Character Creation Guidelines

  1. Characters must be posted following the guidelines listed here. All concepts must be solid, make sense, and have a decent background. Storytellers may refuse to sanction any character they do not believe will be appropriate for the game, and they are very likely to refuse characters with flimsy concepts. Put some good thought and creative energy into giving your character a life of its own, so that it isn’t just numbers on a piece of paper.
  2. Each player may play one Celestial Exalt (Solar, Lunar, Sidereal, Abyssal, Infernal), one Other Supernatural (Dragon-Blooded, God-Blooded, Jadeborn, Dragon King, Raksha), and one Mortal (Heroic Mortal, Beastman, Ghost). Players may trade out higher slots for lower ones as desired. As an example, one could choose to forgo playing a Celestial Exalt in order to play both a Dragon-Blooded and a Mountain Folk, or could trade out the top two in order to play two mortals and a ghost. Trading in the other direction is strictly prohibited; no one may ever play more than one Celestial.
  3. No antagonists. Every character must be capable of contributing to the setting in some way. Characters that are built around destroying or making unplayable either other player characters or the setting at large will not be sanctioned. “Gray” characters will be considered on a case-by-case basis, but generally accepted so long as they aren’t geared toward PVP. Due to the discretion necessary to play them properly, Sidereals, Fair Folk, Abyssals and Infernals have limited slots and must be applied for.
    Restricted Character Type Application
  4. Local characters with family ties within the area are encouraged. PCs related by blood will be stringently questioned if they are celestials, but are perfectly fine as dragon-blooded and mortals. NPC family ties are particularly awesome, though it should be mentioned that not everyone can be the eldest daughter of the Oligarch.
  5. Foreign characters must have a reason to be in the area. Be creative, but also be realistic and thorough. Eagle Talon is very cosmopolitan, being a trade center of the North; however, having 10 characters from the deep South tends to stretch credibility.
  6. No min-maxing. All characters should have the basic abilities needed to make their way in the world on their own, and no character should be so utterly focused on doing any one thing that other aspects of their development have been completely ignored. While some specialization is fine, Storytellers prefer to see a balanced character over one that’s been excessively overspecialized, and will work with the player to spread things out a bit if they deem necessary. Always remember when assigning dots, charms and advantages that your character’s sheet should reflect who he is and what he has done-- not what you want him to accomplish. There’s time enough to grow into that in play.
  7. All 1s in Attributes and Virtues will be questioned. If your character is an exalt, be prepared to explain why one of the incarnae/dragons saw fit to exalt someone with such a severe deficiency. The one exception to this is Abyssals with Appearance 1, though their description must clearly reflect this. No more than one Virtue at 1 is allowed for any character for any reason.
  8. All 5s will be questioned. Any 5 on a character sheet must be reflected in the backstory as a prominent cornerstone of that character. No backgrounds at 5 are allowed at sanctioning save social backgrounds/breeding for Dynasts, which will require extremely good justification. Backgrounds at 4 will also require very solid justification; we prefer that people earn these things in play. Unique artifacts are disallowed at character creation, as are Gems of Adamant Skin and Yasal Crystals. For Lunars, spirit shapes large enough to require a knack and those that are not reflected by modern day life forms require the same level of justification as a background at 4; you must impress upon the Storyteller that such an impressive spirit shape really fits your character.
  9. Starting Essence for exalted characters can be no higher than 3. Mortal characters cannot start with awakened essence or charms; these must be earned in play. Exalts with appropriate backstories may start with either Sorcery or Necromancy, not both. Such characters may trade out charms on a one-for-one basis for up to two spells. No character may start with Elementally Empowered equipment or a current effect from Disguise of the New Face unless they know the spell themselves or are part of a premade group with someone who does.
  10. Charm limitations are per the book; we will make no hard and fast rules about how many Martial Arts charms are too many, or how many of your charms actually have to be from Caste. However, common sense must play a role here. If your Twilight character has nothing but Martial Arts charms, why was he Chosen to be a Twilight? As with everything else on the sheet, your character’s charm selection at sanctioning should reflect who he is and what he’s done, not what you want him to do. There is time enough to grow in play.
  11. Starting equipment must be justified in the character’s backstory, and if his resources do not support it, he must consider whether he’ll be able to financially support having these things and keep them in repair. A character may start with no more items of superior equipment than he has dots in resources, and no more than one perfect. Gossamer weapons and armor count as perfect equipment, and require solid justification.
  12. When in doubt, ask. We can’t stress this enough. If you have any question at all, no matter how "stupid" you may think it sounds, ask. You will be surprised at how willing the Storytellers and other players are to be helpful. The only "stupid" question is the one that is not asked.
  13. Storytellers have the right to refuse to sanction any character. Most often, problems with a character can be fixed with a cooperative effort between the Storyteller and player, and Storytellers are often willing to bend over backwards to help make a character fit for play. This willingness only extends as far as the player is polite, understanding, and reasonable; please remember that Storytellers work hard to make the game fun for everyone involved, and their decisions must take into account overall game balance and fairness. If a Storyteller refuses to sanction your character, he will give you his reasons for doing so. If you disagree with his reasoning, you may lodge a greivance with another Storyteller per the Players Code of Conduct. You may not go to another Storyteller and ask them to sanction the refused character without mention of your previous attempt.

Further Notes

Further guidelines, house rules and custom material can be found on the Discussion Forum in the Vault of Officialness, Factory-Cathedral and Into the Snow areas. Browsing these prior to character creation is suggested, but not required. If you miss something that applies to your character, the Storytellers will be happy to point it out to you and help to correct any problems.