Page 26 - Chronicles of Darkness

starting character concept can easily be someone you could character feel proud when he does make the effort. His Vice,
meet on the street. Try to boil this down to a simple phrase, on the other hand, is the trait that represents the easy way
like “bored medical student,” “single parent trying to get by,” out, the things that bring the character short-term comfort,
or “blogger obsessed with unsolved mysteries.” It doesn’t need but never seem to drive him to actually improve.
to be particularly complex, just a good starting point.
In addition to your concept, also consider your charac- Step Three:
ter’s Aspirations. These are goals that your character wants
to accomplish, or stories and events that you, as the player, Select Attributes
want to see happen during your character’s story. Thinking
about your Aspirations early on, as part of your character Now you set your character’s basic capabilities. Attributes
concept, helps to make sure that your character is active, and are fundamental traits, defining how strong a character is,
that there are story hooks to get your character involved im- how well she can keep her temper when provoked, or how
mediately. You can also use Aspirations as a way to connect quickly she can improvise a solution to a problem.
player characters, by giving them similar goals. We’ll talk more A character starts with one dot in each Attribute for
about Aspirations in their own section, later in this chapter. free. One dot represents someone who is below average in
that capability, while two dots represent someone average. A
Step Two: Anchors character with three or four dots is above average or extremely
talented, while five dots represents the peak of human ability.
Once you have a general idea and some goals for you Attributes are divided into the Mental, Physical, and
character, you can define a bit more of his personality. You Social categories. For your character, consider which of the
do this by selecting Anchors. Anchors are those things that categories is most important. What sort of endeavors does
help a character retain his sense of self and drive his behavior. your character excel at? Once you have picked a primary cat-
For a mortal character in the Chronicles of Darkness, his egory, decide out of the remaining two which is your charac-
Anchors are his Virtue and his Vice. ter’s next-best category. You’ll assign five dots to the Attributes
For each of your character’s Anchors, decide on a de- in your primary category, four dots to the Attributes in your
scription of a major personality trait or motivation for your secondary category, and three dots to the Attributes in your
character: something like Ambition, Honesty, Kindness, or tertiary category.
Greed. For your character’s Virtue, you’ll want to pick a trait It’s worth taking a moment to consider the Attributes and
that is difficult to act on or easy to ignore, but that makes the how they connect to your character concept. While picking

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CHARACTER CREATION