Character Creation Step-by-Step Guide

Before you even fill in one dot on your character sheet, you should decide what kind of character you want to play. It’s usually best to start with a broad concept. Remember that you don’t have to be straightjacketed into your first thought.   Generally, it is recommended that you start broad and gradually add details later. An initial concept, “I want to play a skilled investigator who also knows how to fight well” can eventually morph into “I want to play a member of an elite order sponsored by the priests of Khemra that exposes and eliminates dangerous nefarious mages in order to prevent one of them from unleashing a Third Unmaking.”   You also should probably run your concept with your Game Master and the campaign he is planning to run. You might have the best concept in the world for a fur clad tundra dwelling barbarian but if most of the game is going to be having Sinbad-esque sailing adventures in and around equatorial islands, that character will not fit in well. Likewise, if you have a great concept for a swashbuckling sailor, that character probably will not fit into a campaign set entirely in a landlocked interior mountain range.   Game Masters can allow or disallow any character concept for any reason but they should generally try to be reasonable and flexible. Sometimes a character that doesn’t seem to be a good fit can be made into a good fit with a modest amount tweaking.

The assumed default races for Scarterran player characters are humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-elves, kalazotz, satyrs, and tengku, but the Game Master has the final say and can allow or disallow players from making a character of any race, even humans.   Scarterra has a huge number mortal races and most of them are eligible for player character choices. A Game Master can allow players to make characters of races not on the list above or even make up new races. It is recommended new player stick with the standard list.   The rule of thumb is that the more innate special abilities and powers a mortal race has, the fewer freebie points a player character has access to. The more innate weaknesses and drawbacks a mortal race has, the more freebie points a player character has access to.

Figure out your character's basic background and identifiers including but not limited to sex, age, social class, religious views, moral outlook, goals.   For background you only need to go into broad strokes at this point, you can cover specifics later.   "My character is a young adult son of a fishing family who became a holy warrior of Mera" is plenty at this point.

Your character has nine Attributes and 24 dots to allocate between them.   You need your Game Master’s permission to have an attribute rating of Zero. Otherwise, you can treat the 24 dots as one "free" dot in each attribute plus 15 "discretionary" dots.   Later, you can raise your attributes beyond this at the cost of five freebie points per dot.

Your character has 25 dots to split between all abilities. Remember, if you want a rare ability, the first dot costs double, and second and subsequent dots are the normal price. At this stage of character creation, you cannot put more than three dots into a single ability.   At this stage in character creation, you cannot raise an ability above three dots.   Later, you can raise your abilities beyond this at the cost of two freebie points per dot.

Scarterrans have a Willpower score ranging between 1 and 10. As a player character, your starting Willpower is three.   Later, you can raise your Willpower at a cost two freebie points per dot. It is recommended but not required that a players raise their character's Willpower score to at least five dots..

Human player characters start out with twenty or forty freebie points. It depends on how the Game Master wants to scale the PCs right out of the gate.   Nonhuman PCs usually start out of with more freebie points or fewer freebie points, in some cases much fewer freebie points if they have lots of strong powers.   Freebie points can buy many things. As mentioned previously, freebie points can be used can raise attributes, abilities and/or Willpower.   If you want to start play as a spell-caster, you need to spend freebie points to do this.

Merits and Flaws are traits that affect character in a more subtle or indirect way than character traits. Taking Flaws disadvantages your character but you gain bonus freebie points. Taking Merits gives your character new advantages but deducts from your freebie points. A 3-point Merit costs three freebie points. A 3-point Flaw bestows three freebie points. And so on and so-forth.   Merits and Flaws do more than impact your freebie point total. They can help a players flesh out their characters' backgrounds in greater detail and they can give Game Masters story hooks to link PCs to the greater narrative.   Game Masters can veto aspect of a new character, but they have special latitude to veto Merits and Flaws that don't make sense or do make sense but don't mesh with this specific campaign.

If you want to play a spell-caster, you have to spend freebie points to do this. First you need to buy the three-point Merit “Arcane Spell caster” (a mage) or the three-point Merit “Divine Spellcaster" (a theurgist) Then you have to shell out more freebie points to buy dots in arcane casting attributes or divine magic spheres respectively.   You can spend six freebies to be an arcane spell-caster and a divine spell-caster, but this is not recommended for new players. Nor is it recommended for short-term campaigns. Dual spell-casters start out the gate a little bit weaker than other characters, but they can grow to be very powerful over time if carefully managed.   Theurgists must also pick a divine patron. The Divine spheres, quick reference guide is a good resource for picking patrons and accessing all the divine magic options in one place while quickly seeing what attributes and abilities are connected to what magic. There are also specific Merits and Flaws applicable only to divine spell casters which any player of a theurgist give careful consideration to.   There are specific Merits and Flaws for Arcane Casters which any player of a mage character should give careful consideration to. Mage character are not required to pick a magical tradition, but it highly recommended. It certainly helps flesh out a mage's character concept and provides guidelines for what Merits and Flaws to take.

Attributes 5 freebie points per dot Abilities 2 freebie points per dot Willpower 2 freebie points per dot   Merits cost freebie points based on their rating. Flaws award freebie points based on their rating.   Freebie points can also be used to buy magical abilities.   Arcane Spell Caster 3 freebie points Arcane Magic Dot up to 3 4 freebie points per dot Arcane Magic dot above 3 5 freebie points per dot Starting arcane spellcasters get one free spell per level. A character starting with two dots of Illusion start out with one free Second Circle Illusion spell and one free first Circle Illusion Spell. Additional First Circle spells cost one freebie point, Second Circle spells cost two freebie points, and so on and so forth. Divine Spell Caster 3 freebie points Divine Magic Dot up to 3 4 freebie points per dot Divine Magic dot above 3 5 freebie points per dot

You need to figure out how many health levels your character has. Usually this is very straightforward. Most player characters have ten health levels: three “bruised” levels, two “hurt” levels, two “wounded” levels, one “mauled” level, one “crippled” level, and one “incapacitated level.”   Depending on your character’s race, you might have more or fewer health levels. Dwarves receive an extra “bruised” level. Elves and tengku start out with one fewer “bruised” level.   Characters with the “Tough” Merit have a bonus bruised level. Characters with the “Infirm” Flaw start out with one fewer bruised level.   These stack with racial modifiers so a “Tough” dwarf has twelve health levels and an “Infirm” dwarf has ten health levels.   If your character has fewer bruised levels than normal, cross one of them out on your character sheet. If your character has an extra bruised level, draw an extra box in the margin.   If your character is ever brought below incapacitated, your character is dead and it is time to make a new character.   For details on how this works, check out Character Health Levels.

Look back at your character concept and compare it against the dots you put on your character. Do the dots and concepts reflect each other? If not, you should revise your character concept or reassign dots until you are reasonably satisfied. Then hand your character sheet to your Game Master.   Your Game Master needs to make sure you just created a character that will fit well his planned campaign. He may suggest revisions. He may even slightly revise his campaign to accommodate your character. He can also point out logical inconsistencies in your backstory. "Your character's background has him traveling overland a lot by himself and he has zero dots of Ride and Survival? That doesn't make sense."   Chances are, your character isn’t quite as badass and you want him/her to be, but that is not a problem. You can advance your character post-creation with experience points and it is always good to have goals.