Making a Character

A Fate character is five aspects, a pyramid of skills, and a few stunts. The full procedure is in @Missing file; here it is in play order. The sheet does all the arithmetic — you make the interesting decisions.

Step 1 — High concept and trouble

Your high concept is a phrase that sums up who you are — vocation plus attitude, like an epithet on a wanted poster. Your trouble is the complication that will not leave you alone: an obligation, an appetite, an enemy. Pick a trouble you want to come up, because it will — Rook Calder's is @Missing file, and it drives half the campaign. Both are Aspect files linked on highConcept and trouble.

Step 2 — Three more aspects

Up to three more aspects fill out relationships, reputations, and history. Good aspects are double-edged — The Quay Trusts Me opens doors and obligates you to the people behind them. Write them so the GM can use them both ways; that's not a bug, that's your income.

Step 3 — The skill pyramid

Rate your skills on the Ladder by spending 20 points into skillRatings, in a pyramid: one skill at Great (+4), two at Good (+3), three at Fair (+2), four at Average (+1). Everything else is Mediocre (+0). This table's cap is Great — and you can trade the pyramid for any shape that keeps column support (never more skills at a rating than at the rating below). The eighteen skills live in the Skills folder, each with what it does on all four actions.

Step 4 — Stunts and refresh

Pick up to three stunts free; each one past three costs 1 Refresh. Refresh (normally 3) is the floor your fate points reset to each session. The sheet computes it — buy a fourth stunt and watch it drop.

Step 5 — Stress

Nothing to decide: your stress boxes are computed from Physique and Will. Raise those skills and the boxes follow.

Or study a finished one

Two ready-to-play characters ship with this project: @Missing file, a burglar whose name is in the wrong book, and @Missing file, an ex-sergeant who confessed to the docks instead of the magistrate. Open either and read the sheet top to bottom — it is the fastest character-creation tutorial there is.