July 17 - 22, 2001 ~ Sherman, NY
Live Action Role Playing
Truly the place to begin with character creation is a spark of life. Every character begins with a certain inspiration, or intriguing thought. What if I were a Noble Savage Fae? How would it color my actions? Tarzan and Pinhead are both Noble Savages; examine how dissimilar they are. Perhaps you can bring out one small facet of your own personality and expand upon it. Often a character can be thought of in terms of its tragic flaw. Attempt to find an idea to anchor your character to instead of a system to construct your character upon. Your reward will be a depth of enjoyment unparalleled in other roleplaying games.
Race refers to the particular breed of Fae. Players may choose
between the following:
Set goals for the character.
Decide what motivates you. Choose a demeanor, or facade for the character.
What conclusions about himself or herself does he or she want others to
detect through his or her actions? What are you hiding? What are your
secrets?
Develop a quirk or two
Few things seem to make a character more alive than attention to one or
two details of ordinary life. Based on what you've already decided, what
would naturally be a habit of the character. Perhaps she has a very formal
manner of speech, a cruel sense of humor, a way of tossing his head, or
a devil-may-care, damn-the-torpedoes sort of attitude. Get outside yourself
a little to come up with something, but remember the axiom that less is
more. Overacting will produce just the opposite of the desired affect.
A slur of speech is more effective than a lisp, and a slight favoring
of one leg over the other is preferable to a full limp.
Sometimes it is helpful to know a little bit about the environment when developing a character. Some of the following won't make any sense to you. Do not be discouraged. Take shades of meaning from what seems to apply to your character and discard the rest as meaningless babble as if from a dream. With what kind of a character will you have the most fun within this chapter of the Dreaming?
Choose whether your character is aligned with the Seelie (ordered, dogmatic, bright) or Unseelie (chaotic, rebellious, dark) court.
Seelie: Courtly love, chivalry, honoring of ones oaths are all hallmarks of a Seelie Fae. You maintain the status quo and view discipline and virtue as the foundation of Fae Society. Anyone who does not hold these views is suspect, and may not be trusted.
Unseelie: Freedom of speech, independence, and disdain for the traditions of Fae Society are truly at the heart of Fae existence. Formed from the chaotic wellspring of dreams and Nightmares, the fae nature should be unrestricted and unmoderated. Distinctions over wrong and right pale in comparison to the fulfillment of your passions and designs.
You will want to underline some of the adjectives in the
linked table that apply to your new creation.
Each of the adjectives we will call Traits, and later you may spend
points to purchase traits you have underlined. This is not a complete
list by any means. Try to choose those attributes which tend to describe
your perception of your character, or feel free to make up your own. Attributes
fall into five categories:
psi (mental/psychic),
strength (brute force),
endurance (ability to take damage or resist attacks),
social (charm and affability), and
warfare (skill with weapons and tactics).
All defense is based on Endurance, weapons can only be used with warfare,
Psi accounts for perception and intuition, etc.
Traits are central to conflict resolution (challenges), and define your character and how she interacts with the rest of the world. In challenges, they are "bid" in the form of a sentence: "I brutally strike at you with my sword"; "I dodge your attack, and am unharmed"; etc.
Each character may be built with up to 100 points. Each of the Traits above represent 5 points. However, before you spend all your points on Traits, you should also consider setting some aside for weapon proficiencies and additional starting glamour.
Glamour is the stuff of dreams and the essence of Fae Magic. All Faerie spells and magic require glamour. In addition, there may be abilities (cantrips) that require glamour be present to use. Glamour is spent to fuel spells, and may be recovered through spells, granted by items, or during game time spent on a quest, or in reverie.
All characters start with at least two glamour. Additional starting glamour can be bought at 5 points per, but at no point can a character have more than seven, and buying glamour means forfeiting a starting trait. Glamour can be replaced more easily than traits.
Each character starts with a set amount of Willpower (3 - 5) "tickets". Willpower can be spent on a one for one basis for glamour or endurance traits. Any traits lost in a single "contest" can be bought back through expenditure of a single willpower "ticket". Once lost, willpower cannot be recovered. See Rules for more details.
Spells are available for all characters. See the linked
list for suggested spells to use. Spells require two things to be
successfully cast:
1) Expenditure of a number of Glamour tickets (up to three) equal
to the "power" of that particular casting (which is determined
by the number of tickets spent).
2) A number of "bunks" equal to glamour tickets spent. Bunks
may take the form of material components (faerie dust, troll spleen, distilled
essence of nightmares) or actions performed (reciting "Mary had a
Little lamb" 3 times, rubbing your belly and patting your head successfully
for 20 seconds, etc.). Bunks will be given at the last minute and can
be traded with other players at any time. Once used, that bunk is out
of the game or "spent". We welcome suggestions, but you could
get your own bunk so be carefull...
Success only means your spell went off. Whether it was effective is resolved through the challenge and bidding process (see under rules). If effective, the losing defender suffers any effects, which may be beneficial or harmful depending on the spell...
In the linked table are sample weapons that can be used with the Warfare attribute. Positive adjectives add to the group of adjectives already available to the character during combat. They are never lost as long as the weapon is retained (evil laughter) and the character is proficient with the weapon. The proficiency total the character has with a weapon is the maximum number of that weapon's adjectives that may be spoken by that character in combat (initially bought at one point each). The disadvantages are not used in combat, but in roleplaying. It is possible for a powerful character to "turn off" technology or magic (or steal) and thus those weapons could no longer be employed. We'll tell you if such things ocurr.
Keep it firmly in mind, these rules are designed to flesh out your character. Please do not resort to finding loopholes, or "min/maxing" your character to "win" the game. Winners are those who are fully involved in the story, and contribute the most to the overall development and advancment of the plot. Feel free to load up on a particular category of traits, but be warned that too few in any area can be more costly in the end than a well developed, but seemingly weaker character.
So? Get used to it. Accept it. These are guidelines only and fate has a funny way of throwing a wrench in the works. It's only a game. The most cleverly constructed character can be beset with a host of problems and setbacks. Heck, you could die. We don't want to see that happen, but we will maintain game balance if neccessary.
Please don't be discouraged from clever character construction and play. Our point is to encourage you to put the story first, and your personal desire (if applicable) to "win" second. Staying in character and rolling with the punches will earn you more perks and enjoyment than winning a rules dispute. We'll listen and consider , but "no" means NO. Just keep moving forward and maintain the story.
Keeping this firmly in mind, here are some methods for acquiring additional character starting points:
Write a character background story
What did you do for a living, how did you feel towards yourself,and how
did others feel about you? How do these things affect who you are now?
Email this to Paul@Spellme.com by
July 12th for an additional 1 to 5 character points.
Write a character journal
Promise to E-mail us a journal of the event after the fact, seen through
your character's eyes, and we will set you up with 5 additional character
points for the event. This is a solemn oath, however, so don't tell us
you are going to write the jouranl and then never get around to it. Warts
may result, or worse.