Choosing a Folk

Depending on the setting of your game, you might have several playable Folk or Species to choose from when creating your Character. Your Character might be a human, or a fantastical creature, an alien, a robot or something else entirely. Whatever you pick, you’ll usually get some Traits and Abilities. Make a note of these.

Determining Stats and Skills

Next, you’ll need to determine how many Energy Points you have per Stat pool and what Skills you possess. This can be accomplished in one of two ways: by using the 8 dice method or choosing Experiences.

8 Dice Method

Take 8d6. You will need these to determine how many Energy Points your Character has in each Stat pool. You have two options:

• Option 1 is to distribute the 8d6 across the four Stats.
  For example, Player A puts 3d6 in Wits, 2d6 in Stamina, 1d6 in Dexterity, and 2d6 in Sociability.
  Next, roll the dice for each Stat to get your Pool of Energy Points for each Stat.
  Player A’s Character now has 10 EP in Wits, 7 in Stamina, 5 in Dexterity, and 8 in Sociability.
• Option 2 is to roll all 8d6 together to generate a single pool of Energy Points, before distributing the points across your four Stats.
  For example, Player B rolls their 8d6, and gets a total of 37 EP. They then distribute those points across their Stats, putting 7 EP into Wits, 10 into Stamina, 11 into Dexterity, and 9 into Sociability.

Regarding Skills, your Character can start their adventure with any 8 Skills of their choice. Alternatively, the Guide may provide a list of career paths or areas of expertise, that each come with 4 assigned Skills. For example, an expertise in technology or engineering could come with the Skills of hacking, programming, repairing technology and building technology. The Player may then select another 4 Skills of their choice, not necessarily tied to their expertise, for a total of 8 Skills.

Choosing Experiences

This method is recommended for Players who enjoy coming up with a detailed backstory for their Character, and want that background to directly affect their Character build. Start with 1d6 per Stat, then choose from the list of Experiences that will add dice to each Stat, afford Skills, and sometimes Advantages or Disadvantages.

Age

To determine how many Experiences and Skills your Character starts their Adventure with, you must first determine their Age. There are three Age categories: Young, Adult and Elderly.

• A Young Character starts with 6 Experiences and 6 Skills,
• An Adult Character starts with 8 Experiences and 10 Skills,
• An Elderly Character starts with 10 Experiences and 8 Skills.

Building your Character from Experiences

You can read through the list and create a backstory for your Character as you go, or attempt to find the Experiences that best match the events of a backstory you have already prepared. The same Experience may be chosen more than once. Once you have determined how many d6 you have per Stat, roll those dice to determine how many Energy Points are in each Stat pool. See the end of this Chapter for a full list of Experiences.

Example Experience

I have travelled to survive +1d6 to STA or DEX, Skill (choose one): Finding the means to survive OR Finding shelter / accommodation. For whatever reason - a natural disaster, conflict, punishment or persecution - you have moved from place to place just to survive. Whether you were travelling alone or with others, you have skills in finding what you need to live in various environments, wild or not.

Adding or Substituting Skills

If a Character has all their Experiences but still has fewer Skills than allowed, they may add more Skills by deducting one Point from the most relevant Stat pool (1 EP = 1 Skill). For example, if a Character wants to have a Skill in Medicine, they may choose to deduct one Point from their Wits Stat pool, in order to learn that Skill. Conversely, if a Character could technically still acquire more Skills from their Experiences, but already has their maximum allotted amount of Skills, they may substitute an existing Skill for a new one.

Defence

A Character’s Defence score is determined by their armour and equipment, and represents how many times they can negate the Hurt Condition, even if they fail to evade an attack or harmful event. For example, if a Character has 2 Defence, their armour or equipment can take two hits, before the Character becomes Hurt.

Equipment

Finally, decide what kind of Equipment your Character has with them, including any Mobility Aids, Medication, Armour, Shields or Weapons.

Mobility Aids

Your Character may be disabled and use a Mobility Aid (e.g. wheelchair, walker) and/or Prosthesis (e.g. artificial limb). As these items of Equipment primarily function to ensure the Character can perform any and all actions an abled Character can, they do not have a separate mechanical rule set within this system. They are to be considered parts of their body. From a narrative perspective, these aids might have varying levels of technological sophistication or material costs. They might also be equipped for Combat, by adding weapons or a shield. A Mobility Aid or Prosthesis can be equipped with a maximum of 1 weapon and 1 shield.

Medication

For a disability that requires medicinal treatment rather than a mobility aid or prosthesis, you should discuss and determine the following with your Guide:

• What kind of medication does your Character require?
• How easy is it to acquire?
• How often does your Character need to take it?
• Do the symptoms - if untreated - have roleplaying implications?

Armour and Shields

Using Armour and Shields requires some degree of training, represented by requirements, depending on which method of Character Creation was used. Additionally, they are categorised based on material weight and sturdiness: Light, Medium and Heavy. These will depend on the materials available in the world of the game’s setting.

• Light Armour = 1 Defence
  (Requires 1 Martial Experience / minimum 10 EP in STA or DEX)
• Medium Armour = 2 Defence
  (Requires 2 Martial Experiences / minimum 14 EP in STA or DEX)
• Heavy Armour = 3 Defence
  (Requires 3 Martial Experiences / minimum 18 EP in STA or DEX, Disadvantage on DEX Actions).
• Shield = 1 Defence, while raised.

Any Armour or Shield that has taken its allotted number of hits must be repaired before it can be used again. Once repaired, the Character’s Defence will reset to its original number. Armour and Shields will require a number of days to repair equal to their Defence score (e.g. Light Armour will require 1 day to repair, Medium Armour will require 2, etc.)

Weapons

Weapons are also categorised into Light, Medium and Heavy. Weapons can be used to inflict the Hurt or Blocked Conditions.

• Light Weapons = any particularly small weapon (e.g. claws, fangs, daggers, hand-axes, etc.)
• Medium Weapons = any weapon that can be wielded both one and two-handed (e.g. spears, short-swords, clubs, bows, etc.)
• Heavy Weapons = any weapon that requires at least two hands to be used (e.g. broadswords, great hammers, heavy crossbows, etc.)

Special Items

Throughout the course of an Adventure, the Characters may encounter or acquire a variety of rare or powerful items, with singular properties. These items, designed by the Guide or provided with a pre-written setting, may have one or more of the following effects:

• Restores 1d6 Points to one or more Stat pools,
• Causes a temporary or permanent Condition upon a Character,
• Affords a Character a temporary or permanent Vulnerability, Resistance or Immunity,
• Affords a Character a temporary or permanent Ability they would not otherwise possess,
• Affords Advantage on certain Actions,
• Re-roll Test for Luck rolls.

Goals

It is important to have a clear idea of what motivates your Character’s journey and what they are working towards. Having one or more Goals established for the Character not only increases role-playing potential, but gives the Guide an extra opportunity to give an extra reward during Progression, if a Goal is reached. Once one Goal has been achieved, you may give your Character a new one to aim for.

Bonds

Depending on your Character’s background and/or Experiences, they might know some important NPCs, or even have an existing relationship with one or more of their fellow PCs. Are these relationships positive or negative?

Known Languages

Depending on the game’s setting, the Player might have a wide variety of Languages to choose from. If the game’s setting has no common lingua franca, it is important to consider what languages it would make most sense for the PC to communicate in.