Today, we will discuss character creation and progression. These systems will be further explored when we release the articles that highlight the four primary paths: The Gunslinger, The Scholar, The Faithful, and The Spellbinder!
Players start by choosing how to create the point pool for their character to increase their attributes. The five attributes are Physical, Mental, Social, Calm, and Will. These five stats determine all numerical values for the character, including how many skill points a player has to spend in each category. We’ll discuss skills more.
Players have two choices when creating a character: how they will build their pool of points. They can choose the safe route or let fate decide their outcome. Let fate decide means that the player rolls a number of dice and adds the totals together. They then add five to that total, which gives them their point pool to increase their attributes. The safe route gives the player a set number of points, which equals the average of the dice rolls plus five.
Why would I choose the random roll? Well, there are several reasons. One is that players love rolling dice, and there is a thrill in the random potential of the outcome. Another is that players may be stronger numerically than the average, but you may also be far weaker. Choosing the random roll has its risks, as once you choose to roll and get your results, you are stuck with it. In the spirit of the gambling tables of the saloon, what is life without a bit of risk? The other side effect is how experience works in the game. Starting with higher stats will be good, but it will slow progression down. More on that in a bit.
Taking the safe route gives you a great, well-balanced point total that may not be as strong as a really good roll but won’t also have the hurdles of low stats.
Once a player has created their point pool, they assign points to their attributes. Once all attribute points are assigned, players determine their skill point pools derived from the relevant stats for each category times two. Once that is all done.
After that, players will choose their starting traits. Traits are a selection of beneficial and negative traits that will adjust their attributes, skills, or other stats. They may even give players a bonus on some rolls or a penalty in the case of negative traits.
Why take negative traits? All players must take one positive and one negative trait that helps to shape their character. If you want more positive Traits, you must take more negative Traits to a maximum of three negative and three positive. Note that many traits exclude other Traits.
After choosing traits, the player then chooses what their first two talents will be. When selecting talents, you must first decide which talent tree you will purchase your talent from. At character creation, players may choose to have one talent from two separate Talent Paths or two from one Talent Path. The player may substitute one or both of these starting Talents for ones on the General Talent Path list. One thing to note is that all spiritual paths, in this case, The Faithful and The Spellbinder, are mutually exclusive. The nature of the world of Grimdark West and how the supernatural works makes it nearly impossible for a Character to be on more than one Spiritual Path at a time. Some general and even high-tier talents will allow spiritual paths to “Dip” into other spiritual paths. Still, these abilities are not as potent as being on the given Talent Path.
Once a player has determined their Attributes, Skills, Traits, and Talents, they take the starting gear determined by their chosen Talent Paths and can begin play immediately.
As players play, they will acquire Experience Points (EXP) they can use to improve their character. These points are spent as a currency to increase Skills and purchase Talents. All Experience Points are Acquired after players return from the Trail. An adventure usually involves players going on the Trail between three and five times. Most Adventures will see the Players awarded with six to ten EXP and usually between three to five additional XP based on completing optional quests.
Improving skills costs more EXP as you get better at a skill. Talents cost a specific amount of EXP based on their Tier level in their Path. To purchase a Talent of a higher Tier, players must have two Talents purchased on the previous tier.
Next week, we will start looking at Talent Paths and Skills.
Until next time.