Connecting Worldbuilding to System (Part 6)

The last post covered the predominantly random part of the character generation system.

This post works on completing the characters with a phase that allows a lot more agency from the players. 

The previous step got us to...

Six total attribute points (we need two more)

Four total ability points (we need eight more)

One advantage (we need one more)

We don't have any aegises, relationships or equipment (but they can come).

I'm thinking that we'll be looking at a range of templates that function like apprenticeships what will push characters in certain directions.

A template for each bloodline, a template for each culture, and a few generic templates that anyone can choose (rural community, street rat, sailor, trader, crafter, heavy).   

Each of these templates will boost a pair of attributes associated with the types of task that this group is known for. It will also grant four automatic abilities, an extra advantage, a pair of relationships, and a pair of basic equipment pieces. These aren't really character classes, and it might be possible to add in a generic customisable "apprenticeship" (where the character has learned things by following their own path); however, if there was an apprenticeship path, it would have less benefits associated with it.

I haven't indicated the aegises yet, but I'm thinking a single aegis in each type as a default, or allow the templates to provide a starting spread.

This brings us to...

Eight total attribute points (which fits our starting needs)

Eight total ability points (we need four more)

Two advantages (we've got everything we need)

We have the four aegises, as well as some starting relationships and equipment. 

This is an introductory game idea for the SNAFU system, so I don't want things too overly complicated with rolls and randomisation. Instead I'd like players to gety a feel for playing something they want, and that means the rest of the character choices will be made directly by the players.

A player may choose to upgrade any four of their character's current abilities. Then they can choose any four pieces of generic equipment (from their bloodline, culture, or common equipment lists), and may spend four points on relationships (which may be spent on new relationships or to upgrade existing ones).

 

That basically gives us the starting characters, but there's a few other things that can be used to tweak the game to give better genre vibes. However, the thing to remember is that SNAFU is a system designed to tell a specific type of story. It's specifically not designed to be a "generic system". 

SNAFU stories are about characters taking destiny into their own hands after being screwed by the world around them. "John Wick", "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", "The Beekeeper", "Nobody". These are often stories with tough choices, and where the best option might be chosen between the option that does the least collateral damage to the people you love versus the option that lets you live to fight another day. So how might this play out in a pirate setting? What might we need to add to the mechanisms of play to give the feeling of stories of piracy. Let's consider some of those stories. Robert Louis Stevensons' Treasure Island comes to mind, where we've got morally ambiguous characters and the relatiopnships between them twist and turn as their goals shift and maneuver toward a climax. That kind of works for our vibe and already fits within the game's existing rules. 

We can look at "real world" pirates, and the idea of legitimacy, using letters of mark as a gauge to determine if a character is a criminal or not. All characters will be conducting activities in a grey area of legality and morality, but if they go too far they'll lose that legitimacy and be hunted on the high seas. For that, I'm thinking of a mechanism that applies to the crew as a whole, particularly linking to their captain or to the ship they are a crew on. The more positive things they do as a crew, the more leeway they get in the duties covered by their letter of mark, the more negative things they do the closer they get to having it revoked. This could be linked to reputation, where the magnitude determines how well they are known, with a positive/negative indicator showing whether the group's reputation is treated as fame or infamy. Each gives bonuses or penalties in different situations. We could link such a reputation to a name rather than a person if we wanted to get a 'Dread Pirate Roberts" effect. This certainly fits with the idea that I try to incorporate into my games where every element of the game can easily to turned into an element of story.