Character History Guidelines

 

Here are some basic guidelines to take into account when designing your character:


  1. • Remember to include a reason why your character is at the School of Seven Virtues.

  2. • If you want to have something weird, funky, mysterious, supernatural, etc. in your history, you are probably better off leaving it up to Plot exactly what really happened rather than trying to precisely define it yourself.  That gives us room to make sure it’s something that will fit well into the campaign and be coolest for you.  Just think vague and mysterious.

  3. • If you want, you CAN be a minor noble or from a noble house.  You CAN’T be from a royal family, be a major noble, or have command over extensive offscreen resources.

  4. • You CAN be a retired (or on extended leave) military officer, even a moderately high-ranked one.  You CAN’T be an active duty high ranked military officer who would still command troops.

  5. • Guess what?  Generally speaking, you can’t have huge offscreen resources.  If you want your family or some NPC-controlled group of which you are a part to have significant offscreen resources, that might be OK, provided it’s clear that you don’t have the power to call directly on those resources and you build in a reason why they wouldn’t necessarily always jump to help you out.

  6. • You CAN have a distant, vague association with an NPC or group mentioned in the rulebook (though plot will have to approve it).  You CAN’T know them well or make up actions for them.

  7. • You need Plot approval to play a Touched (and, therefore, a Warlock, though you can play a Touched who is not a Warlock). 

  8. • This should go without saying, but if you have any doubt about whether something in your character history might possibly be offensive to some people or make some people uncomfortable, please leave it out.

  9. • Your character cannot be on the Path of the Teacher or have previously attended the School of Seven Virtues.

  10. • Your character cannot have attended the School of Seven Powers.

  11. • We strongly recommend not trying to play an evil character or one who will customarily act against the best interests of the School or the general player base.

  12. • Students at the School of Seven Virtues can be any age (well, 17 and up) and any level of experience, and any level of status in society.  You can be a grizzled veteran or a callow youth.  You can be an influential noble or a humble farmer.  It’s up to you!


General advice and the answers to some frequently asked questions:


  1. •You might want to consider giving your character a reason to want to interact with other characters, and reasons to be interested in a broad range of things (characters obsessively focused on a single goal can languish when inevitably, the vast majority of the time they cannot be actively pursuing that goal). 

  2. •Don’t forget to leave room for continuing character development!

  3. •We don’t recommend planning for your character to strongly prefer to be with the same group of PCs all the time.  Having tight-knit friendships is fine, but be aware that you may frequently be pulled in different directions by your own plot preferences.

  4. •At the same time, there are no character choices (race, religion, etc) that should prevent you from spending your IG time with whomever you please, or that will shut you out of major plot areas.

  5. •Remember that you can wear the fashion of any country, no matter which country you’re actually from.

  6. •Make a character with various interests, goals, and relationships that will make the character fun for you to play from day to day.

  7. •Don’t worry if we ask you to change something!  We’re eager to make sure that each history will fit well into our game world, and suggest changes to many fine histories.

  8. •Your character history can be any length, from a short series of informative bullet points to many pages.  We just want to make sure we have all the information we need to run plot for your character.  For those who like to do an in-character history (like a diary), we encourage you to add OOG notes explaining things as needed.


We can’t wait to see your character concepts, and look forward to meeting your characters in 2010!