From Caernest

Character Creation Example

To start a character, we need to come up with a concept. For this example, we're going with a concept we came up with for the original system. It's a fairly simple character concept. Vinella is a female human (Consanguineo). She grew up in a moderately sized Verdanni town. When she turned 14, she started working in her father's inn as a stablehand, mucking out stalls, doing laundry, and helping with the cooking. When she turned 17, her father realized that her charm and good looks would draw customers, and he would be around to keep an eye on her and make certain no one was mistreating her, so he brought her inside, to work as a serving girl. It was not long after being moved inside, that a Margravio happened to be passing through town. He spent 2 nights at the inn (without charge of course, as nobility are above paying for such things). While he did not touch Vinella in any inappropriate manner, he played his own type of game with her. Offering her a drink, he laced it with pure wyrm's blood. He figured in a year, he would return and she would be ripe for the picking. Vinella's family raised her with a strong sense of responsibility, as she watched over her younger brothers and sister, as well as working at the inn. She learned the skills that any common woman should know to make a good wife, but her father also taught her a few things about running a business, and keeping the hired help in line. Her natural charm and good looks have made her popular in town and her older brother taught her enough about handling herself in a fist fight that she's confident that she can defend herself, at least long enough to run away. Her contact with wyrm's blood had the desired effect and she has begun to exhibit arcane power, although she is currently completely untrained in how to utilize her new gift.

Contents 1 Character Concept 1.1 Who they are... 1.2 What they've done... 1.3 Goals for the future... 2 Race 3 Attributes 3.1 Starting Attributes 3.1.1 Attribute Values 3.1.2 Complete Loss of Attribute 4 Skills 4.1 Starting Skills 4.1.1 Untrained Skills 5 Talents 5.1 Starting Talents 6 Defects 6.1 Starting Defects 7 Magic 7.1 Starting Magic 8 Floating Points

Character Concept

Every character should start with a character concept. This is not just coming up with an idea of what their stats should be, it's about who they are, what they've done, what they do, and what their goals are for the future.
Keep in mind that player characters are heroes. They are not the norm. Even if they seem to have lead a very common existence, something has probably happened to them or their ancestors, that pushed them to become something more. Playing completely against stereotype is very common in role-playing. Sometimes it can be interesting to play a character to type, but with a couple quirks that keep them interesting.

Who they are...

It is said that who you are is part environment, and part upbringing. So, where is your character from? Who raised him/her? What's their family like? What traditions, ideals or morals have their role models instilled in them? What traditions, ideals and morals has their environment instilled in them? How has their environment affected them?

What they've done...

Often, things we do can have an impact on who we become, or how we consider things. Has anything happened to your character that will drive them, or hold them back? Our goals can often be affected by what has happened to us as well.

Goals for the future...

A characters goals for the future can have a strong effect on what courses of action they'll be most likely to take. For an RPG, it can play a strong part in defining the how and why the character is involved in the game/campaign. This might not factor into the mechanics of character creation, but it can be the most important part of character creation to have the GM (Game Master) involved in.

Instead of giving points that are spent anywhere and everywhere, the Kaernest RPG system gives points to be spent on Attributes, Skills and Talents separately. After those points are spent, there are a number of "floating points" that can be spent on Attributes, Skills or Talents, with each category costing different amounts. Taking Defects gives a player more floating points to spend.

Race

Choose a character race early, as it will have effects on other choices later.

Attributes

Attribute	Raise 1 Point	Total Cost
2	1	0
3	2	1
4	3	3
5	5	6
6	7	11
7	10	18
8	13	28
9	16	41
10	20	57
11	NA	77
12	NA	NA

Attributes should be appropriate for a person with their background. Most smiths will be at least a little stronger than average. Elderly and children will likely be a little less dexterous than an average person. People who train for combat or spend a lot of time hunting will likely be more perceptive than average.

Starting Attributes

There are 9 attributes to buy as a starting character. These Attributes are Grace, Health, Muscle, Reflexes, Instinct, Mind, Presence, Spirit and Luck. Players get 100 points to spend on buying their starting attributes. Attributes can only be bought as high as 11. It is only possible to raise an attribute to a 12 through racial bonuses (and temporarily through magic).
Any points not spent on attributes during character creation are converted into Floating Points at a 4-to-1 ratio.

Attribute Values

All attributes start with a value of "2" before any points are spent. "5" is considered to be the average human norm for an attribute. "11" is the maximum human potential. There should only be 1 person in the world, at any given time with an "11"; they should be that rare. "11"s are LEGENDARY! Even "10"s should be rare. "4" is below average, but not crippling so. "3" would be very noticeable.

Complete Loss of Attribute

In most cases, an attribute being reduced to less than 1, effectively puts a character into a catatonic state, with the exception of "Luck". Having a 0 or lower "Luck" attribute isn't nearly as bad, as the character can still act, however they can not benefit from rolling doubles and must roll 3 dice for any check, taking the worst possible roll using any 2 of those dice. Luck is absolutely against them.
For a detailed description of the effect of a zero or lower in an attribute, see the Conditions page.

Skills

Skills should be appropriate for a person with their background. If a character doesn't have a background where knowing how to fight with a sword is something that would happen, the character should not start out with a skill in Swords. A character who was a barmaid should start out with at least a decent "Numbers" skill and a good "Servant" skill. Someone who was part of an army will probably not have a very good "Devices" (pick locks, disable traps) skill.

Starting Skills

Players get 100 points to spend on buying their starting skills. For a starting character, skills can only be bought up to Rank 6, and only one skill can be bought at that high of a level. Buying a skill group costs 10 points and gives the character 1 rank in every skill in the group. Additional ranks can be bought within a skill group; each additional rank costs the level of the Rank being purchased.
Any points not spent on skills during character creation are converted into Floating Points at a 5-to-1 ratio.

Untrained Skills

If the character isn't trained in a skill at all, they suffer a -3 penalty to their target (which is just the associated attribute).

Talents

Talents cover things that skills don't. Some Talents allow a character access to special skills, while some offer different options that aren't available to just anyone. Many Talents have prerequisites ranging from being a specific race, or having an attribute at a certain level or higher. If a Talent gives a character access to a special skill group, they gain 1 rank in every skill in the group for free, just as if they'd purchased the skill group with points.

Starting Talents

Players get 25 points to spend on buying their starting talents. Keep in mind that some talents can only be purchased at character creation, and others are much more difficult to get after character creation (ie: A character can't suddenly become "Dragon Blooded" after the beginning of the game without having had access to Dragon Blood.)
Any points not spent on talents during character creation are converted into Floating Points at a 2-to-1 ratio.

Defects

Starting Defects

Magic

Starting Magic

Depending on the type of magic available to the character through the Talents they've purchased, the character's starting "magic" is bought.

Floating Points