Creation

Creating a character is fairly easy, but requires many choices. There are 10 steps to character creation:

1. Determine your Attributes.
2. Choose your Race.
3. Choose your Starting Package.
4. Determine your character’s back story and goals. This is important as it will frame how you allocate skill points and other resources.
5. Choose your Pantheon/Deities as well as Alignment.
6. Allocate your Skill Points for your Race and Starting Package.
7. Choose your Aspects for your Race and Starting Package.
8. Choose your Powers for your Race and Starting Package.
9. Roll your starting Hit Points for your Race and Starting Package.
10. Buy your clothing and starting equipment.
11. Calculate your defenses, attack and damage modifiers, etc. based on your skills and equipment.

When you have done this, your character is ready to play! In order to help you along, we have created a number of characters in Appendix C for your viewing.

Determine your Attributes

Your Attributes are the foundation of each of your Skills and they affect all aspects of game play. Read the Attribute Chapter carefully, and review the Skill chapter as well, as your attributes directly affect all your skills.

Choose your Race

Please choose your race from the races chapter of this book. Each race is carefully balanced. Some races offer racial specific Powers and Aspects that become quite powerful later on. Other races are stronger or weaker, faster or slower, more intelligent or less intelligent, or more charismatic or more gruff than other classes. It all depends on what you as a player envision for your character.

Choose your Starting Package

Select one of the Starting Packages from the Starting Packages chapter of this book. Each starting package represents the training and experience you had before the opening of this story. Perhaps you were trained in combat as a guard or soldier, or as a thief, scout, arcane apprentice, or divine dedicant. Perhaps you were an elf unlocking and developing your racial abilities in your homeland. Either way, you are selecting the general training and experience you had before the adventure begins. A Starting Package is slightly more powerful than three levels of training, and represents yourheroic back story. The average village guard would be a human with perhaps a level or two of combat experience. As an adventurer, your combat experience and knowledge is superior than that. Every starting package starts you off as a CLM 3 creature.

Determine your Back Story

This is likely the most important part. Were you rich or poor? Did you survive in the wilderness using your own skills? Did you feed your family by brawling on the street? Perhaps you spent your years learning from old tomes not once needing the defense of a dagger or protection of armor. What goals does your character seek, and what motivates your character? All of this will help you choose which Skills you want to enhance, which Powers you wish to select for how you handle combat, and which Aspects you wish to take to enhance your character. It would be wise to note what direction and talents your fellow players will also be taking. Too many archers and no warrior to stand defensively to guard them would leave you all vulnerable. A spell caster might not stand very long without adequate protection of a warrior against a steel blade.

Choose your Pantheon/Deities as well as Alignment

If you are a divine class, you must choose a deity or pantheon, and you must choose an alignment. If you are starting off with any other Starting Package, then you can choose to be unaligned, and you may determine what pantheon/deities your character will honor.

Allocate Skill Points

You will have a number of skill advancements that you can choose to place on your own. Please keep in mind what aspects and powers you wish to select, as the skill advancements may preclude you from those choices. Racial skill advancements (those granted by your race) are tracked separately from your Starting Package skill points which are tracked with your Standard Scale skill advancements.

Choose your Aspects

Each Race and Starting Package grants you a select number of starting Aspects to enhance your character. Choose your Aspects from the ones available to you based on your Race, Class, and Skills.

Choose your Powers

Each Race and Starting Package grants you a select number of starting Powers. Choose your Powers from the ones available to you based on your Race, Class, Skills, and Aspects.

Determine Hit Points

Each Race and Starting Package grants you a specified number of Hit Points. A fraction of your Hit Points is randomly determined, so you will roll some dice for this! The information is repeated in the chapter on Advancement and Experience, but the formula is simply:

Buy Equipment

Each Race and Starting Package grants you a specific amount of resources and coinage to buy equipment and items. Will you carry a bow? Make sure to buy one and purchase some arrows as well! If you don’t spend all your coinage don’t worry... you should have ample opportunities as your character develops to improve and resupply your goods.

Fill in the blanks.

While your skills have been calculated, you need to fill in the blanks of your character to make certain that the information is complete. What are your defenses? What are the attack and damage modifiers for each of your weapons? What spells do you know? This is the time to carefully review your information so that the game moves quickly!

Character Advancement

Your character will gain experience through adventuring, solving riddles, liberating treasure, defeating your enemies, and hopefully through lots and lots of role playing. When you have gained enough experience, you will go up a level (as determined by the next page). You will start out at level 0, and when you have earned 100 experience (EXP), you will advance to the next level.

When your character advances, you need to consider what you accomplished during this last level and what you wish to accomplish in your following levels. If you had a character building account arguing with an ogre, perhaps you should consider advancing your Cunning Skill the next time you get a skill advancement. Or perhaps your character wants to be able to follow discreet signs of passage that most cannot see... this would be achieving the Aspect of Track. The first step is to look at the level you just attained, and determine what benefits you gain. At level 4 you gain a single Power of your choice. At level 5 you gain both an advancement in 1 Skill and you gain an Aspect.

Experience Points (EPS)

As you play the game, you will solve milestones that will earn you an experience reward called EPS (pronounced “eeps”). Each milestone could be an encounter, a trap or puzzle, or completing a task or quest. Any EPS reward that is given is added to your current total and then compared to the Level Advancement Chart on the following page to determine if you have gained enough EPS to advance. For every 100 EPS you receive, you advance a level. Typically you will receive between 1 to 5 EPS award for each milestone you complete, and another 0 to 5 EPS for role playing your traits during that milestone. If the test is particularly challenging you should add a few more points to that particular award. In the Standard Scale, milestones can be as simple as clearing out a room or a dungeon, or having an audience with the king. As you advance into the Heroic Scale, the expectations should be a bit higher... perhaps clearing out the level of a dungeon or a keep, or saving the village by killing a particularly dangerous beast. The Epic Scale should have even more challenging milestones. Perhaps routing a keep of fire giants would be a single milestone. In the Astral Scale, the milestones are all set out by the divinities. Assembling the 5 fragments of a broken sword would be considered 5 milestones, even if each fragment is a full nights adventure!

You should expect in a normal progression to receive about 50-80 EPS in a 4 hour session in the Standard Scale, about 20-40 EPS per 4 hour session in the Heroic Scale, about 10-20 EPS per session in the Epic Scale, and on average 5-10 EPS per evening session in the Astral Scale. In general, it is best to look at the role playing and challenge aspects as being completely separate. A challenge of 1 would be easy, a 3 standard, and a challenge of 5 would be very difficult indeed. You should consider adding an additional 1 or 2 points to the challenge depending on how well the challenge supports the plot line, etc.. The challenge award is given equally to each member of the adventure. The same applies for role playing. If a character plays their character well, but without developing the story line of their character, award a single point (or none if appropriate). If they develop their character and story line, award 3 points. Finally, if they really invest in their character in a rich and memorable way, award 5 points.

Standard, Heroic, Epic, and Astral Scale

The game is divided into 4 scales. Each scale presents a different kind of story. You have a limitation of three advancements to a single skill in any scale (including the skill points you receive from your starting package, but not your base race. More details on this restriction are presented in the Skills chapter). With each scale, the beasts you face will become stronger, your opponents will be more powerful, and the challenges you face will more and more be the source of legend. The 4 scales are:

Standard Scale. You are the saviors of a village, solve difficult mysteries, and protect merchant shipments. Perhaps you may even take on the local baron, travel to a neighboring kingdom to protect a dignitary. In the Standard Scale, the story focuses on individual villages or events. You will be called on to perform heroic deeds as well, but you know your limits.

Heroic Scale. You have risen to the defense of a kingdom. Perhaps you are an emissary for the King or Queen to a foreign land. You will be called upon to defeat or tame beasts that would send peasants and village guards running from their homes. You may venture into distant lands in the pursuit of lost artifacts and legends.

Epic Scale. You have entered the realm of legend. Kingdoms welcome or fear your presence as you take on opponents that threaten the whole kingdom, or even usurp a throne and take it for your own. In the Epic Scale, you have the attention of the deities of your world, and few mortals would consider themselves your master. Your adventures may even take you to realms beyond the known world, even the elemental planes.

Astral Scale. You have entered the realm of legend. Kingdoms welcome or fear your presence as you take on opponents that threaten the whole kingdom, or even usurp a throne and take it for your own. In the Astral Scale, you have the attention of the deities of your world, and few mortals would consider themselves your master. You may grow to challenge a deity and defeat them on a plane far removed from the world you know. In this scale, you unlock your destiny and carve a place for yourselves among the stars.

Gaining a level

When you gain a level by earning enough experience, you have an opportunity to become stronger in most every part of your character. Gaining a level represents the course of training over this past time, and shows your development on one path or another. Wish to learn a new trade? Perhaps you have been developing your arcane or divine knowledge? Or maybe you have been noticing your elven powers starting to develop more into what was whispered in legend. Gaining a level is easy, but does require a bit of bookkeeping to update all the parts of your character that are affected. In order to gain a level, you should do the following:

Choose which part of your character you wish to advance.

You may advance your race, your class, or any template your character has achieved. If you are a Combat 3 Human 0, you may advance to be level 4 of Combat, or level 1 of Human, or become level 1 in something completely different (your GM should approve of your advancement). These levels matter for determining what Aspects, Powers, and Templates you can incorporate into your character in the future, so pick wisely! Advancing your class or race doesn’t restrict you as to what powers, aspects, or skills you must choose in these next steps. They only enable you in selecting what Powers or Aspects you qualify for.

Adjust your Character Level Modifier (CLM)

Your Character Level Modifier is half your total Character Level rounded down as a bonus. With your starting package, you have a CLM of +1. If you are Divine 4/Combat 3/Woodland Elf 3, your CLM would be ( 4 + 3 + 3 ) / 2 = CLM +5. Every other level, your CLM increases by 1. There are many parts of your character that benefit from a higher CLM, go ahead and change them now!

Reference the table for your Character Level and gain the benefits specified therein.

Reference the table on the next page and locate the row of your new Character Level, and add the benefits you receive to your character.

If you can advance a Skill, you choose any single Skill on your skills list and advance that by one (point). If your skill had 2 points, it now has 3. You can only advance a skill three times in any scale. For example, you could increase your Athletics Skill 1, 2 , or 3 times in the Standard Scale, but not 4. So the maximum modifier in any scale would be +3. This does not include skill advances gained from your chosen race (note that skill advancements granted from the racial starting package or class starting package are part of the Standard Scale.

If you gain an Aspect or Power, review the appropriate chapter and choose a single Aspect or Power as appropriate. That Aspect or Power is now part of your character. Note that you must qualify for that Aspect or Power, just like when you created your character. For example, if your total Athletics modifier was +3, you would not qualify for a Power that requires Athletics +4, but you would qualify for a Athletics +3 Power. If you are a Human 0, you cannot qualify for a Human 2 Aspect.

Adjust your Hit Points, Aspects and Powers, and Defenses.

Your Skills, Powers, and Aspects have changed. Make certain that these changes are reflected in all the parts of your character!

Congratulations, you are done!

Character Level Advancement Table

Multi-classing

This game is designed for you to be able to freely take multiple classes without restriction. There may be some consequences of adding a new class, just like there can be consequences for adding a new Aspect to your portfolio. For instance, your divine alignment may decree that you cannot use arcane levels or knowledge. If you do, you will suffer at the very least a Divine Sanction (discussed later). However, some alignments encourage arcane knowledge and aspects!

Your class levels decree very little except what aspects and powers you may qualify for. If you play a scout, you may need more than just the Stealth class in your portfolio. Perhaps some Combat training is in order to more effectively utilize your weapons. Perhaps some Trade knowledge is in order so you can become more skilled at being a merchant and appraise items. Or perhaps you wish to dabble a bit in the arcane or align yourself with a deity of thievery and cast spells. You can do it all.

There is a subtle cost to multi-classing. Many class powers and aspects are available at higher levels that you will have to wait a bit longer to add to your portfolio. Some require a certain level of achievement in a class that you may be impossible to attain. On the other hand, some Heroic Aspects, such as the Bard, requires diversity in your classes in order to add the Aspect to your portfolio!

The best strategy is to try and plan long term. Figure out where you want to be, and plan your class and skill advancements, aspects, and powers accordingly.

You may also find that your racial powers and aspects compliment your goals as well. A Fleece scout with a hawk animal companion can be great at scouting the terrain ahead from the sky. Perhaps this can be represented as a Fleece 3/Stealth 3/Combat 6 character with a CLM of 12.