10th Character, Nar'Djoser, Sword of Cepheus 2e

 Already 10 day into the year, time is passing by too fast! This time, I am using a game I picked up during the summer or so, based on a few recommendation on Reddit as a pretty sweet game for Sword&Sorcery. Sword of Cepheus by Stellagama Publishing is based on Traveller, a classic RPG I'll admit to not having played. It seems cool and I have a Traveller GURPS sourcebook somewhere, but I just never went around to really checking it out. The game also mention being good for Planetery Romance, Sword&Sorcery&Laser type story, but I haven't seen a ton actually supporting it in the book, maybe I missed it but there's no career or life events table with a strong pulpy sci-fi vibe. Still, it does seems pretty cool. Usually, I'm doing the character first then I write down this blog post, but this time I'll do it a bit differently, writing the blog post as I go along creating the character. I'm also under the weather a bit, so hopefully I don't ramble on too much.

 

 Art by Slimetaver on ych.commish.com

 

The character in question is Nar'Djoser, originally a kobold with an ancient Egypt vibe, but turned into a Geckofolk for this game. The game mentions that these guy live in jungles and hot deserts, so that seems fighting and the Egyptian aesthetic is very sword and sandal! Looking ahead, they get bonus to dexterity and a penalty in education, so I'll keep that in mind as I go ahead. Guess lizards don't do too great in school, huh? First step is distributing ability score, so I'm leaning into it a little and giving the highest stat in Dexterity, but my lowest in Social Standing, he's a bit of a pariah, living in between Geckofolk and the nearest human society. I kept his Strength low, but gave a good score in Education so I don't get -1 on roll for Education. Great Endurance and good Intelligence completes the set, it looks about right to me. The next step would be picking up a background, but non-human character don't get that step, losing out on getting a background skill and getting on less trait later on, in exchange for their special abilities. Geckofolks get to see in the dark, climb wall and ceiling and the ability to survive a mortal wound by splitting off from their tail. They can only do it if they still have their tail, which regrows over 2d6 weeks. I love it!

 

 The next step is the big draw for a system derived from Traveller, the lifepath system! Usually, the GM would determine how many terms you go through in character creation, but I of course don't have a GM to ask. I'll go with 3 terms, that's what they went with for the sample character creation and it's how many you get to roll before having to roll on the Aging table, which is where the famous "You die in character creation" risk is most likely! All the table does is make you roll to see if you're unlucky enough to get stats penalties from aging, so it's not too exciting to showcase here. The game makes a point here that we start a 14 years old and we can't get more than 13 skill increases in Nar'Djoser case.

 

Non-human character have the option to roll one the regular career tables if we want and there are optional rule to switch career on the way, but I'm going to keep it simple, going through the Geckofolk career table. Let's see if I keep to that plan or if I switch him around later, hmm? All Career provide 6 skills at Rank 0, raise one by +1, I picked Sneak. We then to get two more increased from a list of 18 skills, but we need 8+ Education to pick from the last 6. We also have the option to spend one skill advance per term for a +1 to a skills. Good way to not waste these skills if your INT and EDU are super low! I'm currently happy with the stats, so I put +1 in Archery and Survival before rolling on the life event table. I get 8, Hunting! Nar'Djoser spent these teenage year hunting ferocious beast in the desert, forcing him to roll Archery or Survival, gaining an injury on a failure! Thankfully, I barely succeed, allowing me to gain a rank in animal or sneak. I'll focus on Sneak for now. The game now ages us 4 years or let us roll it randomly, which I did. Nar'Djoser is now 17 years old, a proud desert hunter. For the second term, I'll give him better Archery and Streetwise, he start spending some time with human at that time. For the event, I roll a 7, Life Event! I just said he spent time among the human, so let's roll on the City Life Event table.8 - You travel to far off lands and gain a Language. Awesome! I did have an issue in that Nar'Djoser only spoke Gecko, so this is perfect. There's no set setting in the book, so there's no language, but it's the language of the nearest Human Metropolis to his home desert.

 

Rolled another 3 for his aging, he's now 20 years old and ready to face his final roll! First thing first, I give him +1 to Carousing and Scouting, then I roll. 10, Betrayal! Thankfully it's not Nar'Djoser who's the betrayee, he's the betrayer. Or rather he can be, we get a choice to make as we only have the opportunity to turn traitor, backstabbing a noble or prominent criminal for +1 SOC and gaining an enemy, or staying faithful and gaining that NPC as an Ally! Either is a potential story hook, but it's always more dynamic to have an enemy, stab away! Nar'Djoser is pretty low status, though no penalty to SOC anymore, so he betrayed a Crimenal in some fashion. With that, all that's left is to age up, rolling a 2. Our Geckofolk is now 22 years old and hungry for adventures! Calculating all his skills, we're well below his maximum 0f 13. It's now time for the Mustering Out Benefit, getting me 4 total rolls on it. I also have the option of raising a skill by 1 instead of rolling, but let's see what we get on the first roll. First, Material: 1, +1 Dex!  His adventures so far kept him trim and fast, make sense. Second roll, gold: 4, giving me a big 100 smackers to spend! Nice! Material for the third roll, 2 for Thieves' Tools. Hmm, let's trade in the last roll for another point of Archery, I got enough gold to gear him up. Taking a look at the level 0 optional skills, that make sense to me so I'll also give him 0 rank in Melee combat. He's no good at it, but at least he doesn't take a penalty! I'm not sure what kind of game he would be in, so I'm skipping skill package.

 

Coming near the end of character creation, I have the option of determining rank! There's no table for non-human, but Rogue is the most fitting with what I have so far. I rolled a 10 for the rank, giving a modifier of +1 to his SOC, resulting in him being a Soldier in some gang. With his Archery skills, that make sense to me. We now get to determine Stamina and Lifeblood, I never gave more point in Athletics so it's entirely based on his cool 9 END. I have the option of picking up an Equipment package, but I'll buy thing piecemeal. I then get to choose traits, having served 3 terms would usually net me two traits, but being non-human remove one trait. Makes sense, remember at the start that I get a few benefit for being a Geckofolk. Hard choice, there's several traits that are promising, but I'm going with Ghost, giving advantage to sneak in the dark. Good combo with his Darkvision, I think. All that's left is to pick up his gear, the important part is leather armor and composite bow, ending up with a few bit and piece and 33 gold left to his name. Time for lunch break, I'm starving, then the thrilling conclusion!

 

 And I'm back! Putting it all together, Nar'Djoser story is pretty straightforward, I think. No big wild swing to justify. He grew up in the desert, joining in with the other hunters as he came of age, meeting early success against the fierce beasts of the Desert. He ended up unsatisfied with his simple Geckofolk life, so he picked up his bow and went traveling far and wide, traversing the desert and ending up in the great ancient city of Eo-Gor, learning how to survive in urban environments and the local language, ending up joining a local criminal gang. Over the year, Nar'Djoser started to bristle under the direct  leadership of Esarhaddon, the human who got him into the gang. So when the Boss suggested he could be made a soldier if something were to happen to Esarhaddon, Nar'Djoser made sure to take the opportunity. During a heist, the Geckofolk made sure the human would be the one taking the fall, landing the criminal in jail for a few years. Leaving us to now, with Nar'Djoser still in Eo-Gor, plying his Geckofolk ability into being a decent career criminal, though things are about to change as Esarhaddon escaped or otherwise regained his freedom with vengeance in his heart.