CREATING A CHARACTER

CORE STATS

Every character is comprised of:

• Name, Age, Pronouns
• Level Die - Ranging from a d4 to d12. Effectively the player's Level. The name may be changed to fit your theme. For the Crypt Has Opened this is the player's Spell Die, their overall skill with magic.
• Path Die - Before rolling the player chooses a Path to roll with the Level Die. As established in the Paths section, what these are will depend on the type of game you’re making.
• Aspects - These are specialized areas of a Path. Where the Path establishes the die being rolled, the Aspect grants...
• Aptitude - Dots, pips, or points in an Aspect that the player uses to lower the Imposition Die before rolling.

Optionally:

• Skills - Basic, everyday skills any character can have that help compliment but do not mimic Paths.
• Special Abilities - To add more variety or specialization to a character you can add bespoke special abilities that are one use powers that reset each day.

STARTING LEVEL

A d6 level makes for a character that may be starting in their career but isn’t completely incompetent. There is still room to grow and even leaves the option for the dueling mechanic (see Dueling).

Starting Path Die

Each Path starts with a rating of d4. Through character creation they should end up with a spread that may be a d6 in one Path and a d8 in another, or a d6 in three Paths. The former makes for a more focused character while the later more spread out.

Determining these starting die levels will depend largely on if you’re using things like classes or playbooks. For instance, a class could provide your character with their starting Path Die increases.

Starting Aptitude

We’ve found that 8 points of Aptitude creates a well rounded character to start. It gives the player enough points to focus on the Aspects they really like while leaving a few points for secondary and tertiary choices.

How these points are given to the player is entirely dependent upon your character creation process. If you have classes or playbooks then they may automatically give the character points in specific Aspects associated with that class. It is encouraged to give the player free floating points for them to assign as they wish.

CHARACTER OPTIONS

Classes, Playbooks, or Freeform point buy is all dependent upon the themes and style of the game. Each has their pros and cons.

Classes help make distinct characters quickly and help you design how they’ll fit within the makeup of an entire party. With classes you would assign starting Path Die and Aptitudes for the player, as well as upgrades as they level. This helps those with analysis paralysis, but has the problem of every character of a class feeling the same. This method would require some changes to the base Advancement system (see Advancement).

Playbooks are similar to classes but you can be a little looser with them. You can let a playbook set a character’s starting stats but as the character advances let the player make choices as to where those level die increases and aptitude points go. This opens up a character to changing along with the story as it unfolds and reacting to the world. However some players may feel directionless with this method and fear that they may be making the wrong choice and thus an ineffectual character.

Freeform as the ability to help a player make the exact type of character they want without restriction. However this can have issues of a character being unfocused and maybe not as fun as others, or being so open that a player has a hard time coming up with a character.

Special Abilities

You may consider providing a list of special abilities for players to choose from or design specific abilities per class/playbook that’s unique to them alone. These special abilities or talents require the player to spend 3 stress for some kind of major effect. It should not require a roll for this effect to work.

When making a special ability for a specific class/playbook, it should be something that they are already specialized or is a core part of them such that using it makes for a big story pivot. It can either be a big single moment, or an effect that lasts for an entire scene.

If using special abilities, a player should be able to gain a new one on character advancement.

THE OTHER STUFF

EQUIPMENT

How you handle equipment is entirely dependent on what kind of game you’re running. For games about dungeon delving and looting, you may want a robust equipment section with specific gold amounts and uses for items. For more narrative games you may only need a section for players to jot down items they’ve collected during play or even a predefined list.

If you need to know every bit of equipment a player has on them we suggest using the system outlined in Cairn. Should you prefer a predefined list we turn you to our own game The Crypt Has Opened or Blades in the Dark.

MONEY

Your currency solution is much like how you plan to handle equipment. Having a game that requires deep economic systems may require that the players know where every copper is coming from and where it is going.

If not then we suggest using an abstracted form of currency. Items can fall under one of four categories: Inexpensive, Valuable, Extravagant, and Priceless.

Buying Power

When using an abstracted currency system you’ll often need to know how much a character can purchase within a given day. Players are considered to be able to cover their standard equipment along with all inexpensive costs on a daily basis, within reason. Buying out a shop's entire inventory of inexpensive items would quickly become an extravagant or priceless cost when everything is added up.

A valuable item may be purchased once every other week per player and an extravagant item every 3 months per player. Players can elect to pool their resources together to decrease the wait time between purchases to whatever the Game Master feels is appropriate for the type of item and purchase location.

Priceless items may require an exchange of services or the right kind of persuasion to obtain. This should be reserved for fun story points.

SKILLS

You may want to also include simple skills for your game as well. These are considered to be things like climbing, persuasion, or puzzle solving. Skills should never duplicate or be able to replicate Paths. If you find that your skills are able to do so, you may not need them at all.

Skill Die

This is like the character’s Level Die but always a d4 and can never be raised. This helps reinforce that the player’s Paths are far more suited to solving problems or overcoming obstacles than their skills. The player should be looking to their Paths first before resorting to a Skill.

That said, you may find that this doesn’t thematically work for your game. If so, ignore the Skill Die and allow the player to use their Level Die instead.

Skill Paths

A character has three Skill Paths: Mental, Physical, and Social. It follows the same process as the character’s main Paths. However, skills should be capped at a d8. This again reinforces that the player should be looking to their main Paths first.

Skill Aspects

These are the specific skills that your character has. You can have a predefined list of skills, or allow the players to come up with their own ideas that helps round out or tell us more about who their character is.

Whichever the case, these skills become Aspects of the three Skill Paths. Which of the three Paths the skill falls under should be rather intuitive. For instance, a skill in climbing would fall under the Physical Path. A skill like solving puzzles falls under Mental.

Skill Aptitude

Each Skill Aspect has a maximum of two Aptitude. Depending on the type of game you are running you may wish to lift this cap. Like the main Paths, the amount of Aptitude a character can have in any Aspect is limited by the associated Skill Path Die.

Starting Die and Aptitude

The three Skill Paths start at a d4. The players are given two upgrades to any of the three they wish, raising them from a d4 to a d6. Afterward we’ve found that 10 points of Aptitude to spread among the skills they choose makes for a very well rounded character.

ADVANCEMENT

We learn more through our failures than through our successes. Each time a player fails a roll they gain a point of experience. This is to encourage players to use the full breadth of their character’s Paths despite not being as proficient in everythin. All Paths are available to overcome any given obstacle. So while the best Path for achieving a goal may not be a character’s strongest, there is a greater chance of gaining experience.

Spending XP

Player’s can spend their XP in a few different ways. Character Advancement or Story Beats. If your game has a town mechanic consider also allowing the players the ability to spend their collective experience to upgrade their town.

Character Advancement

To advance in a Path the player must spend a number of XP equal to the new Path Die’s level. Meaning to raise a Path from a d4 to a d6 would require two experience points. Going from a d6 to a d8, three points.

Likewise, gaining more Aptitude in an Aspect requires the player to spend that number of XP per point of Aptitude. However, a character’s Path Die limits how much Aptitude they can have. Meaning a d8 limits the character’s Aptitude to a max of 3 for all associated Aspects. In order to raise the cap, the player must first raise the Path’s Die level.

Once a character has upgraded three Paths to the next die level then their Level Die increases by one to a maximum of d12. If you’re making a game with classes you may want to change it so that you just need a specific number of XP points to hit the next level.

Story Beats

At any time during a scene a player may spend 2 XP to make something true about a scene. Instead of asking the GM if there's a chandelier hanging above the opponent, they can spend 2 XP and make it true. Want there to be a shotgun behind the bar? For 2 XP it's there now.

Skill Advancement

You may wish for the players to be able to spend experience to raise their Skill Paths and Aptitude as outlined in Advancement or you may wish to give the players upgrades per Level Die advancement. Consider the themes and game mechanics you are trying to promote when picking your advancement method. Keeping this in mind should help you choose which one is right for your game.