Fantasy Character Creation

When creating a new character, read over this section and fill out each of the indicated spaces on your character sheet as instructed.

Personal Information

Character Name

You may choose any name and surname you wish for your character. You may also list any aliases your character has in this space.

Character Concept

Record your character’s concept in this space.

Your character’s concept is a single adjective followed by a single noun that describes your character’s role in the adventure.

For more on Character Concept, the subsection under that title on page 126.

Player Name

In this space, record your name (the human player).

Gender

Record your character’s gender here.

Age

You are free to choose an age for your character. People of adventuring age tend to be between sixteen and sixty years of age.

Height, Weight, and Build

Choose a height, weight, and build (body shape) for your character.

Experience Points

You begin with 0 Experience Points.

During the campaign, you will be awarded Experience Points by the gamemaster for your efforts and roleplaying.

Vital Statistics

Your character’s Vital Statistics are a set of game abilities that reflect his or her combat abilities.

When creating your character, these values begin at the following minimums:

Vital Statistic Starting Value
Wounds No Wounds
Fatigue No Fatigue
Fear No Fear
Action Points 10
Movement 10
Parry 0
Armor 0

Wounds

Characters can sustain 3 Wounds before they are killed (the fourth Wound kills the character).

When a character is dealt 1 Wound damage, check off the leftmost blank box on the character sheet’s Wounds track.

Each Wound Level has a corresponding penalty (0D, -1D, or -2D) that is applied to all rolls a character makes if he or she is at that Wound Level.

Additionally, the character’s Speed rating is reduced by the amount of Wound damage a character has sustained.

If a character is pushed beyond 3 Wound damage, he or she dies.

Fatigue

Characters can sustain 3 Fatigue before they fall unconscious (the fourth Fatigue renders him or her unconscious).

When a character is dealt 1 Fatigue damage, check off the leftmost blank box on the character sheet’s Fatigue track.

Each Fatigue Level has a corresponding penalty (0D, -1D, or -2D) that is applied to all rolls a character makes if he or she is at that Wound Level.

If a character is pushed beyond 3 Fatigue damage, he or she falls unconscious.

Fear

Characters’ resolve is measured by their Fear.

When a character is dealt 1 Fear, check off the leftmost blank box on the character’s Fear track.

Each Fear Level has a corresponding penalty (0D, -1D, or -2D) that is applied to all rolls a character makes if he or she is at that Wound Level.

If a character is pushed beyond 3 Fear damage, he or she flees conflict and danger until recovery.

Action Points

You begin with 10 Action Points.

During the campaign, you will have opportunities to purchase more Action Points with your Experience Points.

Movement

A character’s Movement receives a rating based on how fast he or she can move.

Characters begin with a Movement score of 10.

Parry

Defense represents a character’s ability to evade or deflect Melee Skill attacks.

This ability is quoted as a number: 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.

A character’s starting Parry is 0.

Parry can be granted from equipment (like shields) or through Talents, Spells, or the Dodge special combat maneuver.

Armor

Worn armor adds additional protection against Melee and Ranged Skill attacks.

This ability is quoted as a number: 1, 2, 3, etc.

A character’s starting Armor is 0.

Armor can be granted from equipment (like manufactured armor) or sometimes through Talents or Spells.

Injuries

If the character sustains a crippling wound or injury, the gamemaster may apply a special penalty.

List all your character’s unhealed injuries and their effects in this space.

Skill Assignment

Assigning your character’s Skill ranks is the single most important part of character creation.

Skills are categorized into four groups:

Skill Group Domains
Physique Physical power, endurance quickness, and flexibility.
Intellect Mental acuity, knowledge, ingenuity, and wisdom.
Charisma Social prowess, attractiveness, presence, and cunning.
Magic Bending the laws of nature to change matter, influence natural phenomena, and glean special knowledge.

Physique, Intellect, and Charisma Skills

At the time of character creation, you receive three groups of Skill Levels:

15, 12, 9

Assign each of these groups to one of the three non-Magic Skill Groups (Physique, Intellect, and Charisma).

Example: When you build your character, you have three groups of Skill Levels (15, 12, and 9).

You assign 12 Levels to your Physique Skills, 15 Levels to your Intellect Skills, and 9 Levels to your Charisma Skills.

You then assign the following Levels to individual skills within those three groups:

Physique Skills (12 Levels)
Agility 2 Melee 3 Stamina 3
Athletics 2 Ranged 2
Intellect Skills (15 Levels)
Craft/Mend 4 Survival 3 Warfare 2
Perception 3 Trade 3
Charisma Skills (9 Levels)
Command 1 Persuade 2 Willpower 3
Languages 1 Ride/Team 2

Magic Group Skills

When you create your character, you may trade in some of the Levels from your Physique, Intellect, and Charisma skills for Magic Group Skills.

This is done on a 2-for-1 basis: 2 Levels from Physique, Intellect, and Charisma Skills allow you to purchase 1 Level in a Magic Group Skill.

Example: When you create your character, you decide to assign 12 Levels to your Physique Skills, 15 Levels to your Intellect Skills, and 9 Levels to your Charisma Skills.

You then wish to purchase 1 Level in the Alchemy Skill and 1 Level in the Sorcery Skill.

You reduce your Physique, Intellect, and Charisma Skill Levels as follows:

Physique Skills: 11 Levels

Intellect Skills: 13 Levels

Charisma Skills: 8 Levels

For each Level you purchase in a Magic Group Skill at the time of character creation, you also learn 1 Spell of your choice governed by the Skill (as long as the Spell is of a Level you can cast with that Magic Group Skill).

Level Limitations

No Skill may begin at higher than Level 4 at the time of character creation.

Talents

At the time of character creation, you may choose a single Talent from the Talent list found in Section Four.

Free Pick

As the final part of determining your character’s game statistics, you may pick two of the following (you may pick the same option twice):

  • 10 additional Action Points
  • 1 Level in two separate Physique, Intellect, or Charisma Group Skills
  • 1 Level in one Magic Group Skill, plus 1 Spell from that Skill
  • 1 Talent

No Skill may begin higher than Level 4 after these picks are applied.

If the gamemaster wishes to make starting characters more experienced, he or she may allow three or four picks (instead of one) on the table shown above.

Weapons, Armor, and Equipment

The last part of the character creation process is the selection of weapons, armor, and equipment.

Requested Items

You may request any weapons, armor, or equipment from the gamemaster and the gamemaster may choose to grant you any of your requests.

The gamemaster should consider your character’s concept and profession before allowing you to record any weapons, armor, or equipment on your character sheet.

This is left open to a discussion between you and the gamemaster.

The gamemaster shouldn’t allow a day laborer to start the game with a longsword and a shield, for instance (unless you can somehow convince the gamemaster that they’re stolen property kept in secret underneath the floorboards of your character’s hovel).

Likewise, a knight would be remiss with a suit of mail or plate, a lance, mace, and longsword, and probably a hoard of other equipment.

Impromptu Items

Your character sheet doesn’t need to list every material possession or piece of treasure your character has: just what’s on his or her person.

Characters may have stashes of other things—as we all often do—in their homes, places of business, or elsewhere.

These can be invoked, including objects on the person as needed during the campaign, so long as the gamemaster agrees that these are within reason.

For instance, if the adventuring party encounters that a door they are trying to get through is locked, and your character is a spy, even if you don’t have it written down on your character sheet the gamemaster may agree that given his or her profession and background, your character most certainly has a lockpick on his or her person.

From that point forward, you can record that piece of equipment on the character sheet.

Starting Wealth

Gamemasters may wish to give characters a starting amount of coin.

Characters should make Trade Skill rolls, and add the total numerical result of those rolls, then compare the results to the following table:

Profession Multiplier
Lowly x1
Middling x3
High x7

Lowly professions include any unskilled trade, middling professions include skilled trades that are not part of a guild, and high professions are those that belong to a guild.

The character’s numerical roll result is multiplied by the amount on the table based on his or her profession’s status, and this is the starting amount of wealth he or she obtains. This coin comes in the form of silver pennies.

Some of this wealth may take the form of letters of credit from guilds, governments, or wealthy individuals (especially for those of high professions).

Example: Elnowan is a huntress and has Trade 2D.

The gamemaster rules that a huntress is a middling profession.

Elnowan rolls the Trade Skill with a 5 and 3 on the dice (numerical result of 8).

Elnowan begins with 24 silver pennies’ worth of coin.