Character Faces
from Something Wicked

These faces were generated by the computer program FACES 3.0, a product of IQ Biometrix.

This is quite possibly the coolest piece of software I've come across. It doesn't have any fantasy elements like pointy ears or helmets, but its versatility at portraying human faces is amazing. It's very easy to use and costs between US$40 and US$60, depending where you find it and what mood the InterQuest people are in. I encourage you to get a copy; it's well worth the price.

In the TORG Live! adventure Something Wicked, the character sheet is a 4" by 6" index card that's kept in a transparent badge holder which is worn on the player's chest. On the outside of the character sheet (the side that everyone can see) is the character's portrait and the character's damage tack. This way, everyone can immediately see who you're playing (and how badly hurt your character is, which I think should be obvious, too). The character's stats are on the side that normally rests against the player's chest.

Det. William Ervine, LAPD Detective William Ervine, LAPD, was assigned to investigate the disappearances and brutal slayings in the vicinity of the BMW factory in northeast Los Angeles.
Roberto Santiago is a member of the Terrors gang. Roberto, or Humo ("Smoke") as the other gang members call him, is a master at breaking and entering. Roberto Santiago, member of the Terrors gang
Skull, leader of the Overseers gang Skull is the dominant of the Overseers gang. The Overseers reputedly work for a demon. Some of the territory between the Overseers' turf and the Terrors' turf is disputed, so hostility between the two gangs is common.

Skull's chipholder (obviously a picture of a real-life RS232 port) was added to his portrait using a simple graphics editing package.
Sir Edmund Huddleston, president of the Huntsman's Club, is a noted spiritualist. The members of The Huntsman’s Club use their occult powers to help those in need, for a large but not unreasonable fee. Sir Edmund Huddleston of the Huntsman's Club
Julie Feinman, recently widowed Julie Feinman works at the BMW factory. Her husband was the most recent victim of the violence that has overrun Los Angeles. He was killed by having a trowel or small spade thrust into his throat. The murder weapon was never found.
The role-playing advantage to using FACES was significant. Here are a few of my observations, based on our experience:
  1. The players were much more willing to play characters of the opposite gender because they didn't have to convey the character's gender by such contrivances as, for example, speaking in falsetto. The gender (and often ethnicity) of the character was obvious.
  2. Similarly, it's often difficult for a physically meek person to play an intimidating character. But if you're wearing a face like Skull's, people know you're a bad-ass! 
  3. In the briefing sheet for a character, I had information like, "You've seen this guy [character portrait] around, but you don't know who he is." That kind of partial information is much easier to convey with pictures than it is to convey with words alone.
  4. When we needed a particular NPC, one of the GMs simply took the NPC sheet from the NPC binder and slipped it onto his badge holder. Voila -- everyone knew at a glance that that GM was running a character (and knew which character) rather than acting as a noncorporeal observer.

So what's the downside? It takes some time to make these things. But coming up with the character's portrait isn't nearly as time-consuming as coming up with the character's background, so it doesn't add as much time as you might think.

 

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This page last updated 03/11/05 by Todd Furler