TBoM PC Creation

The most important thing to the Alfari is the weaving of their song: the thread that trails back from them in time and that they pick out of the future. The song can be broken and restarted, it can be so insignificant as to lapse into silence, but once it is sung it does not lie.

The citizens of Alfar are all descended in some measure from the beings of the First Realm, the First among three True Realms all ground to nothing by the War and the Turning of the Axle. It is known that their ancestors were more varied, encompassing the nymphs and dryads, kelpie and selkie, pooka and redcap and firbolg, and all the forms of Sidhe both Seelie and Unseelie. Now their mein is mostly human, if extraordinary; their shapeshifting and magical abilities faded remnants of what they once were. Still, in comparison with the humans of the filth-laden realms on the other side of the near veils, they are creatures of indescribable extremity. To humans they are still angels, devils, masters and monsters. They still give rise to myth and legend.

But a song that does not touch upon other Alfari? A song that does not take its place in the lay of the Keepers Cards is a song that goes unheard. Toying with humanity is a game for children, a testing ground for the unproved and immature. Wisdom states that what affects humanity is mere background noise.

The Alfar are immortal, with all that encompasses. Their pride is fact, their superiority proven over and over. Very few beings challenge them, except each other, and life in the city under the King's Tower has reached a centuries-long pinnacle of development. Arts, crafts and design, displays of creative glamour, willful strength, and martial prowess are the pre-eminent forms of competition.

It is known that artifacts and knowledge of the lost Realms may still be found. Even Alfar lost during the war, before the creation of the Tower, still and again wander across the veils. Epic quests have been woven into many heroes' songs. But sometime during the passing centuries, the importance of such things faded as the Alfari embraced their King's crowning accomplishment: the city itself.

For each character I will have a summary table like the one below that helps me compare the characters abilities to one another and to those of the NPC's. I will also have background information, lists of people and events important to the character, and so on for more detailed reference. Powers and Items will have backstories that I will hammer out with each player before the game begins.

Not all characters are created equal, but I hope all players will have a realistic idea of the scope of their characters' abilities, and all characters will be able to assess situations realistically within their own milieu.When characters start to stray from realm to realm, as will happen as the game progresses, obviously their ability to assess situations and their own abilities relative to others' will be handicapped.

Name	Psyche	Strength	Endurance	Warfare	Powers and Items	Directed Stuff

After I have approved your basic character concept, please look through the topics below and build your character on 150 points. You are creating player characters; they are all outstanding compared to their peers (i.e. they have more points), who are all head and shoulders above the common populace to begin with. Important NPCs will typically have a similar number of points to the PCs. Very ancient or powerful NPCs may be much greater. Note that there are some further abilities your character will get for free, depending upon your Realm and background.

One thing that sets your characters apart from others is that in addition to their points, they all have "veil sense" for free; this is the ability to sense the edges of the veils between realms and traverse them. This ability costs NPCs 15 points.

To the extent that we are using rules, the closest published ruleset is in Erick Wujcik's Amber Diceless Role-Playing Game, put out by Phage Press. Basically, it is a diceless, "comparative stats" system in which, under ordinary circumstances, the highest applicable stat will win any given contest. It is the creative combination of abilities and stats along with the wisdom to know when to fight on a different day or on different grounds that allows characters with lower scores to occasionally surprise their elders and (sometime) betters.

This is the classic Amber-player's question. In this game, I strive to make all points spent equivalent in value when they are used appropriately. Don't expect your basket-weaving degree to help you negotiate with the High Alfar; don't expect your warfare to be the main attribute deciding whether or not you can run a marathon. But you can usually demonstrate to me how good numbers in any of the attributes can help a bit in most situations. I encourage you to describe your character's methods and goals in any situation, rather than fall back on a mechanistic, number vs. number approach.

Magic or Feats in this game can be based on almost any attribute, not just Psyche, but whether or not you want to risk your life-force (Endurance) every time you cast a cantrip is up to you. Perhaps that is what you do when you really "throw everything" into an effort....

The following are the very basic descriptions of the spheres ruled by each attribute; as you can see, they are quite flexible:

Other important aspects of your character, such as their style, age, education and training, upbringing, experience and so on are mostly up to you, so long as I rule your proposals to be consistent with your character's Realm and station.

The above is not to say that you will have to "dazzle me with bulls**t" to win a fight when your character has a high warfare. Just give me enough description to know what risks you are taking and what priorities you have in the situation. If I think your character might know better how to do something than your stated plan indicates, I'll tell you why and how so that you can decide if you want to risk your original plan or come up with something better.

Magic works differently in the different realms. In The Storm, technology and communications are the ruling magics; in Alfar, feats and glamours are the norm; Earth seems to have little energy with which to work magic these days and is also quite resistant to its effects.

Spend points on Items, Creatures, or Allies when they are part of your character's myth or song. For example, if you have had an adventure in which you happened to ride a horse that was interchangeable with any other horse, you don't need to spend points to still have the horse. If on the other hand your horse did something amazing or interesting that was integral to the success (or songworthiness) of your endeavor, then please do pay if the horse is still with you.

If you want your character to have a known or readily apparent character flaw, you can get up to 10 more points for character creation (associated with the severity and prevalence of the flaw — sort of like directed bad stuff). If you want your character to be known or famous for some good quality, you can spend up to 10 points on it as an attribute.

This concept was taken from my original game, Winds That Will Be, and the game upon which it was based, Dave de Jong's Mine Fill of Blood and Glory.

You may also choose regular "good stuff" or "bad stuff" as described in the ADRPG, so long as this plus your directed stuff (absolute values, please, you min-maxers) make no more than 10 points total.