Character Creation Challenge: DragonRaid

Here we are. The end of the New Character Creation Challenge. First, a tip of the hat to Tardis Captain for getting this going.  This has been a lot of fun and I have considered doing it on the first of each month for the rest of the year.  Maybe not tomorrow, but who knows. 

Now for today's last character.  Ah. This is a game that has been on my radar for YEARS, decades even.  Today feels like the perfect time.  So let's make a character LightRaider for DragonRaid!

The Game: DragonRaid

Ok. This game. 

So DragonRaid got a lot of grief in the gaming communities I was apart of.  I had some Christian gamer friends that thought it was a cheap attempt to capitalize on their faith and some even did not want to mix their D&D and belief.  As an Atheist, then and now, I thought it was interesting. As someone who was interested in psychology then and someone with degrees in it now I also thought it was an interesting way to learn something, in this case, Bible verses.  I always wanted to see the game for myself.   

One thing I have to keep in mind that this "game" is not really an RPG, but a teaching tool in the form of a role-playing game. 

The game's author and designer was Dick Wulf, MSW, LCSW, who is, as his degrees indicate, a licensed Social Worker and holds a Masters in Social Work.  He had done a lot of work in psychotherapy and ministry. He also played D&D and Traveller. So it seems he actually likes and knows RPGs better than the guys who gave us Fantasy Wargaming!

Plus I have to admit the ads in Dragon Magazine always looked really interesting.  I mean seriously, that is an evil-looking dragon and should be stopped and those look like the brave warriors to do it. Even if they need some more armor*.  (*that is actually a point in the game! more later)

A while back my oldest son and I saw this game at my FLGS and I told him all about it. He is also an Atheist (as everyone in my family is) and he wanted to get it so we could play the other, evil, side.  He wanted to do something with the dragons in the game (he loves dragons) and I of course wanted to bring witches into it (cause that is my raison d'être).   Plus this copy still had the cassette tape in it.  I mean that is just beyond cool really.  So yeah I grabbed it with every intention of having a bit of a laugh with it.

I might be a witch-obsessed Athiest, but I am also an educator and not really an asshole.

The truth of the matter is spending this past week with the game I just can't take a piss on it.  The author is just too earnest in his presentation of this game.  There is love here, and scholarship, and frankly good pedagogy behind the design.   I don't normally mix my professional education background with my game design work.  Yes, they can and they do mix.  But when I am writing a book on the Pagan witches for Old-School Essentials I am not trying to write a historical treatise on the pagan religions of Western Europe during the time of the Roman Empire.  I'll try to keep my facts in line, but I can't serve two masters. I have to write what is best for a game.

DragonRaid also doesn't serve two masters. It serves one and makes that work for both pedagogical reasons (to help young people understand Christianity and their Bible better) and game design reasons (to have a fun roleplaying experience). 

For this DragonRaid succeeds in a lot of ways.  For this, I simply can't do anything else but admire this game and its design.  So no playing dragons here, or me coming up with a witch class to fight the characters.  I might do that at home, but I am not going to be a jerk about it.

Besides look at everything you get in this box! I mean seriously, this is some value.

I even got the cassette tape! I don't have anything to play it on though.

Thankfully you can go to the official Lightraider Academy website to get the audio files from the tape. 

• The Famous DragonRaid Tape

This company is all in on this game and I have to admit I totally admire them for it. 

So expect me to more with this game on these pages including a full review.

The Character: Solomon

Building your character, the Lightraider, is one of the core elements of this game. It is also why we are here today.   There is a pad of Lightraider worksheets and a smaller sized pad of Lightraider character sheets.  I am betting I will need both.  There is also a blue Game Instructions Rulebook for players.

There are two books that I start with.  The red book is the New Player Briefing. The yellow book is the Dragonraider Handbook Player's Guide.  I will start with the red since it is the smaller of the two and covers the game basics. The yellow, spiral-bound one covers the in-game background.  After some background, we get to the characters on page 60 or so. There are 9 Character Strengths (Love, Joy, Peace, and more, based on Galatians Chapter 5, verses 22-23.) and 2 physical attributes.  The first nine are determined randomly on a d10 (called a "Starlot" here. the d8 is a "Shadowstone." I think that is what I am calling d8s from now on!).  Many other attributes and scores are determined via derived stats from those strengths. I see why we need/want a worksheet.  There are also 8 character abilities that are required and three optional ones. 

Note: I am not doing this as a proper review. That will come later. Today I just want to make a LightRaider.

I am going to do this properly and roll all random strengths.  Let's see what sort of character I get. Rolling is the easy part, everything else on this sheet requires a lot of math.  Not difficult math really, lots of averages, but had I know I would have worked up a spreadsheet.

Ok. I did a spreadsheet anyway.   This is the exact thing I would have loved back in the day. I would have written a BASIC program for my Color Computer to help me generate a character.  Even now I can see all the code in my head!  So let's look over all my numbers and see what character I have here.

Solomon
Knight of the Way

Character Strengths
Love (LO) 6
Joy (JO) 6
Peace (PE) 5
Patience (PA) 10
Kindness (KI) 2
Goodness (GO) 6
Faithfulness (FA) 7
Gentleness (GE) 2
Self-Control (SC) 10

Character Abilities
Courage (CO) 7
Endurance (EN) 8
Hope (HO) 6
Knowledge (KN) 7
Listening (LIS) 7
Quiet Movement (QM) 8
Vision (VIS) 7
Wisdom (WIS) 4

Blend with Surroundings (BWS) 9 +2 11
Climb Skillfully (CLS) 8
Track Enemy (TE) 8 +2 10

Weapon Abilities
Solo Battle (SB) 6
Sling 7
Flail 7
Crossbow 6

Defensive Abilities
Evade Enemy (EE) 8 +2 10
Recovery from Injury (RFI) 6
Resist Torture (RT) 7

Armor
Belt of Truth (BT) 7
Breastplate of Righteousness (BR) 6
Shield of Faith (SF) 6
Helmet of Salvation (HS) 6
Sword of the Spirit (SS) 1
Boots of the Gospel of Peace (BGP) 6

Physical Attributes
Physical Vitality (PV) 27
Strength (ST) 4
Agility (AG) 4

You can't see it, but there are a lot of derived stats here.  For example, Blend with Surroundings (BWS) is made up of Self-Control doubled (SCx2), plus Patience (PA), plus Endurance doubled (EN).  Endurance itself is made up Joy, Peace, Patience (doubled), Faith, and Self-Control doubled, all divided by 7 and rounded down.  See why I wanted a spreadsheet.

Can't get much more old-school than this really!

Looking over this character I see he qualifies now for a special Character Role.  Normally this would be chosen later after a few games, but let's do it now.  Doing the math (again) I see he meets or passes the thresholds for Knight of the Way or Rescue Master.   Looking over his stats, mostly at his really poor Kindness and Gentleness scores it looks like Knight of the Way is the better choice.  That also gives me a +2 bonus for BWS, TE, and EE.

So. Who is this guy?

Well seeing how low his Wisdom is I thought let's name him Solomon.  A reminder of what he needs to work on. 

Solomon is a bit of loner. He is not particularly kind nor gentle.  He doesn't learn from his mistakes well (low Wisdom) but he is not stupid.  What he is however is tireless in his goal of hunting down the enemy of the Overlord of Many Names. He specializes in getting other Lightraiders behind enemy lines and hopefully getting them back out, but that is a job for the Rescue Masters. He knows if he gets caught he can resist the enemy better than most and that is where his true kindness is; if catching him means someone else avoids the Dragon Lord's torturers then so be it. 

His combat scores are good, but better with ranged weapons.  And yes despite what you may or may not have heard characters ARE expected to fight and kill the forces of evil.

His Faith is pretty good and his Goodness a little less.  I think this guy is likely more about wanting to hurt the enemy rather than helping out good people.  That will be his struggle. 

Well...the real struggle is I don't really know any bible verses so I am not going to get very far with the Word Runes.  But I suppose that is the purpose of this game really, to teach them to young adults.  This is actually a cool idea; memorizing real bible verses to have an effect in the game. As an educator, I can appreciate this. 

I will need to get into that in a future review.  

The Links

I am going to be going through this game some more.  So I am going to share my collected links here so we both have them for later.

• LightRaiders, the home of DragonRaid, https://lightraiders.com/
• Introduction to DragonRaid, https://vimeo.com/399051861
• The DragonRaid audio files, https://lightraiders.com/dragonraid-tape/
• Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DragonRaid
• Review on RPG.net, https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11723.phtml
• Review on Biblical Geek, http://www.biblicalgeek.com/blog/2018/11/22/dragonraid
• Thoul's Paradise has a whole series of posts.
• The Cosmology of DragonRaid
• Angels & Allegory
  
• People (and Creatures) on EdenAgain
• Magic in DragonRaid
• Of StarLots and Shadow Stones
• Dark Creatures of EdenAgain
• Talania
  
• Combat in DragonRaid
  
• Character Development in DragonRaid
• Adventures in DragonRaid

Character Creation Challenge: Mutants & Masterminds

Mutants & Masterminds from Green Ronin might feel like a stretch from all the other systems I have done, but really it is quite appropriate given the playstyle I like.  And if I am doing a multi-verse of witches here, then it behooves me to throw some supers into the mix. 

The Game: Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition

M&M 2nd Ed was one of my favorite superhero RPGs, so it made sense for me to upgrade to the 3rd Edition when it came out.  Also given that the same system was being used in the DC Adventures RPG, I just really could not say no.

I have talked a lot about M&M 3 and DC Adventures here. And it is no surprise with my Zatanna postings that I am more of DC fan than a Marvel fan. 

I am happy to see the M&M is still going strong.  One of the true success stories of the OGL experiment. 
Green Ronin even has a Pateron for Mutants and Masterminds at https://www.patreon.com/MutantsAndMasterminds

From the very start of War of the Witch Queens, I knew there was going to be some influences from other games and other universes.  Mutants & Masterminds, which already embraces the Multiverse, was an early obvious choice for me.   But something that no one knows is that my Come Endless Darkness also had an origin point in M&M.  Back then it was going to be Dracula trying to take over the world.  I really could not pass up the chance of Dracula fighting someone named Summers.  While I moved the whole thing over to D&D (and Dracula to Strahd) I can still see some of the old DNA of M&M in it.  Some of the rest moved on to WotWQ.  One idea, in particular, was an anti-hero Scáthach.

Now before I get into the character of Scáthach, I do want to address that this is neither the Ulster cycle character Scáthach, nor is the Red Sonja character of Scáthach, The Red Goddess, though in true comic book fashion, both are inspirations.  Since she is supposed to be a witch of sorts I am going all the way back to one of my first WitchCraft RPG games that took place at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Plus I wanted a character I could port back over to D&D if I wanted.

The Character: Scáthach the Shadow Witch

Professor Moria Stewart, Ph.D. was a lecturer on classic Irish and Scot Mythology at the University of St. Andrews.  She was busy sketching pictures of Dunscaith Castle in Scotland while working on a new paper about Cú Chulainn when she noticed that all her sketches featured the same shadowy figure.  She did not remember drawing it, nor even seeing it.  She compared it photos she took but nothing was uncovered.  She returned to the castle site and was confronted by a Shadow.  She fell and hit her head on some rocks below the castle. She was certain to die but the figure came to her saying it would give her power if it could bond to her.  Not wanting to die Dr. Stewart agreed and became a creature of shadow herself.

While during the day she goes about her life and teaches her classes to bored undergrads by night (or when she needs too) she can veil herself in shadows and she becomes Scáthach the Shadow Witch!

Scáthach, The Shadow Witch - PL 10
Realm Name: Moria Stewart

Strength 1, Stamina 1, Agility 1, Dexterity 1, Fighting 7, Intellect 3, Awareness 2, Presence 1

Advantages
Contacts, Languages 3, Well-informed

Skills
Athletics 2 (+3), Deception 2 (+3), Expertise: History 8 (+11), Insight 2 (+4), Intimidation 2 (+3), Perception 4 (+6), Ranged Combat: Shadow Blast: Cone Area Damage 10 8 (+9), Stealth 8 (+9), Technology 4 (+7)

Powers
Blend in Shadows: Concealment 2 (Sense - Sight; Blending)
Faerie Fire: Cumulative Affliction 5 (1st degree: Impaired, 2nd degree: Disabled, 3rd degree: Unaware, Resisted by: Will, DC 15; Cumulative, Increased Range 2: perception; Limited: One sense (Sight))
Shadow Blast: Cone Area Damage 10 (shadow, DC 25; Cone Area: 60 feet cone, DC 20, Increased Range: ranged)
Shadow Form (Activation: Standard Action)
   Alternate Form (Shadow) (Activation: Standard Action)
      Concealment: Concealment 5 (All Visual Senses, Sense - Hearing; Limited 2: Darkness and Shadow)
      Insubstantial: Insubstantial 4 (Incorporeal)
      Movement: Movement 3 (Safe Fall, Trackless: Choose Sense 1, Water Walking 1: you sink if you are prone)
   Flight: Flight 6 (Speed: 120 miles/hour, 1800 feet/round)
   Ríastrad: Enhanced Fighting 6 (+6 FGT)
      Strength Effect
   Shadow Aura: Protection 6 (+6 Toughness; Sustained; Noticeable: Visible effects)
Shadow Magic: Illusion 5 (Affects: Two Sense Types - Sight, Hearling, Area: 30 cft., DC 15)
Shadow Sense: Remote Sensing 5 (Affects: Visual Senses, Range: 900 feet)
Shadow Sight: Senses 3 (shadow, Darkvision, Low-light Vision)

Offense
Initiative +1
Faerie Fire: Cumulative Affliction 5 (DC Will 15)
Grab, +7 (DC Spec 11)
Shadow Blast: Cone Area Damage 10 (DC 25)
Throw, +1 (DC 16)
Unarmed, +7 (DC 16)

Complications
Identity: Shadow Witch is different than Moria
Mythic Weakness: Can't touch any metal while in Shadow form

Languages
English, French, Greek, Latin, Scots Gaelic

Defense
Dodge 3, Parry 7, Fortitude 2, Toughness 7, Will 4

Gender: Female
Age: 35
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 145#
Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue

Power Points
Abilities 22 + Powers 98 + Advantages 5 + Skills 20 (40 ranks) + Defenses 5 = 150

Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at https://www.wolflair.com Mutants & Masterminds, Third Edition is ©2010-2017 Green Ronin Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.

This character could be a lot of fun!  I can see her working in either the DC Universe or the M&M Universe.

Character Creation Challenge: Mage 20th Anniversary Edition

I want to end this week the same way I started it; with Mage.  Only this time I am focusing on the massive tome that is the Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition.

The Game: Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition

I remember picking up a copy of Vampire the Masquerade back in the early 90s and thinking it looked interesting, but nothing I was going to play really.  Though my thought did go to moving the whole thing over to Ravenloft.  It wasn't later until I had moved to Chicago to work on my Ph.D. that I found Mage.  

The ground floor of the commuter train station had a bookstore in it.  One of the pure joys of my daily commute. I picked up a copy of Mage: The Ascension (Revised) and thought that it was fantastic.  While I would ultimately stick with WitchCraft, Mage continued to have a fascination for me. Moving back and forth between the systems I ultimately landed on the idea that a "Mage" was an evolved form of a "Witch."  I did some refinements, mostly after Mage the Awakening was released, so eventually came to the idea of an "Imbolc Mage" the term borrowed from a friend that wrote about "Ascended witches."  IT worked for me.  Even in my D&D 3.0 days, an Imbolc Mage was a witch prestige class.  My Imbolc Mage is even tied back to Amy and Megan.  In one universe Amy is a good friend, in another Megan is her grandmother. In Scáthach/Moria Stewart's universe, she is the superhero Witchfire (but more on that tomorrow).

While Mage the Ascension grabbed my attention, it was Mage the Awakening that I created the more material for.  I soon figured out why, it was that it was very close in feel to WitchCraft.  I wanted to do something that took the best aspects, or more to the point my favorite aspects, of both games and use them together.  I grabbed the Mage Translation Guide with great glee, but I never really did anything with it.  With the release of Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition (and its nearly 700 pages) I just dropped all the work I was doing with Mage the Awakening. 

This brings me to Bri.

Brianna was really my first character specifically for Mage the Awakening.  I knew she was going to me an Imbolc Mage according to the myths of my game worlds so stating her up in Mage first made the most amount of sense.  Given that her character birthday is coming up (February 1) I think she needs to be stated up for Mage: The Ascension.  

The Character: Brianna

Of the members of this week's coven, Bri is the youngest and the most powerful.  She is also one of the oldest characters I have made and have detailed this month.  In my first Generation HEX game she was born February 1st, 2005, since that game was set in 2022 she would have been 17.  Well, she will be 16 in a couple of days, so let's see how she looks for Mage.  

One of the big changes right away is shifting her from a Verbena to a Sister of Hippolyta.  While the game even mentions that these two should have merged a long time ago they are separate still.  Given that Brianna is part of the Daughters of the Flame, the sisters feel like a much better fit really.  This is also apparent in her Avatar and Destiny Backgrounds.  She is going to do Big Things someday. But right now she is just a kid.

Brianna

Nature: Activist
Demeanor: Idealist
Essence: Primordial

Affiliation: Sisters of Hippolyta
Sect: Daughters of the Flame
Concept: Guardian

Attributes
Physical
Strength 2
Dexterity 3
Stamina 3

Social
Charisma 2
Manipulation 1
Appearance 3

Mental
Perception 4
Intelligence 3
Wits 3

Abilities
Talents
Alertness 2, Athletics 1, Awareness 1, Empathy 1, Intimidation 2, Leadership 1

Skills
Martial Arts 1, Melee 1, Research 1, Survival 1, Technology 1

Knowledge
Academics 2, Computers 1, Enigmas 2, Esoterica 2, Investigation 1, Occult 3, Science 2

Spheres

Life (Affinity) 2, Mind 2, Forces 1, Prime 1, Spirit 1

Backgrounds
Avatar 3, Destiny 3, Mentor 1

Arete 3
Willpower 5
Quintessence 5

Gender: Female (she/her)
Age: 16 (DOB Feb 1, 2005)
Hair: Red
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 120 lbs.

Yeah. This makes me want to play Mage again!

Character Creation Challenge: The Great American Witch

Last year I supported the Kickstarter for Christopher Grey's The Great American Witch. It is based on a variant of the Apocalypse World Engine but has a lot of neat features of its own. I thought it might be fun to try a character for this game now.

The Game: The Great American Witch

The Great American Witch (GAW) was released last year to much excitement (well on my part certainly).  The game is quite a lot of fun, though I have not had the chance to play it as much as I would like, it has become a great resource for some of my other games.

I reviewed the game here, and interviewed the designer Christopher Grey here. 

While I continue to be mostly unimpressed by Powered by the Apocalypse games, this one deviates enough from that standard to make it more interesting to me. Plus I do like the character, craft, and coven building material within the book.  The coven building, in particular, has been very helpful for my Basic-era War of the Witch Queens game. I can also see it working great for WitchCraft and maybe even WITCH: Fated Souls.  The Crafts of GAW could also work out well enough, narratively, as different "Crafts" of the Wicce in WitchCraft. 

Still, I see a lot of potential for this game and I am happy I picked it for today's challenge.

The Character: Amy Nakamura

Amy is a character I have used as an NPC in my WitchCraft/Buffy games before but never stated her out.  I thought it might be fun to detail her a little more here.  Though in previous versions she was a follower of Brigit.   This Amy did not become "Brigh daughter of Brigit" instead she became something of a solitary witch looking to protect others on her own.  Since my War of the Witch Queens spans the multiverse I am going to say that "Amy" was needed, but instead of Brigh they got this Amy.  Or maybe in this world, she is the one that has that needed multiversal connection. 

For a lot of reasons that make sense mostly to me, she is a "Craft of Tara" witch, "Coven of the Storm".

Character creation in GAW actually begins with Coven Creation.  For this coven I am going to choose the witches I have been featuring this week, Megan, Fiona, Alexandria, and Amy, each pulled from their timelines. 

Coven of the Storm

Oath: Use force to enact change
Holy Day: Samhain
Hearth: A hidden building
Connections & Resources: A hideout that cannot be located by natural or supernatural means.

Coven Resources: Few. Witches operate in the mundane world
Staus: Well thought of by those that know.
Mainstream? Witches need to come together.
Mundane? Has value, but not important
Influence: Not well known
Members: Only these characters

Photo by Joy Marino from Pexels

Amy Nakamura
Craft of Tara

Mercy -1
Wisdom -1
Severity +2

Maiden: Tara Swift and Heroic
Mother: Blue Tara
Crone: Black Tara

Refuge: Personal Shrine
Background: Family has always practiced the craft
Lifestyle: Spritual activist
Personality: Optimistic and supportive

Relationships
Who helps you keep peace in the coven? Megan
Who is the most volatile and needs the most management? Fiona
Who gives you the strength to confront challenges? Megan and Alexandria
Who confronts challenges for you? Alexandria
Who brings balance to the coven? Megan and Amy
Who brings the coven out of balance: Fiona

Ok! So I have a character here that works great for this game.  

Character Creation Challenge: WITCH Fated Souls

We are getting near the end of this challenge and I find I am sad to see it go.  I am going to revisit these characters all at a later date I am sure.  Maybe reunite them under one system.  Today though I want to go back to a system I really like but rarely get to do anything with.  Elizabeth Chaipraditkul's WITCH: Fated Souls.

The Game: WITCH: Fated Souls

WITCH: Fated Souls was part of a very successful Kickstarter and later sales on DriveThruRPG. It shares many of the background features of WitchCraft but in a different way.  That will be a theme all this week. WITCH:FS also has "witches" and how they use magic to affect the worlds around them. It is a different take on some of the same ideas and I always find it a joy to read.

I did a lengthy review of the game a while back, and it was part of another Character Challenge where I stated up Thomasin from "The VVitch" in different systems.  

The system is pretty easy to learn and is flexible.  I prefer WitchCraft in many ways, but that is hardly a fair comparison.  There is a lot that WITCH:FS does very well and I do wish I spent more time with it. It is a game that rewards your investment of time to it with the characters becoming more and more interesting as they progress.  There is every bit of the same sort of world-building here that happens in WitchCraft or The World of Darkness games.  It just needs a GM that will give it the time that it deserves.

The Character: Alexandria

Alexandria has been with me in idea form for a little while.  Her concept writ large is a "Tireless Social Justice Witch."  She is not afraid to fight for what she believes is right and she doesn't back down.  

Also, I always imagined her as looking like Cuban singer Camila Cabello. Why? Because I adore her and I listened to a lot of her music to get the right vibe for this character.

Alexandria
Fate: Djinn
Familiar: Appears as a small bluebird

Attributes
Intelligence: 3
Wisdom: 2
Perception: 3
Charisma: 3
Manipulation: 3
Dexterity: 3
Strength: 3
Stamina: 3

Skills
Athletics 1, Brawl 2, Craft 2, Deception 2, Dodge 2, Empathy 1, Expression 1, Intimidation 1, Perform 2, Spot 1, Stealth 1, Survival 2, Thievery 1, Wits 1

Hit Points
Hurt: 12, Injured 12, Mauled 7, Unconcious 3
Soak: 0
Initiative Mod: 3

CD to Hit: 12

Pursuits: Property 3, Contacts 1, Funds 1

Spell Level: 1

Talents: Casting 2, Potions 1, Occult 1

Spells: Emneya
Cantrips (Tether), Canto I, II

This is a fun character. I can't wait to see what she has in store. 

Character Creation Challenge: C. J. Carella's WitchCraft RPG

We are in the last week of this Character Creation Challenge.  I wanted to spend this last week on modern games. That is games that take place in modern times. Yesterday was Chill, today I am going to go with what might the game I love more than D&D. C. J. Carella's WitchCraft RPG.

The Game: C. J. Carella's WitchCraft RPG

Mere words can't express my love for this game. Though I have tried many, many times. This is the game I come back to. This is the game that hold up as my Gold Standard of Games.  Not that it isn't without it's own issues of course, but nothing I can't work around or even with.  I have often said I wrote Ghosts of Albion as nothing but a giant love letter to the WitchCraft RPG.

WitchCraft was the game that pulled me back into RPGs. I was ready to give up until I found this game. I have never looked back. 

Not only is it a great game with some great supplements, but it is also supremely flexible. There is really nothing I can't do with this game.  Add on some of the other "Classic" Unisystem games like All Flesh Must Be Eaten (Zombie survival horror), Armageddon the End Times (Post-apocalypse reckoning), and Conspiracy X 2.0 (Aliens and Government conspiracies) you have an entire world of options.  But honestly, the game is perfect as it is.

If you don't believe me, grab the PDF for free from Eden Studios on DriveThruRPG. 

The Character: Fiona

Fiona is, or is based on, the character from the opening fiction and she is the "Cover girl" of core rule book.  "Head Zombie" George Vasilakos, the CEO of Eden painted that. It is seriously one of the best pieces of art for any gamebook ever.  

Fiona is a young witch and maybe, just maybe she is a bit of a stereotype, and she maybe is based a little on Fiona Apple circa 1999. 

Fiona
Gifted Wicce Wierd One

Attributes
Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Constitution 3
Intelligence 3
Willpower 3
Perception 2

Life Points 36
Endurance Points 29
Speed 10
Essence Pool 20

Channeling Level 1

Qualities / Drawbacks
Gifted (5)
Attractive 2
Hard to Kill 2
Humorless -1
Obsession -2
Photographic Memory 2
Recurring Nightmares -1

Essence Channeling 1 (2)
Increased Essence Pool 1

Skills
Computer 2, Craft (Herbal) 3, Dodge 3, Fine Arts (Painting) 2, Humanities (History) 2, Language (French 2), Magic Theory 3, Occult Knowledge 3, Research 2, Rituals (Wicce) 2, Streetwise 1 

Metaphysics
Farsight 2, Insight 2, Lesser Healing 2, Soulfire 2, Shielding 2

I have likely seen hundreds of Unisystem characters over the years. Fiona here is pretty much everyone's starting character.  Gifted, Wicce. Weird One is a fun concept and one most gamers can relate to. Marginally better mental stats than physical.  Hard to Kill is most often taken.  So is Situational Awareness, but I ran out of points in favor of Photographic Memory.  Skills are predictable with some point variances here and there.  Metaphysics include a couple of utilities, healing, an attack, and a defense. She has French as a language instead of the more "Occulty" Latin, Hebrew or Greek because she is a Wicce, not a Rosicrucian.  She seems more like the "spooky goth" witch and not the "crunchy earth child" witch.

Still, she would be fun to play.  Let the Chronicler play on those Nightmares. Maybe it is her Farsight while she is sleeping. 

Character Creation Challenge: Chill 3rd Edition

Jumping WAY ahead to the future today; at least in terms of the Dark Ages, to the magic time of the 1970s!  All my campaigns share a link in one way or another.  Adventures like "All Souls Night" may start with D&D or other FRPG, they eventually make their way to "Blight" (Ghosts of Albion) and "The Dark Druid" (Buffy).  Spirit of '76 is another good example.  It begins, oddly enough, in 1976 and with Chill.

The Game: Chill 3rd Edition

Spend any time here and you know I am very fond of Chill.  The first edition from Pacesetter came out of Minnesota. Second Edition from Mayfair was right here in the Chicago burbs.  Chill is Midwestern horror.  Not East Coast horror with it's ancient houses and older bloodlines. Not West Coast horror with new-wave vampires. Nor is it Southern Gothic, while very enjoyable, is not the same. 

No Chill is backwoods horror. Old decrepit house horror. Horror found on darkened roads between small towns. The horror I grew up with.  

My campaign for Chill was/is my Spirit of '76 game.  It was designed as a Chill mini-campaign over 4 days.  It was built up while I was playing a lot of WitchCraft and Buffy.  The idea was that supernatural occurrences, once rare, were picking up in intensity and frequency the closer we got to the new Millennium. This would later change to 2012 and then 2018 as real-time overtook these "future" events.  You can see some of that in my "Generation HEX" Nightworld in NIGHT SHIFT.   Originally this was going to be for Chill 2nd Edition, but even that time got away from me so now it is for 3rd Edition.  Thankfully the narrative in the new game follows the one I was creating.

The Character: Megan O'Kelly

"Megan" began as "Stephanie" in an older game back when "Spirit of '76" was "Summer of Love" and taking place in 1968.  I wanted to keep Stephanie where she was but I wanted to do the Summer of 1976 instead, so Megan was "born."   She is a young grad student at UC-Berkeley. I imagined her with long straight hair and wearing bell-bottoms.  Something of a post-hippie 70s girl.  She called herself a "Craft worker" or a "cleanser" but never a "witch."  Her inspirations come from the Eric Clapton song "Bellbottom Blues" and Eliza Roberts from Animal House.  I changed the character because I wanted to bring in an older Stephanie at some point but I never did.

Megan is assigned to SAVE in 1976 to help a small band of operatives investigating the rise of supernatural occurrences in the South West to the Deep South.

Megan O'Kelly 
SAVE Operative

Attributes (80 pt build)
Agility AGL 50
Strength STR 40
Stamina STA 45

Focus FOC 60
Personality PSY 50
Willpower WRP 55

Dexterity DEX 40
Perception PCN 70
Reflexes REF 55

Sensing the Unknown STU 14

Skills (Specializations)
Movement (T) 50, Long Distance (E)
Prowess (T) 40
Close Quarters Combat 23

Research (T) 60, Academic (E), Occult (B)
Communication (T) 50
Interview 28

Fieldcraft 20
Investigation 35
Ranged Weapons 28

Edges and Drawbacks
Attractive (2), Highly Attuned (1), Naïve (-2)

The Art
Protective School
Disrupt
Sphere of Protection (E), Mental Shield (B)

Sensing School
Clairvoyant (E)

Drive
To Know the Truth

So Megan is a recent UC Berkeley grad.  She is a clairvoyant and specializes in seeing ghosts and putting spirits to rest.  Her background is psych grad student so her academics are already at Expert (but not yet Master) and she ran track in High School, so she has some athletics, but not a lot. She is still a bit naïve about the world around her but she is not stupid. 

Third Edition Chill is really better at PCs learning "The Art" (magic) than previous editions, so I think this version really works out much better than previous incarnations of Megan/Stephanie.