Final Steps

Now that a general overview of how the game is played from a mechanics-and-process perspective, it is time to return to the finalizing of the character. At the start of the Basic Mechanics section, it was mentioned that the next steps to finish the character was to define what skills he or she has. However, the other part of that explanation was that many of the starting skills would be based upon one’s background and upbringing. This is what will be examined next.

Paideia

The word “paideia” is just a fancy term from Ancient Greece that means education or upbringing to fit with one’s station. Thus, it is the perfect word, albeit a bit archaic, to describe this part of the character-creation process. This is where the player determines what happened during the character’s growing-up years, what he or she learned during that time, and what significant development happened in that period of life.

To determine what happened, a small base of back story has to be decided. Often the GM will not need to be involved, assuming it is nothing crazy like choosing being created from the blood of Titania, Queen of the Fey, exchanged for a soul-trapped demon to a greater kami of weather, who entrusted the child to the Lord of the Cloud Giants to raise. This step is essentially deciding who the parents were and maybe the siblings, what size of city in which they lived -- or that it was a pirate vessel, or so on. Of course, if a player wants a little unusual childhood, that player should work with the GM.

Once understanding the early environment and roles involved, then look up how many cultural points were granted for the species selection. These points are akin to money for purchasing skills acquired in early life and one’s species in the price tag. This said, just because the character is one species doesn't mean the culture of one’s youth is the same. Elfin families do live in human cities. An equirda might have been orphaned and raised by nhoblits. However, if as part of the character’s history, these are different, the work with the GM to decide which species cost to use: the nature or the nurture.

To clarify, a dwarf raised in a traditional subterranean dwarven city means there is no question that the “Dwarven Cost” will be used when selecting skills for the history. However, if that same dwarf were found and adopted by gnomes, then the GM could rule that the “Gnome Cost” should be used instead. The exception is an orkane character. An orkane will have access to the culture from where one was raised, however, due to social prejudices against a bastard child, the cost listed for an orkane will always be used instead of the standard price, which in some cases will be cheaper; i.e., the orkane was pushed towards a stereotype, such as fighting or to be a laborer.

Stated above it was suggested that the player consult with the GM. That is not just the case for odd back stories because the GM may award up to an extra 400 cultural points due to socio-economic class or perhaps because the family is part of a guild. These points could come with conditions stated by the GM such as “Skill X must be acquired to gain these bonus points,” based on whatever the GM discerns relevant from the history.

Skills can be selected at the attributed cost. Then whatever that cost is, it is taken from a running total of those cultural points. This continues until reaching zero or no more skills can be bought with the points remaining. Also, some skills will have requirements, which means the sub-attributes for the created character must conform to those requirement otherwise the skill could not have been acquired during childhood. Further, the skills obtained here may have requirements later in game play; however, during the selection from paideia, the skill can be acquired even if not meeting those prerequisites needed later after joining the game story.

If the species cost is listed as “R” then it is restricted and unavailable. This is true whether it is the child’s species or if it is the culture used for the cost. Further, if a species has a trait that acts like one of these skills, it would not need to be acquired here but could be at the lowest price. In other words, if a woodland elf, having the weapon intuition trait with a spear, wanted to select melee combat, then rather than the normal cost of 400 culture points, it could be obtained for only 300.

Do not forget that humans have the diversity trait. This trait is specific for selecting skills from childhood, and it allows a human character the option to purchase these cultural skills at the lowest price point available. This is why one will note “Human Cost” is never listed.

Lastly, a quick statement on languages. Every character has fluency in one’s species culture (or starting culture if different); however, literacy is not a given. If one's character must be able to read and write, then 100 points must be used to gain this additional part of the native language skill. Additional languages can be bought in this step with fluency costing 100 points, then one must spend an additional 200 points to gain literacy in the newly acquired language. To be clear, literacy cannot be learned first. Finally, one's Logic score determines the number of total languages that can be known from childhood with the default of two languages with the determining values beyond that. To be able to learn a third, one must have a minimum of a 12 Logic score.

The Summary

The last thing to do to round out the starting character sheet is to summarize the back story. This doesn't need to be 2,000-word essay like the introduction of Beowulf, but it should include the pertinent and needed information about who this character is a how he or she got to this point in life.

If this is a struggle for someone as a player, just know there are numerous tools on the Internet and a simple assistant in the Tools Section of Enchanted Realms.