Kinglsayers: Character Archetypes

This was a fun little exercise, I have to say. Kinslayers' character creation process was meant to take the same flexible approach as the rest of the game: I suggest options for how to succeed, and the audience votes and/or suggests alternatives. In this case, I started with the 4 "roles" the 4 party members would be serving in, and then supplied a set of options for the forms that role could take.

The fun bit was that these roles- muscle, guide, investigator and negotiator- were decided on based on the needs of this particular plot, rather than the gameplay system or the genre. It gave me a chance to approach things from a different direction than having a tank, healer, artillery, and so on; an interesting first step in coming up with the characters for the game.

Muscle: While most of the party will presumably be decent in a fight, this will be the real go-to character when things get violent.

A: Killing Machine. Forget codes, forget honor. . .it'd be a stretch to even call this character a warrior. They've always been a prodigy at using violence to end the lives of others, simple as that.
B: Martial Artist. The character's dedication to mastering the arts of physical combat is almost an end in and of itself. They might be a monk, or just a disciplined swordsman with a spiritual side.
C: Tactician. This character's excellent situational awareness and decision-making skills have helped them lead many an outmatched group to victory.
D: Veteran Soldier. The character has held a variety of military occupations in his time. Surviving that kind of life requires a wide variety of skills that range far beyond just marching in proper formation and knowing how to hold a blade.

Investigator: Remember when I said the premise would be something like Sherlock Holmes pursuing Dracula? This fellow will be our closest thing to Sherlock Holmes.

A: Gumshoe. Classic Noir private detective. Will probably play the part to a shameless degree- trenchcoat, fedora, cigarette, the works.
B: Medium. A spiritualist with a limited array of inborn abilities, including the ability to "read" the memories of objects and perceive activity on the ethereal plane.
C: Profiler. An expert at reading people and predicting their behavior.
D: Scientist. Specializing in the realm of forensics, a realm of science that's achieved a moderate level of advancement in part thanks to divination magic; will probably be something of an artificer.

Negotiator: The party face, an expert at handling social obstacles.

A: Ambassador. The character's a veteran political mover and shaker, an expert at negotiating bureaucracies who always has a few strings he can pull.
B: Psychic. As telepaths go, his raw power is less than average, but his skill in wielding it makes him excellent at subtly manipulating people's minds.
C: Underworld Agent. An expert in working with those on the wrong side of the law, and perhaps in using various less-than-legal tactics himself.
D: Spy. An honest-to-goodness espionage operative, skilled in tradecraft and the art of deception.

Guide: The party will be visiting plenty of strange and exotic locales over the course of our story. They'll need someone to lead the way.

A: Adventurer. One of those crazy folks who makes a career out of going into very dangerous places and coming back with lots of loot.
B: Cosmopolitan. A well-traveled soul with plenty of experience when it comes to dealing with foreign cultures.
C: Tracker. An expert huntsman, whether his prey's an escaped fugitive or a dire wolf.
D: Savage. Born and raised by an "uncivilized" people, completely at home in the wild.

Tune in next time to see the characters /tg/ settled on!