Character Creation Information

## Joining the Monsterhearts University Out of Character

If you have read the Introduction to the MHU Game, have read and agree to our Social Rules and Safety Tools and wish to join the group, please go to #assign-your-roles-here on the One Shot Club Discord and assign yourself the **@mhu student** role. This will allow you to get all pings and updates from the MHU game. Feel free to also introduce yourself in **#mhu-main** which is the central hub for communication about the Monsterhearts University game.

## Character Creation for New, Current, and Returning Players

All players seeking to create a new player character (PC) should contact the GM team. GMs will work with the players who are interested in creating new characters to schedule a time for a character creation session. Prior to a character creation session, players should have a strong idea of the character and the playbook that they would like to play. It is best to communicate ideas for upcoming new characters with the GM team so that they can monitor for conflicts with other players’ plans.

To ensure variety among the narratives at MHU and to allow each player to explore their own character arc in a unique way we have limits set on the number of each playbook that can be active at any given time. The limit of the number of each playbook and the current number of active players using that playbook can be found **here**. The playbooks of characters played by players who are currently marked as “Inactive” do not count to the overall total. Transitions between playbooks and between these previous statuses may mean that a cap for a given playbook is temporarily exceeded, which is permissible. However, players will not be allowed to create a new character to exceed the playbook cap.

Players are allowed to have only one active PC at MHU at any given time. Current players who wish to create a new character will need to remove their old character whether this is through established game mechanics such as death, through expulsion or graduation, or by simply declaring that character’s story to be over outside of the roleplay mechanics. Exceptions may be made for brief overlaps of PCs in the event that there is a scheduling issue between one character’s intended exit and another character’s creation session, but at no point will a player be actively playing two PCs.

Custom “homebrew” playbooks may be used if they have received the approval of the GM team. Currently approved custom playbooks can be found **here**. Custom playbooks may be removed from this list if the GMs find that it doesn’t work in open table play, if it crosses any group-wide Lines or Veils

## Character Creation Sessions

All players must go through a character creation session prior to participating in other MHU games or events with their PCs. Character creation sessions will be scheduled routinely at the beginning of any given season and during other periods of open recruitment for the game and by request during other times. To request a character creation session, contact the GMs. To find out about existing character creation sessions, monitor the Google Calendar and the **#mhu-announcements** channel. To sign up for a character creation session, contact the GM who is scheduled to run that session.

Character creation sessions will broadly follow the character creation and “Preparing to Play” process described in the Monsterhearts Core Book. Players should have a playbook selected and confirmed with the GM in advance of the session and should have a general idea of how they plan on filling out their characters playbook. If characters need help with this in advance of the session, they should consult the Monsterhearts Core Book, contact the GM, or discuss the topic in **#mhu-main** or #powered-by-the-apocalypse The nature of our game allows for the following tweaks to the character creation process.

* If there are remaining seats at the table for the character creation session, existing PCs may join the First Session part of that session with the GM’s permission.
* Players may choose for their PC’s relationship questions to connect them to existing members of MHU if they have that player’s consent.

After a PC has been through a character creation session they are considered to be a full-fledged member of MHU and are able to sign up for other sessions and events. Your attendance at Monsterheart University starts now!

## Required Documentation for New Characters

There are two places where players are required to keep documentation on their characters. Both of these will be created for them at the time of their character creation session and are the player’s responsibility from that point forward.

**Roll 20 Character Sheets** are the official place for keeping track of all of your characters stats, moves, advancements, conditions, and Strings. Given the size and intricacy of the MHU Game it is essential that every player reliably keep track of these for themselves throughout that PC’s lifespan. While players may choose to keep their character’s Roll20 “Bio & Info” complete and updated, their character sheet must be accurate as this information is not stored anywhere else.

**Google Document “GM Docs”** are a more freeform way of players sharing information with the GMs about their PCs. The documents will be created so that all GMs will have access to each PC’s document. There is not a prescribed format for keeping these, but this should be where players convey important biographical and background information, including information that they may wish to keep secret from other players. Most importantly though, they should note which NPCs are important to their character, and what goals and wishes they have for their character.

## Suggested Optional Documentation for New Characters

The **MHU Wiki Page** is a community-run endeavor to try to have as comprehensive as possible of a database of in-universe lore and information. While it is generally open to all to edit (and in practice is open to all edits) our rule is that each player is the sole keeper of their own PC’s wiki pages. When creating your own PC Wiki page, please use this template created by Alice & Mallory.

**#mhu-new-characters** is a channel for introducing your new character to the server. The only posts that go in this channel are the introductions of new characters so that all existing players can get a sense for who is joining the team.