Character Creation

  1. General Notes
  2. Think about your character concept
  3. Make up a name and come up with a parentage for your PC.
  4. Go through the Phases (see below) in order, picking two aspects each phase.
  5. Assign your skills. You probably will have an idea of these by the time you finish the phases.
General Notes

As laid out, character creation is a group activity, done at the same time, in addition to the GM. The character creation process includes a number of built-in ways to establish ties and history between the characters and the setting. Character creation is designed to allow everyone to establish a common understanding of each others’ characters. During character creation, players are encouraged to talk about their characters, make suggestions to each other, discuss how to make their characters intersect, talk about relationships and interactions between the characters, and otherwise establish some of the common background.
Character Concept

Character Concepts should focus in and around the Amber Royal Family. The Phases portion of Character Creation is intended to help refine the history of the character, but it is helpful to know what kind of character you want in advance. Character concepts are recommended to be ones which are pulp action-friendly. A bookish librarian who never wants to leave the library will do less well in this game than, say, someone like Stargate's Dr. Daniel Jackson, who is a scholar, but is not adverse to handling herself in the field.

Character Concepts should also be sticky. By sticky, I mean characters who are inclined to work with others, and have worked with, or dealt with fellow PCs and common NPCs in the past. This, too, will be refined in the Phases portion of character creation. However, a martial PC who only practices alone with the guards and in shadow is less useful of a character than, say, a diplomat who has had many reasons to interact with his cousins over his lifetime.

There are a couple of special cases which will be discussed on seperate pages. You will want to read through the entirety of these rules, though and then read those pages.
So...you want to play a Sorceress?
So...you want to play a Trump Artist?

Character Name and Parentage

Unlike Pulp Games, a pulpish name is not necessary for your character. Whatever naming conventions you like for your character is fine.

Parentage is up to the player within reason. Any of the Elders listed on the main TCOA page are viable candidates. If you do select Flora as a parent, defining your relationship with Asteria is a must.
Phases
Character creation takes place over five phases.Each phase outlines events in that character’s life. Each Phases contributes two Aspects to the character's sheet.
Phase I: Growing Up as an Amberite

What was your character's childhood like? Were they Castle Brats or were they raised in Shadow? If they were raised in Shadow, what was it like and when and how did they come to Amber?

The character can use one of their Aspects in defining their parentage and the relation to that parent.

e.g. Black Sheep daughter of Fiona
Loyal son of Caine
Estranged daughter of Gerard
Phase II: Service to Amber

Oberon or Random (Or Gerard) had some things for them to do – what were they, and how did they impact the character?

Depending on how old you make the character, this phase can be used to help define what you did in the Patternfall War, or Gerard's Regency.

Phase III: Wanderjahr
Your character decided to go off into Shadow for her own purposes. Where did she go? What sort of Shadows did she visit? What did she do while there? What did she learn?
Phase IV: Character Adventure
Your character had an encounter with one of your fellow cousins. Work with that relative’s player to figure out the nature of the encounter.
Phase V: Character Adventure II
Your character had an encounter with another of your fellow cousins. Work with that relative’s player to figure out the nature of the encounter.
Skills

Once all players have mapped out their phases and chosen their aspects, it’s time to pick skills. Each player gets to choose skills as shown here. Because of the "shape" of this set of skills, this is sometimes referred to as the character’s skill pyramid.

The character gets:

  • 1 skill at Superb (The Apex Skill)
  • 2 skills at Great
  • 3 skills at Good
  • 4 skills at Fair
  • 5 skills at Average

Note that any skills that the character does not take default to Mediocre, reflecting that Amberites have done many things and are generally competent.

Most things in the system are rated according to the ladder below (when we say “the ladder” throughout the text, this is what we mean). Usually, the adjectives are used to describe things – someone might be a Good Pilot or Poor at Academics. The adjectives and numbers are interchangeable, so if a player or GM is more comfortable with numbers, it is equally valid to say Pilot: +3 or Academics: -1. The best compromise is often to use both, as in a Pilot: Good (+3) or a Academics: Poor (-1).

On this scale, Average represents the level of capability that an average shadow dweller who does something regularly and possibly professionally, but not exceptionally.

Most of your cousins are ranked as you are. Your Elders, generally have their pyramids ratcheted one step higher, at Fantastic for their "apex" skill, and the rest of their pyramid to match. The upshot to this is, for example, a PC who has an apex skill of Gambling (at Superb, +5) can generally outplay, say, Llewella at a card game, who doesn't have Gambling ranked at that level.

On the other hand, Corwin's Fantastic level skill of Endurance is going to be better than anything the PC might match in that area.

  • +8: Legendary
  • +7: Epic
  • +6: Fantastic
  • +5: Superb
  • +4: Great
  • +3: Good
  • +2: Fair
  • +1: Average
  • 0: Mediocre
  • -1: Poor
  • -2: Terrible
A list of available skills for TCOA is here.