Today Ryan Macklin has posted a playtest pdf file of the Character Creation chapter for Mythender. I'd heard the game's concept (Become a hero of legend who takes on the Myths and gives them what's coming to them. "...or it’s about stabbing Odin in his good eye and telling him how much of a little punk he his. It can go either way." is a quote from the website), but it wasn't until he posted the sample of the rules that it really grabbed me. Now I'm quite interested in seeing this out and ready for play.
Link to the Character Creation Playtest PDF file:
http://ryanmacklin.com/2011/05/mythender-character-creation/Quick TL;DR summary of character creation: Pick a Heart & History (what kind of Mythic character are you and what were you before you became Mythic), say what your weapons are that you fight Myth with (personal qualities, relics, and companions), your Fate (basically what's the archetype of your characters Myth: Judgment, Death, War, Life, etc.), then state state how you connect to the others in the group of game.
Note: This is all by answering questions. No random stats and only a touch of, "Pick one from column A and one from column B".
Here is what I came up with while reading through the chapter. This guy is incomplete so far, no name, :
Heart - Bearer:
- How did you gain your relic: After the fall of my village I was left for dead, waking at the side of my forge with my broken hammer in hand. I walked about my village in a daze and did not return to my senses - if I ever truly have - until I found myself back before my forge with metal scraps from all my neighbors and the few murderers who fell. I did not know what I was seeking when I woke my forge's coals again, only that I must work what I had collected. For three days and three nights I worked without sleep. When I was finished I looked upon my new hammer. It was shaped neither like my old hammer nor like the usual warrior's hammer but more like the rune Lagu.
What does your relic whisper to you when you touch it: Justice must be. Justice will find all. Those who wrong will right themselves or be made right. No one may escape justice, no one.
Do you trust your relic? Why/why not? My hammer has served me well since the day its forging was complete. The iron and blood of my neighbors and kin are within it. But I never forget that some of the scraps came from the brigands who murdered them. If the souls of my kin are within, might not theirs be as well? My relic whispers, but I will always be wary of the softest whispers.
History - Mourner:
What did you lose? The last day of my old life ended before the dawn. Brigands fell upon my home village thirsting not merely for gold, but the iron of blood. I woke to the shouts of my neighbors and grabbed the hammer from my forge. To my undying shame I did not wake soon enough to save even a single one of my people from the sword. I have lost my family, my neighbors, my home in all its forms.
What should you have done to prevent this loss? I should have woken earlier. I was the strongest of my village. I should have stood between my people and the murderers. I should have saved them or died trying.
How has losing maimed your soul? I know to the deepest core of myself that I have nothing to return to. My family is dead. Those I grew up with are dead. The land has either gone fallow or is now home to strangers. And if I dare to take others as new friends or family or new land as my own, is this a betrayal of those I lost? Do I dare risk losing all again?
A Mourner's Bonds:
(Characters would be listed here in an actual game)
- _____ gives me a reason to continue.
- _____ reminds me of what I've lost.
- _____ gives me solace.
- _____ joins me in suffering.
Your first weapon: My Hammer is my weapon. I use it to end myths crushing the weapons of those I face forcing them to face justice. (Relic: Strength 4)
Your second weapon: My quest for justice is my weapon. I use it to end myths by bringing an accounting for their actions. (Intrinsic: Strength 3)
Your third weapon: My endurance is my weapon. I use it to end myths by bearing the unendurable. (Intrinsic: Strength 3)
Mythic Heart: New, still in the first months of being a Mythender.
Myth: The Myth of Judgment
- The Dream of Judgment: I seek to bring balance to those who approach in my dreams. The victims give me those I must seek for redress. When I find their wrongdoers in life or dream I can give their victims peace. The unjust face judgment. Those who will acknowledge their wrongdoing may hope for some mercy. Those who will not repent will be made to regret their choice.
- The presence of Judgment: A sense that the Fates are close seems to happen around me.
The forms of Judgment:
- Mortal form: I appear as one longer a child by not long a man. I have muscles easily seen from working hammer and forge. Dark hair and black eyes and a face frames by roughly trimmed hair at the sides. Hair kept short for the heat and sparks of the forge.
- Godly form: I appear as a tall man, almost half again my usual height. My muscles do not appear to have grown larger but instead seem hard as iron under my skin. In one hand I have my hammer, grown in size with me, in the other a simple balance scale made not of gold or silver but of unpolished steel. Likewise my clothes as well are without gold or silver decoration. A sleeveless shirt and pants made or fine but undecorated cloth are covered by a heavy leather work apron.
- Paragon Form: I appear much as I do in mortal form, with a hint of the muscles of my godly form.
- Supernatural form: As I approach my fate I grow in height, my clothes somehow growing with me, as if I always had this size and my mortal form a trick of the eyes. What clothes I have grow in the quality of their making - losing any needless decoration at the same time. Muscle and build show strength. Not that of one who builds them for vain show, but the strength of work.
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