Art, Grace & Guts
Characters & Specializations
anyway.
A Penny for Your Thoughts
Characters, Dice, Specialization
Stats
Art: faith, reserve, calculation, skill, training, discipline, experience, knowledge, wisdom, cunning, practice, carefulness, education, lore, subtlety, level head.Grace: style, wit, wits, humor, agility, flair, presence, composure, patience, ease, rhythm, manners, class, fashion, beauty, balance, graciousness.
Guts: passion, instincts, nerve, will, resolve, determination, doggedness, balls, recklessness, brashness, boldness, daring, cool.
Core Endeavors
Asserting myself: in words, in actions, in some artistic form; acting on your faith or with confidence, taking space in a room or a conversation.Defending myself: physically, armed or unarmed; even attacking another, if she's capable of fighting you back.
Enduring duress: enduring pain, fear, injury, cold, tedium; staying still and silent, surviving torture or illness or the elements.
Exerting myself: physically again, or mentally; lifting, climbing, carrying, running, swimming, memorizing, yelling to be heard.
Influencing others: winning them to your point of view, bullying them into submission, deceiving them, seducing them.
Other Endeavors
Very notably: doing magic.But also: doing productive labor, doing burglary, building houses and walls, surviving in the wilds, making a way on the road, holding a house, cooking meals, buying and selling goods, fighting dirty, praying to the gods, speaking prophesy, smithing swords, performing feats of strength, acting a part, reciting from the ancient books, doing thuggery; making poetry, making war, making love.
Character Sheet Procedure
1. Give your character a name. Copy down her description from your list of characters present.2. Assign dice to your stats. Assign two dice to each stat. In total, assign a d12, a d10, a d8, two d6s, and a d4.
So you might assign thusly: Art d12 d10, Grace d8 d6, Guts d6 d4.
Or you might assign thusly: Art d8 d6, Grace d10 d6, Guts d12 d4.
Or whatever other arrangement you like.
When you roll a stat's dice, you'll roll both, but read only the higher.
So let's say that you assign Art d12 d10, and I assign Art d12 d4. If we roll Art against one another, I'm capable of rolling as high as you - a maximum of 12 - but it's likely you'll roll higher than I will anyway.
3. Assign one stat each to your five core endeavors. You must assign each stat at least once.
So you might assign thusly: Asserting myself - Art; Defending myself - Grace; Enduring duress - Guts; Exerting myself - Guts; Influencing others - Guts.
Or you might assign thusly: Asserting myself - Guts; Defending myself - Grace; Enduring duress - Art; Exerting myself - Guts; Influencing others - Grace.
4. List one or a few other endeavors. List at least one or two; you may list as many as five or six, if that's how many it takes to flesh out your character.
Assign them stats.
Here's one thing you can do: "Commiting burglary - Guts." If you don't list "committing burglary," which endeavor will it be? Exerting yourself, maybe? But by listing it, you assure that when you have your character do it, no one will scratch their heads.
Here's another thing you can do: "Defending myself - Grace; fighting dirty - Guts." Use your endeavors to say "usually I do it with this stat, but if I do it this way I use this stat instead."
Here's a third thing you can do: "Description: a poweful war-sorceress, slender but commanding, with golden hair -" but don't list "doing war-sorcery" as an endeavor. When you have your character do war-sorcery, what stat will you roll? It depends! If you're having her do war-sorcery to defend herself, roll that stat. If you're having her do war-sorcery to influence others, though, or if doing war-sorcery is exerting herself - roll those stats instead.
If you're the GM player, give your characters only one non-core endeavor: add "-ing," to their descriptions to make them into verbs. A warlord's sixth endeavor is "warlording," a priestess' sixth endeavor is "priestessing," a wind devil's sixth endeavor is "wind deviling." I find this easier and no less interesting than detailing their other endeavors out.
5. Sometimes you may add a specialization.
Non-GM players: when it's at least the third chapter of play and your character's new, or when your character's recurring from an earlier chapter and you've chosen to add a specialization to your character sheet, per setup.
GM player: whenever you like, but only for one or two characters per chapter.
You can create a whole new specialization, create a specialization sheet for a specialization someone has already named but not created, or choose an apllicable existing specialization.
It doesn't profit you to choose a specialization that allows you to add the stat you already use; specializations do not allow you to double a stat. "Doing magic - Guts; Doing fire magics - specializes Doing magic - adds Guts" - no. Choose a different specialization instead. Consider "Doing celestial enchantments - adds Art."
Example Characters
EG...
Specializations
Specializations allow you to both refine and strengthen your character.Specializations are like "Defending myself - Grace; Fighting dirty - Guts," except that they add instead of replace. "Defending myself - Grace; Fighting dirty - specializes Defending myself - adds Guts."
Create a Specialization
...Before you begin playing a chapter, after you've consulted the Clinton Oracle....In the midst of an chapter only when a) you're the GM player and b) the chapter demands one.
Specialization Procedure
1. Name the specialization. Say which endeavor it specializes, and which stat it adds.Make sure that the stat suits the name. Of course fighting dirty adds Guts; of course a formal dueling style adds Art.
2. Name a specialization to which it is vulnerable. You may name an existing specialization or make one up new. If the latter, don't create it, just name it.
You can expect someone to create it soon enough.
3. Name three or more formal challenges.
When you're the challenger in a conflict, using this specialty allows you to make these challenges. Maybe you could have anyway - "I throw grit into your face and blind you" - but maybe you couldn't - "I summon fire down from the heavens to consume you" - and you should list some even so.
4. Name one or more opponents' challenge.
When your opponent has the opportunity to challenge you in a conflict, the fact that you're using this specialty allows her to make this challenge. Best if the opponents' challenge gives your opponent power to say something happens to your character directly, in this narrow circumstance, rather than something her character does - "the fire you've summoned explodes inside of you."
Example Specializations
EG...
Specializations on and off character sheets
If a specialization isn't on your character sheet, you can still use it, if it makes sense given fictional events.EG...
You can add a specialization to your character sheet only at the beginning of an chapter, as part of setup.
If a specialization is on your character sheet, it comes with your character into each new chapter. If a specialization isn't on your character sheet, your character can have it for the duration of this chapter, if it makes sense for her to do so, or not. She can lose it, give it away, be robbed of it, whatever, and in any case she'll by default not have it still when her next chapter begins.
EG...