ll
characters are more than the sum of a collection of numbers scrawled down
on a few pieces of paper. Players give a life to these statistics, providing
each one with a personality and flavor a making it at least a little different
than the characters that came before it, even if it wasn't the player's goal.
That is the nature of roleplaying. As much fun as make believe
was as a child it's flaw was the lack of numbers. Your friend could run around
the corner, point his 'fingergun' at you shouting, "BANG! you're
dead!" This would cause the enlightened eight year old in all of
us to respond, "Nuh-ah... you missed," spoiling an otherwise perfectly
good afternoon of pretend.
Rules are used to avoid this, and the most basic rules state broadly what your character is best at; swinging swords, sneaking into the enemy fortress, casting strange spells, or whatever else we can dream. The following sections expand on the opportunities already available to players when preparing their characters while also providing a few guidelines to use in the process; provided it is appropriate to your game.
Please click on the heading of any section you wish to see.
The
basic guidelines used to create a character with the raw potential to become
a legendary force within the world around them; provided the dice and fates
are willing to accomodate. Included are alternate methods for rolling
up your character's statistics, options for determining intial Hit Points
and their advancement up to Name Level, suggestions on initial Spell Selection,
and guidance on how Alignment is used in our home games.
All characters have a class
that describes and gives guidance on what it is they do best. Here you
will find rules suggestions that give variants, options, and updates for existing
archetypes found within the Cyclopedia along with new optional character classes
to be reviewed, considered, sampled, and finally approved or rejected based
upon the flavor and nature of each home's particular game.
While it has been argued that
the idea of adding skills to a game is negative because of perceived limitations
it places on a character choices from situation to situation, it can also
be argued that they allow for greater detail and variation between characters
and don't limit but instead provide a basis of suggestion to players who might
otherwise be stumped at a given moment.
Here can be found an
Expanded Skill List and an optional set of rules called Skill
Mastery that gives suggestions on allocation of skill points
and advancement within a character's chosen areas of specialty.
A popular optional rules
subset, this section contains additional weapons, a change in the initial
number of Weapon Choices, a slightly modified rate of advancement for obtaining
Weapon Choices, and a suggestion for allowing a select few common weapons
be given to everyone in the same manner the ability to fight unarmed is.