5th Character: Gumei, Fantasy AGE 2e
5th Character: Gumei, Fantasy AGE 2e
Five day, the end of the first week draw nears! I've decided to keep with Gumei a while longer, let's do a full week of repeat character, why not? This time, I decided to create our wandering alchemist in Fantasy Age 2e, a game I've owned for some time but never really took the time to check until recently. I think I got it in some Green Ronin based bundle? Oh well, I usually enjoy Green Ronin's stuffs, so it was more than time for me to crack it open! Interesting engine with a bit of crunch, would be fun to play I think. Character Creation is made in 9 steps, let's go through them. First step was already done when I came in, Character Concept which is Wandering Alchemist, followed by determining abilities. I chose to Assign her stats so I could express her character through it, adjusting here and there as I go along and I discover which stats would make sense to focus on for the build to work, but it may be more advantageous to roll as the result will always be a total of 13 points in stats, which is what you get to distribute. You do need to roll down the line, but you can swap two abilities around! Then it's time to choose an ancestry, the choice are Draak(Dragonborn), Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling, Human, Orc, Wildfolk(Furry), I don't know if there are sourcebook with more option out in the world. I picked human, who have specific benefits instead of the "You're adaptable, pick whatever" bonus I usually see when humans are an option rather than the only or default choice. Social class and background included a Wanderer option, so I picked that.
Gumei portrait by Alice in Quest
Then it's off to pick one of the class from Envoy, Mage, Rogue, Warrior! Unlike most class and level based system, classes are fairly broad in Fantasy AGE to allow for a broad range of concept despite the narrow choice at the start, with every class having several specialization to pick from and picking from a list of talents later on to specialize the character a bit more. That was a bit of a pickle, though, as none of the class really screamed "Wandering Alchemist" to me. I ended going with Rogue, as much because the others fitted less than by preference. Looking at the Specialization, nothing really caught my attention as something that would be perfect for Gumei, so I picked Mage Hunter for the story potential. I wanted to note also that one of the specialization is Heritage, that's the option if you want to play a Tiefling or Aasimar or descended from the Fey, so that makes non-human character with that backstory better represented mechanically than in most D&D games that offer Tiefling and such. It also mean that you can develop these traits at a later level, representing the heritage manifesting itself later in life, which is a fun story beat. Not applicable for Gumei, but fun nonetheless! Now, I'll admit that I cheated a bit at this step. You see, each class lets you pick a Talent from a narrow set of options, but none of the Rogue worked with my concept, so let's say I had a discussion with the imaginary GM and they let me pick Alchemical Explosives instead.
Moving on to the last few steps, I hit a little snag at the equipment step with starting money as it was quite unclear how much starting money I should get. There is a small table with starting money for the various social class, giving a fixed value+3d6 silver coins. The background section said picking a background instead of rolling it meant I get the average gold value instead of rolling, then the starting equipment said I get 50 additional golds for having chosen my background instead of rolling it. It also didn't say what the average was, which is 10.5. I found that strange, as 50 gold is much more than the bottom two social class can hope to start with, but hey, won't complain too much. I gave her an arquebus as she has the capacity to make ammunition for it and a rapier for her free starting Rogue Weapon, then bought a dagger and quarterstaff with the starting money. I used up most of the rest of her money buying utility item, including fishing gear and a frying pan. The next two steps were pretty straight forward, calculating her derived stats and picking a name.
For the last steps, we're asked to pick up at least three goals for our character and to create ties with each other member of the party. The book recommend to pick a mix of long and short term goal, and to make them related in some form to adventuring, as they're mostly there as hooks for the GM and the other players. I brainstorm a little more backstory than her Vagabond iteration, she now lost her family to a mage practicing their magic on them, leaving her with unclear memory of the events but she's pretty sure the mushroom growing on her head is a result of it. I guess her family ran afoul of En from Dorohedoro! So, easy initial goal, she wants to avenge her family, tying it with her Mage Hunter spec. Second goal... well, she has those weird glowing eyes and those stains on her dress, she's clearly doing something with chemical! So, her second goal is finding the perfect mind-altering substance, like she's a chemist from the 70's doing LSD to open their third eyes or whatever they were on about! Her third goal is more straightforward and general, she wants to make money off of her Alchemy skills, meaning she would seek opportunities to make contact and learn recipes. Now, she doesn't have an official party, so maybe I could have skipped the Ties portion and call her done, but instead I decided that she's in a 4 person group, one PC of each class. I decided she was childhood friend with the Envoy and she frequently hand out with the warrior, the both of them getting high as a way to relax. Finally, and more interestingly I would say, I decided that she thinks the Mage's teacher is the target of her revenge, maybe the mage is druid and mushroom themed? Of course, in an actual game, those ties would be discussed and refined with the other players.
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