Let's Burn Up a Character

Stare Stomach

Thousand Yard Rainman

wait, I didn't initially vote for either of those.. whatever, it still stands as my vote.

(Nah, if I care I'm sure it's on the burning wiki)

Wait, its that you laugh when hesitating? Everyone, change your votes to this!

Thousand Yard Stare is the winner! According to the book, "This character has seen so much death, shock, inhumanity and horror that nothing phases him anymore." As a result, he is quicker to recover his composure in the face of pain and violence, but slower to recover from surprise and wonder. Who knows what awful things he saw during his tour as a horncaller?

Stats:

Show Content

Spoiler
Stock: Dwarf
Age: 80 Years

Lifepaths:
Born Artificer
lead to Clansman
Tinkerer
lead to Guilder
Wordbearer
lead to Dwarven Host
Horncaller

Traits:
(Dwarven Common Traits)
Curious
Quirky
Thousand Yard Stare

Stats:
Will: 4
Per: 5
Pow: 4
Forte: 5
Agi: 5
Spd: 4

Skills:
Dwarven Rune Script: B2
Stuff-wise: B2
Hold-wise: B2
Links: B2
Scavenging: B4
Rumor-wise: B3
Conspicuous: B2
Cadence-wise: B2
Mending: B3
Oratory: B3
Suicidal Bravery-wise: B2
Hammer: B2
Stentorious Debate§: B2

Resources: 49 pts

Now we do attributes. Attributes are, basically, the miscellaneous numbers on the character sheet that aren't stats or skills. Some of the attributes are directly derived from stats - I'll just calculate those for the character stats spoiler and we won't worry about it. But some require questions to be answered and thought to be given about just what this character's actual history is.
The attributes are, how Healthy is the character, how well can the character Steel himself in the face of pain or shock, and how Greedy is this dwarf? The answers to the following questions will determine this:

Does the character live in squalor or filth?
Is the character frail or sickly?
Has the character been severely wounded in the past?
Has the character been tortured or enslaved?
Is the character athletic and active?
Does the character live in a really clean and happy place, like the hills in The Sound of Music?
Has the character ever murdered or killed by his own hand?
Has the character been tortured, enslaved or beaten terribly over time?
Has the character led a sheltered life free of violence and pain?
Has the character been raised in a competitive (but non-violent) culture - sports, debates, strategy games, courting?
Has the character ever given birth to a child? It's possible!
Has the character ever coveted something owned by another?
Has the character ever stolen something he coveted?
Has the character ever had a prized possession stolen from him?
Has the character ever been in the presence of the master craftsmanship of the Dwarven Fathers?
Has the character witnessed an outsider in possession of a work of Dwarven art?
Which of the following does the character care least about: Power, Craftsmanship, Riches or Beauty?

Everyone gets to answer all of them! These are all binary, yes/no questions (except the last, of course,) but feel free to offer a bit of detail/explanation for each answer. Majority vote will win for the individual yes/nos, and I'll combine the most interesting/popular/personally appealing bits of the explanations for the final, canonical answers.

No filth, though he has before.
He has a good dwarfy immune system.
Who knows? Maybe...
Athletic as can be.
The cleanest place he's ever lived was the army hospital.
Even horncallers kill sometimes.
I think he came close once but escaped, leaving his buddies behind.
Aw hell no.
I think so...
Yes. A wizard did it.
Oh yes.
And yes.
And yes. It made him angry.
Nope.
Yes. It didn't really register until later.
Riches, probably.

Does the character live in squalor or filth? yes
Is the character frail or sickly? yes
Has the character been severely wounded in the past? yes
Has the character been tortured or enslaved? yes
Is the character athletic and active? yes
Does the character live in a really clean and happy place, like the hills in The Sound of Music? yes
Has the character ever murdered or killed by his own hand? yes
Has the character been tortured, enslaved or beaten terribly over time? yes
Has the character led a sheltered life free of violence and pain? yes
Has the character been raised in a competitive (but non-violent) culture - sports, debates, strategy games, courting? yes
Has the character ever given birth to a child? It's possible! yes
Has the character ever coveted something owned by another? yes
Has the character ever stolen something he coveted? yes
Has the character ever had a prized possession stolen from him? yes
Has the character ever been in the presence of the master craftsmanship of the Dwarven Fathers? yes
Has the character witnessed an outsider in possession of a work of Dwarven art? yes
Which of the following does the character care least about: Power, Craftsmanship, Riches or Beauty? yes

that is my legitimate suggestion.
last question is really beauty

Has the character been severely wounded in the past? yes
Has the character ever murdered or killed by his own hand? yes
Has the character been tortured, enslaved or beaten terribly over time? yes
...
Has the character led a sheltered life free of violence and pain? yes

Er um

THATS THE (bad) JOKE

i'm still voting yes for everything but if you realllly want me to do a more serious one i will

Your call. But you're missing a sweet opportunity to tell us more about this character's history by offering details!

our character is a deranged person who has suffered years of torture, causing his mind to snap and believe that he has been leading a comfortable life so far. Despite living in an awful apartment, he views it as a five star hotel.

I want him to live in the filth of a really clean and happy place.

That is all.

1011000001011111 Beauty

has abs

But but but but tell us about these things! What did he steal? Why was he tortured? What does he do to keep active? How was he severely wounded? What competitive things does his culture do?

His culture is based around stealing royal giant war scorpions from various neighbouring castles.

According to tradition, he whoever steals the biggest and deadliest of royal giant war scorpions and rides it victorious into the Mountainhome will be crowned King of the Dwarves.

Okay. Okay, I can work with that.
Anyone else? Or is voting over?

I'll make up some elaborations on some of Agent's answers.

Show Content

Spoiler

No filth, though he has before.

When he traveling as a wordbearer, he'd often be living penniless and on his wits. So when he wasn't sleeping out in the bush, he'd be put up in a stable or something like that when he couldn't afford rent.

Who knows? Maybe...

One time while tinkering, he blew a finger off his left hand in an unfortunate pottery accident. He sort of sowed it back on himself, but it sort of fell off later. Fortunately his dwarfy immune system shrugged off any infections that might have drifted by.
Got hit up a few times by bandits while wordbearing. He got cut up pretty bad, but nothing life-threatening.
Also nearly got killed by an arrow while horncalling. Stuck straight in the gut. Took the surgeon forever to get it out. The damn thing nearly destroyed his liver, which is of course a dwarf's only vital organ.

Athletic as can be.

Despite being a horncaller, he still had to do physical training exercises to keep up with the regiment. He keeps up with these physical exercises, partly out of habit and partly because he likes being fit.
He can distance-walk like nobody's business, thanks to his time spent wordbearing too.

The cleanest place he's ever lived was the army hospital.

And military medical facilities were never that clean to begin with.

Even horncallers kill sometimes.

He found the sharpshooter that nearly shot his liver and charged the poor sap. Strangled the elf to death with its own bow.

I think he came close once but escaped, leaving his buddies behind.

His unit was routed after the scouts left out a 0 in the troop estimate. He was captured before he even knew what was going on.

I think so...

Artificer upraising let him grow up in relative protection from the rough-and-tumble streets. He enjoyed pickup games of dwarfball as a child. He was too much of a free spirit to get really caught up in competition and beating down your rivals.

Yes. A wizard did it.

It was horrific and he has long since blocked the incident out of his memories. Where did that hole even go to?

Oh yes.

Someone asked him to repair a really really really nice horn.

And yes.

He jacked it and ran to do wordbearing.

And yes. It made him angry.

He lost it the first time he got robbed by bandits. Tried to follow them, but didn't know how to track at all, so he gave up.

Yes. It didn't really register until later.

Saw a human commander with a seriously crazy sword. Legendary artifact, probably worth an entire kingdom or something ridiculous like that. And then his unit got routed.

Does the character live in squalor or filth?
Yes. When he traveling as a wordbearer, he'd often be living penniless and on his wits. So when he wasn't sleeping out in the bush, he'd be put up in a stable or something like that when he couldn't afford rent.

Is the character frail or sickly?
No. He has a good dwarfy immune system.

Has the character been severely wounded in the past?
Yes. One time while tinkering, he blew a finger off his left hand in an unfortunate pottery accident. He also got beat up by bandits once and took an arrow to the liver while horncalling.

Is the character athletic and active?
Yes. Despite being a horncaller, he still had to do physical training exercises to keep up with the regiment. He keeps up with these physical exercises, partly out of habit and partly because he likes being fit.
He can distance-walk like nobody's business, thanks to his time spent wordbearing too.

Does the character live in a really clean and happy place, like the hills in The Sound of Music?
No. The cleanest place he's ever lived was the army hospital.

Has the character ever murdered or killed by his own hand?
Yes. Even horncallers kill sometimes. In particular, he killed the sharpshooter who nearly shot his liver. Strangled the elf to death with its own bow.

Has the character been tortured, enslaved or beaten terribly over time?
No. His unit was routed after the scouts left out a 0 in the troop estimate. He was captured before he even knew what was going on, but managed to quickly escape. His buddies were left behind.

Has the character led a sheltered life free of violence and pain?
No. Clearly not!

Has the character been raised in a competitive (but non-violent) culture - sports, debates, strategy games, courting?
Yes. His culture is based around stealing royal giant war scorpions from various neighbouring castles. He was too much of a free spirit to get really caught up in competition and beating down your rivals, but the culture's traditions still had their impact on him.

Has the character ever given birth to a child? It's possible!
Yes. "He" was raped by a wizard, who employed horrific dark magic to do the deed. Though he eventually had the baby, he otherwise blocked the traumatic incident from his memory.

Has the character ever coveted something owned by another?
Yes. He was once charged with the repair of the Krundlhorn, an ancient Dwarven artifact used by the original inventors of the patterns still in use today by horncallers. He was loathe to return it when he finished...

Has the character ever stolen something he coveted?
...so he didn't! He jacked it and ran to do wordbearing. Learning of its history is what eventually led him to join the horncallers.

Has the character ever had a prized possession stolen from him?
Yes. He lost the Krundlhorn the first time he got robbed by bandits. Tried to follow them, but didn't know how to track at all, so he gave up - but he was very angry about it.

Has the character ever been in the presence of the master craftsmanship of the Dwarven Fathers?
Yes. He wasn't just in its presence, he stole it!

Has the character witnessed an outsider in possession of a work of Dwarven art?
Yes. Saw a human commander with a seriously crazy sword. Legendary artifact, probably worth an entire kingdom or something ridiculous like that. The significance didn't register until later.

Which of the following does the character care least about: Power, Craftsmanship, Riches or Beauty?
Beauty. He's a practical dwarf, and lusts more after power, riches and craftsmanship.

This leaves us with:
Health: B4
Steel: B8
Greed: B6 (though it could still be modified by Relationships.)

Greed, if you're wondering, is a stat that lets the Dwarf get extra dice to obtain those things he is greedy for, but at a cost - if he uses it enough to advance the stat to B10, he goes mad with his covetous desires and shuts himself in his halls forever!

We're coming close to the end, but there are a couple steps left. First is resource spending. He has 49 resource points. These can be spent on
1. Gear/Property
2. Relationships
3. Affiliations/Reputations

Gear is his equipment and tools. Property is houses and workshops.

Buying a Relationship lets the player create an important NPC and bring them into the game as a contact or rival for their character. Our dwarf needs at least one relationship for his Oathsworn trait - he has to swear the Oath to someone, and that someone must be a relationship.

Affiliations and Reputations affect who he knows and how easy it is for him to find people.

So, the first question is, how should the points be distributed between these categories? Go ahead and rank them from "most points" to "least points".

as much into gear as possible- leaving enough for whoever we swore an oath too, and also the reputation of "that really good horncaller, you know, what's-his-name."

it's really all about social links is da thing

Relationships
Affiliations
Gear

Affiliations/Reputations: High (middling)
When you get around a bit, as wordbearers do, you start to learn about people. How they think, how they work... what makes them tick. How every city's not so different when you boil it down. Where the cheap inns that don't ask too many questions are. Why the cheap inns don't ask many questions. Sometimes you learn, and sometimes you learn. Our dwarf doesn't necessarily know specific people... but the way he's learned to work, he doesn't always need to.

Gear: Middling (high)
Since the incident with the horn, he's been a bit wary about keeping properly expensive stuff with him. Besides, he prefers something that'll keep to something that'll look good.

Relationship: Low (low)
What with his wandering years, he didn't have the time or the inclination to forge many strong bonds. His Oathsworn is probably close family or someone in the Military hierarchy. Or someone who saved his life. Or someone he really owes a favor to, depending on his past's shadiness. Oh! Or the owner of the Krundlhorn. Swear to find it if it's still missing, sort of thing. (May have joined army to avoid retribution for said theft. Or to find the Krundlhorn, which may or may not be in enemy hands. Said owner may or may not know of our Dwarf's oath. Or location. It depends. Could be fun.)

Gear/Property: 14 points
Relationships: 10 points
Affiliations/Reputations: 25 points

Let's start with Gear/Property. I'll let each person choose an item from the shopping list, first come, first served. Obviously, you can't go twice in a row - in fact, I'll say that you have to let two other people go before you go again.
I'll go ahead and buy clothes and shoes for you - that's 2 points, leaving 12 for other stuff. Anything that costs more than 12 points has been left off the list for the sake of brevity.

Gear:
"Shoddy" (non-dwarven) weapons: 5
Shoddy crossbow: 6
Dwarven-made light mail: 9
Dwarven-made heavy mail: 10
Riding Mount or Pack Animal: 8
Traveling gear (inc. rope, torches, first aid kit, etc.): 1
Finery: 5
Dwarven tools: 10
Shoddy tools: 5

Property:
A small house: 10
...that's the only piece of property you can afford!

You have 12 points to spend. Go!

Traveling gear

clearly we want 11 more packs of Traveling gear.

that or a pack/riding .. animal? Is there a list of animals? Can we have those giant scorpions mention earlier?

Dammit, everything's expensive...I kind of see him as the type to have a few good possessions rather than a bunch of shoddy ones though.