The hardest part of character generation is often deciding what type of character you want to play. At the heart of most roleplaying games is combat. With this in mind, the most basic character building begins with one question:

What role do I want to play?

A role simply represents the character’s combat style and responsibilities. Are you going to enter melee combat or attack at range? Are you going to wear heavy armor and go toe to toe with opponents or wear light armor and move around the field of battle? Deciding on a role often helps with other factors such as race, background, etc.

There are two ways to select a role, select a package or build a role from scratch. For specific concepts, its best to build from scratch.

My writing distractions symbol image

Role Packages

There are a variety of packages that have been constructed providing a specific framework from which to begin. These builds include a description of the role, a list of included skill tress – with the most common starting skills, and notes for getting started. Players may choose to use them as they are or make substitutions for a specific character concept.

When customizing the packages, pay close attention to the cost of the skill tree and the number of skills that are included in each to avoid breaking the build.

My writing distractions symbol image

Building a Role

In order to build a role, it’s important to understand the concept. To put it simply, a role is a collection of skill trees that define certain archetypes. The skill trees each contain a number of related skills that must be purchased individually, but are advanced together by putting points into the tree. This allows players to customize archetypes and build out their character in a variety of ways. There is a formula for building these roles from scratch based on a point system. All starting characters begin with 40 points with which to purchase skill trees and skills from the Combat Specialties, Support Specialties, or Proficiencies. The point values are weighted to keep the roles balanced.

• Martial Combat = 20
• Armed Combat = 10
• Ranged Combat = 10
• Unarmed Combat = 10
• Wrestling = 10
• Mounted Combat = 10
• Mech Combat = 15

Build Points = 40
Skill Trees: 0-20 points
Skills: 1 point each

• Mobile Combat = 15
• Therianthropy = 10
• Iinexsis Combat = 15
• Iinamic Combat = 15
• Iinilent Combat = 15
• Guile = 10
• Medicine = 10

• Performance = 5
• Scoutcraft = 10
• Statecraft = 5
• Technocracy = 10
• Athletics = 0
• Cunning = 0
• Vigilance = 0

There is no right way to spend build points, but there are some guidelines. Start with the Combat Specialties as these are the most expensive. Be judicious and choose your specialties carefully, keeping in mind that it is extremely difficult to advance more than three specialty trees. Take note that the Proficiencies skill trees are free, but purchasing skills within them still costs 1 point each. Buy lots of skills.

My writing distractions symbol image