I've been enjoying Best Left Buried recently. Some folks have asked for some play through examples, so I decided to start putting some together. Setting up characters seemed like the best way to start.
Creating Insil One-eye
Best Left Buried recommends starting with a name and an idea, and I thought Insil would make a hard-bitten warrior.
Next, I need to set up his attributes:
Brawn,
Wit, and
Will. I can set one of them to 2, one to 1 and leave the other at 0. I want Insil to be fast and strong, so I’ll go with:
Brawn 1
Wit 2
Will 0
Vigour (physical health/HP) is 6 +
Brawn.
Grip (mental health/Sanity/mana) is 4 +
Will, so Insil is
Vigour 7
Grip 4
There are a number of
archetypes (the base for a character) that fit the warrior mold. To match the hard-bitten aspect, I’m going with Veteran.
A veteran has
Years of Experience, I can have
the Upper Hand* against one kind of monster (subject to the Doomsayer’s approval.) I think Insil might have spent a lot of time fighting skeletal creatures, my Doomsayer thinks that’s reasonable, so we’ll go with it.
Veterans also have
Danger Sense, they’ve got
the Upper Hand on
Observation Checks to detect dangers in crypts and the like.
Finally, Veterans are
Battle-Scarred, I roll a random injury a 3 on the d3 and a 2 on the d6. Insil has lost an eye and will be
Against the Odds* on
Observation Checks that rely on vision.
I think Insil lost his eye to a skeletal warrior. This coupled with his experience drives him to fight against skeletons with particular hatred and skill.
Players get to choose an advancement to start the game, I chose to give Insil
Horde Killer. This means he can negate 2 instances of
the Upper Hand from
Ganging Up (a benefit some monsters have) by any monsters he faces.
Finally, I need to pick some equipment. All characters start with a week's worth of rations, a full waterskin, a backpack, a bedroll, three torches and a set of Basic Armour. They add two weapons, I’ll take a light weapon (a scimitar) and a throwing weapon (3 darts.) Characters also get 5 pieces of equipment, I’ll go with a shield, 3 doses of medicine, some caltrops, 50 feet of rope, and a crowbar. The basic armour and shield give Insil an
Attack Target Number of 9. This is the number opponents will need to roll to hit him.
Creating Marcon
I also wanted to create a crypt-shaken spell caster and I thought Marcon would be a great name for her.
I’ll follow the same pattern that I did with Insil: As a spell caster, I’m much more worried about
Will and
Wit:
Brawn 0
Wit 1
Will 2
Vigour 6
Grip 6
There are several archetypes that could work, but I’ll go with
Cabalist.
Cabalists start with an
Affliction, my Doomsayer and I talk about it and
Hoardlust seems to make sense. Marcon will be prepared to betray NPCs (or, eventually, PCs) in order to collect more treasure.
Cabalists have
Been There and Done That, so the first time they would lose a point of
Grip on any adventuring day, they ignore the result and don’t lose it. They also have the ability, I’ve Seen Things, which gives them
the Upper Hand on
Grip Checks* due to monsters or the environment.
For an advancement, I’m going to give Marcon
Fire and Lightning Strange. This lets her attack foes with one specific kind of magical or elemental material. I’m going to go with ice. Marcon can spend up to three points of
Grip to attack an enemy within
short range*. The attack will be with
the Upper Hand and deal damage equal to the damage die times the number of
Grip points spent.
For equipment, Marcon gets the same starting set of equipment: a week's worth of rations, a full waterskin, a backpack, a bedroll, three torches and a set of Basic Armour.
For her two weapons, Marcon will take a light weapon (a dagger), and wants to use a whip. The section Strange Weapon Types suggests that this be treated as a Wit based throwing weapon.
Marcon will carry two bottles of alcohol, a lantern, a dose of paralysing poison (-1
Wit), and a set of fine clothing.
We’ll look at how weapons and equipment work in another post.
* Check out my Best Left Buried Collection page for information on these features of the game.
Best Left Buried is a Horror Fantast RPG by Zachary Cox and Ben Brown.
