Winding down after my Autumn of the Bloodclans game was cancelled due to player vacations, a few friends and I were discussing the upcoming start of the “Official” Crimson game. Donald, one of the most experienced and deliberate character-crafters I know, began to settle in on a character concept…
Player Profile – Donald
Profession: Virtual Assistant
Game Style: Intellectual, philosophical problem solver
Experience: 30+ Years, Multiple Systems (D&D, Pathfinder, Mutants and Masterminds, Gurps)
Gaming Drives: Immersive Experience, Specialist Characters, Philosopical Exercises, Complex Challenges
Building on the Drives:
Immersive Experience – Donald loves a strong world presentation. He demands it. Crimson is really shaping up to be a vivid place and I feel if I live up to my setup this should be pretty easy to deliver on. In a way Donald’s presence is actually a constant reminder for me to render the world harder, push the details and strive for ever stronger verisimilitude. He wants his feet to land on solid ground and the dust to bloom from the impact. Donald pushes me to be better and I am grateful for the pressure.
Specialist Characters – Donald plays the HELL out of a class. While not a build-guide user he will sort through options in stunning detail and deliver a character that often times is the provebial “best at what he does.” This is an awesome boon to party survivability but it has an unusual cost. Donald tends to “burn out” a class. He wants to engage a worthwhile, new experience but his commitment to making an effective character means that aside from build variations (archetypes, specializations, etc.), he often time he gets the play experience he wants and the class is “done.” A new class might be the ticket. He recently played a mosaic mage so nothing in our “core” is all that new to him. Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advance Class Guide anyone?
Philosophical Exercises – Donald wants to think and work through situations. The dragon shouldn’t be slaughtered to save the princess every time. Sometimes the dragon should be reaping the benefits of its divinely sanctioned contract for a virgin daughter of the Hishu line that might need to be rescued because she might have got a little close to the master of arms and MIGHT not be appropriate to fulfill the contract, and so on. I think immersion in the politics and military issues surrounding Crimson sounds like a way to bring up some of these considerations.
Complex Challenges – This guy has gamed a lot. One of my few friends that has been playing as long as I have, Donald has seen a ton of tables. Fights need to be layered, dangerous and meaningful. Mechanics shouldn’t be dumbed down and decisions should have consequences. The world should respond to the players and they should be able to alter it. Crimson is in need of lasting change and I think his character will be central to those efforts. I think he will enjoy the Imar tribal diplomacy and dwarven political aspects, the internal factions of Crimson and the mysteries of the larger plot. He needs to be involved with a political faction but oracle and the Hall is already claimed by Aaryn and red mosaic is out…
The Character Base
New class. Political action. Complex encounters. Well it sounds like this character is going to be a fighter but not in terms of class. He or she will be a driving aggressive force in the development of Crimson’s future. And aggressive force IS the Voidchapel and as for new classes we have identified a few possibilities, but when Donald settles on arcanist it all comes together. We are getting a cutting-edge countermeasures expert armed with lore reclaimed from the God of Secrets himself. The arcanists of Crimson are known as the Mind of the Voidchapel and it looks like Donald will be a perfect rising star among its ranks.
Oh yes… this game is looking to be shaping up nicely.
"Find the Hero Within" - Lost Spheres Publishing 