Character 6 - Against the Dark Yogi

 This is a unique little fantasy game from Tab Creations. I backed it on Kickstarter because while I'm not a fan of generic fantasy settings, I'm a big fan of unique fantasy settings and, in my experience, one set in a fantasy version of India ticks that box. I haven't actually played this one yet, it's got some funky poker cards instead of dice mechanics that I never sat down to learn, but no time like character creation to jump into a new rule system!

The Setting

I'm just going to quote the introduction from the corebook (only book?) here:

The world of Bhurloka is one of myth and legend, and at the center of it, the great subcontinent stretches from the burning Dhar Desert in the west to the sweltering Wenga Jungle in the east, from the snow-capped Wolaya Mountains in the north to the Endless Ocean of the south.

A thousand cities with myriad customs fill the subcontinent. Hundreds of city-states and small kingdoms parcel up civilization, with great swaths of untamed forests and mountains wedged in between. Wandering ascetics practice austerities on mountaintops, seeking spiritual enlightenment and supernatural powers. Rajas stand before their palaces speaking to their peoples. Archers, surpassing all others in skill, compete for great prizes and boons. Chariots roll and elephants march with armies to war. All the while, the devas look down upon the world from their celestial home, watching events and warding off attacks from their eternal rivals, the asuras.

But Bhurloka stands at the precipice of disaster. In the east, a sinister figure - the Dark Yogi - has risen to power. It is whispered that his forbidden sutra gives him the power to directly attack dharma, the very order of the universe. And this attack has many wide-ranging consequences. 

This attack on dharma hastens the coming of the Geli Yuga - the fourth and final age of the cosmic cycle. When the Geli Yuga comes, eighteen wicked kings will arise to power in Bhurloka, bringing about the birth of the demonic asura Geli, who will one day climb the heavens and cast down Lord Omdra and the rest of the devas who rule the Three Worlds. Geli will sit upon Mount Niru and continue his reign of terror for 10,000 years until the world comes to an end and is reborn again.

With dharma under attack, things are already beginning to be out of balance. The Dark Yogi has many would-be allies and disciples, opportunistic men who would use the imbalance of the world as a chance to advance their own ruthless interests without repercussion. They are many and the numerous city-stated of Bhurloka are divided.

Through all this, however, dharma does not sit idly by. As the balance of the world is under attack, dharma seeks to correct the balance. Towards this end it has reached out and selected but a few to champion its cause. These chosen of Dharma may be devout ascetics, peerless archers, cunning charioteers, fierce wildmen, charismatic rajas or any other number of things. However, they are all foremost heroes. They have been given enlightenment to see through their many incarnations, to what must be done to restore the balance of the world and defeat the Dark Yogi. 

Now is a time of legend.

Character Creation

Right, so that's some powerful stuff there, right? There's some crazy dark sorcerer guy in the east who's figured out how to attack the very order of the universe and hasten about its destruction and it's up to a few people (the heroes) to stop the very end of the universe. That's what I call "high stakes fantasy" right there. So, let's turn in our books to the character creation chapter to see how we make one of these heroes of legend!

Alright, so character creation is broken down into 5 steps:

1. Past Lives. Since every character is reincarnated repeatedly, their 5 most recent lives affect her current incarnations karma, development and the forces at work in her life.
2. Concept and Stats. What sort of character do you want to play? A charming Raja? A cunning charioteer? An ascetic yogi? Decide here and set your stats accordingly.
3. Caste. Yeah...I was afraid this would come up. It's a pseudo-Indian setting so there's a whole caste system involved in character creation. The book does note that epic heroes, such as the player characters, transcend the system but it's definitely there and it's definitely something they were born into.
4. Paths. Not exaaaaaaactly character classes, but your paths determine your starting equipment, training and abilities. So nearly character classes.
5. Finishing Touches. Figure out HP and encumbrance and stuff like that.

Okay, so it's a bit of a departure from the usual, but let's get started with it, shall we?

Step One - Past Lives

Ok, so you pick your five most recent incarnations, give a quick description of them and a couple of skills that they were good at that your current incarnation is now good at as a result and maybe some backstory the GM can tie the current story into. Sounds easy, there's even a table of roles you can pick from if you're having trouble coming up with something off the top of your head. 

Ok, so five incarnations ago I was a leatherworker in a small village in the north of Bhurloka. I lived a nice quiet life with my family and died old and in bed, surrounded by loved one. The two skills I carry over from this life are Crafts and Socialize so I get a point in each.

Four incarnations ago, I was a holy man. People came from miles around to study at my temple and learn the wisdom from my lips. I'll take Wisdom and Lore from this incarnation.

Three incarnations ago there was quite a change as I was the leader of a band of thugs, pillaging the countryside, terrorizing the villages and taking what I wanted by force. Life was short and came to a brutal end, but I took Thievery and Tactics with me to my next incarnations.

Two incarnations ago I was an artist. My surviving paintings still hang in the halls of several palaces and museums throughout the subcontinent. From this life I take Diplomacy and Perform.

My most recent incarnation was as a Tribesman. My family and I wandered what the city people call the wild lands between the city-states. Life was hard, but rewarding, and I lived it fully. Survival and Animals are the two skills I took from this life.

Step Two - Concept and Stats

I haven't made a magic user and we're nearly a week into this character creation challenge so let's go ahead and change that today. I'll be making a chakra mastering yogi who can channel his energies as the situation demands to help defeat the minions of the Dark Yogi he encounters.

And now to assign each array option to the eight stats on the character sheet. The stats are pretty obvious in what they do: Strength, Dexterity, Speed, Endurance, Intelligence, Perception, Charisma and Determination. Nothing terribly our of the ordinary there. And the array to assign is 8, 7, 7, 6, 6, 5, 4. The average human has a 4 in a stat so anyone with two 7s and an 8 is pretty special.

Right, so Endurance, Determination and Dexterity should be highest followed by Perception and Strength, then Charisma and Speed, with Intelligence coming in last. I figure a life of learning to channel your inner strength doesn't lend itself to too much studying, yanno? More introspection than uh...outrospection I guess.

Step Three - Caste

There are five castes in the game ranging from the Brahmins who are the religious leaders and scholars to the Kshatriya who are warriors and rulers to the Vashiya who are farmers and merchants to the Shudras who are servants and finally to the Dalit the untouchable outcastes. So yeah. There's a built in social hierarchy in the game that I'm personally not terribly fond of. But ok, I guess it's part of the setting. Sure. I'll say that my character came from the Shudra caste because they have the ability to (metaphorically) grab a clipboard and walk around unobserved by the other castes. They're not invisible, they just look like they're working, yanno? You can ignore that guy there. He's just a servant.

Step Four - Paths

The penultimate step in character creation! Pick your paths, these are roughly analogous to character classes and determine your starting equipment and abilities. Everybody gets to pick two from the list of Paths:

• Path of the Archer
• Path of the Ascetic
• Path of the Chakra Master
• Path of the Charioteer
• Path of the Performer
• Path of the Raja
• Path of the Spearman
• Path of the Trickster
• Path of the Wildman 
• Path of the Yogi

Ok, any game that lets you play as a Charioteer has gotta be pretty awesome but I didn't build up a melee combatant, even a mounted one. Fine. FINE GAME YOU WIN! I'll pick the Chakra Master and the Yogi as my two Paths.

Chakra Masters have learned to move their energies from one Prana to another and channeling these energies into and out of their bodies. More advanced Masters can even affect the chakras of their enemies! You start with a skill in medicine and either Athletics or Lore. Given that we've determined that my character isn't really into the book learnin' in this incarnation I'll go with Athletics. Starting Trait is either Channel Prana or Raise the Potential. So I guess this is where we talk about Prana.

So Intelligence, Perception, Charisma, Determination and Endurance all affect and limit the 5 Chakras: Crown, Brow, Throat, Heart and Low, repsectively. Each Chakra can hold an amount of Prana equal to its associated stat. So if you have an 8 Intelligence, you can have 8 Prana in your Crown Chakra. This is very important information to have as everything you do in combat requires the expenditure of a specific type of Prana. A basic attack, for instance, requires you to spend a point of Low Prana and is therefore limited by your Endurance score.

So the Channel Prana ability lets you move the Prana in your chakras around as you want and also gives you another point of Prana on top of that. Raise the Potential just gives you an extra "slot" in each Chakra that you can fill with Prana like any other. So, knowing that, I'll take Channel Prana as it seems like it would be more useful to a starting character and, yanno, fits the theme of the Path.

The Second Path I picked was Yogi (hey, boo-boo). Yogis are masters of meditation, the mind and willpower. They can learn to project their consciousness outside their body, ignore thirst and hunger and their environment, see into the past and other mystical abilities. But for starters, they get skills in Wisdom and either Investigate or Lore and get to pick between either Disciplined Austerities or Spiritual Guidance as their starting Traits. I'll pick up Investigate, first of all, and then look over the Traits. Disciplined Austerities lets you spend a good Karma point to add your Endurance score as a bonus to other Austerities checks and Spiritual Guidance lets you spend your Prana to get a massive bonus on an action. I will, naturally, be taking the latter. 

Step Five - Finishing Touches

With Paths out of the way, we're in the home stretch. All that's left is to record Karma (2 good, 1 bad), Enlightenment (2), Defense values and so on and so forth. Nothing super exciting here. Pick a name and get to fighting that Dark Yogi and his Minions!

I'm going to pick Paramani as the name of my Hero and you can find his character sheet here.