Powered by the Apocalypse Style Looks for Fantasy RPG PCs

One of the little things from many (but unfortunately not all) Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) games that I think makes character creation really shine is the "Look" options. I've actually borrowed this for non-PbtA one shots, like when I ran my Planescape "Soup" one-shot (sample PCs here). While most PbtA playbooks (class write-ups) have only three or four look "slots" with four options each, I wanted to build off that to make a table of look options that could be easily used for non-PbtA fantasy RPG games, either for players wanting to come up with character appearance descriptions or for GMs who want to provide look options for PCs for one-shot games, like I do. The list is mostly based off the look options found in the Dungeon World SRD.

Obviously not every "slot" needs to be filled, if there's not an appropriate Skin/Other option for a character then don't worry about picking one (or providing options). Likewise, while I really enjoy the Voice options, those are probably ones that will often be skipped by players who intend to roleplay their character's voice or who don't want to always be trying to speak in a "booming voice"

Two examples of how to use this chart. First, imagine a player building Matilda Boomhammer, Dwarf cleric of a Thunder God. Flummoxed at how they should describe their PCs appearance they consult the table and pick some things that fit their conception of the PC, ending up with...

• Smoldering Eyes
• Battered Helmet
• Sweet Face
• Battleworn Armor
• Sturdy Body
• Braided Beard
• Calm Voice

Or perhaps a GM is creating characters for an one-shot game and while they are picking stats and powers, they want to leave choices for the players to make to encrourage what might be an otherwise disposable PC to feel like it belongs to that player. One of the PC options is a human wizard, so the GM provides these for the look options...

• Cold eyes, Crazy Eyes, Knowing Eyes, Searing Eyes
• Messy Hair, Pointed Hat, Strange Hair, Tattooed Scalp
• Bony Face, Cruel Face, Plain Face, Striking Face
• Dark Clothes, Flowing Robes, Strange Robes, Worn Robes
• Emaciated Body, Pudgy Body, Knobby Body, Wiry Body
• Nervous Hands, Ritual Scars, Unusual Jewelry, Waxen Skin

Then when a player chooses the human wizard, they don't have to come up with a look from scratch and their choices will get to add some personality to the PC they portray for the one shot, as a human wizard with "cold eyes, a tattooed scalp, a cruel face, dark clothes, an emaciated body and waxen skin" feels very different from a human wizard with "knowing eyes, a pointed hat, flowing robes, a knobby body and nervous hands".

Click here for a printer friendly PDF.

It goes without saying that these are just a starting point and meant as inspiration, if you're using them and find yourself drawn to a description that isn't on the list, you should go for it instead of limiting yourself.

Options with an *Asterisk were put in to help support more unusual races like Tieflings, Minotaurs and Dragonborn

Eyes	Hair/Head	Face	Clothes/Garb	Build	Skin/Other	Voice
Cold Eyes	Bald	Aristocratic Face	Animal Skins	Built Body	Battle Scarred Skin	Booming Voice
Crazy Eyes	Battered Helm	Blunt Face	Battleworn Armor	Bulky Body	Braided Beard	Brittle Voice
Dead Eyes	Braided Hair	Bony Face	Camouflaged Garb	Compact Body	Calloused Skin	Calm Voice
Eager Eyes	Carved Horns*	Boyish Face	Cape	Creepy Body	Flexible Hands	Crackling Voice
Fiery Eyes	Cropped Hair	Broken Face	Ceremonial Garb	Emaciated Body	Flowing Beard	Deep Voice
Glowing Eyes	Dreadlocks	Cruel Face	Common Clothes	Fit Body	Many Piercings	Flat Voice
Hard Eyes	Fancy Hair	Dull Face	Dark Clothes	Flabby Body	Masked Face	Grating Voice
Haunted Eyes	Flowing Hair	Expressive Face	Fancy Clothes	Graceful Body	Nervous Hands	Gravelly Voice
Haunting Eyes	Furry Hood	Flushed Face	Finery	Knobby Body	Pale Skin	Guttural Voice
Joyous Eyes	Hooded Head	Girlish Face	Flowing Robes	Lithe Body	Perfect Skin	Heartwarming Voice
Kind Eyes	Messy Hair	Gorgeous Face	Habit	Long Shanks	Precise Hands	Hoarse Voice
Knowing Eyes	Mohawk	Haggard Face	Mismatched Armor	Mighty Thews	Quick Hands	Lilting Voice
Laughing Eyes	Plumed Helmet	Handsome Face	Polished Armor	Pudgy Body	Ritual Scars	Loud Voice
Sad Eyes	Pointed Hat	Kind Face	Poor Clothes	Rangy Body	Sausage Fingers	Low Voice
Searing Eyes	Pristine Horns*	Lively Face	Practical Leathers	Ravaged Body	Scaly Skin*	Monotonous Voice
Sharp Eyes	Scarred Horns*	Mournful Face	Ragged Clothes	Scrawny Body	Scarred Hands	Penetrating Voice
Shifty Eyes	Shaggy Hair	Plain Face	Scavenger’s Outfit	Sharp Body	Soft Skin	Reedy Voice
Shrouded Eyes	Shorn Hair	Plump Moist Face	Scraps	Stocky Body	Strange Brands	Rich Voice
Smoldering Eyes	Strange Hair	Rugged Face	Silk Clothes	Sturdy Body	Strange Tattoos	Roaring Voice
Tormented Eyes	Styled Hair	Smooth Face	Strange Robes	Supple Body	Tanned Skin	Soft Voice
Warm Eyes	Stylish Cap	Stern Face	Stylish Robes	Thin Body	Unmarred By Decoration	Soothing Voice
Watchful Eyes	Tattooed Scalp	Striking Face	Traveling Clothes	Tiny Body	Unusual Jewelry	Stentorian Voice
Weary Eyes	Tonsure	Strong Face	Weather Inappropriate Clothes	Well-Fed Body	Waxen Skin	Stern Voice
Wild Eyes	Top Knot	Sweet Face	Weathered Hides	Wild Body	Weathered Skin	Sultry Voice
Wise Eyes	Wild Hair	Weathered Face	Worn Robes	Wiry Body	Wrinkled Skin	Whispering Voice

Big Trouble on Little Rimpoche - New Year's RPG

So, as is our tradition, Thomas and I ran a Holi-New Year's RPG game. Previously we've called it New Year's D&D, though it hasn't always fallen on New Year's. Last year, of course, we attempted to each run the same dungeon of Dortherdoreft, and the year before we each ran a D&D 5e Planescape one-shot and I belief that my (in)famous all-"hobbit" ghoul-battle adventure was also a New Year's D&D game of the distant past... So, because we foolishly try to escalate our nonsense each year, this year we decided we would attempt to run a table-top game with us as tandem GMs.

Obligatory Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant pic.

The thought was that we would run a 10-12 player game where we ran it simultaneously, each handling 5-6 players. We discussed (re)using and expanding a Vampire the Dark Ages one shot that Thomas had written and run that was loosely based on or a sequel of sorts to my online influence heavy Toulouse game of yore, but I pushed for Fading Suns instead, thinking that VtDA will be the game I run for my Apocalypse World group once that campaign reaches its inevitable and fiery conclusion. After considering our options, we chose a planet/plot seed from the Weird Places supplement. Spoilers for the Rimpoche section of Weird Places follow...

Corpse Chewer - Or a semi-improv, low prep 13th Age One shot you could run too

After the election my wife asked me to run a combat heavy one shot RPG as a distraction, I've been burnt out a little on 5e D&D lately, so I decided to run 13th Age instead.

I like 13th Age for this kind of adventure/monster fighting combat heavy game because...

• It's basically D&D. I mean, it's not official Wizards of the Coast branded D&D(TM) but it's got a unified d20 mechanic like recent D&D, the classic classes, races and a lot of the feel.
• It's good at what it does and focuses on that. It's not the game I'd run if I wanted to run a social intrigue game (probably, right now, V20 Vampire the Dark Ages would win) or the game I'd run if I wanted a gritty game where the PCs struggled to survive (for now, that would probably be Shadow of the Demon Lord) but for a combat heavy game where PCs will have cool stuff to do during combat and you want a high fantasy feel it's an excellent choice. 
• 13th Age PCs are surprisingly simple(ish). For the game I just used some pre-made 4th level characters (and recommend you do too) and they all fit onto a single page without needing a magnifying glass to read the type. Even if players make their own PCs, they really only need their class write up at hand to play and won't need to flip between multiple sections of the core book the way any of the spellcasting classes in 5e D&D do (and remember that 5 of the 12 classes of 5e have spellcasting and gain or can gain spells, though that Totem Barbarian who gets two spells as rituals won't need the book as much as the wizard, but still...)
• Icon Relationships, Backgrounds and One Unique Things encourage player investment, even for one shot characters.
• A few memorable one unique things from when I ran this...
• Renowned as a 'fuck-up'.
• Attracts random cats when she sings.
• Half of his face looks like a corpse.

So, without further ado, here is Corpse Chewer, a semi-improv, low prep 13th Age One shot. It's semi-improv because I'm providing the skeletal sketch of the plot arc and combat encounters but you can improvise the description of the dungeon and environs itself and some of the flavor bits can be tailored to the icon relationships the players pick.

Grim World + Love Letters & Extra Life Thanks

Last Saturday I ran Grim World as a "pre-Halloween" one-shot game, which was a lot of fun and a few caveats. I'll provide a review below, but my biggest caveat was I put out a large invitation to 10+ players, thinking, as I often do, that I'd be lucky to get the four players I'd need to run... Instead, and much to my surprise, I ended up with 8 players (and 7 PCs, since there was some question if the 8th player would be able to attend so he shared a playbook with his GF) and as I always do when I run really large groups of players, I felt like I didn't do the best job of giving each PC a shot in the spotlight and let things get a little more chaotic and bogged down than I liked. But that's all on me and not on the players.

Speaking of, thanks to the incredible generosity of the players, Christy and I managed to raise $135 for Extra Life between the two of us.  I'm now over 75% to my goal (as of 10/28/2015) and if any of the players from the Grim World game want to go back and retroactively ask for any of the rewards I was offering, you certainly can. If you are a regular reader of the blog and haven't pitched in any support for the Extra Life campaign yet, we're nearing the end, with a little over two weeks left, so I hope you'll consider a donation, even if it's just $5.

Click here to skip the Grim World Review and go straight to my further thoughts on Love Letters...

Three Game Fortnight

Tomorrow marks the start of a Three Game Fortnight for me, wherein I shall run three games within two weeks.  It's actually, strictly speaking, only 8 days and not a fortnight, but that has less of a ring to it.

First up will be Reign Last Rest: Episode 6: Tough Times in Tribute, the rough midway point of that campaign.  I'm excited because I've gotten a couple of the players to knowingly or unknowingly agree to some "Devil Deals", a concept that I stole from my friend Tavis, who is one of the best GMs I've had the pleasure to know.  In a "Devil Deal" a Player/PC accepts something awesome or enticing for their character knowing that it will have strings attached that the GM will call in later.  I have very little planned for the Sixth Episode, other than the Players arriving in Tribute.  I was going to showcase the Reign Company rolls/challenges and advance time 3-6 months and have the PCs face a number of Company Challenges, but that is now dependent on if I have all my players as family emergencies may call a couple away from the table.  Other than that, tomorrow night will be pure Sandbox.  I've got some ideas for what the PCs might encounter, but mostly my goal is to loosely set up and let the PCs choose from the half-dozen possible campaign climaxes so I can start steering plot in that direction.  In theory the campaign will be wrapping up around the end of April/beginning of May, leaving the door open for a new season of Reign set in Last Rest or for a new campaign in a different setting/system.  Watch the Last Rest blog today for a character journal spelling out one of my favorite Devil Deals that took several days of negotiation...