Character-Building Questions

The following were application questions for characters being built for the original LARP run; they're presented here as useful character-building prompts to give you a good idea of what makes a character that fits into the setting well, and what you might want to know about how the character fits in to the setting.

  • What are your character’s most valued Norms? What shocks or offends your character?
  • What is your character’s goal in life?
  • What is your character’s day-to-day life like? Do they have any hobbies? What do they do to make money? How do they have fun?
  • Describe your character’s personal life. What’s their relationship like with their parents? Do they have any close friends? Romantic relationships? Children or siblings?
  • What are your character’s religious/spiritual views?
  • How does your character deal with hardship and stress?
  • What is one memory your character has of the unexplainable? Why has it stuck with them?
  • What is your character most afraid of?
  • What does your character consider to be the worst thing they have ever done?
  • Has your character had any traumatic experiences? Describe the one that affected them the most.
  • What does your character think makes someone or something a monster?
  • If you are a supernatural creature, how did you become one? Was it your choice? How has it changed your life? How do you hide your unnatural state?

Optional Questions (we asked players to answer 5 out of 9)

  • Has your character ever left Nulpert County, or Winnemac? If so why? Why did they return to Osthigwanegon?
  • How has life been unfair to your character? Why does your character believe they haven’t gotten further in life?
  • What is your character hiding from the people around them? What is their most closely kept secret?
  • What does loss mean to your character? What is a noteworthy loss they have experienced?
  • What is one thing your character believes about themselves, that isn’t actually true?
  • What does your character believe makes for a successful life?
  • Under what circumstances would your character kill another human being?
  • What does your character like about their life?
  • What is your character’s proudest achievement?

Mechanics

True Self

Each Character has 1 True Self, chosen from a list of 26 different True Selves. A character’s True Self represents who they are their core when violating and interacting with the town’s Norms. See the Norms and True Selves page for more information.

Attributes

Prioritize the three categories (Mental, Physical, and Social) into the most important (Primary), second most important (Secondary), and least important (Tertiary) categories. Every attribute starts with 1 rank for free.

Your Primary category gains an additional 5 points to spend between the three Attributes, your Secondary gains an additional 4, and your Tertiary gains an additional 3 points. Each rank in an Attribute costs 1 point, and Attributes may not go above 5 ranks. The total among each category (including the free point in each attribute) will be 8/7/6. After you have done this, you have one more floating point to put into any Attribute you choose. See the Traits page for more information.

Skills and Special Trainings

Each character has both Skills and Special Trainings, and they have 22 points to split between the two categories. Each rank in a Skill or Special Training costs 1 point, and both traits can only be raised to a maximum of 5 per individual Skill or Special Training. In addition, a character can only spend up to 8 of their 22 points on Special Trainings but they are not required to spend any on Special Trainings. See the Traits page for more information.

Advantages

Characters begin game with 17 ranks worth of total Advantages, split among any number of individual Advantages. Many Advantages have specific prerequisites which need to be fulfilled before they can be purchased by a character. Some Advantages are labeled as “Unnatural,” this is to show that the Advantage in question gives your character a weird or supernatural ability. See the Advantages page for more information.

Challenges

Characters can have zero, one, or two Challenges at character creation. Additionally, you do not select from a list of prewritten Challenges. Instead, you will submit a description of the Challenge in no more than 4 sentences and the Storytellers will build a personalized Challenge for the character in cooperation with you (mechanics and all). Note that Challenges should be tailored to fit your character’s personal situation, that is, they should represent some aspect of your character not covered by other mechanics. The one exception to this are the Creature Challenges, which have prewritten mechanics. See the Challenges page for more information.

Stability

Characters have Stability, a measure of how much their character has or has not been affected by the unnatural. By default, character will have a Stability of 4. You can request a different Stability, or let the Storyteller choose for you based on your character details. See the Stability page for more information.

Derived Stats

Characters have 3 different traits that are derived from their other traits. Certain Advantages can change these calculations.

Initiative: Dexerity + Composure__ This is how quickly your character can act in a scenario, as compared with another character.

Speed: 5 + Strength
This is how fast your character can physically move, generally it means a distance of yards.

Defense: Wits + Athletics
This is you character’s general ability to avoid direct harm. Any ranged attacks halve their Defense, rounded down.

Character also have two different tracks, showing their Willpower and Health. Each of them is a number of boxes that get filled up in different ways, please see their relevant pages for more information.

Willpower: (5 + Resolve) boxes
See the Willpower page for more details.

Health: (5 + Stamina) boxes
See the Damage and Healing section of the Combat page for more details.