CC Attributes-Skills

## **Building an Actual Person**

### **Attributes**

Most characters of the late 14th century are going to be short, as they were likely underfed protein growing up (though there will be a few rare exceptions).

Leaning on the Speculation capacity templates, the Joe Shmo becomes the *Average Commoner*, while the Average Jo becomes the brave *Itinerant Adventurer*.

The life is rigorous, on average, but strength is moderate simply because dietary limitations. Physical condition, however, is usually exceptional. It may not be marathon-running specialized, but it's definitely walk-all-day-with-a-pack capable; and that's for both men and women.

#### **The Average Commoner**

The bar is low, but there's a lot of company. This averages to 65 per trait, 70 per sense specific.

#### **The Itinerant Adventurer**

Gifted with a little extra, they have grown a bold spirit. This averages to 70 per trait, 70 per sense specific.

### **Characteristics**

Once the attributes are known and distributed, including the "conglomerates," the player should fill out the *corresponding **Characteristics***. These are the cosmetic traits (hair, eye and skin appearance), as well as movement inclination and values (speed).

### **Skills to Pay the Bills**

The skill number and skill ratings follow the standard Speculation Skills guidelines, plus a 20% penalty for non-organized learning. Characters who have been taught or instructed in some sort non-magical school, including apprenticeships, only suffer a 10%.

 Players who are interested in starting off ahead of the curve should speak with the Ref about creating a backstory that would fit this narrative.

We'll provide the template for an average blacksmith, but players can build an interesting character who does just about anything appropriate for the timeframe. Check the list Medieval European Professions over at the Arcana Wiki to get a sense of the selection, then note that most of those professions have an equivalent skill here.

When specifying skills, this is largely before study and specialization created branches and sub-fields. For instance, "Business" in a modern sense would demand players specify what branch they're talking about (accounting, etc). In the case of most characters here, who will start with a provincial background, they are generalists who spread their skill points over their range of experience of all those sub-fields.

Below is the average skills template for a blacksmith in London, at *Itinerant Adventurer* averages according the skills guidelines. Their Learning Trait (LT) is 70, and divided by 5, that works out to 14 skills. Assuming the character keeps the average of 70 across the traits, the skill percentages work out to percentages of the character's *Mental Reasoning* (MR) attribute. This character was apprenticed and received some non-magically enhanced schooling in the London area, reducing the % MR penalty to 10%.

The second line of each skill represents the specific Speculation skill "pathway," which gives both the player and the Ref some idea of how broad or specialized the particular skill is. As per the overall skill philosophy of Speculation, this provides broad categories and some examples of specializations where they might be appropriate in a campaign. It is likely that a creative player may think just outside the box enough that they'll blaze a trail for a new skill. Just check with the Ref to verify and validate the skill.

### **The Experience Clause**

This is the base for any character between the ages of 14-29. Character who are younger are going to have a considerable strike against them (roughly the 50% the skill ratings shown here), while characters who are older benefit from the *Experience Clause*.

 This gives Bob an additional 9 points to put where the player wants. In this case, they're going to dump all 9 points into that fighting skill [Mil/MA/Sword, 1-hd, combo + Shield].

## **Looking for more examples?**

The Blacksmith Template can easily be adapted to leatherworkers, chandlers, and so on – but what about other, completely different professions?

* Wait a second, let me look at the notes on ***Creating a Background*** again...
* I think I've got this part. What would be really handy is if you had ***templates for other professions***...