Character Creation
After we're both clear on what the character is like and how he fits into the world, you can start putting some numbers onto paper. Concentrate on your theme and don't worry about what you can't do - you'll be on a team and don't need to be able to do everything. Jot down the skills and abilities you'd like to have and come up with a few disadvantages, some background and a personality. Then come talk with me again.
I'll probably have some comments and a lot of questions, so be prepared to explain your concept and justify your abilities and disadvantages. You should also have at least some idea how to answer questions like:
This is probably the hardest part of creating a character - you need something you're excited about and I need something that fits into my campaign world. Don't worry about balancing points until we agree on a concept as we'll have to talk anyway and may change your initial concept. Also, keep in mind that you as a player are more important than my preconceived notions of how the game will proceed. Don't be afraid to stand up and argue for a character you really want to play - I won't hold it against you and the extra work I do to change the world around the character will probably be worth it.
If you want something difficult (like a merman or dryad) you'll have to come up with a good background story, including your home society and how it came about that you're out wandering the world. Yes, you still get the +5 Points for it, but we'll have to work together to fit it into the campaign.
For that matter, you can pretty much come up with your home society / country / clan / whatever - if you want to be from a clan of dwarves that lives in the Such-and-So Mountains and specializes in weaponsmithing, write it up and let me look at it. I very much like having my campaign world built for me and will likely use it. As with character origins I'll be careful about what I allow and imply in my world (such as technology), but please feel free to give me ideas.
| Natives | This is an extremely broad category that includes Lithgar's five major sentient races (dragons, dwarves, merfolk, orks and skaven) as well as the dozens of lesser ones such as goblins, halflings, gnomes, giants, lizardmen, minotaurs and indeed, just about every steriotypically fantasy race except elves and humans. All of them a racial package, several have special rules, and a few are prohibited (like mature dragons). |
|---|---|
| One of the elvish attempt to pierce the dimensional barrier and escape their exile resulted in a backlash that seized natives from another world and transported them to Lithgar. Hundreds of thousands of humans were taken from real-life Earth and transplanted to a new world - houses, pets, cultures and all. Aztecs from 1400 AD, Babylonians from 2000 BC, Norsemen from 1000 AD, Chinese from 2200 BC, Romans from 100 BC, Sioux from 1800 AD and Japanese from 1300 AD - entire villages of these people suddenly found themselves on Lithgar. Some did not contain a viable gene pool while others were destroyed or absorbed into a nearby civilization, but many survived and prospered. There is no definitive list of transported cultures and players may come from just about any real-life preindustrial culture. | |
| Forbidden | |
| Elves | Elves are a dimension-traveling race who made a stopover on Lithgar, thousands of years ago. Due to
internal politics some of them stayed behind when the rest moved on. They have proven too few to conquer
the planet and not quite powerful enough to follow their bretheren, but they have consolidated their hold
on several choice regions and accept tribute from many of their neighbors.
Elves are physically powerful, do not age and are some of the most dangerous beings on the planet. Loyalty to their family is the leading elven trait, arrogance the next. They take great pains to revenge themselves for any slight, real or imagined, and follow an intricate honor system that to outsiders seems highly subjective. They are are also one of the most magically-oriented race on Lithgar, capable of some of the most powerful and complex magics known. Players may not be elves. The elven racial package includes a 20-point loyalty disad and a 15-point Odious Personal Habit disad, which would preclude the character from being in most adventures. If you really, really want to be an elf, let me know and write a three-page background history that explains how you (or your parents / guardians) got away from elvish society. You'll have a Hunted to replace the loyalty disad (that you'll get points for) and severe social penalties (which you get for free). Elves are not nice people and nobody really likes them (including other Elves). |
| Other | Players may not be aliens, demons, angels, deities sentenced to the mortal realm, or indeed any blood relation to a supreme being. Cross-dimensional refugees, ancient survivors from the distant past, amnesiac polymorphs and accidents concerning time and/or dimensional travel will be consitered, as will other unique and once-in-a-lifetime incidents. I will be very careful about what your character's origin implies, and will not allow any campaign-altering forces (like an active alien civilization in the next star system). And remember, just because I don't want something in my campaign doesn't mean you can't talk me into it - you're just going to have to work at it. |
Package bonuses do not exist. Most characters will not have any non-racial powers (such as infravision for elves). Players who want powers above and beyond those of mortal men should prepare an outstanding background story and expect to do a lot of convincing.
Magic is a special case, and spellcasters have a few requirements detailed on the Magic page.
| Package | Appropriate Skills & Disadvantages (character points) |
|---|---|
| Blacksmith | Profession: blacksmith (5), 13 STR (3), 11 CON (2), Reputation 8- (-5) |
| Farmer | Profession: farmer (5), 11 STR (1), 12 CON (4) |
| Hunter | Profession: hunter (5), 14 DEX (12), 4 Skill Levels: bow (8), Navigation (2), Survival (2), Tracking (3) |
| Knight | Profession: knight (5), 15 STR (5), 14 DEX (12), 13 CON (6), 13 PRE (3), High Society (3), Riding (3), Combat Skills (~40), Knight (2), Reputation 8- (-5), Code of Honor (-15) |
| Thief | Profession: thief (5), Stealth (3), Security Systems (3), Reputation 8- (-5) |
| Rulebook | I have a copy of the Hero System Fifth Edition (First Printing), and that's all I have. While you're free to take ideas from books like Fantasy Hero, The Turakian Age and The Ultimate Martial Artist, I'll look at skills and abilities in the context of the restrictions I've posted here. Just because something's been printed doesn't mean I'll allow it. |
|---|---|
| Points | You have 50 points base and the following package. I'm doing Everyman skills this way so you
can buy them up more cheaply (i.e. the full Survival skill would only cost you 2 more points, not 3). If
these aren't appropriate for your character, make up an equivalent list and let me look it over.
Package: Everyman Skills This is what your starting character sheet should look like. You also get:
|
| Disadvantages | You have 10 points in assigned disadvantages and may take up to 40 more
with up to 25 points from any one catagory. All characters have:
Keep in mind that the characters are new, inexperienced and relatively unknown. That means no DNPCs, Hunteds, Reputations or similar disads may be greater than an 8- roll, and no Public IDs. Keep in mind that any really competant Hunted (such as the Assassin's Guild) would probably have already gotten you. |
| Skills | You should probably buy a Weapon Familiarity or two, and a high Survival skill is quite
useful. After that your skills depend on your background. You should take a
profession, a hobby or two and perhaps a few
languages. There will be a substantial amount of role-playing
in the campaign and you'll need to know how to do more than fight.
Characters are not masters in their professions and no skill may start at more than 15-. This is done in part to avoid super-competant beginning characters, partly to encourage a wide spread of skills, and partly to give your characters ways to advance. If your character concept requires a high initial skill, talk to me and we can work something out. You may buy two skill levels of any type. |
| Abilities | Adventurers are generally better than most people, but they're not superhuman and your stats should reflect that. Any stat that's at or near the racial maximum but not within the character concept will need to be justified. That said, being intelligent is good; 3 points gets you a 12- base roll for Perception and all INT-based skills. It also gives me a justification when I want to give your characters a hint or clue you're missing. |
| Equipment | Characters will not pay points for anything that can get taken away from them.
Your starting equipment will be appropriate to your background, and you will not pay for
weapons, armor, equipment or magic items acquired as the game progresses. Because of this
I will feel very little guilt in taking things away from you, either. There may be items
that cannot be taken away (a paladin's horse, soulbound weapons and the like) and you will
pay points for them.
I also have no intention of requiring a player to list out every single item he's carrying and it's weight. I will assume you have competant characters and have packed all the logical items for the current mission. Special items such as mirrors, spell components, money and magic items should be tracked, but I'm not big into unnecessary detail. If there's a question I'll have you make an INT or Profession roll to see if you remembered to pack it. |
|
Sample Opponents
Skilled Normals (25 base, 25 in disads, 50 total points): Competant Normals (50 base, 50 in disads, 100 total): | |
Then we need to add your character to the campaign and get started on intertwining plotlines. That's mostly my problem, but I'd like to know how you see your character growing over the next game year. Five years? More to the point in game terms, what would you do with 50 experience points? 100? What skills and abilities do you want to develop?
And lastly, what kind of adventures do you think you'd have the most fun with? You'll run into a wide variety of situations anyway, but what would you as a player like to see? Remember: the more background you come up with, the more plot harpoons I can sink into your character, the more involved you'll be in the campaign and the more fun we all have.
Warning! Things will happen in my game that may appear to break the rules - you will encounter powers and abilities that you are not allowed to have, don't understand and can't figure out how to deal with. Likewise, you are likely to meet people and/or devices with powers such as extra-dimensional travel or future seeing. Sometimes you'll see things that are not even buildable by the Hero rules or break the character-building guidelines I've set.
Life is not fair, and a game that simulates life need not be either. As heroes you have access to powers that ordinary people do not. If I think it will make a good story and is appropriate to the genre then I consider it legitimate, especially if it requires the players to use means other than brute force.
Trust me a little, here. It's a fine line between maintaining game balance by keeping the heroes less than all-powerful, and being arbitrarily unfair. I'll do my best to let the characters develop and become more influential but I don't want life to be a walk in the park, either. I'll need feedback. Let me know how I'm doing, how you think the campaign is going and what you'd like to see. Don't expect to enjoy everything that happens, but I'd like you to at least think I'm being equally unfair.