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Character
Generation
“All
the world’s a stage, and we are just actors in it.”
----William
Shakespeare
The first step in creating a character is to start with a basic
concept. Would you prefer to play
a tough dwarven fighter who is unstoppable with a
crossbow or a wily human rouge that lives by his
wits rather than the sword? The
concept can be as complex as being based on a character from a series of
novels or even based on yourself to as simple as a
big dude with a big sword. Your
original concept may be different from the end result.
Your character may evolve and develop as you create it.
The next item on the agenda is your species/race.
In terms of a fantasy game, race usually refers to species rather than
skin tone—being 8 feet tall and having pointed ears and fangs are generally
considered greater racial differences than the slight coloration differences
between two humans. Your attribute
scores are determined by your race, as are certain special abilities and
characteristics that typify your species.
Just record the attribute number for now; don't worry about the specifics
(i.e. armour class bonuses, saving throw bonuses, etc.) for now. These
numbers could quite easily change. You will also get to customize
your attributes somewhat by choosing an orientation that best fits your
character concept: mental,
physical, social, or well-rounded. These
orientations grant bonuses to your attribute totals (see the Character
Development chapter).
Then you determine your character’s background.
You start with several default backgrounds:
lower class, Formourian,
never seen combat, and never left town.
You then roll 1D8 to find the number of backgrounds your character
starts with—and roll each on the random background table.
You may choose up to 3 to remove or trade them from the “Player’s
Choice of Backgrounds” list.
Traits come next.
These are the things make people looking at your character sheet say,
“How in the hell did you get away with that?”
Roll 2D6+4 to determine the number of traits your character has.
Then roll each from the random table—you have the option of
discarding or trading up to 4 from the “Player’s Choice of Traits” list.
Now you determine how your character interacts with those around him or
her (or it). Choose contacts,
determine status and titles—if applicable—and worry about
your lack of starting reputation. These
are detailed in the Interaction
chapter. Now would be a good time to
record the specific features of your attributes (orientation, saving throw
bonuses, etc.).
The next step in character generation is choosing skills
and/or a character class.
Multiple classes may be gained if you are smart enough (i.e. have a
high enough knowledge rating). Left
over skill levels may be used to purchase any skills that the Game Master will
allow.
Now is when you begin to fill in all the gaps on your character sheet:
physical description, disposition, and morality.
(See the Development
chapter.) Also figure your combat
statistics, and work out any other remaining details—such as your name if
you forgot to come up with one earlier (always the hard part for veteran
gamers).
Almost done; now go
shopping. Your backgrounds (lower
class is the default if you do not have anything that replaces it) will
determine your starting funds and goods. Typical resources for someone
of 'lower class' would be the clothes on their back and the bare minimum tools
for their occupation (i.e. hammer & saw for a carpenter, a blacksmith's
forge would be unwarranted for the same carpenter, even if she also had that
skill). These items do not require any of your spending money. With
this, you may buy all of the equipment that you think that you can get away
with. Knowing the right people who
can give you lower prices or better quality—or even knowing who would have a
particular item for sale—greatly helps here.
Game Masters secretly enjoy not letting someone start the game with
weapons or armour; just let her know that one of your contacts is an armorer
without peer, and can not only get your full plate at a reduced cost, but can
increase the base armour class as well as a customized paint-job.
It is recommended that purchasing equipment be done during play—it is
your character’s first opportunity to interact and role-play.
You must do one last thing: customize
your character. This is where you
adjust your character to better fit your original
concept, although advancing your character is one of the best parts of
role-playing (right after killing and breaking stuff).
Run any desired changes past your Game Master first (trust me, this is
a good idea—he or she may give you more goodies than you expected).
Game Masters love the ‘creative freedom’ crap; that’s why they’re
willing to run games. Why add this
last step? Simple, given a
reasonable, well thought out, twink-free character
generation system, any munchkin worthy of the name
will twist the rules to create der Obercharakter
of his dreams anyway. Taking away
the joy of finding loopholes in the rules for munchkining
characters focuses you on the personality and actual role-play rather
than… and… why are you laughing? All
that work on game balance and we just throw it all away.
1.
Concept
2.
Race/Species
3.
Attributes: based on race
4.
Background: 1D8 trade 3
5.
Traits: 2D6+4 trade 4
6.
Contacts, Status, Titles, Reputation
7.
Class and Skills
8.
Physical Description
9.
Disposition and Morality
10.
Combat Statistics
11.
Name? You need one now
12.
Equipment
13.
Customize and adjust
It couldn’t hurt to write out a history of your character.
Where do you come from, who are your parents, who are your friends, and
so forth. Try
to make this at least moderately believable.
This will help flesh-out your character’s personality.
Use it to explain the ability scores that they have, and what they
mean.
The following questions should help you get started:
Where was your character born?
Where did he grow up? Where
does he live now?
Who were his parents?
Are his parents still alive? What
did his parents do for a living?
Does he have any brothers or sisters?
Where do his siblings live? What
do his siblings do? Are they still
alive?
Who were his friends?
Are they still his friends? Who
are his friends now?
Why did he choose adventuring?
What’s wrong with you?
Why is he so physically—mentally—socially
able (or not)?
What is the most important thing in
his life?
What things does he hate?
What things does he love? Any
favourite foods? What about
hobbies?
Is he loyal to his nation, his
family, and his friends?
Does he have any odd characteristics, speech, identifying marks, or other things that stand out? “Do you have any tattoos, Brad?” Why not?
What
are your goals, both as a player and as a character?
What would he say if you asked him
what he was like?
Character history is a great place to begin developing the role-playing
of your character. It also gives a
Game Master a good place to start adventures from because it will let him know
how you view your character and work him or her into the game.
Anything that can enhance the game as much as
character history should not be overlooked.