Characteristics
Each player creates (Or ‘Generates) his or her own Character. The players have a degree of choice over some aspects of their character, but basic details are determined by rolling dice. These details make the characters different from each other, so that some are faster, others stronger, tougher, and more charismatic and so on. Before creating your character, read through the descriptions of the different ‘Characteristics’ given below. All people are described with the same characteristics, which will allow comparisons to be made later on. Each characteristic defines some aspect of the creature or character – and, taken together, what they are good at…and not so good at.
MOVEMENT – M. This is a number used to determine a creatures’ speed in any given situation. The average M for a unit on foot is six squares, which is roughly twelve meters.
STRENGTH – STR. This is an indication of how powerful a character is physically – not just in combat, but also in regards to how much he can lift, shove, and so on. Characters with a high STR cause considerable damage in a single hit, characters with a low STR relatively little. BARTRE is a good example of a character with high STR, shoving trees over and smashing people to pieces with no problem at all.
MAGIC – MAG. This is an indication of how much magical power flows through the veins of the character, and relates to how powerful their magical attacks are. It is also linked with considerable knowledge of the arcane things, and so can be used outside of combat to perform rituals or solve puzzles. NINO is an example of a character with a high MAG stat in the video games – she’s smart, and has a great deal of power behind her. With time, she could probably perform complex rituals such as teleportation, like Athos.
SKILL – SKL. This determines a character’s ability to fight, reflecting natural aggression, disposition and training. A character with a high Skill is more likely to hit their opponent, or dodge an incoming attack. Skill is also used outside of combat for dexterity-based challenges, such as climbing or picking a lock. NEPHENEE is an example of a character with a high SKL in the video games. She hits more often than not, and frequently gets critical hits.
SPEED – SPD. This determines both a character’s physical speed, and their speed of thought. Speed helps determine the order of combat, and how many times you can hit your opponent in a single round. Outside of combat, your Speed helps you react to situations and perform certain actions, such as jumping onto a racing cart. RUTGER is an example of a character with a high SPD in the video games – he’s able to hit fast, and dodge lots of things.
LUCK – LCK. Luck affects many small things. It is normally added to any skill check, increasing the chances of it succeeding. Knoll is an example of a character with a low LCK score in the video games, and the consequences that come with having a low LCK.
DEFENSE – DEF. A character’s DEF is an indication of its ability to resist damage. It is very hard to damage a creature with a high DEF. However, having a high DEF also means that you are weighed down by your armor, making some actions harder – such as swimming. GATRIE is a perfect example of a character relying on DEF – doesn’t take much damage, but moves slowly and probably can’t swim very well.
RESISTANCE – RES. Resistance is a character’s ability to resist magical attacks, replacing DEF in defending from attacks from a magical source. Outside of combat, a high Resistance also makes it easier to resist the mind-fuddling effects of alcohol or certain poisons. MICAIAH is an example of a good character from the games with a high RES score, as she is merely mildly irritated by most magical attacks.
FELLOWSHIP – FEL. This reflects a character’s social skills, appearance, and ability to empathize, sympathize and generally ‘get on with people’. A character with a high FEL will find it easy to make new friends, and will be able to obtain information from others by carefully steering a conversation. Characters with a low FEL, however, have an amazing talent for saying just the wrong thing, and are always putting their foot in it. They are impervious to hints, unreceptive to atmosphere and completely without tact. ELIWOOD is a good example of a character with a high FEL, as he is not only good-looking (very much so), but also relatable and easy to make friends with.
LEADERSHIP – LD. This characteristic indicates a character’s ability to lead others. A character with a high LD is naturally charismatic, inspiring confidence and loyalty, while a character with a low LD may be relatively indecisive. IKE is a good example of someone with a high LD, but a low FEL, as he may be blunt and not exactly talkative, but he can persuade people to follow him to hell and back.
Class ‘Careers’
For character generation purposes, before you roll up your character, you choose a ‘Career’ that will best suit you playstyle. Anyone from any career can be any class, but there are recommended classes that fit the bonuses given by the careers. There are six kinds of careers:
Warriors: Come from a fighting background. This is not necessarily the military, but will always have involved hand-to-hand combat skills of some kind. For example, Warrior characters are normally Mercenaries, Fighters and Soldiers.
Raiders: Are independent rural characters. Their lives are spent either guarding small settlements on the frontiers of the nations, or raiding said settlements. Raiders are normally Brigands, Pirates and Hunters.
Mages: Mages are characters who feel the flow of magic within them. Their lives are spent either as healers within the temples, or in the service of the military as Combat Magi. They are typically Priests, Anima Mages or Troubadors.
Rogues: Rogues are wandering souls who live freely and do what they want. Their lives are spent moving from one city to the next, getting richer and richer only to spend it on drink and pleasures. They are typically Thieves and Myrmidons.
Knights: Knights are the nobles and higher-up military troops. They live lives based on honor, discipline and combat. They are typically Cavaliers, Wyvern Knights and Pegasus Knights, although some have been Armor Knights as well.
The Profile
When taken together, the characteristics are referred to as a ‘profile’. Each career has a typical profile, which reflects the average values for a member of that career. Of course, different individuals may have characteristics above or below these outside the standard values, but it is still useful to know the profile for an ‘average’ person of each career. A profile is written in three horizontal lines like this:
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD M
Bases x/x x x x x x x x x x x
Grow x% x% x% x% x% x% x% x% x% x% x
New x/x x x x x x x x x x x
The player’s bases are based on their Career averages, but their Growths are determined by their chosen class’ average. Their New scores are their Bases, but upgraded each time they level up – mark these in pencil!
Creating the Character Profile
To create their characters, each player will need a record sheet, some scrap paper and a pencil. A blank record sheet is given at the end of this section, which you can print out beforehand to make sure you have enough record sheets for all players – or you can just make your own on scrap paper.
For each character, you must first decide their Career – Warrior, Raider, Mage, Rogue, Knight or Ranger. Read through their descriptions now. You also pick a gender, name and age for your character now – this can be done at any time during the process.
Once you have decided upon your career, you will be ready to generate his or her characteristics. For each of the characteristics, roll the dice indicated on the following table and note down the result on a piece of scrap paper. It may prove necessary to further modify the various characteristics during the character creation process, so it is not recommended to write the scores straight onto the record sheet. If a modifier would make a result zero or less, it counts as a score of 1.
CAREER WARRIOR RAIDER ROGUE MAGE KNIGHT RANGER
HP 2d10 +20 2d10 +20 2d10+15 d10 + 10 2d10 + 25 2d10+15
STR d10 + 3 d10 + 1 d10 d10 – 1 d10 + 2 d10 + 1
MAG d10 – 5 d10 – 5 d10 - 2 d10 + 3 d10 – 4 d10 - 3
SKL d10 +2 d10 + 1 d10 + 3 d10 +1 d10 + 2 d10 + 2
SPD d10 + 1 d10 d10 + 3 d10 + 1 d10 – 1 d10 + 2
LCK d10 d10 d10 + 1 d10 d10 d10
DEF d10 + 1 d10 – 1 d10 – 1 d10 – 2 d10 + 3 d10
RES d10 – 2 d10 – 5 d10 – 1 d10 + 5 d10 – 5 d10 – 1
FEL d10 + 1 d10 – 2 d10 + 5 d10 – 2 d10 + 1 d10
LD d10 + 1 d10 d10 d10 – 1 d10 + 5 d10 + 6
M 6 6 6 5 5 6
Example: I am going to create a 19-year-old Female Knight named Alyssa Moonsilver. Next, I roll to generate each of her statistics, using the Knight column. At the end of it, Alyssa’s base stats look like this:
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD M
Bases 34/34 6 1 8 5 1 9 2 9 8 5
Alyssa is a fairly average character. She’s skilled, pretty strong, and has a lot of DEF to stave off enemy attacks. Her RES is lacking, but that’s her only problem.
Choosing Class
Within each career, there are a number of Classes available. These classes will then change your character’s base stats, and give them their growth rates, as well as their Weapon Level. The classes will be listed in detail at the end of this chapter.
Warrior: Mercenary, Soldier, Fighter, Archer
Raider: Pirate, Brigand, Nomad
Rogue: Myrmidon, Thief, Dancer
Mage: Anima Mage, Shaman, Monk, Cleric/Priest, Troubador
Knight: Pegasus Knight, Wyvern Knight, Armor Knight, Cavalier
Example: Alyssa, as a Knight, can choose from Pegasus, Wyvern, Armor or Cavalier. I decide to make her a Pegasus Knight, as it’ll show off the base-stat-changes the most. The Pegasus-Knight Base Modifier profile looks like this:
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD M
Bases 0 -2 +1 +1 +2 0 -3 +3 0 0 +1
This leaves Alyssa with the new Base profile, as follows:
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD M
Bases 34/34 4 2 9 7 1 6 5 9 8 6
She’s sacrificed a little DEF in return for some RES, and her SPD has increased at the cost of her STR. The extra M reflects her not wearing as much armor as other characters in the Knight career.
Growth Rates
Classes also have their Growth Rate Plan, which fills in the second row of the Character Profile. There is still some chance for change here, depending on luck, but for the most part they’ll be the same from character to character within the same class. After rolling your dice, you have 20% to spend as you wish across your growth rates, whether to balance something out or make your character excel at something in particular.
Whenever a character levels up, they roll a percentage chance for each of their stats. If they get under their growth rates, that stat goes up one point (Two for HP). If, by some freak chance, a character either got only HP or nothing at all, the player gets to choose one of their stats to boost up a point. This is called the Help Level system, and is a completely optional rule that is there just to prevent some characters becoming obsolete, or help out a stat they are struggling with otherwise.
Example: The Pegasus Knight Growth Rate Plan looks like this:
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD
70+2d10 20+2d10 10+2d10 30+2d10 35+2d10 35+2d10 20+2d10 20+2d10 20+2d10 20+2d10
After some quick dice-rolling, Alyssa’s Growth Rates look like this:
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD
84% 27% 27% 40% 54% 43% 22% 29% 36% 31%
Now, here’s what it looks like with my 20% applied. I like to spread it to four different stats as 5% increases, but you don’t have to. I decide to give Alyssa +5% to SKL and SPD as she’s already good there, and boost her DEF – her lowest stat right now – along with some more LD, as that comes in useful outside of combat.
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD
84% 27% 27% 45% 59% 43% 27% 29% 36% 36%
Good GOD, that’s a high SPD growth, amiright? I was a bit luck here and there, but for the most part this turned out pretty balanced. A few problems with STR might crop up here and there, but that can be sorted out by simply throwing a few Help Levels at it if my dicerolling sucks too hard at one point.
Choosing a Skill
Each class has a list of skills that you can choose from, and innate skills that all members of that class have, such as Ride: Horse for Cavaliers. You can select one of these skills for your character to have, as well as any innate skills the class provides.
Example: The Pegasus Knight skills that we can choose from include Vantage, Adept, Savior and Imbue. Because she’s got a fairly high Skill score, Adept should activate quite often, but only at later levels. Vantage is useful in a pinch, as does Imbue, but she’s got a fairly low Magic so it won’t be affecting her as much in the earlier levels. Savior, however, will let her take advantage of her Pegasus and help out the party in the early levels by pulling the mage or healer out of the fight if it gets a bit dodgy, so we’re going with that. The Innate Pegasus Knight skills are, of course, Ride: Pegasus and Canto.
Trappings
Trappings is the fancy word for what’s in a characters backpack. Similar to the Tellius games in the franchise, characters can have four Weapons in their inventory, and four other items on their person. Additional items can be stored in saddlebags or carts, which will be explained more in the Items section. Each class has their own list of trappings that all characters of that class start with.
Example: Alyssa Moonsilver, as a Pegasus Knight, has access to the following trappings: A Slim Lance as her first weapon, an Herb, and a Young Pegasus, which you need to check the Mounts chapter for further information. You get to name your mounts, so I shall be calling this Young Pegasus Aeronautica Imperialis.
What? Okay, so I’m a Warhammer 40,000 geek, don’t judge me.
Each player creates (Or ‘Generates) his or her own Character. The players have a degree of choice over some aspects of their character, but basic details are determined by rolling dice. These details make the characters different from each other, so that some are faster, others stronger, tougher, and more charismatic and so on. Before creating your character, read through the descriptions of the different ‘Characteristics’ given below. All people are described with the same characteristics, which will allow comparisons to be made later on. Each characteristic defines some aspect of the creature or character – and, taken together, what they are good at…and not so good at.
MOVEMENT – M. This is a number used to determine a creatures’ speed in any given situation. The average M for a unit on foot is six squares, which is roughly twelve meters.
STRENGTH – STR. This is an indication of how powerful a character is physically – not just in combat, but also in regards to how much he can lift, shove, and so on. Characters with a high STR cause considerable damage in a single hit, characters with a low STR relatively little. BARTRE is a good example of a character with high STR, shoving trees over and smashing people to pieces with no problem at all.
MAGIC – MAG. This is an indication of how much magical power flows through the veins of the character, and relates to how powerful their magical attacks are. It is also linked with considerable knowledge of the arcane things, and so can be used outside of combat to perform rituals or solve puzzles. NINO is an example of a character with a high MAG stat in the video games – she’s smart, and has a great deal of power behind her. With time, she could probably perform complex rituals such as teleportation, like Athos.
SKILL – SKL. This determines a character’s ability to fight, reflecting natural aggression, disposition and training. A character with a high Skill is more likely to hit their opponent, or dodge an incoming attack. Skill is also used outside of combat for dexterity-based challenges, such as climbing or picking a lock. NEPHENEE is an example of a character with a high SKL in the video games. She hits more often than not, and frequently gets critical hits.
SPEED – SPD. This determines both a character’s physical speed, and their speed of thought. Speed helps determine the order of combat, and how many times you can hit your opponent in a single round. Outside of combat, your Speed helps you react to situations and perform certain actions, such as jumping onto a racing cart. RUTGER is an example of a character with a high SPD in the video games – he’s able to hit fast, and dodge lots of things.
LUCK – LCK. Luck affects many small things. It is normally added to any skill check, increasing the chances of it succeeding. Knoll is an example of a character with a low LCK score in the video games, and the consequences that come with having a low LCK.
DEFENSE – DEF. A character’s DEF is an indication of its ability to resist damage. It is very hard to damage a creature with a high DEF. However, having a high DEF also means that you are weighed down by your armor, making some actions harder – such as swimming. GATRIE is a perfect example of a character relying on DEF – doesn’t take much damage, but moves slowly and probably can’t swim very well.
RESISTANCE – RES. Resistance is a character’s ability to resist magical attacks, replacing DEF in defending from attacks from a magical source. Outside of combat, a high Resistance also makes it easier to resist the mind-fuddling effects of alcohol or certain poisons. MICAIAH is an example of a good character from the games with a high RES score, as she is merely mildly irritated by most magical attacks.
FELLOWSHIP – FEL. This reflects a character’s social skills, appearance, and ability to empathize, sympathize and generally ‘get on with people’. A character with a high FEL will find it easy to make new friends, and will be able to obtain information from others by carefully steering a conversation. Characters with a low FEL, however, have an amazing talent for saying just the wrong thing, and are always putting their foot in it. They are impervious to hints, unreceptive to atmosphere and completely without tact. ELIWOOD is a good example of a character with a high FEL, as he is not only good-looking (very much so), but also relatable and easy to make friends with.
LEADERSHIP – LD. This characteristic indicates a character’s ability to lead others. A character with a high LD is naturally charismatic, inspiring confidence and loyalty, while a character with a low LD may be relatively indecisive. IKE is a good example of someone with a high LD, but a low FEL, as he may be blunt and not exactly talkative, but he can persuade people to follow him to hell and back.
Class ‘Careers’
For character generation purposes, before you roll up your character, you choose a ‘Career’ that will best suit you playstyle. Anyone from any career can be any class, but there are recommended classes that fit the bonuses given by the careers. There are six kinds of careers:
Warriors: Come from a fighting background. This is not necessarily the military, but will always have involved hand-to-hand combat skills of some kind. For example, Warrior characters are normally Mercenaries, Fighters and Soldiers.
Raiders: Are independent rural characters. Their lives are spent either guarding small settlements on the frontiers of the nations, or raiding said settlements. Raiders are normally Brigands, Pirates and Hunters.
Mages: Mages are characters who feel the flow of magic within them. Their lives are spent either as healers within the temples, or in the service of the military as Combat Magi. They are typically Priests, Anima Mages or Troubadors.
Rogues: Rogues are wandering souls who live freely and do what they want. Their lives are spent moving from one city to the next, getting richer and richer only to spend it on drink and pleasures. They are typically Thieves and Myrmidons.
Knights: Knights are the nobles and higher-up military troops. They live lives based on honor, discipline and combat. They are typically Cavaliers, Wyvern Knights and Pegasus Knights, although some have been Armor Knights as well.
The Profile
When taken together, the characteristics are referred to as a ‘profile’. Each career has a typical profile, which reflects the average values for a member of that career. Of course, different individuals may have characteristics above or below these outside the standard values, but it is still useful to know the profile for an ‘average’ person of each career. A profile is written in three horizontal lines like this:
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD M
Bases x/x x x x x x x x x x x
Grow x% x% x% x% x% x% x% x% x% x% x
New x/x x x x x x x x x x x
The player’s bases are based on their Career averages, but their Growths are determined by their chosen class’ average. Their New scores are their Bases, but upgraded each time they level up – mark these in pencil!
Creating the Character Profile
To create their characters, each player will need a record sheet, some scrap paper and a pencil. A blank record sheet is given at the end of this section, which you can print out beforehand to make sure you have enough record sheets for all players – or you can just make your own on scrap paper.
For each character, you must first decide their Career – Warrior, Raider, Mage, Rogue, Knight or Ranger. Read through their descriptions now. You also pick a gender, name and age for your character now – this can be done at any time during the process.
Once you have decided upon your career, you will be ready to generate his or her characteristics. For each of the characteristics, roll the dice indicated on the following table and note down the result on a piece of scrap paper. It may prove necessary to further modify the various characteristics during the character creation process, so it is not recommended to write the scores straight onto the record sheet. If a modifier would make a result zero or less, it counts as a score of 1.
CAREER WARRIOR RAIDER ROGUE MAGE KNIGHT RANGER
HP 2d10 +20 2d10 +20 2d10+15 d10 + 10 2d10 + 25 2d10+15
STR d10 + 3 d10 + 1 d10 d10 – 1 d10 + 2 d10 + 1
MAG d10 – 5 d10 – 5 d10 - 2 d10 + 3 d10 – 4 d10 - 3
SKL d10 +2 d10 + 1 d10 + 3 d10 +1 d10 + 2 d10 + 2
SPD d10 + 1 d10 d10 + 3 d10 + 1 d10 – 1 d10 + 2
LCK d10 d10 d10 + 1 d10 d10 d10
DEF d10 + 1 d10 – 1 d10 – 1 d10 – 2 d10 + 3 d10
RES d10 – 2 d10 – 5 d10 – 1 d10 + 5 d10 – 5 d10 – 1
FEL d10 + 1 d10 – 2 d10 + 5 d10 – 2 d10 + 1 d10
LD d10 + 1 d10 d10 d10 – 1 d10 + 5 d10 + 6
M 6 6 6 5 5 6
Example: I am going to create a 19-year-old Female Knight named Alyssa Moonsilver. Next, I roll to generate each of her statistics, using the Knight column. At the end of it, Alyssa’s base stats look like this:
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD M
Bases 34/34 6 1 8 5 1 9 2 9 8 5
Alyssa is a fairly average character. She’s skilled, pretty strong, and has a lot of DEF to stave off enemy attacks. Her RES is lacking, but that’s her only problem.
Choosing Class
Within each career, there are a number of Classes available. These classes will then change your character’s base stats, and give them their growth rates, as well as their Weapon Level. The classes will be listed in detail at the end of this chapter.
Warrior: Mercenary, Soldier, Fighter, Archer
Raider: Pirate, Brigand, Nomad
Rogue: Myrmidon, Thief, Dancer
Mage: Anima Mage, Shaman, Monk, Cleric/Priest, Troubador
Knight: Pegasus Knight, Wyvern Knight, Armor Knight, Cavalier
Example: Alyssa, as a Knight, can choose from Pegasus, Wyvern, Armor or Cavalier. I decide to make her a Pegasus Knight, as it’ll show off the base-stat-changes the most. The Pegasus-Knight Base Modifier profile looks like this:
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD M
Bases 0 -2 +1 +1 +2 0 -3 +3 0 0 +1
This leaves Alyssa with the new Base profile, as follows:
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD M
Bases 34/34 4 2 9 7 1 6 5 9 8 6
She’s sacrificed a little DEF in return for some RES, and her SPD has increased at the cost of her STR. The extra M reflects her not wearing as much armor as other characters in the Knight career.
Growth Rates
Classes also have their Growth Rate Plan, which fills in the second row of the Character Profile. There is still some chance for change here, depending on luck, but for the most part they’ll be the same from character to character within the same class. After rolling your dice, you have 20% to spend as you wish across your growth rates, whether to balance something out or make your character excel at something in particular.
Whenever a character levels up, they roll a percentage chance for each of their stats. If they get under their growth rates, that stat goes up one point (Two for HP). If, by some freak chance, a character either got only HP or nothing at all, the player gets to choose one of their stats to boost up a point. This is called the Help Level system, and is a completely optional rule that is there just to prevent some characters becoming obsolete, or help out a stat they are struggling with otherwise.
Example: The Pegasus Knight Growth Rate Plan looks like this:
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD
70+2d10 20+2d10 10+2d10 30+2d10 35+2d10 35+2d10 20+2d10 20+2d10 20+2d10 20+2d10
After some quick dice-rolling, Alyssa’s Growth Rates look like this:
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD
84% 27% 27% 40% 54% 43% 22% 29% 36% 31%
Now, here’s what it looks like with my 20% applied. I like to spread it to four different stats as 5% increases, but you don’t have to. I decide to give Alyssa +5% to SKL and SPD as she’s already good there, and boost her DEF – her lowest stat right now – along with some more LD, as that comes in useful outside of combat.
HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES FEL LD
84% 27% 27% 45% 59% 43% 27% 29% 36% 36%
Good GOD, that’s a high SPD growth, amiright? I was a bit luck here and there, but for the most part this turned out pretty balanced. A few problems with STR might crop up here and there, but that can be sorted out by simply throwing a few Help Levels at it if my dicerolling sucks too hard at one point.
Choosing a Skill
Each class has a list of skills that you can choose from, and innate skills that all members of that class have, such as Ride: Horse for Cavaliers. You can select one of these skills for your character to have, as well as any innate skills the class provides.
Example: The Pegasus Knight skills that we can choose from include Vantage, Adept, Savior and Imbue. Because she’s got a fairly high Skill score, Adept should activate quite often, but only at later levels. Vantage is useful in a pinch, as does Imbue, but she’s got a fairly low Magic so it won’t be affecting her as much in the earlier levels. Savior, however, will let her take advantage of her Pegasus and help out the party in the early levels by pulling the mage or healer out of the fight if it gets a bit dodgy, so we’re going with that. The Innate Pegasus Knight skills are, of course, Ride: Pegasus and Canto.
Trappings
Trappings is the fancy word for what’s in a characters backpack. Similar to the Tellius games in the franchise, characters can have four Weapons in their inventory, and four other items on their person. Additional items can be stored in saddlebags or carts, which will be explained more in the Items section. Each class has their own list of trappings that all characters of that class start with.
Example: Alyssa Moonsilver, as a Pegasus Knight, has access to the following trappings: A Slim Lance as her first weapon, an Herb, and a Young Pegasus, which you need to check the Mounts chapter for further information. You get to name your mounts, so I shall be calling this Young Pegasus Aeronautica Imperialis.
What? Okay, so I’m a Warhammer 40,000 geek, don’t judge me.