Ezra Brady, the Ranger (because sometimes it's just fun to look at characters)

I would imagine that many of us love RPGs, at least in part, because of the strangely pleasing feeling of having a character summarized on a character sheet.  I don't really even know how to describe it.  There's a certain power to having all these words and numbers mashed together, representing everything needed to put that character through some trials and generate real stories.

It doesn't even have to actually happen.  I've gotten a ton of enjoyment just from reading over species and classes in publications like Dragon and Fight On! and thinking about the characters I COULD make with them.  I am sometimes frustrated by the fact that we don't have unlimited time to enjoy all the cool stuff this world offers, but for some reason, this world of unlimited possibilities of who I could be is reassuring.

The presentation of complete characters, usable in new stories and potentially carrying the legacy of stories they've already experienced, is also one of the things that attracted me to blogging about RPGs.  Others, of course, do it much better and more consistently than I do.  Justin at Halls of the Nephilim, for instance, shares a ton of evocative character and monster builds on his blog.  I don't know how he knocks out those seemingly complete characters in more complex systems like 5E (yep, I called it complex); I would get so bogged down in minutiae that it would cease being fun pretty quickly, but I love looking over the details he puts into characters that start to tell a story before the story even starts. 

And Tim at The Other Side...he's pretty much made an art out of giving us characters for a variety of games, often reusing themes and personalities (like his iconic witch Larina Nix) to fill out a multiverse that can be enjoyed outside of specific game sessions.  (And yes, I do still "mourn" the loss of regular retellings of the story of Tim Knight's Acrobatic Flea on his blog Hero Press, but I'm sure the Flea is living on in many, many corners of the multiverse!)

So, where am I going with this?  Eh...nowhere, really.  I just really like looking at characters sometimes and wanted an excuse to post this guy...Ezra Brady.  He was my character in a 3.5 game about...checks notes...THIRTEEN years ago...?  (Oh man I'm getting old.)  Named after two Linneman dogs, he would eventually multiclass in (if I recall correctly) a third-party or homebrewed Pathfinder class called the Beastmaster, picking up an animal companion of his own.  I'm pretty sure it was a wolf and had a produce-based name in honor of my girl Celery.

Anyway...thanks, John A., for letting Ezra run around your world of Dragnaria!  Here's how he started, and down below, I'll stat him out as I would for a starting character using my current system of choice.  (Note:  I was sort of obsessed with the idea of portal fantasy at the time, so I was very glad John the DM was willing to let me run with the backstory I wrote...)

In hindsight, I wonder if using a mini with a red beard was a bit of a Mary Sue move...

Ezra Brady

Human Ranger 1

Str 10  Con 9 (-1)  Dex 16 (+3)  Int 13 (+1)  Wis 11  Cha 8 (-1)

SAVES  Fort +1  Rflx +5  Will +0

AC 15  FF 12  Touch 13

HP 9

Deity: a god/God  Alignment: NG  Init: -3  Move: 30 ft

ABILITIES  Favored Enemy: Orc; Track; Wild Empathy

FEATS  Weapon Focus (Longbow); Toughness x2; Point Blank Shot

FLAWS  Noncombatant; Unreactive

COMPOSITE LONGBOW +5 (+6 <=30 ft), dmg 1d8, piercing, crit x3, rng 110 ft, wt 3#

LONGSWORD -1, dmg 1d6, slashing, crit 19-20 x2, wt 4#

LANGUAGES  Native tongue (English), Common

SKILLS  Climb 4 (+4), Handle Animal 4 (+3), Heal 4 (+4), Ride 4 (+7), Survival 4 (+4), Swim 4 (+4), Craft (Bowmaking) 4 (+5), Knowledge (Nature) 4 (+5)

GEAR/MONEY  Composite Longbow (100 gp, 3#), Arrows (20) (1 gp, 3#), Longsword (15 gp, 4#), Leather Armor (10 gp, 15#), 114 gp

Ezra Brady led a pretty normal life in “our” world, although it was a life filled with secure adventure. Ezra earned a modest living working at REI, filling his free time with outdoor activities like hiking and spelunking. One day, on an expedition in a cave in central Illinois, Ezra’s gear failed him, and he went hurdling earthward through a cold pool on the cave’s floor. Surprisingly, he wasn’t injured at all, but when he emerged through the water’s surface, he realized the cavern around him had changed greatly. Climbing to dry land and slowly coming to his senses, Ezra heard noise around him. He wouldn’t know what they were at the time, but there were orcs at work.

The orcs captured Ezra, stealing all of his earthly belongings. Through guile and sheer effort, Ezra escaped from his captors and found friendship with an elven hermit living in the mountainous surroundings. This mentor taught him to hunt, to survive in the wilderness around him, and to fight back against the single minded orcs. After several months of tutelage, which included extensive training in the land’s native tongue, Ezra ventured eastward in hopes of finding a way back home. He eventually found himself in a village that seemed to be marked by strange happenings of late; hoping that this might be connected to his awkward appearance in this world, Ezra decided to see what he could learn in the charming but frightening hamlet.

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It's really just an old plastic D&D mini that I colored (just the cloak) with a black sharpie.  It probably wasn't the best idea to do a quick 'n dirty re-base so that he now looks like he's standing in chocolate mousse...

Ezra Brady

Species: Human

Home: Earth

Current Location: Dragnaria

10 HP, 14 Defense (leather armor)

Strength 2
Dexterity 5
Knowledge 3
Presence 2

Skills: Bows +4, Tracking +3, Animal Empathy +2, Medicine +1

Languages: English, Common

Goal: To get back home!

Quote: "I have a feeling I'm not in Illinois anymore..."

Please let me redirect you...

...to something else here in the geek blogosphere.  If you happen to be one of the few people who check out my blog but haven't seen this through other means (like, y'know, reading the blog I'm about to link to), you should head over to Tim Knight's HeroPress blog to check out his Six of the Best interview with Justin Isaac of Halls of the Nephilim.  These are two of my favorite blogs and folks who blog, and you can witness their collision by clicking here.

(And, I'm not just sending you there because I got a shout-out.  Although that was very kind of him.)

Playing in Light City: Heroic Happenings at the Halls

So while I've been focusing the tiny bit of creative energy I've had lately into the Light City releases, I thankfully have a couple of blogging brethren who have stepped up to spread the word on the project, for which I am very grateful!

Tim over at HeroPress has been kind enough to spotlight both of Light City's first two "issues," a significantly helpful boost to the four-color signal.

And Justin of Halls of the Nephilim has not only given Light City blogging and social media shout-outs, he's constructed a couple of his own characters using the rules, demonstrating that they do, indeed, work!  You should check out Spectrum and El Hijo de Lobo Plata sometime!  (I especially like the seven-level progression he shows for Spectrum...working through the emotional powers of the Green Lantern mythos...!)

Thanks y'all!  (You officially make up the Light City Chamber of Commerce!)

(Any second now, I also expect to see another awesome Light City addition from Justin hit the web for public consumption.  Can't wait...!)

MM gets the Six of the Best treatment...!

Tim over at HeroPress was kind/confused enough to feature Monstrous Matters in today's edition of his Six of the Best series.  Tim's blog is one that I make sure to check out every day, and if I may be so bold, I think that you should too.  You can see the interview here if you'd like...and please don't hold this choice of interviewee against Tim; he does great work!