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 | 0D |
| Armor | 0D |
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 three groups (not counting Afterlife Skills, which are addressed separately, in a later section).
| Skill Group | Domains |
| Physique | Physical power, endurance quickness, and flexibility. |
| Intellect | Mental acuity, knowledge, ingenuity, and wisdom. |
| Charisma | Social prowess, attractiveness, presence, and cunning. |
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 quantities to one of each of the three Skill groups.
| 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, Athletics 2, Melee 3, Ranged 2, Stamina 3 Intellect Skills (15 Levels) Craft/Mend 4, Perception 3, Survival 3, Trade 3, Warfare 2 Charisma Skills (9 Levels) Command 1, Languages 1, Persuade 2, Ride/Team 2, Willpower 3 |
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.
Second Life & Afterlife Skills
The gamemaster may allow your character to begin the game as a “Dead Man”.If you begin the game this way, mark “Yes” on the Powers space provided on your character sheet.
When this occurs, you:
- Gain access to the automatic Powers: Awareness, Knowledge, and Immunity.
- Roll for a Derangement. Write your Derangement down on your character sheet in the space provided. Alternatively, with the gamemaster’s permission, you may choose a Derangement instead of rolling.
- Apply 4 Skill Levels to the Afterlife Skills as you choose, on a one-for-one basis: Expression, Might, Will.
- Check to see if your new Levels in the Afterlife Skills qualify you for any Powers: if they do, check them off on your character sheet.
Free Picks
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). If you do not begin the game as a “Dead Man”, pick none instead.
- 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.
All Dead Men that live in “The Band” near The Source begin with no coin. The community maintains a small stash of coin from foreign lands to use for rare sojourns into the outside world.
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: Arna is a merchant and has Trade 4D.The gamemaster rules that a merchant is a “high” profession.
Arna rolls the Trade Skill with a 5, 4, 4, and 3 on the dice (numerical result of 16). Arna begins with 112 silver pennies’ worth of coin. |