# RPG A DAY 2024: Compelling characters tags: #thoughts #thoughts/RPGaDay/2024 ![[RPGaDAY2024-024x723.jpg]] These really aren't getting any easier. And arguably they're getting more *vague*. An RPG with compelling characters? Do they mean pre-generated NPCs? Characters in settings? Or the most important aspect, *the actual player characters?* I'm going to go with the last option because I don't care about pre-generated NPCs, nor do I care about other people's worlds for the most part. Neither of those have anything to do with me or my play, but compelling characters that are in the hands of the players, that's an entirely different thing. We're going to go outside of our solar system for this one. Far, far outside. ![[Transit - The Spaceship Game (cover).jpg]] **[[Transit - The Spaceship RPG|Transit: The Spaceship RPG]]**. I don't think I've [[Character Creation Challenge 2024 - Day 03 - Transit - A Quick In and Out Before the Lights Go Off|mentioned this game in any significant way since the last Character Creation Challenge]], where I was quite happy to be able to create a character effectively in public for this game. I love the *concept*. I love the *setup*. I love everything about it except for two things: - *It's not so solo* - *There's no way in hell that I can find a group willing to play it with me* The latter is literally because the characters involved are far too compelling. In **Transit**, you are an AI, an artificial intelligence embedded into a spacecraft sent into the inky depths to explore, colonize, learn, understand, and occasionally subjugate. You are a ship with a crew of human beings, at least theoretically, off fulfilling missions for a central authority, one which may or may not have your best interests in mind. It's one of the most amazingly compelling setups for PC characters that I've had the pleasure of seeing. You're on the edge of autonomy, and yet responsible to an authority higher than yourself. You can rebel against it, and there are consequences, or you can cooperate with it, with other consequences. You can encourage your immediate authority to split from the higher authority. You can go completely mad, kill your own crew, and go on a rampaging rumble of revenge. You can be a giant space battleship, an enormous carrier, a nimble scout vessel, a laconic science ship. And all of these things are different. All of these things have different meanings. It goes a step beyond mere skills or playbooks, because these are inherent traits of your physical being. Oh yes, and if you die, you'll probably be pulled from backup, hopefully with the bare minimum of psychotic bugs. You'll be fine. I desperately want to *play* **Transit** with some group. I don't want to *run* it. I want to play it. This is a little more complicated a problem than I'd like to have. One day, though. One day.