Introduction to Character Creation

Character creation is one of the most fun and rewarding parts of the game! It's also very easy, although it could possibly take a full game session to do it because there are so many options and ways to customize the character to your liking.

## Step One - Come up with something!

The first and most important step is for everyone to decide what type of a world and setting they want to play. As a group, everyone should decide what type of a world they exist in and what type of characters they would want to be in such a world. All players should be familiar enough with such a world that they will know what types of characters might be useful there and what types of things they will be expected to do with their character.

Synergy is also very important. The characters don't have to know each other before they meet for the first time in the opening scene of the game, but the players should discuss beforehand what type of character they want to play and how they feel the characters will be able to work together efficiently.

Before you even pick up a character sheet and a pencil, think hard about who and what you want to be. Get a good mental image going of what type of person (if it's even a person!) this is and what they are capable of. Figure out a bit of their backstory, where they came from, and what they did before starting on their adventures. Got that mental picture? Good, let's get started!

*Pat wants to make a Wizard character. The character is an older man who has studied and practiced magick for many years but only recently has decided to leave the comfort of their home to go adventuring, looking for deeper meaning than can be found in their old tomes. Pat thinks for a bit and gets a clear image of the character in their head.*

## Step Two - Development Levels

There are five Development Levels the Game Wizard may choose from for the players. Ordinarily, most player characters will start at **Inexperienced** level, and the Game Wizard may choose a player to have a higher-level character to help lead the others. The Development Level indicates how many points the character will have for Positive Characteristics. These ranks are:

**Development Levels**
 Veteran Level | 100, and no limit on characteristic slots. +1 to two attributes or +2 to one attribute. Characteristics max out at ten ranks.

*Pat's Game Wizard decides that all the other players should be Inexperienced, but this Wizard will be their guide, since he is both studied and capable. As a result, the Game Wizard offers Pat Up-and-Coming Level, giving 50 Development Points to spend, five Positive Characteristic slots, and one bonus to any attribute.*

## Step Three - Assigning Attributes

There are twelve attributes in the Wizard's Tale. That seems like a lot more than most other tabletop RPG's, but it allows for a huge range of actions. Each of the twelve signify a major part of every individual's physical, mental, and spiritual abilities. These twelve attributes all start at 4 (four) points, and by taking away one you may add to another.

In each case, a rank of 4 in any attribute is exactly average for any regular human being. Each attribute must have at least 1 (one) point in it, and a regular human being cannot start with more than 7 (seven) points in any attribute.

**Alternative Method:** Rather than using the allocation method above, you can take 48 points and distribute them among the 12 attributes.

The Attributes are:

1. Strength (STR)
2. Agility (AGL)
3. Dexterity (DEX)
4. Fortitude (FOR)
5. Reflexes (REF)
6. Intellect (INT)
7. Willpower (WLP)
8. Perception (PRC)
9. Intuition (NTU)
10. Concentration (CON)
11. Persona (PER)
12. Luck (LCK)

*Pat decides the character will be relatively slow and weak, having spent their entire lives studying. The physical attributes are dropped a bit to make sure there is enough for the mental and spiritual ones. The character's Intellect should be relatively high, since they have learned so much, but Willpower (which is also important to magick) will not be as high, considering their skill comes mainly from study and not from practice. Perception is lower, since the character is an old man, but Intuition is raised since the character has learned to look at things with more than just their physical eyes. Concentration should be high too, as the character spends a lot of time meditating, but Persona is low because they spend more time around books than people, and Luck is almost nothing, because the character trusts more to their skill.*

*In the end, Pat's attributes look like this: STR: 3 AGL: 3 DEX: 4 FOR: 3 REF: 3 INT: 7 WLP: 6 PRC: 3 NTU: 6 CON: 6 PER: 3 LCK: 1*

*They take their +1 attribute from having a higher Development Level and applies it to Intellect, giving the wizard 8 total INT.*

## Step Four - Select Positive Characteristics

Characteristics are specializations that a character has spent their lives studying or practicing, or in some cases which have come naturally to them, and so have better capabilities than most others who try to use them. Not having an ability doesn't mean that you can't perform the ability at all, but rather that you simply have no special skill in that area. For example, everyone can pick up driving fairly easily, considering most 16 year old kids can do so, but someone who has specifically trained in driving a vehicle, such as a race car driver, will *always* be successful over someone who has not barring some unforeseen issue. In some cases, the Game Wizard may even make someone without the characteristic roll to do something someone who does have it wouldn't have to. For example, an experienced pilot may not have to roll to take off and land unless the situation calls for it, but the Wizard may have someone who has never flown before roll to do so since their chances of failure are so much higher.

Each character gets to select a number of Categories equal to the number of Characteristic Slots they are allowed at that level. For example, an Inexperienced character may have 4, per the table above. Each one of these major categories costs 5 points and opens up the ability to purchase any of the Positive Characteristics inside that category. The categories are as follows:

* Artist
* Athlete
* Brutish
* Charismatic
* Clever
* Craftsman
* Cybernetic
* Demolitionist
* Devotee
* Educated
* Engineer
* Entrepreneur
* Fighter
* Flexible
* Gearhead
* Healer
* Magician
* Marksman
* Metahuman
* Naturalist
* Nerd
* Nonhuman Species
* Occultist
* Organization
* Parapsychologist
* Perceptive
* Pet
* Psion
* Religious
* Rich
* Scientist
* Sensitive
* Street Rat
* Supernatural Entity
* Super Science
* Survivalist
* Trainer
* Traveled
* Willful

Each one of these categories indicates either that a period of the character's life has been spent in the pursuit of that ability or it's something that comes naturally to the character.

*Pat chooses the following five characteristic categories: Clever, Educated, Healer, Magician, Naturalist, and Occultist. At five points apiece, this costs 25 DP.*

## Step Five - Choose Starting Specializations

Specializations are those Positive Characteristics which you have specifically trained yourself in during your life up to this point, or again, things that come naturally to you. Go through the lists under each category of characteristics you chose and write down all the items you feel would apply to the character you have in your head on your character sheet. Just writing them down doesn't cost any points, so write down as many as you feel apply to your character regardless of how much you think it may cost.

*Pat chooses the following specializations under the categories that were chosen. These are:*

***Clever**: Cunning Linguist, Deduction, Outwit*

***Educated**: Comparative Religion, History, Literature, Mythology*

***Healer**: First Aid, Toxicology*

***Magician**: Blessing, Charm, Glamoury, Light*

***Naturalist**: Animal Empathy, Apothecary, Gardening, Green Thumb, Wortcunning*

***Occultist**: Arcane Knowledge, Magick, Fetishism, Incantation, Symbology, Correspondences, Ancient Manuscripts, Ancient Languages*

## Step Six - Choose Negative Characteristics

Just like the Positive Characteristics that make your character better, stronger, and more skillful, there are Negative Characteristics you may obtain that cause you a bit of difficulty but offer more points to spend on character creation and a chance to gain more Development Points through play. These are the only way to earn DP, so make sure you give your character at least one!

Just like Positive Characteristics, these categories are worth five points each, but in this case, you GET five DP to spend on positives! Any character may only have a total of two Negative Categories regardless of Development Level.

The Negative Categories are:

* Addicted
* Crazy
* Failing Sense
* Outsider
* Permanent Injury
* Sickly
* Troubled
* Unlucky
* Victim
* Wide-Eyed

*For Negatives, Pat chooses Failing Sense and Sickly. At 5 points each, the wizard character will now have an additional 10 points to spend.*

## Step Seven - Purchase Positives and Negatives

Now is the time to purchase those Positive and Negative Specializations you want your character to have under the categories of Positive and Negative Characteristics you chose. Remember that for each Positive Characteristic you purchase, it costs 5 DP, and for each Negative Characteristic you take, you get 5 extra DP back to spend on other things.

With whatever points you have left, you can purchase ranks of Positive Characteristics, and if you take ranks in any Negative Characteristic, you get the amount of DP you would have spent if it were positive back to be spent elsewhere. Each rank costs as much as the rank you are trying to raise it to (rank one costs 1 DP, rank 4 costs 4 DP, etc.) and you must purchase all the ranks before the one you are trying to obtain. The following table shows how much each rank costs and how many total DP it would cost to raise a Positive Characteristic to that rank. The table may also be used to show how many DP you can earn by taking negative characteristics.

Just so it's painfully clear... You buy A Characteristic for 5 points. Under that Characteristic, you select all the Specializations you want at rank 0. To raise one of them to rank 1, it costs one point. To raise it to rank 2, it costs *two more points,* so a total of three. To buy it at rank 3 costs 3 more, so now we're at 6. Rank 4 costs 4, bringing it to 10. Rank 5 costs 5, bringing it to 15. And so on...

Once you are out of Development Points (you can save DP if you want to use it later, but it's probably best to use them all now), your character is generally done. Only a couple more basic steps remain.

*Pat started with 50 DP to spend. After buying 5 Positives, this brought it down 25 points (to 25), and with the two Negative categories, this gives 10 back, leaving Pat with a current total of 35 DP left to spend. Pat spends as follows:*

*Cunning Linguist 1, Deduction 1, Outwit 1, Comparative Religion 2, History 1, Literature 1, Mythology 2, First Aid 1, Toxicology 1, Blessing 1, Charm 2, Glamoury 2, Light 1, Animal Empathy 1, Apothecary 1, Gardening 1, Green Thumb 1, Wortcunning 1, Arcane Knowledge 2, Magick 3, Fetishism 1, Incantation 1, Symbology 1, Correspondences 1, Ancient Manuscripts 1, Ancient Languages 2, for a total of 43 points.*

*If you add the 35 points from purchasing Characteristics, Pat is at 78 points. This leaves Pat 28 points over, which means the remaining points will have to be made up through Negatives. As a result, Pat chooses the following Negatives:*

*Failing Sense: Deaf 2, Blind 3, Night Blind 2 (13 total)*

*Sickly: Elderly 2, Frail 2, Cirrhosis 4 (16 total)*

*This leaves the character completely balanced, with no more DP to spend.*

## Step Eight - Derived Attributes

There are several special attributes that are derived from the ones you already have assigned. You just should be aware of what they are and write them on your character sheet for later.

* **Action Points**: Your AP is equal to your Reflexes score.
* **Movement Speed**: You may move a number of feet each time you spend an AP equal to your Agility score.
* **Encumbrance**: You may carry a number of pounds of weight equal to your Strength score multiplied by 25.
* Lifting Capacity: You may lift an amount of weight equal to your Strength score multiplied by 75.
* **Starting Funds**: You have a number of Funding Points to spend on equipment equal to the number of starting Development Points you had based on your Development Level.

*Pat looks over the character sheet for their Wizard and calculates he has 3 AP, can move 3 feet per AP spent, can carry a total of 75 pounds and lift a total of 225 pounds, and begins with 50 Funding Points to spend on starting equipment.*

## Step Nine - Starting Equipment

The next to last thing you have to do is purchase your equipment. As long as the combined weight of your equipment doesn't exceed your standard Encumbrance and you can tell the Game Wizard exactly where every piece of equipment is stored, you can have anything at all you want that you and the Game Wizard agree are things your character would most likely have on them.

If the items don't give you any particular benefit, such as the clothes on your back or an heirloom from your great grandfather, and if they match the other criteria given above, there is no reason to have to purchase any of them. However, in the case of things like weapons, armor, special equipment, technology or magical items, pets or familiars, vehicles, or other things that could give the character a special benefit or advantage during the course of the game, it must be purchased using Funding Points (FP).

Just like with Positive Characteristics, a single piece of Equipment costs five FP to purchase outright, and then any additional modifications can be purchased using FP as though it were DP and you were purchasing ranks in a Characteristic. You can also "buy" negatives to the item in order to make it cost less, as long as the cost remains at least 1 FP.

*Pat's example of purchasing equipment will be found in the Equipment section.*

## Step Ten - Finalize Your Character

The last thing you'll want to do is have one last look over your character sheet with your Game Wizard to make sure everything is in good working order and matches the character you had in mind at the beginning. Write up a short bio or draw a picture of the character if you want to help flesh them out a bit more. The most important benefit of this step, besides making sure the character you made is the one you want to play and is constructed properly, is to let the Wizard figure out how they can work your character into their story and give you an opportunity to shine!

You'll be meeting the other characters soon, but this may also be a good time to share some more basic information about the character you've made with the party members so you can all start planning out how they can best work together.

And that's it! This simple process will allow you to make your character ready to go exploring in whatever world your Game Wizard has dreamed up for you.

Time to go enjoy it!