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Character Creation

Page history last edited by Bolthy 11 years ago

The Very Basic

 

You are someone connected to Amber who was at the battle at Patternfall when Caine shot Brand. This could be Corwin. This could be Brand. This could be Merlin. This could be Morgenstern. This could be Lord Feldane. This cannot be Dworkin, Gerard or Martin (they weren't there). This cannot be Lord Borel (he's strictly Chaos). 

 

As part of this, you are not obliged to remain locked in the portrayal of the character in the books. If you think that Fiona would be turned into an 8-foot tall stone statue with rocket feet because of the shard of the Jewel of Judgment that has been lodged into her, more power to you. 

 

Only things from the first five books exist. There is no Logrus. No Rinaldo. No Suhuy. No Fount of Power. None of that. So here's your first step: 

 

STEP ONE: Pick a canon character from that scene, first come, first serve. 

 

You have merged with a shard of the Jewel of Judgment and, as a result, now embody some concept associated with the  Pattern. What aspect? Whatever you think resonates the most with your character's understanding of the Pattern. Does the Pattern mean "Power" to you? Or "Home"? Or "Family"? Whatever. So this takes us to:

 

STEP TWO: Pick a concept of which your character will become the living incarnation. This is called your character's Estate. No duplicates. First come, first serve. 

 

And then comes...

 

STEP THREE: Spend points.

 

This is the most complicated part of this. You will have at least three pools of points to distribute. (Normally there are four, but I'm hand-waving one of them a bit. Unless you really want to figure it out.) In short these pools are: 

 

Bonds and Afflictions (13 points): Bonds are things that drive your character into action or hinder in some way. Bonds are also things that are important to your character. Bonds are something you have a degree of control over. Afflictions are more like universal laws about your character. Afflictions can border into the supernatural powers or flaws. They are something I control in play. For either Bonds or Afflictions, you may spend up to 5 points in each Bond or Affliction. 

 

Properties of Your Estate (8 points): In step two you picked a concept. Here you distribute points between phrases that describe your Estate. No more than 5 points in each property. 

 

Character Points (25 points): These are the more conventional attributes and powers for your character. There are four attributes and an assortment of powers that you might obtain. Attributes describe the sort of miracles you can accomplish as a godlike being. The attributes are ranked from 0 to 5, and each rank costs 3 character points. Other powers have variable costs.

 

The attributes, in brief:

  • Aspect: Physical and mental ability. At the extreme end, you can punch the moon out of the sky. 
  • Domain: Control over your Estate. Create, protect, destroy, change or divine through portions of your Estate.
  • Persona: Control over the properties of your Estate, particularly the ability to give things not of your Estate the qualties and properties of your Estate.
  • Treasure: Wide control over minions, artifacts, and symbology.  

 

I will note that these attributes are listed in order of how difficult they are to use as a player. 

 

Is This Where You Get Off?

 

If you are rules challenged, or you get through the next chunk and say, "Okay, done now. Make me a pre-gen," then I at least need you to answer the first two questions and give me notes on what you'd like your character to do: What attributes you want to focus on, what powers you might want, etc. 

 

Some Terms

 

Auctoritas: A level of protection against Miracles. 

 

Chancel: In Nobilis, the fortress universe that Imperators create to protect their bodies while their spirit is off doing other things. For this game, any rules that have to do with your "Chancel" refer to Amber proper. 

 

Estate: This is the concept that you are in charge of. 

 

Imperator: In Nobilis, they are godlike beings who embody aspects of existence. For this game, any rules that apply to your Imperator refer to the Unicorn.

 

Miracles: The inherent supernatural ability of Nobles.

 

Noble: The generic term from Nobilis for what most characters are. 

 

The Basic Mechanics

 

When it comes to mundane actions, you mostly just do them. You have the power of a god wedged into a place that you didn't know was a place, so you don't really make sloppy mistakes. Instead, what you will spend most of your time is performing Miracles. 

 

Each attribute is rated from 0 to 5. You also receive a pool of 5 Miracle Points specific to each attribute. So for Aspect you have 5 Aspect Miracle Points, for Domain you have 5 Domain Miracle Points, etc. 

 

For each attribute there is also a list of possible Miracles with a difficulty associated with it. These difficulties are rated from 0 to 9. If your attribute is equal to or greater than the difficulty, you may perform that Miracle for free. If you want to perform a Miracle higher than your attribute rank, then you must pay the difference in relevant flavor of Miracle Points. BUT you can only spend Miracle Points in a chunk of 1, 2, 4 or 8. So if you have an attribute at 3 and you want to do a difficulty 6 Miracle, then you have to pay 4 points even though it's only a difference of 3. 

 

As an example: If you have Aspect of 3 and you need to get across a crowded market, you could conceivably run along the tops of heads of people in the market. This is a difficulty 3 Aspect Miracle. If you got to the other side and then had to hide the entire market in your pocket, this is a difficulty 7 Aspect Miracle. It would cost you 4 Aspect Miracle Points to perform this Miracle.

 

Some things have an inherent resistance to Miracles. This is its Auctoritas, which is usually rated 1-5. In order to get past the Auctoritas, you must have something called Strike. The rating of your Strike must be equal to or greater than the Auctoritas. Some things (like Bonds) get you free Strike. You can also spend Miracle Points to improve Strike. Miracle Points spent on Strike do not count towards. 

 

Here's a very bare bones chart depicting Miracle difficulties for each attribute: 

Miracle Difficulty Aspect  Domain  Persona  Treasure 
0 Peak Performance  Estate-Driven Divination  The Sight  Claim an Anchor 
Enhanced Performance  Ghost Miracle  Blessing or Curse  Possession 
Pulp Heroism Lesser Divination, Conversation Lesser Incarnation  Guidance 
Inhuman perfection  Lesser Preservation  Lesser Emulation  Unleashing Wonders 
Divine Force  Lesser Creation, Summoning, or Animation  Lesser Enchantment  Getting Some Help 
Legendary Mastery  Lesser Destruction, Greater Divination Lesser Sacrifice, Greater Incarnation Weaponizing Anchors 
Unstoppable Power  Lesser Motion, Greater Preservation  Lesser Binding, Greater Emulation  Weaving Destiny , Unleashing Miracles
Fairy Tale Feat  Greater Creation, Summoning, or Animation  Greater Enchantment  Getting Miraculous Help 
World Shaking Skill  Greater Destruction  Greater Sacrifice  Communion 
Mastered Technique  Greater Motion  Greater Binding  Imperial Miracles 

 

 

 

Step Three: Once More With Feeling

 

Bonds and Afflictions

 

You have 13 points to distribute between Bonds and Afflictions.  You also get an additional point for Bonds for each rank you have in the Treasure attribute, because the Treasure attribute uses Bonds very heavily. 

 

Mechanically speaking, when you do something that is facing some resistance and you have a Bond or Affliction that would be interested in making this better, then your Bond or Affliction can help you. For mundane tasks, it just lets you do the mundane task better than you would otherwise. For a Miracle, it gives you free Strike equal to the rating of the Bond or Affliction. 

 

When your Bond or Affliction causes you difficulty, you earn Miracle Points up to the rating of the Bond or Affliction. 

 

As an example, let's say you're Corwin and you have 3 points the Bond "I am always hungry." Any conflict you're in where you are trying to satisfy your hunger and there is resistance, you gain some oomph in that conflict. If you are wooed by some random woman with a picnic basket and stop what you're doing to eat, then you could get up to 3 Miracle Points for your difficulty. 

 

Bonds and Afflictions are also resistant to Miracles and have an Auctoritas equal to their rating. 

 

Some sample Bonds could include:

  • I enjoy slaughtering beasts and think of my relatives constantly. 
  • I only have one arm.
  • I'm dead and can only interact with the physical world by possessing things.
  • I can't enter a house unless invited.  

 

Some Afflictions could include:

  • I'm the best swordsman in all of Shadow.  
  • I'm the luckiest bastard you'll ever meet.  
  • My body is made of liquid metal.  
  • I always know when someone speaks my name while covered in shadow. (For you Jack of Shadows fans.)  

 

Properties of Your Estate

 

The Properties of your estate really shine when it comes to the Persona attribute, which I will cover further down. Doing things to reinforce these Properties count as nourishing your Estate. Nourishing your Estate can earn you Miracle Points. 

 

Character Points

 

Here's a bit more detail about attributes and some other things your points can buy. 

 

Aspect

 

Anything that a mortal can do, you can do better. Jumping, running, doing math, researching. At rank 0, you're just working at peak performance. At rank 1-3, you're like a pulp hero. At 4 or 5, you shift over into Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon territory. High difficulty Aspect Miracles allow you to bend or even break that. You can juggle lakes, hide a gazebo in your nose, compose a catchy tune that will drive men mad, vibrate through walls, shoot down stars with a gun. 

 

Domain


This is control over the stuff of your estate. If your Estate is Forests, then you can control Forests. If your Estate is Tir-na Nogth, then you can do Miracles involving Tir-na Nogth. With a couple exceptions are "Lesser" and "Greater" versions of each type of Miracle. Lesser versions are limited in scope and can affect only things within a mile or so. Greater miracles can affect things globally (or even your entire Estate). There are roughly four types of miracles associated with Domain: Divination, Creation/Summoning/Animation, Preservation, Destruction, and Motion (changing how your Estate functions). 

 

At rank 0, you have at best a vague sense of when your Estate is in danger but have to work hard to control it. At rank 5 you can create, destroy, or change your Estate at will, ask questions of it of any sort and even use it to see into the future. At it's highest end, you can manipulate manifestations of your Estate throughout Shadow. 

 

Not tied to Miracles is your ability to Invoke your Divine Mantle. You can spend a number of Miracle Points (of any sort) up to your Domain rank to wreath yourself in your Estate. This gives you extra oomph in Miraculous conflicts. 

 

Persona

 

This attribute mirrors Domain a lot. Rather than controlling an Estate, it brings the essence of the Estate to other things. If your Estate were Lightning, then you could use Domain to strike a TV with a bolt of Lightning. With Persona you could have the TV show programs about Lightning or turn it into a thing of Lightning. Like Domain, there are Lesser and Greater miracles that define the scope. Miracles for Persona involve: Incarnation (mentally co-habitating with a manifestation of your Estate), Emulation (taking on properties or Properties of your Estate), Enchantment (imbuing people and things with the properties or Properties of your Estate), Sacrifice (removing properties of your Estate from someone or something), and Binding (tying the fate of someone or something to your Estate). 

 

Properties of your Estate tie into this with many of the types of Miracles. If you have the Estate of Tir-na Nog'th and give it the Property of "Tir-na Nog'th is ghostly", you can use Emulation to give yourself the Affliction "I am ghostly." Enchantment would allow you to give your troops the Affliction "My troops are ghostly." If you are dealing with a ghost, then you could use Sacrifice to remove the quality of it being ghostly. 

 

Alternately, you can just turn things not of your Estate into things of your Estate. If your Estate is Frogs, you can turn a person into a Frog. Or yourself. Or evict a frog from your Estate. 

 

At 0 Persona, you can just see how things relate to your Estate. At 5, you can weave the nature of your Estate about things as you see fit. At the very limits, you can redefine how things across Shadow relate to your Estate. 

 

Not tied to Miracles is your ability to Invoke your Auctoritas Magister. You can spend a number of Miracle Points (of any sort) up to your Persona rank to give yourself protection against Miracles equal to the number of Miracle Points you spend.  

 

Treasure

 

Treasure relies on establishing what are called "Anchors". Each Anchor is something or someone you have an emotional investment in and must have a unique Bond associated with it. "I love the Forest of Arden" would mean you could establish Arden as an Anchor. 

 

There are three tiers of Anchors and different Miracle difficulties are required for different. Ordinary Anchors are just mundane things. Wondrous Anchors are magical things, like Julian's hellhounds. Miraculous Anchors are godlike things that operate on the same scale of power as you. 

 

Treasure offers you a bunch of abilities you might not care about. If you just want a magic sword, you can get a magic sword with the Gifts rules. With Treasure miracles you can possess and act through your Anchors, have them come to your aid, set a destiny for them. A magic sword bought with a Gift, on the other hand, just has a handful of nifty abilities but you can't do crazy things with it. 

 

At 0 Treasure, you could easily have a few Anchors and communicate with them from wherever you are. Unless you want to dig deep with Miracle Points, they will mostly be ordinary and any attempt to do cool stuff with them takes effort. At 5, you can have both ordinary and wondrous Anchors easily and it isn't too hard to claim a miraculous one. You can possess them and have them greatly aid your actions. At the highest end of Treasure Miracles, you can weave destiny ("The invading army will become lost in Arden") or even have your Anchor fundamentally alter reality. 

 

Gifts

 

Any power that doesn't fit neatly elsewhere is called a Gift. There's a system for creating them and a bunch of sample ones in the book. If you have something in mind, we can work out how much it would cost. Some samples that I offer for now are:

  • Flight: 1 character point. 
  • Shapeshifting: 1-3 character points, depending on how flexible you want it. 
  • Immortal: 6 character points.
  • Fire Breathing: 1 character point.
  • World Breaker's Hand (the ability to destroy anything, even moments and ideas, with a gesture): 15 character points.

 

 

Other Things to Spend Character Points On

 

You can buy a Secondary Domain or Persona attribute rank for a secondary Estate for 1 character point. 

 

You can increase all of your Miracle Pool points by 1 for 1 character point. 

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