Today we’ll build the second of three player-characters for my next solo rpg adventure, which I’m calling Age of Wonders. Check out more about the setting and rules here, the town of Oakton here, and our first PC, Emah Elmhill, last post.

I’ll be using the same process for this character as I used for Emah. Let’s discover who will be inhabiting this world as one of our primary protagonists!

Background Rolls

As before, I love me some Background Generator tables in ICONS Origins. Indeed, it’s fun to think that my earlier exploration of ICONS led me to discover it as a tool, just as playing other TTRPGs have introduced me to all sorts of mini-game systems or other ways to enhance whatever game I’m playing. I have my pair of d6s in my hand. I’ll again log each table and results, with the roll in parentheses.

Gender (6): Female.

Ethnicity* (9): Kaizuka. Interesting! This will be my first exploration of them, since their arrival in Oakton wasn’t really covered in my history. I see them as the hardest-luck people in the town, finding the least desirable work.

*the city of Oakton has four major peoples, which are rough analogues of broad-African (Kalee), Spanish/Mexican hybrid (Mesca), English (Stone Isles), and Japanese (Kaizuka), roughly in that order from most- to least-common.

Age (8,9): 29 years old, five years older than Emah.

Manner (4): Proud, aloof, or arrogant.

Who do you value? (6): Themselves.

What do you value (8): Home or family.

Attitude (6): Neutral towards most people.

Birthplace (3): Outskirts of Oakton.

Status (10): Wealthy. Hm… interesting. That flies in the face of what I said above about the Kaizuka. She may own an elicit business or something.

Tragedy (3,2,2,3): One or more family members were murdered.

1^st Past Experience (4,3): Opportunity: She found a new opportunity, whether it was a new job, a new invention, or a new way of looking at things.

2^nd Past Experience (4,4): Promotion: She received a promotion or a general stepup in her career or recognition of her abilities.

3^rd Past Experience (1,2,1): Gained a friend, who is like a family member to her.

4^th Past Experience (5,5): Injured: She suffered an injury, and may even have lasting trouble from it, such as a disability or disfigurement.

Okay, I think I’ve got an idea. Sheesh these characters are not for the faint of heart… Emah’s story blurb, much to my surprise, turned out to be as much a commentary on sexual harassment as anything. And now I’m going to dive into the world of prostitution.

Here’s her brief bio (some of which I revised after rolling on the Crusaders Origins and Powers tables):

Kami Misaki came to Oakton when she was very young, in the cargo hold of a ship fleeing Kaizuka, an island nation across the sea. Like many Kaizukan refugees, her family was given no advantages in the Kalee-occupied town, and found themselves doing whatever work they could find. When Kami was thirteen years old, her father ran afoul of one of the many Oakton gangs, who killed Kami’s parents in retribution. Her older brother joined a rival gang, vowing revenge, and Kami stumbled into the employ of one of the town’s many brothels.

Over the next several years, Kami became one of the town’s most sought-after ladies of the night because of her stunning beauty. It was a soul-crushing life, but the madame of her brothel looked after her and protected her as best she could, becoming a surrogate mother to the lovely-but-hardened young woman.

One night, a particularly brutal client attacked Kami with a knife, wickedly scarring her face. Her value to the brothel plummeted, but the madame decided to keep her in her employ, not as a prostitute but instead to use her mind and keen insights into people for their mutual advantage. Kami became part proprietor, part advisor, and was paid handsomely for her efforts.

Hmmm… now how do I steer her towards the Adventurer’s Guild and in cahoots with Emah Elmhill? A narrative mystery to be solved.

Origin

Thank you, Background Generator! Now I’ll set the d6s aside and grab my pair of d10s for the Crusaders tables, revised for this campaign. We start with Origin, which is akin to Class in other systems.

I roll a 99, which is to Choose my Origin! Neat. Well, since Emah is a non-superpowered (which I always want to write as a slightly-pejorative “normie” because, apparently, I’m a superhero snob) PC, let’s focus on Kami as someone directly affected by the Wyrding. I’ll roll again to see if one of those options presents itself, a reroll if not: I get a 76, which is “Wyrding: Humanoid Animal/Plant.” Excellent stuff, and fits her first name well. Now, will it be animal or plant? Let me roll another d10, odds are animal powers and evens are plant powers: 6. Plant powers… here we come!

Powers and Attributes

For something as specific a concept as “plant person,” I’m going to create a special Powers table, as suggested by the Crusaders Companion supplement. Here it is:

I’m excited by those options! Kami will get 3 Powers rolls to begin with, and I’ll confine my rolls to only this table (which will limit the concept but ensure I use this handy table I just created). She can trade one or more of these in for various other perks, and I may do so after a couple of Powers. But first, the good stuff…

Roll 1: 28 or 82, which is either Elasticity or Super Strength.

Roll 2: 87 or 78, which is Super Strength, period. So she’s definitely a brick!

Roll 3: 50 or 05, which is Plant Control or Adaptation.

As I frequently find with Crusaders, there are a lot of different ways I could go here. She could take Super Strength twice, making her a mega-tank, but that feels weird without Armor or Vigor to go along with it. She could be able to stretch her arms like a vine, control plants, or simply not have to breathe to go along with her strength. Hm. Let me read up on these powers a bit.

While it feels like a missed opportunity to not take the rare Plant Control, I’ve found a combo from the above list that makes me happy. First, of course, Kami will have Super Strength, making her Strength Level equal to her Physique + 20 for feats of strength like lifting or throwing things, unarmed damage, and resistance to knockback. It does not, however, improve her Vitality or Physique score. In other words, she can (and likely will) be of a willowy build, despite her impressive strength.

Second, she will take Elasticity. I have a fondness of stretchy characters, and mechanically this gives her some ability to take damage, since she a) gets a 25 score instead of Alertness to defend against all forms of melee and missile attacks, and b) subtracts 10 from all bashing or lethal damage, except if blindsided or unconscious.

Finally, it just makes sense to me that she has Adaptation, or the ability to survive and act in any environment (underwater, vacuum of space, or extreme temperatures).

What these choices prevent me from doing, unfortunately, is trading one of those rolls for either Privileged Background (making her independently wealthy) or Connections (which makes sense given her long years in a brothel). As a result, I’ll have to limit how much I rely on either part of her background for her advantage. She’ll have the madame as a contact, but she won’t be able to easily tap into a whole underground network for information or sanctuary. Perhaps the madame only trusts her so far, or perhaps she’s an inherently untrustworthy boss.

With her powers done, I’ll turn to distributing her paltry 10 points to the four core Attributes, which each start at 9. I’ll give 1 each to Physique and Prowess, since she has not trained in Oakton to be a fighter. Instead, I’ll drop 4 points each into Alertness and Psyche; Kami is watchful of the world around her and strong-minded.

With a Physique of 10, it’s easy to calculate her Vitality: 30.

Final Touches

I mentioned last time that I had a narrative system in mind about Motivation that will match the PC’s powers. What I’ve rolled for Kami fits into one of the otherworldly forces I have in mind, sort of a Patron in Dungeon Crawl Classics or a warlock in D&D 5E. As a result, she will be an Architect, someone who is driven to create something of lasting value in the world. That motivation makes some sense for someone who fell into prostitution at an early age, lost their parents, and has lived on the fringes of society who has also come into power.

As I described with Emah, I’m going to handwave most of what fantasy games term equipment. Kami is not wearing anything that would constitute armor, nor does she wield weapons. She’s a social “class,” someone who gets by on charm, wits, and discernment, not fighting. Which is all to say that she does not need anything of note on her character sheet, gear-wise:

Now, the exciting part… let’s see how Roland Brown (you can contact him at drawhaus.com) visualized Kami! As with Emah, I’ll post Roland’s awesome concept sketch as well as the final artwork. You’ll see that I asked him to remove the hat to showcase her mask, though I like the look of the hat overall.

Stepping back, I’m thrilled to have my first two characters be a “scrapper” (i.e. someone who can fight with a sword) and a “brick” (i.e. someone strong and tough), and am even more pleased to have one PC directly affected by the Wyding and another who is more of a companion or witness to these changes. Story possibilities abound, and I’m already thinking that perhaps these two will meet because Kami hires Emah to a job. It will be interesting to see if the final character of the bunch is another non-powered character, making Kami somewhat of a centerpiece, or another person transformed, making Emah the white-knuckled tagalong. Or maybe something else. Will the final character also be a woman, which will make this story have a particular set of themes? We’ll find out next time!

Before we get there, though, let’s peek in at a brief piece of fiction just to get a feel for Kami’s personality and background…

---

“Sit, my darling,” Elyn said, waving a hand at the pillow across from her own. The room smelled faintly of rose petals and scented candles and was both clean and spare. A high window over Elyn’s shoulder added a slanting sunbeam to the candlelight.

Kami did as instructed, smoothing her silk robe before lowering herself, cross-legged, to the plush seat on the wooden floor. She bowed her head, finding it difficult to meet the woman’s eyes. Without meaning to, her fingers reached up to her left cheek.

Her madame tsked gently. “Leave it. Look at me, Kami.”

She brushed a lock of black hair, combed fine, out of her eyes and looked. Elyn Brehill hailed from the Stone Isles, her skin pale as alabaster stone and lightly freckled, her blonde hair pulled into an elaborate braid which hung over her sheer green robes. She was a truly beautiful woman, and as she’d put on weight in her later years had only become more so. Elyn was round in ways that invited the eye, and the permanent twinkle in her green eyes, the half-grin that was her natural countenance, suggested that she knew you were watching and approved. Even as the proprietor of the Golden Heron and the oldest there by a wide margin, Elyn remained one of the highest-priced and most sought-after prostitutes, and she selected her clients carefully.

“Now that you’ve healed, it’s time to talk, darling,” she said. “You were my best girl, and now, well…” This time her handwave was somehow sad.

“I’m ruined,” Kami said dully. Again, her fingers strayed.

“Leave it,” the woman admonished, her voice harder this time. “As a working girl, I’m afraid those words are true.” She sighed elaborately. “I hope they hang him for what he did to you, but we must face facts. You can’t work now, at least not at the Heron. There’s no market for the disfigured here. I’m sure another house will take you if you want to work.”

Kami’s voice seemed to answer distantly, of its own free will. “I understand. I will be out by nightfall.” She began to rise. “Thank you for…”

“For love of the Great Oak, girl, sit!”

Kami started. She willed the brimming tears to stay unshed as she settled back down, bewildered.

“Come now. Kami Misaki. You’re stronger than this,” she shook her head with disapproval, her bottom lip extending prettily. “When one door closes, another opens. You told me this, when I first took you into my employ, did you not? I understand a time to mourn the loss of your face, I do. But now it’s done. Time to look forward.”

Kami said nothing, her tears forgotten in her confusion. She watched Elyn, trying to read her meaning and body language, but the woman had always been frustratingly immune to her intuition.

Elyn, for her part, seemed to assess the young woman in front of her in equal measure. After several heartbeats, she again sighed dramatically and reached behind her. Her hand returned with a bag of red silk, something heavy causing it to bulge at odd angles and hang from its delicate strings.

“I have a gift. No, don’t open it yet. You can keep it no matter your answer, but I’d first ask you a question.”

Kami took the bag with her slender fingers. Whatever was in it seemed hard and complexly shaped, like a wooden carving of an animal. She said nothing and waited for Elyn to ask her question, though her hands and a slice of her mind puzzled at the bag.

“The question is this: Can you get over your shock and horror at this…” she waved vaguely at Kami’s face. “Setback? I need your confidence and keen eyes, not your tears and shame. There’s less room for those in the Heron than ugliness.”

“I… don’t understand,” she said honestly, fingers turning the bag over. Whatever it was, it was flat but curved.

“You were my best girl, Kami. My most beautiful, true, but more than that. I value your eyes and mind more than your face and body. Well, almost as much.” She chuckled lasciviously.

“I’m sorry. I still don’t understand, ma’am. You want me to… stay?”

Elyn’s eyes twinkled. Her dimples deepened. “Just so. I’d take you as my assistant, someone to keep those sharp eyes on patrons and the other girls, and whose mind I can use to sort through certain business problems.”

“Your assistant,” Kami whispered, her thoughts awhirl. “But, like this?” One hand left whatever was in the silk bag and strayed to her face again. This time the madame did not admonish her.

“Ah, yes. Well. Now you open the bag,” Elyn said with a smile, settling her weight back onto her own plush pillow in anticipation.

Looking down, Kami’s fingers returned to her lap and worked at the cinched top. She pulled the bag open and reached inside.

It was a delicately carved mask, made of a light wood of almost skin tone. In truth, it was more half a mask, meant to cover most of the forehead, one cheek and jawline, with an eye hole and the mask itself curving around the lips. In other words, it was meant to cover exactly the parts of Kami’s face that had been so hideously carved. A simple red ribbon was attached to each of the mask’s top corners.

“Made by Gontro, Oakton’s finest woodsmith. He owed me a favor, of course.”

Kami turned the item in her hands, examining it from every angle.

“He says he’ll adjust the straps and shape of the wood if needed,” Elyn continued. “The idea is that it molds to your face and is comfortable enough that you never need take it off. Oh, do give it a try, will you? Go on.”

This time, Kami let the tears fall freely.

Age of Wonders: Character 3!