2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 17: The Scimitar, Medium Modular Cargo Hauler

Here's my entry for day 17 of the challenge. I usually make these the night before and schedule them for posting on my blog in the morning. Unfortunately, I'm not feeling the best as I write this. Rather than putting it off, I'm cheating twice to get something out with the least effort possible. The first cheat is one I've done before - making a ship as a character. The second cheat is to pick a mechanically simple game.

The Scimitar, medium modular cargo hauler.

Bucket of Bolts is a solo journaling RPG by Jack Harrison of Mousehole Press. The narrative focuses on a modest cargo carrying spaceship from its days just out of the factory to its inevitable fate. Ships in Bucket of Bolts have some level of intelligence, but still need a captain and crew. As the ship grows more worn, it will outlast its first captain. And the next. But one captain will someday be a ship's final one. And so the story of a ship will be told.

Creating a ship in Bucket of Bolts is straightforward. The rules call for naming and drawing a ship, but the game download includes software that generates a name and picture of a ship. Thus, The Scimitar.

The next step is to come up with three traits describing the ship. I decided on:

• Ungainly.
• Utilitarian.
• Exposed.

So fresh from the factory that the cockpit still has that new ship smell, The Scimitar belongs to one of a bewildering array of mid-sized freighter designs. The eye slides away from its utilitarian appearance in favor of the sleek yachts and sporting craft elsewhere in the lot. However, The Scimitar's ungainly modular construction and exposed components make for an adaptable ship. A captain and crew handy with technology could make much of such a ship.

UN-73 considered the possibilities as the ship waited for its first captain.

Bucket of Bolts is available on itch.io.