Character Building

Before using the character sheet, please design your character manually first, in this thread. Please use the guidelines provided below:

-use standard Fate core rules for selection of skills
-skills pyramid top out at 4, 5 aspects and just 3 stunts at start
-only the High Concept and Trouble aspect need be decided at the start, the three other aspects will be determined cooperatively
-Some Arabian Nights names suggestions can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_One_Thousand_and_One_Nights_characters


A good list of stunts is provided here: http://evilhat.wikidot.com/fate-core-stunts

EXAMPLE CHARACTER

Maruf the Barber

ASPECTS:
High Concept: The Eyes and Ears of the Bazaar
T: Boundless curiosity
A3: tbc
A4: tbc
A5: tbc

SKILLS:
+4: Notice
+3: Contacts, Crafts
+2: Empathy, Stealth, Burglary
+1: Fight, Will, Physique, Rapport


STUNTS:
Son of the Bazaar:
Clean Shave: Once per adventure, Masuf is able to administer a skilful shave, massage and application of tonics that reduce by the severity of a mental or physical consequence by one level
Ear to the Ground: Whenever someone initiates a conflict against you in an area where you’ve built a network of contacts, you use Contacts instead of Notice to determine turn order, because you got tipped off in time. (Fate Core, p.101)
Fixer: You are able to navigate bureaucracies easily, not because you understand them, but because you know people embedded in the bureaucracy who can provide shortcuts. You may roll Contacts instead of Resources when dealing with any sort of bureaucratic entanglement. (adapted from Spirit of the Century SRD, §6.7.1)

STRESS
physical OO
emotional OO

3 Fate Points refresh


Background: tbc
Appearance/ Possessions: tbc

Maahir el-Abdallah the swordsman

ASPECTS:
High Concept: Master swordsman
Trouble: Pride goeth before a fall
A3: TBD
A4: TBD
A5: TBD

SKILLS:
+4: Fight (sword)
+3: Rapport, Athletics
+2: Stealth, Provoke, Notice
+1: Burglary, Contacts, Deceive, Will

STUNTS:
Master of the Blade:
No Matter the Odds: Maahir suffers no penalty—and grants no bonus—for being outnumbered, no matter how preposterous the numbers.
Flashing Blade: Maahir may make a Fight attack against every opponent in his zone, dividing your roll between them as he sees fit.
I Am Not Left-Handed!: Maahir's unusual fighting style lets him defend effortlessly when he and his opponent are similarly armed. +2 to defend with Fight whenever his opponent attacks him with the same kind of weapon as he is wielding.

STRESS:
Physical OO
Emotional OO

Fate Points: 3 refresh

Background: TBD
Appearance/Possesions: TBD

Thanks for the invitation. I have a few character ideas in mind. I'll get back on it this evening!

Since Maahir seems to have a large overlap with the Merc Commander, while I'm not seeing Moyreau (who hinted at playing a polypath astrologer or the like), I think I'd like to consider exploring the possibility of playing a Sorcerous Polymath.

Hi everyone.

As mentioned before, I have never actually played FATE and it has been a while since I read it, so I might need a moment to get in to it.
Regarding character ideas, I am thinking in the line of something more magically inclined or even something supernatural, like a djinn or something like that.

@WhtKnt,looks good. Could you reconsider the third stint? i am not great at tracking location without a battle map.

@vicky_molokh. This is a pretty balanced idea for a sorcerer. A wall of daggers can’t be impenetrable, though. Just something that means your character is considered armed for the purposes of a fight.

@Aline. Looks like we have a sorcerer. how about going with the genie ? They are stuck on the mortal plane after being summoned by a botched summoning. Presents as human , but can shift into another form that might allow them to levitate, fly , etc.like Robin Williams’ blue ghost genie in Aladdin?
Has some magical powers, either weak telekinesis, summoning, or illusion ( one of these).
To balance them out, maybe they have little physical weight or force.
They might be very handsome/beautiful , or ordinary looking but able to change into terrifying forms


Can you let me know what you like/ want to change about this concept and I’ll suggest a build.

Oh, seems that I'm now competing with Aline for the one exotic spot. Should I back off and try to think of something more mundane than my proposal?

Also, what portrait style are we preferring for this (e.g. photographs, semi-realistic paintings/drawings, animesque, cartoonish, &c.)?

No, let’s crack on. You’ve made two characters now and I like this one :).

I like the old Tales of the Arabian Nights illustrations like this. But cartoon representations also ok.


We can have a genie and a sorcerer. Let’s make your sorcerer a local, though, just to keep him grounded in the setting.

Cool. So preference for illustrations like these, and avoid realistic styles, right? Do you happen to have a few more image examples of the preferred style(s)?

By local, do you mean the City of Spires/Blades specifically, or the Abbasid Caliphate in general (e.g. Harran, Baghdad, Malatya)?

I can replace the problem stunt. Give me a little while to think on it.

Aside from the genie I am flirting with combining the exiled princess idea with the transformed cat idea. Basically a princess who got cursed and transformed in to a cat but turns human again at night. No idea how complicated that would be to implement though.

As for the genie idea, I think I prefer something closer to actual folklore than the blue guy from a lamp style. Focusing on shapeshifting and some other domain, probably relating to animals, mental powers, health/disease or some classical element. Might even be a half human/djinn, to keep power levels in check and make it easier to integrate the character in to the party.

I'll read through the rules later today and hopefully be able to give you a full character then.

@vicky_molokh Any of the art work on this page is right down my alley. But anything whimsical or fantastical including animation if that’s a preference.

Yes I mean the ‘City of Spires’. It is a gulf city not unlike (but not literally) Muscat.

@WhatKnt . Sounds good. Please note my house rule about mighty weapons (see separate thread) in case that’s of interest. But might not be.

@Aline. The princess/cat is is great! Please play that. We can just represent the fact that she’s a princess transformed into a cat with her High Concept aspect. And use some stunts to give her some agility/ feline tricks. Her only transforming at night might place a limit on party activity, but we can hand wave it and give her a ring that allows her to transform at will a limited number of times a a month ( don’t worry about the mechanics of this, I’ll just give you the ring for free as Gear).

Okay, after some thinking, I have come up with a finalized character idea.

Layla
High concept: Palace dancers make the best spies
Trouble: Our prince is flawless

4: Deceive
3: Burglary, Stealth
2: Empathy, Rapport, Empathy
1: Fight, Will, Athletics, Notice

Working on stunts

Love it. Might be a bit of overlap with cat/ princess but your character is stealthy rather than parkour parkour athletic.

EDIT: You do have empathy twice. How about some resources? Looks like there’s not much money in the group so far.

I think I might be able to take care of that. XD

I'm considering whether to rearrange some of the Skills, including possibly bumping Resources up to 3 (in place of Athletics). These are non-final musings, and will keep getting readjusted as I witness more PCs' pyramids and better understand which niches are more unique and which ones are less so.

Ah two empathy... that explains why I couldnt find investigate any more

First draft. I kind of gravitated more towards a build with tons of social skills. I am not sure if this works or if there is too much overlap between things like contacts and rapport.

ASPECTS:
High Concept: Cursed Princess
Trouble: Menial labor is best left to the servants
A3: TBD
A4: TBD
A5: TBD

SKILLS:
+4:Contacts
+3:Resources, Rapport
+2:Lore, Empathy, Provoke
+1:Deceive, Investigate, Notice, Stealth,

STUNTS:
TBD

Ah! interesting. A social build. Going that way, maybe she might have some semi-mystical feline charm or sleep ability?

Just referring to the short list of expectations in the game description , though, I need to plug a couple of gaps. Number three is that we all fight, at least a bit; number four that we all keep the game going by sharing decision making (especially the less exciting stuff). Regarding the first, she needs Fight of at least +1 and maybe some kind of missile attack (darts, fans, whatever) if you don’t want her in direct melee.

Regarding the second expectation, the trouble aspect might end up with her shrugging her way out of yawn yawn mundane decision making. Please pick a trouble aspect that pushes her towards danger and adventure, rather than refuse activity she finds uninteresting.

Stunts are always very hard to make. So I steal a few good ones from the website listed. Although I did rename a bit and mixed some skills.

I hope I won't be much the same as @Aline. I focus my character not really to make people do things, but get information out of them without them realizing it. In combat I kinda plan to play her as the kind of character who just skips by the main fight to untie the hostages or grab the objective from the enemy, or set off some trap on the enemy.

I am harmless
+2 to create advantage with Deceive when you try to appear unthreatening during a physical combat.

Quick Exit.
A momentary distraction is all you need to vanish from the scene. Provided you are not in the midst of a conflict, you may roll a quick contest between your Stealth and the highest Notice in the room. If you succeed, the next time someone turns to look at or talk to you, you’re not there.

Truth Beyond the Lie.
Once per scene, when you successfully see through a lie, you may gain a free invocation on whichever of the liar’s aspects is most closely associated with their reason for lying to you.

@Heyde I think it looks good. The high empathy actually overlaps more with Vicki’s sorcerer, who also has some truth discrimination ability and a stunt. Could you cover something else? Keep the empathy but swap positions with Burglary? Unlocking doors, filching stuff, forgery could be really handy. I guess that would mean picking a different third stunt, too.

@OrangeTree Mind clarifying what you mean by decision making here? My idea for the trouble was more in line with her trowing a fit if she needs to get her hands dirty or do some heavy lifting, but I don't mind changing it.

Also does provoke not count as a combat skill?

Burglary works for me, now with a new stunt

We can try the aspect and see if it works out? As for the second, I feel I made the point about combat so clearly in the interest thread that it's not unreasonable to ask that she can hold a blade (or something else hurty). At least so that she's not unarmed. there's going to be plenty of action including fighting.

Yes! A niche neatly filled. And a cool character concept.

@Heyde EDIT: Oh, but the stuff about skipping the fight. Hm. I really meant it when I asked players to design characters who can take part fully in different kinds of scenes. Maybe I should have put those points right at the top of the opening post because I really don’t want characters sitting out combats. Having said that, a Fight of +1 is ok, at least enough to contribute something to a scrap. (Edit2: And maybe you are implying that you’ll contribute by creating mayhem in other ways, come to think of it you are saying that….so fine then, good talk).

Okay, I have swapped out my number three stunt with:

I Am Not Left-Handed!: Maahir's unusual fighting style lets him defend effortlessly when he and his opponent are similarly armed. +2 to defend with Fight whenever his opponent attacks him with the same kind of weapon as he is wielding.

I am getting a bit worried about the tone of the game and player agency in it?

Are we all expected to build front line fighters with high fight scores? Because that is the feeling I am getting. There are many ways to deal with combat in a game. But if it is all about Hit, damage, next... that will get dull quickly in pbp.

But this is all I asked for in my very first post:
There’s going to be fighting , but plenty of other kinds of activity like chasing, social interaction, puzzling and investigation/ exploration. I just asked that every character to be able to take part in these different types of scenes. I haven’t asked you to build a front line fighter. Explicitly, above, I’ve asked that you might assign at least a +1 skill slot to fighting so you were not literally helpless in combat.

We might not get the game going now if you pull out, since the interest thread is not getting much action. But if that is the outcome, it is better than ploughing on at mixed purposes.

I am seeing three players currently listed. Are we putting this on hold, or pushing through with the current party size?

Hi Vicky. I am not sure--what do people think?

We can run with three to get some return on our work working up the game? Also give newcomers a sense of how FATE works, even if it doesn't extend to a full campaign. I can keep the recruitment post open in case we get any new joiners.

But if folks feel the mood has soured too much (or three players isn't viable) I will understand.

(II don'treally want to wait for further interest before staring — I'd rather grab a game elsewhere)

Well, apparently a +1 interest confession already exists.

I’ll wait and see if @WhtKnt and @Aline are still interred first. Else we’re back to three (or two) even with the new player.

I'm afraid the vibes are a bit off for me, so I think I will take my leave.

Yes, I think so, too, tbh. I just couldn’t abandon remaining players without checking. And thanks for communicating your position.

Apologies, @WhtKnt,@vicky_molokh , you really made an effort here. Not meant to be.

Are you grabbing the same game premise in a different gaming community?

I will look to (play, I think) something different. I’m glad you remain interested though, I feel we had some fun setting up the game even if it never got going!

Sorry, at a Con this weekend and busy as hell, but yes, I was still interested. If it wasn't meant to be though, it wasn't meant to be. I still had fun developing the character. Thanks, OT, for trying and if you want to run something else in future, please keep me in mind as a possibility. I have very much enjoyed the games you have run.