One Character A Day: One Year Challenge

[Blythe]

Okay, so you clicked on this blog! This is a personal challenge blog. I want to clarify what it is from the onset so people aren't confused. I want to challenge myself to get through my tabletop rpg collection, and I think the best way to do it is to experiment and stat up some characters!

However...

A few things to note about this blog:

• This blog is not a request thread. Please do not request RPs based on this thread!
• This blog is instructional - this is about me learning how to put a character together, oftentimes in systems I haven't tried before. Sometimes it will be ones I've done, but mostly ones I haven't.
• This blog is public facing so you won't get stuff harder than PG-13 in here!
• This blog is a personal challenge: I want to make exactly 1 character a day...for one year. The blog ends after 365 entries (in case I miss a day, I'm quantifying based on # of entries!). This is me trying my best to push myself as a roleplayer and writer to be creative and try new things, to experiment with tabletop rpg system games and maybe even modify some repeat characters I like using into some different genres, stuff like that. It's all very system and dice-forward and about having a daily burst of creativity. The only reasons I should avoid posting in here are personal emergencies or loss of 'net access.
• Comments are welcome, and you're welcome to share & post your own attempts to learn a system using a tabletop rpg you learned about from this blog, but again: not a request thread. This is just about mucking about and having fun with statistics, guys!

So starting tomorrow?

The first system up for experimentation/character-creation will be a character created using...

Mork Borg!

The 'colorful titles' for the system names I'm using are hyperlinks, by the way. They go to legitimate store pages where I bought the games I'm making characters for.

~Table of Contents~

To track the stuff that gets made across the year!

Feburary 2025

• Wemut from Mork Borg, plain rules
• Belum from Mork Borg, with Optional Rules, a very gory/grim dark fantasy setting
• Michael from the Midnight World, randomly generated, a tabletop game set in a subtly Lovecraftian version of our world
• Victor from BLOOD, super simple! Be a vamp, be an EMT!
• Lysander from Ker Nethalas, crunchy solo RPG, dark fantasy in an accursed necropolis
• Max, VtM 1e, a Nosferatu with core rules, set in a gothic mirror of our world where gothic monsters, like vamps, are real.
• Jack, from Sinister Semester X, randomly generated, a slasher horror game, of sorts!

March 2025

• Nur, from CY_BORG, a fast and gritty cyberpunk game
• Virgil Bleak from Don't Rest Your Head, a surreal otherworldly horror game
• TBD

[Blythe]

~ System 1, Character 1, Day 1 ~

Create a Player Character (PC)

1. Randomize your starting equipment on this page.
2. Randomize weapon and armor.
3. Roll your abilities.
4. Roll your Hit Points.
5. Name your character if you wish.

It will not save you.

Okay, so Mork Borg is a neat little grimdark fantasy game with a whole lot of gonzo stuff. I've always meant to get into it, so I think starting my 1 character a day for a year challenge with this one is fitting.

More importantly, this is one of the most RANDOM character generation systems. Like...you just want the standard D&D array of dice and get ready to roll A LOT: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and d100.

I'll use E's dicebot for my rolls here. So...let's create a character! Onward!

Step 1

The game asks me to start generating your Inventory first, interestingly. Mork Borg is kind of a chaotic-ass sprawl. Neat. I start with...2d6x10 in silver pieces, a waterskin, and d4 days worth of food.

So we have 80 silver and two days worth of food. The game also asks me to roll 1d6 and 2d12 to generate other items. So what do we get? A small wagon, metal file and lockpicks, and d4 monkeys that love me but ignore me. Huh. Okay, I have to roll how many monkeys I have. Three. I have three monkeys. Good thing I rolled that wagon, I need somewhere for all my monkeys. And since I have a file and lockpicks, I'm starting to think this character is some sort of roving entertainer and thief, possibly...

Inventory So Far:
- Small Wagon
- Metal File and Lockpicks
- 3 monkeys that love me but ignore me

Step 2

The game is gonna let me pick a weapon. We roll a 1d10 for weapon, we roll a 1d4 for armor. We get a shortsword, which deals d4 damage. For armor I get...oof, no armor. I love you, monkeys, but I may not be above throwing you at my enemies as shields...yikes.

Weapon: Shortsword - 1d4
Armor: None

Step 3

Time to roll abilities...alrighty! There's Agility, Presence, Strength, and Toughness. And...

Abilities
1–4      –3
5–6      –2
7–8      –1
9–12    ±0
13–14    +1
15–16    +2
17–20    +3

Agility is 10, so +0 modifier. Okay, maybe not a thief...12 in Presence, so +0 modifier. Why do these monkeys like me? What the heck. Okay...Strength is also a 10, so +0 mod again.. So far my character is a real average Joe until...

Sweet! Toughness is 16, so +2 modifier!. Average but harder to kill, at least!

Carrying Capacity is how many items you can carry, which I think uses the modifier, not the base score? It's a bit unclear. I'll use the modifier. So Carrying Capacity is 8 for normal sized items, so the wagon and monkeys don't count against this, but the file/lockpicks are one item that does, and my shortsword counts too.

So we have:

Abilities
Agility 10 (+0)
Presence 12 (+0)
Strength 10 (+0)
Toughness 16 (+2)
Carrying Capacity 2/8

Step 4

HP is 1d8+Toughness modifier, and that means my HP is 10!

So this is the basic character creation stuff! Compiled all nice and neat, I've made this fella. I've randomly rolled a name too from page 1, and I got a 6, which puts me on the 6th roll chart, and with the 8 I rolled, my boy here is named...Wemut! Huh. Neat. <_<;

Wemut

HP: 10/10
Agility 10 (+0)
Presence 12 (+0)
Strength 10 (+0)
Toughness 16 (+2)
Carrying Capacity 2/8

Weapon: Shortsword - 1d4
Armor: None

Inventory So Far:
- Small Wagon
- Metal File and Lockpicks
- 3 monkeys that love me but ignore me


There are, however, optional rules to further flesh out a character. So...I think tomorrow we will be doing Mork Borg again, and we will use the following Optional Rules to make a new character, maybe a friend for Wemut:

Optional Rules For Next Time...!
* Terrible Traits
* Broken Bodies
* Bad Habits
* Troubling Tales
* Optional Classes

Thanks for reading!

[Blythe]

~ System 1, Character 2, Day 2 ~

Okay so we're having another go at Mork Borg again for day 2 of my challenge. This time we're gonna use those optional rules I talked about. So fun fact: I actually should have rolled 4d6 and dropped the lowest die for two of Wemut's Abilities because he was made without a class! But that's part of this 1 character a day for 365 days thing--I want to get more comfortable with my system games. Anyways, let's have another go of things...We'll start out like last time.

Step 1

So...inventory! We're rolling that 1d6 and 2d12, and we get...

Silver: 2d6x10,so 60 silver, and 1d4 days of food and...oops, one day of food. Yikes. Onwards to the rest of the inventory.

Inventory:
1. Backpack that can hold 7 normal sized items
2. medicine chest (Presence+4 uses, stops bleeding, helps infection, etc.)
3. crowbar, d4  damage.

So...definitely a more typical adventurer type so far but I just know the Optional rules are gonna get nuts later...

Step 2

Weapon and Armor!

Weapon: We got a Flail! (d8 damage)
Armor: light (fur, padded cloth, leather etc, -d2 damage, tier 1, worth 20 silver.

Step 3

Abiltiies!

Agility: 18 (+3)
Presence: 7 (-1)
Strength: 8 (-1)
Toughness: 11 (+0)
Carrying Capacity: 3/8 (Backpack allows 7 more slots within it, and takes up a 'main' slot for us)

Step 4

HP: 8/8


So some of the above may CHANGE as we look at how to make something with Optional Rules....so let's see what changes!

Optional Classes

Apparently you can randomly roll your class! With a d6, so...what is our new fella gonna be?

We got a 4, so our class is...Wretched Royalty

Bowed down only by the memories of your own lost glory, you could never submit to anyone else. Not you, of noble blood!

(Not that you expect any of these peons to understand the depths of your sorrow.)

- from page 53 of the Mork Bork core book

This is changing some of our stats. We get 4d6x10 instead of 2d6x10 in silver. I'll roll the extra 2d6, add it to the 6 from before, and calculate the new value...another 6, so that's 12x10, for 120 starting silver! Sweet!

We have to roll a 1d6 on a "It was going so well until" chart....

2 your caravan kingdom of Tveland fell into penury. Okay, so the character classes can kind of push along backstory elements, neat! We also get two things from our class, rolling 2d6 to find out what, and you reroll if you get a duplicate. Wo we got...A Trumpet and a squire....

6 - Horn of the Schleswig Lords!
Once per day release a blare from this dented old trumpet and test Presence DR12. One creature may make their next non-combat test an automatic success.

4 - Hamfund the Squire
This intensely cowardly servant acts only as guardian for the scabbard of the cursed sword Eurekia. Once per combat, if Ham can be found, Eurekia may be drawn. The sword does 2d6 damage, and for every
swing of Eurekia roll a d6. On a 1 the squire is slain and Eurekia vanishes forever

Okay, We're a loud trumpet player and our squire understandably hates us because we make him wield a murderous sword for us. Somehow I don't think he finds the trumpet that inspiring despite the trumpet's powers. I don't know. Maybe Hamfund wronged us somehow and that's why we make him carry the McMurdery Murder sword? We are wretched royalty after all, life isn't going well.

I don't have to reroll any other stats, but the horn is part of our inventory so that's 4/8, and we haven't used anything of the backpack we have yet. Sweet!

Terrible Traits

All this does is give us a bad personality trait via a 1d20 roll. And we are....according to this 2, afflicted with an Inferiority Complex. Oh hey, maybe we're making Hamfund hold that cursed sword because we don't feel worthy? I don't know, maybe I'm trying to justify us not being horrible to our squire. 

Broken Bodies

This just gives us a strange negative body trait, again using 1d20. We got a 1, which is a Staring Manic Gaze Oof. Okay, we're a loser royal weirdo who stares at everyone while obnoxiously playing a trumpet, making our squire use our sword for us. This bodes poorly.

Bad Habits

So we have a bad habit, again calculated with a 1d20. And our Stress response is aesthetic display. The worse things get, the fancier we need to be. Given we have an inferiority complex....we probably dress super nice all the time. Oops.

Troubling Tales

This gives us an upsetting backstory, not that our backstory/personality is going super well right now, haha! What I'm realizing is that if you expected to make something likable in Mork Borg, you are 100% wrong. Game's grimdark and by god its gonna force you to play a lil' weirdo.

According to this 2,, we are "in massive
debt. The debt is being traded to successively more ruthless groups."

Honestly, this tracks given what happened to our royal in Tveland. I had to look up the word 'penury' earlier, which means we're broke as fuck.

Given how much silver we have on our personage and a penchant to dress fancy with stressed out, and given everything seems to make us feel inferior...starting to think our boy bankrupted Tveland with excessive spending.

Let's give our guy a random name! We got a 1 and then a 5, so his name is...Belum!

Let's get him altogether and summarized!


Name: Belum
Class: Wretched Royalty
Going Well Until: your caravan kingdom of Tveland fell into penury.

HP: 8/8
Agility: 18 (+3)
Presence: 7 (-1)
Strength: 8 (-1)[/url]
Toughness: 11 (+0)
Carrying Capacity: 3/8 (Backpack allows 7 more slots within it, and takes up a 'main' slot for us)[/url]

Weapon: Flail (d8 damage)
Armor: light (fur,padded cloth, leather etc, -d2 damage, tier 1, worth 20 silver.

Inventory:
1. Backpack that can hold 7 normal sized items (0/7)
2. medicine chest (Presence+4 uses, stops bleeding, helps infection, etc.)
3. crowbar, d4  damage.
4. Horn of the Schleswig Lords!
5. 120 silver

Friend?/Servant?:
1. Hamfund the cowardly Squire, who carries the cursed sword Eurekia for him

Terrible Traits: inferiority complex
Broken Bodies: staring manic gaze
Bad Habits: stress response is aesthetic display. The worse things get, the fancier you dress
Troubling Tales: in massive debt. The debt is being traded to successively more ruthless groups.

And that's it for Day 2! Not sure Belum is one of Wemut's friends, unless Wemut was originally from the caravan kingdom of Tveland, left destitute with only three loving monkeys, a wagon, and tools for thievery. Still, it would be an amusing connection!

Tomorrow I'll be trying a system that is not Mork Borg. I'm not certain what it will be and will likely decide tomorrow. I might dip back into a more familiar system tomorrow--thanks for reading!

[Blythe]

The sun indeed rises in The Midnight World, but it never seems to quite reach its zenith. A perfect, cloudless day never gets any brighter than a deeply overcast one on your Earth. People in The Midnight World have acclimated to their reality; they’ve never known anything as brilliant as your star. Counterintuitively, when night does fall, the faintest sliver of waning crescent moon casts almost enough light to read by. While the silvery light is much cooler in both tone and temperature than that in your world, on a clear night, the full moon is every bit as radiant as the midday sun. As in your reality, scientists in The Midnight World playfully debate whether the full moon has some diabolical effect on human anatomy, or if the spike in crime and accidents observed on those days is simply due to a concomitant increase in available light.

So the Midnight World is super Lovecraftian inspired, not directly using Lovecraft's Mythos but doing it's own lil' weird thing. You make your own character and have to put together why they are the way they are, what's wrong with them, what entity (or hinting at an entity) they may have encountered before, as best as I can tell. It's like our world, but the 'Twilight Veil' that keeps Dread Beings (this game's version of Outer Gods) out of our world, is damaged or wrong somehow, and things slip in that have no business in this reality or any business being perceived by mere mortal eyes.

I haven't spent enough time/love on this system yet, but it looks like it slaps. So let's make a character. I'll do the fully randomized route...

If you randomly create a character, you roll 6d20 and fill in the following...

ONCE...  (blank: roll 1st d20),  I FOUND MYSELF...    (blank: roll 2nd d20)    .

I SWEAR I SAW...    (blank: roll 3rd d20).   

ALL I COULD DO WAS...    (blank: roll 4th d20). 

THEN THE THING...    (blank: roll 5th d20). 

EVER SINCE THEN...     (blank: roll 6th d20). 

So here are my rolls!

Summary: At 2025-02-17 20:30:11, MW chargen (uid: 42233) rolls: 6d20 Result: 70

Full Result: MW chargen rolled: 6d20
Comment:
Result: 11, 2, 13, 18, 15, 11

Which creates....

ONCE...  during Basic Training,,  I FOUND MYSELF...    ..lost and alone in an unfamiliar place.

Stat Gains: Acumen 1, Charisma 2, Strength 3, Coordination 3, Intuition 1, Resilience 2
Solace Trigger gained: Chatting with a close friend

I SWEAR I SAW...    …a swirling collection of debris shaped like a man.. 

Trauma Trigger gained: The sound of distant music

ALL I COULD DO WAS...    ...start babbling, praying something I say will save me. 

Gained Archetype: Diplomatic
Hour 1 Manifestation gained: Shadowpierce
Skills gained: Composure 3 • Empathy 2 • Endurance 1 • Manipulation 3 • Mettle 1 • Reaction 1 • Toughness 1 • Vigilance 2 • Wit 2

THEN THE THING...    ...released a mind-splitting scream as a huge spear tip ripped through it from nowhere that I could see. 

Challenge gained: Traumatized
Privilege gained: Bravado

EVER SINCE THEN...     ...I’ve thrown myself into taking care of the natural world.
It’s the only thing I feel like I can trust.

Vocation gained: Animal Tender
Aptitudes Gained: • Medicine • Nature • Science


And with that, I literally have a completed sheet, it looks like! I could organize this to make it look tidier, but with just rolling 6d20 I have a fleshed out character ready to inflict outer god mythos nonsense upon. Looks like what we generated today was someone who got lost during basic training in the military and encountered something he was never meant to see, and watching this unearthly entity seemingly perish before him was terrifying to behold. The way the rolls panned out, looks like our profession is related to animals--maybe he left the military and became a veterinarian or park ranger, perhaps. We'll call him "Michael" for now, since this book didn't have a random name generator!

Trauma Triggers are apparently a 'thing' in the game where your character 'advances minutes on the clock' if they encounter their Trigger--the more 'time' you run through on the game clock, the closer you are to things being really bad. Solace triggers can help you 'wind back' that clock by taking time to engage in something that comforts your character, etc. The 'Hour 1' manifestation is a special power you get when the clock reaches 1 hour in the game...in this case we got 'Shadowpiercer,' which--at the cost of advancing the clock 1 minute, allows us to see as though it were broad daylight, it counteracts darkness, essentially. 'Manifestation' powers are things you get every 'odd' hour of the clock, and they get stronger as you advance...at the cost of potentially running the clock to Midnight, which you don't want.

Aptitudes are just things you're like...extra good at? Get bonuses on.

Privileges are special somethings that you're just like...extra good at, nit necessarily something mundane like Aptitudes. In this case, 'Bravado' made us good at....intimidating or persuading people, so we get to upgrade our dice to d8s when doing those things. 'Challenge' is something you're extra bad at or struggling with--we got 'Traumatized' so I have to pick a second Trauma Trigger. I'll pick...."Dolls or mannequins" from the random chart I saw earlier, since I think the 'debris man' we saw maybe looked like some fell vile mannequin made of swirling wreckage, perhaps.

Distress Dice are things that can cancel successes, and the amount is calculated based on the 'Minutes' on the clock. I think we start at Hour 1 but with no additional Minutes/Seconds yet? I can't find where in the book that would be, but I think Distress Dice start at 0 for now.

Health starts at 12/12 if you don't have anything else that messes with it!


So altogether, Michael!

Name: Michael Krieg
Vocation: Animal Tender
Archetype: Diplomatic
Challenge: Traumatized
Privilege: Bravado
Solace Trigger gained: Chatting with a close friend
Trauma Trigger gained: The sound of distant music, Dolls or mannequins

Initiative: (Intuition + Vigilance)
Health: 12/12
Distress Dice: 0/5

Attributes:
Acumen 1, Charisma 2, Strength 3, Coordination 3, Intuition 1, Resilience 2

Skills:
Composure 3 • Empathy 2 • Endurance 1 • Manipulation 3 • Mettle 1 • Reaction 1 • Toughness 1 • Vigilance 2 • Wit 2

Aptitudes:
• Medicine • Nature • Science

Hour 1 Manifestation: Shadowpiercer

Memories:
ONCE...  during Basic Training, 
I FOUND MYSELF...    ..lost and alone in an unfamiliar place.
I SWEAR I SAW...    …a swirling collection of debris shaped like a man..
ALL I COULD DO WAS...    ...start babbling, praying something I say will save me. 
THEN THE THING...    ...released a mind-splitting scream as a huge spear tip ripped through it from nowhere that I could see. 
EVER SINCE THEN...     ...I’ve thrown myself into taking care of the natural world. It’s the only thing I feel like I can trust.

Thanks for reading along! I'm not sure what system I'll try tomorrow. Maybe The Midnight World again to see how different it is if I didn't randomly make something? Or I might try a crunchier system instead. Unsure!

[Blythe]

So this will be a very simple character entry. BLOOD is a 1 page solo RPG, and I wanted to muck about with a 'simpler' narrative character creation within a tabletop rpg system format. BLOOD has a super simple premise:

* You play a vampire
* You work nights
* You are an EMT

The game is about managing your stats and drawing cards from a regular poker deck (sans Jokers) that provoke certain events and 911 (emergency) calls.

And because it's a 1 page RPG, it's simple. You get three stats:

HUNGER: We start at 0--if we ever reach 10, we have to feed on someone.
CASH:  We get $3K and need at least $100 a day to survive.
VISIBILITY: We start at 0 and if we reach 15 we get 'exposed' and something dramatic happens.
Infected: Roll a 1d6 to determine how we got infected. We got a 1, so...apparently we were born this way!

Slap a name, gender, and description of one's apartment in, maybe sprinkle a lil' backstory for flair, and you are ready to play BLOOD.

I think we'll name our fella Victor Haas, gender identity male (cis), and he lives in an apartment in the seedier part of Chicago's South Side, very near to one of the L train lines, so there's always something going on, and he's always in need of work.


Name: Victor Haas
Age: 26
Gender: Cismale
Apartment: Seedy apartment near the L in South Side Chicago
Hunger: 0/10
Cash: $3,000
Visibility: 0/10

And there you have it, a completed character sheet, haha! BLOOD is a very narrative/system-lite solo RPG that is a lot more about journaling and narrative, but I do really like games like this sometimes.  I was in a time crunch today and made this one up just before clocking in for work and should have posted it sooner. 

[Blythe]

There’s no doubt in your mind of where you are: Ker Nethalas, the Midnight Throne. Everyone in Veldonia has heard the stories about this vast, underground necropolis that was once the capital of the Vaelorian Ascendancy, before their demise. You also know that nobody has ever come back alive from
such a place… Considering you’re in rags, injured and exhausted, your chances are not good.

Somehow, though, you’ve cheated death, and there must be a way out of here. Hesitantly, you head towards the breach in the wall, hoping to find something you can use to increase your chances of survival.

Ker Nethalas is another ‘solo RPG’ that you can play totally by yourself. I really like it—it’s more rules crunchy than some other ones, and there’s way more combat and adventure. It’s got a much more old-school D&D vibe. Essentially your character dun’ effed up and got themselves thrown into this forgotten underground dead city-kingdom because they did crimes or were a political dissident or even mistaken identity, etc. We’ll try to randomly generate as much as possible.

So let’s start! The game tells us to pick a name, gender, age, appearance, and note that we are level 1. So okay…

Step 1

Alrighty, so I’ll pick most of this at random! Let’s go with a young fella who is in trouble…

Name: Lysander Toth
Age: 20
Gender: Cismale
Appearance: Tall, lean, tanned skin, dark curly black hair to his shoulders, warm black eyes, strong angular features
Level: 1

Step 2

We randomly roll to determine (1d20!) to determine why Lysander’s been exiled to the necropolis and left to adventure/die!

We got a 15, so we are guilty of…

Grave Robbery: The profanation of sepulchers to rob the dead of their valuables is seen with utmost disgust by Veldonian society, especially by the followers of Sothos, God of Death

As a note for LGBTQ+ readers, bit of a trigger warning. It looks like the default setting in Ker Nethalas assumes society is not very accepting of things outside cishet norms. If you roll a 20….APPARENTLY your character got thrown in the weird undead-infested metropolis underground for being….gay? For some people, that’s gonna be a cool plot point where you can overcome a sense of adversity (I probably fall on that side of things, honestly), and for some people it’s definitely gonna be  more of an “I play games about fake people for escapism because I have enough adversity for loving who I love as it is, so I’m not comfy.” Both are valid ways of thinking (and I'm kind of 'eh' on some specific word choices the book used, which I won't repeat), but full disclaimer—if you think this game looks neat, be prepared to embrace the character backstory idea during character generation if you roll a 20, or prepare to reroll your 20 to get something else if you aren't into the idea?

We rolled a 15 though, so moot point for us, but I felt like it was important to offer that disclaimer in case someone who might've tried the game out would have preferred to pass because of that detail, y'know?

Step 3

We calculate Health, Toughness, Aether, and Sanity. Everything is a single d6 and add the modifiers we’re told in the rules, excepting Toughness, which is 2d6 plus a modifier, so I’ll just roll 5d6 to save myself the trouble and apply them ‘in order.’ We’ll also do Magic Resistance, which automatically gets set to 20—it’s not a ‘pool’ like the others, it’s something you roll d100 against later. We also determine Exhaustion and Exhaustion Resistance, but because the game has not begun and this is character creation, pretty Exhaustion is 0 and we don’t have a rank at all in Resistance, because it gets influenced by Exhaustion.

Health: 12/12
Toughness: 14/14
Aether: 10/10
Sanity: 13/13
Magic Resistance: 20
Exhaustion: 0
Exhaustion Resistance: --

Overall, we didn’t roll super great, in all honesty. Health is decent and so is Sanity though!

Step 3

Okay, now we get to pick Skills. Some skills get an automatic starting value, and no Skill can go above 80 excepting under special circumstances. We are supposed to do +60 to one weapon skill,+40 to one weapon skill, +30 to three skills, +20 to three skills, and +10 to four skills. Anything with * is something I assigned a stat to, anything with a double ** means it had an automatic starting value, and if it has *** it means it had a game-assigned value AND I added something to it.

Overall, after deciding I think Lysander needs to be a sneaky fellow, we’re gonna go with these:

***Acrobatic 30
**Athletics 10
*Bladed Weapons 60
Bludgeoning Weapons
***Dodge 40
Endurance 20
Medicine 10
***Perception 50
Resolve 30
Reason 10
Scavenge 10
Shafted Weapons 10
*Stealth 30
Thievery 10
***Unarmed Combat 60

Step 4

Now we select Masteries. We get two points to spend, and we’re required to spend ‘em in different spots. I think this unlocks the Tier 1 of a Mastery? The book is actually kinda unclear on this point.

Umbra Phantom

You are one with the shadows, and darkness is your domain. The necropolis might be daunting and full of terrors for others, but you feel at home, the perennial darkness wrapped as a mantle around your shoulders.

Anyways, I’m definitely spending a point to get Tier 1 of Umbra Phantom, which lets me see in the dark if I spend 5 Aether (sustained) and gives us +10 Magic Resistance and +5 Sanity.

Duskblade

You are a master of the art of assassination, coming swiftly and unexpectedly and executing your opponents with superb finesse and terrifying precision.

And we’ll pick up Duskblade, which gives me a special ability: with Lysander, we’re dealing +2d4 damage to opponents unaware of him! We also get Tier 1’s ‘Poisoned Blade.’ If we spend 3 Aether, we can summon a poison knife and inflict Poisoned (1) on an opponent.

And I think that’s it, we have our guy! Let’s put him altogether in a spiffy lil’ sheet below…


Name: Lysander Toth
Age: 20
Gender: Cismale
Appearance: Tall, lean, tanned skin, dark curly black hair to his shoulders, warm black eyes, strong angular features
Crime: Grave Robbery: The profanation of sepulchers to rob the dead of their valuables is seen with utmost disgust by Veldonian society, especially by the followers of Sothos, God of Death

Level: 1
Health: 12/12
Toughness: 14/14
Aether: 10/10
Sanity: 18/18
Magic Resistance: 30
Exhaustion: 0
Exhaustion Resistance: --


***Acrobatic 30
**Athletics 10
*Bladed Weapons 60
Bludgeoning Weapons
***Dodge 40
Endurance 20
Medicine 10
***Perception 50
Resolve 30
Reason 10
Scavenge 10
Shafted Weapons 10
*Stealth 30
Thievery 10
***Unarmed Combat 60

Masteries: Urban Phantom 1, Duskblade 1

Special Quality: +2d4 damage to opponents unaware of Lysander’s presence
Darksight: Spend 5 Aether (sustained) to see in the dark
Poisoned Blade: Spend 3 Aether to summon a poison-knife, which can be thrown to inflict Poisoned 1 on an enemy.


Perhaps I'll play a round or two of Ker Nethalas with this tall shadowy sneak to see how he does at some point, once I'm ready to hit the solo/1 person RPGs again!

[Blythe]

So a caveat: I am SUPER familiar with this system, but a lot of the above systems I wasn't familiar with. To balance things a bit, I'm going to delve into Vampire: the Masquerade (VtM for short).

There's a LOT of editions of VtM. But we're going to cover 1st edition. I'm going to try to pretend I don't have a shit-ton of meta-knowledge and treat this as though I was a new player...

What I'm learning is that the 1e core rulebook is not very organized....and I'll have to look things up a lot.

What is the premise of VtM?

Those eyes. Like the pits of damnation. Like orbs of black steel. Those eyes. I stare into them and I am lost. My mind screams for release. Fear, Panic, Flight. But my body does not respond. I cannot move. His caress lingers on my face for a moment and then his fingers slowly travel down to my neck. His eyes, so gentle. They provide me no mercy.

Who is this thing? Am I to die?

Like a wolf he pounces. His fangs rake across my throat and pierce my skin. A blaze of heat. He slowly licks at my essence as it pours out of my neck. He begins to suck. Such ecstasy. I cling to him like a drowning sailor, like a lover. My rock. My lust. My senses spin into the night, reaching out for solid ground. I catch at the lapel of his cloak, and grab hold. The tearing of the cloth, the surrender of my soul. If there be a Heaven, I pray I go there soon. If there be a Hell, I know I am there now. I feel my life slipping away. With my eyes blurring, I let out one last moan. Shutting out the world of darkness and pain I rise up. I leave my twisting and heaving body. The last sand falls through the hourglass. The pain leaves. It is calm here, I am at peace.

Heat. Confusion. I can smell the bitterness. The fragrance wrenches my soul from its well-earned rest. He holds his wrist toward me. I gaze upon my salvation, my damnation. Oozing life, its red gleam beckons to me. I know but one thing, I must drink to live.

Oh Lord, pity me!

You died. You rose again. A fell entity who is Damned has turned you into a member of the undead. The mythos? The first vampire was Caine, and he became as he was due to being punished for the murder of Abel.

This is 1st edition Vampire the Masquerade, the origin point for a sprawling and amazing gothic vampire series. Simple in its execution, but amazing nonetheless....

Step 1

Character concept--the game suggests we pick a character concept. And then we select a Clan. I'm going to pretend I'm not wildly experienced with this system and I am ONLY going to consider points from the book as I read them in order during character creation.

What stands out most?

Concept: Dilettante

Dilettante — idle rich, artist, writer, intellectual, gambler, college student

And for Clan? I'm only going to pick based on the book's description during the character generation summary...and then I looked them up after I chose

Nosferatu: These hideous creatures are ostracized and misunderstood by most of the other Clans.

Nosferatu are so ugly that they have an Appearance of zero. Simply cross the entire Attribute off the character sheet. Nosferatu fail any action that involves their Appearance (they really are hideous).

Clan Disciplines: Obfuscate, Animalism, Potence

So I think we're going for a freshman in college, maybe someone considering an art degree!

Then we pick Nature and Demeanor. Nature is how you REALLY are, and you gain Willpower back when you act in accordance with it. Demeanor though, is how you act on the outside, to fool others. Honest characters might have ones that match--more duplicitous characters might have ones that don't match...

These ones struck me though!

For Nature:

Architect — You’re unhappy unless you are creating something of lasting value.

and

Regain two points of Willpower whenever you create or establish something of importance or lasting value. If the need was great, and the effort required to fulfil that need was as great, then more points can be regained (at the discretion of the Storyteller

For demeanor...how we act in public...

Curmudgeon — You are a real sourpuss and cynic of the Nth degree

Step 2

Okay, so our freshman artist in college has to decide what we prioritize: Physical, Mental, or Social Attributes.

In order, since this is an artist and everything about creativity and smarts, let's go with Mental, Social, and lastly Physical. This means I assign 7, 5, and 3 'points' in those categories. Each Attribute gets 1 automatically....

Mental Attributes are Intelligence, Perception, and Wits. The first is how smart you are, the second is how much stuff you can perceive, the last is how fast you react to stuff. So with that in mind...

Intelligence: 4, Perception: 4, Wits: 2

Social gets five points, with 1 starting out automatically... (but according to this Nosferatu can't take ANY points in Appearance, not even the default point!)...Charisma is how charming you are, Manipulation how well you can 'play' people, and Appearance is how hot you are....

Charisma: 4, Manipulation: 3, Appearance: 0

Physical last....and these stats are a bit self-explanatory. We get 1 starting dot, and I'll put one in each....

Strength: 2, Dexterity: 2, Stamina: 2

And anything at 4 or above we can pick Specialties....which let us reroll to get more successes on any roll where we got a 10 where our Specialty applies....


Intelligence: 4, Perception: 4, Wits: 2
Specialties: Intelligence - Analytical, Perception - First Impressions

Charisma: 4, Manipulation: 3, Appearance: 0
Specialties: Charisma - Persuasive

Strength: 2, Dexterity: 2, Stamina: 2
Specialties: none

Step 3

We assign points to Knowledges, Skills, and Talents. Knowledges are stuff you need MAJOR education for, Skills are for stuff that someone could kinda teach you but you don't need academia for it, and Talents are stuff you can probably figure out on your own. We've got a student, so Knowledges matter a lot, Skills likely second, and Talents last. So 13 points, 9 points, and 5 points respectively. No starting 1 point this time, and nothing above three right now.

Talents (5):
Acting 
Alertness 1
Athletics
Brawl
Dodge 1
Empathy 1
Intimidation
Leadership
Streetwise 1
Subterfuge 1

Skills (9):
Animal Ken
Drive
Etiquette 2
Firearms 1
Melee
Music 2
Repair
Security
Stealth 2
Survival 2

Knowledges (13):
Bureaucracy 1
Computer 3
Finance 1
Investigation 3
Law
Linguistics 3
Medicine
Occult
Politics 1
Science  1

Step 4

I get three points to spend on Disciplines, and after a peek, Obfuscate is the 'stealth' thing, Potence is 'super strength,' and Animalism is about controlling beasts. I think we wanna be a sneaky boi, so....all three of my points are going into Obfuscate.

Obfuscate: 3

Freebie points--I get 15 to spend accordingly, with a price rubric to spend 'em...

And...I think 5 points gets one more dot in Disciplines, so I'm spending 10 to get

Potence: 2

I'll spend 5 points to take Generation 5 in Backgrounds, to be an especially blood-potent vampire, too...

Generation: 5 points

This makes us "8th Generation" according to the book, if you put 5 points in this.

Step 5

We assign Virtues, which are Self-Control, Conscience, and Courage. You get 1 starting dot in each, and we get 7 points to spend AFTER that, so...

Self-Control: 3
Conscience: 4
Courage: 3

Step 6

We calculate Humanity, which is Self-Control + Conscience, so....

Humanity: 7

We calculate Willpower, which is equal to Courage, and I spent no Freebies to increase it so....

Willpower: 3

Step 7

Blood Pool, determined by Generation, is calculated.

Blood Pool: 15/15
Max Per Turn: 3


And there we have it, we're ready to play!

Name: Max
Concept: Freshman art student in college
Nature: Architect
Demeanor: Curmudgeon
Generation: 8th

Intelligence: 4, Perception: 4, Wits: 2
Specialties: Intelligence - Analytical, Perception - First Impressions

Charisma: 4, Manipulation: 3, Appearance: 0
Specialties: Charisma - Persuasive

Strength: 2, Dexterity: 2, Stamina: 2
Specialties: none

Talents (5):
Acting 
Alertness 1
Athletics
Brawl
Dodge 1
Empathy 1
Intimidation
Leadership
Streetwise 1
Subterfuge 1

Skills (9):
Animal Ken
Drive
Etiquette 2
Firearms 1
Melee
Music 2
Repair
Security
Stealth 2
Survival 2

Knowledges (13):
Bureaucracy 1
Computer 3
Finance 1
Investigation 3
Law
Linguistics 3
Medicine
Occult
Politics 1
Science  1

Self-Control: 3
Conscience: 4
Courage: 3

Obfuscate: 3
Potence: 2

Humanity: 7
Willpower: 3

Blood Pool: 15/15
Max Per Turn: 3


That's a very brief rundown of VtM's 1st edition. Honestly my takeaway is that it's more systemy and clunky than I remember!!! I might make more VtM stuff, I might not. I'm considering for my next character dabbling in more system-lite stuff. I'm developing an appreciation for systems that let you make something and get RIGHT into playing, not that I don't appreciate some good crunchy systems!

[Blythe]

Hoo-boy, I am behind on this blog. Life is getting away from me and my RPs are all quite active, so I'm understandably distracted. However, I'll simply say that the new goal is 365 entries, to keep to the 'on year' spirit, even if it goes on longer than a year!

Also, as a small reminder if you're following along, if you decide you're interested in one of the games, the headers/banners of each 'game' I'm reviewing link to a perfectly legal site (such as Drivethrurpg or itch.io) where you can pick a game up. This game I'm reviewing today is a "Pay What You Want" game, and it's another 'solo' game, where you can journal/play alone.

One thing I want to mention is that I use 'I' and 'you' when talking about tabletop rpgs. This is a bit of a quirk from in-person play with my fellow dice nerds, where separation from IC/OOC is far more pronounced because you're all like...RIGHT THERE, able to see the REAL person. So I just wanted to be clear: no one is their character, I am not a character, it's just sometimes easier to use I/you due to old habits dying hard. No IC/OOC blurring here, not really, just lazy sentence structure/syntax. 

Summer was paradise, but this fall will be a real killer. One classmate has gone missing, another barely survived a terrible "accident," and week after week something evil is targeting the other students in your class. And the adults refuse to close the school.

It's up to you to convince them of the truth or somehow stop this carnage yourself. Struggle to save who you can without ending up one of the unfortunate victims consumed by this nightmare.

So this is a horror game, kinda inspired by stuff like The Coma, Corpse Party, and Danganronpa, etc. But the single biggest inspiration seems to be general spooky slasher movies. Small reminder: as this blog is public-facing, everything in here will be PG-13 or cleaner. If you played this game on Elliquiy, you'd want to focus it on seniors to get something more age-appropriate.

Step 1

The first thing that struck me is how easy character creation is. You roll a 1d6and this determines your 'archetype,' which determines your stats. We got a five.

So we are the 'Overachiever,' and we start with 4 Health and 20 Spirit Power. We also get a special ability, which is "may always choose to explore during the School Day phase."

Health: 4/4
Spirit Power: 20/20
Ability: may always choose to explore during the School Day phase

Then we roll Backstory with another 1d6, and we got a four!

Backstory: "You had ominous dreams all summer."

And yes, all the backstory stuff is just one sentence. The game is a solo tabletop / journaling one, so you're really encouraged to build a lot based on cryptic tidbits!

And that's actually it--that's your character! 

The game has some interesting creation rules for building the world though. Each student has a face/profile, and you roll 2d6 to set their 'traits.'

Ominously, you then roll a 1d6 after you do that for each student until you get a 1. If you don't roll a 1 on any of them, you start over from the top of the list until you do. Whoever got that '1'?

They're the first victim.

(Don't worry, you can't roll your own character as the first victim or the first Marked, because then there's no game!)

Then you do that 1d6 thing AGAIN on the list of students, and the next one that gets a 1 is 'Marked,' and you roll a 1d6 to determine their relationship to you, then roll another 1d6 to find out how being 'Marked' affects them.

The game plays out with investigating each day, trying to save classmates, with some dying, trying to determine who--or WHAT--is stalking the school and students and eliminating them. Very much occulty survival horror! Normally I'd write a character summary of my created character, but no need. We just slap a name/gender/year-in-high-school and off we are able to get, learning more about them as your roll and play throughout the in-game day. I think our guy is Jack, he's eighteen, and he's an anxious senior in high school!

Oh! And  And your character CAN die, so...it's not always a happy guaranteed ending, mwahahaaaa 

[Blythe]

The world is ending. Again....and again.....and again.....again....

Constantly in flux; shifting, distorting, always reborn as something worse. Destruction by ecological catastrophes, the fallout of history’s belligerence; by modern man-made Miseries or the blood spilled by the reckless machine of capitalist supremacy. Mankind’s greatest ability truly is to destroy itself in creative ways. Designer demise, consumer-customized death, endlessly on repeat.

Poisonous space rocks, nuclear weapons, cyclical revolutions, warring nations, warring corporations, warring neighbors; pandemics, tsunamis, volcanoes. In between it all: direct person-machine interfaces, tactical neural implants, and bacteria from outer space hijacking intercellular nanorobotics. And the sky is full of ads.

So this game was a major impulse buy for me, because it's a quick-n-dirty cyberpunk game, rules-lite, but FULL of flavor, even in character generation. It's a cyberpunk version of 'Mork Borg,' which I've made something for twice up-thread, so I'm excited as to how weird this can get. We're going to roll something with a class instead of doing a plain vs. fancy character like we did for Mork Borg, because the classes look too neat to not do that with.

Step 1

We start with 2d6 x 10 credits, so I think we have 60? We also start with Cheap Clothes, and an Retinal Com Device.

Inventory: 60 creds, Cheap Clothes, RCD

Now to figure out Class. We'll roll a d6 for character class! And I got a 6, so the class? Forsaken Gang-goon. Yep, that is the name of a class. The class suggests this character was part of a gang, something resulted in them no longer being in one, and this character is all alone now.

Class: Forsaken Gang-goon

Step 2

Abilities! Cy_Borg uses the following: Agility, Knowledge, Presence, Strength, and Toughness. We roll 3d6 since we have a Class, and we'll modify our scores a bit due to class--in this case, our gang guy loses 2 in strength. So I'm going to try something to minimixe my rolls. There are five stats, each at d6, so if I rolled 15 dice and assigned these in order, I'd get my scores...so let's try.

Agility: 15 (+2)
Knowledge: 15 (+2)
Presence: 10 (+0)
Strength: 9 (+0)
Toughness: 8 (-1)

The game mentions we actually only need to retain the modifiers for later, not the base scores, so...I'll keep this in mind!

This lets us calculate hit points, too, based on class instructions...

HP: 14

We also gain "Small," which is why our Strength got penalized. We gain another Class ability, too, Stealthy: make all Presence & Agility tests at -2DR, which is excellent. We also roll a d6 for Weapon and d12 for Armor. Rolled a 4 to get an Ancient Revolver that does d8 damage.  Rolled a 2 for Armor too and got...essentially armored clothing, called StyleGuard, a Tier 1 armor. Hey, could be worse, could have rolled none! It's worth 100 creds.

Weapon: Ancient Revolver, d8 damage
Armor: StyleGuard, looks just like clothes! -2 Damage.

Step 3

Now for the Class specific background things. Roll for our Gang and why we aren't in one now...and we got a three! Which says "Your gang...betrayed you. Left you for dead in the gutter. They don’t know you survived."

NICE BACKSTORY!! Plus...I mean, I think we rolled good for weapons/armor, so I'm feeling pretty good about our gangster's chances vs. their old crew! Vengeance story arc in a grimdark cyberpunk hellscape! And I roll for our gang guy's specialty, what he did best in the gang, and got another three.. Specialty? B&E: "You have a talent for opening doors and getting inside buildings. Test Agility DR10 to pick any mechanical lock or Knowledge DR10 for any electronic lock. You begin with toolsets for both mechanical and electronic lockpicking."

Honestly this worked out super well, given how high we rolled in Agility.

We need to roll our Glitches...got a 3! Glitches are good--you spend 'em to get special effects later to help out, so like...three is the most we could get.

Step 4

Optional tables time!

Style: Roll a d100, got a 50. We got..."Mimic." So this is getting interesting and shaping up to paint the picture of someone who could very easily be looking to move out of the gang scene due to being betrayed...and maybe has the skills to get into assassin work, going solo, blending in to get clos to targets.
Feature: Roll a d100, got a 12. Burn scars! Maybe a relic of when our boy's gang betrayed him?
Wants: d20 this time, got a 7. Freedom is his 'want.' Hm. Interesting. Well, in Cy_Borg everyone starts out in debt. Possible that our gang betrayed our boy because he got too fast and loose trying to repay his debts and break free?
Quirk: d20 this time, got a 13. We got, uh....Loudly chews gum. Nevermind, this is why he got betrayed and lit up, this is a horrendous personality quirk
Current Obsession: a d100. got an 8! So our gang guy is obsessed with "Ancient Gaimoires." Not a mispelling. Kinda some mix of gaming meeting tech meeting magic-themes? Cooliooooo~

Step 5

Roll Debt. This is how much we owe to somebody who is BAD NEWS....3d6 x 1000 in Debt for Creds. AAAAAA.

4, so...yikes. We are 4,000 creds in Debt! And we roll d12 to determine who we owe to....3! Apparently we owe money to a distant cousin, a politician's assistant. Maybe that created a conflict between our dude and his gang though...lots of possible story development ideas during character creation in this game, honestly. Very cohesive random rolled character thus far.

Step 6

A name! a 4 and 4 on a d66 (which is just two d6s read in order but 'separate,', our gangster-gone-hopefully-assassin's name is...

Nur.

And we can roll a bit of Pocket Lint--a randomized item...again at a d66. 3 and 1, so we got a...A MIXTAPE.

Gotta have our JAMS in this hellscape, obviously! We roll another d6 to find out if the mixtape is any good, rolled a 6, and it's 'truly hot.' FINALLY. The true roleplay escapism we all need: to make other characters listen to our boy's song playlist. MWAHAHA.


So let's get this altogether into something cohesive, shall we?

Name: Nur
Class: Forsaken Gang-goon
HP: 14
Glitches: 3

Agility: +2
Knowledge: +2
Presence: +0
Strength: +0
Toughness: -1

Weapon: Ancient Revolver, d8 damage
Armor: StyleGuard, looks just like clothes! -2 Damage.

Stealthy: make all Presence & Agility tests at -2DR

Style: Mimic
Feature: Burn scars
Wants: Freedom
Quirk: Loudly chews gum.
Current Obsession: Ancient Gaimoires

Inventory: 60 creds, A Truly Hot Mixtape, Cheap Clothes, Ancient Revoler, StyleGuard, RCD, Toolsets: Electric Lockpicking, Mechanical Lockpicking

Debt: 4,000 Creds to Cousin, Politician's Assistant

Gang: "Your gang...betrayed you. Left you for dead in the gutter. They don’t know you survived."
Nur's Gang Specialty - B&E: "You have a talent for opening doors and getting inside buildings. Test Agility DR10 to pick any mechanical lock or Knowledge DR10 for any electronic lock. You begin with toolsets for both mechanical and electronic lockpicking."


Our new cyberpunk gang guy is ready to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and he's all outta bubblegum! 

[Blythe]

You can’t sleep. It started like that for all of us, back when we were garden variety insomniacs.

Maybe you had nightmares – gods know we all do now – or maybe you just had problems that wouldn’t let you get a good night’s rest. Hell – maybe you were just over-caffeinated. It doesn’t matter. Whatever it was, eventually you got to a point where sleep became a choice, rather than a mandate … and then it just dropped off the list.

And then, and only then, something clicked.

That’s when you started noticing the extras. An extra door here or there. An extra window looking out onto a city packed with surplus buildings, hodgepodge towers standing shoulder to shoulder, roofs angling into one another. Clocks chiming the thirteenth hour and unfamiliar stars twinkling in the too-clear sky. Streets and alleys that weren’t there before, leading to late-night markets that sold things like laughter and indecision.

When you took a long walk down the streets of the Mad City, you stopped being a Sleeper and started being Awake.

This is a very simple horror game with some time-based shenanigans and a horror-based almost city-driven Alice in Wonderland vibe. Your character stops sleeping and at a mysterious time called the '13th hour' you can cross into the Mad City, a strange otherworld that does not operate on logic as WE know it. It's got absurdity, horror, cryptid-level strangeness, and an urban-adventure sprawl.

So I'm diving in and whippin' up a character! Let's gooooooo.

Step 1

Step 1 is narrative, we need to answer some questions. You have to get a general VIBE of who your character is before they become special--assume typical 'modern slice of life' setting rules for these.

My name is......Virgil Bleak
And I am......a college student.

What's Been Keeping You Awake?

Let's pick something mundane. What keeps a college student awake? Anxiety about upcoming exams, taking too many uppers to keep that energy going, I bet. So he's out drinking

What Just Happened To You?

This is the 'opening scene' of the game, defining what just happened to your character, what might make them notice a door to the Mad City. I think Virgil may have done drinking to burn off steam, trying to work off them study-based pep pills. But the drinking doesn't relax Virgil, and he gets into fights. He loses...but when he nurses his wounds in the college bar bathroom, there's a strange chime. The bathroom stall door looks...different. Changed.

What's On The Surface?

Uptight, angry, know-it-all student, constantly overachieving and doing more than he should. Juggling a job as a barista with full time student work, determined to not fail his parents who are doctors.

What Lies Beneath?

Virgil actually isn't an intellectual, he doesn't want to study, but he's not a burnout. Virgil is actually an artist. He values creativity and beauty, but he's always being pushed to be productive, study STEM subjects, and rise above and be better. But Virgil struggles with an innate violence in him that drives his desire to succeed and his desire to be creative, and such destructive urges are good when channeled well...but Virgil is having a lot of problems doing that....

What's Your Path?

Virgil needs to break free from his family's expectations and his own insecurities and drive to 'succeed.' Virgil's journey is about learning how to be happy and not define success by money or knowledge, but instead by the joy he can take in living.

Step 2

This is super simple. Discipline is how good Virgil gets to be at general tasks, and all characters start at a rate of 3.

Discipline: 3

Step 3

Calculate Flight and Fight Responses. We get three points to spent between 'em. So this is how Virgil will respond to threats--we want more boxes in the Response we'll use more. You don't have to put points in both...

Let's make a daring choice. Virgil is stubborn. He hates admitting defeat & refuses to run from problems (hey, probably why he got in a fight in that bar!)....

Fight: 3
Flight: 0

Step 4

We think up an Exhaustion Talent. This should be something mundane that Virgil is REALLY good at, like...beyond Olympic level good at, but still physically/mentally feasible in the real world. At least plausibly.

I'm going to choose Very Intimidating--Virgil is good at his typical glowering behavior discouraging people from tangling with him.

We also have to select a Madness Talent, something that is WILDLY out of this world that we can do. I'm cheating and using a pre-fabbed one from Don't Lose Your Mind, the K one, Knife. Madness Talents are about how many dice you're willing to chuck into using them, up to 6, with consequences if you fail....

(1-2 dice) The Knife is in your hand, and someone will bleed. Sometimes, it’s hard to keep it from killing, to just maim and wound instead, but you can do it if you try hard and keep it from running wild.

(3-4 dice) There’s almost nothing you can’t murder with the Knife in your hand, and nearly everything bleeds something when cut. Bloodless beasties of clockwork and springs will leak oil if cut deep, and even a ghost might hemorrhage the milk-pale mist of its soul if slashed open. At this point, nothing you can do will keep the Knife from killing.

(5-6 dice) The Knife hungers for allegorical assault, for metaphorical murder. You can kill ideas, relationships, emotional ties, anything you wish. The sorcery holding a bound demon parts with a slash. The sick codependency keeping an abusive relationship together is undone with a thrust.

I don't see a need to re-do a summary on this one, since it's mostly narrative with few dice sections. So we have Virgil Bleak, violent overachieving student with a desire to drop all his studies and be an artist.

And now he can't sleep, and is drawn into the Mad City to work his shit out....