*Check out the Bounty Head Bebop prizes from Heroic Journey Publishing for the Easiest Contest Ever!

*Check out Shadow Complex for XBLA.

*Licensed RPGs:  Are they worthwhile or just generic systems with pretty pictures?

*Emulation of source material

*Buffy, Angel, Army of Darkness, Mouse Guard, Burning Wheel, Star Wars, A Game of Thrones, Serenity, Battlestar Galactica

* If you’re interested in playing Drinkokalypse at Gencon with David and Jenn, hunt for ‘em at the convention. They’re playing Thursday night and will have tickets to get into the event.

* Luke will be running Project MG games during the weekend. If you’re interested in that let him know.

* Role-playing depth preferences, how far do you take it?

* Life Events, how do you let them impact your games?

* Shark Week.

* Thanks to Andrew, who got the St. Louis guys an ice-cream cookie cake!

* Congratulations to Asylos, winner of the D&D minis contest!

* We kick off the Pro-Tip Proving for all of The Podge’s released material. Listen to the episode for details, and then send adam@podgecast.com an e-mail with all of your answers!

* Big thanks to the Trap Cast for all of their hard work on episode 50. Go listen to their show, because they’re pretty awesome.

* The Sultan. Enough said.

* Auto-Tune The News

* Tony Mast records with us, but the episode still comes out the next week

* You want to win D&D minis! We want to give them to you! Enter now!

* Literary devices that can be applied to role-playing games

* Fish out of water and system bias

* Matt wants to role-play the Gilmore Girls

* The prologue

* GMs breaking their own rules

* Misdirection

* In the Hodge (live), Joe talks about Taking Chance

* Go listen to the TrapCast. They’re funny.

* James is listing his gaming books here. Mention that you heard about it from the Podge (before paying, obviously) and get 10-25% off!

* V3 was a huge success

* Intra-Party Conflict (which is different than inter-player conflict)

* Mechanic-based conflict resolution systems

* Organic vs. Synthetic Conflict

* Dangers of Intra-Party Conflict

* Follow the discussion with a handy outline on Plus 1

* James is listing his gaming books here. Mention that you heard about it from the Podge (before paying, obviously) and get 10-25% off!

* Tope Dome is touring in your city soon!

* Winners of the Top Down and Bottom Up campaign contests, Dan Henson and Dan Marlett (Double Dan)

* We stop talking about Mike’s mom…no we don’t.

* David vs. Joe: THUNDERDOME! (Worst vs. Lesser)

* Group Design

* Goals, party pitches, and conflict

* Role maximization

* Follow the discussion with a handy outline on Plus 1

* Mr. T is a Night Elf Mohawk, Ted Talks, and Imagining the Tenth Dimension

* CONTEST! Win D&D Minis

* Hodge (live): The Tome Show celebrates 4e’s first birthday

* Thank you to our armed service members past and present

* Five Guys hamburgers is sexworthy

* Luke has closed his business and is now a hobo

* James is listing his gaming books here. Mention that you heard about it from the Podge (before paying, obviously) and get 10-25% off!

* Buy Storm Cloud, David and Luke’s (et al.) anthology

* Different methods of character generation

* Pre-flighting your character

* Character-Focused (Who-What-Why?)

* Mechanics-Focused (What-Why?)

* Character Optimization and the Brilliant Gameologists

* Character-Study Approach

* Joe’s char-gen notes are available in Plus 1 (really, we promise!)

* V3 is June 6th (V3 location information will appear at the end of our episodes beginning with episode 42)

* Last week’s contest Google doc form is here (click the link). We also clarify evolutionary items.

* Campaign Design, the Bottom Up approach. You can find an outline, and actual notes on the Plus 1 page.

* What beginning steps mirror the Top Down approach.

* Character generation and the character theme

* Establishing conflict

* The Character Domino Effect

* Adventure (non-character) focused Bottom Up design

* The Fog of War

* All podcasters are liars, except for 3/4 of the PodgeCast

* A SECOND CONTEST! Go ahead and click here to open the form and submit.

* Matt goes insane

* Ideology also had their Week of Mice with Weapons

* Donate your old cell phones to Cell Phones for Soldiers

* Deadliest Warrior and other cool TV shows. Adam kept calling it Ultimate Warrior, which is a crappy show. This is the actual show Deadliest Warrior.

* Luke needs playtesters for “Project MG.” Email him at luke@podgecast.com

* Joe was a guest host on Kicked in the Dicebags: Episode 5

* Adam is going to record a bonus video to show you how to “double record” if you’re looking for alternative recording methods

* Campaign Design, the Top Down approach. You can find an outline, and actual notes on the Plus 1 page.

* Pre-Planning Phase

* The Three Pillars of System Selection

* Pre-Player Phase (PPP or P³)

* Scope Your Game

* Evolutionary Items (like a Monkey Trial)

* The Fun Cooker

* Themes

* Organizations and our inherent nature to group

* Conflict

* Character Generation and Player Input

* Why (and why not) to plan your first show

* Why (and why not) to use box text

* Matt’s campaign document is on the Plus 1 page in the Episode Resources

* Scoping this discussion

* Announcing…THE CONTEST! You can enter here.

* TPC will soon be having a boatload more content. I’m not really sure how it will all line out yet, so stay tuned!

* Systems, when/how to change ‘em to get what you need.

* We can finally wank about Watchmen

* Shaky cam fight scenes and fish islands

* It’s just a penis. Get over it.

* Villainy, alignment, and being evil

* Evil campaigns

* Evil characters in non-evil campaigns

* Advice for playing evil characters

* Number of times we talk about Burning Wheel: 4

* Alex tells a gaming story

* Joe is employed!

* V3-2 is almost here. Come join us.

* Master the Met with Phil and Adam

* Maladjusted expectations

* Improvisation

* Why

* Go listen to This Modern Death

* Number of times we talk about Burning Wheel: 1

-Melina (Adam’s wife)
-Jen (Joe’s fiancee)
-Sarah (Francis’ sister (lucky her))
-Faith (Scott from the Dark Tower Fan Roundtable’s wife)
-Katie (Adam and Melina’s friend)

My show notes are going to be weird for this one since I didn’t record it with them:

* The ladies tease everyone with a sex conversation that never happens

* A gaming history of each lady

* Conventions!

* Baby tees

* The K:tNG contest actually ended two days after I posted this. Oops.

* v3 is still happening at locations. Check the forums for details.

* Gaerma is pretty awesome.

* The K:tNG contest is still going strong. Get your entries in now! Prizes are either the two pack of the Character Burner and System Rules, or one of the two expansion books The Monster Burner or The Magic Burner

* V3 is coming up on 2/28/2009.

* Social media assault: we can’t focus.

* How do I put up the normal aspects of a supernatural game?

* GM Prep, what do you need to come to the table with?

* I hate writing show notes.

* In answer to your question, Moises Alou, a outfielder for the NY Mets was interviewed a couple of years ago, and he did admit to peeing on his hands to reduce calouses.

* Adam and Luke are jealous of the awesome snow that Matt and Joe have enjoyed.

* The new Dr. Who, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and The Wire are fantastic. Go buy them and watch them. You won’t be disappointed.

* Dungeon and Dragon magazine back-issues can be gotten from the D&D Insider subscription.

* The actual gaming topic: GM Expectations of Players

* What is a sandbox? Check this out to find out.

* Joe is thankful the gang decided to talk about movies, TV, and politics while he was on vacation because he hates talking about those subjects

* The Bear Swarm thinks Joe is their favorite PodgeCast host (other than Table Saw)

* What is a campaign? What is a story?

* What do you like campaign length to be as a player? How about as a GM?

* What are published adventures good for?

* Matt is wise and all-knowing, Luke…not so much

* Number of times we talk about Burning Wheel: 1

* Joe talks about the book, Hitman, in the Hodge (live)

*Luke’s beard is made of magnificence.

*The Penny Arcade we reference is here.

*A discussion of the games, movies, books, shows  we loved and hated in 2008

*Is Luke a grognard?  Does Adam even know how to pronounce that?  Does Matt’s face exude impartiality?

* Regular Matt is back! Bizarro! He’s helping!

* Play Tom Clancy’s Endwar with Luke.

* What is the sexuality of a zombie?

* If you’re going to take a trip to the Grand Canyon (and you should), try and schedule it during a full moon. It’s breathtaking.

* The end of Fallout 3 sucks.

* Check out the other Spooky Outhouse podcasts. They don’t suck.

* Jeff Wayne’s “War of the Worlds” (and specifically the Oooh-laaaah remix)

* Do you mind it when GMs steal content from other media for their games/settings?

* Adam has theories about women, but they are wrong

* Adam has theories about Scooby Doo, but they are wrong

* Adam has theories about Star Wars, but they are wrong…maybe

* What other media gives you inspiration?

* Luke is Captain Underpants

* Cosby Bepop is awesome

* Wil Wheaton love

* What’s the best portrayal of Satan? Constantine vs. The Prophecy

* Rob from the Bear Swarm turns Christmas into Hatemas

* Number of times we discuss Burning Wheel: 2

* Apologies up front for Joe’s sound quality. It’s bad. We know. We’re sorry.

* Buffyverse Banter

* PodgeCast gaming on the Xbox, come play with us

* Warhammer Online: Badlands server, Xen of Onslaught is having open enrollment. Come play with Joe (and Dave from the Iron Agenda).

* Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD. 20791-5456

* V3 was a triumph…we’re assuming

* Sacrificing your character for the good of the party

* Affecting the decisions of other players

* Rule 1 and Subclause 1.a

* Number of times we discuss Burning Wheel: 6

* Luke is in the Hodge (Live)

* Dave from the Iron Agenda is here

* Matt is here in body if not mind

* V3 is this Saturday. Come play.

* Play video games with Luke not Joe

* WAR update: We’re moving to the Badlands server

* Leslie and the Badgers

* Can too many rules inhibit role playing?

* Adam revisits a topic from 17 episodes ago

* Iron Agenda is about Big Vagina Islands

* Number of times we discuss Burning Wheel: 6

* Phil is wrong. V3 is December 6th.

* Want to contribute the Spooky Outhouse Wall (the newsletter)? Email Adam!

* Adam’s experience playing Don’t Rest Your Head

* Luke’s story game epiphany

* If you want to be on the Dark Tower fan roundtable, email adam@podgecast.com

* Magic systems

* Adam rocked the house with Episode 17

* The Iron Tyrants have moved their Warhammer guild to Averheim

* Joe doesn’t own Gears of War 2

* Thank you, veterans. (In memory of 1LT Wil Edens, US Army)

* Confirmed locations for V3

* Do you want to be part of the Dark Tower fan roundtable? Email adam@podgecast.com

* Spooky Outhouse Productions needs talent. Contact Adam or Luke.

* Tony Mast gives us our topic: Are gamers just wannabe writers that lack confidence?

* The topic evolves

* The topic becomes intelligent and achieves consciousness. We name it Joshua.

* Do you want to play a game?

* Matt’s co-worker is walking halfway around the world for the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, go stop by here and giver her some support.

* The Warhammer guild is still going on!  Get out and join us!

* Let’s talk about what is’t like owning a small business in the gaming industry

* One-Shotter Day Announcement!  Details below.

* Long Warmachine discussion among Walker and Luke, Adam was zoning out

* What’s new and interesting in the gaming community

One-Shotter Day!

On Saturday, December 6th, The Podge Cast will be hosting a one-shotter day at Game On, in West County St. Louis.  If you’re interested in playing, shoot an e-mail to Adam or Luke (or if you’re in Arizona, Matt), drop a comment, or post on the forums.

Hosts: Adam, Luke, Matt, Walker

*Are published settings crap?

*What makes a setting good?

*Convincing the yonkels

*Matt becomes the center of a deep mystery and a foul conspiracy

*Joe gets teleported in the Hodge.  Seriously.

Get Your Roleplay Free

Talisman Studios is celebrating the anniversary of Suzerain, our Origins Award Nominee RPG. And we’re celebrating in style, with a couple of great bits of news for roleplay fans everywhere:

Suzerain is now free from our online shop! That’s $0.00 for the Suzerain rule book. The economy’s getting tougher and none of us has much money to play with, but from now on you won’t need any money to play with Suzerain. Enjoy the game at www.suzerain.info by clicking on the ‘Treasure’ tab at the top of the page and browsing through all our free goodies.

We’re also launching a new web application on our site, specifically for Suzerain. Click on the ‘Vault’ tab to see our new feat database, fully searchable. Suzerain characters are all about their feats, and this is a great way to have a browse through all the options, helping you build your favorite characters. In fact, we’re even developing an update to the vault that allows you to create characters right on the web site at any power level, downloading them as PDFs for your game.

And that’ll be free too.

Happy birthday to Suzerain, and to all the fans of roleplaying. Drop us a ‘hello’ in the forums when you come for your free goodies!

*Economies in RPGs

*D&D:  “Don’t Ask Questions”

*D&D’s Implied Setting

*Obfuscate!

*Burning Wheel: “Now You Don’t Have Pants”

* An Archon reminder

* Ghost Hunters Redux

* Min/Maxing and Powergaming

* 365 Days of Sex

* Secret Code Contest: We’ve teamed up with four other gaming podcasts to give you a crack at $250 of gaming goodness. Listen to find out how you can participate.  Participating podcasts are

Atomic Array

Brilliant Gameologists

Ogre Cave Audio Report

The Podge Cast

The Tome Show

Each winner will receive one of ten $25 gift certificates from Noble Knight Games.

Entries must be submitted to secretcodes@moonstew.com by 17 OCT 2008.

* Worst. Ending. Ever.

* PodgeCast Overtime: Matt and Joe further explore today’s topic, Charlie Rose style.  If Charlie Rose had very lax quality control standards. This conversation is not part of the podcast mp3 but is available for download at podgecast.com /episodes /TPC_011_Overtime (dot) mp3

*PodgeCast charity auction prizes for Archon

*What is Spooky Outhouse Productions?

*New SOP Members: Kore News, Return to Northmoor, and The Iron Agenda

*Driving People Away from the Hobby

*Adam and Matt are now David and Madeline

*It’s spelled Kashyyyk

*Madeline discusses the Daughters of the American Revolution in the Hodge (live…on the moon!)

*Kansas: The Survivor State

*The Appeal of Post-Apocalyptic Settings

*Here Comes Dr. Tran (NSFW)

*Jungle Tales

*Keith Curtis’ Savage Earth

*HERO book ballistic test

*Under A Broken Moon

*Joe discusses Race for the Galaxy in the Hodge (Live)

*Introductions Stuart Robertson (Stuart on the forums) and Rich (rmckee78) on the forums. If you think these guys were great (and I do), jump on the forums and let them know!

*The Dungeons and Dragons talks of yore

*Stuart mentions Labyrinth Lord by Goblinoid Games

*Stuart plugs Robertson Games. Go check him out!

*Rich is awesome.

*Adam’s Job

*Info on Luke’s Gen Con panels can be found here and here. While you’re there give the Brilliant Gameologists a listen!

*Adam will be at New Media Expo in Las Vegas

*Bee Jerks vs. Spider Queens

*We try to get all the Burning Wheel talk out of our system. It probably won’t work, but we tried.

*Favorite social mechanics

*Luke talks about Obsidian Portal in The Hodge (Live). His campaign page is here.

* Ghost Hunters, Paranormal State, and Chip mutha$@!*^# Coffey

*What players want out of an NPC

*Roadblocks vs. Data Terminals

*Killing the GMPC: A solemn duty

*Joe’s TPK

*Upcoming Night of Carnage

*In the Hodge (Live), Adam talks about Atomic Array podcast.

Follow the link to the article.

High Quality Characters

A Savage roleplaying tool inspired by FATE 3.0

by: Luke Meyer

Creating a deep, multi-faceted character is the goal of just about any gamer. While Savage Worlds provides the tools to make well-rounded character, the broad strokes the system is painted in (which is arguably one of its best features) sometimes leaves a little to be desired on the character sheet. Qualities are a new addition to the ruleset that help to bring the important details of the character into the spotlight without unbalancing the system.

Qualities are heavily inspired by Spirit of the Century by Evil Hat Productions. Spirit of the Century is an excellent game in its own right and can be considered a spiritual sibling of Savage Worlds. I highly recommend the game to anyone as it is one of the best and most well-designed games to come out in the last few years.

1. What are Qualities?

Qualities are descriptors that tell the world what is important about your character and important to your character. They can be just about anything you can imagine from relationships and beliefs to quotes, reputations, and simple statements describing your character.

Sample Qualities- Strong Like Bear, Sworn Enemy of Duke Welston, Well-Traveled, “I’m getting to old for this *#@!,” Protector of the Golden Flame, “Inconceivable!”

2. What do Qualities Do?

Qualities tell the world what’s important about your character. It also tells the GM exactly what you’d like to see show up in the game. If you have a Quality of “Protect my daughter, Maddie” then you’re telling the GM that you want your daughter to be a feature in the game. Similarly, if you tie any organizations into your Qualities you better believe that they’re going to show up in the game…for good or for ill.

Qualities also provide the player a bonus to rolls which are tied into that Quality. This is called tapping the Quality. A character with the Quality of “I Never Miss” may tap that quality for a bonus on his attack roll with a ranged weapon. Someone with the Quality of “Fearsome Presence” can tap that to get a bonus to Intimidation rolls or any social rolls where such a description could affect things.

Lastly, Qualities provide a way to get bennies. The GM can provoke a Quality in order to challenge that player to perform certain actions or limit choices that fall under the description of that Quality. This is done in order to introduce complication to the story that come directly from what the character holds dear. Characters are rewarded with bennies for making their own lives a little tougher and a lot more interesting.

Why should you include Qualities into your game? The main reason is that it allows players to put the things they define their character with in the spotlight. Sure, Edges and Hindrances give a lot of variability, but with Qualities a player is limited only by his imagination. How many times have you played a game where someone has put in their background that they’re well-traveled (or something like it) but has no Edge or anything else that reflects it on his character sheet? In the standard rules (and with most roleplaying games) it’s just a background detail…something he might ask the GM to give him a bonus for once in a while. With Qualities, the player can put that part of his character in the fore-front. He’s Well-Traveled and can get bonuses on all sorts of rolls that would relate to his travels, if he’s willing to spend a benny.

Qualities allow the background and roleplaying aspects of characters to have a more concrete impact on the game without breaking the balance of Edges and Hindrances.

3. Tapping a Quality

In order to tap a Quality, first the player and the GM must agree that the Quality in question applies to the situation. There may be some negotiation involved in this. Next, the player spends a benny to tap the Quality. The player then rolls an additional d6 with his regular dice and adds it to the roll. This die may ace as normal.

Example – Barrett has a Quality called “No one touches Silvanna.” Silvanna is another PC who is a mage that has had a long-standing relationship with Barrett. When the orc berserker wound Silvanna, Barrett spends a benny and taps his Quality to gain an addition d6 to attack the orc. He then chooses to spend another benny and tap the same Quality for an addition d6 on the damage roll. Seriously, no one should mess with Silvanna.

Example – Joe is playing Lars a pilot of a transport in Steve’s sci-fi game. Joe’s character has the Quality “I am a leaf on the wind” which Joe has defined as a state of mind that allows his character to ignore distraction and keep level-headed in even the worst situations to pilot the ship through. Sure enough, the ship gets caught between two enemy fleets and must maneuver through sheer hell to get to safety. Battered and beaten, the ship must evade one last exploding vessel to get to safety. With flak, explosions, and carnage all around him, Lars spends a benny to tap “I am a leaf on the wind” and get an additional d6 to make that piloting roll.

An additional die is a pretty large bonus and for those that don’t want Qualities to have that much power you can tone them down by having them supply a flat +2 bonus to the roll. You can even knock that down to a +1 if you’re feeling stingy.

A Quality may be tapped either before or after the roll is made. A Quality may only be tapped once for each roll, but if multiple Qualities are applicable then you can spend additional bennies to tap additional Qualities.

4. Provoking a Quality

Provoking is not meant to punish players, but to actually put their Qualities in the spotlight and put them in interesting situations. It also adds a mechanical aspect to certain Hindrances that are usually solely in the purview of roleplaying (and often forgotten about, in my experience).

For instance, how many times have you seen a GM introduce a situation which was mysterious that no
player would send his character to investigate because it was too dangerous? Even a character with the Curious Hindrance might not delve into the mystery because his player knows it’s trouble.

With Qualities, the GM can provoke a player with Curious to go investigate. When provoking, the GM offers a benny to the character with the Quality in question. The player may then choose to take the benny and give into his Quality or spend a benny to ignore his Quality.

Example One – Cole Treller has just discovered the abandoned lab or the evil genius, Dr. Strobe. As he and his companions explore the place he comes across a strange panel that seem completely alien. Cole has the Curious Hindrance and thus has linked that to the Quality “What’s that?” The GM provokes “What’s that?” by offering Cole a benny to begin fiddling around with the alien device. Not looking to press his luck, Cole begrudgingly spends a benny to ignore his Quality.

Example Two – Lucky Lou is a character with the Quality “High Roller, Baby.” He’s been tapping that Quality all session in order to win big on the tables down at the strip. He’s also been using it on Persuasion rolls to get into back room games and have the casinos roll out the red carpet. He’s earned a fat pile of cash but he’s just gotten word that the contact he and his crew were sent here to find has agreed to a meeting in twenty minutes. The contact is known to be skittish and he knows he has to be there to back up his crew. As he makes his way through to his car, Fat Carl and the boys from last night’s game approach him and let him know that they want a chance to earn back their money. The Gm offers Lou a benny as he provokes “High Roller, Baby.” The player knows that if he accepts the benny he’s not going to make the meeting, but he’s low on bennies from tapping the Quality so much.

Lou accepts the benny and prepares to make a few more gambling rolls while his friends walk into danger across town.

Provoking Qualities gives the players the fuel to later tap Qualities.

5. Other Uses of Qualities

There are other ways that Qualities provide bennies to the players. If the GM uses a relationship or organization from a player’s Qualities, he’s obliged to give that player a benny for introducing something so inspiring to the game. Also, for those times when the GM needs to use a character with a certain Knowledge skills as a mouthpiece for critical game info (which we all know happens), that player should be awarded a benny.

Also, a player may spend a benny to edit the details of the story.

Example – Josh is playing Rhupert, a mage, that is a member of the Magus Academy. As his affiliation is important he even has the Quality “Ascendant in the Magus Academy.” Rhupert just took a long voyage and has arrived in a foreign port. His travels have uncovered a conspiracy and he needs to contact the Magus Academy as soon as possible. He asks the GM if the Academy has a presence in the city. The GM tells him no as the local religion believes all mages to be evil. Josh offers to spend a benny to have the Academy have some sort of presence in the city. The GM considers it and agrees that there is a small underground group of Academy mages in the city working to both stay alive and undermine the church. Of course, finding such outlaws will be an adventure in itself…

Having the players take an active role in world creation isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it usually ends up creating far more interesting adventures if the GM knows how to spin it.

6. Creating Qualities

Qualities are really only limited by the player’s imagination. Anything that can be thought of as important to a character can be turned into a Quality. The key to creating good Qualities, though, lies in honing them into a double-edged sword. Since you generate bennies by having Qualities provoked, it’s in the player’s best interest to make sure that each Quality is designed that it can be provoked easily. That’s not to say you can’t create a Quality that would be difficult to provoke, but while those types of Qualities provide bonuses, they’re not going to net you any bennies.

Example – Cale has the Quality “Bookworm” which he taps frequently when doing research. His player has described the Quality as being born from all the hours Cale has spent isolated in the library. As Cale hasn’t had great social exposure, the GM takes great pleasure in provoking Cale into awkward social situations where his bookwormish ways tend to make a poor impression.

Another key to Qualities is giving them an interesting name. You could have the Quality of “Strong” (which is one of those Qualities that isn’t terribly provokable), but it’s much more interesting to give it a bit of flair. Perhaps you Russian woodsman is “Strong Like Bear” or your brawny dwarven miner has “Strength Borne of Granite.” Your ex-cultist researcher could have a Quality of “Ex-Cultist,” but isn’t “Hunted by The Crimson Hand” more interesting?

It is up to the player to define what his Qualities can be tapped and provoked for. The GM has final approval though, as some Qualities may be far too broad or uselessly narrow.

A character gets 5 Qualities. While he may never have more than this, Qualities can change during play as long as the GM agrees. There are two methods to picking Qualities.

Pick and Choose – The easiest of the methods. Pick 5 Qualities that are important to your character and go play. Simple and quick.

The Lifepath Method-
This is the more interesting of the methods. Divide the character’s Qualities over the course of his lifetime. His first Quality might be from his childhood and reflect his place of origin or upbringing. The second Quality could cover his pre-adventuring career. The third Quality relates to the character’s first adventure. The fourth and fifth Qualities should be tied to the adventures of other characters. This instantly creates a backstory to the party and gets around the whole “Your characters all know each other” issue that many games begin with. Think of you third Quality as a novel, movie, or comic starring your character. Your fourth and fifth Qualities are from guest-starring in the other player’s novels or movies.

You can also adapt the lifepath to focus on a major event. In Deadlands, the paths may look like this:

Quality 1 – Childhood and Upbringing

Quality 2 – The Civil War

Quality 3 – After the Recknoning

Quality 4 – Starring Role

Quality 5 – Guest Starring role

7. Linking Hindrances and Edges

There is really only one hard and fast rule when creating Qualities. Any Hindrance your character takes that doesn’t have a direct mechanical effect (ex: Vow, Curious, Overconfident) must be linked to a Quality. This gives the ‘free’ Hindrances some mechanical beef so they actually have an in-game effect. You can still name your Quality as you like, but the description must be tied into the Hindrace in some way.

Example – Seth is playing a space pilot named San Holo. He’s taken the Overconfident Hindrance and must somehow tie it into the Quality. He deices to create a Quality called “Never tell me the odds!” which he’ll tap to get bonuses in situations where he’s completely outnumbered or in executing plans that have minimal chances of success. The GM can provoke that Quality in situations where San’s overconfidence can cause complications. Any GM that can’t think of situations like that to put the character into isn’t worth his salt!

It can be useful to tie Edges into Qualities too, though it doesn’t have to be done. Trademark Weapon just screams for a Quality that applies to the weapon.

Example – Aragorn has the Trademark Weapon Edge that applies to his sword, Narsil. He also takes a Quality called “Narsil, the blade reforged.” Aragorn can tap that Quality to give bonuses to hit and damage rolls and also any Persuastion or Intimidation rolls regarding those who know what Narsil is.

8. Famous Examples

Let’s take a look at some famous characters and see what Qualities they may have had.

Inigo Montoya – Spaniard, Lousy Drunk, “You killed my father, prepare to die!”, Master Fencer, “Fezzik is my only friend”

Spider-Man (focusing on just the first movie) – Science Nerd, “Thanks, Aunt May,” With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility, Unrequited Love – Mary-Jane, The Worst Luck

Harry Potter – A Mother’s Love, The Boy Who Lived, Quidditch Prodigy, Friends Until The End (Ron and Hermione), Gryffindor!

*We define sandbox games.  Feel the pretentiousness.

*Character creation in sandbox games.

*Phil’s character is awesome.

*How types of character creation work with sandbox games

*In The Hodge (Live), Matt has a unique take on the summer’s best superhero movie.