Character Creation

Character Creation Process

Choose an Origin, a Background, your free Lore Trait and free Income Trait, and 5 extra Traits. Click here for the full list of Traits. (Since the system has been running for a while now, you will be able to then pick some number of extra Traits representing a more experienced character. See the Traits page for details.)

Pick a name for your character, and you're good to go.

Once you've made your choices, contact the refs to let them know what you've chosen.

Vital Statistics

A new character always has the following traits from basic training with the Seeker’s Guild:

Health: You have three hit points and have a limit of three trauma. All of your hit points are restored at the start of each linear and interactive.

Stamina: You have three stamina points. This can be spent to fuel skills. All of your stamina points are restored at the start of each linear and interactive.

Walk it Off: You can spend a stamina point to restore your health when not under pressure. This takes ten seconds of appropriate roleplaying.

Staunch Wounds: If someone is incapacitated, you can restore them to a state of health by roleplaying medicine or healing magic when not under pressure. This restores them to 1 hit point.

Field Medicine: If your limb or another character’s limb is ruined, you can restore it to a usable state. This takes 30 seconds of appropriate roleplaying.

Basic Armour Use: You can wear light armour. When wearing light armour that covers your torso, you have +1 hit points. If you wear heavy armour that covers your torso, you have +2 hit points.

Basic Weapons Training: You can use a single-handed weapon up to 42” and an offhand up to 24” or a buckler.

Enhancements: You can use one piece of Tinkered Technology, one Alchemical Elixir, and one Runecast Aura.

Origin

Pick one of these three Origins for your character. This is where your character is from originally, and how they got to Flotilla. This does not have an effect on what your character can do on adventures, but might affect social status or what plots affect you.

Oldworlder

You lived in the world-that-was, before the end. You remember what life was like outside the city-ships of Flotilla - perhaps that was what drove you to become a Seeker? You may have kept some of the wealth you used to have, or set yourself up in the days following the Cataclysm. You might be more familiar with the herbs and potions that used to be much more common.

Shipborn

You were born after the End - or so close before that you don’t remember what life was like. The corridors of the Ships and the endless skies above the roiling smoke are all you have ever known. You also understand precisely how one person’s carelessness can doom an entire ship. You might have the skills to make and maintain gear and ships.

Recovered

You were caught up in the Great Storm - hurled through time and left on a shattered piece of the world, slowly falling to your death, but you were rescued by a crew of Seekers. Perhaps they took pity on you, or maybe you convinced them you had a useful skill, but for whatever reason they decided you were worth bringing back. Still, the Great Storm leaves its mark on those who’ve passed through it, and the otherworldly quality it imparts can be a boon in some situations; you might have unnatural insight into the nature of magic. Often, the Recovered have odd holes in their memory, and very few of them remember what their name was before the Cataclysm.

What if I don’t know what sort of character I want to play?

If you don’t know what you want to play, you can start play as a Recovered who is suffering from more severe than usual amnesia. If you choose this option, you don’t need to pick Traits. You can start not knowing anything about what’s going on and pick up Traits and information about the setting as you go along.

Background

Pick a Background for your character. A character’s background is what they do when they’re not adventuring; this doesn't affect what you can do on adventures, but it might affect which plots you get involved in.

This list of backgrounds isn’t intended to be exhaustive - feel free to ask a ref to add a new one if you have an idea.

Noble

You are part of a pre-Cataclysm noble house. You might be involved in running the house’s affairs, or possibly just a wastrel heir, in which case you spend a lot of effort looking too busy to be assigned real duties. For whatever reason of your own, you’ve joined the Guild rather than being part of your family’s concerns.

Engineer

You are responsible for keeping part of the mechanical and technological apparatus of Flotilla running, or coming up with new inventions to tackle the problems and challenges of life in the Sky. You might be a qualified airship mechanic as well.

Pilot

You’re responsible for sailing one or more ships out from Flotilla. Some pilots are attached to a ship, others work for whoever hires them. There’s a certain cachet to being an expert pilot, and those who are accepted as one often wear a patch with a design of wings on their clothes.

Lightning Catcher

You have a business crewing or running a lightning-catcher, a ship designed to fly up into the Great Storm and use metal dragnets to capture energy. You almost certainly have tall tales about surviving deadly storms and avoiding storm-sharks.

Navigator

You’re skilled at charting courses and dead reckoning, and you help to navigate people between Flotilla and a few other sky-marks, as well as being part of the secretive Navigator’s Council that determines the direction of Flotilla as a whole.

Workmage

You’re a member in good standing of the Mage’s Guild, and you do everyday rituals and magic to keep the airships and floating islands making up Flotilla going, or the other spells that are required to sustain life in the Sky.

Criminal

You don’t have a problem turning to crime to make a little income on the side. It might be stealing from nobles, selling illegal byproducts from alchemical processes, smuggling or fencing weapons or resources aboard Flotilla, contract forgery, or plain old fraud and snake-oil sales.

Logistics

You work for a noble or one of the Guilds, making sure that resources and work are directed to the projects and locations that need it. It’s often thankless work, and takes a particular kind of mind to do well.

Harvester

You work in the top-deck fields of Flotilla, tending the crops that feed a large portion of the city. You might do this as manual labour in the fields, casting magic that encourages growth, or tending to bees or other animals.

Whaler

You hunt or herd sky-whales, vast flying creatures native to the sky. They lose buoyancy quickly once they’re slain, so hunting them is dangerous and difficult work - bringing an entire whale back is an effort that requires multiple ships. Herding them is less dangerous, but still a tricky process, mainly done to harvest their aerogris, a valuable substance used for airship maintenance. Many whalers are known to have miniature sky-whales as pets.

Archivist

You concern yourself with the preservation and organisation of relics and information. You might work for a noble, temple, or Guild, or maintain a private collection.

Priest

You spend your time ministering to the spiritual health of your congregation. Often, this involves sorting out interpersonal issues, delivering speeches or sermons, and giving people life advice or talking them through crises.

Militia

You work as a peacekeeper or guard of some kind. You might be paid to be on hand to guard things, or investigate reports of crimes. You could be employed for this by a noble, a Guild, a business, or freelance.

Reporter

You’re a journalist or otherwise involved in finding out and reporting on interesting goings-on aboard Flotilla and beyond. You probably know a few people who are well-connected, and a few others who are interested in whatever articles or pieces of information you put together.

Free Traits

You then pick one free Lore Trait and one free Income Trait. The origin in brackets is the one associated with that trait by default, but you can choose a different one:

Lore Traits

• Historical Lore (Oldworlder): You know about the World-That-Was and its history.
• Sky Lore (Shipborn): You know about the ins and outs of life aboard the Flotilla and its factions, and the ways of the Great Storm.
• Monstrous Lore (Recovered): You know about demons, undead and elementals, and the ways to combat them.

Income Traits

• Alchemist (Oldworlder): You can identify alchemical items. You receive an income of standard alchemical items.
• Scrap Merchant (Shipborn): You receive an income of mixed material reagents.
• Crystal Harvester (Recovered): You receive an income of mana crystals.

Traits

Pick up to 5 extra Traits. As the system progresses, the number of Traits that characters have will increase. You can choose to have fewer Traits than the maximum. You can fill in one of your remaining “Trait slots” by spending a few minutes roleplaying appropriate training.