Character Creation

The first thing that needs to be done to play a game of Four Colors al Fresco is the creation of characters. Everyone in the group should create a character. It is important that these characters be able to work together, at least some of the time. So they should not have any inherent incompatibilities (one can only breathe under water, while another can't breathe under water) nor any unresolvable differences (a fanatical Catholic witch-hunter and a Church-hating witch).

It is assumed that the characters are heroes, rather than villains. Not all heroes need be a shining example of truth and purity, however. Heroes with a shadowy past are perfectly in-genre, as are heroes with a strong moral code that is somewhat at odds with the dominant religion or law. Vigilantes are acceptable¹⁰, but they push the edge of the envelope, and care should be taken not to let the game slip into the grays of moral ambiguity. While the details are up for debate, on a broad scale this is a world of absolute morality, where the good are Good and the evil are Evil, and only very rarely can someone find a place between those two extremes. Heroes do not kill or allow innocents to die -- not even for the "greater good".

Ideally, the characters should share some sort of unifying group or experience (a team that serves the Cardinal; they all have been repeatedly bested by the Seven Deadly Sins). This group is what will form the basis of the Main Title¹¹ for the game. Not all of the Issues will take place within this Title, nor will they all include all of the characters, but you will generally want to include most of the characters (generally, all but 1) in most of the Issues, and this provides an excellent way to explain their companionship. Other methods can of course bring the characters together -- friendship, common threat, or coincidence -- and the nature of the pulp universe is such that such contrivances need not impinge upon suspension of disbelief¹².

After tossing around some ideas, Kim, Caitlin, Tanya, and Darrell decide that they really like the idea of including Leonardo da Vinci in their game somehow, and come up with the idea of a group of heroes created and employed by him. They name this group the Daring Davincis, and figure that will double as their Title, unless they come up with something better. Each of the heroes will have a special suit constructed by da Vinci. Kim wants a character who can fly, Darrell really likes the idea of someone who can take and deal out a lot of punishment, and the other two aren't decided yet.

Omega

The common quality that all Omegas have is their fundamentally unbalanced nature. Most people are balanced in their interactions with the world -- the Forces of the world all affect them equally. What makes Omegas special is that something has happened to upset this balance. The Forces of the world no longer affect them in equal measure. They may have greater affinity for the ruling actions of some forces, and they defy the normal laws of at least one of the Forces. In the process, they gain what the rest of the world see as superpowers.

The first step in creating your character is to come up with a superhero concept. This should revolve around a power, or, very rarely, Powers. Once you have the Omega's Power in mind, you should figure out which Force this Power violates, and thus which Planet she has Wed. It is also very important at this point to come up with the Omega's name. Once you have a name and Power, and a good idea of which Force the Power violates, you are ready to begin determining the character's game representation.

After more discussion, they all agree that insect-themed names and powers fit da Vinci and his interest in the natural world very well. Kim's character becomes Dragonfly, Caitlin's becomes Pillbug, and Darrell and Tanya settle on Firefly and Spider. Dragonfly's power is flight, Pillbug has an armored exoskeleton, Firefly can generate light, and Spider has giant mechanical spider legs.

They want the powers to be special to the characters, though, so they come up with the idea that da Vinci has "serum-bonded" each of them to their apparatus, enhancing them with modified versions of the super-soldier serum that created Captain Italia, which just enhance those capabilities that are necessary to operate and use the apparati. Also, Darrell decides that rather than an apparatus being the basis of Firefly's powers, her light generation should come directly from da Vinci's alchemy. Just for the fun of it, they decide that, because all of them get their powers from da Vinci's knowledge of applied science, they will all have Mercury (The Known) Omegaed.

The Planets

The first mechanical step is assigning the Planets. One of the Planet's ratings you will have already decided. For the Planet of the Force that the Omega's Power stems from, you assign an W. Because that Force does not govern the character normally, she is "out of the sight of" that Planet, and the degree to which it governs her can not be represented numerically like the other Forces.

Next, you should consider the Omega's nature in other ways, and assign the rest of the Planet ratings. For each Planet, you will assign a die type, normally from d4¹³ to d20. This is the die that you will roll for that Planet when using the dice to resolve actions. A smaller die type means that that Force governs the character's actions more strongly. However, all that really matters is the relative sizes of the dice for a character, not their absolute size. When attempting an action, all of the Planets will be rolled, and the results ordered from least to greatest, so the larger the die, the less likely it will be near the top of the Hierarchy.¹⁴ However, the smaller the die size, the less variable the results

Someone with d20 Dynamic, d10 Static, d10 Passion, and d10 Known would find Static besting Dynamic roughly as often as someone with d12 Dynamic, d6 Static, d6 Passion, and d6 Known. However, the person with the d6 Planet scores would find them tying much more often than the person with three d10s.

Also, some other aspects of character creation and action resolution favor, slightly, smaller dice. So, within your character concept, it is generally better to take the smaller dice types, if there is no particular reason not to.

Remember that these Planet scores reflect how luck and chance around the character deviate from random chance. They describe how reality is warped in relation to the character, and are thus not descriptive of the character herself. In short, they are external, not internal. During character creation, they will decide how many Traits you get and, to some degree, of what types, but once the character is in play they have essentially no effect on play except when the Descriptors do not apply. But even this limited influence (during character creation) is only over the number of Traits, not their nature. So, for example, someone could have a very large Mars (Dynamic) die, and thus only have 1 positive Dynamic Trait, but that Trait could in some way describe the character as being extremely dynamic -- Lightning Reflexes, perhaps.

Darrell is also fairly certain as to what Planet scores to give Firefly. The most prominent forces in her life should have been The Lost (Saturn) and Passion (Venus), as those would explain why she was chosen by da Vinci for the particular powers he gave her. He figures Dynamic (Mars) is also significant, and Static (Jupiter) isn't. He ends up with d6 Venus, d8 Mars, d12 Jupiter, and d6 Saturn.

Kim decides to work from a different point of view, thinking in terms of the Traits that will be garnered. He knows he's going to need lots of dynamic Traits to realize Dragonfly, so he assigns a d6 to Mars. Similarly, he assigns d12s to Jupiter and Saturn, because he thinks Dragonfly should have weaknesses that relate to Static and Lost. Finally, he chooses a d10 for Venus (Passion) because he doesn't want many Traits of that sort, and doesn't want to saddle him with any flaws of that sort.

Tanya, finally, has a much less well-developed vision for Spider at this point. She knows that he's going to have serious social problems, and decides to characterize these with Passion Flaw Traits. But she doesn't know whether Passion is a significant force in his life. Other than that, she's undecided -- the Planet scores aren't a major part of her concept. She wants to define Spider primarily by his Descriptors, and doesn't care how fate treats him. So, other than her Omegaed Mercury, she leaves all of her Planets blank. Once she has decided on her Traits, she will pick Planet scores that match the numbers of Traits she ends up with.

Power and Weakness

Once you have assigned the dice to your Planets, the next step is to detail your Power, Weakness, and Quirk. The character has one Power, one Weakness, and one Quirk for each Wed Planet (normally only one). All three of these must tie directly into the nature of the Force in question. Powers, Weaknesses, and Quirks fall outside the normal bounds of reality. They should be somehow exceptional, either in nature or degree, which is why they are not normal Traits. The Power is, as the name implies, an advantage to the character. Many Weaknesses tie in to the Omega's Power in some way, limiting it, negating it under some circumstances, or defining a counter to the Power. But this is not necessary, and many viable Weaknesses are merely related to the Omega's Power, while some have nothing to do with it. The Quirk is a supernatural Descriptor of the Omega that is, on the whole, neither advantageous nor disadvantageous.

Time to decide exactly what the Powers are. Here, it's Tanya who leads the way. She comes up with "Serum-bonded to da Vinci's Spider Apparatus" for her Power, and everyone likes it so much they follow suit. so Dragonfly's is "Serum-bonded to da Vinci's Flight Apparatus", Pillbug's is "Serum-bonded to da Vinci's Pillbug Apparatus" and Firefly's is "Serum-derived Psychic Light Manipulation". Their Weaknesses are a little trickier. Tanya decides that Spider's apparatus has mechanisms that are particularly susceptible to water, so his Weakness is "Shrivels when wetted". For a Quirk, she decides that as a side-effect of the serum, Spider now has insect-like compound eyes under his lids. This is intended to have no real positive effect, but is likewise subtle enough that it should rarely have a negative effect, either.

Darrell, meanwhile, is thinking very differently for Firefly. Since she doesn't have an apparatus to be vulnerable, he figures that he'd like the sort of weakness that limits her power's effects, rather than preventing them completely. He decides that, since her power is an extension of her natural psychic abilities and is in large part about affecting others' feelings¹⁵ she is unable to affect those whose Venus is Omegaed. This is a bit of an unusual Weakness, but the rest of the group likes it, and thinks it's fair, so they accept it. For a Quirk, Firefly is Constantly Glowing, at least slightly -- she is unable to completely stop generating light, just as normal people are unable to completely stop thinking. At first glance, this looks too negative (making her constantly obvious), but they decide that the fact she doesn't have to concentrate to generate light partially offsets this, and since the Daring Davincis are full-time heroes, well known to the public and without secret lives, being unable to easily hide her power isn't such a big drawback after all.

Kim doesn't have any better ideas, so he copies Tanya in saying that Dragonfly's apparatus has a particular vulnerability, in this case Electricity Prevents Flight. For a Quirk, however, he thinks it would be interesting if Dragonfly is so used to flying that he always does it: Never Touches the Ground. They all agree that this is a really cool Quirk, which might lean a bit to the positive side, but can certainly have drawbacks, socially at least.

Caitlin thinks a cool Quirk for Pillbug would be Fastidiously Clean. Everyone agrees that the downside of taking the time to clean up, and possibly avoiding dirtiness in the first place, is a good balance for sometimes avoiding dangers inadvertently, but Darrell objects because this isn't supernatural at all, and doesn't even have anything obvious to do with Pillbug's Power. So Tanya suggests that if his Weakness is related -- bridging the gap between the Power and Quirk, as it were -- it would make more sense, and Darrell is satisfied with this. Caitlin starts thinking about his Weakness, and decides that the chitin-like substance that Pillbug's armor is made out of is very porous, and provides no protection from liquids. Thus, it would make sense for Pillbug to be slightly paranoid about getting dirty, since he could have had bad experiences in the past with stuff oozing through his armor. Everyone is satisfied.

Traits

Once the Planets are assigned and the Descriptors stemming from the Wed Planet are detailed, the next step is to determine the rest of the character's Descriptors, called Traits. For every non-Wed Planet, the character will get a number of Traits as determined from the Descriptors Chart on this page. Traits may be anything the player desires, but they should all relate to the Planet that they are derived from. It is up to the SG to determine if a Trait is appropriate for the Planet in question, and if it is too powerful or too limited.

Not all Traits are created equal. In particular, there are two special kinds of Traits; Flaws and Power Stunts. A Power Stunt is a special use of a Power that governs something that is neither clearly outside of nor clearly within the purview of the Power. By devoting a Trait to it, the player assures that her character can use the Power in that way. A Flaw is a Trait that is a hindrance to the character in some way. Except as the Descriptor Chart dictates, as many or as few of your Traits may be Flaws or Power Stunts as you wish. With some die sizes, you are required to have one or more of your Traits be Flaws.

When recording Traits on your character sheet, do not make any indication of the Planet they were derived from. The Planet is only a tool for character creation, and has no bearing on the Trait in play.

Caitlin has known right from the start that Pillbug is a former wrestling champion, and is very flamboyant and likes to be the center of attention. He wrestled as much to entertain and get attention as to win or improve himself -- sort of a preindustrial professional wrestler. Looking at the Descriptor Chart, she sees that his d10 Venus grants her 2 Passion Traits of any kind. Similarly, she needs to come up with 3 Dynamic Traits and 4 Static Traits. His d20 Saturn also means 3 Traits, but at least two of them must be Flaw Traits. Right away, Caitlin knows two of his Traits, though she's not certain which Planet to assign them to: Champion Wrestler and Elaborate Combat Maneuvers. Tentatively, she thinks they might both be Dynamic, though she can see Champion Wrestler as being equally appropriate for Dynamic or Static. For now, she leaves it undecided and goes on to figure out the rest of his Traits. She decides that she wants a bit more control over defining the specifics of his Power -- right now, all that's definite is that it's a "pillbug apparatus" and that he's "serum-bonded" to it. She decides she can leave the latter part alone for now, but she thinks the apparatus itself needs to be better defined. As it stands, it's ambiguous just what it's like, so the Storyguide might rule against her being able to do things that she thought were a given. To start with, it couldn't very well be a pillbug apparatus without a shell that can roll into a ball. But she wants to be able to do better than just lie there -- Pillbug's not only a superhero, but an attention-lover, so a purely defensive maneuver just isn't acceptable. She comes up with a Dynamic Trait: Human Bowling Ball, a Power Stunt. Pillbug can not only roll his armor up into an impenetrable shell, but he can bowl people over and bash into things like that. She wants Pillbug to be stronger, too, just as insects are phenomenally strong compared to their scale. So she further defines the powers of the apparatus with a Static Power Stunt: Exoskeleton Armor. Now we know that the apparatus boosts his strength, as well as protecting him. She's satisfied with the vision of his Power that these provide, and is ready to move on to other areas of Pillbug. She decides that, complementing his Elaborate Combat Maneuvers he is the Center of Attention (a Static Trait) and a Favorite of the Ladies (Passion Trait). At this point, she decides that his name before becoming Pillbug was Dante "the Dashing". Finally, she wants to emphasize his over-the-top comic-book nature, so she decides that he has the habit of narrating his combats, describing the elaborate move he's using or about to use. She gets a little help naming this from the other players, and they come up with His Own Commentator (Dynamic Trait).

So far, she has 1 Passion Trait, 2 Dynamic Traits, 2 Static Traits, and 2 that she hasn't decided the best place for. Looking at the numbers she needs (from her Planet scores), she decides to make Champion Wrestler Static and Elaborate Combat Maneuvers Dynamic. To flesh out his identity as an entertainer, she gives him the Static Flaw Trait Trained Exclusively in Nonlethal Combat. But she still doesn't have any ideas for Lost Traits, and she needs 3 of them. Kim suggests that perhaps something to do with the alchemical nature of the serum would work, and Tanya points out that having strength linked to mood is a very common trait among super-strong superheroes. Working with those ideas, they come up with a pair of Traits, both Lost: Feel the Rage! and Feedback-dependent Adrenaline Boost. The latter is a Flaw Trait, and means that he needs to have someone to entertain for maximal effectiveness -- basically, he's so used to having an audience, that without one he's at a loss. Caitlin at first thinks this is a bit of a severe hindrance, but then decides that there will almost always be both opponents and allies that he's not directly engaged with, so it shouldn't come up too often, and it does fit his concept very well. To balance it, she decides that Feel the Rage! isn't just a psychological effect (it is a Lost Trait, after all), but is a very real benefit, stemming from the interaction of the serum and his body, so she decides it's a Power Stunt. Finally, at a loss for a better idea, she decides that he has the Lost Flaw Doesn't Deal Well with the Mystical. She's not entirely certain what all that entails, but figures it fits with his grounding in the easily-understood world of entertainment.

This leaves her in need of only one Passion Trait. Just as she's about to ask the rest of the group for suggestions for this, Kim comes up with the Dynamic Trait Extensive Playbook for Dragonfly. He defines this as a group of shared and practiced maneuvers and strategies that the team has developed. He suggests that everyone take this Trait, enabling the players to make plans in the middle of combat and other stressful situations, even if the Davincis can't communicate or don't have time, or the plans rely on the opponents not knowing what's coming, the idea being that the Davincis would have practiced for common, and even some uncommon, situations, as part of being an established, long-standing, and practiced team. Caitlin likes that idea, but she already has all his Dynamic Traits. She doesn't want to change his Mars score (she wants him to be more Static than Dynamic, and 2 d4s seems a bit excessive, in any case), so the only options are to either move or eliminate a Trait. Since she still hadn't come up with his second Passion Trait, she decides to see if she can justify moving a Trait (or 3) in order to make room for the new Dynamic Trait. She suggests that Elaborate Combat Maneuvers could be an expression of his innate flair for the dramatic, and the others agree that that makes it an acceptable Passion Trait.

Meanwhile, the other 3 players go through roughly the same process. Kim and Darrell have a fairly straightforward time of fleshing out the Traits of Dragonfly and Firefly, respectively, with the group as a whole helping out again. In particular, after Darrell suggests that Dragonfly be a Painter (Passion Trait), they decide that all of the Davincis, as well as being superheroes, are famous members of the art and entertainment community, and that is where da Vinci originally met them. Pillbug was a wrestler, Firefly is a glassworker, Dragonfly is a painter, and Spider is a circus acrobat. It is important to note that since the Force has no relationship to the Trait except during character generation, as long as the Trait somehow falls into the purview of the Planet, it's ok if the connection is a bit tenuous. For example, Firefly ends up with Field Commander as a Dynamic Trait, because exercising it most often involves action and interaction, both very Dynamic activities. Likewise, Power Stunt: Prismatic Manipulation, which involves her using displays of light to bend people's wills is a Dynamic Trait for the change it brings about, though it could have been a Passion Trait for affecting people's moods and state of mind. Glassworker ends up a Lost Trait, justified because it is a "lost" art, learned through a very secretive guild, and because art, as the antithesis of science, is in some ways a Lost activity, in general. Also, since her Mercury is Omegaed, if Darrell wants to give her any knowledge-related Traits, he is forced to somehow slant them so that they can be associated with a different Force, since she has no Known Traits. The only Trait that ends up on Dragonfly's sheet that is worth commenting on is Pulls Up at the Very Last Moment, which is a Passion Trait, rather than, say, Dynamic. Kim explains that it's more an expression of his personality than a commentary on his physical abilities -- though, of course, it's both.

Spider is, of course, also being created by Tanya at the same time. Since she hasn't decided on his Planet scores, she's free to come up with pretty much whatever Traits she wants. She still needs to decide what Force they stem from so that she can pick Planet scores that match up. She starts with what is, for her, the easy part: deciding on his personality. She decides that he is Cold and Calculating and Reluctant to Play with Others, both of which are Passion Flaw Traits. He is also a Devoted Stoic, which is a Lost Trait because it refers to the religious sect, but further emphasizes his detached nature. Finally, she decides he is an Extensive Planner (Passion Trait), constantly working out solutions to hypothetical situations, and thus often prepared for what others find unexpected (she originally called it Compulsive Planner, but wants this to be a positive Trait so renamed it). She comes up with two Power Stunts, Giant Spider Legs and Net Launcher, the former Dynamic, the latter undecided, to clarify the capabilities of his apparatus. Finally, she decides that he moonlighted while an acrobat, and is a Former Cat Burglar. She wants to emphasize this side of him, so he has Incredible Balance (Static Trait), but is Scrawny (Static Flaw Trait). Since there is no way to only have one Trait with any Planet score, she needs to adjust at least one of her undecided Traits to be a Lost Trait. She finally decides that the only one she can at all justify is Power Stunt: Net Launcher, and she does so by saying that it's part of the apparatus, activated without physical movement, and that it weaves the net as it launches it. It's tenuous, but good enough for the rest of the group. That only leaves Former Cat Burglar unassigned. While it could easily be a Dynamic Trait, she thinks that he already has plenty of those. If he had Known Traits, she might assign it there, to signify it as a knowledge skill, as well as a physical ability, and possibly because of the personal contacts it also potentially represents. She finally decides that making it a Static Trait is the best choice for her Planet scores, and justifies it by pointing out that it's an element of his past that he no longer explores, so it is unchanging. So she has 3 Passion Traits, 2 of which are Flaws; 3 Dynamic, one of which is a Power Stunt; 3 Static, one of which is a Flaw; and 2 Lost Traits, one of which is a Power Stunt. Saturn (the Lost) is the easiest -- a d10 is the only die that results in 2 Traits. For the others, she has several choices. D6, d8, d12, and d20 all give 3 Traits. A d12 demands that at least one be a Flaw Trait, and a d20 demands two, so his Venus is the only Planet for which she has all of these choices, but his Jupiter could be a d12. Since he's made his way in life up until now as an acrobat and cat burglar, she decides that he has to have a high Mars (Dynamic), and makes it a d6, as high as it can be. But it won't actually be high unless his other Planets are lower than it, so she rules out a d6 for the rest of them. She reasons that his fortune clearly does not favor Passion -- he ended up becoming a Stoic, after all -- so she decides on a very low Venus (Passion), going with the d20. Rarely will Passion color his life when chance comes into play. That leaves only Jupiter (Static), and for similar reasons -- it doesn't appear to have had a significant effect on his life -- she chooses to make it as low as possible, in this case a d12.

Finishing Touches

Once you have decided upon all of your Traits, and recorded them on the character sheet, there are only a couple of finishing touches to completing your character. First you should draw your initial Storypath Cards from the deck, and record them. All Omegas begin play with as many Storypath Cards as they have non-Wed Planets. If you are going to be using the same dice all of the time, it's a good idea to record the color of each die next to the Planet, especially if you have more than one Planet of the same die type. Finally, you can come up with your Omega's Title. Often, this is the same as her name, but it needn't be.

You will notice that the W's origin isn't mentioned above. If you wish, you may decide how your W got her Powers, but it is very common for that to only be revealed (and thus decided) at a later date, usually as a pivotal point of a Miniseries. On a related note, anything that is not detailed at this point is not part of your character. All that is known about the character is encapsulated by the Name, Title, and Descriptors (and, to a certain extent, the Planets) -- everything else is in flux, and will only be solidified later.

They all copy their Traits over to their character sheets. Since there is no point in grouping them by Force any more, or even in recording what the Force they stem from is¹⁶ , they simply list all of the Power Stunts first, and put the Flaws in a separate area. The Title for all of them is simply The Daring Davincis, as agreed upon right from the start. Dice colors are a simple matter -- they have enough dice of the right colors that everyone can use the suggested colors (black for Lost, white for Known, red for Dynamic, green for Static, and blue for Passion), so they simply record those colors on their character sheets as a mnemonic. For Storypath cards, they decide that rather than draw and record them, they'll simply wait until the beginning of their first session of play to draw them. Complete finished descriptions of all 7 of the Daring Davincis (Firefly, Dragonfly, Pillbug, and Spider are just the founding members; more joined later), as well as two villainous former members, appear in the Omegas chapter.