Character Creation¶
Create Your Dealer¶
Players and GMs both control Dealers. A Dealer is someone who is in charge of their own fate, and likely plays using their own unique deck. Players are able to level up their Dealers by playing in Adventures, and GMs can set the level of their Dealers to best balance Encounters during a session.
Every Dealer can take Powers and Vulnerabilities, and has Attribute and Skill Modifiers that impact their ability to interact with the world around them.
Outlined below are the steps to building a Dealer as part of Character Creation. GMs can find additional advice on how to create a GM Dealer in the GM Guide
Decide Your Background¶
First, choose where your character is coming from including your lived experiences that would motivate adventuring. Classically, this is a 'racial' or species origin (e.g., Dwarves, Humans, or Elves of Fantasy) that fits with the GM's setting. This has no inherent mechanical impact, but may shape how your character navigates challenges. Growing up at a seaport, your character might be more adept at sailing (i.e., certain Skill Checks) than others. Coming to a new land as an outsider might be a Vulnerability, as described below.
Characters beginning their journey at Level 1 are relatively unskilled. They may have had one profession for many years, but should not have significant experience adventuring or traveling beyond the borders of the comfort zone shared by their peers. Work with your GM if you feel your character would have specific experience related to their background.
Choose Your Role¶
Your Role describes how your character navigates challenges. While a Defender might apply force, a Caster might find a more magical solution. Choosing a Role grants you access to specific Powers. Each Role has a skill they use to attack in combat (e.g., Brute or Knowledge). You can switch your Role later on, but must forfeit Powers with a prerequisite Role in exchange for the points previously spent.
- Caster
- Description: Casters can be mages of fantasy or techno-wizards of a much more mundane world. Their intellect drives them to skills the rest of us can barely comprehend.
- Primary Attribute: Intelligence
- Suggested Primary Skill: Knowledge
- Example Powers: Attack, Mystic Aura, Slow
- Defender
- Description: Defenders can take a hit and keep protecting their allies. They focus more on battlefield control during combat than outright damage. Not someone to mess with!
- Primary Attribute: Strength
- Suggested Primary Skill: Brute
- Example Powers: Shield, Self, Attack, Sweep
- Martial
- Description: Martials move quick and hit hard. They're adept with physical weapons to directly damage enemies. Agile and light on their feet!
- Primary Attribute: Agility
- Suggested Primary Skill: Finesse
- Example Powers: Attack, Charge, Attack, Dual Wield
- Support
- Description: Attending to their allies, support characters may focus on healing or other boons to sway the battle in their favor. We're all stronger thanks to the support of our friends.
- Primary Attribute: Intuition
- Suggested Primary Skill: Craft
- Example Powers: Lend Vigor, Attack, Mystic Entangle
Using Experience Points (XP)¶
At character creation (6) and for each level up (3), you are awarded Experience Points. These points can be spent to gain additional Powers, boost an Attribute or a Skill, or remove a Vulnerability. Total XP is equal to 6 + (Level * 3). You may have leftover XP after a level up, but your XP can never be negative.
On level up, a GM may allow you to re-specialize (known as respec). This allows you to exchange Powers for their equivalent XP value, and reduce any Attributes or Skills down to 0. You may also choose at this time to change your Role, though you can no longer access any Powers that require your old Role.
Choose Your Powers¶
Powers are your way of amplifying your character both on and off the battlefield, covering simple abilities like swinging a weapon to complicated magical feats. Some Powers require a specific Role, prerequisite levels or relevant Attribute/Skill Modifiers. These are listed in each Powers description.
Each Power has an associated XP cost to add to your character. Passive mechanics, or Minor magical tricks typically cost 1 XP. Big, character-altering feats will cost more.
Major Powers are
tiresome and require a limited resource to use: Power Points (PP). Each Power will list
the PP that must be spent to use the Power. Some Powers allow for different effects
depending on the PP expended (e.g., 1 PP to target one enemy vs. 2 PP to target
multiple). The more PP spent, the bigger the effect. Numbers separated by or in the
mechanics description indicate different effects depending on PP spent.
Adding a Power with a PP cost also raises the character's maximum PP by the largest number of PP listed for that Power. This means when you add a new Power you automatically gain enough PP to use it once. PP are replenished on a Rest.
Unless otherwise noted, Powers...
-
Take a Major Action to perform and use a Dealer's Primary Skill Modifier.
-
That have sustained effects, may only be used one at a time. Passive Powers take no action and are always in effect.
-
That damage, deal 1 point of damage.
-
That have implied range, may be used up to 6 spaces away.
Choose Your Vulnerabilities¶
People are not perfect, and many have Vulnerabilities as a result of their relationship with the world. At character creation you can choose up to four Vulnerabilities, which add mechanical and roleplay implications, like being afraid of fire or unable to swim. Adding Vulnerabilities to your character will grant you additional Experience Points during character creation. Each Vulnerability added grants 1 (Minor) or 2 (Major) Experience Points, but you can only gain 4 total Experience Points during character creation. A GM may overrule this limit if, for example, the events of the story result in a character gaining an additional Vulnerability.
When roleplaying your character, keep these Vulnerabilities in mind. How do they shape the way your character interacts with the world, and how might this affect their relationships with others?
Vulnerability types:
- Minor: Adds 1 XP
- Major: Adds 2 XP
Some Vulnerabilities can be either Minor or Major, depending on the effects you choose. Work with your GM if a Vulnerability has story implications (e.g., Hunted or Outsider).
Modifying Attributes and Skills¶
All Attributes and Skills start at a 0 Modifier. You can adjust your Skills and Attributes using your Experience Points (XP), which will help define how capable your character for relevant actions. On initial character creation, you can spend or earn points by increasing or decreasing Attributes and Skill Modifiers up to -2 or +2 at Level 1. This upper limit increases as you level up (see table below). Once modifiers are set at character creation, a player may only add newly awarded Experience points.
Mod Cap by Level
| Level | SkillCap |
|---|---|
| 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 3 |
| 5 | 3 |
| 6 | 4 |
| 7 | 5 |
| 8 | 5 |
| 9 | 5 |
| 10 | 6 |
The lower limit for Modifiers is -2. If a Modifier is -1, any Check made with that modifier must be be a Color Match for success. If -2, any Check made with that modifier must be a Suited Match for success.
When modifying an Attribute, the related Skills are affected as well. This means that boosting Strength to a +1 will also add a +1 to Brute and Intimidation. Reducing an Attribute by -1 also reduces the related Skills by -1.
Raising an Attribute Modifier by +1 initially costs 2 Experience Points. Raising a Skill Modifier by +1 initially costs +1 Experience Point. In both cases, raising modifiers becomes more costly as you add. The table below shows the cost in Experience Points and the resulting modifier for Attributes and Skills.
XP Cost for Attributes (left) and Skills (Right)
| XP Cost | Attrib Mod |
XP Cost | Skill Mod |
|---|---|---|---|
| -4 | -2 | -2 | -2 |
| -2 | -1 | -1 | -1 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 8 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| 12 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
| 18 | 5 | 9 | 5 |
| 24 | 6 | 12 | 6 |