Characters

Character creation. Work through the steps in order, turning a one-sentence concept into characteristics, attributes, skills, Improvement Points, equipment, and Hero Points. Also known as character concept, create a character, STR CON DEX SIZ INT POW CHA, characteristic points, HP MWL PP, damage modifier, Combat Order, skill points, base skills, starting skill allocation, starting equipment, starting money, character age, Hero Points, Major Wound, Wounded Bleeding Dying, avoid death.

Concept

Write one sentence that says who the character is, what they are good at, and what drives them. Let it guide later choices, but change it if a better character emerges.

Compare concepts with the other players, and check that each fits the planned campaign. A varied group has more ways to solve problems.

Examples. A foolhardy veteran seeking glory; an observant caravan scout paying an old debt; a disgraced courtier surviving by wit.

Characteristics

Every character has seven characteristics.

Point allocation

Start every characteristic at 8, then distribute 30 points among them. The maximum during creation is 18.

You can lower characteristics to reclaim points. INT and SIZ cannot start below 7, and every other characteristic cannot start below 3.

Random characters

Instead, you can roll. For STR, CON, DEX, POW, and CHA, roll 4D6 and drop the lowest die. For INT and SIZ, roll 3D6, drop the lowest die, and add 6. After all seven rolls, you can swap one pair.

Attributes

Calculate attributes after assigning characteristics. Round as usual: to the nearest whole number, with exact halves up.

Hit Points and Major Wounds

Hit Points measure how much injury a character can take. Always calculate MWL from maximum HP, even after losing HP. A single post-armour hit that equals or exceeds MWL causes a Major Wound.

Power Points

Power Points fuel Shaping and other abilities that state a PP cost. They cannot exceed maximum PP.

Each complete two hours of rest restores a quarter of maximum PP, rounded normally: POW 3 recovers 1 PP per period, and POW 9 recovers 2. Eight hours of rest restores all PP. At 0 PP, living characters fall unconscious until they regain PP; nonliving characters stay active unless stated otherwise.

Damage Modifier

Add the Damage Modifier to close-combat, unarmed, and thrown-weapon damage.

Starting skills

Every character has all general skills. A skill with a subject in brackets, such as Craft (type), is a separate skill for each chosen subject.

Expertise

Base skills

Allocate points

Add each pool to skills in its category. During creation, add no more than 30 points to any one skill, and no skill can exceed 100%.

Trading points for IP. You can remove up to 20 points from each of the Resistance, Combat, and Practical pools. Every 5 points removed gives 1 IP, up to 4 IP per category and 12 IP in total. These bonus IP can raise characteristics or buy Talents, but cannot raise skills.

Starting as a Shaper. Reserve the 20 IP before allocating skill points; see Becoming a Shaper.

Starting Improvement Points

Begin with 10 Improvement Points. Spend them on improvements or available Talents, including Shaping for a character who begins play as a Shaper. Characteristics stay capped at 18 during creation.

Equipment and details

Begin with 4D6 × 10 Silver Pieces and choose one package:

• leather armour, a ranged weapon, a two-handed close-combat weapon, and a dagger; or
• leather armour, a shield, a ranged weapon, a one-handed close-combat weapon, and a dagger.

Every character also has a backpack, 10 metres of rope, two weeks of travelling provisions, flint and tinder, and a waterskin. The Gamemaster can allow purchases from starting money before play.

Finishing details

Name the character and note their appearance, background, personality, loyalties, and immediate goal. A few concrete details are enough to begin.

Human characters normally begin between 18 and 28 years old. Roll 2D6 + 16 for a random starting age.

Hero Points

Player Characters begin with 2 Hero Points. The Gamemaster awards more for major achievements and genuinely heroic play. Spend a Hero Point when you declare its effect; spent points are gone.

Spending Hero Points

Spend 1 Hero Point for one of these effects:

• Reroll: reroll a failed test and use the new result.
• Downgrade a Major Wound: keep the full HP loss, but gain no Wounded or Bleeding from that hit.
• Avoid Death: at 0 HP, fall stably unconscious instead of Dying. You are not Bleeding, wake after the scene with 1 HP, and stay Wounded if you already were.
• Story benefit: with the Gamemaster’s approval, establish a plausible favourable detail or coincidence. Larger changes can need several Hero Points, including points from other characters.

Rerolls. Each test allows at most one reroll, whatever its source. Declare a reroll after seeing the result but before applying consequences, costs, or Backlash; the new result stands. A Fumble also counts as a failed test, so effects that apply to failed tests, such as rerolls, apply to it.

Wounds. Downgrading a Major Wound does not cancel the 0 HP rule: if the damage you keep takes you to 0 HP, Avoid Death costs another Hero Point. Damage and Wounds covers Major Wounds, Bleeding, Dying, and treatment.

Improvement. Spend IP between adventures to improve each skill at most once, raise eligible characteristics, or buy Talents; skills and human characteristics cap at 100% and 21 respectively. Also known as Improvement Points, IP, advance skills.

The Gamemaster awards Improvement Points for achievements and completed adventures. Unspent IP carry forward. A practical award is 3–5 IP per adventure: 3 for modest progress, 4 for a completed adventure, or 5 for a major achievement.

Improve a skill

Spend 1 IP to improve one skill. Each skill can be improved only once between adventures, and its score before the increase sets the gain.

A skill at 100% cannot be improved, and no skill can exceed 100%. A gain cannot pass 100%: a skill at 98% improves to 100%, losing the excess.

Improve a characteristic

Spend 5 IP to raise one characteristic by 1. SIZ cannot be improved this way. No characteristic can exceed the character’s racial maximum: 21 for humans, with recommended nonhuman maxima under Fantasy Races.

After the increase, recalculate derived attributes such as HP, MWL, maximum PP, Damage Modifier, Combat Order, and a Shaper’s Active Magnitude limit. Skills keep their current scores; bases set skills only at creation.

Buy Talents

Talents provide trained exceptions and advanced manoeuvres. Pay the listed IP cost and meet any prerequisite. This includes Shaping. New Technique·Form cells have their own IP costs, while the Shaping skill improves normally.

Practice and research

Three months of suitable practice or research earns 1 IP, with the Gamemaster’s approval.