Creating Characters

Character Attributes

The Attributes are Vigour, Mettle, Wit, Glamour and Spirit. Wit and Glamour do not change. Vigour and Mettle are physical Attributes and may be reduced by age, illness and injury. Spirit may be altered by the effect of some magical or psychic activities.

Vigour is a combined measure of a character’s potential to employ physical power, that is strength, speed, dexterity, reactions and athletic ability.

Mettle is a measure of a character’s mental and physical determination and resolve including stamina, their potential to recover from injury and to resist disease.

Wit is a measure of a character’s potential to apply intelligence and cunning and their ability to learn and make use of information and exploit their senses.

Glamour is a measure of a character’s appearance, personal charisma and potential to influence and intimidate individuals or to command and inspire groups of non-player characters (NPCs).

Spirit for those games that include a magical or supernatural element, is a measure of the character’s natural magical ability. This attribute may also be used for games that include a psychic element or a similar supernatural power.

Skill and Attributes are defined by numbers. With the exception of Spirit normal human attributes levels are in the range 4 to 9. Levels 3 and 4 would be considered below average. Levels 1 and 2 would indicate a disability in a human character whilst Levels 8 and 9 represent truly exceptional individuals. Players generally prefer to play outstanding individuals with the potential for heroic achievements and therefore the character generation rules are set so that PCs’ attribute levels will usually be in the range 6 to 9.

Human Spirit is in the range of 0 to 9. However the GM and players may choose to vary this if it is not appropriate for the setting.

A player determines her own PC’s Attribute levels by spending the Character Points granted by the GM for her character description.

The following table gives the cost in Character Points for each Attribute Level of Vigour, Wit, Mettle and Glamour. Thus a Wit of 7 requires the player to spend 4 Character Points.

The following table gives the cost in Character Points for each Attribute Level of Spirit.

Players will note that Vigour, Mettle, Wit and Glamour effectively start from a base of 4 and Spirit starts at 0 and the player may spend Character Points to increase these figures. If one Attribute is lowered below 4 then additional points are gained to be spent on raising other attributes. However, players are strongly advised not to allow any Attributes with the exception of Spirit to fall below 4. The GM should penalise characters with Attributes of this level during play. Attributes of Levels 4 and 3 are below average and Levels 1 and 2 represent a handicap. For example, a character with a Glamour of 2 would not only be ugly but he may have an offensive body odour and his personality would also be repellent. Such a character would usually receive a negative reaction from other characters they come into contact with. A character with a vigour of 3 would be quite feeble or very slow. A character with a Mettle of 3 would be easily exhausted and prone to illness and infection. If a player had Character Points remaining after achieving the Attributes they wish they may covert them 1:1 into Wyrd Points to add to their starting Wyrd Point total.

Alternatively, a Player may choose to roll Attributes completely randomly. Roll a d100 five times and consult the following table, the player may choose after rolling all five which result to allocate to each attribute. The allocation should have regard to the Character description.

If a player chooses to roll attributes randomly they may convert all Character points into additional Wyrd Points 1:1. i.e. usually the initial allocation of Wyrd Points is equal to the original Character Point total, if the Character Points are not used to generate attributes the starting Wyrd point total will be doubled.

Handedness

A character is also given a particular handedness. Roll a d100. A result of 91 to 98 indicates that the character is left-handed, 99 & 00 indicates ambidexterity. When using the less preferred hand the character’s skill level for manual skills is reduced by 1 level.