# Character Creation Challenge 2024: Day 21 - Fleshscape :: Tuco, Killer of the Blood-Washer Tribe tags: #thoughts/CharacterCreationChallenge/2024 #game/rpg/fleshscape > [!quote] [[Character Creation Challenge 2024]] > > ![[Character Creation Challenge Image.png]] If there was a common theme that I was absolutely certain would *not* be showing up on a regular basis in the games that I touched during the *Character Creation Challenge*, it would be *"pre-iron-age tribal communities."* But somehow they just keep coming up, manifesting straightforward, even simple mechanical systems which have an excuse to leverage both individuals (the character) and their larger community (the tribe). Not going to lie, I almost feel like I should figure out why this is happening. In the meantime – welcome to **[[Fleshscape]]**. ![[Fleshscape (cover).jpg]] ![[Fleshscape (inset).jpg]] (Frankly, the cover didn't convey enough of the setting so I picked up the art at the top of the first page. I think that really sums it up.) Imagine inhabiting a world made solely out of flesh, bone, staring eyes that roll in their misshapen sockets, and surviving on the milky fluid that pours from orifices across the unnatural landscape. Making your gear out of the remnants of the horrors that also claw out a life in this nightmare, or the disgusting materials available from the rolling hills of flesh themselves. It's [David Cronenberg](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000343/)'s favorite fantasy setting. That's all I'm saying. Mechanically, what you're looking at here is a *[[Blades in the Dark|Forged in the Dark]]* derivative, where you build up a dice pool of D6s, 4, 5 and 6 represent a success and anything else – is not a success. It confuses the language a little bit by pointing out that you need more successes than the difficulty the GM sets for the *"action to be successful,"* which is a bit of overloading of the term, but as is traditional, PCs have a chance to resist outcomes. I can't see any reason you *wouldn't* resist any mechanically affecting negative outcome because there doesn't seem to be an associated cost like Stress in [[Blades in the Dark|BitD]].. Enough mechanics, let's get to the meat! (It's everywhere!) ## Chargen I love it when things are straightforward and easy. Almost everything that involves a list is already directly on the character sheet or the tribe sheet. There are four pages of rules. This thing is about as good to go as you can possibly have – and while the art is relatively minimal, it's well done and sets the mood nicely. ### Character **Name:** Tuco^[If you're going to stab, stab. Don't talk.] **Nature:** Impulsive #### Traits We've got a very familiar three traits: *brain*, *muscle*, and *guts*. We just distribute nine points among them such that none of them end up higher than 5 or lower than 2. With stats that straightforward, I don't think they need any description. | Trait | Score | | ---- | ---- | | *brain* | 2 | | *muscle* | 3 | | *guts* | 4 | Tuco is not the smartest or wisest of men, but he never pretends to be. He's got a lot of heart. Which is good because his mouth keeps getting into trouble that his sheer chutzpah and ability to smack things in the head have to get him out of. #### Gifts Effectively your skill or innate talent for a thing. They're all listed on the character sheet with what they do. Let's grab something appropriate. > **Cold-blooded:** *-1 shock* suffered (minimum zero). > > **Vicious:** + on rolls made to kill and injure. Nothing gets a rise out of Tuco. He's just generally unflappable. If he does decide to flap at you, you might have a problem. It's not going to end well. #### Equipment I'm not sure how they managed to get a fairly solid equipment crafting and creation system into an eight page game which literally fits onto 1/3 of a page – but here it is. It's pretty sweet. We get 5 points of gear to start with and each item can be worth up to 2 points. We also have old clothes, a tattered cloak, 10 pieces of ammunition (if we need it) and a glimmershard – which is just a chunk of chitin from a bloodsucking bug which emits light when exposed to blood. Get used to that. It's the sort of thing that happens a lot. Tuco is going to have a bow which does + on the attack and it takes an additional point of cost for being *ranged*. He'll also take a simple dagger made out of bone for one point, and a leather tabard woven with overlapping teeth for another point which will add + to resist injury. Finally, being the sort not to plan ahead, he has a leather sack because you never know when you'll be picking stuff up and squirreling it away, which eats his last point. Not bad for some starting gear. #### Survival You start with 1 *survival*. That was easy. #### Bonds Again we reach one of my favorite parts of modern game design. Let's have the book speak for itself: > Write down a bond with **at least** one other player character, such as “I always listen to \_\_\_\_\_’s words”, “I owe my life to \_\_\_\_\_”, or “I don’t trust \_\_\_\_\_”. You can write new bonds (or erase old bonds) whenever you want during a session, both with player and non-player characters, as long as it fits the story. Seeing as we are by our lonesome, we don't really have another player to establish a bond with – but later here in *Tribe Creation*, we'll add a person or two who is waiting in the wings. I'm going to get a jump on that and pull out a random name. We'll figure out who they are later. - *I don't trust Glauco.* ### Tribe This is usually a shared process between all the players but – since *I'm* all the players, I suppose it still counts! There aren't a lot of things that have to be decided for the tribe but in a sense it represents a shared character, a thing that all the other player characters have a direct bond with. There's good meat here. **Name:** Blood-Washers So named because they ritually bathe on a regular basis. In clearblood because, hey, it's what we've got! #### Drive The community exists for some reason. As the protagonists, the PCs are the leaders of this community. Why does it exist? What do they want? **Drive:** To stop being nomadic and figure some way to settle to scratch out some kind of lives for themselves. No longer being constantly on the move, gathering resources as you go, figuring out a way to build something that you can keep, that's yours? That definitely sounds like a goal worthy of a community. #### Enemies Apparently we need a sworn enemy. Having flipped through the couple of remaining pages, I think I have a good idea. **Enemy:** A pack of crawlhounds (4m long centipedal dogs) harry us on a regular basis after we stumbled into their hunting territory. #### Population This is where we add in the NPC population of the tribe. Theoretically, each player (including the GM) writes down the name of one NPC along with what they do. It's suggested that if one of the PCs die, they can pick up one of the other members of the tribe. That sounds pretty useful, bringing some continuity to what otherwise might be difficult to justify. Since there is no GM here, I'm just going to throw some people in. - *Glauco:* An older woman and the tribal healer. - *Darin:* The best gatherer; he never comes back empty-handed. - *Zode:* The memory-eater; she can eat a brain and see its memories. That's a good tribal core, methinks. #### Advance The equivalent of Gifts, but for the tribe as a whole. There is, of course, a list. Let's see… > **Tamers:** When the tribe defeats a beast or monster without killing it, or when they cause it to flee, the players as a group may spend *survival* equal to the creature’s *threat*. If they do, the beast or monster is captured and can subsequently be trained by them. I fully admit, I may have been influenced by the recent public release of **[Palworld](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1623730/Palworld/)**, which is a game which can be best explained as what happens when you have a group of tribals with accidental access to weird parts of high-tech but who live in a **[Pokémon](https://www.pokemon.com/us)** world. The mind quails at it, really. It's perfect. But that's it. That's all the creation necessary. ## Character Sheet ![[Tuco, Killer of the Blood-Washer Tribe (sheet).jpg]] ![[Tuco, Killer of the Blood-Washer Tribe (portrait).jpg]] ## Exunt Here we are, safe and sound at the end! With a face that definitely screams "you are safe and sound." By definition, **Fleshscape** is a traditionally architected *[[Blades in the Dark|Forged in the Dark]]* variant, which means that there is a GM, they guide the story, choose difficulties, etc. But it also leans hard on the *"only the players call for rolls/take actions,"* so it's fairly obvious that if you really wanted to you could go grab **[Alone in the Dark](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/282013/Alone-in-the-Dark-Solo-Rules-for-Blades-in-the-Dark)** for some guidance in play this game entirely solo. Certainly doable. Just putting that out there. There's a giant eyeball outside my window panhandling for cash so I've got to go. Out!