Step One: Dimensions and Traits

As discussed in the rules summary, all characters are composed of six dimensions, with each of those dimensions having two
underlying traits (except Soul).  Here, we will take a more detailed look at each of the Traits, and how they affect gameplay.

Time

A character's Time Dimension represents his ability to resist the effects of time or to manipulate time to his advantage.  It also
acts as a gauge of the unknown, granting a character insight into areas the senses cannot normally go.  It consists of the Traits of Stamina and Intuition.

Stamina: Stamina is a character's capacity to endure and continue on despite hardship.  Important mechanical functions of
Stamina include determining how quickly the character heals, and how much weight can be carried over the long term.

Intuition: Intuition is a character's "sixth sense," allowing one to make unconscious observations.  Intuition is most useful for
those who deal with the supernatural and psionics, in that it allows one to roll to detect things, but it is also useful in general at
avoiding surprise.

Space

The Space Dimension is used for perception of distance and accuracy.  This includes knowledge of one's surroundings and the
manipulation of these surroundings to one's advantage.  The Space Dimension consists of the traits of Coordination and
Perception.

Coordination: This trait is used to represent the ability control of accurate movement and aiming.  In general, this translates as
precision movement with a single limb, as opposed to full body movement.  By far, the most common use for Coordination is
with precision melee and missile attacks, but anything from sewing and painting to marksmanship use this trait.

Perception: Perception is the use of the senses to consciously look for something.  It involves the use of all the senses, but can
be localized if needed.  Perception is commonly used with searches, and also figures in activities like flying, driving, and aiming a missile weapon.

Matter

The Matter Dimension determines how firmly rooted a character is in the physical world and how strongly his will effects
himself and his surroundings.  A character with a strong Matter rating is mighty both physically and mentally and tends to be
much tougher to defeat than a lower-rated opponent.  The Matter Dimension consists of the traits of Health and Willpower.

Health: Health represents the general welfare of the body.  It is a critical factor in determining how much damage the body can sustain before collapse, how easily it succumbs to poison, and various other items of this sort.

Willpower: Willpower is the mental end of the fortification against reality Matter represents.  Willpower is used when
attempting to resist temptations the character would rather not give in to.  It is also used when combating mental attacks such as telepathy, in which it takes the place of Agility as the primary combat statistic.

Energy

Just as the Matter Dimension represents a character's attunement with reality and the ability to resist its effects, the Energy
Dimension represents an ability to directly exert influence upon one's surroundings, whether through subtle manipulations or
brute force.  As such, the Energy Dimension is made up of the traits of Strength and Presence.  Characters with high Energy
Dimensions are often the rulers of a society, or at least its prominent citizens.

Strength: Like Stamina, strength represents the energy generation capacity of the physical body.  But while stamina is the
ability to exert oneself over a long period of time, strength is the force of a rapid burst of power, a rush of adrenaline to the
muscles that allow amazing feats of might.  Strength is most commonly used to add to melee weapon damage, but can be used
for such feats as lifting objects, bending bars, bursting through doors, or out-running an enemy.

Presence: Presence represents a character's ability to be socially influential.  Just as Willpower is the ability to act as you wish, Presence is the ability to expand your desires to others.  People with high Presence are often extremely charismatic, drawing people to themselves and their points of view as no mere beauty or rational argument could.

Mind

The Dimension of Mind is a description of the ability of the character to synthesize his past experiences and teachings into a
reaction, whether it be to solve a riddle, remember a critical detail, or reflexively parry an attack.  The Mind Dimension also
contributes to a character's resistance to effects like magical paralyzation or petrification.  The Mind Dimension consists of the
traits of Balance and Intelligence.

Balance: This is the counterpart to Coordination; Balance represents a character's ability to act using his whole body
simultaneously.  Dodges, acrobatics, climbing, and some weapons attacks fall into this category.

Intelligence: A combination of both a character's knowledge and his ability to learn, Intelligence is a powerful trait.  It
determines how many skill points the character starts with for free, as well as affecting his ability to learn new skills and abilities
later in his career. This trait is a must for any scholarly characters.

Soul

Of all the Dimensions, Soul is unique in that it has no associated traits.  Soul is a difficult concept to quantify.  It represents a
tapping of inner strength and discipline, a belief in one's own abilities and one's place in the multiverse.  When Soul is called
upon, the abilities of any other trait can be temporarily enhanced.  Soul is a precious commodity that can allow remarkable
effects, and it is greatly revered among the masses.

Each character has a number of Soul Points equal to his Soul rating. These may be “spent” on any roll except those that directly involve the Soul Dimension.  When a Point is “spent,” the player may roll and keep one extra die for that roll, but will lose the Soul Point immediately (NOTE: This does not affect your rating in your Soul Dimension, only the number of Soul Points you
have left to spend).  One spent Soul Point can be recovered after each night of rest if the character passes a simple Soul Check
vs. TN=21.

Determining Your Initial Traits

All characters begin play with ratings in all 10 traits and Soul.  These ratings are determined randomly, using the procedure
discussed below.  As you determine traits, be sure to place them according to your character concept.  Below is a brief
summary of how the numbers relate to the real world for a few traits.

Table One: Comparison of Selected Traits to the Real World
Trait Rating Strength/
Stamina		 Coordination/
Balance		 Health Intelligence
0 Cannot Move in Regular Earth Gravity Cannot Walk Barely Awake Insect
1 4 Year Old Extremely Clumsy Sickly Horse/Dog
2 10 Year Old Clumsy Weak Child/Dim Adult
3 Average Human Adult Average Human Adult Average Human Adult Average Human Adult
4 Athlete Graceful Energetic Very Bright
5 Weightlifter Very Nimble Very Healthy Genius
6 Olympic Weightlifter Incredibly Agile Perfect Health Nobel Prize

Step One: Dice

Assemble 3 six-sided dice.  Roll them together and add them up.  Write this number down.  Repeat this until you have twelve totals.  At this point, you should have twelve numbers written down that are between 3 and 18.

Step Two: Conversion of Totals

Now take the 12 numbers that you have rolled and convert them into the 1 through 5 scale used in this game.  Use the following mapping chart

        A 3d6 Total of                        Becomes a Planar Gaming System Trait of
               3-5                                                                1
               6-8                                                                2
              9-12                                                               3
             13-15                                                              4
             16-18                                                              5

Odds are that you now have a good number of 3's, a few 2's, a few 4's, and maybe a 1 or 5.

Step Three: Assigning Traits

It is now time to assign the numbers you have generated to the traits discussed above.  This is pretty straight forward; just put whatever number you want on a trait, then remove that number from the ones you have left to assign.  The only complication is Soul: For the moment, consider Souls to be made up of 2 traits, so you must assign 2 values to it.  Once this is done, you may record your Dimensions as the lower of the two traits under them.

Options: Other Methods of Determining Starting Traits

There are any number of other methods that can be used to determine starting traits, depending on the preferences of the GM and the players.  Several are discussed below.  The GM should determine in advance which method will be used for character creation, and all players should use the same method.

Option 1: The Diceless Method

In this scheme, players need not roll for traits at all.  Instead, all traits are assumed to default to 3.  Players may still spend points to raise traits later in character creation, and may gain bonus points for lowering traits below default.  In this variant, all characters have 50 CP to spend instead of 45 CP (Character Points will be discussed in Section Five, but are mentioned here for completion).
Advantages: This method is good for allowing total control over what a character can and cannot do, and is useful for ensuring party members are balanced against each other.  It also reduces the chances that a character will start play with inordinately high stats (which can make them almost unstoppable if arranged correctly) or that a character will be forced to cope with a trait at 1 (which effectively dooms them on all rolls involving that trait).  Finally, it reduces the length of the Character Creation process.
Disadvantages:  This method tends to lead to characters that have pretty standard stats.  Few players will raise a trait at character creation and even fewer will reduce one, even by one level.  Thus, most starting characters will have all or almost all threes.  Also, if a player has to think about what is the character's weakest trait and what is the strongest, greater character definition tends to emerge.

Option 2: The One Die Method

This method still randomly generates traits, but does so in a slightly quicker method.  It follows all the steps of the main Character Creation method, but instead of rolling 3d6 twelve times, roll 1d10 twelve times and convert using the conversion rate below:

        A 1d10 Roll of                        Becomes a Planar Gaming System Trait of
                1                                                                1
               2-3                                                              2
               4-7                                                              3
               8-9                                                              4
               10                                                                5

Advantages: This method is definitely quicker than the main method, requiring only 12 dice to be rolled instead of 36.  Also, it has the beauty of using only the die type that will be used in play; you never have to use anything except d10's with this method. Disadvantages:  While nice, this optional method has the drawback that you will see proportionately more stats of 1 or 5 than you will using the main method.  The drawbacks to that are discussed above.

Option Three: The Harsh Dice Method

If this method is used, the player rolls 3d6 as in the main method.  However, instead of recording all the rolls and then distributing them as desired, the player rolls for each Trait one at a time and records the result as that Trait's value.  There is no redistribution; whatever you roll for a Trait is that Trait's value.
Advantages: Slightly quicker.  This method is most useful for quick NPCs, where only one or two Traits are important.  On PCs, this method can allow a player without any character concept to have something to build from.
Disadvantages: This method can feel confining to many players, and will usually deny them the character concept they had in mind.  It is therefore only recommended for quick-generated characters or one-shot PCs.

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