Central Casting: Heroes Now!

by Paul Jaquays, John Terra, Randall G. Kuipers

"They're not stereotypes - nor are they cloned from a motion picture or television screen. Real heroes are unique. Even when made larger than life, they still vibrate with that last keyword: "LIFE!"
Yet so often, role players fall back on stereotypes - flat, un-original, cliché characters. If characters are developed at all, it's in terms of their possessions or powers. Can someone really be defined by the car they drive or how well they throw a punch?
With the Central Casting:TM character creation system, characters take on lives of their own. They gain families, friends, enemies, personalities, detailed past histories, and most importantly, - they gain motivations for life and adventuring. Complete a Central Casting history for a character and you will know where she carne from, what she's done with her life, and who she knows - both her friends and her enemies. You'll have a real character on your hands.
The Central Casting system is a stand-alone network of tables, charts and roleplay guides for creating thoroughly individualized characters. By following step-by-step instructions, Game Masters and players can give life to any character. All you need is dice."

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin. Limited in scope to an 80s-90s game, but if you're running Buffy, Nephilim, or even Aberrant, it might be handy. However, the author(s) doubled down on the prior classification of "sexual disorders" (their words) as, well, disorders. Instead of just saying "Sexual Perversions are considered to be Darkside personality traits by most societies during much of the 20th century," which is actually true, they added this:

A Position Statement
Some forms of behavior are wrong, that's why they are called Darkside traits. Engaging in such behavior hurts oneself and others. Some forms of sexual behavior fall into the category of wrong behavior, for they are perversions of nature. While the people who perform such behavior may be otherwise "good," they can perform wrong actions,just as a driver of a car may sometimes speed, or a parent snap at a child in anger. Nevertheless, wrong behavior does not become right just because many misguided people engage in it.
Real World Stuff
Despite "popular" trends in culture and psychology, the authors of this book believe the following three statements to be true:
A. Any sexual relationship other than that between a husband and wife is wrong.
B. Perverse sexual desires are a form of learned and ingrained behavior and as such can be controlled, overcome and eventually replaced by healthy desires and behavior.
C. Using roleplay to vicariously experience wrong behavior is a bad idea.
While we are not called to be judges, it is our belief that those who chose to continue in perverse behavior will ultimately be held accountable for their actions. Those who seek to brainwash society into accepting such behavior as normal are only making the problem worse for themselves and others.
Gameplay Stuff
The goal for a character afflicted with asexual perversion then, is the goal of a character afflicted with any Darkside trait--not to experience acting out wrong behavior, but instead, to overcome the wrong behavior through roleplay.
Perversions
Rather than dwell on the vast variety of possible perverse behaviors, the authors suggest that if a player or DM really feels the need to create an NPC or player character afflicted by a sexual perversion, he or she need only refer to recent news headlines for a selection of popular perversions. Select something appropriate for the character and his or her purpose in the game.

So ... holy crap, isn't that lovely. Make sure you don't accidentally pay money for this book, is what I'm saying.

[Ian Osmond · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know, a previous review said exactly what I previously thought about this, so I won't copy and paste the truly disturbing anti-gay, anti-trans message that is in the book. Before this, I still used the book, and found it useful, but was really put off by that part.

Turns out that Jennel Jaquays, formerly Paul Jaquays, is a trans lesbian. Which explains a whole lot -- people rarely write stuff like that if they're not themselves trying to deny that part of themselves. Having discovered that Ms Jaquays wrote that when she was dealing with coming out to herself, I find myself a lot more sympathetic, and am giving this book a four-star review instead of the two or three I previously would have.