Eleven Steps From Blank Sheet to Ready to Play
Full abbreviations for skills and stats are covered in the next chapter. Players in a hurry can skip straight to the ready-to-play adventurers near the back of the book instead of building one from scratch.
Write the adventurer's name at the top of a blank sheet, then roll 2D6+6 once each for Strength, Constitution, Size, Intelligence, Dexterity, and Appearance — Power comes later, in Step 3. Pencil these in lightly; they're easy to erase and rework. Bigger numbers mean a mightier adventurer.
Up to three points can be shifted freely among those six results afterward, as long as none of them climbs above 21. If the spread still doesn't feel right, the whole batch can simply be erased and rerolled.
Four handy percentages fall straight out of the core stats: multiply Intelligence by 5 for the Idea roll, Power by 5 for the Luck roll, Dexterity by 5 for the Dexterity roll, and Appearance by 5 for the Charisma roll. Jot each down. Players who'd rather sort out their skill package (Step 5) before finishing these calculations are free to do so.
Casting magic, binding demons, and similar feats all require a Power of at least 16. An adventurer who wants that capability but rolled short can trade 2 points from any other characteristic for 1 point of Power — each characteristic can only be tapped this way once, and every trade requires a successful Luck roll (based on the character's original, pre-trade Power×5) to actually complete; a roll of 99 or 00 always fails, and a failed trade closes off further trading for that character.
Each successful trade is meant to represent something significant that happened to the adventurer — an old bargain, a scar, a debt — and adds one point to the Chaos box. Trading away points from a characteristic also means adjusting any of the derived rolls (Idea, Luck, Dexterity, Charisma) tied to it.
Add Strength and Size together and check the total against the Damage Bonus Table to find the modifier added to hand-to-hand damage rolls.
| STR + SIZ | Modifier |
|---|---|
| 2–12 | −1D6 |
| 13–16 | −1D4 |
| 17–24 | none |
| 25–32 | +1D4 |
| 33–40 | +1D6 |
| 41–56 | +2D6 |
| 57–72 | +3D6 |
| 73–88 | +4D6 |
| 89–104 | +5D6 |
| 105–120 | +6D6 |
| 121–136 | +7D6 |
| 137–152 | +8D6 |
| 153–168 | +9D6 |
Add Constitution and Size together and divide by two, rounding any fraction up, to get maximum hit points. Lost hit points get marked off in pencil and erased again as they regenerate. Finally, magic points simply equal Power — the running total will fluctuate in play as points are spent and slowly recovered.
With the characteristics in hand, decide on gender (mechanically identical either way) and picture the kind of person this adventurer is becoming. Then choose — or roll 1D4 for — one of four starting skill packages, a quick way to give the character an early identity before occupation skills are added in Step 6:
With a gamemaster's permission, a custom package is also possible: choose any 13 skills except Million Spheres and Unknown Kingdoms, and add 20 points to each instead. Whichever route is taken, remember to add the new totals on top of any pre-printed base chances already on the sheet — a 15% base Fast Talk plus 20 points, for instance, becomes 35%.
Choose or roll an occupation and spread 250 points in any combination among its eight listed skills, representing everything learned on the job. Any, all, or none of that occupation's optional spells can be accepted, but only if Power is 16 or higher; each spell taken adds one point to the Chaos box. Many occupations also grant extra starting money, added to the funds tracked on the sheet.
Building a custom adventurer instead means distributing the same 250 points among any skills except Million Spheres and Unknown Kingdoms, choosing up to three spells from those listed among the occupations, and rolling 2D100 for extra starting bronzes.
Choose or roll from the Distinctive Features table to determine what a stranger would notice first about the adventurer, and record the result under the character's name.
Roll 1D6 and add it to 17 for the adventurer's actual age. Multiply that same D6 result by 30 to find how many bronzes are in the character's pocket at the start of play, on top of any extra money from occupation.
An older adventurer is possible by rolling 1D6 again, adding the result to age and multiplying it by 10 to get bonus skill points to distribute freely — this can be repeated as many times as desired. Past the fifth such roll, though, aging starts to cost: each additional roll also deducts 2 points, in order, from Strength, then Constitution, Intelligence, Power, and Dexterity.
An adventurer who accepted no spells at all has effectively denied Chaos, and may instead follow Law — if so, add 20 percentiles each to one to three skills the character already has, to represent discipline and focus, and add one Law point for every skill boosted this way.
An adventurer who denies both Chaos and Law instead follows the Balance: add one to three points to the character's single weakest characteristic, reflecting harmony with life's plan, and add that same number of points to the Balance box.
Every adventurer receives 600 bronzes earmarked for armor, on top of whatever's left over from Step 8 — prices and statistics come from the Weapon Tables. Each adventurer also starts with tack and a riding horse worth naming, plus one weapon that already received the full 20-or-more skill points from Step 5 or 6; copy its statistics onto the sheet, and record the mount's details from the natural-beasts summary.
Finally, choose one small object that reflects the adventurer's family ties — a signet ring, an heirloom amulet, a bundle of herbs gathered by a parent, a keepsake brought home by a sibling. It carries no magic, but the character values it enough to fight for it, and it's worth 1D20−1 bronzes if ever sold. Even an adventurer with a dead or unknown family can have inherited something.
When there's time to spare, read the Young Kingdoms chapter and settle on a homeland. Was the adventurer's family powerful or humble? What do they still owe that family, or feel toward them? Comparing the chosen occupation against that background often suggests its own explanation — and may turn up other clues worth noting about the character's past.