Character Creation Example

A blog post containing the Character Creation example I am including in my player's character creation packet.

Character Creation Example:

Edward thinks about the setting and decides he wants to play a beggar who is destined for greatness, he likes the idea of starting out hard-scrabble and having his character claw his way to the top.

1. Baseline
   
   1. Edward puts 2 in each of the six stats and one MD in his character's native language, Libertas, the language of the Free Valleys. Edward decides his character is a human, so he puts his extra stat point into KNOWLEDGE because he wants his beggar to be a quick learner.
2. The Roll
   
   1. Edward sets his two allowed dice to ones, to ensure some good beggar prowess, and rolls the other nine, getting the following 11: 1,1,1,2,2,4,6,7,7,8,0
3. Professions
   
   1. With his 3x1, Edward gets Canny Beggar, giving him:
      
      1. 2x1 Lowly Begger (+1 SENSE, +1 Run, +1 Dodge, +1 Plead, +1 Sight)
      2. 3x1 Canny Beggar (+1 Dodge, +1 Fascinate, +1 Endurance, +1 Run +1 Jest)
   2. His 2x2 gives him Petty Thief (+1 COORDINATION, +3 Stealth, +1 Dodge, +1 Run)
   3. Lastly he also got 2x7, giving him Lowly Sage and (+1 KNOWLEDGE, +1 Lore, +2 Languages, +2 Heal)
   4. So far Edward has a character who is great at stealth (3d), running (3d) and dodging (3d) and not bad with Languages (2d)
4. Unusual Experiences
   
   1. After his professions, Edward is left with the following Waste Dice to pick Unusual Experiences from: 4,6,8,10. Consulting the five charts, he picks the following:
   2. With his 4, he goes for Chart D's Raided an Ancient Temple, giving him +2 Climb and a +3 Possession
   3. With his 6 he chooses Vengeance Quest from Chart B, getting +2 to Sword and the first two techniques of a Martial Path. With his excellent Dodge, Edward figures he will pick a path related to Dodge.
   4. Looking at the options for 8, Edward goes with Kidnapped by Barbarians from Chart A, giving him +1 Ride, +1 Endurance, +1 Plead, +2 Language of Your Kidnappers.
   5. Finally, with his 10, he picks Saved Lives from Chart E, liking that it gives him a bit of COMMAND (+1)
5. Organize
   
   1. Edward examines his professions and Unusual Experiences and puts them in a life order:
      
      1. Kidnapped By Barbarians
         
         1. Edward decides his character was a younger boy, just beginning his sword training, when his minor noble family was kidnapped by Desert Nomads in the Ogre Fist Mountains.
      2. Saved Lives
         
         1. Edward decides that his character saw an opportunity for the slaves to escape and was the courageous teenager who led the escape.
      3. Vengeance Quest
         
         1. While enslaved by the desert nomads, another Noble Family in Last Rest took advantage of his family's absence to take over all their properties and holdings, making Edward a penniless beggar. His character's elderly father died in the streets shortly afterward. The Sword skill and Martial Paths would reflect some of his character's noble training before the kidnapping.
      4. Canny Beggar
         
         1. Edward decides that his character knew he couldn't go alone up against the usurping noble family, so while plotting revenge, he became a canny beggar and
      5. Petty Thief
         
         1. The line between beggar and thief can be pretty thin sometimes.
      6. Lowly Sage
         
         1. Edward decides that his character met a poor sage while on the street, who saw potential in Edward's character and taught him some lore and healing. When the sage died, he told Edward's character of a hidden temple of one of the Lost Gods
      7. Raided An Ancient Temple
         
         1. The last thing his character did before the campaign starts, Edward decides, is raiding the ancient temple he learned about from his sage mentor. For the three point possession, Edward takes a Combat Weapon of exquisite quality, a Longsword of obvious quality, that belonged to a noble or hero from long ago. Edward's character won't be able to show it off as a beggar, but later, when he's back on top, it will be a fitting weapon.
6. Freebie Points
   
   1. With a background in mind now, Edward looks at his character's sheet to see what he feels it's missing.
      
      1. He spends 5 points on Skills, putting 1 each into Fight, Parry, Empathy, Scrutinize and Intimidate. He spends 2 on putting an Expert Dice each in Plead, Dodge
      2. He spends 8 points on Advantages, getting the Die With Your Boots On advantage from First Year of Our Reign for 5 point to fight on past his normal limit and 3 points for the Linguist advantage, also from 1YoOR, giving extra XP to improve Language skills and a free point in a language at character creation as Edward likes the idea of his character being a natural at languages.
      3. He also takes this time to pick out his martial path, he chooses the first two levels of the School of the Insouciant Monkey, a Dodge based path, figuring that while the basic sword ability came from training as a noble child, the martial path was from learning to dodge barbarian tankards and rocks on the streets of Last Rest more than from family training.
      4. He splits out his Language points, putting 2 into Libertas, his native language with his free MD, then putting 2 into the Desert Nomad language of his Captors and 2 into Imperial, the language of the Old Empire and the Ashen Lands
7. Passions
   
   1. It takes a little thought, but Edward decides on a Duty and a Craving
      
      1. For his Duty, he takes, “Reduce the Langstorm family to penniless begging.” Edward's character feels it's his duty to do unto the Langstorms , the family that took the place of his family, what they did to his family.
      2. For his Craving Edward decides on “Eat gourmet food as often as you can” Edward decides that his character always remembered the decadent food of his childhood and will foolishly spend extra money (or risk being caught stealing) to eat as well as he can.
8. Name and Description
   
   1. Edward decides on the name Andon Morgansterre. He decides that Andon is small and wiry, and fairly nondescript. Edward does decide that Andon has the piercing emerald eyes that mark the Morgansterre family and that's what the Langstorms will recognize when they're staring down the point of Andon's blade.

Andon Morgansterre

BODY 2                           COORDINATION 3     SENSE 3
Endurance 2                  Climb 2                         Empathy 1
Fight 2                             Dodge 3 + ED               Scrutinize 1
Parry 1                            Ride 1                            Sight 1
Run 3                                Stealth 3
                                           Sword 2


KNOWLEDGE 3              COMMAND 3               CHARM 2
Healing 2                          Intimidate 1                Fascinate 1
Lang: Libertas 2 + MD                                          Jest 1
Lang: Desert 2                                                        Plead 2 + ED
Lang: Imperial 2
Lore 1