[OOC] Session Zero: Character Creation

Welcome to Argus Inquiries, a private investigation service that operates from the town of Nornholt. Argus has numerous agents in the field, but you work as part of a team specializing in cases of missing persons. Whether they're fugitives on the run, kidnapped civilians, or simply folks who got lost and never came back, you and your team find them. Only something about this case makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. It's different--darker--somehow. Strange things are afoot in the Baronies.

Feel free to discuss your character concepts here. I encourage a balanced party in the traditional sense (at least one fighty type, at least one spellcaster, at least one sneaky type, a face, and support characters), but we can work with other configurations.

Characters should follow standard Genesys character creation rules. Species should come from Realms of Terrinoth, although Careers may come from the Genesys Core Rulebook, as well. I strongly advise you to put as much starting XP into your characteristics as possible, as they cannot be raised again until you buy Dedication (a Tier 5 talent). As an added incentive to build your character this way, you get 15 bonus XP at character creation that can only be spent on skills and talents.

In general, you should select your skills, talents, and gear from Realms of Terrinoth or the Genesys Core Rulebook. That said, I am open to importing talents and gear from Shadow of the Beanstalk or from unofficial sources on a case-by-case basis. Just ask me first.

This is, at heart, a high fantasy game. That means a normal adventuring party mix will be helpful. The expectation is that your characters are, for the most part, decent people. If you are looking for a hack-and-slash game where wanton destruction and casual murder have no repercussions, this is not the game for you. Your cases will involve combat, social interactions, and investigation in various proportions, so I advise you to build your characters to be able to contribute to at least two of those domains, if not all three.

When you submit your character, please show your work. That is, give me a detailed explanation of how you built the PC (e.g., what were your free Career Skill ranks? What did you spend your starting XP on? Your bonus XP? How much was each piece of your gear? Are you under your Encumbrance Threshold?) You can do this in the "Notes" section of your character sheet.

If you are new to Genesys and don't have either the Core Rulebook or Realms of Terrinoth, let me or the other players know. We can work together to create your PC. I may also ask you to listen to a podcast or liveplay to give you an idea of how the game works, since this system plays differently from D&D, Pathfinder, and Call fo Cthulhu.

OK, have at it!

Hmmmm, I’m really leaning towards a caster of some sort, probably Arcana or Divine but we’ll see.

I'm gonna look through the options, I'm thinking catfolk archer/rogue.

I'm thinking of doing more of a fighty character or a primalist.
Are we using the skill list from Terrinoth? That's kind of unclear from the above. Also, are we going to be using Heroic Abilities?

Yes, please stick to the Terrinoth skill list. It's mostly talents that should come from the other book. Heroic Abilities are very much expected, so please pick one!

Just a head's up that I'm traveling today, so I may be unavailable until tomorrow. But your ideas so far sound great. One caveat is that you should all have some reason to be employed by Argus Investigations. The agency is owned by Lady Calypso Argus, who at least claims to be a noblewoman from Lorimor. Feel free to work her into your background if you wish; I'll get more information up about your boss soon. But that also means that if you want to do something exotic with your background, you'll need to have some reason to have "settled down" in Nornholt (a large town), even if only recently.

This may affect your gear selection, as well -- you presumably have a flat somewhere in Nornholt. You will go on extended field missions, though, so traveling gear will still come in handy.

I think I've narrowed my concept down. I think I'm going to play a retired gnome city guard.

Mechanically I'm almost finished, need to pick a heroic ability (looking at Paragon for stealth skill). Decided to roll for it, along with starting silver.

For backstory I'm thinking exile turned scoundrel who has been on the wrong side of the law, and was given a second chance as a non fugitive.

4: Favored by Unseen Forces. Pretty fitting given the campaign. Also looks like I will be broke.

Both of those ideas sound great. I'll add a bit more detail on Nornholt soon in case it inspires some threads for your backstories.

It'll be interesting to have essentially an ex-cop and a an ex-con in the same party. As y'all start working on your backgrounds, try to figure out how your PC sees investigative tactics that may be... questionable in their legality. Maybe the ex-guard was crooked, and that's why they left the constabulary? Maybe Lady Argus (or the Gnome guard) convinced the local magistrate to release the ex-con, provided the character now uses their "gifts" to find missing persons? Maybe the two of you cooperate and tolerate one another's tactics as long as there's a bit of loot involved?

Consider all this brainstorming. Just trying to head off the age-old paladin/thief conflict at the pass! I love both ideas so far.

I've added a bit of a gazetteer on Nornholt to the IC resources section. I'm thinking the first scenario will be local, to give us a chance to familiarize ourselves with the city (and to get our feet wet with a smaller-scale investigation). With that in mind, travel gear probably isn't necessary quite yet, so you may want to spend your starting 500 silver on other things.

Got it figured out. I think to avoid that paladin/thief conflict, my character is retired from the guard, so at this point, he's seen a lot and doesn't really care all that much. More of a not my job anymore mentality.

Will have my character sorted over the next day or two, going to be a Free Cities Elf Mage

Good deal. An Elven mage will be a definite asset. arMedBeta has submitted a character, so I'll look that over very soon. Everyone else, please continue to work on your PCs over the weekend. I've also accepted a pair of players who are new to Genesys, so I'll need to work with them to create characters. But if all goes well, we should be able to get rolling early next week.

In the meantime, a heads up that my daughter's first birthday party is tomorrow, so I may not be able to post much if at all. But feel free to keep brainstorming ideas here!

Am thinking of a human fighter I will make my character next morning

So I think we have:
Elf Arcane Mage
Catfolk archer/rogue
Gnome Cop
Human Fighter

Random rolls for a Dwarf gave me Forge Dwarf Warrior

My fear is that if we add two more warriors, we'll be rather combat-heavy. We're going to need a good mix of social and investigative skills, as well: Charm, Coercion, Deception, Leadership, and Negotiation on the one hand; Perception, Streetwise, Survival, Vigilance, and various Knowledge skills on the other.

Now, we can diversify a bit by using Careers from the Core Rulebook in addition to those from ROT. Possibilities for fighters might include Knight, Leader, and Soldier.

But we'd be well served if someone went for a healer or a face, as well: Disciple, Primalist, Scholar, or Envoy from ROT; Priest, Socialite, Leader, or Healer from the Core Rulebook.

I'm basically covering all cunning skills the scoundrel gets (sadly not perception but I get a free rank in it). My sheet is mechanically done and I'll work on getting the backstory finished.

Yeah, having a Scoundrel on the team will be a big help. You have Charm as a Career Skill, though I'm not sure if you were planning to emphasize that. It might be an area of growth down the line if no one else puts points in Charm.

That leaves Scout as another fight-y Career someone might be interested in. Scouts can be good ranged fighters, and adding Survival to the mix will be helpful for times the trail goes into unsettled areas.

arMedBeta's character actually covers a bunch of face skills for the party: He's got a rank in Charm form his species, and he's put ranks in Leadership and Coercion. With Somebox's Catfolk Scoundrel, we've got Deception covered. We just need someone to handle Negotiation to check off all the face skills.

That said, I warn you that you may end up in a pinch during social "combat" scenes, when you can't just rely on one character to do all the talking...

Hi guys! just got up to date with this thread now :D I'm not sure what the mechanistics of the Realms of Terrinoth are... but my first feeling was to try a catfolk disciple of the luck goddess. Something like, he was kicked out the tribe because the winter was tough and got lucky to survive so his all world vision is more about how life is about luck and not fate. but I see there's some need for some negotiator and scout... Maybe I can twist this into a high elf, those seem to have divine and negotiation...

is there a skill list for the resources? I think a highborn elf priest is kind of what the party needs: divine, medicine and negotiation... right?

By the way... I'm assuming I should spend most XP on the attributes right? Is a score of 3 good? ;)
Is the Disenfrancisto talent available? That could solve the missing "Survival" problem... I guess it would be most suitable for the catfolk PC though...

Although I rolled random the Forge Dwarf seems interesting in social situations to negotiate and stubborn racial makes sense. I don't think Genesys lends itself much to playing a warrior that's a combat monkey though, mechanically I guess you can but that pulls you out of a lot of the game. Tronus is partially done, need to figure gear and motivations. Plus with his knacks and Templar I should be able to switch hit hopefully when needed.

Disenfrancisto from SotB I don't think would be able to use the favor mechanic, if we're using those though I'll be redoing my character entirely since the favor mechanic is pretty powerful.

Yeah, from what I've seen of the characters so far, our biggest holes at the moment are healing (whether a dedicated Divine caster or someone with Medicine) and Survival for tracking through the wilds.

I agree that the Warrior Career leaves some options for non-combat stuff, so a Forge Dwarf Warrior can definitely find a niche. Our Gnome Warrior is good with some face stuff, so that's good. Steef's going with Soldier from the Core Rulebook to make a Human noble; his character is pretty good with a couple of Knowledge skills to represent his noble's education.

As for a Catfolk exile, just be aware that somebox has a variant of that backstory for her own Catfolk Scoundrel. Not that we can't have two such characters; maybe Lady Argus "collects" them? Also, CESN, don't overlook the Half-Catfolk. They offer a bit more diversity in attribute selection and can get some of the Catfolk cool abilities.

Finally, to answer the question: An attribute of 2 is average, 3 is good, and 4 is exceptional. Some players prefer to maximize 3s, while others try for a 4 in their primary attribute (Willpower for a Divine caster) and a 3 in something secondary. Either build is viable. Genesys is a lot more forgiving than other systems in that regard.

ah yes... half-cat could work, I'd loose the skill ranks but start with better attributes :)

Yeah, the "Fleet of Paw" ability is actually pretty great for a caster. Strain is what you use to power your spells and to take extra maneuvers, so being able to get a free maneuver each turn means you have to use less of your precious Strain for your spells. :)

Something else to point out with this system is that even if we don't start out with all the skills covered, it is not that hard to get ranks in those skills that we need after a bit of play.

Absolutely. Monthly + story XP awards should allow y'all to shore up deficits as they become apparent.

I'll be sorting my character today, sorry for the delay has been a mad week so far!

Ok guys here's my concept so far (following the core-book order):

fyi I'm waiting to see what people pick for heroics and I'll pick from the leftovers. Need to figure out shopping list for XP for later I guess besides getting KfI to Rank 2.

Starting cash....

Character is submitted, see the notes pane for details of xp expenditure, etc

So how thik a accent I sha do for meh dwarf 'ere lads n lasses?

Thanks for getting your characters in, everyone. I'll get a review done sometime today before bedtime. Steef still needs to finish his character, but hopefully that won't take too much more time. If all goes well, we'll be started before the weekend.

Oh boy Remnant your character is going to evoke all sorts of emotions.

My character sheet is public in case anyone needs to look over it for group synergy and whatnot.

I actually prefer that all players make their sheets public for this very reason. If anyone wants their PC to have some sort of secret background or something, you can just let me know in a PM.

No one has done this, but I also want to note that I don't like PCs in my game to scheme against one another or do underhanded things that screw the rest of the party over. So that means no stealing from one another, no taking unfair shares of loot, no secretly working with the bad guys, no conspiring against the other PCs, etc. Again, no one has done this, but I wanted to state this outright, since it's common in some groups. :)

My only concern is that a couple of our players speak English as a second language, so it may be difficult for them to follow along.

Ahah 🤣 translation as a spoiler? ;)

So, a couple of you still need to choose Heroic Abilities. It's perfectly fine for two PCs to have the same Heroic Ability (since each is flavored differently), but just so everyone knows what we've got in the mix already:

1 Paragon (Arcana)
1 Paragon (Stealth)
1 Sixth Sense
1 Foretelling

That leaves two of you to choose. Steef may go with Signature Weapon. I'll note that All the Facts and Connected might both be very helpful in an investigative game. The combat abilities are always helpful, of course.

I'll Leaning towards Influential actually. *Smoldering Dwarven Staredown*

LOL. Influential isn't a bad choice. Won't work versus eldritch horrors, but there's usually some investigating to be done before you have to face those. ;)

Looks like Steef's going with Connected.

this is my starting money

OK, folks. All characters are approved. A few of you have some odds and ends to finish (like backstories), but the hard part is finished!

The timing is a bit bad; I'm moving into a new apartment tomorrow, which means I may be a bit preoccupied unpacking boxes, getting the Internet set up, etc. I'll see what I can do about getting the first IC post up soon, though. Hopefully it won't be any later than this weekend.

Loving the avatars so far.

next week will be fine with me, no pressure :D

Hey, folks! Loving the conversation. Let's take it to the brand-spaking-new IC thread! See you all very soon. Hoping the gods give me an easy move tomorrow...

FYI, Internet's back up and running. Apartment is a mess of boxes, though. You should get more IC from me soon. In the meantime, feel free to continue the conversation.