When creating a new character for Ascendancy LRP, you may find it useful to use the online character sheet. This will help to standardise it for the refs, and make sure you don’t miss anything.
A starting Ascendancy character is created with the following:
- A name and character background, including their Shard of Origin.
- Characters may also join an organisation as part of character creation.
- Cultural Lore of their Shard of Origin at Level 2.
- Two hit points on the torso and one hit point on each limb, a Death Count of five minutes.
- 5 Mind Points, 5 Sanity Points, Max Sanity 5.
- A Source of Energy and a Focus.
- Six Heroic Action Points (HAP).
- Progression Level: Talented
- At least one Vocation and/or Heritage. See Vocations and Heritages.
- Lower Middle Class Social Background, as well as the levels of relevant Skills from this level of background.
- This Social Background can be changed at either a cost of Karma to increase or gaining starting Karma to decrease. For further details see Social Background.
- One Skill at Level 3, one Skill at Level 2 and one Skill at Level 1. (These must be different Skills to ones granted from Social Background)
- Four points of Flaws.
- 40 Starting Karma to be spent on Skills and Talents, at the rate of 20 Karma per level of Skill or Talent. Skills may not be raised above level 3 at Character Creation.
(Optional) Taking up to a further four points of Flaws, each point of Flaw will grant an additional 10 points of Starting Karma. Any points in Flaws taken in excess of this is at Ref discretion, but will not provide further Karma.
(Optional) Thunders Characters start with Honour 1, may be bought at character creation for 20 karma per level up to level 4, after that honour must be earned in the game.
Note: Starting Karma from Character Creation if it is not spent is lost.
Additional Note: Skills learned during Character Creation do not require a Teacher.
Starting wealth
Wealth is initially based on your Social Status. You can use External Influence Levels you get from your Social Status to increase this at character generation if you wish at a rate of 1 Influence Level for 1 Wealth Level.
| Social Status | Starting Wealth Level | Starting Wealth Rank |
|---|---|---|
| No social status | 0 | 0 |
| Lower Lower Class | 1 | 1 |
| Upper Lower Class | 2 | 1 |
| Lower Middle Class | 3 | 2 |
| Upper Middle Class | 4 | 2 |
| Lower Upper Class | 5 | 2 |
| Upper Upper Class | 6 | 3 |
Vocations
In order for you to customise a character to fit the concept you have for them, you can create Vocation ‘Triplets’ from the Talent list. In many tabletop games you will choose a ‘class’ for your hero, a warrior, a mage, a healer etc. The Vocation ‘Triplets’ are used in a similar way to define the type of character you wish to play. For details of what each Talent allows you to do, see Vocational Talents.
There are a number of rules in regards to which Talents you can choose for each Triplet – these are in place to keep the special abilities that would define a specific ‘class’ separate and individual.
- You must choose 3 Talents for each Triplet (you cannot add just 1 Talent and decide on a second or third later).
- Each Talent is assigned to a Triplet (Mind, Body or Spirit). Within each Triplet you can only select Talents from a maximum of 2 groups (So you could have all 3 Talents from Body, or 1 from Mind and 2 from Spirit. You cannot take a Talent from each of the Mind, Body and Spirit groups within the same Triplet).
There are other Talents available in the game, however you may only create a ‘triplet’ from those in the table.
| Mind | Body | Spirit |
|---|---|---|
| Astral Projection | Chi Powers*† | Aesthetic |
| Channel Power** | Combative | Animal Empathy* |
| Chronopathy* | Fortitude | Aura Reading |
| Clairvoyance | Pathfinder | Luck* |
| Learned | Potency | Machine Empathy* |
| Mage Sense* | Sharpshooter | Precognition |
| Mind Blank | Tenacity | Psychometry |
| Portal Sense* | Vigour | Spirit/Dreaming Speech* |
| Psychomoleate | Weapon Master | Touch of Grace* |
| * you may only have one of these talents in each triplet | ** Channel Power must be included in a Triplet that contains either Mage Sense or Spirit/Dreaming Speech. | † Can only be taken if your character has the ‘Thunders’ as your Shard of Origin and has at least 1 Honour. |
Third Triplet
You can only ever have 3 Vocation Triplets (or 2 Vocation Triplets and a Heritage). You cannot access the third Triplet until you have any 3 Talents in the first two Triplets at level 5.
Flaws
This is by no means a complete list of Flaws, and players should feel free to discuss ideas with a Ref for flaws that fall outside of this list. Many of the flaws are characterful, and the descriptions given are guidelines and not intended to be restrictive.
Flaws that affect a character physically should be discussed with a Ref.
All Flaws have a point cost, some Flaws have either a variable cost, indicated by a hyphenated cost e.g. 1-3, this indicates the severity of the Flaw. Other Flaws have an either/or cost, indicated by a slash e.g. 3/6, this shows the cost for lower and higher levels of the Flaw.
| Flaw | Description | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Addict | Addicted to a substance, such as alcohol. The higher the level of the Flaw, the worse the reaction will be if they are unable to get the substance, and the less time they can go without it. | 1-3 |
| Ambitious | Driving need to progress, to achieve some specified goal. The higher the level of the Flaw, the more they will follow this goal to the exclusion of all else. | 2-6 |
| Avaricious | Always wants more wealth, never satisfied. No amount of money is enough. | 2 |
| Bad Habit | Irritating quirk, such as cracking knuckles, this can cause annoyance in those around the character. | 1-3 |
| Blackmailed | Subjected to a campaign of blackmail over an unpleasant secret which would cause extreme problems if released. | 3 |
| Blind | Unable to see – either partially sighted or completely blind. | 3/6 |
| Clumsy | Tends to break, drop or damage things unintentionally. | 2 |
| Cowardly | Tends to avoid conflict, or dangerous situation, may abandon allies in times of danger. | 3 |
| Crippled | Character is unable to use a limb effectively – arm or leg. | 3/6 |
| Curious | Driving need to investigate beyond the boundaries of ‘safe’. | 3 |
| Dangerous Knowledge | Character has a piece of information, whether they know it or not, which may put them or others in danger. | 3 |
| Deaf | Unable to hear – either partially deaf or completely deaf. | 3/6 |
| Death Wish | Character ultimately wants to die, but is not suicidal. | 6 |
| Deranged | Character displays traits of madness and insanity. This can also take the form of a phobia or irrational fear. | 2-6 |
| Enemy | Character has an enemy, whether they know it or not, which may put them or others in danger. | 2-6 |
| Envious | Subject to a desire for someone else’s possessions, status or lifestyle. | 2 |
| Fragile | Easily hurt, slow to recover. | 3 |
| Gluttonous | Always hungry, never satisfied. | 2 |
| Heroic | When there is Right to be done, the character will always do the Right Thing. | 6 |
| Hidden Master | Character has a controller, whether they know it or not, which directs their activities, for good or ill. | 6 |
| Hunted | Character is being actively sought by someone… or something. | 2-6 |
| Illiterate | Character is unable to read or write. | 3 |
| Indebted | Character owes someone a great deal of money, or a very big favour. | 3 |
| Innumerate | Character is unable to count to more than a hands worth, or do sums. | 3 |
| Intolerant | Character has an active dislike of someone, something or a group. | 1-3 |
| Loose Lipped | Finds keeping secrets difficult, tends to gossip, very unreliable. | 3 |
| Loyal | Shows unshakeable loyalty to a person, organisation or ideal. | 3 |
| Lustful | Behaves in a lusty manner towards other people. | 2 |
| Malady: Minor | Character has a minor illness, which does not always affect them, but gets inconvenient every so often. | 2 |
| Malady: Major | Character has a major illness, which frequently affects them, and inconveniences them every so often. | 4 |
| Malady: Terminal | Character has an illness, either manifesting as minor or major, which will progress and ultimately prove fatal. | 6 |
| Mean-Spirited | Uncaring, selfish, heartless, mealy mouthed, unpleasant inconsiderate son of a … | 3 |
| Oath-sworn | Sworn to an unbreakable vow to hold up a model of behaviour or to restrain from acting under certain circumstances. | 2-6 |
| Obligated | Subjected to a long term agreement of some form, for a fixed length of time, or until the terms of the agreement are met. | 2-6 |
| Old | Subjected to the ravages of time, becoming elderly and infirm. | 6 |
| Over-cautious | Rarely willing to stick their neck out, unless all possibilities are investigated, or until it is ‘safe’. | 3 |
| Over-confident | Believes in themselves and their abilities utterly and is always willing to give things a go. | 3 |
| Pacifistic | Unwilling to hurt or injure someone or something, or unwilling to allow others to get into conflict. | 4/6 |
| Prideful | Demonstrates a great degree of arrogance about themselves and their abilities. | 2 |
| Sceptical | Unwilling or unable to believe in something that many others take for granted, such as the existence of Magic. | 3 |
| Self-righteous | Believes utterly that they are in the right, and all their opinions and ideas are correct. This is considerably worse when they are! | 3 |
| Slothful | Lazy and difficult to get motivated, or even moving! | 2 |
| Stubborn | Intractable and awkward, have difficulty changing their mind. | 2 |
| Squeamish | Finds blood and gore distressing. | 2 |
| Superstitious | Tends to irrational beliefs and behaviour to ward off evil and bring luck. | 1-3 |
| Ugly | Deformed, scarred, misshapen, just downright ugly. | 3 |
| Unable to lie | Always tells the truth, no matter what the circumstances, whether because of a moral compulsion, or just being unimaginative. | 3 |
| Unforgiving | Bears grudges, rarely forgets or forgives a slight or wrong committed against them. | 2 |
| Unlucky | Things never quite go in the character’s favour. | 4 |
| Vengeful | Will find and enact revenge against those who have committed wrongs against them or others close to them. | 3 |
| Wrathful | Short tempered, angry, irritable. | 2-4 |
Multiple Characters
Players are encouraged to have two main characters, or at least one main and one backup in case of character death or character injury during an event. The crew will try to run personal and background plots for up to 2 characters that you play.
Players may create more than two characters, there can be many reasons for this, such as a relaxing character when they need a break, a trial run of a new character idea or one who can support another player or group. However, any characters after the two you have nominated as your primary two characters will not normally receive any individual personalised plot.
To help the refs, if you have more than two characters, we need to know which two are your main characters, these should remain stable and not change every event. These characters should also be the only ones you do downtime for.