Lifepath Character Generation

Overview

This lifepath character generation system is designed to cleanly combine an organic approach to character creation with an intuitive character progression system. At the most basic level characters are built using two primary forms of player currency: Character Points and Story Points. Character Points (CPs) are generally used to define the attributes of a character that deal directly with dice rolls whereas Story Points (SPs) are largely used for everything else.

The biggest functional difference between the two is that Character Points are tracked in the tiny circles on the front of the character sheet whereas Story Points are tallied on the back and spent whenever the player sees fit. Character Points can never be “stored” and must always be “spent” the second a player acquires them, and this means while it is possible to end character creation with Story Points unallocated, all Character Points must be spent.

Putting Points to Paper

All characters will have at least three lifepaths: Two Childhood pre-paths and at least one Adult path. Taking more than the required three lifepaths is totally optional, however there are other benefits to pursuing certain lifepaths and they also help to define a character’s background as you go. Whenever you purchase a lifepath there are optional backgrounds that can be attached to that lifepath which help define not only what skills the character acquired during that period of their life but also what life events and professional achievements also occurred along the way.

The front of the character sheet is split into three sections: Character, Attributes, and Skills. The Character section is filled with values that are either fixed or chosen by the player. The Attributes section contains the damage chart as well as the five attributes in Fatewalker. The skills section contains all 11 skill trees with extra space for additional leaves. More information about Skills can be found Skills.

Character

Many of the values in the character section are determined through the character generation process and are largely fixed throughout the course of play. These help define your character but otherwise do not necessarily interact with Character Points.

Traits

Traits are the exception for the Character section in that they are bought using Character Points both during character generation and character progression (some traits can only be purchased during generation, it’s important to pay close attention to these). Traits have ratings from 1 to 4, with each costing successively more CPs as indicated by the character sheet. There do exist exceptional Traits that come only in advanced ratings (2/4 instead of 1/2/3/4 for instance).

Attributes

In this context attributes refers to the 5 character attributes in the game (Awareness, Prowess, Focus, Grit, and Resilience). Attributes have the following rules.

A character’s individual attribute is equal to the upper track. The number of dots filled in the upper track is considered the character’s rating for that particular attribute.
Spent Character Points are added to the lower track.
When the lower track is equal to the upper track, a player can opt to gain another full point of attribute (erasing the lower track completely and adding one more dot to the upper track). During character generation this simply requires the expenditure of one additional Character Point, however during character progression this requires an Objective Point, a third kind of character currency that can only be acquired through gameplay.
To increase Grit the lower track must have twice the current upper track before a new point can be added to the upper track. Otherwise it functions as the other attributes.

Wound Track

The wound track is indirectly tied to CP expenditure in the following ways

Normal Wound boxes are "unlocked" left to right. Unlocking a box means outlining the dotted box with a black or blue pen.
Unlock Normal Wound boxes equal to Size (usually 10).
Unlock an additional Normal Wound box for every CP or OP put into Resilience.
Max Temporary Wounds is equal to Size + Resilience.
Max Mortal Wounds is equal to Size + Resilience.

Skills

Every CP added to a skill root/branch/leaf first fills in one of the sub-dots (the first point in a root has 3 sub-dots, the first point in a branch has 1 sub-dot).
Once all of the sub-dots have been filled in, one additional CP can be spent to fill in the outer dot at which point the skill is considered one higher than it previously was and further points must begin being placed in the 2nd large dot of that node.
The first point in a leaf does not contain sub-dots and therefore a single CP can fill in the outer-dot.
Secondary Skills are filled in twice as fast. One CP fills in 2 sub-dots of of Secondary Skills.
Special Skills function as Primary Leaves from a CP cost perspective.

Character Generation

During character generation many redundant points will be assigned (it’s very possible through various lifepaths to accrue more points in a given node than can actually be placed.)

Always follow the lifepath’s skill choice until the first full point of the node is completely filled in.
Once the first full point in the node is full, any additional lifepath points directed to that node can optionally be directed to adjacent nodes (root points can be placed in any branch, branch points can be placed in the root, leaves of that branch, or other branches, and leaf points can be put into the branch).
They of course can always be put towards a 2nd point in the node.

The following reference links are needed for character generation

Step 1: Base Stats

Fill in the following on your sheet.

Start with size 10 (unlock 10 boxes on the Wound Track), Speed 5
3 full points of Prowess, Focus, and Awareness (upper track)
1 full point of Resilience (this will unlock an 11th box on the Wound track)

Step 2: Pre-Lifepath choices

Choose a theme and gain that theme's Basic Fate power.
Get all basic Will abilities and Fate powers.
Choose exactly 1 Birthright from the backgrounds section.
Choose exactly 1 Pre-lifepath background.
Spend up to 30CP on Genetic Traits.

Step 3: Childhood Lifepaths

Each childhood lifepath accounts for roughly 8-10 years of the character's life. Be sure to detail each path in the character profile section of their sheet (lots of backgrounds become part of this profile)

Choose the first lifepath and apply CPs to the character sheet.
Purchase/Apply any backgrounds for this lifepath.
Spend up to 5 discretionary CP on lifepath.
Choose the second lifepath and apply CPs to the character sheet.
Purchase/Apply any backgrounds for this lifepath.
Spend up to 5 discretionary CP on lifepath.
Gain any coming of age Rank.
Purchase any childhood inheritance acquired up to this point.
Spend up to 20 CP on Traits acquired during childhood.

Step 4: Adult Lifepaths

All characters much purchase at least one Adult lifepath, but they can purchase as many as they can afford. Each lifepath has a listed CP cost and a time range for how long it usually takes to complete. Finally each lifepath has a list of recommended discretionary traits/skills/attributes that characters can consider spending discretionary CP on related to this lifepath (this is purely a thematic recommendation)

Choose the lifepath (fill in the details in the profile) and pay its CP cost.
Purchase/Apply any backgrounds for this lifepath (Lifepath, Relationships, Rank, Wealth, etc ...)
Spend up to 20 additional discretionary CPs on this lifepath (traits, attributes, skills).

Step 5: Spend all remaining CP

Players cannot store CP, so when you are done spending CP on lifepaths apply all remaining points to the character sheet.

Step 6: Story Points

Any story points that haven't gone towards lifepath backgrounds can now be spent

Buy any Backgrounds(Wealth, Relationships, Rank)
Buy more Will, Fate, or Abilities and Powers.
Bank the story points for later use.

Step 7: Equip your Character

Spend those firebirds!

Step 8: Write a Novel

Unless your name isn't Ian or Richard, in which case opt out.