Stat It: A Maid, a Butler, and a Master

I figured to do one more Stat It before I get back to playing. In this case, it’ll be Maid RPG. I played this before, but that was just a small session in a larger campaign. I want to play an actual game of Maid RPG. And, to my luck, it’s an RPG that comes with its own scenario in its Corebook. Tons, in fact. But, I’m gonna stick to the common “Happy Birthday” scenario.

Like with the Marvel games, I’ll make three characters. A Maid who I created, a butler who will be randomized, and the premade Master, Nejiri, or given where I’m going to set this game, Torsion.

Right, I should explain where I’m going with this. Originally, I wanted to make this a surprise, but… Yeah, I kinda need to give you context. See, while Maid RPG is inspired by Japanese pop culture and thus Japanese names are given, I decided to set this in Spain, right alongside Hot Guys Making Out… See where I’m going with this?

So, our game already takes place in Early Modern times, with Mood being determined by die roll.

[Roll: 1, Romance]

Well, it’s not too far off from the previous game. The mansion is a…

[Roll: 3, House]

Again, like in the last game. Its primary, secondary, and tertiary color schemes are…

[Roll: 6 & 3, 6 & 3, and 4 & 6, Gold, Gold, and Silver]

[Q: Is the house made of literal gold? Purpose: To Knowledge. A: 100]

Yes, and unexpectedly…

[17: Six Degrees, a meaningful, but not always positive, connection forms between two PC’s and/or NPC’s.]

Hmmm… I like this… Also, we have a random event. This time I will use the Social Focus Table.

• Event Focus: 32, NPC Action.
• NPC Focus: You know, I’m going to veto this and say it’s the Captain we saw in the last chapter who was next to Franco.
• Event Meaning: 18 & 28: Move Pleasures

Hmm… Something tells me like this guy’s going to be a major factor in this game. We’ll add him as an important NPC to the list.

As for the hidden features this house has…

[Roll: 32 & 56: Medical Room & Portrait]

These two have special features to the mansion. The Medical Room can reduce a PC’s Stress at the expense of another’s Favor, while the Portrait gives a PC 2 favor once per day if they gaze into the portrait. Favor is this game’s version of a benny (is that what the generic term for Fate Points are?) while Stress accumulates and, when it hits a limit, causes a Stress Explosion, something I may need to find a way to translate into a “round-by-round” style format given how the Stress Explosions are played out in real time and not in a “round-by-round” basis.

Well, that’s the Mansion, now let’s make the characters! Now, Maid RPG has three types of characters: Masters, Butlers, and Maids. Maids are normally the standard character you play as, but Masters and Butlers are optional. There’s also a Head Maid option, but that’s basically Maids on hard mode. Butlers are more skilled and cool-headed than Maids, however, they are unable to partake in the chaos that Maids often endure. Masters have absolute authority over Maids and Butlers, but do not have any powers aside from special qualities.

Speaking of Masters, Torsion is already made so we’ll start with her. Gira Torsion is an aristocrat who is easily mistaken for a boy due to her appearance, though she is never seen in the day, only coming out at night. This, along with dead bodies of Nationalist supporters cropping up with distinct stab wounds on their neck, causes rumors to spread that Torsion is allied to the Rebels, helping them out in the dead of the night by taking out any who speak against Francisco Franco. This brings the attention of not just a captain of the Francoist army, but also Torsion’s friend’s son, Honoré.

With her birthday just around the corner, both people make arrangements to arrive at the mansion and find out the truth. Of course, there’s a lot more to this master than meets the eye. No one knows that better than Abelino Moreno, her butler and trusted friend. He is one not to be susceptible to wacky hijinx throughout the manor. As far as local law enforcement is concerned, he’s the one who is killing the people, not Torsion. In a way, you can see Abelino’s relation to Torsion to be akin to Honoré and Oliver’s relationship, almost akin to a family rather than master and servant.

Butlers and Maids are made by rolling on random tables (or in one case, picking out options), the first determines your type of Maid/Butler (gives you a +1 to an attribute), next would be to determine your Powers (special skills that you use throughout the game), followed by attributes (which is what you use for the game and is determined in a rather small scale of the 4d6 system from D&D games), and then backstory. Maids and Masters have an exclusive thing called “Stress Explosions”, which is basically what your character does when they’re extremely upset (i.e. binge eating for Torsion), as well as Special Qualities, which simply give you qualities.

Honestly, this character creation system is simply one of the best if you just want to get to playing your game but have no idea who to play as. I think there’s even character generators for Maids if you really want to get into playing it without even bothering to roll the dice, but I find it fun to do the D66 system, something I mentioned earlier in my semi-review of Plot Armor. 36 different results, but using a D6 as the tens and a D6 as the ones.

Lastly, there’s Ángeles Cortés, or Angel for short. She is a youthful girl whose condition slowly began to rob her vision, needing eye glasses to see. Torsion came to her and offered a cure, only on the condition that she’d serve her. She complied and remained by her side after being given a concoction to prove Torsion wasn’t kidding. Her entire body, which before was aching all over, now can feel no pain.

This is a little brisker than previous Stat Its, but there was a lot of rolling and picking involved and there are some qualities I haven’t shown fully yet. There is definitely something strange going on in the mansion of Torsion, but that’s going to be explored when we play this session. Bon Voyage, gamers.