The Markus Project, pt. 1: Dungeons & Dragons 5e (2014)

(first published 25/08/2024 in its original form here.)

Welcome to the first proper post in my Markus Project, a blog series building the same character archetype in a bunch of TTRPG systems for educational and amusement purposes. Our first system is the classic 'everyman' system, Dungeons & Dragons 5e (2014 version). A behemoth in the industry, as seen on Critical Role and Dimension 20 (among hundred of others), and used as the base for Baldur's Gate 3. The big one.

To briefly summarize the project for those who might want a tl;dr of the opening post: I'm taking a common archetype I like to play and building him as a character in a bunch of TTRPGs, and in the process learning more about how each of these games works - and how their mechanics and flavour intertwine with their approach to 'character'.

Meet Markus, our archetype. Markus' key traits are:

• Gay or bi male
• An outsider with no desire to belong, except maybe to a tight crew or family
• Beefy and charismatic bruiser with a chip on his shoulder
• Expects the world to be hard and is determined to be harder
• Likes to talk himself into problems and fight his way out of them
• Not keen on making friends, but intensely protective of the ones who get past his guard
• Has a predilection for solving his problems up close, often with fists or melee weapons

In Dungeons & Dragons 5e, player characters are built for high-fantasy adventures within a party, usually made up of 4-5 player characters. Thanks to its success and ensuing ever-presence, the game has done its best to be as adaptable as possible: while the game is built on the assumptions of party-based exploration and adventuring, it's also been adapted to practically every genre and setting (to varying degrees of success). In my experience, D&D is a really effective framework giving a group of players for a world and its rules: you can tell a highly-structured fantasy story, or you can easily drop the characters into an open world and let them drive things entirely, living moment-to-moment embedded in that world.

A D&D 5e character's core components are their ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma), their skill proficiencies (a whole big list, and they're powered by the aforementioned ability scores) and a race & class system that gives the players any combat and magical abilities.

(One small note: I'm building this guy in D&D Beyond, where I've got a grab bag of expansion content available. So some features or backgrounds might not be available right out of the base Player's Handbook.)

Let's start off with name and race. While all of these characters will be named Markus, there's something fun in each of them having a surname, honorific, etc. to differentiate them. So, our D&D 5e Markus will be Markus Vulneras, his surname a tweak on the Latin word for wounds, to key into that chip on his shoulder. I might not always start off with a name, or change it up as I go, but it gives a fun beat to start from.

First up on the docket is race - that is, what species of fantasy creature we're working with: your humans, orcs, elves, dwarves, etc. There are plenty of options that could be good for him - some that align well with his archetype, and others that might play against type in an interesting way - but since this is our first character in this series, I'll go with one that feels very aligned with the archetype: half-orc. It keys into that chip on his shoulder and feeling of being an outsider, while not explicitly making him a monster race.

The half-orc's Menacing feature ties into Markus' charisma and intensity, and the Relentless Endurance and Savage Attacks features tie well into his status as a bruiser used to soaking up damage and still getting up at the end of a fight. While he is a bruiser, I'll swap out the default +2 Strength and +1 Constitution ability score bonuses you get by default from the half-orc race, instead taking a +2 Constitution and +1 Charisma: he's used to taking a beating and talking his way into trouble.

While it would be cleaner for the project to use Standard Array for his stats, I'll roll them manually since that way is more fun! I've rolled 10, 11, 11, 12, 13, 16 for the six ability scores. I'll start out by assigning the 16 to Strength, so that he is still quite strong even if I don't give it the additional racial bonus, and assign the 12 to Constitution and the 13 to Charisma - with the bonuses, bringing them both to 14. This isn't necessarily a great strategy for min-maxxing, but it allows him to be pretty well-balanced in his key attributes. His other three stats all have a +0 modifier, giving him no specific weakness. I'll give the 11s to Wisdom and Dexterity, as he's a character who'd want to grow his higher passive perception, insight and AC long-term, and the 10 to Intelligence, as that's a skill that might be less immediate in battle. Looking at these stats, I see Markus Vulneras as someone guarded, determined to not leave himself any vulnerabilities that someone might exploit, but also not someone with great ambition. Keep your head down and your back to the wall, and you might stay alive.

Pulling the mechanical and flavour considerations together to sum up where we stand going into the next step: Markus Vulneras is a fairly-balanced outsider who's focused on surviving the harsh world, has a chip on his shoulder and doesn't like getting close to people, with high Strength and decent Charisma and Constitution.

Next up would be class and subclass. Because of the quirks of D&D, starting ability scores have a huge impact on the viability on a character's build. Low Int/Wis/Dex make a lot of classes hard to work for him: Artificer, Cleric, Blood Hunter, Druid, Monk, Ranger, Rogue, and Wizard would all be tricky to pursue with these stats, though not impossible. Sorcerer and Warlock would be functional but not ideal, with their reliance on Charisma, though Warlock's Hexblade subclass would work alright with Strength as a primary stat. The best fits for his ability score array would be Fighter, Barbarian and Paladin.

But: this is a character-focused process, building Markus within this system, and so we are not going to let mechanics be the only thing guiding our decisions here. Looking at these classes from a character perspective gives us a sense of whether to consider building him sub-optimally, or to lean into his strengths. The below reasonings might feel reductive of the classes we're considering, but when digging into the flavor of a class, it's useful to have a baseline of how you see the class so that you can choose to play against type if you wish. So: We've established that this is a character who doesn't like having exploitable weaknesses; relying on another sentient being for power, like Clerics and Warlocks do, feels potentially out of step there. Based on the story his stats tell us, his character neither feels as calm to me as a Monk or Druid, nor out of control as a Barbarian, and doesn't feel like someone who would swear themself to an oath like a Paladin or a Blood Hunter might. The character also doesn't feel like an academic or intellectual, focused more on survival and brawling, so Artificer and Wizard are maybe not the right paths either.

This leaves us four subclasses that feel appropriate from a character perspective: Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Fighter.

If we want to balance character and mechanics, there's one class here that sits on both lists: Fighter. A bruiser able to take a hit, who keeps to himself and doesn't make friends easily, with enough Charisma to get himself into a bar brawl and enough Constitution to hopefully survive it. This feels appropriate for Markus Vulneras, especially if we pair it with the right Background.

Before we commit to Fighter, the other less-optimal classes also paint interesting pictures that a player might want to try. Rogue feels pretty appropriate for his character: an outsider, possibly enmeshed in an urban crime outfit, used to looking out for himself in a world of shifting and violent alliances. A Ranger who's more of an outlander and outsider who likes to pick fights with wandering mercenaries could be fun, though maybe too much of a hermit to service some of the fun of playing the outsider. And Sorcerer feels very appropriate: lineage-based magic that makes him an outsider in another respect, and depending on his subclass, might inject some chaos to contrast with his balanced stats.

Since we're looking at building level 1 characters, I'm going to pick Fighter - but with the distinct possibility of multiclassing into Sorcerer as we go, to pull in more of that unusual outsider 'weird in the blood' feel.

At level 1 Fighter, Markus gains the Second Wind feature, which will help keep him alive in a fight; two skill proficiencies, as well as a fighting style. For his skills, he can choose two skills from Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival. Since he's already secured Intimidation from being a half-orc, I pick Insight and Perception from here: he's someone who's always waiting for something to go wrong or for someone to betray him, so he'd have a keen eye even if his base wisdom isn't high. Again, not the optimized choice - something like Athletics would tie into his high Strength score, after all - but it aligns the character's skills a bit more with his character traits.

As for his fighting style, he can choose from a list of Archery, Blind Fighting, Defense, Dueling, Great Weapon Fighting, Interception, Protection, Superior Technique, Thrown Weapon Fighting, Two Weapon Fighting and Unarmed Fighting.

Going back to the Archetype, he 'has a predilection for solving his problems up close, often with fists or melee weapons', which rules out Archery and Thrown Weapon Fighting, and Great Weapon Fighting doesn't quite feel intimate enough either. Also, his loner instincts feel at odds with Protection or Interception, and his brawling nature doesn't strike me as right for a Duelist, with duels' elements of structure and rules.

The remainders are all interesting possibilities. Blind Fighting means that he can continue fighting even if he can't see, which feels appropriate for someone ready for the worst. With his light paranoia and tendency to pick fights, Defense's bump to his Armor Class would be attractive. Superior Technique, which would give him access to one Battle Master maneuver, could give him a skill that feels appropriate to a brawling bastard - disarming, tripping, goading, menacing. And Two Weapon Fighting and Unarmed Fighting both feel appropriate for a brawler who might want to use double shortswords, or be ready to fight even when caught without a weapon.

This feels like a spot where we want to stop and think through who Markus Vulneras is. We know he's a fighter, and the sense I'm getting from his build is that he's even-keeled, ready for trouble - and, going back to 'likes to talk himself into problems', enjoys a good brawl. We've tapped into the paranoia of this guy up until now, but now I think is where we hit the joy: this guy loves to fight, and loves to provoke someone into taking a swing. He's ready for trouble, but not risk-averse: he loves the fight, he just wants to know when it's coming, and from which direction. Even-keeled... but loves to brawl.

That's not just accurate to the archetype, but feels fun to play. That's a key part of all this, after all!

The two most attractive to me here are Superior Technique, to pick up something that might be good for fighting dirty, and Unarmed Fighting. Following my instinct of this as a guy who loves blood on his knuckles, I'm going to pick Unarmed Fighting. There is a chance, if Markus ends up going full brawler, that he picks up a bunch of dirty fighting techniques by going Battle Master at level 3... but we will have to see.

The last major character choice for this level one bruiser is Background, which comes with a few grace notes - often a couple proficiencies and a narrative feature. Given his character (a straightforward bruiser bastard outsider without much ambition), a lot of these don't feel right - Acolyte, Sage, Charlatan, Gladiator, etc. I'd say the most promising are Criminal, Gambler, Mercenary Veteran, Pirate, Urban Bounty Hunter, or Urchin, with a slim chance for Haunted One (though that loses some of his playfulness). Given that this character feels a lot more even-keeled than he might have in other builds, I'm going to toss out Gambler, Pirate, Urchin and Haunted One, and narrow it down to the ones that feel most appropriate for a brawl-loving but balanced career mercenary: Criminal, Mercenary Veteran and Urban Bounty Hunter. Going with my gut off these: Criminal Markus feels a more damaged and resentful version of him; Mercenary Vet Markus feels like he's seen it all and is more jaded; and Urban Bounty Hunter Markus feels more driven and playful, a hunter who loves when the mouse kicks up a fight.

While any of those feel like interesting directions to play, I'll go with Urban Bounty Hunter, as it injects a fairly stable character with some drive, and makes him more of an outsider in the criminal community while still being tangled up in it. This offers some fun tensions, if the campaign were to stick around his home turf.

This comes with new skill proficiencies, as I can pick two of: Deception, Stealth and Persuasion. While Deception feels like it could be really fun, Markus Vulneras is feeling really straight-forward: the type to convince someone who give up their sketchy tenant rather than manipulating the truth out of someone with a clever lie. So, I'm going to pick Stealth and Persuasion here.

He also gets two tool or instrument proficiencies, so I'll go with the Playing Card Set, as I imagine it'd be popular with the criminal set he rubs elbows with, and Thieves Tools, to help him get into where he needs to go while tracking his quarry. And finally, this background gives him the Ear to the Ground feature, which gives him an urban contact in any city that can give him the lowdown on the social world of his chosen quarry - so, the criminal world in any given city. Very useful.

And now, we get the Suggested Characteristics. While these aren't mandatory, they're an excellent starter for figuring out your character's nuances -- and perfect for what we're doing here. Following the game's recommendations, I'll be picking two Personality Traits, an Ideal, a Bond and a Flaw.

For the first Personality Trait, I'll go with I always have a plan for what to do when things go wrong. This feels right in the pocket for someone who's as attentive to danger as Markus, and feels like a good counterpoint for what I expect is a bit of an impulsive nature. Secondly, which aligns pretty perfectly with the archetype, we've got I am incredibly slow to trust. Those who seem the fairest often have the most to hide. This is someone who expects betrayal and selfishness from anyone, no matter their background; not exactly out of step with a bounty hunter who'd see jobs come in from every walk of life. I suspect he's easy to befriend, but just because you're buddies doesn't mean he trusts you.

For Ideal, there's a perfect fit for the archetype: People. I’m loyal to my friends, not to any ideals, and everyone else can take a trip down the Styx for all I care. This is someone who has a small circle he's deeply loyal to. The big question, as I see it: does he expect betrayal even from them, or are 'his people' the only ones he truly trusts? My gut leans toward the former being more interesting. He expects betrayal from his people but loves them unconditionally anyways... even as he never quite relaxes around them.

For his Bond, I'm making a surprising choice, at least to me: My ill-gotten gains go to support my family. I didn't see Markus as having a family through most of this process, but the conceit of him being deeply loyal to people he never feels safe to trust, and being a generally even-keeled loner who still loves getting into fights he's not sure he'll win... That makes the introduction of a family really intriguing to me. I'd say probably some siblings and a parent, perhaps belonging to the criminal underworld he lives at the margins of. Given his half-orc nature, is his family also half-orcish, or might they all be one or the other? I'm thinking a criminal human father he's always picking up the pieces after, a human half-brother he always feels a little jealous of, and a wild half-orc sister whom he adores, and because of that, gets away with fucking Markus over constantly. That gives him three interesting relationships that are all tense and messed up in different ways... plus a complicated family dynamic that can be a really rich source of drama, particularly if Markus is built for an urban, single-location campaign. Plus, if he's a bounty hunter who grew up among criminals, he's likely making a career of turning in people he's known his whole life: former friends, lifelong nemeses, and those associated with his problematic family.

While I only need to pick one Flaw, there are two here that feel really fun for Markus. Digging into his impulsive nature: If there’s a plan, I’ll forget it. If I don’t forget it, I’ll ignore it. It feels like a contrast to his chosen personality trait, but that's by design: He's used to working alone, and tossing his own plans aside if he sees an opportunity for something better. A dangerous trait in a party-based game like D&D, and a possible driver of intra-party conflict, but fun if managed well by the player. The other, An innocent person is in prison for a crime that I committed. I’m okay with that. feels really interesting for a bounty hunter coming from the criminal world. Is he a bit of a hypocrite, or is there something deeper going on there?

For Alignment, I'm going to go Chaotic Good: he feels like someone who is trying to do the right thing and pursuing it as messily as possible, and also to drive another wedge between him and his criminal family. For Faith, I'm going to leave him unaligned; he seems the type to toss a coin to every god he encounters, but think of them less as bastions of meaning and more as yet another powerful functionary he has to appease to stay alive. And I imagine he lives at a Modest lifestyle, prone to spending his spare coin digging his family out of trouble.

Interestingly enough, a bunch of character elements - age, gender, height, weight, backstory, organizations - are represented here but without any mechanics explicitly connected to them. I'll fill those in later on below, in a deeper profile.

And the very last consideration is Equipment, which is pretty straightforward. You can choose gold and hand-pick your equipment, but I'll use the default options. As a Fighter, Markus can choose between Chain Mail or Leather Armor & Longbow (I'll pick leather armour for urban stealth, though I can't imagine him getting much use from the longbow), a martial weapon and shield or two martial weapons (I'll go with two martial weapons here, a hand crossbow and a net, to give him a light ranged option and a way to restrain his quarry), a light crossbow or two handaxes (here I'll grab the handaxes, a melee option that he can use as ranged in a pinch) and a dungeoneer's pack or an explorer's pack (a nod to the game's assumption you'll be exploring dungeons and fighting dragons; I'll go with the dungeoneer's pack for the thematically appropriate crowbar). As an Urban Bounty Hunter, he can choose one of common/traveler's/fine clothes (I expect he'd use fine clothes for the occasional bout of upper-class research) and start with 20 gold pieces (0.5 of which I'll turn around and spend on common clothes, as his day-to-day wear).

And there we have it! The character sheet for our first Markus is built: a level 1 Half-Orc Fighter, a brawling bounty hunter with a deep connection to the criminal underworld.

THE CHARACTER

[the character sheet]

Born to a hardscrabble family of scrappy urban criminals, half-orc Markas Vulneras (late 20s to early 30s) has always felt like an outsider. Not just in the city, where his half-orc lineage gets him unfriendly looks, but within his own family, where his ambitions and desire for stability make him a bit of a joke. Not content to spend his days getting backstabbed over crooked pennies, he took his natural talents to the city watch... only to find that, as much as he didn't want to work for criminals, he equally didn't want to work for the corrupt lawkeepers who'd happily crack his father's skull open over a stolen copper. Especially ones who thought his criminal background made him a fun target for hazing and a magnet for all the worst assignments.

So, he took his skills and went independent: an urban bounty hunter who could slip easily between the criminal underworld where he grew up and the rest of the city, never quite settling into either. Bringing assholes to account while retaining his independence... and occasionally, taking other contracts from lawkeepers and criminals alike, on the downlow. Not just for some variety, but because he'd love to make enough money to walk away from the grimy shadows entirely; it's where he came from, but he'll be damned if he'll get stuck there like his hapless conman father Deckard Vulneras, become lieutenant to some lunkheaded narcissist smuggler like his human brother Hoyt, or always be in the process of three different dangerous hare-brained heist schemes like his younger half-orc sister Ruby. His mom got out, once upon a time; in the quietest parts of his heart, a little voice whispers that maybe if he gets out too, he might see her again, and that maybe she'd see him in a way nobody else ever has.

Not fucking likely, though.

Markus is good at his work, but not the best; he's prone to picking fights with the wrong people, and letting go any bounty whom he thinks is getting an unfair rap. Besides, he's still in an apartment in the slums, because every time he gets a little nest egg together, he suddenly has to spend it paying off his father's bookies to save his remaining leg from getting shattered with a mace, or breaking Ruby and her weirdo sorcerer friends out of jail again. And when that doesn't happen, he gambles it away or loses it in a fistfight he picked when he was too wasted to make good choices. If he spent more time thinking about himself, he might think he was self-sabotaging, that surviving in a shithole he knows is less scary than actually chasing what he wants into new locales... but he's very good at drinking and punching his way out of a pensive moment, so that thought's not going to sink in for a while. If ever.

Markus Vulneras is probably ideal for a morally-grey campaign anchored around a city but with excursions outside of it, where he can work with an adventuring party while still dealing with the chaos of his background. His NPCs are also vectors for conflict and story - has his father pissed off the wrong goons? is his brother going to pressure him into smuggling something dangerous? has Ruby stolen something bizarre and magical and way above her pay grade? - that could also interact interestingly with an adventuring party. His work, too, could be useful in city D&D work around hunting down suspects, and his network of criminal and law-keeping contacts could help with urban investigation arcs.

THE SYSTEM

This is a spot for me to discuss what this process has taught me about the system of the game, including the assumptions it makes that shape the character, and the opportunities for building out the character inherent in the process. I'll also eventually use this space to draw contrast between this system and previously covered ones, but as this is our starting point, that we can save for a follow-up.

The first one of these was always going to be the hardest, without any other systems to necessarily contrast against. So, as a starting point, I'll take a look at how we were able to honor - or not - the points from our archetype:

Gay or bi male: This element of the archetype is technically supported in D&D 5e, in that there is nothing that specifically interacts with romance or sexuality in the mechanics. This is in contrast to a game like Monsterhearts, which I'm hoping we will get to, where sexuality and romance are entangled with the mechanics of the game. That said, while there's nothing in the game's mechanics that utilize this element of the character, the game can offer lots of room to explore it, hence why so many actual plays have strong shipping contingents among their fandoms.

An outsider with no desire to belong, except maybe to a tight crew or family: There are definitely choices available in the character options that make room to embody this element: the urban bounty hunter caught between crime and the law, the half-orc caught between two sides of his lineage, etc. The party structure of D&D 5e also gives this element a level of stakes, as he will not totally embed in the party until the moment he totally embeds in the party, promising some level of evolution in him as the game progresses. D&D doesn't really have mechanical features about inter-character relationships, so there many be games that tie into this element more specifically.

Beefy and charismatic bruiser with a chip on his shoulder: This one was very well supported in the system, from strength and charisma being represented as key ability scores, to the opportunity to give him the unarmed fighting style and skill proficiencies related to his charisma. That said, the ties between D&D's classes and ability scores make for a world where you may have to make suboptimal choices mechanically to build a character who doesn't align with the expected mechanical choices - such as, with Markus, putting Charisma in a prime position for little mechanical benefit (beyond social checks).

Expects the world to be hard and is determined to be harder: Some of the half-orc mechanics tie nicely into this, such as him being able to push through a potentially fatal wound once a day, and being able to pump ability score points into Constitution to increase his health and toughness. A system where this trait of the archetype might tie into a mechanic - such as his AC or damage output changing when he's outnumbered, a mechanic that triggers when he's been betrayed, etc. - could key into this aspect a little more. D&D does have some of those mechanics in the Ranger class, triggering when facing a giant foe or multiple foes, etc. so there's some content here that allows for character to be embodied in combat mechanics, but they're not as common as they could be.

Likes to talk himself into problems and fight his way out of them: The system definitely allows for this with the application of the persuasion and deception skills, as well as the freedom for any NPC interaction to turn into combat. Talking your way into a problem and having to fight your way out of the consequences is a pretty classic D&D situation, after all. Another game might allow for this to be a mechanical feature of the character, with context around a scene allowing this trait to temporarily alter stats or otherwise alter its outcome.

Not keen on making friends, but intensely protective of the ones who get past his guard: Long-term, there are definitely elements that could assist with this: picking up the Protection fighting style or the Sentinel feat, for example, would tie into the character becoming more protective of his party as time goes on. A game with more robust mechanics for inter-character dynamics might key into this more, particularly if there are mechanics based around intimacy or trust.

Has a predilection for solving his problems up close, often with fists or melee weapons: The game's deep combat system allows for unarmed fighting (even if it's not super viable outside of the monk class) and close-up melee weapons like daggers and short swords. With feats like tavern brawler and mobile, and maybe a creative reading of the crusher feat, Markus might even be able to do some fun things build-wise.

I'd say Dungeons & Dragons 5e was very capable of giving me room to build a character in my chosen archetype that's fun, viable (at least in the early game), and able to capture the fantasy I want to explore. The system's combat system offers the most support, though its skill system does give room for a character to be good at specific social or non-combat skills as well. There aren't too many features for relationship-based or context-based features, which some other games may have, which might have deepened my ability to dig into the archetype here.

THE EXPERIENCE

This is where I can talk about how the character creation process feels -- was it fun, did it get me excited about the possibilities or frustrated at the limitations, did it get me daydreaming about playing the TTRPG or dreading it, etc. A totally subjective bit, but possibly for some folks, the most important part.

I've built a lot of characters in D&D 5e at this point - in fact, with my predilection for building character sheets for important NPCs as a dungeon master, maybe too many. So this process is one I'm already really comfortable with and used to, and combined with the tools at D&D Beyond, it can take me 5-15min to build a character that largely accomplishes my goals. There's also a lot of support for D&D 5e: in expansion content and homebrew, in player and DM tools online, and plenty of thinkpieces and advice and opinions out there for how you might build a character a certain way.

In terms of excitement and character possibility... I'd say D&D doesn't get in my way, which some games do, but it also doesn't robustly certain things in the way more context-specific features, or relationship-based features, might. The system gives enough touchpoints to character to feel like I'm building them with a personality in mind, but a lot of character work ends up boiling down to skill proficiencies and playstyle rather than living in the mechanics. I've seen games where characterization lives in the features, such as Monsterhearts' relationship-based mechanics or elements of some TTRPGs' character playbooks where elements are triggered based on specific scene contexts, which would definitely deepen the specificity of how the character build allows me to embody the character.

Hell, D&D 5e does some context-dependent mechanics scattered throughout, such as the Ranger's Hunter's Prey feature, or the game's backgrounds, which often have a narrative feature that helps the player gather information, find the party a place to sleep for the night, etc. But generally, D&D's features prefer the player to adjust based on the context, rather than the mechanics. After all, Persuasion proficiency looks the same on just about any character of the same level, whether they're a slick con artist or an earnest cleric; it's on the player to delineate and embody the differences in their choices and play. I;m sure this works great for most folks, but I'm not sure I'd give that an A+ on the mechanics supporting deep character and social play, even as I've seen the simplicity of this structure really allow players to embrace moment-to-moment immersion.

There is also the element of class determinism by ability scores. For example, if you want to play a highly intelligent character, you're much better off selecting a wizard or artificer than a ranger or monk, because Intelligence empowers those classes' abilities. Conversely, if you want to play a foolish Cleric or Druid, you must either tank your magical abilities with low Wisdom, or find a way to roleplay a character who has high Wisdom on paper but low wisdom in practice. There can be some really interesting approaches to character found in these gaps, but there is definitely an element of having to choose between character traits and the mechanics powered by Ability Scores, if you have a character in mind that doesn't quite fit into the fold.

WHAT COMES NEXT

There's a second Markus on the way, as I'm probably 80% of the way through our next excursion: a Blades in the Dark Markus, ready for dark crimes in the murky city of Duskvol. After that, I'll have to decide which system to tackle next - Vampire the Masquerade? Monsterhearts? Vaesen? Good Society? Or any other of a fairly infinite pool of TTRPGs out there.

Also, feel free to let me know what you think, of both this post in particular and the series in general. Are there some bits you liked or connected with more than others? Is there some element of the process you'd like to hear more (or less) about? Did I make a wild assertion here about mechanics or character building that you take umbrage with? Let's talk! I am extremely willing to be wrong, especially since at the heart of this, it's intended to be a bit of fun and research. Feel free to comment here or engage me on Bluesky!

Until the next time we descend into the Markusverse, friends...