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Overview of Character Creation

This page and the pages linked off of it will give you everything that you need to create a character in the Planar Gaming System. This is walked through step by step, with each individual section of the character generation process addressed separately.

Note: For the time being, some areas (particularly racial generation, skill lists, and advantages/disadvantages lists) are not ready for posting. These areas instead contain links to a "Provisional Rules" page, which explains how to use these factors from other systems (in particular L5R RPG 2nd Edition and GURPS 3rd Edition). With luck, the actual rules for these aspects in the Planar Gaming System will be available in the not terribly distant future.

Step Zero: Character Concept

This is where you come up with the basic concept of your character. Think about the character's personality, background, appearance, and anything else you consider important. You should also at this stage find out about what type of campaign the GM intends to run, as this may well effect what type of character you wish to create. The step of character conception should be a collaborative effort between player and GM, working together to create a character suitable for the campaign.

There are many perfectly good articles about character concept generation available both online and in published roleplaying books. For example, the L5R RPG includes "20 Questions" to help you get a firm grasp on your character. White Wolf supplements, too, contain many pointers for developing a personality for your character. Some online resources for character concepts include:

The Seven Golden Rules Of Character Design & The Ten Commandments Of Character Construction
Three-Dimensional Character Creation
Uncle Figgy's Guide to Good Roleplaying
Uncle Figgy's Guide to Roleplaying for Non-Roleplayers
Prism (In particular, the sections on Design, Initial Skills, and Personality)

There is much more out there. You can look for character concepts in various RPGs (they go under names like Classes or Templates). If you have a setting in mind, thumb through the book of an RPG set in a similar world and see if any of these character concepts catch your eye.

Step One: Generation of Traits

This step in described thoroughly on a separate page, here.

Step Two: Select Age Category

This is covered on a separate page and is too lengthy to recount here. See section on age selection.

Step Three: Species Selection

Choose a species. Your options will be determined by the campaign setting and how well you can convince your GM that you should be allowed to play whatever you want. There are several things that your species will give you that are beyond your control, and will thus affect your character concept.

Size: Your character size is determined by your species, and is largely beyond your control (although with advantages and disadvantages you can be large or small for your species). Size carries both advantages and disadvantages. If you are large, you will be naturally stronger, move farther faster, and deal more damage, but you will be less stealthy and easier to target in combat. The reverse would be true for a smaller character.
Lifespan: The length of a creature's lifespan is almost entirely a function of species, and this includes reproductive options as well as actual duration of life. These can be modified, but in general will not affect characters (this will be different in long-term campaigns, but the effects will still be rare).
Bonus Point Distribution: All species get 60 Bonus points spread throughout their lives. How these points are spread out across the different age categories is a function of species, and cannot be changed.
Species Trait Modifiers: Not all species start with the same base values. When you purchase Trait values in the next step, the points you spend adjust your Traits relative to your species average. Thus, some species have modifiers to the final values of Traits, although these modifiers will not effect your Dimension values.
Warp Level: This is how “magical” or “anti-magical” a species is on the whole. This level interacts with the surrounding Warp Level of the world to determine a variety of effects. Warp is rated from –5 to 5, with average being zero. The advantages Magic Resistance and Magic Aptitude adjust this value down or up, respectively.
Instinct Level: Instinct level is how much the “animal” side of a creature is in control; it shows the balance between primal nature and social refinement. It works on a running scale from 5 (totally given over to natural instinct) to –5 (total social refinement). Again, most creatures have a value of zero. Only true “animals” would have an Instinct Level of 5, while only the most detached of creatures (disembodied consciousnesses, robots) would have Instinct Levels close to –5.

Because the Planar Gaming System species generation rules have not yet been finalized, it is suggested that you convert species from outside sources. Suggestions of how to go about this are included in the Provisional Rules document.

Step Four: Home Plane

Your GM will generate a list of planes that he/she will accept characters from, and you must pick one of these planes as your home plane. This list may be vast or very limited, depending on how your GM conceives your local area of the Multiverse and on whether or not the campaign intends to move between planes to any extent.

Your home plane is the plane on which you were born. It is the only plane in the Multiverse on which you are not considered to be "extraplanar" (this is important for several effects, particularly banishings and wards). It is also the plane to which you will travel if you are banished.

In time, home planes will offer advantages to their natives, which can be purchased with character points. These rules are not yet ready, however.

Step Five: Passions

You may now pick up to three Passions that define your character. Each will have a Rating, ranging from 0.0 to 6.0, with average being 3.0. To determine the value of each Passion, pick two differently colored Dice (d10’s). Pick one to be positive and one to be negative. Roll both, open-ending when needed, and subtract the negative die value from the positive die value. Divide this result by ten, and add it to 3.0.

Example: For the Passion Justice, I roll a positive die of 7, negative die of 4. My rating is 3.0 + (7-4)/10 = 3.3.

A list of possible Passions is here.

Step Six: Spending Points

Now is when you get to spend Character Points to customize your character. This is done in a few steps.

Part One: Spend Initial Skill Points.
You have a number of Initial Skill Points equal to your Intelligence x Your Modifier from Age. You may spend these points on skills of your choice, and are considered to have learned these skills as you grew up. The spending scheme is simple:

Find your value in the Trait associated with the skill you wish to purchase. If there are multiple Traits associated with that skill, use the lowest of the Trait values.
Point cost is determined relative to this Trait level. Use the following formula:

Value = Trait Value + X

Example 1: Trait Value=3. Want average skill at 5 (3+2), so cost equals 2^2 = 4 Initial Skill Points.
Example 2: Trait Value=5. Want hard skill at 5, so cost equals 2^0 *3=3 ISPs.

You may not start play with a skill higher than your Age Category, or 10 whichever is lower.

Part Two: Disadvantages
In this stage, you can take any Disadvantages that you feel either match your character concept or would just be fun to play. Keep in mind that all Disadvantages must be played and many can prove to be highly inconvenient if not fatal. You may take as many Disadvantages as you like, but you may only gain at most 10 CP from them (thus, even if you take 25 CP worth of Disadvantages, you only get 10 bonus Character Points).

At this stage, you also take the required Weakness points for age worth of Disadvantages.

There is at present no complete list of disadvantages for the Planar Gaming System. Suggestions for using Disadvantages from other systems is included on the Provisional Rules page.

Part Three: Points
In this stage, you spend your final allotment of Character Points to customize your character.

You get 45 CP in this stage. They may be spent as follows:

Adjusting a Trait Value: The cost of adjusting a Trait is as follows

Adjusting the Soul Dimension: Costs as follows

Adjusting Planar Attunement: Cost depends on desired level of Planar Attunement, as follows

Purchasing Advantages: Use listed Character Point cost. (There is presently no PGS Advantages list. Uses suggestions in the Provisional Rules document)
Purchasing Skills: Use formula from Initial Skill Points Section. (There is presently no PGS Skill list. Uses suggestions in the Provisional Rules document)
Purchasing Planar/Racial Powers: Pay listed Character Point cost if you meet the requirements to purchase the power. (The list of Planar and Racial Powers does not currently exist).
Adjusting Passions: Raising a Passion by 0.2 costs 1 CP, while lowering a Passion by 0.2 gives 1 CP. No Passion rating may be adjusted either direction by more than 1.0.
Purchasing Techniques: Pay listed Character Point cost if you meet the requirements to purchase the Technique. (There is presently no PGS Technique list. Uses suggestions in the Provisional Rules document)

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