who you write to back home: no one

(Leaning into the opportunity to misgender Lari in the hyper-masculine, warlike atmosphere of the Stalinist regime.)

Almost too properly coiffed and manicured to have chosen a career in the Russian air force, and apparently mediocre both in talent and study, one would consider them more suited to any other vocation than this. Unobstrusive to a fault, and never seeming to actually perform most of the duties they are assigned to, their work still somehow gets done. The NKVD would have a field day if they wanted to sift through the chequered past of Lari's origins. Was Lari somehow sponsored for this job?

Looking for a suitable portrait!

Just so you're aware the manual states:
"If you are a Junior Lieutenant, add a total of zero to GUTS , LUCK and SKILL in any order. For example, +1, +0, -1 or +0, +0, +0. Also possible is +2, -1, -1, but it’s not recommended!"

They don't explain why but I'm guessing it's because your average roll will be 5 and you miss at 6 or less. A -2 might make the skill virtually useless without some proper bonuses. If you're ok with that, we can try it out (you'll get to bump it sooner or later)

Roger that! It's a good feature of PbtA, that bonuses in one attribute are balanced by weaknesses in another.

Would you prefer that we generally start at average, ie +0, and then improve them as we gain experience? I'm not dead set on the distribution I've chosen. But I'm also distributing in that manner to sort of point towards the kind of PC Larisa might be, ie unskilled, but iconoclastic and seemingly always on the right side of things.

Sure, I never actually played this game so I can't say how deadly it is. But I'm fine with -2 skill. You do need to pass a skill test to graduate, but we'll see how we do that when the time comes. It's a potential hook waiting to happen as well :D

So we have 4 PCs now: Larisa the Sparrow Misanthrope; Dash the Hawk Adventurer, Galya the Pigeon Dreamer and Dasha Yegorova the Owl Zealot.

How are we doing with your character @Hamish?
Are you ok with submitting a character sheet @OrangeTree ?

Thanks for considering to try it out. If it doesn't work out further down the line please do the GM thing and veto it. Looking forward to the hook! I wrote a hint of that in the quick blurb above as well.

Apologies for the delay. I was at away at a wedding over the weekend and got less done on character creation than expected.

Meet Vera Gromova

Nature: Raven
Role: Protector
Gender: Female
Uniform: Regulation
Body: Angular
Face: Plain
Home Town: Vyzama
Who you write to back home: daughter Masha

No problem. Just checking how things are going.

I guess we can the training area soonish.

I think I'm ready!

Anything you want from us while we wait to ship out to the training facility?

Most thinks should be fleshed out during the training if the introduction works as intended :D
Just Nature, Role, a name and some descriptions should be enough.

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This is probably very minor but, because USSR was huge, the manual has some suggestions to explore the ethical diversity in case it inspires you.

Your character will be a Soviet airwoman—maybe heroic, maybe deeply flawed, maybe monstrous, maybe all three—but she will be a woman from the Soviet Union who flies. This is an iron-clad rule. You can’t play an American, you can’t play someone who can’t fly, you can’t play a man—unless, of course, everybody thinks that man is a woman.

There is still room for variety among the characters. The Soviet Union was a big place full of diversity, so go ahead and play a taciturn Georgian, or a proud Azeri, or a reluctant Estonian, or a despised Volga German, or a far-from-home Yakut if you want.

Awesome! Can't wait!

Just a heads up, headed out of town the next few days. I'll still be available with my phone, but I have a wedding to attend, and other family events, so I won't be on too much.

No problem. Thanks for letting us know.
We will have a slow start just to introduce the characters and the setting. There shouldn't be anything major happening this weekend yet

My flight has been delayed by 12 hours. I slept in the truck in the parking lot. I'm running on about 3 hours of sleep. I don't think I'll contribute much because I'm having a hard time focusing.

Figured I'd warm up to my character with a starter post. I shall get round next to thinking through those very thorough and introspective questions CESN!

You don’t have to answer them yet, but if you see something that inspires you, mark it ! Most of them are meant to be asked at some point during the training station.

I just wanted you guys to have time to think about them

Newb question. How do I add a character portrait for the game?

(I’m just going to dump my portrait link here so I don’t lose it.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Evgeniya_Rudneva.jpg)

Go to your character sheet. In the upper right corner there's an edit button. From there ,in the upper right corner there is a link to add a portrait.

And if folks clock the little banner symbol on their character sheet, you'll make it public and we will be able to see each other's sheets.

Exactly that. There is another thing which is that you have to post as the character, not the player, for it to show up. There’s a little drop down menu on top of the text box for that

Got it, thanks.