Character March 2025: Runehack RPG

A day special to me for private reasons should be dedicated to making a character of my own for the Runehack RPG. Publishing it was one of my resolutions for 2024, and I did it. At times, I had my doubts, considering publishing just two pillars, then just one, but eventually, the structure came to me. And when the muse kicked me and I started writing, I barely stopped for several months.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Runehack RPG

Fitzen Rainstone is a confident goblin who is a professional hoverboarder, participating in competitions to see whose tricks are the best. What might surprise most is that he enjoys writing and storytelling just as much as hoverboarding. What he lacks in strength and smarts, he makes up for with his handiness. He's 30 years old, so he's well aware that his career might be over soon. That's why he's raising a student of his to be just as good at skating as he is, an orc who's got a lot of potential. He hates his human manager since both of them are quite stubborn, and he's got a goblin love interest who's present every time he competes. Things changed when some influential yet hidden people contacted him, asking whether he'd want to join the Acumen. For a personal reason that's a secret to most, he agreed.

Since he's a goblin, his body has adaptive physiology that allows him to shift slightly and become just what he needs in roughly one week, provided he'll adjust his diet for it. Usually, he's an oak goblin, but if it's necessary, he's willing to switch things up. His attributes are as follows:

• Muscle 0
• Agility 2
• Training 3
• Cognition 0
• Hunch 2

His starting Burden is 1, allowing him to carry a single item without being slowed down. He could carry two items concealed on his body in such a way that others couldn't find them. His Masteries are hoverboards, rubber, and wood. He has 2 Guesses that he could spend to find out what's true without evidence. His Max. Energy starts at 10, his default targeting senses are Smell (while he's an oak goblin) and Sight (which is normal to all player characters), he starts with 300 credits and some basic possessions as listed in the rules, as well as a Penthouse. His feature choices for the pillars are as follows:

• Social: Fame is a feature that would give him a starting relationship of +2 with his fans and -2 with his haters, plus they'd know some basic facts about the famous skater. Furthermore, he'd take the Healing Factor feature unique to the goblins that allows him to heal from Wounds faster, literally within a matter of a day. His final feature of choice is a Secret, which increases one of his attributes by 1 (Hunch), but now there's a dark truth about him that very few know: he owes someone awful a great debt. And they are keeping an eye on him, waiting for the prime opportunity.
• Spy: In the Acumen, he found himself at home in the role of a Tinker. With his runecard's apps, he can use some telekinesis to create obstacles in unobstructed routes, and the ability to fall without getting injured (also through telekinesis). The obstacles he's mastered so far are Around and Over, since those felt to him as a hoverboarder quite natural. Being in the Acumen also gives him a Mask that he can wear to cover up his identity, and his runecard informs him whether there's any runetech present in his area, save for the runecard itself. (Note to self: that last part is what I realized just now I should fix in the rules.)
• Tech: When it comes to the more technical side of his secret life, his runecard can't be identified unless he allows it, and he can activate or deactivate runetech devices that are within his line of sight, provided he succeeds on a roll for them. His role is Modder, which allows him to jury rig devices, attaching and detaching components even outside of the Assembly Activity. As a modder, he can also purchase a special component called Hotswap Slot, allowing anyone to attach components to it outside of the Assembly Activity safely.
• Job: Seeker is the perfect job for a public performer such as a pro hoverboarder. His features of choice would be a Costly Talent (which doubles credits earned and lost during a Performance and from the Flourishes), and One More Try (allowing him to take a Perform action once freely if he succeeded on less than two rolls made as part of a Perform or Flourish action in a round).

Ratings

5/5 RPG. The procedures might seem board game-y, but I think overall it feels like a roleplaying game.

4/5 Soup Stone. There's still stuff to improve about it, like adding more Conspiracies and adding more and more options to the game, but I think it's already in a solid place.

5/5 Would I Play. Yes. I'd love to have a local group to play it with, but until then, I'll have to play with an online friend or two.

5/5 Would I Write. I want to add so much more to this game. I just keep getting sidetracked with other projects. I think that's actually a good thing, though! It gives me more space to relax from thinking about writing this game and also more time to try it out myself so I know if there's anything that needs to be changed.

19/20 Total Rating

If I had Disco Elysium skills

For a couple months now, I've been thinking about Disco Elysium's skills, especially Volta do Mar. ... What's that? That's not a skill in the game? It actually is, it's just not a skill that your character has. By visiting the Disco Elysium's merch store, you can find out that Kim's iconic orange bomber jacket gives him a +1 bonus to Hand-Eye Coordination, as well as to... Volta do Mar. It turns out people don't have identical skills in the world of Disco Elysium. That makes sense if you think about it some more: only policemen would have Esprit de Corps (at least the way it is defined for Harry), and who knows if skills like Shivers and Inland Empire are not specific to Harry.

That being said, I've had this thought I pondered for a long time: what would my skills be, if I were in a disco-like game? After a lot of introspection, I grabbed a digital paintbrush and gave it my best shot. This article is about how I did this. I hope you'll enjoy my little bit of self-indulgence!

Categories

Through a lot of thinking, I narrowed the number of traits I'd consider iconic to myself down to 12, which is a good number to go with - divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6, which make for nice rectangles. I chose to split them into 4 groups of 3 to make it as close to a square as I could (without using custom canvas sizes or something like that). The names are a little forced so that each one starts with an S, but I've gotten used to them by now.

• Smart (blue) skills are related to intelligence and memory.
• Sparked (green + magenta details) skills are all about creativity and making stuff up.
• Social (yellow) skills are about the relations with other people.
• Somatic (red + white details) skills are about the body.

Resolution

I give myself goals, lots of them at times. Just to illustrate what I've been going through this past week: I set up the articles for the Character March to be automatically published, I've worked on the game for the final day of Character March, I painted all of the portraits you see above, attended a local club meeting, made some new friends, and sorted out a bunch of hangouts where I'll be spending time with my friends towards the end of the March. Add on top of that keeping up daily drawings (ever since the start of this year), and keeping up my DuoLingo streak. I don't like to give myself goals I know I can't finish. But maxing out this skill means you'll be stubbornly doing things even if you don't enjoy them, risking burnout. Taking breaks is okay, I should probably consider that.

Portrait: A head with a subtle clock face chained to all the commitments it has. I like to think each chain is attached to some time.

Rationalization

Explaining things, deducing logical answers, and analyzing solutions to problems. This is the skill that needs answers to issues, and it also needs to express them clearly. But maxing it out leads to frequent thought loops, and getting distracted with interesting ideas.

Portrait: A head filled with a clockwork mechanism. I like to think that it's about constructing the "arguments" in the form of exclamation marks coming out of the mouth by delivering a ball and cutting off the line at the top.

Ereyesterday

Memories, nostalgia, the past. Those who do not learn from history are bound to keep repeating it. However, maxing this skill leads to overt romanticization of the past and dwelling on what was instead of focusing on what is and what will be.

Portrait: A skull getting filled like an hourglass.

Myth Engine

We all have stories to tell, including myself. Sharing stories comes naturally to us. I wanted to learn how to tell and write stories better for a while now, so I've seen patterns in them. Maxing this skill out leads to lengthy one-sided "conversations" (on which side depends on the mood), and possibly also the main character syndrome.

Portrait: A heart with some mechanical parts added to it. Fun fact, since I wanted to imply it's about stories without being too obvious, I started by drawing a circle in the background that gets thicker in a clockwise direction until the top point, representing the Hero's Journey. The heartbeat line is actually the boundary between the Known and the Unknown, repurposed to be a heartbeat because I depicted the Myth Engine as a heart.

Wandering Mind

There's a multitude of options and possibilities to explore during a brainstorming process. Some might be good, but some might not be that good. Maxing the skill leads to frequent daydreaming, possibly running a risk of creativity that an audience will have a hard time relating to.

Portrait: A neuron can look surprisingly similar to a mind map, doesn't it? In that picture, I literally let my mind wander to try to come up with as many doors as possible. I started with literal ones and ended up with metaphorical ones - an axe can open any door, a sword can open someone's doorway to the afterlife, and a contract signed can lead to a new opportunity. And each door needs its handle, which I tried to represent with a dash of magenta.

Overmorrow

The capacity to plan for the future, and to keep track of the plans. Maxing out the Overmorrow could lead to overplanning, leaving very little time for self-care.

Portrait: A hand with a dashed line that brings along the latest plan, depicted as a compass with a needle pointing somewhere. As for what that thing above is, I'll let you guess. Hint: You might need something beyond the image to figure it out. Thank my Overmorrow for that.

Two-Way Mirror

Some people lack a filter. I don't. The Two-Way Mirror is exactly that, a boundary between the public and the private persona. Maxing it out leads to overt suspicion of others, secretiveness, and two-facedness.

Portrait: I started with the idea of splitting the image into two halves, just the way a two-way mirror would work: one half has to be brightly lit, and the other must be as dark as possible. Those on the bright side won't see what's on the dark side. After doing this, I drew the silhouettes - the bright side has a silhouette that speaks, and the dark side has a silhouette that watches in silence. I especially like how the bright side's silhouette blends, literally merging, with the dark side. Probably one of my favorite skill paintings.

Extra Mile

Helping others takes effort, even if it is a little. This is one's capacity to be kind to others. But maxing it out leads to taking on too much burden for others.

Portrait: A figure walking on a road up a mountain. They carry a burden of everything others need help with. A nice detail, in my opinion at least, is the fact the route leads around the mountain instead of directly up to the goal, meaning the character is literally walking a longer distance than what is necessary.

Tuning Fork

Figuring out the vibe and emotions of others. It's named after a tuning fork because tuning forks will start to vibrate on their own in reaction to sound waves that correspond to the tone they are tuned with. Maxing it out leads to overanalyzing what others are feeling, and these emotions potentially have an influence too. Honestly, not too sure if this is right, but I'm gonna go with that for this article.

Portrait: This one started as a head with tuning forks for ears, but that looked kind of lame. I tried to turn the forks upwards, but it still didn't look quite right. It looked good only once I drew more and more tuning forks, to make it look like antlers. There are subtle soundwaves in the picture too.

Perseverance

The capability to keep going despite everything. Honestly, not sure what more to say here that isn't too personal. Maximizing it leads to stubbornness, I think? Not too sure.

Portrait: A body in a defensive posture, with bones highlighted to increase the feeling of endurance in the picture. The flame in the chest represents the will that keeps the body going. That flame might be the reason why I'm still here today to write this.

Kinesis

Sheer physical strength. Not really maxed out for me, but I figured I should include a strength of some kind in this skill list. I'm guessing maxing it out would lead one to violent solutions.

Portrait: A figure that punches the glass up above, while pulling on some ropes.

Vigilance

Carefulness and finesse, watchfulness, and attention to detail. Honestly, I'm not sure how good I am with this skill, just like Kinesis it was added because I felt like it was necessary. Maxing it out could lead to tunnel vision and overt carefulness.

Portrait: Seven eyes watching a pair of hands doing some kind of delicate task. I'm not sure why I went with seven, layout-wise it just worked out this way. One eye is on the lookout, one eye looks back at the viewer, one eye is closed because (insert more poetic reason than "I was too lazy to draw another eye), and the rest is looking at the hands. Each eye has a laser to represent laser focus, but also a kind of tunnel vision.

Final Words

Was this a cool way to spend some amount of my time this past week? Yes. Do I know what I want to use these skills for yet? No, but I might work that out in time. Could I do a better job if I spent way more time on this? Likely! For now, this is enough. Until then, I'll just get to enjoy the fact that I finished another Thing. Yes, I'm counting this as a Thing, those portraits are not commissioned by someone else or something like that. I've surprised myself with how these turned out, considering I didn't do art this seriously before.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Character March 2025: Runehack: Fairy Heist

Ironically, the game about the small beings is one of my bigger games.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Runehack: Fairy Heist

Naxandria Ashenrich is a regular fairy who lives in the Heart District of Ashington, not too far from Long Meridian Street. She doesn't have a nickname that would stick to her just yet because she has yet to make a group of good friends. She's a mix of an Oceanic and a Mountain fairy, since her skin is dark green, yet her eyes are red. During the day, she's a regular merchant's assistant on the Long Meridian, though she wants a life full of fame and thrills since her life is quite boring. The person who matters to her the most is her older sister Roxicity, who's running a small music band with great hopes of one day making it to Cape Nota. Naxandria supports Roxicity's dreams, though she's concerned about what would happen once she's all alone.

Her life was turned upside down when she got an anonymous message on her runecard, inviting her to a secret meeting. On the location where she was called, she met several other fairies, all called forth by the anonymous stranger, who left them a set of new, nulled runecards. They get to live a double life, stealing all sorts of medical experiments from the Lifestock and getting paid well for delivering them to the anonymous stranger. The fairies, bored with life and looking for some excitement, agreed to this offer.

Naxandria starts with 10 credits; her height is 13 centimeters, which is above average for a fairy. The nulled runecard in her possession comes with two installed apps: Telepathy (that allows her to speak 10 words audible to only one person she can see) and Grasper (moving things around telekinetically, as if held by a human hand). Her height also defines that she's stronger than an average fairy and can carry quite a bit of weight (a total of 13), but she's less agile than most fairies. She does not realize that her sister is staying in Ashington because of her. Naxandria believes she's not holding her back, but subconsciously, she is, until she tells her sister directly that she can go to Cape Nota.

Ratings

5/5 RPG. I've played it for several months. Among my games, this one probably feels the most like a proper tabletop roleplaying game.

4/5 Soup Stone. Plenty to work off of, little stuff that needed to be added.

4/5 Would I Play. I'd rather play Runehack RPG, but I think I could do a game of Fairy Heist now and then if I were to give it an update.

4/5 Would I Write. I want to use the Runehack RPG like an "engine" of the game and remake this one day to be compatible with it. Fairy Heist is like its parent; it's deserved for doing so much hard work for what the Runehack RPG is today.

17/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Runehack: Express Deliveries

Funny thing about this one is, I struggled with formulating satisfying vehicle mechanics for months. But when the game jam started and the theme was "transport", I knew I had to give it a try. In the end, I am very satisfied with how it turned out. Driving in this game really feels different from having your character walk.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Runehack: Express Deliveries

Mr. Whiteflame is a dwarf who does deliveries around the city of New Prista on his hovercar. He's a silver dwarf with pale gray skin and gray hair due to his age, and he's usually seen in a casual outfit that would be seen as an equivalent of a Hawaiian shirt. He's a pragmatic person who's seen it all, so it's hard to make him excited. He just wants to live an average life and blend in with the crowd until his final day comes. In his digital wallet, he's got 100 credits, and his specialization is that of a Courier, which means he can deliver items faster than other drivers would under the same circumstances.

Ratings

3/5 RPG. It's a driving minigame for the most part, but there's some potential for roleplay, especially while not working or while driving a customer or more.

3/5 Soup Stone. Lots of stuff is defined, and lots is left for the player to decide.

3/5 Would I Play. Maybe, but it's hard to tell. Giving this one a 3 because I'd still be more okay with playing this than some of my other systems.

2/5 Would I Write. I already expanded on this in the Runehack RPG greatly, so I don't feel like it's necessary unless I want to make this a thing on its own.

11/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Runehack: The Asterist

Let's delve into the Runehack games and see how they're going to hold up!

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Runehack: The Asterist

Octica Ironwell is a human from Moorwell who could afford her own digital immortalization. Before that, she used to work as a dentist, with a regular job and a regular family. Once her mind was scanned and uploaded to Everling, she nicknamed herself 8ECT. There, she could finally have a chance to try new things as much as her heart desired. See all the movies, read all the books, listen to all the music. For now, there are still many experiences ahead of her, but one day, she'll have to stop and ask herself the hard question: "Does this life fulfill me?" If she's given a choice to break out of Everling, her response will be yes only once she really considers the question.

One of the things she got to experience is Asterism, hacking the world around her. At the moment, she doesn't use it often, but perhaps when there's a group of other players around her, she might just start to. Her starting Integrity is 4 (I suppose she was into some strange things), and her Corruption starts at a 0.

I don't feel like writing up the full structure of how she'd spend her points, so instead, I'll describe which stats she'd prioritize:

• Stability is at the top since she wants to experience a lot of things, sometimes things dangerous to her simulated self.
• Speed, so that she doesn't miss out on anything.
• Visual, so that others can see her well even when she's silent (she'd always put at least one point here).
• Audio, so she can be heard well by others.
• Runecraft, because you never know when you'll need a bit of Asterism.
• Strength, Auxiliary, Cravenlore, Mindlore, Witlore, and Worldken, only if they are relevant to the experience she's currently going for.

She'd probably also try to keep some points in her Reserve in any situation, just in case.

Ratings

5/5 RPG. It has the freeform nature of a roleplaying game to me.

4/5 Soup Stone. You'll need to make up some stuff, but I think it's also giving you plenty to work with.

3/5 Would I Play. See, this is hard for me because I already reworked the hacking minigame into the Runehack RPG. This game's unique selling point for now is that you get to play as a digital ghost in the city of Everling, but I don't know how much longer until I find a way to include those in the Runehack RPG.

3/5 Would I Write. I'm torn on this. If the question is, "Would I take the best aspects of this and include them in the Runehack RPG?", the answer is yes. If the question is "Would you update The Asterist?", the answer is no because the Runehack RPG is what I want to focus on a lot more.

15/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: D6 Feet Under (updated)

As promised, I'm working on updating the game. Not sure when it's going to be released, so consider this a tiny preview of what's ahead.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

D6 Feet Under (updated)

Felicity Long is a mortal born in the Badwell. There are three things she feels passionate about. One, amassing as much wealth as she can. Two... ehh, better not talk about two. And three, Saint Rue Brightguns. The woman who took everything from her. Her family, her reputation, and her wealth. Felicity is on her way to Saint Rue, but as an angel, she has a couple of underlings who will stand in her way.

Her two weapons of choice are a shovel and a revolver. The first feature Felicity will pick is Dodged the Bullet, which will allow her to regain 1 Luck if she rolls a 1 on all weapon dice and decides it's a miss. Her starting stats are Grit 3, Fit 5, Wit 4, and Merit 0.

Ratings

4/5 RPG. Done this way, it feels better than the original. There's 

4/5 Soup Stone. Hopefully, I'll have some guidelines for generating the towns and NPCs, but beyond that, there's just the right amount of mechanics for what the game is about.

4/5 Would I Play. Runehack RPG is a game I'd prefer to play, but I could see myself running this too if I had the energy and people for it.

5/5 Would I Write. I want to finish this and publish it on itch.io sometime this year.

17/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: D6 Feet Under

This one will hurt me, but only for a bit. Before I even knew about the Character March, I started working on this system's rework. It's still far from being finished. That being said, it's so radically different from its original version that I will do myself a favor and consider those two separate systems. That way, I'll have one less game to sort out for this monthly challenge.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

D6 Feet Under

Nate North is a good man, save for his gambling addiction. He's obsessed with Success, and gambling is an easy way to prove he can succeed. He wanders the world trying to find Pearl South, the one woman who defeated him in a game of chance every single time, got the local community to mock him, and can't stop bragging about it. His starting Luck is 2, and his weapons of choice are a revolver, a shotgun, and a knife. His stats are:

• Grit 5
• Fit 3
• Wit 2

Finally, his lucky item is a horseshoe that he got from his grandpa. This increases his Luck to 3.

Ratings

4/5 RPG. It doesn't feel like a board game to me, at least for the most part. Some aspects of it feel like it, but I think there's plenty of space for roleplaying.

2/5 Soup Stone. Some things you'll have to work out on your own, but you do get some inspiration for it.

0/5 Would I Play. It's too clunky, I'd rather not. I mean, the stats get better the lower they are, which goes counter to most game conventions. You're sometimes asked to roll up to 6d6 and keep the lowest result, which is unnecessarily punishing. It was a good foundation though, so...

5/5 Would I Write. I am literally doing that in between these articles.

11/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Lethal Companions

Time to get spooky with my final 200-word game made as part of the 2023 monthly challenge!

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Lethal Companions

Hide-behind is a deadly monster and certainly not a rip-off of the brackern. Its specialty is being subtle and killing fast. Its skin has a dark shade so that it can hide in the darkness easily, and it has a mixture of canine and feline features. Its stats are as follows:

• Hide d20
• Sway d4
• Kill d12
• Track d8
• Resist d10
• Steal d6

Ratings

3/5 RPG. It has the potential to be something.

3/5 Soup Stone. Plenty of space to develop it, but I think it feels less soup stone-y than most of my other games. I guess because it allows you to generate your facility and gives you the stats that serve as prompts for formulating how your creature works.

2/5 Would I Play. Maybe once or twice for fun, if I had the time and the energy.

2/5 Would I Write. It's based on a franchise I don't own, so I'm not sure if I'd want to. If I did, it would be something with a similar premise but without referencing the video game.

10/20 Total Rating