Pre-Made Characters

Version 0.12 · not yet playtested

Jon Mayo. PUBLIC DOMAIN (CC0-1.0)

Pre-Made Characters

Eight finished heroes for the playset The Ruins Above Pigton. Print, deal them out, and start playing.

Each is a legal engine character with a small playbook laid over it (a calling, an edge, a move; see the Playbooks supplement, which each names, so a table that grows fond of one can pick up the fuller version later). They are written setting-neutral: they will walk into any village with a bad road and an older ruin.

Four are marked spine. Those cover what the adventure assumes someone can do: hold a line, mend a wound, read old writing, and hit hard. Deal the spine first, then any of the rest, in any mix.

1 Reading Your Sheet

Everything is a pool of d6: your neutral roll is Poor (2 dice), a +1 attribute lifts it to Fair (3), a −1 drops it to Desperate (1), and the situation adds or drops dice. Take the two best; a 5 or 6 is gold. Two gold is a clean Success; a 1-2 and no gold a Failure; anything else a Partial.

Your edge gives you a standing extra die in your one specialty. Your move is what only you can do, usually for a mark of stress (you have five boxes). You have no hit points: harm walks a track, Healthy → Wounded (a die worse) → Incapacitated (two worse, out of the fight) → Dying → Dead, one step a wound, and worn armor turns aside the first wound each fight (a shield or heavy harness, the first two).

2 Bram Ostley, the Wall

Vanguard · spine

Might | Agility | Wits | Will
+1 | +1 | 0 | −1

Background. You stood a real watch on a real wall until the war ended badly enough that nobody needed the wall. Soldiering, sieges, holding a line, all plain to you.

Edge. In a stand-up fight, roll a standing extra die.

Move — Hold the Line (1 stress): until your next turn, a blow aimed at an ally beside you lands on you instead; your armor applies.

Kit. Mail shirt and a tower shield (worn armor turns aside the first two wounds each fight), a mace, fifty feet of rope, rations, a soldier’s blanket.

Who you are. You took the oath before you took the wages, and the oath did not end with the employment. Why you came. Three children are missing and nobody in that village will go up the road. How to play me. Get in front. Hold the Line makes it stupid to walk around you; pick one friend at the start and decide, out loud, that you keep them alive.

3 Cael Aubrin, the Mercy

The Hand, a healer (Savant + divine) · spine

Might | Agility | Wits | Will
+1 | −1 | 0 | +1

Background. No scholar and no great preacher; a pair of hands and the habit of kneeling in the mess while everyone else is still deciding. Field medicine and the rites of your goddess.

Edge. When mending a body or working a prayer, roll a standing extra die.

Move — Tend (2 stress or a spent supply): mend a willing ally one step up the track, or lift a Dying ally to Incapacitated with their eyes open. Your prayers work in armor.

Kit. Mail shirt (armor: the first wound each fight; you fight and pray in it), a shield, a mace, a healer’s roll of bright steel, a lantern and oil, a hymnal (a divine source).

Who you are. Somebody has to be the one who says not yet. Why you came. To follow the ones who go out and bring them back whole. How to play me. Your armor is as good as the Wall’s, so stand in the line and swing your mace when no one is hurt. Hold two stress in reserve, always; that is a friend’s life.

4 Mirel Ash, the Fire

Adept · spine

Might | Agility | Wits | Will
−1 | 0 | +1 | +1

Background. You do arithmetic on things other people call miracles, and you are the only one here who can read what is carved on an old stone.

Edge. When working your power, roll a standing extra die (your castings go wrong far less than a dabbler’s).

Move — Spellcasting (mark 1 stress, roll Wits, read the three bands). Your magic is magical harm: it bites what steel slides off. - Mote (free): a cold light sent anywhere you can see. - Starfall (1 stress): a bolt of cold fire, a step of harm at any range, through armor. - Dread (1 stress): raw fear; the foe is off-balance until your next turn (everyone attacking it rolls a die better), and may flee.

Kit. A grimoire, a wand of city-glass (once a day, cast one spell for no stress), a warded dagger you would rather not use, a pouch of components, the notebook you are always writing in. No armor.

Who you are. Trying not to be insufferable about it. Why you came. Somebody said the ruins are imperial and unlooked-at for four generations; you would have paid to come. How to play me. You are the most fragile person here, so stand where the Wall can see you. Starfall is your job in a fight; reading old stone is your job everywhere else, and it matters more.

5 Sera Quill, the Knife

Sneak · spine

Might | Agility | Wits | Will
−1 | +1 | +1 | 0

Background. Thrown out of two towns, both times for something you would do again. Locks, shadows, streets, and the read of a mark.

Edge. Moving unseen or getting past a barrier, roll a standing extra die.

Move — First Strike (1 stress): a blow struck from surprise or against an unready foe counts as a Success even on a Partial, and fells a Lesser or Common foe outright.

Kit. Leather armor (the first wound each fight), two daggers, a sling and a pouch of shot, thieves’ tools, a dark lantern, fifty feet of cord.

Who you are. Quick, watchful, never the strongest in the room. Why you came. Old money in old ruins; also, privately, you counted the children. How to play me. Never take the first swing at a fresh foe. Wait until a friend is engaged, then First Strike. Scout ahead, but not alone.

6 Hesta Marrow, the Steel

Vanguard (a duelist)

Might | Agility | Wits | Will
+1 | +1 | 0 | −1

Background. Eleven years paid to fight for people whose politics you never asked about, and lately choosier about the work. Drill, war, tracking.

Edge. In a stand-up fight, roll a standing extra die.

Move — Press the Opening (1 stress): against a foe that is off-balance, down, staggered, disarmed, or set up by an ally, your blow fells a Lesser or Common foe outright, or counts as a Success on a Partial.

Kit. Mail shirt and a shield (the first two wounds each fight), a sword, a hand axe at the belt, a whetstone, rations.

Who you are. A professional. Why you came. You have seen what soldiers do when they stop being soldiers, and would rather it not happen here. How to play me. Let a friend knock something off balance, then Press the Opening. Steel is steel, and some things down there do not much mind it, so heed what the GM tells you about what is working.

7 Surt Halloran, the Storm

Vanguard (fury)

Might | Agility | Wits | Will
+1 | 0 | −1 | +1

Background. From somewhere with worse weather and fewer people; never got used to how much talking the lowlands require. Wayfaring, endurance, and a voice that carries.

Edge. In a stand-up fight, roll a standing extra die.

Move — Rage (1 stress to enter): for the scene you cannot be Frightened and your blows fell a Lesser or Common foe outright, but you cannot fight carefully or do fine work, and you take a stress when the fight ends.

Kit. A smith’s maul on a long haft (two hands), a hand axe, furs (thick hide: armor, the first wound each fight), a coil of rope, a horn.

Who you are. You heard hammering at night and screaming under it, and walked toward it, as you always do. Why you came. The same. How to play me. Rage early, then hit things; some things down there fear a hammer far more than a blade. You are the one meant to take it.

8 Alde Corrin, the Oath

Vanguard (a paladin)

Might | Agility | Wits | Will
+1 | 0 | −1 | +1

Background. Sworn to an order that may or may not still exist, and decided this does not release you. Courteous to people who do not deserve it, which unnerves them.

Edge. In a stand-up fight, roll a standing extra die.

Move — Smite (1 stress on a hit): the blow is magical harm and fells the unhallowed dead, or any foe with a named weakness, outright; against anything else it is a step the worse for it. Your prayers work in armor.

Kit. Mail shirt and a shield (the first two wounds each fight), a mace, a surcoat with somebody’s arms on it, a holy token worn smooth (a divine source), rations.

Who you are. You need no lord’s permission. Why you came. You were told the local lord could not spare men; you are not his man. How to play me. A second wall and a second faith, worse at both than the specialists, which is the trade. Smite is made for exactly the sort of thing that gets up after it should not.

9 Tariq of the River School, the Open Hand

A control fighter (Sneak-kin)

Might | Agility | Wits | Will
−1 | +1 | +1 | 0

Background. Raised in a school that taught the rites and grudges of every god without asking you to love any. A fair witness, which people find irritating. Acrobatics, theology, the road.

Edge. Fighting unarmed or with the staff, and at any feat of balance, roll a standing extra die.

Move — Sweeping Kick (1 stress): instead of felling a foe, leave it off-balance until your next turn (everyone attacking it rolls a die better); against a foe already off-balance, it loses its next action entirely.

Kit. A padded jacket (armor, the first wound each fight), a quarterstaff, a begging bowl, a rope belt, a letter of introduction to a temple nine days off.

Who you are. Somebody is doing something to the dead, and your school has opinions. Why you came. Unusually, so do you. How to play me. You do not kill fastest; you make foes useless. Set up the fighters: an off-balance foe is easy meat, and one that loses its action simply does not get a turn.

Jon Mayo. PUBLIC DOMAIN (CC0-1.0)