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Let's track the character sheet for Band-Aids & Bullet Holes over the course of design. "But wait," you say. "The game doesn't have a character sheet!" Well then this should be extra interesting.

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Last week I did a thread called 10 Guys Named Barf about how BABH uses pregen characters while still leaving you room to customize them. You do this by writing them custom "calling cards," basically character traits you marker directly onto playing cards. This week let's follow Lockhart.

bsky.appSam D (@diceexploder.com)I love stock characters in rpgs! I love when a game Puts Me In A Situation ASAP, and very little does that as fast as stock characters + a starting situation. But designing Band-Aids & Bullet Holes,…

Lockhart (or Lockhardt back in this first draft) is the Hotline Miami character. I thought it'd be fun to do some pregens that called out particular game influences, so they get a chicken mask and, back at the beginning, a briefcase handcuffed to their wrist.

So here are 2 Lockharts on the first character sheet. Back before I wanna say @randylubin.com suggested writing directly onto cards, I assumed characters would need sheets where you marked which calling card matched to which playing card. So on this first sheet the 6 of spades is "animal head mask".

This sheet has a lot of other things that got cut from the game. "Desperation" was a second wound-like mechanic that stuck dead cards into your deck. "Obligations" became needs. "Who Owes You" and "War Stories" was me trying to mechanize the idea of Debts. All of these eventually proved unnecessary.