THE CHARACTERS OF THE GAME

Each player must create a character in order to play. Like in any good movie or novel, the more thought and time that is placed into the character the more alive that character will seem. Each character will have several characteristics that will determine his or her abilities. These are detailed below.

ATTRIBUTES

A character's attributes determine his or her abilities before, or without, skills, equipment, or magic. They describe, among other things, how strong, fast, and intelligent the character is. The attributes are:

• AGILITY (AGL): A measure of a character's poise, grace, and general fleetness of foot and leg.
• AWARENESS (AWA): This attribute determines how aware a character is of his or her surroundings.
• DEXTERITY (DEX): This is a measure of a character's hand-eye coordination and sense of touch.
• HEALTH (HEA): This attribute rates a character's physical health and fitness.
• INTELLECT (INT): This attribute measures a character's intelligence, memory, and general mental power that can be used to solve problems.
• STRENGTH (STR): This is a measure of the raw physical power that a character has.
• WILLPOWER (WIL): This is a measure of a character's force of will. It is used to stand up to frightening situations and to save against spells.

The above attributes are determined by rolling 8D10, once for each attribute. The values rolled are placed in whichever attribute desired by the player. However, there are three attributes that are also needed, but these have some strange aspect about them, which is why they are determined separately.

• BEAUTY (BEA): A measure of how attractive a character is. This attribute is based upon a human's sense of beauty. This attribute cannot be increased through the use of skill slots during the game. This attribute is determined by rolling 9D10, + racial modifiers.
• CHARISMA (CHA): This attribute is a combination of a character's leadership ability and like-ability. The higher a character's charisma, the greater the chance that people will do what he or she wants. This attribute starts at 35+1D10, + racial modifiers. This attribute changes during the game at the discretion of the game master.
• LUCK (LUC): Luck is an intangible attribute. It will affect almost all die rolls that a player will make for his or her characters. This attribute cannot be changed through the use of skill slots during the game. It is determined by rolling 9D10, + racial modifiers.

SENSES & OTHER CHARACTER CHARACTERISTICS

Once a character's attributes are determined, there are a few other characteristics that must be determined. The initial values are based upon the attributes of the character.

• DAY VISION: This is how far the character can see. In actual play, the character can see farther than this value, but this is only as far as the GM needs to draw out the map. The character's day vision is based upon the character's race.
• NIGHT VISION: This is similar to the character's day vision. The difference is that this is used during nighttime, or when there is very little light. There must be at least some light to be able to use night vision. This sense will not work if there is no light at all.
• HEARING: This is the character's sense of hearing. It is a modifier to ¼ the character's AWA attribute. To use, the character must take ¼ of his or her AWA attribute, and apply the modifier. This is the percent chance that the character has to hear a sound that he or she is not actively listening for. The modifier is based upon the race of the character.
• SMELL/TASTE: This is the character's ability to smell or taste something. It is used exactly like the character's sense of hearing. The modifier is also based upon the character's race.
• INJURY POINTS (IP): This is the amount of physical abuse and injury a character can withstand before falling into a coma and dying. It is equal to a character's HEA attribute, plus 1d10 + 1/10th HEA at certain levels.
• MOVEMENT (MOV): This determines how far a character can move in one round. It is measured in feet per round (FPR). Each value should be rounded to the nearest 5 ft.

Table 1. Movement Rates

Number of Feet / Round	Movement Category
AGL + HEA ÷ 2	Run
AGL + HEA ÷ 2 x .75	Trot
AGL + HEA ÷ 4	Jog
AGL + HEA ÷ 8	Walk

• NUMBER OF ACTIONS: Some characters will be able to perform more actions in a round than others. To determine the number of actions that a character can make in one round, add together the character's AGL+DEX. Then consult the table below. More actions will be gained as the character grows in experience.

Table 2. Actions from Attributes

Agility & Dexterity Total	Initial Actions
02 - 150	1
151 +	2

• CARRY WEIGHT: This is the number of pounds a character can carry. The more a character carries, the slower he or she can move. The chart below shows the amount that can be carried, the maximum the character can move and a penalty to the number of actions that the character can make.

Table 3. Personal Encumbrance

Lbs. Carried	Maximum Movement	Action Penalty
Strength + Health ÷ 4	Run	- 0
Strength + Health ÷ 2	Trot	- 0
Strength + Health x .75	Jog	- 1
Strength + Health	Walk	- 2

• HEALING INJURY: When characters become injured, they must spend time healing and recuperating. Healing spells and potions only heal injury. They do nothing for fatigue, soreness, and stiffness. During an adventure, all of the injury taken should be added together for each character. This is called Accumulated Injury. At the end of the adventure subtract the character's Health from this total. The remainder is the total accumulated injury that must be healed before the adventurer is in top physical condition. For each day of complete and total rest, the character will heal 1D10 + 1/10 HEA injury points. Actual current injury is healed first, accumulated is healed second.

• MAGICAL ABILITY: Magic is very real in this game. Many occupations rely upon some sort of magical skill. To determine how much magical ability that a character has, add together his or her INT+WIL. Note that the "Cast Spells" appropriate to the arkana must also be known to cast spells.

Table 4. Magical Aptitude

Intellect + Willpower	Initial Arkana
02 - 130	No magical ability
131 - 150	1 possible arkana
151 - 170	2 possible arkana
171 - 190	3 possible arkana
191 +	4 possible arkana

• Physical Spells are spells that affect a person's body or the physical aspect of objects. Such spells include healing injury, temporarily increasing a physical attribute, or causing a physical object to crumble.
• The Mental Arkana spells affect the mind or the senses of one or more beings. Such spells include paralysis, blindness, illusion, or the ability to see or hear better than normal.
• Energy Spells harness the powers of nature for fantastic, and often destructive, purposes. These spells include such things as causing explosions and hurling lightning bolts.
• The spells of the Power Arkana are potentially the most powerful. These spells combine aspects of the other three Arkana. Power spells include teleportation, flight, or causing another spell to become permanent.

© J.K. Wykowski & Trey Coonrod