The process for creating an Against the Darkness character is detailed below. The Core Rulebook is necessary for the details of Kin, Culture, and Vocation.
- Generate your Stats
a. Distribute 50 points between your stats in slots of 5 (minimum 0, maximum 25).
- Brawn (BRN): Measures a character’s muscular strength and physical power.
- Swiftness (SWI): Is the measure of a character’s dexterity, speed, coordination, balance and general agility.
- Fortitude (FOR): Is the measure of a character’s resistance and vigor.
- Wits (WIT): Measures a character’s reasoning, cleverness, mnemonic ability, and mental agility.
- Wisdom (WSD): Measures a character’s empathy, intuition, willpower, awareness and attention to detail.
- Bearing (BEA): Is a measure of a character’s presence, charisma, and social influence.
- Choose your Kin
a. Choose your character’s Kin, modify your Stats accordingly, and take note of your Kin Special Traits.
- Man: The Mannish race is the most numerous and adaptable of all Kins.
- High Man: The High Men are the last survivors of a rare and ancient Mannish Kin.
- Dwarf: Legends say Dwarves were born from stone, sculpted to life from their gods at the beginning of time.
- Halfling: Halflings are a diminutive people, even smaller than Dwarves.
- Half Elf: Half Elves are a rare and wonderful combination of the best virtues of the Elven and Mannish Kins.
- Silver Elf: Silver Elves are fair and proud, wise, and industrious.
- Dusk Elf: Among the Elven Kins, Dusk Elves are the most closely tied to the mortal world.
- Star Elf: Star Elves are the more ancient, the proudest and fairest of all the Elven Kins.
- Wildfolk: The Wildfolk, also called Leshak or Leshy, are a mysterious Kin with close connections to the spirits of Nature.
- Orc: Orcs are short, hunched humanoids with sharp fangs and red or yellow eyes similar to those of wild cats.
- Half Orc: Half Orcs, often referred to as Man-Orcs, are a strange and very rare inbreed of Men and Orcs.
- Stone Troll: Stone Trolls, often referred to simply as Trolls, but also as Tall Wanderers by some, are a wild Kin of huge, feral humanoids.
- Firbolg: Firbolgs claim to be the descendants of the great Giant Kings who once ruled the entire creation.
- Choose your Culture
a. Choose your character’s Culture, assign your Cultural Skill Ranks, and pick your Outfitting Options.
- Arctic: The unforgiving wastes of the frozen North are inhabited by people from the Arctic Culture.
- City: Urban environments, from high-walled, bustling metropolises, to smaller and quieter border towns, are the origin of the City Culture.
- Deep: Character from the Deep Culture build their homes underground.
- Desert: The Great Desert is a hard and inhospitable place, yet characters from this Culture have learned not only to survive, but to thrive in this barren land.
- Fey: Members of the Fey Culture are the descendants of those who used their magical arts to shield their communities from the perils of the mortal world.
- Hill: Characters from the Hill Culture claim highlands and rugged hilly areas as home.
- Noble: Noble characters come from a privileged class or caste that elevates them above the common people, at least in terms of influence and power.
- Pastoral: Characters belonging to the Pastoral Culture come from rural communities, farmsteads or small villages.
- Plains: People from the Plains are accustomed to open spaces like the vast, wide outlands of the eastern steppes, or grassland prairies.
- Seafaring: True children of the waves, members of the Seafaring Culture spend most of their lives sailing the seas.
- Weald: Weald characters are raised to and live a harsh life on the borderlands and into the wilderlands.
- Woad: Woad characters are often seen as primitive or barbaric by characters coming from other Cultures.
- Choose your Vocation
a. Choose your character’s Vocation and distribute
your Development Points to buy your Skills.
- Warrior: Warriors are masters of arms and combat.
- Rogue: Rogues are adept at disguise, stealth, and subterfuge.
- Wizard: Wizards are adept at sorcerous skills, always immersed in their studies of dusty tomes and moldy scrolls, seeking enlightenment and trying to uncover the deepest secrets and mysteries of magic.
- Animist: An Animist is a shaman, a druid, a spirit-monger.
- Champion: Champions are mystical fighters, trained both in the way of the sword and the magical arts.
- Dabbler: Of all Vocations, Dabblers are the most versatile and eclectic, merging mundane skills of exploration and stealth with magical arts.
- Sage: Sages are learned men and women, wise counselors and masters of lore.
- Spend your Background Points
a. Determine your character’s Background Options from the Background Points provided by your Kin.
- Record your Equipment
a. Take note of your character’s starting gear and possessions, provided by your Culture and the Starting Gear list.
- Choose your Passions
a. Choose your character’s Passions.
- Nature: How a character behaves in most situations, due to their inherent instincts, demeanor, or ethical and philosophical convictions.
- Allegiance: Who the character is loyal to, loves, or - on the other hand - has sworn to destroy.
- Motivation: What pushes the character forth: a goal set either in the near future or in the farthest, a personal belief, a strong conviction.
b. Passions should be a more cooperative effort. Feel free to work on these around the Campfire.
- Calculate Derived Statistics
a. Move Rate, Defense, Save Roll bonuses, etc.
- Name your Character
