Alright, it finally happened today. Two of my friends came by and I sprung FREAKS! on them. They said sure, I switch around systems a lot anyway. They both made up some characters and it worked pretty well. Here's their character sheets. Here's what my first guy said.

Helios, Fire Elemental

Monstrous Qualities
When I see something flammable, I must burn it.
When I'm dancing in the flames, I'm in my own world.

Redeeming Qualities
All beings feel pain as I do.

Body
Save vs Plagues of the Body- Decent
Generate Fire- Expert
Might- Proficient
Absorb Sunlight- Proficient

Mind

Okay, finally. I don't know what took so long, but this has been the most difficult thing to do. It'll all be cake from here on out. So, monstrous and redeeming qualities.

First, there are levels of how monstrous a being can be. Here they are.

Starting at the bottom, you have the character as a full fledged monster. Here anytime you roll an action that corresponds with your monstrous trait you get a are able to bring the target number down by five. Essentially, only ridiculously hard stuff requires effort if it feeds your need to act monstrously. Also, people recoil from you, and any interaction with a non-monstrous person is at a -3 on all rolls you make. You have two extra expert skills that have to do with your monstrous abilities. On the downside, the Judge gets five attempts per session to make your vice control you.

I've been watching and listening to a lot of RPG podcasts and recently came across something by John Wick on youtube about his new game houses of the blooded and how he wanted to give some power to the players. Now personally, I'm all about player empowerment, as I like to GM like a complete bastard, and in return, I give my players plenty of options to try to best me in wits. Those fools. It makes for interesting games of oneupmanship, which I think is essentially what the collaborative storytelling part of RPGs is all about. "Oh, you think you're cool, well watch this!" I like that. So now, thanks to John Wick's far spanning wisdom, I found a cool way to give my players some power, and also some temptation. Here's how it works.

So, today I was thinking about making characters, and the thing about my game is that it makes some things really easy on the GM. Things like monstrous and redeeming traits give the GM a lot to work with, plot wise. However, also it can turn off some players, namely players like my friends. They are dyed in the wool players of d20 who rank min/maxing characters as one of life's great pleasures. In this game however, things are very nebulous. You make up your own skills, you have to say what your character as a monster believes in and is addicted to. This was a hard concept for my buddies to wrap their head around. To help simplify the whole deal, I made a quick questionaire for my players. I gave it to one of my friends to make a character with, and I'll post what he put down later when he gives it back. Here are the questions, and why they're important.

Hey all, sorry this took so long.

So as it turns out World of Darkness uses two traits called “Vice” and “Virtue” in their revised rule book and although this game’s intended to be free, if it does well and I want to make a limited edition hardcover version or something, I don’t want to have to get into a legal battle. Whattaya do?

Anyway, let's start out with materials. You don't need much.

-One dude willing to GM, here called the Judge
-Players, two to four is optimum
-A pair of dice for each player and a pair for the Judge
-Pencils, paper, yadda yadda, you know the deal.

So, today, I was doodling in my notebook a few character concepts for fun. Recently, I've been wanting to do lots of DnD style monsters, but as likable characters, you know? Sort of a Phil Foglio type thing. So first I did a cute little goblin girl,a sorceress I guess. Then I started to experiment and do weirder stuff. The crowning glory was an Ilithid done in a Jimmy Buffet style flower shirt, but with that huge v neck collar all Ilithid clothes have. I got a good laugh at it, then thought to myself, "Gee, it would be great to play this cat in a game."
I've always enjoyed playing DnD monsters in DnD games, you see, and though I understand why the world of dungeons and dragons is filled with hundreds of nasty intelligent races and only a few with the potential for good, it doesn't mean I have to like it. I mean, all peoples have demons they have to confront, it doesn't make them particularly evil. It just makes them, if not humanoid, real. Just because trolls are brutish and ilithids are megalomaniacs and goblins are weakwilled bullies, that doesn't mean they have to be. What if there was say, a nature loving troll, eh? Maybe a laid back ilithid who just wants to research his work and surf a bit, right? Or heck, maybe a young rebel goblin who wants to go against everything her race is made out to be. These people, of course, are considered by both the race that spawned them and the lucky "good" races as not fitting into the natural order of things. In other words, freaks.