Making a Frontier Scum character
Alright, let's make a cowboy.
Frontier Scum by long-time MÖRK BORG luminary Karl Druid is a rules-lite Acid Western roleplaying game. It's published by Games Omnivorous and is basically MÖRK BORG, but Western and a little bit goofier. At least that's my idea of it. I've actually played this once, back in -22 at Gen Con so I'm kind of an expert.
Making a character
Frontier Scum—like MÖRK BORG—relies heavily on random tables when creating characters, which helps you generate weirdos that you probably wouldn't have consciously made. I really like this, although it requires that the tables are good. Let's see if they are.
Page 13 of the rule book have a checklist for creating PCs, with 11 steps:
- Roll for abilities
- Calculate max HP
- Roll for a trait
- Roll on the Wanted table
- Roll (or choose!) background
- Roll for a bonus skill and item
- Note your water and silver
- Roll for a stolen horse
- Roll for a gun
- Describe your hat
- Get a name
1. Abilities
Frontier Scum has four abilities: Grit (cowboy Strength/Constitution), Slick (cowboy Dexterity), Wits (cowboy Intelligence/Wisdom) and Luck (cowboy Luck). It uses the Death in Space method of generating -3 to +3 abilities, namely rolling a d4 and subtracting the result with another d4. I love this method. It's elegant, clever and maybe balanced? My only issue with it is that I have to use d4s and no one should ever have to endure that. But I roll and my PC gets the following: Grit +1, Slick -1, Wits +2, Luck +2. Pretty damn good stats! I usually get all negatives when making MB-like characters, but this guy is both in pretty decent shape (although a little clumsy maybe) and has a decent brain. I see no problems whatsoever in this person's future.
2. Maximum HP
d6 + Grit, minimum 1. A whopping 6 HP. A proper tank, this one.
3. Traits
Next up it tells me to "roll on the Traits table to see what kind of outlaw scum you are." This table is fun. It's two d66 tables that forms a sentence describing the PC as follows: "You are outlaw scum with [result table 1] and [result table 2]" which gives it a pretty good ring. Let's roll. 53 and 15: "You are outlaw scum with delicate sensibilities and a bone-white smile". Alright, so this is clearly no brawler; we're oily, false and scheming, I think. Let's find out why we're on the run from the law.
4. Wanted
Two tables. One to see the level of punishment we're facing, and another (divided into two similar to the traits tables), determining the specifics of our crime. I roll a d4 and get 2 which means we're wanted Dead or Alive. The crime tables are two d12s, prefix and suffix describing, or in most cases, inventing a crime. We get 6 and 12. "Wanted dead or alive for the crime of horse murder". Makes me wonder if this means I murdered a horse (is that the word you'd use in that case?) or if I murdered someone, somehow using a horse. With my delicate and smiling con-man in mind, I envision him staging a horrible accident involving moving a horse with a makeshift crane which is set to break and drop the animal to crush some poor bastard. Horse murder.
5. Background
Then follows a spread with backgrounds and the skills and items that come with it. I roll a d12 and two d6 and get 2, 2 and 4 which means the following: I was a Frostbit Prospector, and I have to come up with a suitable skill that i learned while they stole my nuggets. I also begin with some loot from the silver mines: d4 sticks of dynamite (4!). As for the skill, I'm thinking stage accidents. My companions stole my precious few silver nuggets, I plotted my revenge and tampered with their dynamite the next time they're deep in the mine. That's also when I learned that the best way to get away with murder is to fake an accident, whether it involves dynamites or horses. I didn't exactly get away with the horse murder, though, but the murder was a success regardless. Or maybe the horse accident/murder was my revenge for the nugget theft. I was going to do the dynamite thing, but then the horse moving opportunity came and I decided to instead save the four sticks of dynamite for later. You never know when it might come in handy.
Edit: I was just told that you should roll twice for background skills and items. So I picked up the d6s and got me a 6 and a 3: A skill I picked up while the mine flooded with water, and fuse, 41ft (really d100 feet). The fuse makes loads of sense given the dynamite I stole, and I guess the flooding event forced me to learn swimming real quick.
6. Bonus skill and item
Like with the backgrounds skill, I roll to see a situation that I was in, and then it's my job as a player to come up with a suitable skill that I learned from it. There are some examples in the d66 table of situations, which will help. I roll a 32, so it's a skill I picked up when I had to leave town unseen (probably because they found out about the horse murder and also the broken horse crane). The examples are "Hide in crowds, climb drainpipes, disguise self" and I think I will go with Hide in crowds. I'll try to stick to the cities as best I can, I think. As for items, I begin with a day's worth of water and d10 silver for each ability under +0, which is one, and I roll a motherfucking 1. One silver coin. It will go a long way. For the d66 table ot bonus items I get 31: d20 matches (to go with my dynamite sticks). The d20 gives me 15 matches.
7. Note water and silver
I did that. Ok moving on.
8. Saddle up!
Now we're talking. It's time to roll up our stolen horse. There are a bunch of tables randomizing type of horse, what it likes, what it looks like and what it's name is. I grab a fistful of dice and get the following beast: A brown donkey by the name Mauling Fury that likes to sniff gunpowder. Unhinged shit. It's why I love this game. Of course, when escaping the horse murder incident, I took one of the mine's donkeys, had it sniff some gunpowder (or maybe some dynamite) to give it an extra boost, and when it surprisingly worked, I named this ferocious beast "Mauling Fury". Gunpowder snorting is like drugs for donkeys. Everyone knows that.
9. Gun
I also get a gun, and a slot's worth of ammo. It's a pretty straight-forward d66 table and a roll of 34 means we begin with a revolver that shoots for d6 damage (exploding, so I add another d6 on a result of 6).
10. My hat
You can sacrifice your hat to tank the damage of an incoming attack. They shot your hat instead. After the fight, you test Luck to see if you can find the hat in one piece again. But I will say this. One of the biggest crimes that Karl Druid has committed is to not include a hat table in Frontier Scum. I can't believe he wants me to just come up with one. Well, this guy absolutely rocks a top hat, perhaps even with a little flower or something it it.
11. Name
Three d66 tables give me a first name, a last name, and a nickname. Looks like this guy's name is Leopack Song a.k.a "Afterclaps". I don't know why I got that nickname or what the story is. I think we'll just have to figure that out as we play.
What I like about these kinds of randomized character generation systems is that you get prompts (god I hate that word now, thanks AI) and ideas for your character's personality or backstory that you would never have gotten otherwise. Like the whole horse hoistering staged accident murder thing. That will, for sure, become a recurring event in the game if Leopack "Afterclaps" Song was to ever be actually used. Fun times.