# Day 09: Bloodstained Fangs - KL Reed, Corporate Necromancer
tags: #articles/CharacterCreationChallenge/2026 #game/rpg/bloodstained-fangs
> [!quote] [[Character Creation Challenge 2026]]
>
> ![[Character Creation Challenge Image.png]]
## Game of Choice
Of all the things that I expected to see coming down the pipe in terms of sudden popularity, the one I hadn't really counted on over the last couple of years was that people really missed the *World of Darkness*, particularly vampires, but quite a lot of the rest of it.
Perhaps it's the general end-of-the-world vibe that people seem to be clinging on to, or just a desire to return to supernatural urban fantasy / romantasy / katanas and trench coats.
Whatever it is, today we're making a character for the latest one to drop in front of me, and it's kind of cool.
![[Bloodstained Fangs (cover).jpg|400]]
*[[Bloodstained Fangs]]* is a straight-up indie production, as you can tell from the cover. The art's not bad, but the composition could be a little bit better on that title.
The other thing that you're going to notice immediately is that it is, quote, *Geared Toward [[Loner]]*.
In fact, it is the first independent game produced using the *Loner Open License*.
I'm a big booster of open licenses for RPGs, especially core systems, because I enjoy them. I like the idea that if I feel truly inspired, I can sit down with something I love, put together my own game, put it out there, and make a few bucks if anyone else likes it.
*Bloodstained Fangs* is explicitly a solo RPG, though you can play it co-op or guided because once you've got the mechanics for solo, everything else is easy.
In it, you'll be able to choose whether you want to play a vampire, a werewolf, perhaps a mage, all within the very loose, modern setting of *The City*.[^1][^2] Some place that rains a lot, that I can tell you. Otherwise, it's wherever you happen to be. It's a big city with a lot of people where lots of dirty dealing can happen behind closed doors and under the cover of nightfall.
Mechanically, you're looking at *Loner* with some inspiration in terms of the humanity system from *[[Elegy]]* (yes, there's a humanity system). You're not looking at a lot of mechanical crunch; you're looking at something designed to be fast, lightweight, extremely portable, and flexible. You're also looking at a goodly amount of D66 oracles to help drive your inspiration and introduce complications, which I've come to really appreciate. Let's get stuck in.
## Acts of Creation
Would you believe that character generation in this game literally fits on one page? It's page 15.
Welcome to the *Loner* heritage, and one of the reasons that we appreciate it so much.
We're not going to be juggling a bunch of numbers because these are qualitative representations, not quantitative. In fact, we're not going to be juggling numbers at all.
### Name
You know, I'm going to put this off to the end because I think I have decided I really like figuring out the name once I've figured out everything else. I can do that. This is my character creation challenge.
### Concept
As a side note, there are actual D66 tables for all of these things in case you come up a little dry in terms of inspiration. They are all pretty much right there in the space.
I'm not feeling like going random on my concept, though. Look, we both knew this was going to happen.
| Concept |
| --------------------- |
| Corporate Necromancer |
Sometimes it's nice to be a professional and recognized as good in your field. It's always helpful to have someone on staff who can make sure the really late night shift can work all the time and doesn't get distracted.
Sometimes it's handy to be able to consult with the shades of previous CEOs. You never know when necromancy is going to come up on the corporate reports.
Plus, someone needs to know the ins and outs of how to deal with major corporations, department infighting, proper form filling, and all that goes with it.
We probably need a company name to go with that. So how about **Lanier Staffing**? It's specific enough to suggest to the unwary that they just acquire hands for other companies, which technically would be correct, but also leaves enough leeway for all sorts of corporate shenanigans.
Remember, GE makes both dishwashers and the rotary autocannons for the A-10.
### Skills
We get two, and they are not necessarily character-specific, but not characteristics that everyone has.
| Skills | Description |
| ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Underworld Contacts | Who better to be on speaking terms with the criminal underground than the company Warlock? Know the right people, have a contact in every gang. Hear the dirt before it hits the rags. |
| American "Sorcery" | And by that I mean grade-A bang-bang. Knows the ins and outs of popular guns and rifles and has spent some time on the range. |
If you're going to get your knees dirty in the cemetery, you might as well get your hands dirty on the street.
Though this is turning into some sort of strange *[[Shadowrun]]* situation, and I'm here for it.
### Frailty
Everybody has something that can get in their way, and we are no different.
| Frailty | Description |
| ------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Necromantic Leakage | Not everybody takes to magic the same way. Sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse. Sometimes it's a mixed bag.<br><br>Necromancy is particularly aggressive about giving someone a bit of a cadaverous sheen. People get chills when he walks in the room. Social situations where he needs to come across as warm and caring are probably not his strong point. |
There we go, an actual problem that will come up on a regular basis, which is the best kind.
### Gear
As usual, everyday items are just assumed to be with us. This is for particular equipment.
| Gear | Description |
| ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Netherese Tome | An obscure tome of necromancy discovered in the public section of the New York Library in 2010. Useful as a reference text and as a source of inspiration for the creation of new spells, but doesn't itself contain any, only spellcraft. |
| Henry Axe H18 Shotgun[^3] | Extremely short, easily concealable, five rounds in the tube, and there's not a necromancer alive who doesn't want a shotgun when they might have to deal with zombies. |
Did I have fun spending 20 minutes looking for just the right weapon? Absolutely I did. Thank you for asking.
### Goal
What's the long-term play? What are you trying to achieve? What's going on that you want to stop or start? Figuring out what a character's goal is often gets overlooked in very traditional game designs, which is why I'm happy to see it here.
| Goal |
| --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Make his way up the corporate ladder by fair means or foul.[^4] |
Sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do.
### Motive
Here's the thing that shoves you into action, gets you out the door, out on the street, and doing whatever it is that you do every single day.
Plus, it's probably what your character is going to be up to most of the time, narratively, so give it some thought.
| Motive |
| ----------------------------------------------- |
| Discover the true secrets to achieving lichdom. |
I recognize that it's a classic motivation to the point of nearly being cliche, if not entirely being cliche, but damn it, sometimes you go with what works.
### Nemesis
Technically, we don't have to figure this one out up front, but it doesn't hurt.
We could just develop a nemesis in play, but I have an inkling of an idea.
| Nemesis |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| William Bardot, Blood Vampire, head of acquisitions at Accutech LLC. |
How does the head of acquisitions at a company that sounds like it's an arms manufacturer count as a nemesis?
Well, he wants to headhunt our lovely protagonist, probably in both ways, given the way this setting seems to be evolving.
### Luck
Here's where we have a little bit of a departure from the standard loner mechanics in that luck is integrated into the character sheet itself, rather than being something that just comes up during conflicts. The application here is the same; it's just interesting that it's right here.
| Luck |
| :--: |
| 6 |
### Name (Come Again)
That essentially puts all of our stats on the sheet (save for one, which I'll get to here shortly). So I guess it's time to put together a name. We have a guy who is a professional necromancer for Lanier Staffing. He likes guns a lot, to the point he has his own short-barrel shotgun. He's motivated by getting ahead and becoming a lich.
| Name |
| ------- |
| KL Reed |
No one actually knows what KL stands for, and it's probably for the best.
He's a professional. He doesn't have a nickname.
### Humanity
While it's not listed on the actual character generation section, there is one more stat that is associated with every character, and that is their humanity, which always begins at six unless you decide you want to set it somewhere else. This represents how much you are changed from the human condition by whatever it is that you are. Vampires lose humanity by not feeding on blood, gain it back from actually having a bite to eat, but if they're interrupted by someone or hurt their prey while feeding, they only gain one humanity. Werewolves, on the other hand, lose humanity when under stress or feeling an overwhelming emotion at night and then either transform and lose one humanity or try to hold on to your humanity. Good luck with that. Intentionally transforming into a wolf or wolf hybrid also costs one humanity.
Mages lose humanity typically when tapping into their supernatural powers, mechanically. Also, that's when you need to roll to see if you throw down a die higher than your humanity and get a mystic backlash, which nobody wants.
Lose all your humanity and you're consumed by whatever it is that you are. It takes over completely and destroys or grievously harms something or someone you love, but that's not the end. It snaps you back to reality. You set humanity back to 2, and now you have to deal with the fallout.
How do you get humanity back? Well, you do something that contradicts or undermines your supernatural nature. A vampiric act of self-sacrifice or giving freely of themselves. A werewolf dedicating themselves to self-control, perhaps meditation and self-improvement. A mage giving up status or power. All these things could qualify for regaining humanity.
Humanity's overrated anyway.
| Humanity |
| :------: |
| 6 |
## Exunt
That's it. That's the entirety of character creation. Simple, fast, easy, high speed, low drag. My favorite.
- **Name:** KL Reed
- **Concept:** Corporate Necromancer
- **Skills:**
- Underworld Cxontacts
- American "Sorcery"
- **Frailty:** Necromantic Leakage
- **Gear:**
- Netherese Tome
- Henry Axe H18 Shotgun
- **Goal:** Make his way up the corporate ladder by fair means or foul.
- **Motive:** Discover the true secrets to achieving lichdom.
- **Nemesis:** William Bardot, Blood Vampire, head of acquisitions at Accutech LLC.
- **Luck:** 6
- **Humanity:** 6
I'll bet you were wondering when I would get back to the whole name of the city thing I mentioned in the footnotes.
Well, here it is. There's actually a table for that—two, in fact. One to generate a structure, and one with bits.
It's not a particularly large table, but if you don't have a better idea, let's see what falls out.
> 1d6
> [1]
> 1d6
> [4]
> 1d6
> [6]
| The City |
| --------- |
| Duskville |
There you go. The answer is *Duskville*.
Now, I would normally associate a ville with a much smaller thing than a large city, but we'll make do with what we've got. I would suggest setting this in the major real city of your choice. I think you'll get more traction and plenty of resources for envisioning how things look from the street.
There you go. The grand finale. The tip top. The aces. I can't resist thinking that this would make a really good core for running *Shadowrun* without having to deal with all of the crunchy garbage overhead that *Shadowrun* has these days.
Maybe you want a couple of more traits or skills of some sort in order to go a little bit broader, but that's not necessary, I don't think. Just might be fun. It certainly could just be tied up in the concept as well.
Looking for something with a little more or a lot more mechanical crunch while still doing the supernatural urban fantasy thing? You might want to check out *[[Urban Shadows]]* or even *[[Shadow City|Shadow City: Blood & Neon]]*, depending if you want to go more into the heavily narrative or the crunchy OSR.
For my part, I think I'm thinking about doing something with *Bloodstained Fangs* or *Elegy*, keeping a focus on that lightweight, fast-moving solo play.
Regardless, I will catch you tomorrow with yet another part of *Character Creation Challenge 2026*. We are going to take on a game which I'm a little iffy about. I'm going to be honest—we'll just have to see how it shakes out.
[^1]: The cynic might suggest that it sounds a lot like Chicago or Detroit, but then the cynic would also point out that almost every urban supernatural game seems like it's set in Chicago, Detroit, New York, or Seattle. I mean, listen to this description:
> A police department drowning in missing persons cases, homicides, and assault reports can barely keep the lights on, let alone solve crimes. The guilty walk free, the predators grow bolder every night, and the bodies keep piling up in the morgue labeled John Doe and forgotten.
I mean, come on, how much more on the nose can you get?
[^2]: For extra comedy value, it turns out I lied. I was looking at the previous release candidate for the text rather than the most recent one. We'll get back to that.
[^3]: It's a real thing, I promise!
[^4]: Yes, I'm fond of "by fair means or foul."
You're going to see some repeated themes this month.