Fantasy Characters

Overall

Character Points

A normal average human is about 5 character points. A creature of another race has certain basic attributes and skills typical to race, and then has character points as acquired experience for training and similar things.

Unless noted otherwise, a player character is made with 15 cp, which are used to buy following things:

• Attributes, standard and special
• Skills (at least 5 cp must be used on these in normal cases)
• Background options

CP changes: as characters evolve, their CP total might change. By gaining experience from the adventures, characters could gain more CP that player can then allocate to old or new attributes, skills and background options as permitted by the GM. Likewise, a character might permanently lose or suffer something that would change the total CP of that character. When such thing happens, the GM might allow the player to pick something to compensate. For example, if a character loses his background option artifact item, the GM might allow that the character can then use those CPs then to some other thing, learned as an experience from that loss.

Free Stuff

• Native language at master (3) level
• Any number of free skills. These skills can be chosen quite freely, but must be linked to the character's education and personal history. These skills should include possible other local languages, local culture and area knowledge, and similar things unless character is a cultural stranger (see below)
• Some equipment. See background.

Race

Attribute note: Some races have guidelines about common attributes, like hard-working human males usually have strength and health +1. These notes are only guidelines for character creation and player is free to choose such a common attribute if he wants to, but pays the normal cps for it. However, some races might require that player cannot take a free choice, but must pay some cps for improved attributes.

Attributes

Standard attributes are physical and mental attributes possessed by each creature, and are strength, health, agility, awareness, willpower and social.

Special attributes are creature or individual specialized attributes like mental problems, physical disadvantages and advantages, special powers etc..

Standard Attributes

Strength

This attribute resembles creature pure physical strength. A creature with superb (+2) strength is as strong as world-class (human) weight lifter, while inferior (-2) creature is like a few years old kid.

Health

This attribute reflects endurance and constitution of the character. A character with high health can go on longer while those ranked very low get exhausted very fast. Health is also used when character is wounded or suffers damage or poisoning, but note that muscle mass (i.e. strength) usually determines how well the body of the character can withstand damage. Typical sub-attributes are endurance (how long the character can go on) and resistance (poisons and toxins)

Agility

Creature speed, balance, agility and such things are represented with agility attribute. High level attributes are possessed by olympic athletics, while those with poor agility stumble on stairs.

Awareness

Creature perception, sight and smell. It also tells about character speed to react to certain situations, althought agility is also important.

Willpower

This attribute resembles, how good will and self-control the creature has and how easily he is broken under stress. Those with low levels are usually easily irritated and break easily. Mindless creatures have no willpower.

Social

General appearance, social skills, charisma and such things. A creature with high social is easily listened to and well liked, while those with low levels stutter, get paralyzed in social situations and do not have many friends. The social attribute is usually reflected to major campaign cultures.

In addition to these 6 basic attributes, some creatures might have special attributes reflecting their extraodinary state:

Toughness

General resistance against all kind of physical damage, from punches to cuts. Note that this attribute cannot be modified! It is only used for comparative purposes and to show that some big creature is simply so much larger than small cuts and wounds have no same effect on it as it does on human-sized targets.

Resistance

Special level against specified kind of harm or peril. For example, an orc has poison resistance (+3). This level is used instead of character's normal attribute level when testing for resistance against listed thing. If the character has normal attribute level as high or higher than this special resistance, apply +1 to attribute level instead - so in this case, orc with health +3 would have +4 against poison.

Standard Attribute Levels

Superb (+2) (3 cp)

The character has top value in attribute. He might be world-class weight lifter, athletic or marathon runner, professional detective, have a will of iron or be a very successful journalist.

Good (+1) (1 cp)

Character has an attribute better than most average, but not very exceptional. He is good shape, fast or most of the time very calm and relaxed.

Average (+0)

This is the average level.

Poor (-1) (-1 cp)

Character is obviously inferior to average people. He almost always loses any appropriate physical effort, is easily irritated or cannot converate with people.

Inferior (-2) (-3 cp)

Character is clearly inferior to any other. He is easily pushed around, stumbles in stairs or is irritated and nervous all the time. In social situations, he gets frozen and stutters. Not recommended level for any attribute, people with inferior attributes can be considered as handicapped

Note that normal hard-working human males have strength +1 and health +1, as described in bestiary and points are expected to be used accordingly.

Special Attributes

Cold Blooded Killer (1 cp)

For a normal being, killing something in cold blood is not easy task and requires either special situation, accident, stress, or forced willpower test. But some can kill more easily.

Addiction (nuisance -1 cp, severe -2 cp)

Character is severely addicted to some subtance or possibly an action.

Dedication

Gifted characters magic reserve size is based on their main magic path skill as described in magics section. For a character that has patience, energy, capability and dedication to handle more magic each day, each extra magic reserve point costs 0.5 cp. This same reserve can also be used by characters with herbalism skill to have potions ready.

Gifted (2 cp)

The character is gifted in magical ways and can cast spells and draw mana if so skilled. This attribute can be bought later, as the characters becomes aware of his powers. If the character is not gifted, he can still learn magics, but is resorted to mundane rituals.

Grounded (2 cp)

Simple known as a 'grounded' man, the character is resistant against all magical effects; the mana simply rejects him. Apply +1 difficulty on casting spells at that character, and that character has +3 resistance against any magical effects, including possession. If any enchantment is successfully landed on him, they decay much faster than normally. Note that all these also apply to any helpful effects. The character can never be gifted or have innate powers.

Innate Power (varies)

Certain background options allow character to pick innate powers. The basic innate power costs as primary skill, i.e. level 3 costs 6 cp, and grants as many powers as power level. Extra powers cost 1 cp each. The innate power group must be defined, there is no generic innate power attribute.

Lazy Magician (-1 cp, gifted only)

The character is very lazy at upkeeping magic reserve, and is limited to 3 mana reserve. This also means that his daily magic upkeep routines only take 15 minutes if in hurry, but he usually uses almost hour at them, taking his time.

Mental Problem (nuisance -1, severe -2 cp)

Some psychological quirk, like paranoia, over-confidence, arrogance, stubborness... In fantasy world, problems of killing or wounding other living things can also be classified here, but see "cold blooded killer" attribute, above.

Physical Disadvantage (varies)

For missing limb or similar things, character gains more CPs. Apply -2 cp for missing hand, -3 cp for missing entire arm, others handicaps as determined by the GM.

Warrior Frenzy (2 cp)

The character comes from the savage tribes of the wilderness. He can psyche himself to mad killing frenzy, and in combat fight with great ferocity and endurance, ignoring most wounds and pain, fear and psychological stress (+3 level for most related things). However, the character lacks almost any self-preservation while on that state and must really struggle to break from the frenzy to retreat or stop fighting. Once the frenzy is quanched, the character cannot regain it until have rested well. Moreover, those suspect to warrior frenzy may sometimes freak from some very extraordinary and stressful situation and turn into blind-frenzy, attacking anything close to them.

Skills

Skill levels

Non-skilled (level 0)

Character has no training with the skill. Depending on the skill, the character may or may not do anything related to it. For example, a sword can be swing without training or sneaking around tried, but things like magic cannot be tried without skill.

Skilled (level 1)

Character has basic training and some experience with given skill or expertise. He can handle rush hour in a major city while driving or land a plane.

Expert (level 2)

Character in an expert in his area. He can fight several opponents at the same time, navigatea a ship to harbor in a storm or charm everyone with his manners in royal banquet. He also knows most masters in his field of expertise.

Master (level 3)

Character is simply a master in tasks concerning his area. He can drive a cart through gaps with barely an inch on each side or speak completely fluently. He is usually well known by the other people dedicated to this area.

Grand Master (level 4)

Character is simple a grand master in his area. He is world famous and his guidelines are followed by hundred followers, or he might be a world-top acrobat. This level is available for player character only by GM permission.

CP Costs and Limitations

Skill levels can be limited so that characters are not boosted in some limited areas and cannot do anything else. The GM may require characters to have at least as many lower level skills than higher level ones.

Primary skills

Most frequently used skills are listed here, but as noted earlier, players are free to invent new ones needed by their characters. Primary skills cost 1 cp for skilled (1), 3 cp for expert (2), 6 cp for master (3) and 10 cp for grand master (4, only with permission from the GM).

Bow

Skill to fire accurately with trained missile weapons, including bows, crossbows and slings, but not thrown things.

Herbalism

Skill to do natural and supernatural treatment with herbs and plants, including with exotic plants with mana essence, and the skill to find and identify those ingredients. The character can bind and heal wounds, treat poisonings and diseases, and help against long-term issues like infections, but can also brew poisons and hallucinogens, especially if so specialized. Unless noted otherwise, specialized in own race. Character can also brew magical potions, see notes under enchanted items in trappings.

Magics

Skill to create magical effects, as described in magics. Each magic path must be learned separately, but usually one is enough. Note that the character must have special attribute gifted if he ever wants to use any real magic, otherwise this skill gives only theoretical learning.

Melee

Skill to fight effectually in melee. Character is trained in appropriate weapons and technics; use of any other may give penalties for combat. Note that high strength, health, agility and awareness are still important.

Thiefcraft

Various dexterous manouvers like picking pockets and locks, or disarming or setting traps, but also card and magic tricks and various other dextrous tasks that require steady hand and good coordination of fingers and sight.

Throw

Skill to throw items accurately and long. Must train to throw more exotic items.

Veteran

The character is veteran of many adventures, and have learnt many things from them. This means that he usually do not make any beginner mistakes and remembers to bring proper equipment with him. Trying things without skill training can often be made without extra penalties. The higher this skill is, the higher are chances that it works to given situation. In practise, this skill can be used to retroactively add equipment and get GM warning before doing bad actions, get hints of propers ones, and the chance to avoid extra penalties from non-skill status.

Secondary Skills

Bestiary

Knowledge about different creatures of the fantasy world, especially supernatural ones.

Con

Skill to fluently speak about subjects not known to character or to get victim to do things he would not normally do, especially despite of social attribute.

Leadership

Skill to inspire, lead and manipulate large masses. While high social attribute and outlook is generally useful for this kind of actions, this skill means training in psychology, persuasion and group suggestions.

Read/write

Training to read and write languages specialized in. A master level can read like a modern man, a skilled one must still read aloud and spell each word.

Riding

This must be specialized to certain creatures. The character can ride and control creature in extreme conditions and get it to perform some non-standard actions like jumping.

Spirit Lore

Knowledge about the spirit world and spirits therein.

Stealth

Skill to move silently and hide effectually and to assess situations, slip from narrow places, climb trees or walls, and in general move silently and smoothly. Urban and various rural environments should be trained separately.

Survival

Skill to survive and adapt to trained environment, like deserts or arctic conditions, including knowing local normal animals and how to track and trap them. Can include swimming skills if typical to specified environments. Combines well with Herbalism.

Free Skills

Free skills include, but are not limited to the following: Acrobatics, Area Knowledge*, Artistry, Cooking, Dancing, Etiquette, Language*, Local Politics*, Religions*.... Those marked with asterisk (*) need to be specified to certain subsection, instead of using normal specialization.

These skills can be added to character profile when needed later during game, if approved by the GM. No character should have many free skills at higher level than skilled (1), especially if character has not studied for many years. Also remember that free skills do not apply for limitations.

In general, characters should be limited to 5-10 free skills, depending on age, profession and career path, and of which no more than few are on expert (or higher) level.

Background Options

Most background options are advantageous, and thus cost character points, while some of them are disadvantages, and the character having them gets more points to be used on other things. Note that if a disadvantage is not a disadvantage, it is worth no CPs!

Standard Trappings

Any standard equipment, like armor, weapons and utilities applicable for previous career. Even a plate mail and a horse is allowed, if appropriate, as is some consumable magic items.

Optional Backgrounds

Artifact (0.5 cp or more)

The character has a lost artifact. He has gained, stolen or been granted this item, and knows most of its functions.

Avatar (x cp)

The character is possessed by a friendly spirit or part of a greater spirit entity, giving him extra powers to use. Any number of cps can be used on the avatar, and the character then gets 50% more to be used in attributes, skills and innate powers bestowed by the spirit. Note that normal racial limits can be bypassed.
For example, if 6 cp is used in avatar, choose 9 cp worth of attributes and skills. Note that negative attributes can be chosen, and if modifiers to standard attributes are chosen, pay for the difference. A typical use for avatar is to pick some innate power.

Cultural Stranger (-1 cp)

The character is not native to the campaign area and does not know local habits, laws or culture. The character cannot pick relevant free skills and might run into various problems with law or customs. Native language is usually different, or at least different dialect.

Haunted (occassional -1 cp, continual -2)

The character is haunted by some spirit or spirits, for reasons unknown or known to characters. These spirits may be simply annoying or they can be plain deadly.

Magic Items (0.5 cp or more)

The character has an enhanced item, created by some magician. The cost varies, according to powers possessed by the item. See magic items in trappings. Note that comsumable items are normally handled by magic reserve and appropriate magic skills.

Poor (-1 cp)

The character is very poor and does not have standard trappings, just a few rags and practically nothing else. Normally there must be a good reason for this state, and a reason why it lingers.

Shunned (-1 to -3 cp)

The character is part of oppressed, feared, or otherwise prejudiced group of people in the campaign area. This causes constant problems with credibility, relations and may even result in violence, arrests and so on. Consult GM based on the race/gender you have selected - in many places, wrong gender (a male magician?! A female warrior?!) might create issues (-1), while in some places, all dwarves are constantly kicked, pushed and harassed (-2). Note that character can also be a cultural stranger.

Wealthy (2 cp)

The character has collected, gained or stolen a vast fortune, and starts the game with almost anything, except for magic items and artifacts. Note that this can include some limited lackeys, chambermaids or similar.

Optional Things

Contributions

Campaign Log (-2 cp)

The player keeps a log of events in the campaign, and writes it to some place agreed with the GM.

Character Diary (-2 cp)

The player keeps some kind of diary of actions of his character and events around him. It is like a campaign log, but personalized and subjective. Should be placed to a place where it is readable by anyone.