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Character Creation Mechanics

These rules supplement, but do not replace the rules for character creation in the 3rd ed. core rules book. We will not be reprinting the rules that already exist, and can be found on pages 100 to 143 of the core rules. The First Edition Dark Ages book is also necessary to create characters with the below rules, but is not as crucial. The main additions and changes can be found in the Abilities, Backgrounds, Merits and Flaws, and Experience sections below.

Archetype

Archetype is exactly the same in the core rules and our rules. Choose a Nature and a Demeanor. People's fundamentally types have not really changed in the past 2000 years... they probably haven't changed in the past 10,000 years.

Attributes

Attributes are also exactly the same, for the same reason.

Abilities

Abilities, however, have changed more than a bit.

There are now four groups of abilities instead of three. The four are Talents, Skills, Knowledges and Lore. The first three are well described in the core book. Lore is treated just as Knowledges in terms of untrained use. It represents a character's knowledge of a certain category of generally hidden knowledge. Lore is generally harder to obtain than Knowledge, so while someone with Academics three has probably memorized the works of Homer, someone with Mythras Cult Lore 3 has probably only read the most important books of the cult, not committed them to memory. Talents, Skills, and Knowledges are bought at character creation by assigning priorities, just like the standard rules. Lores may only be bought with freebie points or experience.  Lores cost half what other Abilities do, rounded up if nessesary.  The only exception is Vampire Lore, which is bought as a normal Ability.

Certain abilities, those marked with a "*", cannot be bought without also having certain merits. The general idea is that certain abilities would only be available to those who have had special, and long term, training. So one would not have Natural Philosophy unless they had studied with a Greek or Roman school master, and been taught certain other basic things, such as Performance. See the Merits and Flaws section for the specific merits and flaws one needs to learn a certain ability. In general there are multiple merits and flaws that grant the ability to learn a given ability.

Certain other abilities, those marked with "+", can only be bought to a novice level without also having certain merits. The maximum level that a character can have is 1 in these abilities without such a merit or flaw.

Also, abilities marked with "X" have mandatory specializations. Outside the area of specialization a character has a minus 2 to his or her effective ability in this area. The types of specializations one might take are detailed in the links. This minus 2 can never reduce a character's dice pool below the base Attribute being rolled. If only the base Attribute is being rolled, however, the character takes the normal penalties for being untrained in an Ability.

Finally, each ability is liked to a longer description of it on another page.

Disciplines

Rules for Disciplines are unchanged in the Gloria Mundi setting.  Characters get 3 dots of Disciplines for free, more can be bought with freebies.  

Backgrounds

Backgrounds have changed slightly, mostly in that there are more of them, and there are different definitions for some of them and clarifications for others. These changes are linked to the master list shown below.  Backgrounds can be bought for 3 XP per dot.

Status is specially marked as it cannot be bought at character creation, though certain Merits and Flaws increase or decrease Status. Additionally, Status is recorded as two separate scores, permanent and temporary Status, in the same way Garou Glory is recorded. For more details see the Status link below.

Generation

Generation is dealt with in an entirely novel manor. A player can buy dice to decide his character's generation. These dice cost one freebie point each. Every character gets one die for free, so the number of dice rolled is equal to (freebies + 1). The dice are then rolled, IN THE PRESENCE OF A STORYTELLER, against a difficulty of 7. Twelve minus the number of successes equals the character's generation, with the best generation achievable being seven.

Virtues

Virtues are unchanged under this system. Recall that initial virtues determine initial Humanity and Willpower scores, but increases to Virtues with freebie points do not increase Humanity or Willpower.

Humanity

The purchase of humanity is unchanged under this system, but its meaning is a bit different, in keeping with the cultural differences 2000 years ago. Meaning is not, however, the purpose of this document.

Willpower

The purchase of Willpower is only slightly different. Points of Willpower have different costs at different levels. It costs 1 freebie point to buy a point of Willpower up to level 5. To increase the score above level 5 and up to level 8 costs 2 freebie points per level. Increasing Willpower to level 9 or level 10 costs 4 freebies. So increasing Willpower from a starting score of 3 to a final score of 9 costs 1+1+2+2+2+4 = 12.

Freebies

A character receives the standard number of freebie points to use at the end of character creation. Disciplines may not be bought with these points.

Merits and Flaws

Any relevant merit or flaw may be taken, up to a maximum seven flaw points. In addition to the standard merits and flaws, there is a new category of merits and flaws that may be taken, known as Occupational. These merits and flaws represent advantages and disadvantages gained during a character's life. Occupational merits and flaws only may be taken after character creation by spending the merit or flaw's point cost times two experience points, with a minimum cost of three experience points. So a three point merit would cost six experience and a two point flaw would cost two experience. In addition to the point cost (or gain) of taking these merits and flaws a character must also take time to gain them. A minimum of two years is needed for the absolute value of points the merit or flaw costs. So a three point merit would take three years to learn and a two point flaw would take two years to learn. This time should be accounted for in the character's back story if they start the game with such a merit or flaw. Finally, note that many of these merits and flaws require certain minimum attributes or abilities to learn. If the merit or flaw is bought after character creation, the character does not gain the associated Status benefits, if any. The merit or flaw cannot be bought unless the minimum trait scores have been achieved first.

Below these new Occupational merits and flaws are listed, as are other new merits and flaws. The names the merits and flaws are linked to more detailed descriptions.

Experience

Every step of character creation up to the end of the freebie points stage is assumed to be detailing the character's traits shortly after his or her embrace, at least in the Gloria Mundi universe (this is not the assumption in a standard Vampire game). To reflect the extra age and experience that starting characters may have, a character receives a number of experience points equal to his or her immortal age to spend at the end of character creation. Recall that characters may not be older than 50 years undead. A player may choose to not save up to five experience points from this total to spend later. These points may not be spent to buy merits and flaws, nor may they be spent to buy out-of-clan Disciplines. Only half these points or less may be spent to buy Disciplines.  The storytellers will work with the player to assign some balances to this advantage, generally enemies and rivals that the character has encountered during his or her unlife. These disadvantages are not intended to entirely balance the advantages, as we are experimenting with having player characters of differing power levels in the same game.

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