Auditions

If you have ever made a character for Risus then you will be right at home making a character for Playright. If not, here are all the building blocks you need to help you nail the audition.

Strength of character

This is a measure of how powerful your character is. The greater the strength of character, the more powerful they are and when creating a new character, your game master, or GM, will most likely set a limit of 4 points. But how do you create a character and how do you know what their strength of character is?

Character clichés

Start by writing down a cliché; a few words that describe what a character knows how to do. Every character needs to have at least one. Let's go with

Paladin school dropout 

Sometimes they can be a little more obscure.

That could come in handy

The idea is that this character is good at finding alternate uses for found items. 

Next, every cliché needs to have an advantage number. This number tells us how well that character can do what they know how to do. Again, the GM might set a limit like no cliché advantages greater than 3 so with that in mind, let's make up some advantage numbers and assign them.

Paladin school dropout (2)

That could come in handy (3)

The other thing about advantage numbers is that they add to the strength of character. Literally! So with two clichés at 2 and 3 our strength of character is 5.

Specializations

If you need your character to be especially good at something you can add specializations. For example:

Paladin school dropout (2)

• who’s surprisingly good at close quarters combat

That could come in handy (3)

Specializations improve your chance of success (ones are re-rolled) when attempting an action that is applicable. Each specializations adds 1 to the strength of character which now puts us at 6.

Bonus gear

It is assumed that characters come with everything that clichés require. Knights have horses and lances, archers have bows and arrows, starship captains have starships and a crew. However there will be items that are extraordinary in nature and help to define your character. These things are referred to as bonus gear and recorded separately. Examples are:

• The sword bestowed by a watery trollop (5)

• .44 Magnum Smith & Wesson Model 29 (4)

• Bob Marley’s guitar (3)

  • with ABR-1 Tune-o-matic Bridge

Like clichés, bonus gear items have an advantage number and can even have specializations. And like clichés, they add to the strength of character.  So let's add the bonus gear item

Lucky rock (1)

• • • that's really hard to lose

which puts our strength of character at 8.

Sidekicks

Sometimes a character needs to have a sidekick. Consider:

The Lone Ranger and Tonto

The Green Hornet and Kato

Doctor Evil and Mr. Bigglesworth and Mini-me

Sidekicks are expressed exactly the same way as any other character; with clichés and specializations and bonus gear. 

Let's add one.

A thieving man servant (1)

and give him a bonus gear item

Belt of many tools (1) 

Our new strength of character is 10

But wait a minute?

How can you have a strength of character that is 10 when the limit is 4?

Add a tale

A tale provides background material for your character and gives insight that can be incorporated into a campaign. It does not have to be pages and pages long but should help highlight your character and perhaps elaborate on your cliché and hooks. For example: 

Rather than put his faith in the almighty, <name of character> has proven time and again that he can win the day with just his trusty man servant and items found along the way.

A tale reduces the strength of character by 1 which brings ours down to 9.

Add some hooks

A hook is something quirky about your character that makes their life more challenging or interesting. For example:

• Can't resist a wager

• Needs to have the last word

• Never on time for anything

It should be something that at first glance appears to hinder the character but in the right situation can be a boon:

• The visually challenged will be immune to the the gaze of the medusa

• The hearing impaired will not answer the siren’s call

• The chain smoker will never be without a match

Every hook you add reduces the strength of character by 1. So let's add a couple:

“Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble…”

“Follow me I know the way”

That gets down to 7.

Add a tale and some hooks to you sidekick.. or your bonus gear.. or your sidekick's bonus gear.

That's right. You can do that.

For our thieving man servant sidekick, let's add the tale

The only thing more featureless than his personality is his face.

which gets us down to 6 and a couple hooks

Nocturnal

It's shiny and I must have it

gives us a strength of character of 4! 

Note that if we ended up with a strength of character that was below the limit set by the GM we could take the difference in inspiration points. So if our strength of character was 3 and the limit was 4 we could have 1 point of inspiration.

And don't forget to name your character!

Characters have to have a name, if for no other reason than to help the GM stick to their game mastering principles, so let's name this character, and his sidekick, and put it all together. 

     Jack Blaze

Tale

Rather than put his faith in the almighty, Jack has proven time and again that he can win the day with just his trusty man servant and items found along the way.

Hooks

• “Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble…”

• “Follow me I know the way”

Clichés

• Paladin school dropout (2)

  • who’s surprisingly good at close quarters combat

• That could come in handy (3)

Bonus gear

• Lucky rock (1)

  • that's really hard to lose

Sidekicks

Hector

Tale

The only thing more featureless than his personality is his face.

Hooks

• Nocturnal

• It's shiny and I must have it

Clichés

• A thieving man servant (1)

Bonus gear

• Belt of many tools (1) 

Limits

As mentioned above, the GM is in charge of setting the limits for your starting character. Typical they are

• Strength of character limit of 4

• Maximum clichés advantage of 3

• At least 2 clichés

• No more than 1 specialization per cliché

but you GM may adjust them up or down to suit their game.

Development

As you play your character, you will want them to develop and grow. The way this is accomplished is to make use of the inspiration points that players have earned:

Add a new cliché to their character

One point of inspiration will get you a cliché with a advantage of 1.

Increase the advantage of a cliché

If the cliché advantage is 1 it takes 1 inspiration point to go to advantage 2

If the cliché advantage is 2 it takes 2 inspiration points to go to advantage 3

and so on.

Add a specialization to a cliché

Adding one specialization usually costs 1 inspiration point but check with the GM.

Note that character development should happen within the context of the game. A monk may have to return to their monastery for training from a master before the player is allowed to cash in inspiration to increase the advantage of their cliché.