My Characters are Mine

I once ran a survival hex-crawl game with Pathfinder 1e. This was in the Aquilae setting, but it could have been any Norse-like setting, such as Northlands Saga (Frog God), Nordlond (Gaming Ballistic), or even Orbaal (Harnworld). The 5E setting of Svilland (DRS Publishing) would have worked well, too.

The scenario was waking up on a frozen rocky coast, like surviving a shipwreck and going inland to find a town. This was like starting Skyrim in the northern snow areas and installing one of those survival mods that does not let you walk 50 feet without freezing to death. Playing a Pathfinder cleric in this type of scenario is like cheating since low-level cleric spells can give you warmth and protection from the cold, but those only last so long, and you need to stop to make shelter and rest.

She fought a few giant crabs and wolves and dodged a few bugbear patrols. It was a thrilling game, but it fell short in terms of the survival game. The skills the game used to survive and navigate the wilderness, build shelter, understand weather and temperature, and find civilization were lacking. She stumbled upon ancient ruins without history and lore skills; it was a hollow discovery. She had more pressing problems, but like any D&D character, she felt pigeonholed into the role of the 'party healer.'

When she found a town, the game ended.

Since then, I've been searching for game systems that would allow me to recreate this game in a new light. This was before the birth of this blog and GURPS, of course. I experimented with D&D 5E, but she emerged even more 'dungeon stupid' than my Pathfinder 1e character. She seemed to exist solely to vanquish foes and take short rests. My 'spear and shield' build for her was non-existent in some games, and she was back to the B/X mace and shield build. The search continues for a game system supporting survival and exploration gameplay.

I know! This was all before this blog, and GURPS, we will get there.

I know this character. In her original life (way back in the day), she was a priestess who traveled between a town and far-off farms, fishing villages, forts, and mines in remote areas. She had to travel and survive in the winter and, in a pinch, live off the land. She had to know her religious skills to perform weddings, burials, and blessings for those in the area. She needed to be able to ride, navigate terrible trails and roads, and build a camp. She can fight and defend herself, shield, bash, and toss a spear. I wanted her to have a backup hammer as a weapon. She is a combination survival expert and priestess, which 5E does not allow you to do unless you are a multiclass ranger-cleric.

Knowing who they are is the first step to building a great GURPS character. Once you have their occupation and story, you can create that. This is the opposite of D&D, where you choose race and class first, and those things define you. These days, they are adding more choices like "heritage" and "background," which are equally and painfully too generic and broad.

Nomadic Cleric from the Human Priesthood may describe her in games like Tales of the Valiant or Level Up A5E (or even Cypher), but those four choices do not come close at all to the short story I created for her earlier. It is like picking cards, A+B+C+D, and saying that equals my detailed story. It comes nothing close.

A+B+C+D is just four mix-and-match picks for a board game.

My little story describes a realistic person, like one you would see in fiction. There are skills in my story she needs to be good at to tell that story well.

5E (and many other class-based games) fall harder in character design's "allowed class skills" part. Most of her skills (survival, travel, tracking, navigation) fall outside the "cleric class," she can't buy or improve them all that well. Sorry, but your story needs to fit the game! Sorry, I will put your game on the shelf, and find one that works. My most recent attempt was with Tales of the Valiant, and I was not happy with the results there, either.

She was a ToV cleric, not the one in my story.

One of my projects now is to rebuild her in GURPS.

Now, in GURPS, you need to understand how character designs evolve. You go through "versions" of a character until you find the one that works for you and fits your story. Right now, she is a bit physically fit, and her skills could be better - especially for ceremonies and religion. I made a few changes, knocking off a point of DX and IQ for 40 character points, which let me fill out her religious training a bit more to my liking.

Sometimes, I will design a character for weeks, picking things, testing, tweaking, and thinking about them. One character can be a hobby, especially tweaking weights and load-outs.

What is the use of trekking 40 miles through inhospitable terrain to teach Norse Sunday school to a fishing village's children if you only put one point in theology and teaching? She sucked at her job and could just "kill things well," which is the D&D curse. In this case, those extra skill points mean she can do something when she gets there rather than embarrass herself in front of the village when the local Town Grandma knows more.

That one less point of IQ and DX will hurt her, but that 40 points of skills will turn her into something more than a dumb adventurer with cleric powers. The way she was? She would be assigned as a healer for soldiers on combat missions. The way she is now? She is a starting but skillful cleric who can fight but knows her job well enough that people respect her. I want the IQ point back ASAP, but that comes later.

Part of a great character design is "hurting for something," and she fits the bill in a few areas. I want that IQ point back! Give me 20 character points! Well, earn them.

As a referee, if she makes those skill rolls, she discovers the evil spirit making the cattle sick (occultism and exorcism skill rolls), teaches Sunday School, blesses the new soldiers, and does a few weddings - guess what? I am going to rule she gets free room and board free meals, and she may get an escort of soldiers to take on a mission involving battle. The local Jarl will offer her any information she needs to solve the regional problems she encounters. She will be respected and may even get free armor and weapon repair. Successful skill rolls in tasks D&D players would say, "So what, where is the dungeon?" give huge intangible rewards and favors in GURPS.

This is how I referee GURPS.

Skill rolls mean something, and the world comes alive. The world is not just "combat and killing," but that is there too for story and danger. There are a lot of problems she can solve in the area. They require her skills and knowledge. Some of them require advanced levels of skill. D&D treats skills as unlocks for reading adventure text, such as, "Roll DC 20 to know..." I use skills to change the story, situation, NPCs, and world. And the players are free to make up new things they want to do.

Compared to D&D's railroaded "preprogrammed adventures," this feels like "putting yourself in the world."

Another troubling part of D&D adventures is "if it ain't combat, it isn't fun." Healing those sick cattle from the evil spirit? A combat encounter. Teaching Sunday School? Another combat encounter shoved in somehow. Many D&D adventures assume players are so bored they need constant stimulation and fighting.

The evil spirit in my game? It may take a series of lore, history, and skill rolls to understand what it is and how to attack it. It may follow her and make bad things happen as warnings and omens. It could be like a mini-horror scenario. It could end in combat, or it could end another way, with a banishment ceremony, or it could end peacefully.

She will also want to improve those skills as the game goes on to dive deeper into the mysteries she finds. Ancient knowledge and facts will have hefty penalties for those skill rolls, so she had better be prepared. A critical success at performing a wedding may mean a new ally is gained, or that union will be destined to create a future hero.

These dice rolls have meaning and can change the world.

The more significant point here is that my characters are mine. They are a result of my stories and ideas about who someone is. They are not made out of picks in a game or defined only by a race and class combo. The game designers gave me the tools to turn a story into a fully fleshed-out character.

Also, note how my first character for that first Pathfinder 1e scenario was "just made for combat and casting" and how my GURPS character turned into a story; who could go to an area and tell the story of that place and its people? She went from a simple D&D 3.5 playing piece to a part of a novel pretty quick when GURPS entered the discussion.

It is because she is my character, and I own her idea and can express it—not some game designer's idea of my character, and my expression is limited by "5E game designer choices."

There really is no comparison.

My characters are mine.