Raksha Tainted Revolutionary

Hey Everyone!

This is my first time burning a character, and I was looking for some feedback/advice.

The game setting is going to be a major city in a world like China Mieville’s Bas-Lag. It will be full of weird magic, unfamiliar races, the politics of industrialization, and opportunity for adventure. We’re still negotiating what “The Situation” will be, so we might twist beliefs around a little bit until we’re somewhat aligned on an agenda. I personally was pretty hooked by the Tainted Legacy trait, trying to portray a character who is ostracized for being different and who struggles with his own identity appeals to me. A lot of the traits looked too powerful or weird, but I thought the Dissent Parasite seemed like a neat way to give me and the character an interesting mechanic to reward making trouble for myself or others. Then I tried to think about how someone with human morality would reconcile with gaining power by causing conflict, and it became pretty clear to me the character should be some kind of political revolutionary. This dove-tailed very well with the City setting Student gaining the Rabble Rouser trait, and I was off to the races…

Mechanical details are below. A few questions:

  1. When this character goes back to the Peasant setting (he started in it but left to be a Servant), does he need to spend another year to get leads to go back, or is this already covered?

  2. Is it kosher to modify Ch traits a little? Like, in the book’s example character they turn “Extremely Respectful to My Betters” to “Extremely Respectful to My (Magical) Betters”. Is it okay to turn something like “Batshit” into “Batshit (Insane),” “Batshit (on Clothing)” or, as I have done, “Batshit (and Other Material Components)”. I thought it was in there as a nod to D&D’s old fireball component, and I wanted to roll with it.

  3. The Tainted Legacy says a character looks oddly different. Is this license for me to give my character something like Cat’s Eyes, Whiskers, or some other Rhaksa like feature without paying more Trait points? It seems like if you’re getting a +2 for “other race”, this trait comes free with something visible? (Or can I just describe my character with this odd feature without it being an additional Ch trait?)

  4. Do these beliefs meet the guidelines for a) a belief about why you have left your home/comfort, b) a belief about what you’re doing right now, and c) a long term goal?

Thanks! General advice is also quite welcome.

Born Peasant lead -> Bondsman (Court Sorcerer) lead -> Recluse Wizard lead -> Student (City)
Wil: B4 Per: B5 Pow: B2 For: B4 Agi: B3 Spd: B4
Hel: B4 MW : B9 Ref: B4 Stl: B4 Cir: B2 Res: B0
Years: 37
Resources:
Clothes
Shoes
Leaky Shack - little place crammed with political writings on the very edge of town
Ink/Quills
Parchment, Paper, Scrolls
Female Lover, Printer - CCE member, together they use her shop at night to make proaganda. The romance comes from the danger and idealism.
Membership 1D - Citizen’s Council for Equality AKA The CCE - A politcal organization dedicated to the political and economic equality of people.

Spells:
The Fear
Shards
Philsopher’s Perch
Wyrd Light

Skills:
Alchemy B2
Astrology B2
Enchanting B2
Etiquette B2
Falsehood B2
History B2
Illumination B2
Inconspicuous B2
Oratory B2
Persuasion B2
Philosophy B2
Read B2
Rhetoric B2
Rule of Law B2
Sorcery B5
Symbology B2
Streetwise B2
City-Wise B2
Write B2

Traits:
Rabble Rouser (Ct)
Batshit (& Other Spell Components) (Ct)
Lucky (C-O for anything, 1/adventure only)
Gifted (Dt can use Magic)
Tainted Legacy (Rhaksa) (Dt +2 Other Race Ob for Inconspicuous)
Dissent Parasite (Dt earn one Persona Artha for every conflict he instigates)

Instincts:
Always try to be Inconspicuous.
When in civilization, Assess (listen) for arguing, crying, or complaining.
When threatened, carefully and patiently unleash The Fear!

Beliefs:
I must channel my demonic (Rhaksa) hunger for conflict to virtuous ends.
The city council should be democratically elected.
We must all work to make a society in which all share equally in the fruits of their labor.

  1. It takes a year to take any lead, no matter what setting it’s to or from.

  2. It’s not strictly kosher, but that only matters if your table is really big on halakha. (Forgive me, for I have punned.) Especially for character traits, as long as you’re not weaseling out of negatives, it’s probably fine to go wild. You can also take traits that exist as what others expect from you rather than what you are. A law-abiding student constantly irked by being assumed to be a rabble-rouser has an artha mine of a trait.

  3. Yes. I pretty much expect some kind of notable feature for anyone with Tainted Legacy. Those are perfect ideas!

  4. Those are all good beliefs, but they could be better beliefs. How, specifically, are you channeling your hunger for conflict? What are you doing to make the city council be democratically elected? “Right now” beliefs shouldn’t just be a general aim behind what you’re doing, they should be the specific aim you’re looking to fulfill over the next session or so. “The city council should be democratically elected, so I will [expose X councilman’s corruption/print up and distribute republican pamphlets/establish an election commission with X leading citizen].” That’s the kind of specificity you want.

  1. Batshit implies batshit insane, the betters in “Extremely Respectful to My Betters” is up to the player to decide who they consider their betters to be. I play where the text itself is (at least when starting out) fairly immutable, but the execution is up to the player and the text can be amended during a trait vote to better match the at-table execution.
  1. Makes sense, thanks.

  2. @Wayfarer: Hahaha, halaka. Well done! @Cathexis: Interetsing. My first thought about “Batshit” was actually the brown wizard Radagast as portrayed in the recent Hobbit movies. Though, I guess that was birdshit in retrospect.

  3. Thanks. The feedback about making beliefs more immediate and specific is very helpful!