In the realms of Mistrunner, your character is the vessel which allows you to experience life in a much different way than your own. Your character is made up from a collection of varied skills and attributes. These raw abilities, along with individual personality traits, help you construct a unique being for your gaming adventures. Unlike many other gaming systems, Mistrunner allows you to create a character completely from scratch, without having to rely upon specific classes or character archetypes. Each separate skill you choose helps to further define your character. Lets take a closer look at what makes a character tick.
In Mistrunner your character has seven attributes. These attributes are the rough, unrefined abilities of your character. They define things such as how smart or how strong your character is. Each attribute is based on a scale of -3 to +3, with +3 being the highest unmodified score. There are ways that an attribute may exceed +3, such as racial and organiware modifiers or through magic.
Physical Strength (STR): This attribute not only represents the natural brute power and physical prowess of your character, but it is also a representation of how much muscle control your character has. This attribute is important for skills that require a lot of strength, such as brawling or heavy lifting. A high physical strength score also modifies how much damage your character can deal during non-projectile combat.
Knowledge (KNO): This attribute covers basic intelligence, memory, and problem solving skills. This attribute is used in conjunction with most specialized skills such as those in the fields of science or technology.
Coordination (COR): This attribute deals with the physical dexterity and agility of the character. Aiming weapons, juggling, and athletics are skills that use coordination.
Presence (PRS): This attribute is a reflection of how well the character interacts with others. Physical beauty is a small part of this attribute, but it is mostly determined by the personality and charisma of the character.
Perception (PER): This attribute is a representation of the acute awareness and knowledge of one's surroundings. All of the basic senses are considered to be part of the character's perception. Alertness and attention to minute details rely upon perception.
Constitution (CON): This attribute defines physical condition, health, endurance, and the ability to withstand pain. This attribute also determines your characters life points.
Essence (ESS): This is not considered one of the six primary attributes. Essence represents all that is your character. This attribute is the base for all mystical skills and is the magical life energy of the character.
To generate the character's attribute ratings, first choose a race. Assign the minimum attribute ratings for that race. You then have 20 points to assign as you wish. It costs one point to raise an attribute by one, unless you wish to exceed the stated racial maximums. In order to exceed the racial Max it costs two points instead of just one.
Luck: This is that special something that helps to throw the odds in the character's favor. Every character begins with 1 luck point. Using a luck point will double the number of dice used for one specific skill roll. In order to use a luck point, the character must state how they desire to use it before they make their die rolls.
Reaction: This score is used to determine how quickly your character reacts to stimuli. It is found by averaging your Perception and Coordination scores, rounding down.
Armor Value (AV): This is representative of the amount of protection your character has from damage and attack. Some races, like Aslonians, have a natural armor value, or AV. The higher the score the more you can avoid damage. You can increase your AV by wearing armor or through magic.
Aside from the above primary and secondary attributes of the character, there are numerous other statistics and information that make up the whole character. Most of these will be covered in later chapters and will help you to flesh out your character more.
Each character has a set of defined abilities known as skills. These are different from raw attributes. Skills are sets of learned abilities. A character can choose a skill in fields such as sorcery, tech lore, and archery. Skills, much like attributes, have an individual rating. Unlike attributes though, skills have no limitations. Skill choices are up to each character. The skills available are covered in the next chapter.
This is not merely a physical description of the character, but it is also a list of mannerisms and behavioral tendencies. This is left solely to the player's imagination. Style of speech, dress, and overall attitude are covered here as well. Let your imagination roam free as you describe the little details that make your character unique.
A well-equipped character is a living character. You don't ever want to be caught lacking in this area. The amount of equipment a character may possess is dependent upon their financial situation. Detailed lists and descriptions of equipment are found in Valerun's Pocket Trading Post.
Organiware is special biological and magical items which are fixed to the character's body. Some characters will not use organiware, especially those who rely upon magic. Organiware has a tendency to lower the character's essence rating. The types of organiware range from hand razors to microscopic parasites that can boost your characters reaction time. Organiware is very rare and very expensive. Organiware is also covered in full in Valerun's Pocket Trading Post.
Just like in real life, your character won't get far without a little money. The standard unit of money is the Sovern. Every character starts with 1d10 x 100 Soverns. This may seem like a lot, but things are expensive in the world of Mistrunner. Remember to keep a little extra for those things that just pop up unexpectedly.
This area contains a detailed list of the character's magical abilities, along with any specific formula spells that the character possesses. Spell components, fetishes, and other magical items are kept in this section too. Magic is covered in greater detail in a later chapter.
Every character is fluent in at least two languages, their native racial tongue and that of Mistspeak, they begin at level 3 in both languages. Mistspeak is the common language of all the True Realms. Characters can learn other languages as well. Each language has a fluency rating. For each point of knowledge that a character has, one fluency level can be gained in a new language. Below are the different fluency levels.
1: This level allows only the briefest of understanding of the language. Simple sentences are all that is possible. No reading or writing can be done at this level.Now all that is left is to trim the rough edges of the character. Your character still needs a name and maybe a little personal history. You can even be artistic and draw a picture of your character. You may even want to create a family background and a list of friends and enemies you have made to date. Now on to choosing the skills that will really bring your character to life.