Step Eight: List Possessions
Finally, all that remains is to determine your
character’s material possessions. Your character’s possessions are closely
linked to your character’s concept history, and the genre. If your character
grew up on the streets, for example, he is most likely barely going to have two
pennies to rub together, unless his history says he recently found a bag of
money in the street with no name on it. He is likely to have a few ratty
possessions of personal importance but little utility in his cardboard box
under the viaduct, a few possessions on his person, and a few coins if any
walking around money. On the other hand, if your character is a wealthy thrill
seeker bored with his privileged life, he is likely going to have a large
amount of money in the bank but not necessarily available on his person, a lot
of fancy equipment or gear in a traveling suitcase, a trunk with a number of
fashionable outfits, and one or two fancy weapons normally available to
civilians that may or may not be durable and functional.
Given these examples, it is easy to see how you
can rationalize any number of possessions unique to your character that would
not be common to others possessing the same profession or skills. It could also
take a long time trying to make sure you capture all the things your character
would normally have.
To make determining possessions a quick and easy
process, your character’s possessions are classified into five types: Clothing,
Concept Kit, Specific Items, Improvised Items, and Holdings.
Clothing
The first type of possessions is the clothing your
character is wearing. Your character begins with any clothes you choose,
including underwear, socks, and footwear. If you do not indicate clothes on
your character sheet, your character is naked.
Hujraad’s Hacks: Naked Characters? Seriously?
Yes. Seriously. Naked. It may seem that it needs
to go without saying, but just in case you don’t believe me or are unclear on
this topic, I will restate it once again: if you do not list your character’s
clothing, your character is naked. This includes underwear and socks.
Concept Kit
Your character is assumed to begin play carrying
items related to his concept skills. To reflect this assumption, you may list
one concept kit. This concept kit is assumed to contain all of the items
necessary for your character to perform the sorts of actions characters
typically carried out by characters of the role defined in your character’s
concept.
Listing a concept kit does away with the need to
list specific items, and is based on the role of your character.
Each concept kit reflects actions not related to
combat and never includes weapons or ammunition. A concept kit for a character
with “barbarian” listed as the role in the concept, for example, would be
assumed to contain tools for foraging, navigating, tracking, setting snares,
and climbing. Major things that would be assumed to be in the kit on a
day-to-day basis would be flint and tinder, a few lengths of rope, pitons, an
axe for wood chopping, a utilitarian knife, camouflage paint, twine, et cetera.
Hujraad’s Hacks: The Weaponlessness of Concept
Gear
It might seem that some character concepts would
require if not strongly suggest that weapons be included in a concept kit. As
an example, let’s look at a common role for many Wild West games, the
“gunslinger”. If you were to make a character with gunslinger concept, of
course, your character is going to have guns, bullets, and a gun belt, et
cetera. But what else would a gunslinger need that you might not think about?
Definitely, a gunslinger would need a good hunting knife, some rations, some
tools for taking care of his horse’s shoes, a tent, some firemaking tools, and
a bedroll. By listing a “gunslinger’s kit” for your character, you can save the
time it would take to write down all of these mundane things, as well as the
effort of having to write down other things you might not think of or have the
time to think about. This frees you from having to worry about the boring items
and get right down to the part of the character creation process that you might
enjoy a bit more: designating their character’s custom-designed, unique
weapons.
Uses
A concept kit is composed of both consumable items
that are used up over time as well as durable items that are not. To simplify
this, each kit possesses 20 “Uses”. Whenever an item that might be used to
accomplish a task requires the use of a piece of equipment in the kit, the
Director will judge whether or not one of these uses is spent. If so, you will
subtract one “Use” from the number of “Uses” for the kit. Once the number of
“Uses” for a concept kit is depleted, the character must get a new kit or
otherwise take measures to get the kit replenished.
Specified Items
In addition to your character’s concept kit, you
are free to list any Specified items your character would carry on his/her
person that would not be included in the concept kit. Examples of such items
include weapons, ammunition, money, car keys, good luck charms, et cetera.
While a concept kit has a mixture of durable
and consumable items, Specified items are classified as either durable
items or consumable Items.
Any Specified durable items that may be used
repeatedly to carry out the activities of daily living or perform actions while
adventuring that can be easily carried in a backpack, tool belt, or by some
other readily convenient means are assumed to be within your character’s
immediate reach (but may take time to access) if needed, unless something
happens over the course of the game, such as being lost or stolen. Examples of
durable items include weapons, a wallet or purse, a walking stick, a backpack,
eyeglasses, car keys, personal communication devices, or a daily planner or
journal.
Any Specified consumable items that will be used
up over the course of normal use as game play proceeds must be noted on your
character sheet separately, and the number of each item must also be listed.
Over the course of the game, as these items are consumed, you will need to keep
track of the number remaining. Examples of such items include darts, arrows,
rounds of ammunition, money, batteries, matches, food, nuts and bolts, nails,
solder, et cetera.
Hujraad’s Hacks: Only Specified Items
If you are not in a hurry, rather than listing a
concept kit, you are more than welcome to list each and every individual tool
or piece of equipment on your character sheet to your heart’s content as a
Specified item. If you choose to follow this path rather than using a concept
kit, remember to classify and list your objects separately as durable and
consumable Items, and to designate the number of consumable items next to the
item’s name on your character sheet.
Improvised Items
The next type of possessions your character will
possess are referred to as Improvised items. Improvised items represent any of
a number of random, nameless, household, items that your character might need
at any given time that you would have no way of knowing he would need beforehand.
Perhaps your character, stranded on a rural dirt road and camping out until
help arrives, feels a sudden need for a bag of marshmallows? Perhaps your
character was mystically transported from a rainforest to a desert and suddenly
finds a real need for a canteen of water? What if your character went to the
library expecting to find an answer in a book, only to find a secret passage
instead along with a sudden need for a flashlight? Improvised Items can really
save you and your character’s bacon in any of these situations.
Improvised items may be any non-magical, common
item of minimal to moderate value that is within the genre of the game setting
and easy to legally obtain. Items that are rare, magical, related to weapons,
or not within the genre for the game, extremely expensive, or unique in a
particular way may never be declared as an Improvised Items.
Improvised Items are classified into two types.
The first type, clutter, may be simple items with few if any moving parts, easy
to fit into a large pants pocket or small purse, and possess low or no monetary
value, typically less than ten dollars in our own world. You can think of these
things that you might find in a kitchen junk or desk drawer, behind or
underneath the cushions in a couch, or in the very bottom of a purse or
backpack. The second type, knickknacks, are items of up to moderate complexity,
no larger than a breadbox, and cost less than a hundred dollars in our own
world.
Improvised items are not actual items that you
list on your character sheet but instead, they are blanks on your character
sheet that act as placeholders to be used during play. When you need an
Improvised item, you will simply declare your character has the item as as
either a knickknack or item of clutter. The Director will then judge the item
and designate which of the two types of Improvised Item it qualifies as. Once
your Director classifies the item, you may write it down in one of the appropriate
spaces designated on your character sheet. Once all a character’s Improvised
items have been all been declared, you may no longer declare improvised items.
Hujraad’s Hacks: Multiple Improvised Items
An Improvised item might not be a single item but
several items for a single purpose. If your character finds a flashlight with
two dead batteries, for example, and you wish for your character to be able to
use it at that very moment, you might say, “I just so happen to have a few
batteries among the clutter in my pocket”. In such a case, the Director may
just treat it as a single Item of clutter. On the other hand, if the same
character needs two miner’s helmets, the Director may claim that each
constitutes a single knickknack, so will request you list each of them
individually on your character sheet. In short, whenever you claim your
character has an Improvised item, your Director has the final say as to whether
it is considered an item of clutter, a knickknack, neither, or multiple items,
and inform you how to reflect them on your character sheet during play.
Trading Knickknacks and Clutter
In some situations, your character may run out of
one type of Improvised item or the other. If you need an item of clutter but
have no items of clutter remaining, you may declare the item is a knickknack.
If you need a knickknack but have no knickknacks remaining, you may claim the
item as two items of clutter. If you need a Knickknack and only have one item
of clutter remaining, you may ask one of the other players if they would be
willing to transfer one of their Improvised items to you. Similarly, if other player characters have
declared all of their Improvised items, you may declare an Improvised item and
give it to another player character.
Holdings
Holdings are possessions your character possesses
elsewhere, that are not within 100 meters of his person. They can be vehicles,
houses, investment accounts, and anything else that holds value but your
character is not carrying.
You are free to document any Holdings your
character possesses so long as your Director approves them and judges they fit
in with your character’s history and concept. For example, if you claim your
character has multiple homes, 17 high-performance sports cars, and over a
million dollars in assets but is a homeless bum, your Director may disallow it
unless your character history reflects this seeming contradiction in some way.
Completing Step Eight
To complete this step, first describe and list all
the clothing your character is wearing.
Next, look at your character’s concept and concept
skills and take a second to think about what sorts of equipment your character
would need to perform tasks associated with the concept skills you have chosen
and write down a type of concept kit that might reflect these items along with
the list of what your character is wearing as clothing. Next to the name of the
concept kit, write down how your character is carrying it (in a backpack,
distributed throughout your character’s various pants and shirt pockets, in a
duffel bag, et cetera) and write the number of Uses it currently has remaining.
By default, all concept kits start out with 20 Uses.
Third, after you have documented your character’s
concept kit, write down any Specified durable items your character typically
carries as goes about his life or adventures. Do not forget to document any
weapons carried, as they are not considered part of any concept kit. As you
list each item, think of any consumable items related to it your character
might need, such as ammunition, batteries, and so forth. List these items and the
quantity of each item your character is carrying on your character sheet as a
Specified consumable item.
Fourth, list your character’s Holdings, and
describe where your character lives and sleeps most of the time. Also list any
modes transportation your character owns or otherwise has access to (such as a
car, horse, hang glider, for example) and describe where they are usually kept.
If your character has equipment stored with the method of conveyance, list
those items with it as well. If your character has no holdings, indicate that
as well.
Finally, because they are placeholders, there is
of course no need to designate Improvised items on your character sheet.
Instead, just make yourself familiar with where you will document each item as
it is claimed on your character sheet and you are ready to begin playing.
Step Eight Example: Johnny Parkour
Excited to be almost done creating his character,
Ogun finally turns his attention to his character Johnny’s possessions. Being
athletic from the circus, he decides that Johnny wears loose fitting clothes
that allow him to move quickly and writes down the following:
Stretchy Cotton Underwear
Baggie, well-worn canvas trousers with pockets
Comfy socks
Short sleeved cotton shirt
Flannel button down shirt
Light trapeze boots
Light leather gloves
Leather Duster
Balaclava
With Johnny’s clothes complete, Ogun moves on to
determining his concept kit. The role for his character is “provacateur”, which
really does not describe what sorts of things Johnny does from day to day.
Johnny’s descriptor of “acrobatic” helps, but not all that much. Ogun turns to
Johnny’s history. As he reads it, Ogun realizes that Johnnys Mission to find
the missing fortune teller would suggest a need traveling gear, maybe some
survival gear, and exploration equipment, like rope, a 3 meter pole,
flashlight, matches and so forth. He decides to group these together in his
mind and records the following on his character sheet, underneath the word
“Balaclava”:
Adventurer’s kit (Backpack)-20 Uses
With the majority of his needs taken care of, Ogun
decides to determine Johnny’s Specified items. Having aspects geared towards
using marbles, he definitely decides he needs them but not many other weapons.
He also decides that the circus folk gave him 100 dollars to start on his
journey, which he keeps in a wallet that fits on the inside pocket of his
duster. He writes the following Specified consumable items on his character
sheet:
4 Pouches (1 in each pocket) of 200 marbles each -
200
1 Pouch (Clipped firmly to belt) of 200 marbles -
200
Wallet with 100 dollars
He then adds his Specified durable items:
Lucky lemur’s foot
1997 Saturn SL with 450,000 km on the odometer
With his Specified items out of the way, Ogun
finally turns to Johnny’s Holdings. For the most part, Johnny lives and travels
about with his circus family, so he possesses no Holdings of his own;
everything is owned by the circus family as a whole and everyone within their
family shares their possessions with one another. He shares a tent with his
parents, though he has his own room. He is currently driving his dad’s old car,
but since it is readily available to him, he has listed in his Specified
Durable items. The nice thing about this is that though he has not a lot
of wealth, he does have a significant number of resources available from the
circus family should he need some things while in pursuit of his Mission.
With this final step complete, Johnny Parkour is
ready to dive into the action!
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