This is the second hardest bit of character creation, the hardest being picking a name. This is the bit where you try to decide what the hell you are actually going to play in this game. Hopefully by now you will have read bits of the background and thought “Cool, I wanna play one of THOSE”. If not, then your best bet is to pick something simple and if pressed say “I'm a develop in play type”. In many systems people would suggest beginners play Sorcerers because they get to kick arse in a fight without you actually having to be any good with a sword, but our magic systems might take a little bit of getting to grips with. It's probably best for a beginner to either go with a generic fighter type, and let In Character skills make up for any Out of Character cackhandedness they may have, or to go with the sneaky cowardly “remind me why we're taking you with us” type.
If you wish, you may play a non-human character such as a Child of the Vine, Weaver or Dream Catcher, or a mostly human character with Troll blood, Divine blood, Ashen blood or Shattered blood. These are all explained in detail on the Non-Humans page.
You start off with either two levels in one Class or one level in each of two Classes. The list of Classes is as follows:
The first two Classes you take count as being your “Primary Classes” for the purpose of level advancement, whether you take the second Class at character generation or later on.
For example, a character starting off with one level of Warrior and one level of Ranger counts Warrior and Ranger as their Primary Classes, as does a character starting off with two levels of Warrior who gains some more levels in Warrior and then later takes a level of Ranger (before taking a level in any other Class).
Incidentally, those of you who are familiar with generic fantasy may have noticed that there is no “cleric” Class in the above list. This is because being a Priest is a skill that a Scholar, Sorcerer, Warrior or someone with Divine Blood can buy at character creation, rather than a class. Being Ordained as a Priest has particular advantages for many kinds of Sorcerers.
Please note that the Classes above have not been carefully balanced. In particular, Scholars and Merchants are usually a bit useless on most adventures, and are included solely for the benefit of those who wish to play that sort of character.
A starting Player Character (PC) has 30 experience points (XPs) to spend on skills, plus any additional skill points they may have earnt from monstering and the like to a maximum of 60 extra (90 total). Skills are laid out on the skills page and are listed by Class.
You may only buy as many Ranks in a skill as you have levels in a Class the skill falls under. You may not buy skills which are not listed for your Class. General skills may be bought by any Class, and you may buy as many Ranks in any of those skills as the sum of your total Class levels (for example, a starting character can buy any General skill at up to Rank 2, somebody with three levels of Warrior, one level of Sorcerer and a level of Thief could buy any General skill at up to Rank 5).
Some skills may be bought by multiple Classes, in which case the Class levels stack if higher levels in the skill just increase how often you can use it (i.e. Arcane Lore, Disengage, Leadership, Learned, Poisoner, Sneaking, Throwing Weapons) but don't stack if higher levels in the skill increase how well you can use it (i.e. Blather, First Aid, Strong, Tactician, Wealth). For example, someone with three levels of Warrior and two levels of Ranger and two levels of Thief could buy Throwing Weapons at up to Rank 4, since it's available to both Ranger and Thief Classes and only governs how many weapons you can throw per Encounter, but could only buy First Aid at up to Rank 3, since it's available to both Warrior and Ranger Classes but governs how serious a wound you can patch up. Someone with two levels as an Ordained Scholar could buy Learned at up to Rank 4, since it's a Class skill for both Scholars and Priests and doesn't get better the more Ranks you have of it.
Some origins, group affiliations and the like give you minor bonuses. These are mostly flavour but can be very handy. The specials available are listed here.
Characters will get a quantity of starting stuff based on their starting skills. In particular:
Anything you want that isn't on the above list will need to be bought out of your starting cash or the advance from your first mission. If you get an advance. See the equipment page for prices and a list of available stuff.
Armour of choice includes light, medium and heavy armour but not steelsilk (unless you're a member of the De Almedia Family). A sidearm is a dagger or club. A basic weapon is an ordinary one-handed sword, mace or axe. All starting equipment is standard quality unless otherwise specified. Starting equipment may be upgraded to superior quality when creating a character by paying the difference between its standard quality cost and its superior quality cost out of your starting money.
You now need to work out your total Hits of every type, these should all be noted down on a character sheet along with your number of Dodges and Parries. Hits are worked out as:
( 2 + [Ranks of Tough] ) Body Hits on each location (the five locations being torso, two legs and two arms), unless you're a Weaver or have Troll blood.
A number of Armour Hits (from 0 to 6) on each location depending on the kind of armour you're wearing.
( 5 + [Ranks of Tough] ) Fatigue Hits, unless you're a Child of the Vine.
( 5 + [Ranks of Strong Willed] ) Psyche Hits.
This is always the hardest bit. Names in the world of the White City tend to follow normal real-world naming conventions, so John, Sarah, Eleanor and Robert are all perfectly viable names. Try to avoid anything twee sounding (Bob springs to mind), you can go with 'fantasy soup' if you really want to but take it easy on the apostrophes. Look at the PC Roster page and the Sample Character page if you need some inspiration.