I want to thank the participants of the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server for keeping me on track and thinking about future blog posts. Thanks MoonHunter for the virtual donuts (at least those don’t add to my daily calories, even when I want a real one). He was talking about how continuing to write and work on a project is beneficial. I especially liked his comment of “And remember, you can always edit crap. You can not edit a blank page.” How true.
So I started thinking about what was something I could put together. Sometimes when I place my fingers on the keyboard, the ideas start flowing through them from my brain to the page. I’ve got a few ideas that I need to prep for, or would take longer than a single sitting to put together.
But then an idea hit me. Arsenic_Angel on my Discord server has been talking about crocheting home-made dice bags for an upcoming booth at SaltCON. I had commented back to her that she was doing a good job and had increased the skill level of her character.
So for this blog post I’m going to talk about our own character sheet. The one that represents us. I’m going to throw out a rough idea for “Real Life- The RPG”, but that’s for the purpose of getting the message across for this blog post. So don’t think of it as a finished system but a lump of clay ready to be molded. Sort of like all of us.
When we sit down with a blank piece of paper, or unfilled character sheet, there is a level of excitement. Perhaps we have an idea on what we want to do with the character. Another layer of fun could be finding out about the character as we develop and play them. I think that is why there is a segment of the gaming community that likes using point buys to create their character and another that like random dice rolls. While the bulk of the characters we make are at the starting levels, our own personal character sheet doesn’t have to be that way. You may already have some experience in several areas, but as long as you are still learning, you are still living. That is part of the reason I try to learn something new every day.
So at the top of our sheet is our name. Perhaps some nicknames as well. Don’t worry if you need to change the name later. Your name was a gift and gifts are not meant to be used forever. Think about what went into that name, why it was selected and what it means to you.
In roleplaying games we use attributes to represent the natural abilities of our character. So for us we all have three distinct things. Body, Mind and Spirit. Our health, physical resilience, strength, coordination, balance and more are part of our Body score. The intelligence, recall, perception, insight and more make up our Mind score. And finally our drive, creativity, mental resilience, happiness and more make up our Spirit. Instead of a single rating for these attributes, we would have two. An average rating, and a peak rating. If we keep up with certain daily activities, we can keep our average rating. If we don’t get enough sleep, eat healthy and mentally take care of ourselves, then we may fall below that average rating. But if we push one of our ratings (sometimes at the cost of the other two) then we can use the peak rating on certain tasks. An example of this could be professional and Olympic athletes who train constantly for long periods of time to reach that peak needed for a certain competition.
Now there isn’t going to be class and levels in “Real Life- The RPG” because we are more than just our occupation. Instead we are going to have talents, skills and traits which could help us in a variety of different jobs. A talent is something that comes naturally that helps with certain ability rolls. These could be athletic, musical, artistic, creative, charming, dedicated, problem solving, etc. Skills are specializations that we develop or need for certain tasks. I mentioned Arsenic_Angel increasing their crocheting skill. There are two writers on my discord with the handles of Chantel and MoonHunter who are constantly giving us updates on their word count and projects. So I can see the Writing skill number going up. If you do something that is trained, then that should be a skill that increases. Some may even get high enough to become a professional skill (aka you get paid for it) while others may just be more a long the lines of hobbies and interests. For myself I’d have a professional skill level in cybersecurity, a hobby skill level in roleplaying games and an interest skill in World War I and II trivia. While I don’t make money off of it, since I’ve been interviewed for Newspapers, TV, Radio and Magazines, my Star Trek knowledge skill is at a professional level. And finally traits are things that affect your character both good and bad. Some may be temporary, such as “exhausted” or some may be semi-permanent such as my myopia (aka nearsightedness) or permanent, like if I was missing an arm (which I am not thankfully).
Instead of having equipment, we would have resources, because not everything is physical. Sure, owning a car is a resource (that comes with a cost), but having friends is also a resource. Internet access, a full-time job, a safe neighborhood to live in, the love of a family, a pet, food storage, and more would make up the resources our character can use. These resources can help with a trait (like my glasses help with my vision), or with the upkeep needed for my attributes (like visiting with friends to lift my spirits). Each resource could have multiple traits as well just like the character. A low-stress job, an older car that isn’t as reliable, etc. These would also be listed on my character sheet.
So, when we make a character, we plan for that character to change and grow as we play the game. We might get access to additional resources, increase an ability, learn a new skill. As I was thinking about this blog post this morning a thought ran through my head. “This Count Chocula cereal may not help my body attribute score, but it sure helps my spirit attribute.” Think of things that we can do to improve our characters for “Real Life- The RPG” and take them. Even if it’s just the daily activities to keep our average attribute score, that is still helping. Don’t forget to use your resources such as your friends and family. We are all playing this game together and there are no NPCs.
OK readers, give me topic and subject ideas (RPG or anything geeky) that you’d like to see me blog about. I have some ideas of my own, but I’d love to hear some short prompts that you might be interested in. This helps encourage me to get off of my duff and write. And that increases my writing skill on my personal character sheet. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
