BtW Character Creation & World-biilding

Hello friends! Thanks for joining me here.

Beyond the Wall does offer "normal" character creation rules (a fact which I had forgotten), using a more standard OSR/d20 system approach - roll attributes > choose class > pick skills > Go!

But what I am interested in is it's "Playbook"-based character creation (and world building) process.

So, we will be using that method.

And the procedure for that is as follows:

1. Choose your Playbook, and let us know who you want to be, below, so everyone can choose something unique!

2. Start up a character sheet, and read your Playbook to jot down your beginning stats.

3. Roll for the first stage of your characters life path, as guided by your Playbook, and immediately "Edit" the post your rolled in to jot down the developments!

And if you do get to add a Location or Person, please go ahead and resolve that fully - create that place or NOC - before moving on, or anyone else rolling next.

4. Wait for every player to have rolled and completed their first stage. And then take turns moving forward with your next stage dice roll, again waiting for everyone to complete a stage before rolling for the next. Each time jotting down the developments in your roll-post.

It's important that we all roll "together" and alternate/take turns, because you have the ability and opportunity to do world building during this process, and we want to have the opportunity to build upon each other's narratives. That intertwined dynamic is important.

5. Every Playbook I believe has 5 stages. So we go through the roll-and-record process 5 times for each of you.

NOTE! Once and only once during this process, you may ignore a roll, and choose whatever option you want to from that table. You do not HAVE to do this. And you may NOT go "back into" a table once you've moved on from it, to "re-roll" it's result.

6. I will also be choosing a "Scenario Pack", and rolling along to also do world building and incorporating your generated stories into the plot!

I'm going to do this "open handed"/in a separate thread that you all can read and follow along with as well, so that you can see what is going on "behind the screen", if you want to. To gain a better picture of what this system does for yourself.

That's the big stuff, I think...

Let's give it a go and see what I missed!

Let's start by announcing Playbook selections?

Ok, I'm going with the 'Young Woodsman Playbook'

I'm down for Gifted Dilettante or Landless Noble unless someone else wants that kind of theme.

Hello!

I'm torn between the "Self-Taught Mage" and "The Untested Thief". If no one picks a caster I'll go with the self-taught mage.

Gifted Dilettante it is!

You are not the eldest in your family. You are not the greatest warrior of your many siblings, or a diligent student of the arcane arts. Rather, you have a broad range of abilities, a sharp mind, and a winning smile. You’ve also dabbled in some things you probably shouldn’t have. You know a bit of everything, and are rather bored with your situation. You are intelligent and charming. Your Intelligence and Charisma begin at 10, and all of your other ability scores begin at 8.

STR 8, DEX 8, CON 8, INT 10, WIS 8, CHA 10

10 on d12 - My family earned its name by producing the finest knights. +2 Dex, +1 Str, +1 Cha, Skill: Riding

1 on d8 - I distinguished myself as a child because children often fight, but I never lost. +2 Str, +1 Wis

1 on d8 - The other PCs were my best friends, but laboring with the blacksmith took my mind off my troubles. +2 Str, +1 Cha

STR 13, DEX 10, CON 8, INT 10, WIS 9, CHA 12, Skill: Riding

Village
Blacksmith: A strong, silent type who works tirelessly and taught me the value of hard work. (Are we meant to name them as well? If so, he could be Hugh or Jon.)
Lord's Manor: My father's manor, where I never really fit in. Father already had an heir and a spare.

The Young Woodsman

You are agile and insightful. Your Dexterity and Wisdom begin at 10, and all of your other ability scores begin at 8.

STR 10, DEX 11, CON 8, INT 10, WIS 10, CHA 13

12 Your father was a local merchant. You learned to name your price and charm your customers. +2 Cha, +1 Int, +1 Dex,
Skill: Haggling

6 You never met someone who didn’t like you. +2 Cha, +1 Str

7 The old widow needed help around the house. +1 Str, +1 Int, +1 Cha

@Psybermagi @Esidrix,@ThatTaoGuy each of you get to add a Location and an NPC to the village. (Denoted by the map and hand icons next to your tables.)

What places and what persons would be important to each you? Particularly given the tale your roll results weave? Maybe the Location and/or NPC are one of those featured in your life-path this far? Maybe not?

But go ahead and create a Locations and an NPC each.

These will be woven into the Scenario as potential key people and places.

@Phil_Ozzy_Fer,@Seck go ahead and pick a Playbook and roll up your childhood, when you get a chance. (You will also likely get to each create a Location and NPC too.)

Thanks all!

@emsquared - I edited my post above to add the blacksmith and Lord's Manor.

Village,

The Meet, a semi-circle of vendor tables. Used occasionally for formal events, but mostly for the trading of handmade goods from around the shire.
The Old Widow on the edge of town. She spins wool and, though her hands hurt constantly, she still teaches some of the girls in town how to spin.

Good stuff so far, thank you all!

We'll take a pause while PhilOF makes their selection and rolls.

Self-Taught Mage
What was your childhood like?

What did your parents do in the village? What did you learn from them? (d12, Roll 1)
How did you distinguish yourself as a child? (d8, roll 2)
The other player characters were your best friends. Who else in the village
befriended you while you were growing up?(1d8, roll 3)
Who wrote your precious book of magic? (1d6, roll 4)
1d6 What sort of mage was the author of the book?
Your power drew a spirit of Chaos. How did you fight it off? The playerto your right was there with you. (1d6, roll 5)
A real wizard from the south passed through the village when you came of age.
What did he think of you? (1d6, roll 6)Not quite sure of what people might think of his dabbling in magic, Alwig stowed himself away in an unused storage shed near the market square. Only mice seemed to frequent this place and it was a quiet escape where Alwig could work his way through his arcane pastime. It was here that he'd stow himself away whenever he had the chance. It wasn't entirely unknown, Farmer Sigward from not far down the eastward lane knew of Alwig's experiments, but kept to himself, as farmers do. The grain cultivator was the only one who ever considered using this place but steered away because of the mice.

Every so often, Alwig would make his way toward Sigward's farm and camp with some hunters just off the farmer's property. One of them was also a guard who worked with Alwig's father, which is how they'd all made acquaintance. Alwig's father wanted his son to become a bit hardier and approved of the camping trips, hoping it would toughen up his child.

Thanks for the rolls Mr. Ozzy_Fer

Could you please also edit your post to describe your childhood Location and NPC that you'd like to add to the village?

By your roll you're an orphan, but this is just a small village, so I don't know that it's appropriate to have an Orphanage. Who raised you? Or how did you survive from childhood to young adulthood?

Your 3rd table roll evokes Hunters as people whom you befriended. Is one of them your NPC? Or was there someone else in your childhood who was more important and more influential?

Please formulate these story components, and then I can start rolling up the Scenario details.

And also we can continue on with character creation (and MORE world building), @Psybermagi please kick us off for round 2 of tables?

SITTING ORDER:
psybermagi, who is to the right of ...
thattaoguy, who is to the right of ...
esidrix, who is to the right of ...
phil_ozzy_fer, who is to the right of psybermagi

Changes made to my previous post

The villagers were distrustful and afraid when you came around, until you and one of your friends discovered a thief in their midst. The friend to your right (@phil_ozzy_fer) helped you uncover the traitor, and gains +1 Int.

So clockwise I'd be next, correct? I rolled all the rest of my steps above. I got my way by knowing more than my peers (perhaps by studying at the library?), my favorite pastime was spying on visiting nobles and learning their business, and the shared bit...

You dallied with forces beyond your ken. How did you save yourself with the help of a friend? The player to your right was there with you - When a visiting noble came with an odd trinket and ill intentions, you and a friend stole this most prized possession. You gain the cantrip Glamour Weaving and the ritual Arcane Experiment.

@Psybermagi - The friend to your right helped you lift the magical bauble and banish the meddling noble from the keep, and gains +1 Int.

@emsquared - should I name the noble or just assume it's some banished NPC?

Yup, you're right! I think I must not have looked at your actual roll, and in reading the body of your post, just interpreted "Roll 1" as "Roll of 1" 😅

Thanks for correcting me!

Ok, so I'll add the grain storage shed(?) as your Location, and the Hunter/Guard as your NPC? Is that right?

Then I'll further develop the Scenario Pack with the rolls/tables.

Then parse second round rolls.

@Esidrix whatever you get an opportunity, I think we're ready for your rolls. No rush tho.

And, we may be getting close to done!

Thanks everyone for your work so far.

I don't think you need to name them, UNLESS you want them to be your second round NPC that you get to add.

Remaining Rolls:
What sort of woodsman are you?
You are a great trapper, never coming home empty handed. +3 Wis, Skill: Trapping

What is your hidden talent?
Simple skills. +2 Wis, a trade skill of your choice

How do you make yourself useful to the village?
The player to your right often helps you.
Sometimes armies from the south move on distant roads. Unseen, you watch them when they do. The friend to your right stayed with you last summer, watching just such a movement of troops, and gains +1 Dex. +2 Dex, Skill: Stealth

What did you find in the woods that no one knows about?
A hidden cache of money, buried in an iron-bound chest beneath an old oak tree. There was a huge gem within, but you’ve never met anyone with enough silver to buy it. +2 Dex, a large ruby

No worries! Yes, grain shed and Hunter/Guard. That works for me if it works for you.

Gyven relys more on his knowledge, reasoning, and experience than his physical abilities to overcome the challenges of nature and for

Yeesh, there's so much going on 😅

So it looks like everyone has done all their second round rolls, and even received their +1 from an ally's story I think? Have everyone recorded them?

I believe you each get to make another NPC and Location? I kind of wonder if I'm doing that wrong, cuz it's gonna be WAY more NPCs or Locations than are used by the rolling tables but... I suppose they could all be handy for the story.

Maybe you're only supposed to add one if you roll a number that corresponds to a row in a table that actually TOUCHES one of the icons? I dunno. Oh well...

I'll make some more rolls for the Scenario generation, but I think we're basically done?

I see @Psybermagi,@Phil_Ozzy_Fer made character sheets, so their final stats are there.

@Esidrix,@ThatTaoGuy you don't have to make a character sheet if you don't want to. But I would still like to see a final tallying of your stats in a reply if you could?

Also, I'd be interested in hearing about how you each feel, regarding how your characters turned out?

Did they turn out something like you expected?

Did they turn out like something you would be OK playing?

I've not been a fan of random stat generation in a long time, but I know that it's a big "thing" in the OSR, so I'm just curious about how you guys as players would feel about playing out what you ended up with?

Trying to pull this all together into a "big picture" plot makes my head hurt a bit. Though that may just be because it's PBP and things are still scattered about a bit.

I feel like I don't really like how I rolled up that a Stranger is responsible for drawing the ire of the fey.

Feel like it kind of defeats a lot of the purpose of creating all these NPCs tied to our characters?

But maybe what one would/could do is have one of the NPCs be the murder victim? And then I guess you mainly use the other NPCs as places to get clues from? Or as Red Herrings? And generally just to put names and faces to roles in the story that need NPCs?

What are you guys' thoughts on the whole thing?

Should be done in a few minutes.

Also finishing up...

Unnamed Dilettante

Class: Rogue-Mage Level 1
HP: 7, AC: 13, Initiative: 4, BAB: 0, Fortune Points: 4
STR 13 [+1], DEX 13 [+1], CON 8 [-1], INT 14 [+2], WIS 12 [0], CHA 12 [0]
SAVES: Poison 13, Breath Weapon 16, Polymorph 12, Spell 15, Magic Item 14
Class Abilities: Highly Skilled, Spellcasting
Cantrips: Second Sight, Glamour Weaving
Rituals: Arcane Experiment
Skills: Riding, Etiquette, Forbidden Secrets, Alertness, Pickpocketing

Equipment:
21 sp
a silver broach (symbol of protection against chaos)
dagger +1 to hit, 1d4+1 damage
longsword +1 to hit, 1d8+1 damage
leather armor
a bit of food and drink
a very attractive cloak
pouches full of oddments
lockpicks

@ThatTaoGuy

The friend to your right stayed with you last summer, watching just such a movement of troops, and gains +1 Dex.

Got it. Thanks!

Overall I think this is a fun variant on character creation. My character cam out decent and I would like to change one of the stat results, just to move a bit of Int or Wis to Dex or Con but I like all the story elements so its not that big a deal.

I love this form of character creation. After 40(ish) years of making characters this is relaxing and kind of exciting to see where you end up.

I think I would have liked choosing options from the list to make my ideal character, or maybe getting to replace one roll with a choice. I wouldn't have chosen the blacksmith, and I was envisioning a more dex, int, or cha driven character.

The stats seem subpar for my class. Not that I need to min-max, but I think even if I couldn't see the related stat bonuses, by choosing options from the tables to match a character concept, I'd have probably come closer stat-wise to what I was envisioning when I selected the playbook.

I'd still play the character as is, and the process is fun and not overly complex like some random character generation systems I've seen.

I think adding elements to the location is cool, and as a GM I love the challenge of trying to weave those elements into a cohesive whole.

Overall, fun creation system. I liked it.

@ThatTaoGuy -- I don't know if you have access to the full Beyond the Wall book, but on page 37:

"Important Rule for Players!

While you are rolling on the various tables for your character, you may get a particular result that you absolutely hate, or you may just see a result that you missed that you really love. Once during character creation, you may ignore the result of a roll and pick anything you like from that particular table. No fair going back and doing this later! Just do it when it feels like you need to so that you can make your character conform to your vision."

I know it says not to do it after creation, but if you didn't know, I'm for it.

I probably read that on the initial read-through and completely forgot when I got to making my character because it sounds familiar.

It wouldn't make a significant difference, but I'd have switched:
Laboring with the blacksmith took your mind off your troubles. +2 Str, +1 Cha
to:
You had a tryst with someone beneath your station. +2 Cha, +1 Con

My stats would have ended up
STR 12 [0], DEX 13 [+1], CON 9 [0], INT 14 [+2], WIS 12 [0], CHA 13 [+1]

So less combat and more charisma. Overall closer to my vision for the character.

@Esidrix thanks for pointing that out!

The trouble I had with that rule is you never know the full party the character will take so I was hesitant to use it. As DM I would allow the change at any time

Thanks for pointing this out Esidrix. I think I also mentioned it very early on, but that's very easy to get lost/forgotten in the shuffle.

Did anyone end up using that? I don't think I saw anyone mention it.

It would definitely be "more osr" to only allow it "in the moment" and not retro-actively.

But while there are many things I like about "the osr philosophy", there are many things I think lead to a better experience for many players in where modern games have evolved.

And more control over what you're character can do is one of them.

So I would also be inclined to let someone change 1 life path they were unhappy with, after the fact, before play.

Really appreciate the input all!

And I really, REALLY appreciate your participation in this "game".

I do want to actually run this some time.

But I feel generally at my limit with my 2 games right now.

A far cry from the heady days when I was running or playing in, like, 7 or 8 different games at a time 😅

Anyway, if any of you were interested, and if/when I have bandwidth open up, I'd totally put you all at the top of a list to reach out to, of/when I ever get the chance to run this system.

Thanks again!

I'm fairly impartial when it comes to character creation methods. One thing I like about this one was that the process was a group effort. As we built our own characters other PCs at the table were influenced by our choices. I liked this idea a lot and the effect it had on us as a group, pushing us to engage more. I'd love to give this a go at an actual table, but I thought the whole thing was fairly smooth. I'd be happy to play when your schedule opens up @emsquared. Thank you for taking the time for this.

If you haven't yet, you should definitely check out the Pathways character creation system in Cortex Prime. The way it was implemented in the Smallville game changed how I setup pretty much every game I run. It's very much a group effort, and you build on NPCs and locations created by the other players, making a giant, interconnected web that the GM uses to build on. It seems to always make for a highly engaged group of players.

Yes! Smallville was one of the lifepath-style character creation systems that made me fall in love with the approach (Burning Wheel being the other).

Smallville's is much more narrative based and much better at weaving the characters' stories together than either BW or this one. (Though BW does make up for it pretty well with Beliefs.)

Now that you mention it, I might really have liked more interplay and entanglement between PCs in this one generated by the life paths.

Not even in a "give X player a +1 stat"-way tho.

Just a little bit more funneling toward, "This is how you all know each other, and this is why you're the ones who have to address The Problem."

But maybe that is actually taken care of by the fact that it's supposed to be a small village or town, and that the NPCs and Locations we create are The Important Things that get involved in the events of the Scenario?

Thank you for the tip, ThatTaoGuy!