#RPGaDay 24 and 25

Day 24 - What is the game you are most likely to give to others?

My own game FUBAR... that reminds me, I need to get printed copies of that game organised. So far I just keep directing people to the free download at RPGNow.

It's been a fun game with a wide range of players over the years at conventions, it's handled short form campaigns too. I just haven't had a whole lot of feedback from other people playing it (despite it   Being downloaded 5000 times, or more).

Day 25 - What makes for a good character?

5 things.

1. A name. Something evocative, something that alludes to a past or a connection to a culture.
2. A goal. something that the character wants now, or has wanted for a long time. This is great for hooking medium and long term stories to, and for learning how the character wants to affect the wider world.
3. A hindrance. Something that is preventing the character from achieving their goal. This is great for hooking short term events to, a way to get to know the characters and how they have been affected by the world.
4. A strength. This is the way the charcter finds it easiest to manipulate the world around them, it might be a special skill set, a supernatural power, an association of allies, it could be anything. It explains how the character has dealt with the world so far, but there is probably something about the hindrance that prevents the strength from being used to attain the goal.
5. A weakness. This a regular thing that prevents the character from achiving their goals, it's more general than the specific hindrance (which is typically associated with a specific goal). It could be a supernatural mineral, a significant companion, a phobia, anything that's possible to come up multiple times ov the course of a story.

Everything else is just dressing, and falling short of these five things often makes a character seem aimless or incomplete.