Character Generation

Book-Keeping
Please use a copy of this template when making your character.

Please place your character sheet in this folder.

CharGen
This is certain:

You are either a Citizen of the Free Cities, or a Stranger in their Lands. If you are a Citizen, you were either born into the Free Cities, or joined into a house through blood: usually adoption or marriage. You have a caste, either Blood, Sand, or Sea. You have a House that you were born, married, or adopted into.

You have a solid grasp of the mores and culture of your society, and are expected to obey the rules.

If you are a Stranger, you're kind of playing on "hard-mode". You come from somewhere that is "not here", and therefore your loyalties to your house are always at least a little suspect. You don't have to understand all the rules and mores of society, and people will grant you  some leeway if you screw up, but flaunting the laws and traditions of the Free Cities is a quick way to buy yourself an appointment with a Confessor or a Drowner.

Importantly, you still have a house. This game is about factional intrigue, and if you don't have a faction, you won't have a very good time. You, therefore, work for someone who is a native here. It's up to you who that is, how you met them, and how you came to join their service, but it's imperative that you have the social support structure of a larger house around you.

So, first question: Are you a Citizen or a Stranger?

And what caste do you hail from? (If you are a Stranger, what Caste is the house you have pledged your service to?)

Good, good. That's all well in order. And what is your name?

Tell me a bit about yourself.

I leave this question broad intentionally. It's up to you how much you want to define your character. This information will only be shared with me, the GM, so feel free to put anything you like into it. Feel free to format however you like, give me descriptions of your character's appearance, their biography, their social relationships, anything that matters to you  about your character.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

''As outlined in the Conflict Mechanics rules, these advantages and disadvantages govern who succeeds when players come into conflict with one another, the strengths and weaknesses of the involved characters determine who succeeds. I recommend checking that page, and choosing a few advantages and disadvantages that are applicable to your character.''

What matters to you?

This is an important question. This game is driven by the premises that you create for your character, and the conflicts that drive them are of your own making. I'll do my best to facilitate and introduce the conflicts that you are interested in, but in order to do that I need to know (a) what interests you and (b) that those things affect your character. At minimum, you will need at least two things that matter to your character, as the main scope of the game will be putting those things in conflict. Ideally, a player character will have three or more things that matter to them, but be careful not to go too hog-wild, or your story might start to get a little schizophrenic.

For example, if you're interested in playing out conflicts of duty to one's family vs. matters of the heart, you might tell me that both Family and Love matter to your character. Feel free to go into detail, and to put as much in as your interested in playing out! Obviously, this can change. If you get sick of always having to pit your character's loyalty to their house against their romantic ambitions, maybe those things will fall away over time.

''These are essentially "flags", and are meant to denote from you the player, to me, the GM, what you want your character's story to be about. For more information on flags, or more ideas on what kind of stuff makes for a good flag, check out this article.''

What is known about you?

Again, this is broad by design. This will make up the bulk of your "public profile", or what other PC's know about your character. Feel free to be as tight-lipped as you like, but if you want people to interact with your character, it's good to give them a lot of hooks that they could potentially latch onto.

One strategy I'm fond of is to describe how different factions or groups see your character. The Blood Caste house that still holds a grudge over the time you scarred their favorite son probably has a much different opinion than the sailors you rescued that one time. This gives people multiple perspectives to consider and the opportunity to decide how "they" see your character, while still giving them a framework of your own design to work within.

What is the name of your house?

So, your house Important with a capital I.

''You have a couple choices to make in regards to your house. First up, you don't necessarily have to make one. You could, instead, collaborate with someone else and/or join "their" house.''

''If you would like to design your own house from scratch, great! ''

You have a choice when designing it, you can either belong to a relatively small house, and have complete control of the "direction" of that house, in terms of what it says and does as a political body. Or! You can create and belong to a medium-sized, more initially influential house, but understand that you won't have as much control over it. Your character can certainly influence the actions their house takes, but narrative control of a moderately powerful house is shared with the GM.

Tell me about your house.

Sensing a pattern here with these broad questions?

Go into as much detail as you like. What's your house's history? What is their primary trade? Who is important in the house? How did they come to be in their positions? Etc etc. Feel free to leave this vague to start and then build it out, or, if you're obsessive like me, feel free to give me pages and pages of history and family trees etc etc etc. Think Game of Thrones or Roman families. How would you describe the Starks? The Greyjoys? The House of Julii? This is the sort of thing you want to go for.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your house?

''Again, per Conflict Mechanics, when a player-controlled house (or one of it's NPCs) is in conflict with another player-controlled house or a player character, the House's strengths and weakness will determine who succeeds. So, choose a few advantages and disadvantages that pertain to your house.''

What matters to your house?

This ties back to the question of what matters to your character. In a lot of ways, your house is a character all it's own, and the challenges and conflicts it faces will depend on what matters to it. Also, there's room for conflict between what matters to your house and what matters to you as a character! Again, these should be ideas and premises you are interested in seeing come up in play, and are not set-in-stone.

What is your house known for?

Again, this forms your house's "public profile" and will be visible to other players. If your interested in maybe having other players interacting with your house; ie forming alliances or declaring feuds, this is where you want to make your sales pitch. Heck, maybe some players will even decide to make PC's that belong to your house! (with your approval, of course)