I love to build characters. I will do it just to relax, even if I have no intention to play them anytime soon. There is something about taking an idea in your head, and shaping it into a homunculi of yourself to send off on the wildest of fancies your imagination can conceive.
With that said, I frequently have problems with getting started. I am an middle aged geek who spent most of his life like a playing D&D. So I am going to get started the D&D way. Randomly.
If we skip ahead in the book to page 64 we will find a couple of random word generation charts. Event Action and Event Subject. Lets take a few rolls and see what comes of it?
Gratify/Intrigues. Hmm, no. Lets switch them around. Intrigues/Gratify... Looks like we have some sort of detective or perhaps a spy. Either way we are looking at someone smart and curious. That is a good start. Lets try another one and see where that goes. Develop/Vehicle. Ok, we have someone here who is smart curious and mechanically capable. Probably a lot of imagination as well. This shouts superhero genre, but lets not go there yet. One more time, but this time we are rolling for more of a setting feel. Lie/Illness. Hmm. Maybe the illness is the lie. That pulls us back towards that world of intrigue.
Another type of vehicle could be a drone. Anything from a tiny speck to an automated tank. Which, I think gives us the last major detail we need.
I don't think I am feeling the obvious superhero or super spy story. At least not in a standard setting. So lets move all of this somewhere else. I think a step forward in time to a world of lies, high technology, and invention and make this a cyberpunk story.
Now that we have a feeling of who and where, lets decide how many points we are going to use to make our "hero", whom for no reason whatsoever I am going to call Mr. Quin. Jumping back to page 21 we see a handy chart outlining the number of points for different styles of games. I want to realize all of Mr. Quin's potential. This is a man of intrigues and inventions, so somewhere between High Fantasy/ Science Fiction (65 40 Superhuman 5) and Super Hero, low powered (70 40 Superhuman 5). There are only a difference of 5 points, but that makes sense as the two styles sort of bleed back and forth, but I did say I wanted to fully realize the character so we will go with "Super Hero, low powered".
All of this done we are ready to make a character.
We are going by the book, so the first thing we need is a character summary as a blueprint.
Summary
"Jack Quinton, professionally known as Mr. Quin, is a mechanical genius, and once a major designer for [mega-corp name redacted], before in a moment of foolishness he backed the wrong horse in an intra corporate power play, that not only left him out of work, but with a mark on his head. So, like many persons of talent, too useful to murder, but too dangerous for society, he now makes a living on the Fringe, as a designer/fabricator of useful thing, and when necessary a mercenary.
Along with the loss of status, came a loss of youthful naivety, and Quin now watches the intrigues of the major players like a krill harvester watches the sky for danger and opportunity, or maybe like a big stakes gambler: looking for danger and opportunity.
While a man of questionable ethics on the grand scale, he has a lot of feeling on the small scale and does what he can to make the life of other Fringers, less onerous, while at the same time taking every chance can to get small digs back at the man who cost him his old life. If offered a chance tomorrow to return to the archology and be nested back in the bosom of [mega-corp name redacted], he would like to think he would tell them to go to hell, but considering that luxury today, is a block of pressed krill that has been certified by the Food Safety Board, he isn't sure he could resist. Not that it matters anyway. Nobody gets off the Fringe."
Looking at this summary (in which I may have gotten a little carried away), we can see many details that can be used to define the character: mechanical genius; too talented to murder; designer/fabricator; mercenary. There are also some parts that could make for good weaknesses later. Ethically flexible, but soft hearted to other Fringers. Tempted by luxury (one gets sick of blocks of pressed krill, I would imagine, even if it has been vetted by the Food Safety Board) suggest he will take a chance to get back some of the old life he had, even if getting back all together is a pipe dream (Nobody gets off the Fringe). Lastly, there is the old hook of revenge, always a great motivator.
This is running a bit long, so lets break it up into a part A and B so I don't have people falling asleep halfway through.
Check out Part 2b
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