Day 21st: Philomina Goldstrands, Tales of Xadia

 Welcome back to day 21 of this challenge, let's get ready for the final character of the third week! I moved some of the planned character around, because of the realization yesterday that I had a stretch of character from licensed (official or otherwise) games, so I decided to keep at it! Using an evolution of the Cortex system, I went with The Dragon Prince: Tales of Xadia to cover the TV show slot, a decent cartoon that I managed to catch at the perfect time in my life for it to resonate with me, though I only saw the first three or four seasons, before they took a big hiatus. I should get back to it, see if it kept the quality up. I've actually made the character last Saturday, so we'll have to see what I remember!

Art by Iokhi on ych.commish.com

 I've just said on the last two games that I'm not a fan of Dice Pool in TTRPG, but I do make an exception for Cortex inspired game! It's not as restrained and great as Sentinel Comic where the pool is ever just 3 dice, but I feel building your pool by combining different aspect of the character with higher ranked aspect being bigger die instead of more of them is much more fun. I understand the "it's more tactile" argument way more here than throwing 2141 d6 in Shadowrun or a bucket of d10 for Vampire. Street Fighter gets a pass for being goofy as hell. Tales of Xadia, unlike Army of Darkness and NieR: Agaku, really manages to convey the feel of the show with its mechanic, at least that's the impression I got. As with the other game this week, this is one I haven't played or even created a character before. I did play some cortex a long time ago, in a Supernatural campaign, but I do believe it was an older take on the system that I barely remember! It was more of a Beer and Pretzel kind of game when we did it and I don't think the GM actually read the rulebook.

Art by Messenger on ych.commish.com

 As with most games that doesn't start with "roll 3d6 down the line", Tales of Xadia tells you to think of a concept, then to pick a native culture and family type. I haven't watched Dragon Prince in a long time, so I don't fully remember the various kingdom, but I picked from the human side of thing instead of doing yet another pretty elf. I knew I wanted some sort of knightly type, so family was going to be noble and I hovered over Katolis as her starting kingdom, but I instead went with the more pastoral Duren queendom. You then choose a vocation by combining an adjective and an occupation, I hesitate over a few options, almost going soldier before instead picking an Aspiring Rider. She's a mounted knight, though her role is more a messenger than cavalry, emphasizing speed and maneuverability. For her quirk, I chose Courageous Combatant, but I left myself a mental note that while she's eager to fight and with an head so full of glorious story that she's always ready to jump to someone defense regardless of their desires, she also has exactly 0 actual combat experiences. She's done drill and spars, but actual fighting with the intent to hurt or kill someone intended on doing the same to you? Has never happened at all. I then distributed her Attributes and Values with that concept in mind.

I will take a moment her to note I created the character with the help from an official character builder that was really nice looking and pleasant to use. The publisher is Direwolf Digital, maker of a pretty cool virtual TCG, so it would make sense they do good with that kind of thing too, I guess! I say that, but I'm pretty it was someone else doing this game and they ended bought out by Direwolf and that's why we haven't got more book for the game yet, but I digress. To complete the character, I get to distribute a few dice in Specialities and Assets, I decided to pick 1d8 assets representing a very smart horse, 1d6 asset for her sword, 1d6 for sword skill and 1d6 for animal trainer. I also get two pick two special abilities from those suggested by the various decision I made up to now, I pick In the Saddle, really zeroing on the fact that she's good at horse and "Get Behind Me" for her wannabe martial side. I wrote a few details as finishing touch, but the sheet the website printed out did not include it!

As a conclusion, here's the details I gave Philomina, I think she'd works as a character on Dragon Pince!

General Description

A 19 years old knight working as a mounted messenger with ambitions of high rank and dreams of battlefield distinctions, but little martial experience.

Appearance

A young petite blonde woman wearing light armor with a tattoo of a dove on the back of her left hand.

Personality

Idealistic and can be easily swayed by strong personalities, but steadfast, loyal and observant.

Background

A minor Durenian noble, second child of the Baron Goldstrands whose domain trains the best horses in the kingdom. Served as a squire during her teens to a pompous knight. As a newly minted knight, her ease on the saddle led her to be mostly a mounted messenger, but she has ambition of becoming a General one day.

Memories

Not long after being knighted, she celebrated with a few other young knight and they formed the informal Order of the Dove, a knightly order devoted to peace and heroism. They all got a dove tattooed on their body as a symbol of their bond.