These are the guidelines on character creation for the Enemy Within Campaign. If you look at nothing else, look at the 3x3x3. Anything added after the email was sent out will be marked in green.
Character Creation[]
We're using the TOSS system ad distributing abilities.
Why deal with this?[]
Because I said so! Seriously though, this information helps me a lot. The last campaign I ran, I had players give me a two page biography, a couple one page biographies (normal length), and several with very little to no background. The one with a two page bio became the character the plot, and therefore the campaign, was written for. Those with no biographies basically became one-dimensional followers. If this is how you enjoy playing that’s fine, but I figure everyone wants a chance to do all the cool things. Besides, whoever does well with this and gives me a lot to work with will get more stuff in game: power, equipment, gold, and other cool stuff.
General Stuff[]
Create your character as normal but try to keep these in mind: Please make up however many names are appropriate for your race. The naming schemes are on the races pages. I encourage you to give your character a high position of power, but do not make them the absolute head of anything. You could be a prince, but not a king, or an executioner in the Mage's Guild, but not a member of the Triumvirate.
Equipment[]
You get unignited peasant's clothes, and 10 gold to spend on equipment. You can get discounted, free, or special equipment with permission if you write a little explaining how or why you have it. The costs of equipment will be sent out later.
Special Advantages and Disadvantages[]
If you want to have any advantages or disadvantages, list them so I can approve or tweak them. If you can incorporate them into your background, it usually helps.
Physical Description[]
Write a short description about how other characters are going to see your character. It can be as short or as long as you want, but it must include: height, weight, eye color, hair color, and age. Appropriate values can be found on the race pages.
3x3x3 - Important[]
If you do nothing else, do this part. It will really help me incorporate your character into the world. I need a small description of at least 3 allies, 3 contacts, and 3 rivals you have. This includes names, race, and how they became your ally, contact, or rival. An ally is someone you know whom you can call in a favor from, or someone whom will help you if you ask, such as a close friend or family member. A contact is someone you know with ways to help you for a price. A rival can range from a colleague you have a competition with to a mafia boss whom wants you dead. They are basically someone whom would rather hurt you in some way instead of helping you. If you can't come up with 3 for each category, come up with extra ones for the other categories. I mostly just want 9 characters associated with yours.
Disclaimer: I will most likely not use all of the characters you create, but I will do my best to use some. If a character you created has not been introduced in the scope of the campaign, you cannot call on them for favors etc. If you want a character to be in the campaign at the start, say so in the description: “FNORD is my squire whom currently works for and travels with me.”
Common Knowledge Background[]
I need a small background or listing of anything you’ve done that is common or at least local knowledge. This along with your physical description will be distributed to everyone, so if your character is well known, everyone will know whom he is and why.
General Background[]
If you want, you can write a complete background for your character. This probably won’t be that hard if you’ve done everything else well. You can just put all the parts from the 3x3x3 and the equipment together which is how I usually do it. This is another chance to get more cool stuff. Also, if you’ve put this much work into your character, chances are, they’ll be more likely to stay around.
Important Events[]
In General[]
The year is 6193AL. After the Grand Unification Campaign, rumors started spreading about the nature of the portals. Countries accused each other of attempting to make attacks by teleporting behind lines. Various organizations accused each other of creating the portals for less than noble purposes. There were rumors that the portals opened up to other continents, worlds, or dimensions instead of local places, Rumors that on the other side was anything from paradise to hell; and rumors that the creatures on the other side that could devour even a dragon. These rumors have shaken the foundation of the belief that Darvasi was the only continent created by the gods.
More Rumors[]
There have been many rumors circulating about just about anything. Here are some of those rumors. Believe what you want, but not everything you hear:
- The Amoveo have resurfaced.
- The Dragons of old have been seen about Darvasi.
- The end of the world is today.
- The end of the world is tomorrow.
- The Black Hand, an ancient cult from the Age of Gods dedicated to Skoros has returned.
- Arwaith has been moving closer to Etan.
- The leaders of Darvasi have been taken over by mind controlling creatures.
- The island of Sossel is sinking.
- An artifact of great power has been found below the bed of the dead Sapphire Lake.