Now, ones first thought might be, "Why does a free form game need a thread on how to create a character? Don't I just write a paragraph and boom, done?" Some games operate that way, but my experience is that all those characters start to feel a little similar. The thread below is not so much rules as it is narrative hooks to hang your character on. The steps below are meant to give a better sense of your character in the game and ensure they get to feel unique. So let's begin!

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Carefully chosen, the crew of the Elucidate have been hand selected to blaze a trail beyond the confines of their current reality. This important mission is intended to lay the groundwork for those to follow after.

Who Am I?

Let's start simple. A name for your character, a physical description

Name:
Description:

Stats

Characters will start a value of 1 in all stats. You then get four stats points to spend as you see fit. Your journey traversing the multiverse was... traumatic and has left you the worse for wear. You'll gradually regain your strength. For some measure of reference as to what each point roughly translates to:

1: Sickly, enfeebled, debilitated in some way
2: Meager
3: The standard measure of a mage.
4: Notably advanced.
5: An impressive specimen, you're clearly superior.
6+: At this rank and beyond it is a matter of degrees of superior and used for measuring oneself against other exceptional individuals.

Stats

In a tower full of mages, arcane acolytes measure themselves by their arcane caliber, nothing so mundane as muscles

Potency: The raw power behind your magic. If magic is hammer, your potency is the arm swinging it.
Finesse: Your ability to quickly and accurately wield your magic. The ability to hit a bullseye with a magic dart or thread a needle with magic.
Reservoir: The depths of your arcane reserve. The amount of magic you can cast before exhausting your power.
Note: You can cast 1+ your Reservoir value in spells per adventure. This doesn't apply to basic attacking/defending, only to specific spells you know.
Control: Magic is magic. It is fickle and temperamental. Those who lack control of their magic will find themselves with unexpected side effects.
Note: A low control stat gives the GM leeway to introduce unexpected byproducts of your magic. This only comes into effect when using Spells, not generic attacking/defending.
Persistence: The durability of your magic. How long it lasts and how resistant it is to dispelling/cancelling effects.
Physicality: Mages are still flesh and blood entities. This measures a combination of your physical attributes, strength, speed, durability. Though a mage with exceptional physicality is likely to be a target of scorn by other mages who see them wasting their time of the corporeal rather than the arcane. But sometimes even with magic one still has to run, climb or jump.

Where Do I Excel?

Rather than just have characters describe what they're good at, pick a descriptor that best captures the fantasy of your character below. All characters can do all these things, from attacking, defending to support and utility, but a character who specializes in defense will outshine those who do not when it comes to holding the line. In a large battle, one who is specialized at attacking will shine.

Attack: Dealing harm, posing a threat. A character who excels in Attack is amongst the most dangerous of individuals.
Benefit: Every time you attack you always slay at least 1 minor enemy if they are present, regardless of their defenses or your own current limitations. Minor applies any time there is numerous numbers of similar enemies (1 of 6 goblins, 1 of 10 gargoyles)
Benefit: You're highly effective in combat.
Defense: Stalwart and unyielding. A character who excels in defense is the most difficult to fell in combat and the most effective at protecting others.
Benefit: Once per adventure you mitigate chip damage once, whether received by you or another player.
Support: Others excel in your presence. Your abilities help others push past their natural limits.
Benefit: You can grant another player a bonus Reservoir point at the start of the adventure.
Utility: When tasks need doing, you possess the quickest hands and the most focused purpose.
Benefit: Once per  adventure, when a Crisis Roll occurs, you may choose a player and they roll 2d6 instead of 1d6, they take the better roll. (If used on yourself, it must be decided if you'll use the ability prior to rolling. It's stronger to help others than yourself!)
Note: Utility will not always be applicable in action scenes. But if  there's a fight where control crystals need to be unslotted, bombs need to be defused, rituals need to be performed in the heat of combat, this is where utility shines.


The Many Forms of Magic

In a tower where everyone is a mage, it would be easy to lose ones sense of uniqueness. So rather than just say "My character does magic," below is a list of possible types of magic they can choose. Now, the sort of magic you pick is entirely for flavor. A shadow mage could be dedicated entirely to healing, they would just flavor their spells to creating bandages of solid shadow or weaving skin grafts and replacement appendages woven of shadow stuff. A life wizard could be entirely dedicated to battle, perhaps by causing terrible growths on their enemies or internal functions to go haywire. Don't let the flavor of the magic pigeonhole you!

Your mage will pick one school of magic which is their specialization. The list below is intended to provide ideas, if you think of something not included that you'd like, discuss it with the GM.

Schools of Magic
Fire
Water
Earth
Wind
Divination
Transmutation
Shadow
Soul
Summoning
Enchanting
Luck
Time
Demonology
Illusion
Spiritualism
Conjuration
Necromancy
Runic
Astral

The Act of Casting Magic

With a school of magic determined, how does one go about actually using their magic? For attacking of defense, you can describe using your magic in whatever flavor you want. Mechanically fire, water, time, they'll all behave the same way when doing generic attacking or defending, regardless of the description. This does not spend your reservoir, but your stats such as potency or finesse will impact your generic attacking and defending.

Generic Magic: Does not have a spell name in your spellbook. The ability to make attacks/defenses through magic is inexhaustible resource (Barring exceptional circumstances.) You can use a general attack or defense action in the same turn you cast a Spell.

Known Spells: These are spells in your grimoire which you have learned. They do a specific thing, whether that's make you fly, teleport, turn invisible, whatever the case may be. Using a spell on an adventure depletes your reservoir. You will always successfully cast a spell you know, but if you have low control, there may be unexpected side effects that occur at the same time. You can cast as many spells in a single post as your Reservoir will allow for.

Expanding Your Spellbook: Spells can be obtained primarily two ways. The most straight forward way is through end of adventure rewards, often these spells will be tangentially related to the events of the adventure, players have to take them or leave them.

The second way is for players to develop their own spells. This is done by expending 5 Experience. Experience is obtained a number of ways; through end of adventure rewards, weekly distribution, or by making a Deadly Roll. A player gains 1 Experience each time they make a Deadly Roll. (See below)

If you roll a 6, you also gain 1 free Reservoir point that must be used in the same turn you rolled the Deadly Roll.

Spell Slots And Enchantments

Players begin with 1 slot in their spell book. These can be expanded through adventure rewards or special projects. (See Spending Experience.) You may know 10 spells, can you can only prepare as many as the spell slots you have available to you.

Enchantments are any enchanted items the player brings. They will only be able to carry one enchanted item at the start of the adventure. These slots can be expanded through adventure rewards or special projects. (See Spending Experience.)

Deadly Rolls

While our game is freeform, GMs enjoy a bit of surprise just as much as a player does. To keep things exciting, there are times that the game will call for a deadly roll to be made. This means that something highly dangerous is occurring. Whether its encountering a never before seen foe for the first time, facing a particular adversary, or experiencing a dangerous environment. A deadly roll means the player rolls a 1d6 and the following occurs:

1, 2 or 3: Crisis. The player loses 50% of their HP, possibly dropping them to 0. Or they take a Complication point.
4 or 5: The mages are placed in a precarious situation. Harm is certainly going to befall them soon.
6: While the situation is dangerous, the player begins in an advantageous situation. Gain 1 free Reservoir that must be spent in the next post.

Generally the GM will only force 1 Deadly Roll per adventure. Ways may be obtained to help mitigate these rolls, whether by adding extra D6s to pad the odds of 4s and 5s. Or possible spells to lessen the damage received, or ways to avoid making the roll entirely (Though that means missing out on the experience.)

The Dangers of Damage

Damage will come in two forms in this game. There is chip damage and crisis damage.

Chip Damage: Players will take small amounts of damage throughout an encounter. This will vary based on the encounter, the players stats, what spells they cast. They may take 0 damage in one round of posts, or 2, 3, 4. Chip damage is sometimes unavoidable, this simply reflects that blows are being traded. Sometimes it will be telegraphed by saying things like the enemies turn their attention to you, if these telegraphed hits aren't mitigated in some way, they'll typically hit harder than the unavoidable sort. Generally a player won't die to chip damage, if they do then they shouldn't be surprised.

Crisis Damage: This is the sort of damage players should fear. On a failed check the player can be immediately dropped to 0 health. On a failed Deadly roll, a player takes Crisis Damage which is 50% of their total health. So if your total health is 10, you would take 5, if you're already at 5 or less that would put you at zero. (See Arcane Complications)

Measure of Vitality: Health

Your mage starts with 10 health. This value can increase via adventure rewards.

Each week your character naturally regains 10% of their total health value

10HP = 1 HP Per Week
20HP = 2 HP Per Week

As it's much easier to take damage than it is to naturally recover it, choose your battles carefully!

Arcane Complications: Death*

Death in an RPG isn't interesting. It cuts off a thread. Stories that might have been developing abruptly end without closure, growth between characters ends. Basically, in my view it is a fun detractor. However, without danger, where is the adventure? So rather than die, when players hit 0 hit points they take a Complication point, on a failed Deadly Roll they can also opt to take 2 Complication Points instead.

On hitting Zero HP: 3 Complication Points.
Failed Crisis Roll: 2 Complication Points, two stats lowered by 1 for a month.

When a player has received 5 Complication Points, the GM rolls on the table below and then provides the player 3 options to choose from for the player. These are undesirable events, but not game ending. Instead they add hardship to the players journey, enriching  the tale instead of ending it. Note that all these complications can be eliminated eventually, but they're tenacious and will take time.

1 - Poisoned Spell - The GM chooses one of your spells. Going forward whenever it is cast it always causes a complication, regardless of your Control stat.
2 - Conscripted - You are forced into an adventure. You aren't eligible for any of the rewards at the end. (Other players can join and are eligible for rewards.)
3 - Suffer a betrayal - An ally, bound servant, hired mercenary, etc, will betray you. (Only valid if the player has some sort of ally)
4 - Gain a Nemesis - Your nemesis is always treated as a Deadly Encounter for you, you must make a Deadly Roll when facing them, even if you've already made one in that adventure. Other players are necessarily required to.)
5 - Weary - Your healing obtained from all sources (Weekly recovery/other sources) is halved.
6 - Cursed - Deadly Encounters are very likely to occur when you're at the threshold that they'll drop you to 0.
7 - A Setback - One of your ongoing projects suffers a major setback, valuable materials are lost.
8 - Phobia - One of the known enemies in the multiverse gains a special dread for you. When you encounter them you must treat them as a Deadly Encounter. (Note: This doesn't have to be roleplayed as fear)
9 - Diminished - Lower two of your stats permanently by 2, reflecting the hardship of your brush with death. Include a physical change to reflect this (A lost appendage, scarring, magical burns, etc)
10 - Death - If you so choose, your character dies and their journey comes to an end. If you make a new character you'll get most of their advancement transferred over.

Spending Experience: The Ambitions of the Arch Mage

While there may be a mission to establish a colony foothold, no self-respecting mage is without their own goals and ambitions. During your downtime in Elucidate you can choose to engage in your own projects. What these projects entail is limited only by your imagination. Completing a project take 5 Experience (Though it may involve 2 or 3 steps at that cost for truly ambitious projects)

"But if making new spells costs 5 Experience, why wouldn't I just make new spells all the time?"

With Reservoir imposing constraints on unrestricted casting and spellbooks possessing finite pages, a mage could know dozens of spells, but what good is that if they're unable to cast them? Special projects provide a means of providing utility between adventures, changing the world in which your character inhabits, or even augmenting your existing spells.

You can also use Materials obtained from various sources to help offset the Experience cost of projects. 1 Material is equivalent to 1 Experience, they're only good for side projects. Five 5 Material can be used to fully offset the 5 experience cost of a project.

Experience: New spells can only be created using Experience, Materials cannot be used to offset new spell creation. You can also raise a stat point by one. Doing either costs 5 experience.
Materials: Can be used for long term projects or to offset the cost of augmenting a spell.

Adventures

When the mages strike out to explore parts unknown, face a threat, explore an old ruin, or other dangerous deeds. This is considered an adventure. These will generally be tight experience, I try to keep them at 1 week real time or roughly 3 or 4 posts from each player at most. Adventures come with special stipulations:

Spell Book: At the start of the adventure players choose from their known list of spells and bring however many spells they have slots in their book. In their post where they choose to join the adventure they declare which spells they're preparing. You can cast prepared spells as many times as you have Reservoir available.

Enchantments: An enchantment can only be used once per adventure, but it does not cost any Reservoir.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:07, Fri 05 Apr.