The following pages show you how to craft a Player hero drawn from one of ten Heroic Cultures. Using the guidelines presented in this chapter, you can create your own hero, complete with strengths and weaknesses, possessions, and aspirations.

The character creation process consists of a number of steps, and aims to create fictional individuals that are as close as possible to their player’s wishes, and that at the same time conform to the source material. The Loremaster should assist their players during this process, providing insight into the rules when needed, or simply to advise a player in making choices that are both true to the game’s setting and make for a satisfying character to play.


To create a character, each player must first choose a Heroic Culture, selecting the one that is closest to the hero concept that they have in mind. All Cultures presented in this volume belong to the Free Peoples, brave nations that refuse the darkness and are often at open war with it.

1. Bardings
2. Beornings
3. Dwarves of Durin’s Folk
4. Elves of Lindon
5. Elves of Mirkwood
6. High Elves of Rivendell
7. Hobbits of the Shire
8. Men of Bree
9. Rangers of the North
10. Woodmen of Mirkwood

Once they have made their choice, players refer to the appropriate Heroic Culture writeup page and follow the steps described below, copying all information onto the character sheet.

1. Record your Cultural Blessing
2. Determine your Attributes, choosing a set or rolling a Success die
3. Calculate your STRENGTH, HEART, and WITS Target Numbers — each TN is equal to 20 minus its corresponding Attribute score
4. Calculate your Derived Stats: Endurance, Hope, and Parry
5. Record your Skill and Combat Proficiency Ratings
6. Choose your Distinctive Features
7. Choose a Name and Age

Answer the Call to Adventure

Players finalise their character creation process by moving on to applying the steps described below.

1. Choose a Calling, from among Captain, Champion, Messenger, Scholar, Treasure Hunter, and Warden
2. Spend Previous Experience points
3. Choose your starting Gear
4. Record your VALOUR and WISDOM scores at 1 and choose your Starting Reward and Virtue

Gather the Company

Last, but not least, all players cooperate in adding details about how their newly-created adventurers met each other and formed a Company. A Company may be composed of adventurers of any kind, but the sum of its parts is going to be influenced by the Player-heroes’ selection of Heroic Culture and Calling.

Character Sheet Template

Name:
Heroic Culture:
Cultural Blessing:
Calling:
Age:
Patron:
Standard of Living:
Distinctive Features
Shadow Path:
Flaws:
Treasure:








This message was last edited by the GM at 00:51, Fri 27 May 2022.