Now that everybody has posted their character basics, we can get working on our Phases. Roland has already gotten us started. ;)
This doesn't mean your characters are locked in stone or anything, just that I want to make sure we keep moving, because the next part is going to require communication between players. Info on phases is below:
In addition to the phases don't forget to design your Armour as well. As always, don't hesitate to bring up any questions, comments, or concerns. I'm here to help.
Phases:
Phase One: Your Adventure
The first phase is your character’s first true adventure—his first book, episode, case, movie, whatever—starring him.
You need to think up and write down the basic details of this story for the phase’s summary. The story doesn’t need to have a lot of detail—in fact, a pair of sentences works pretty well—because your fellow players will add in their own details to this past adventure in the next two phases (as you will to theirs).
If you find yourself stuck, look to your character’s high concept and trouble. Find a dilemma that has a chance of throwing those ideas into focus. What problem do you get roped into because of your high concept or trouble? How does the other aspect help or complicate your life? Ask yourself the following story questions. If you have trouble answering them, talk to the other players and the GM for help.
Something bad happened. What was it? Did it happen to you, to someone
you cared about, or to someone that you were coerced into helping?
What did you decide to do about the problem? What goal did you
pursue?
Who stood against you? Did you expect the opposition you got? Did
some of it come out of nowhere?
Did you win? Did you lose? Either way, what consequences arose from
the outcome?
Once you’ve come up with the adventure, write an aspect that relates to
some part of what happened.
A note on timing: Because two other characters will be involved in the following phases, this adventure needs to be something that isn’t so early in your character’s life that he hasn’t met the other protagonists yet. If one of you has decided that you recently showed up in the story, then the adventures involving that person happened recently. If some of you have been friends (or old rivals!) for a long time, then those adventures can take place further in the past. Your best bet is to not make these adventures specific in time; you can figure out that part once you know who’s involved in your story.
Once everyone has done that we'll do our last two phases where your character will guest star in the Phase one story of two other characters. That'll make sure that each of the characters knows a few of the others and bring us to the point where we're ready to start the game.
Phases two and three:
Phase Two: Crossing Paths
In the next two phases, you’ll tie the group together by having other characters contribute a minor, supporting role in your adventure, and vice versa. Once everyone has their adventure written down (which is where our index card suggestion comes in really handy), you’re ready for phase two. You can pass to the left or right, or shuffle the stack and hand them out randomly (trading with the person to your right until you each have one that isn’t yours). However you decide to do it, every player should now be holding someone else’s adventure.
Your character has a supporting role in the story you’re holding, which you get to come up with right now. Briefly discuss it with the player whose adventure it is and add a sentence or phrase to the summary to reflect your character’s supporting role. Supporting roles come in three forms: they complicate the adventure, solve a situation, or both.
Complicating the adventure: Your character managed to make some part of the adventure uncertain (possibly because of an issue or trouble aspect). Of course, since that happened in the past, we know you got out of it all right (or mostly all right, as indicated by the aspect you take). When describing this, don’t worry about how the situation is resolved—leave that for someone else, or leave it open. Descriptions like “Landon starts trouble when Cynere needs him quiet” or “Zird gets captured by mysterious brigands” are enough to get some ideas flowing.
Solving a situation: Your character somehow solves a complication that the main character in the adventure had to deal with, or your character aids the main character in the central conflict (which is an opportunity to involve your high concept aspect). When describing this, you don’t have to mention how the situation was created, just how your character takes care of it. Descriptions like “Cynere holds off foes to give Landon time to escape” or “Zird uses his arcane knowledge to ask the ghosts for information” are enough to give us an idea of what happens.
Complicating and solving: Here, your character either solves one situation but creates another, or creates a situation but later solves a different one. Mash up the two ideas, using the word “later” in between them, such as: “Landon starts a fight with the Scar Triad while Zird is trying to lay low. Later, he helps Zird by fighting off undead while Zird’s casting a spell.”