Yes, as expected, given the large Australian (+1 Pom) contingent of
players, I had no choice but to run with their satirical mood.
This ended up split over two sessions, thanks to dingus and hex not
lobbing for round 1.
Actual character names are due to the player, but nicknames are all over
the shop.
I nicked the actual process used from the chargen done for the Exodus
Foundation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SutsOre2A8) and Ashes of
Exodus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ67UAKdy0U) campaigns, namely:
1 - Each step, as far as possible, happens in lockstep across all players.
Because of the strong D&D5 background, I modified statgen to the
following (I wanted slightly more capable characters than stock):
Roll 2D6 (rerolling any 1s on the initial roll of any given 2D6) 7
times, drop lowest, then assign as player sees fit.
To no one's great surprise (and many lulz), Mr Sweep managed to roll
a 2 despite the probability re-arrangement. He gleefully hoicked that
one out the window.
2 - Roll up all benefits at the bitter end
3 - Follow up the implication of MGT2 chargen having more hooks than
Henry Blake's tacklebox and sort out inter-PC connections.
This may not be strictly RAW, but it had the benefit of having been
debugged somewhat in the Exodus campaigns, and was easy for everyone to
keep track of.
We ended up with, as primary characters:
Drake Milford, RAN (ret) - 6 terms - Mr Sweep
Aka
- El Capitane
Born on a sheep station, Drake sodded off as soon as he could and
proceeded to bounce around professionally. Drafted into the RAN (2
terms), then donning the Blue Helmet (1 term - left due to health
reasons), before two tours in the UN Scouts (the subdivision of the UN
Naval Forces that the Admiralty would like to forget exists) and a
not-very-successful term as a belter (there was an ex-_friend_ who he
would gladly turn into an _ex_-friend). Plurality owner and skipper of
the group's far trader, Drake has long accepted his incurable wanderlust
(the further away from Australia, the better).
Major-General James Stone, RM (ret) - 8 terms - Eddles
Aka
- Badass Badass-Moustache (three guesses who I was taking off with that
one)
- Objective Interim Moustache Support System (Mr Sweep almost caused a
keyboard kill with that one)
- "The Colonel"
- Superjoat
A city boy who did OK at school, who passed out of Portsmouth roughly
when Starleaper One sodded off. Jim did six terms in the RM before
swinging Outback to go somewhere with fewer people.
Eddles managed to bullseye the psyker life event - once I stopped
laughing, I ran with it - I'm still fleshing out details and trying to
make it fit.
General Stone's major claim to military fame (tweaking the UNNF's nose
along the way) is pioneering meteoric assault operations, and editing
the definitive book on the subject, "Fly, You Fools!".
Like El Capitane, Jim has a bad case of itchy feet, but a zero default
penalty thanks to Jack-Of-All-Trades 3. He's been just about everywhere
you can go in uniform, done just about everything you can do in uniform,
and has jumped out of an orbiting starship to assault and capture the
T-shirt factory.
Nikki Thornton - 7 terms - Easy Frag
Born in Germany to expat Pom parents, the academically-inclined Nikki
sailed through school and tertiary education, graduating with a First in
(iirc) Engineering.
However, she brassed someone off along the way good and proper, who
framed her for aggravated manslaughter, giving her an all-expenses paid
12 year stay as a guest of the German state.
After her release, a load of complete bollocks worthy of the UK's House
of Commons (mechanically, cashing the +2 qualification bonus from
honours graduation) convinced The Bag to overlook her more-recent past
and hire her on the basis of her educational accomplishments. Twelve
years there resulted in no major progress towards finding out who framed
her, so Nikki joined up with this mob.
Dr Albert Hogman, MBBS - 5 terns - dingus
Aka
- Bert
- The Doctor
Like Nikki, Bert sailed through his education, also graduating with
honours. Unlike her (and much to her disgust when she found out), this
Australian doctor didn't get framed for a crime, and his mates
sardonically joked that he was an avatar of Asclepius.
Somewhere along the way, Bert took the jokes, ribbing and sendups as a
challenge. The next 16 years in private practice saw Bert expand his
repertoire far beyond mere trauma surgery, covering all sorts of weird
areas of medicine (mechanically, Medic 6) - his mates still send him up
(Australians, nuff said), but the jokes ring a bit more hollow now.
To no great surprise, he's Das Boot's doctor and resident chemist (he
wanted to Travel, and didn't want to pay for it) and is responsible for
its growing reputation as a safe ship to book low passage on.
"What's with the drug lab?"
"Captain told me to put it here in case something blows up."
Dr Rosa Keeper, MBBS - 5 terms - Wombat
Aka
- "YOU BLOODY MANIAC"
This walkabout Spaniard has had nearly as variegated a career as El
Capitane. Getting her start as Bert's sidekick, Rosa got bored and
signed up with the then-not-quite-organised UN Scouts. The Shoeing of
2113 (IW1 breaking out with the AZS clobbering the Terran outpost at
Barnard) suddenly made her Scout career a lot more Chinese-curse
interesting, serving with distinction during actual wartime before
getting stranded coreward of the Vegan district by a sudden outbreak of
peace. Then it got weird, and she ended up aboard as the (designated)
pilot.
Rosa is unique among the PCs in actually causing a minor war, and making
an enemy of an active duty AZS flag officer as a result.
And, to quote me taking off her piloting efforts in session 0 - "I DRIVE
BOOT GOOD".
Corporal Lily Silverton, RM (ret)- 3 terms - hex
Lily wanted to escape from London's East End. She didn't do that well
in school, and in 2112, enlisted in the RM. Her timing was perfect -
this back-area supply type went out of her way to avoid looking for
trouble, but it had no problems finding her, seeing heavy ground combat
multiple times.
Having made it through IW1 with nary a scratch, a sudden outbreak of
peace proved very hazardous to her health. Lily nearly got killed, spent
the next few years recuperating, before being medically discharged and
as physically whole as the UNM could make her.
Like El Capitane, she's aboard because this isn't the world on which she
was born, and it's NOT FLIPPIN' LONDON.
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