Since our regular GM (Maharhar) was supposed to be in Thailand for an operation, we decided to do character creation and a demo for the upcoming Remnants campaign. However, Maharhar was still in the country, so we did away with the demo and stuck to making characters.
Remnants, like any post-apocalyptica, is a game about scarcity, scavenging, and survival. The difference is that the Remnant pilots, the player characters in this case, have a tool that lets them circumvent much of the immediate hardships of a bleak far-future: a big bad mecha bound to them until death. Nobody can take it, steal it, or pilot it without first killing the owner, which I guess is the drawback. Owning an Autogenes may make you powerful, but it also paints a big ol’ bullseye on your forehead.
It’s a lot like being an Exalted, except the world around you isn’t verdant, lush, and brimming with magic. Quite the opposite: It’s dead and barren and poisonous.
This is the setting I’ve given my players, and these are the characters they’ve given me in return.
Abel Fern is a young man from the Yazdgerd Empire. He’s a descendant of Tissaphernes, a hero of the Empire who fought alongside the God-King during the establishment of the Empire and who was awarded governorship over the conquered city-state of Kapia (now Caria). Since he was from such an important family, Abel grew up in relative luxury. That all came to an end, however, when his eldest brother, Qayin, killed their father, and Abel, in turn, killed Qayin. In the chaos that followed, Abel stole two family heirlooms—an operational Remnant flashlight and the Holy Immortal—and ran.
Abel is weaker than most, but also smarter and more charismatic. Without his Holy Immortal (Autogenes), he’s not much for combat, but makes up for the deficit with his more sophisticated education on topics ranging from Mer to Medicine. Most notably, Abel can read the writing of the Ancients.
His Remnant is called Wanderer. It is a fast, long-range precision strike mech.
Deandra “Dee” Grey is an older woman from the Zoara Universe City area. In her youth, she had a husband and a son, but both are now gone; that’s just how the Broken Lands work. To find a reason to keep going, she created for herself a family of strays. Orphans, wanderers, former slaves, maybe even a fugitive or two… Whatever their history, they kept her going, and she defended them with all the grit and determination of a yao guai den mother. Even defended them against a band of Remnant City slavers, House Jaja mercenaries. Came upon them in the night, slit the throat of their one Autogenes pilot, and used the Remnant mech to scatter the rest, free her children, and kill the former friend who had betrayed her “family.”
To say that Dee’s tough is an understatement. Even though she’s from the Universe City, she doesn’t have much use for learning. Her skills are practical and tough, just like her. In fact, such toughness has earned her a bit of a reputation… and more than a few enemies who are too frightened to take her on now that she’s got an Autogenes instead of a crossbow aimed at their heads.
Her Remnant is Relentless, just like her. It’s a fast, close assault mech specializing in taking on unfavourable odds, just like her. That means it’s hard to kill… just like her.
Lotus is an exotic teenage girl from the Marshes. You don’t get many of them up in the Five City Area and for good reason. Marshlanders don’t have much need for trade; they don’t have much need for food; the abundance of the Marshes are as famous as the monsters that inhabit it. Humans may not be welcome in the Marshlands, but those who live there have everything they need and more. It’s a good, albeit dangerous, life—better than living out in the Broken Lands. Perfect, unless you’re an anathema like Lotus. Healing is a shaman’s lot, supposed to be otherworldly and mysterious, reserved only for those who deserve it—the Chief and the Chieftain’s hunters. Lotus went against that and they tried to burn her for it. They tried to hunt her for it, but she escaped by falling into a hole and landing in the cockpit of something nobody had discovered for over 800 years—an Ancient Remnant.
Maybe Lotus wasn’t meant for the Marshes. She’s not strong enough and she’s too smart for her own good. She’s got the skills of a herbivore, not a carnivore—better at detecting danger and getting away than fighting it. She’s got her medicine too, except it’s bizarre plant shit instead of sterile stimpaks. No matter how pretty she is, there ain’t many who’ll place their faith in some green gunk, not unless they’re desperate. Lucky for Lotus, though. Desperation never runs dry in the Broken Lands.
Her Remnant is called Chrysalis. It’s a fast, mid-range precision drone controller.
Gawain Penderghast Vereker is a knightly lord from neo-medieval Kingfisher. He’s one of the ten Chevalier Dulac, Autogenes pilots responsible for the city-state’s defence and governance. Although already thirty-three years of age, the abundance of food afforded to a man of his position leaves him with no fear of the aging disease. The lake’s harvest and his family’s fishing rights have, after all, seen all male inheritors through well past their forties. However, the lack of an heir or even a consort is the object of some concern in the community, and it leaves him open to intrigue from other lords and ambitious gallants.
It is strength of will which defines Gawain. The will to fight, the will to stand firm, and the will to adhere to a code of honour in a world without one. Whether that will sees him through a few more decades or in an early grave, however, remains to be seen.
His Remnant is Ragnelle. It is a fast, close assault mech that does what all knights do best—slay monstrosities.
Now all that remains is to begin. First session date is set for April after our current campaign is done. I’ll be fleshing out the wiki in the meanwhile.
