Character Creation
Before the first scene you need a name the realm can remember. This chapter walks you through building a character — from the age you claim to the face you wear — one step at a time. Your character sheet holds everything; most of what you choose here, you choose by filling in the sheet and pointing it at the right files.
The Steps at a Glance
- Choose your age group.
- Spend your ability experience.
- Name your culture, profession, and house.
- Choose your qualities — benefits and drawbacks.
- Roll or choose a background event.
- Take your starting possessions.
- Describe yourself and fill the sheet.
Take the steps in order; the sheet is built to be filled as you go.
Step 1 — Choose Your Age Group
Age is the first truth of a character. It sets how much ability experience you have to spend, how high your abilities may start, and how large a destiny pool you were born with.
| Age Group | Age Range | Ability XP | Rank Cap | Starting Destiny |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Youth | 0–9 | 120 | 4 | 7 |
| Adolescent | 10–13 | 150 | 4 | 6 |
| Young Adult | 14–18 | 180 | 5 | 5 |
| Adult | 19–30 | 210 | 7 | 4 |
| Middle Age | 31–50 | 240 | 6 | 3 |
| Old | 51–70 | 270 | 5 | 2 |
| Very Old | 71–80 | 330 | 5 | 1 |
| Venerable | 81+ | 360 | 5 | 0 |
The years teach, and the fates close in: the older the character, the more experience to spend — but the smaller the destiny pool they were born with, and the lower the ceiling on what a single ability can reach at creation.
- Ability XP is what you spend in Step 2 on ability ranks and on your Status.
- Rank Cap is the highest rank any single ability may begin at. It is a creation ceiling, not a rule of life — ability ranks climb higher in play.
- Starting Destiny is the luck you were born with, the pool you begin with on your sheet. You can spend it, invest it, burn it, and earn it back — see the Destiny chapter. It never drops below 0.
Step 2 — Spend Your Ability Experience
Every character has nineteen abilities, and every one of them starts at rank 2 at creation — the working competence of a grown person. Rank 1 is a crippling weakness or a fumbled upbringing. Each rank adds 1 test die to the tests that ability governs (Tests & Dice, Chapter 1): a rank 4 Fighting is four dice of violence.
Raising an ability from rank 2 costs experience, counted cumulatively:
| Target rank | Total XP spent | Cost of the increase |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 10 | 10 |
| 4 | 40 | 30 |
| 5 | 70 | 30 |
| 6 | 100 | 30 |
| 7 | 130 | 30 |
No ability may begin above your age group's Rank Cap. An Adult may spend a full 130 XP to reach rank 7 in one ability; a Youth may not push past rank 4 no matter how much is spent elsewhere.
Status comes first. Status is purchased before any other ability rank, out of the same ability XP. It defaults to rank 2 like everything else, follows the same costs, and caps at rank 6 — no one begins as the most powerful lord in the realm. Pay for Status first, then spend what remains on the abilities below.
The one-time trade. Once, and only once, at creation, you may take a single ability down to rank 1 — a scar, a weakness, a secret shame — and gain +50 XP to spend in its place. Choose it with your eyes open; the world will find it.
The nineteen abilities, and what they govern:
| Ability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Agility | Raw quickness and reflexes; adds to your Combat Defense |
| Animal Handling | Training, calming, and riding horses and beasts |
| Athletics | Climbing, running, swimming, raw physical effort; adds to Defense and Movement |
| Awareness | Noticing, reading people and places; adds to Defense and Intrigue Defense |
| Cunning | Wit, plots, and cleverness; adds to Intrigue Defense |
| Deception | Lies, disguises, and misdirection |
| Endurance | Stamina and hardiness; sets your Health (×3) and your wound and injury limits |
| Fighting | Armed melee combat |
| Healing | Wounds, surgery, and medicine |
| Knowledge | Lore, history, and the learning of the world |
| Language | Tongues and letters, reading and rhetoric |
| Marksmanship | Bows and thrown weapons |
| Persuasion | Swaying hearts and minds |
| Status | Rank, title, and the weight of your name; adds to Intrigue Defense |
| Stealth | Moving unseen and unheard |
| Survival | The wild: hunting, tracking, weather, game |
| Thievery | Locks, pockets, and sleight of hand |
| Warfare | Command, strategy, and mass battle |
| Will | Resolve, faith, and self-command; sets your Composure (×3) |
The next chapter treats each ability in depth. For creation, one line is enough.
Specialties are the sharp edges of an ability, raised with specialty experience — a pool separate from your ability XP, granted by age at creation and earned in play. A specialty is written ability-specialty: fighting-axes, marksmanship-bows, athletics-run, status-reputation. When a test uses a specialty you have trained, its rank adds bonus dice to the pool. Every specialty that exists is named on your character sheet; the list is closed (The Abilities).
Your age group grants you a specialty XP pool:
| Age Group | Specialty XP |
|---|---|
| Youth | 40 |
| Adolescent | 40 |
| Young Adult | 60 |
| Adult | 80 |
| Middle Age | 100 |
| Old | 160 |
| Very Old | 200 |
| Venerable | 240 |
Each specialty rank costs 10 × rank XP, counted cumulatively: one bonus die (rank 1) costs 10 XP, rank 2 costs 20, up to rank 7 at 70 XP. A specialty can never be ranked higher than the ability it comes from — Bows can never outrank your Marksmanship.
Step 3 — Culture, Profession, and House
- Culture is free text — the North, the Riverlands, the Reach, a Free City, the Wall. It does not change your numbers; it changes how the world reads you at a glance.
- Profession is free text — knight, maester, merchant, septon, lord, peasant, sellsword. It is the shape your experience took in the world's eyes.
- House is where your loyalty lies — or where it doesn't. A character may be sworn to a house, born to one, or landless. House Emberfell, a knightly house of the Riverlands whose sigil is a smoking ember above a crossed sword and plough and whose words are "Embers Endure," is the sort of house a starting character might serve. A landed name opens doors and closes others; a hedge knight answers to no one but his own need for coin.
Step 4 — Choose Qualities
Qualities are the benefits and drawbacks that set a character apart — gifts of birth, body, and story. The qualities available in this realm are cataloged in the Qualities chapter — benefits like Wealthy, Lucky, and Talented, and drawbacks like Maimed, Debt, and Craven.
- Benefits are bought with destiny. Every benefit you take at creation costs one invested destiny point — on your sheet, mark one box of the invested track as Invested. Your destiny pool pays for what your character was born with.
- Every benefit demands a drawback. For each benefit you take, you must take a matching drawback — and you may never hold more drawbacks than benefits. The two ledgers stay in balance. A drawback never grants an extra benefit slot — but every core drawback you take at creation grants +1 Destiny Point: the fates pay you to carry the weight. Record it on your sheet as earned destiny (Destiny).
- Age demands its due. The older the age group, the more drawbacks it requires of you, and the more particular. A required drawback forces a matching benefit — which is why the oldest characters carry the deepest gifts and the heaviest chains together.
| Age Group | Required Drawbacks |
|---|---|
| Youth | None |
| Adolescent | None |
| Young Adult | None |
| Adult | Any one drawback |
| Middle Age | Any one drawback, plus one that afflicts Agility, Athletics, or Endurance |
| Old | Any one drawback, plus one that afflicts Agility, Athletics, Awareness, Cunning, Endurance, Fighting, or Marksmanship |
| Very Old | Any one drawback, plus two that afflict Agility, Athletics, Awareness, Cunning, Endurance, Fighting, or Marksmanship |
| Venerable | Any one drawback, plus three that afflict Agility, Athletics, Awareness, Cunning, Endurance, Fighting, or Marksmanship |
A drawback "that afflicts" an ability scars, weakens, or limits it; the Qualities chapter lists the choices. However many drawbacks your age demands, you take at least that many benefits to balance them — and every benefit costs an invested destiny point.
- The ledger grows. During play you may gain more benefits and more drawbacks through story and advancement; the invested track on your sheet records what you have paid for, and a box once invested is never unspent.
Step 5 — Roll a Background Event
The past is a wound or a gift, and it shapes who you are before you ever pick up a sword. Roll 2d6 and take the event, or work with the Narrator to choose one that fits your story:
| Roll | Background Event |
|---|---|
| 2 | You are the only survivor of a massacre that took your kin. Your killers do not know you live. |
| 3 | You were raised in the wild — by broken men, wolves, or the nameless folk of the woods. |
| 4 | A ward of a greater house, raised among strangers who taught you courtesy and owed you nothing. |
| 5 | The spare: born second, no inheritance, and no one's first choice. |
| 6 | The long road: years as a hedge knight, sellsword, or traveler who has seen more of the realm than most lords. |
| 7 | Raised by the faith — a septon's novice, a septa's ward, or a devotee of the red god's flame. |
| 8 | You served a maester as an acolyte, and know what ravens carry and what books hide. |
| 9 | Traitor's blood: a parent's treason stains your name, whatever you have done since. |
| 10 | Bought and sold as a child — a debt you paid in years and are still paying in kind. |
| 11 | A bastard, born outside the marriage bed, your name both a weapon and a wound. |
| 12 | Marked: the old gods or the red god have touched you, and something in the world knows it. |
Write the event in the Background Event field of your sheet. It is a promise of story — the Narrator will call on it.
Step 6 — Starting Possessions
Every character begins play with a set of common clothes appropriate to their gender, boots or shoes, and a dagger. Record these possessions on your character sheet. Heirs also begin play with a signet ring (Qualities).
Next, roll a Status test. The result is how many gold dragons you begin with to purchase your starting possessions. Obviously, you don't begin with a sack full of gold — rather, this starting fund reflects your accumulated possessions. You must spend at least half of your starting coin. You may keep the rest in reserve or invest it into your house as you wish.
Coinage. The realm counts its coin in three denominations:
| Currency | Conversion |
|---|---|
| Copper Star | — |
| Silver Stag | 7 Copper Stars |
| Gold Dragon | 210 Silver Stags |
Watch your bulk: gear weighs a body down. Every 2 points of bulk carried costs 1 point of Movement, so the knight who loads himself with trophies marches slower than the one who travels light (The Abilities).
Step 7 — Fill the Sheet
The numbers are spent; now make the person. On your character sheet:
- The face — name, age, and age group; height, weight, hair and eye color; distinguishing features. Then the fields the world sees at a glance: overall appearance, mannerisms, and personality. Write what people notice first, how you carry yourself, and who you are when the company is good.
- The heart — virtues and flaws, motivations, and goals. What you would die for, and what you are trying to get done this season.
- The records — culture, profession, house, and background event; an image if you have one; a voice if you want the Narrator to speak for you in a particular way.
- The gear — your dagger and clothes are on the sheet as a matter of course; anything bought with your starting coin points at the real equipment files: weapons, armor, steeds, whatever else you carry.
Everything that can be computed is computed. Health, Defense, Movement, Composure, and your Destiny pool fill themselves from the abilities and age group you chose — check them, and let them be the truth of your character.
Experience in Play
Experience is the growth the years buy, and it is one currency from creation onward. At creation, your age group granted you an ability XP pool and a specialty XP pool (above); in play, the Narrator awards experience points at the close of adventures — when a plot resolves, a war is won or lost, a season turns. Your sheet's Experience counter holds them, and the same experience points may be spent on ability ranks or specialty ranks, as you choose.
- Ability ranks cost the same in play as at creation — from rank 2, reaching rank 3 costs 10, and each rank beyond it costs 30 more (cumulative totals 10 / 40 / 70 / 100 / 130). No ability may rise above rank 7 for a mortal (The Abilities).
- Specialty ranks cost 10 × rank XP, cumulative — rank 1 costs 10, rank 2 costs 20, up to rank 7 at 70. A specialty never outranks its ability.
Training takes time. Growth is not paid for in coin alone. For every rank you increase an ability, you must spend 1 week training under the tutelage of a character who has at least 1 rank higher than you in the ability you want to improve; without a trainer, the time increases to 1 + 1d6/2 weeks. A character cannot spend experience in the middle of a swordfight and expect the skill to arrive with the blow.
Your Name in the World
You are done. You have an age, a set of skills, a name that opens or closes doors, the scars of a past, and a purse that will not last the month. Your destiny pool is the luck you were born with — spend it when the moment matters, because the moments that matter are coming (Destiny). The next chapter teaches the nineteen abilities in depth, and the one after that tells the story of the luck you were born with: the Destiny chapter.