Casting Shadows

This is the 11th day of #RPGaDay2026. We are close enough to the middle of this month-long event to see it waiting for us at the end of the week. Yesterday we took our first look at how characters are conceived in WILD. Today we will continue to look for Clarity (a little in-joke, there), keeping in mind our weekly filter of Associates, and the daily filter of ‘Grace.’ The prompt for today is ‘Tact.’ You might be remembering right now that last week when we hit the Grace filter for Tuesday we added a scenic leg to our journey by adding our dog Grace to the proceedings.

This week is no different.

While possessed of a certain amount of tact, the nature of a Velcro protector like a Doberman is to expect more tact from others than is available to them in their important security role. Never is this more apparent than when there is an uneven distribution of ear scratching among the pack. Fortunately it is also obvious when said pack has members who are misbehaving or. She restores peace before you really register any disharmony. When someone has trouble, she is first on the scene to determine if the trouble needs administrative assistance (me). This helps keep channels of communication open and noise levels to a minimum. It also helps ensure that no matter where I am or what I am doing I don’t miss when a health problem like breathing is more than just a simple cough. Peace, security, politeness, and care for the whole random mess of discards, throwaways, and lost souls which is my family. That is Grace.

Where her skills are lacking a bit, however, is in her use of Dreamshare technology. For that, we need to turn to RPG characters such as the ones so easily generated in WILD.

Yesterday’s character, our first in this series, is the sort to work on their own whenever possible and play things close to their vest. For this week of exploration of WILD, the cards have inspired me to imagine all of this as an internship for appropriately skilled graduate students to demonstrate what they might offer to ClarIT as full-time hires. For a program producing technology which allows for multiple people to enter a singular dream together, a different sort of personality might be more appealing initially. Do the cards agree? Let’s find out.

Our first WILD card pull (follow the link to the web app for the game) is the game’s analog to the Six of Swords, called the Six of Strength. This is the core inspiration for the character’s Persona or baseline personality and approach to life. The next card we draw is the Shadow, the part of themselves or their view of the world which works against them in life. It is the Controlled Rogue (Knight of Coins/Pentacles). How do these two cards work to inspire?

The card itself is part of the process. What do we see in the image which connects to or helps form a nascent character concept?

Just looking and looking away to sift through the details in my memory of the images, like trying to remember the elements of a dream the morning after, I am most struck by a nearly fruitless flight from pursuit in the draft card for Persona and an overwhelming sense of exhaustion in the one for Shadow. I think those fit together like hand in glove. Part of that connection is drawn from the visible sense of continuity between the images, but probably most comes from familiarity with the cards themselves. In the book, each card is given a key meaning, reversed meaning, and prompting language for situations, obstacles, aid, and resolution which are used in the mechanisms of play. It’s all very quick, quiet, and keyed to imagining and solving the problem or dealing with an obstacle in a moment of play descriptively at an abstract level rather than the granular processing of modifiers for each element of the problem.

Once the Persona and Shadow make sense, or as they are starting to coalesce into sense, we can assign the points for Attributes and Abilities, then when the idea is in mind, list a few Aspect tags which tie everything together or give you direction about how to play the character.

So, this person is a real people-person, and overly concerned with the welfare of others to the point where their own dreams and projects are neglected. They love to get involved and be a part of things, searching for solutions, and lending a hand, but often have nothing left at the end of the day to take care of themselves. Taking the content of the images firmly in mind, I will go one step further that they have been burning their candle at both ends, and perhaps in the middle, for quite some time.

As a result, we will assign their Attributes away from Strength and toward Passion, and away from Control and toward Focus. The desires of the mind override fatigue and ride the body into the ground. Let’s try Control 2 Focus 4 Strength 1 Passion 5. It’s extreme and dangerous – even in dreams – but interesting and common, at least where I live. Moving on to Abilities, today’s prompt of Grace pounces lithely in with a high Diplomat rating of 4 with a Guardian rating of 3. Scholar and Rogue clock in at 2, with Visionary trailing the pack with 1.

Based on this framework, Dear Reader, what are two or three Aspect tags you might assign to round out and help us play this character? In your mind’s eye what do they look and sound like? Why do they do what they do and why have they come to this internship at ClarIT? When you think of people like this, how do you describe them?

Let me know~

Tomorrow is Wednesday, August 12th and our prompt is Loss. The weekly filter is of course Associates while our daily filter will change to ‘Woe.’

See you then!