I’ve joined a new play-by-blog game ran by Noisms of Monsters and Manuals fame. Here is the plug for the game, and here is the blog dedicated to the game in question.

It’s a 2nd edition AD&D game using the Planescape campaign setting, and will take place in and around a town located just between the planes of Ysgard and Arborea. It seems like it’s going to be a pretty neat sandbox to play around in (and get sat on and killed by blue skinned demons and giant mold monsters and such).

Anyway, the character I created (using 3d6 in order because we’re hardcore like that! ahem…) is a first level necromancer. I don’t want to post too much for fear of spoilers, but here’s a brief look at the fella…

Character Name: Diego the Grim
Race: Planar Human
Class: Necromancer
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Level: 1
Experience Points: 0
Next Level: 2,500

PERSONAL
Birthplace: Pandemonium
Gender: Male
Age: 25
Height: 6′3″
Weight: 200 lbs.
Hair: Dark brown
Eyes: Brown
Appearance: A gaunt, spidery looking fellow with a faintly bronze skin tone. Rather penetrating brown hawk eyes with just a very small hint of what could be madness about them. Neatly groomed head of dark brown hair with a thick mustache and sideburns. He wears the mostly non-descript clothing of a traveler: blacks, browns, and greys. Currently wearing a long sleeved grey tunic, black pants, a heavy brown poncho, a pair of well-scuffed brown boots, and a wide-brimmed black hat. Depending on the conditions, he has a pair of serviceable leather gloves.
Religion: Vague allegiance to Kurell, Oeridian god of jealousy, revenge, and thievery

The guy carries a Baatorian dagger and a common knife for protection, and his non-weapon proficiencies include brewing, gaming, planar sense, planar direction sense, reading/writing, and spellcraft. He can speak planar trade and the githerzai languages.

I tried to make him a little… different, as many Planescape characters are. I never played a necromancer before, but what I didn’t want was a dude in black robes with skull necklaces and black contact lenses in his eyes running around with zombie servants carrying out his every whim. So, without any character concept in mind before I rolled his stats, I ended up using Lee Van Cleef as ‘The Man in Black’ from For a Few Dollars More as a bit of inspiration.

What a badass.

You may have noticed that Diego hails from the plane of Pandemonium. There’s a good story explaining all that, but I cannot share it just yet.

However, I will share this amusing piece of information. For some reason, I had decided this character would smoke cigarettes like they were going out of style. So I came up with ‘Pandemonium cigarettes’. I had no freaking clue what they actually were, I merely suggested to the kind DM that they could make some sort of obnoxious cackling noise as they were smoked. Noisms took the idea to the next level though, and came up with a sweet table of random effects for each cigarette smoked. It’s so very Planescape. I can already see the vomit and glowing green smoke.