Character Creation

Character creation has changed a lot over the years. If you see references to stats or rules or the like on pages that don't seem to line up with the character creation process outlined here, assume the version of character creation on this page is the most up to date.

This is a step by step guide on how to create a character in Medaevum. If you have played with the Mothership system and this feels oddly familiar - that's because it is. This system uses the Mothership system as a framework to build off of.

To see how the choices that influence your character will be used in the course of play, consult the Systems page. Don't feel like you need to memorize it all at once.

Stats

Attributes

Roll 2d10 four times, and add 25 to the result of each roll. After rolling, distribute the results as you like across the four attributes.

• Strength
• Speed
• Intellect
• Combat

Saves

Roll 2d10 three times, and add 10 to the result of each roll. After rolling, distribute the results as you like across the three saves.

• Sanity
• Fear
• Body

Health & Stress

Roll 1d10 to determine their health, and add 10 to the result.

All characters start with 2 maximum Wounds.

All characters start with a minimum of 2 Stress.

Starting Wealth

Roll 2d10 for their starting wealth, and multiply the result by 10.

Class

NAME	STR	SPD	INT	CBT	SAN	FEAR	BODY	WOUNDS	OTHER
Knight	-	-	-	+10	-	+20	+10	+1	-
Scholar	-	-	+10	-	+30	-	-	-	+5 to 1 Attribute
Freeman	+5	+5	+5	+5	+10	+10	+10	-	-
Artificer	-	-	+20	-	-	+60	-	+1	-10 to 1 Attribute
Vitravn	+10	-	-	-	-	+10	+20	-	Min 5 Stress

Lineage

The default is human. If you intend to play an Artificer or an elf, let a DM know. Elves and beastmen can be played as Knights, Scholars, or Freemen.

Panic

Each class has a unique effect when they panic.

• Knight. Whenever you panic, every close friendly player must make a fear save.
• Scholar. Whenever you fail a sanity save, all close friendly players gain 1 stress.
• Freeman. Once per scene, you may take advantage on a panic check.
• Artificer. Fear saves made by close friendly players are at disadvantage.
• Vitravn. You must succeed on a Sanity save or immediately attack the closest threat.

Skills

Different classes have different starting skills. To take a more advanced skill, the character needs at least one of its requisite skills.

• Knights have Military Training, Athletics, and either an additional 1 Expert skill or 2 Trained skills.
• Scholars have 1 Master skill as well as one requisite Expert and Trained skill. All Scholars have Literacy.
• Freemen have 4 made up of any valid combination of Expert and Trained skills.
• Artificers have Military Training, Etiquette, and Low Wisdom. They either have 1 additional Expert skill or 2 Trained skills.
• Vitravn have Husbandry and Labor. They can either have one Trained and Expert skill, or one Master skill that they meet the prerequisites for.

Skills give a bonus on an attribute when they come into play. To use a skill, justify why it would be relevent and say you would like to use it - that's all that's necessary. If two or more skills could potentially come into play, you don't add all of them, add the skill that provides the highest bonus. Some skills are obvious when they come into play (all melee attacks made with a melee weapon would use the melee skill), while some will require creativity on the part of the player to justify their use.

Trained Skills (+10)

SKILL	LEVEL	REQUISITE
Art	Trained	-
Athletics	Trained	-
Etiquette	Trained	-
Healing	Trained	-
Husbandry	Trained	-
Literacy	Trained	-
Low Wisdom	Trained	-
Military Training	Trained	-
Music	Trained	-
Theology	Trained	-

Expert Skills (+15)

SKILL	LEVEL	REQUISITE
Alchemy	Expert	Literacy, Husbandry
Bushcraft	Expert	Husbandry
Climbing	Expert	Athletics
Craft¹	Expert	Art
Dance	Expert	Athletics, Etiquette, Music
History	Expert	Literacy, Music
Horsemanship	Expert	Husbandry
Labor	Expert	Low Wisdom, Military Training, Athletics, Husbandry
Law	Expert	Literacy, Etiquette
Marksmanship	Expert	Military Training
Mathematics	Expert	Literacy
Melee	Expert	Low Wisdom, Military Training, Athletics
Mysticism	Expert	Theology, Art
Surgery	Expert	Healing
Thievery	Expert	Low Wisdom

¹ You can craft any item for half cost. You have to make a crafting roll first. If you fail the roll, the materials are wasted and the craft fails to materialize. You can use abilities to modify your Craft skill to specialize in particular kinds of crafting.

Master Skills (+20)

SKILL	LEVEL	REQUISITE
Arcane	Master	Mysticism, History
Engineering	Master	Mathematics
Grafting	Master	Surgery
Martial Art¹	Master	Melee, Marksmanship
Mounted Combat	Master	Horsemanship
Parkour!	Master	Climbing
Sailing	Master	Labor, Trade
Sophontology	Master	History, Mysticism
Generalship	Trained	History, Law, Mathematics

¹You must choose a single weapon to master. A character with multiple master skills available could choose multiple different weapons to master.

Abilities

An ability is either a unique thing the character can do, or a unique thing about the character. They come in a few forms. Characters can start with one ability. If it is an already existing ability, they do not need any kind of approval for it. If it is a novel ability, it must be approved first.

Skill. These are abilities tied to a character’s skills. They modify how the skill is used in some way, giving extra mechanics to what would otherwise be a flat skill check.

Lineage. Abilities that are tied to a character’s lineage take many forms, and inform the ancestry of the character. They might be distantly related to a Valleyman and start exhibiting the traits of that lineage, for example.

Spells. Individual spells count as abilities, too.

Traits. Sometimes, you just change.

Soulless

Not every living person on Ayaria is born with a soul. A soul is necessary to cast most magic. More pressingly, a soulless character will not go to the Halls of the Dead should they die. If a soulless character dies, they're dead forever. However, lacking a soul, a soulless character has no true name and is immune to some of the most powerful magics and curses to be found on Ayaria.

If you choose to have your character be soulless, add this ability to their profile.

Name: Soulless 
Requirement: n.a., this was chosen at character creation.
Type: Trait
Description: This character has no soul. When they die, they do not pass onto the Halls of the Dead or any other afterlife. They are immune to curses that target the soul. They cannot cast spells except by external means. They have no true name. When they invoke another character's true name. Their blood cannot be used to empower magic.

Equipment

Armors

Heavy armor would be full plate or an equivalent, while medium and light armor can be made up of plate pieces as well as chainmail and robust fabric armors. Fabric armor would be just a gambeson.

TYPE	COST	AP	NOTES
Heavy	150	10	Disadvantage on Speed checks. DR 3
Medium	100	7
Light	50	5
Fabric	30	3

Shields

A shield is hit before your armor, assuming the attack isn’t coming from a flank or otherwise able to circumvent the shield. Pavise shields are represented mechanically by tower shields that you can set up in the field as cover.

TYPE	COST	AP	NOTES
Tower	50	7	Disadvantage on Combat checks.
Robust	50	5
Simple	20	3

Weapons

• Two handed melee weapons can be used in one hand, incurring disadvantage on Combat checks.
• Armor piercing weapons ignore the AP but not the DR of worn armor, shields, and cover.
• Unarmed attacks deal 1d5 damage.

NAME	COST	DAMAGE	RANGE	HANDS	NOTES
Arquebus	150	4d10 Piercing	Far	Two	Armor piercing. Can only be reloaded outside of combat. Unusable in melee.
Axe	20	2d10 B or S	Adjacent	One
Bardiche	60	4d10 Slashing	Adjacent	Two
Crow's Beak	60	4d10 B or P	Adjacent	Two
Dagger	15	1d10 S or P	Adjacent	One
Goedendag	20	3d10 B or P	Adjacent	Two
Greataxe	60	4d10 Gruesome	Adjacent	Two
Greatsword	60	4d10 Slashing	Adjacent	Two
Halberd	50	4d10 S or P	Adjacent	Two
Heavy Bow	50	4d10 Piercing	Extreme	Two	Unusable in melee.
Heavy Crossbow	125	4d10 Piercing	Extreme	Two	Takes 2 actions to reload. Advantage on ranged attacks. Unusable in melee.
Javelin	20	3d10 Piercing	Close	One	Rolls damage with disadvantage against targets in Medium armor or heavier.
Lance	30	2d10 Piercing	Adjacent	One	If used from a charge on horseback, deals 6d10 damage instead.
Light Bow	25	2d10 Piercing	Extreme	Two	Unusable in melee.
Light Crossbow	75	2d10 Piercing	Extreme	Two	Takes 1 action to reload. Advantage on ranged attacks. Unusable in melee.
Longsword	30	3d10 S, B, or P	Adjacent	Two
Mace	20	2d10 Blunt	Adjacent	One
Maul	60	4d10 Blunt	Adjacent	Two	Armor Piercing. Disadvantage on Combat checks.
Petronel	100	4d10 Piercing	Close	One	Armor Piercing. Can only be reloaded outside of combat.
Polehammer	60	4d10 Blunt	Adjacent	Two
Quarterstaff	10	3d10 Blunt	Adjacent	Two
Shortsword	20	2d10 Slashing	Adjacent	One
Sling	5	1d10 Blunt	Close	One	Can be used with stones to deal 1d5 damage. Cannot be used in melee.
Spear	10	3d10 Piercing	Adjacent	One
Staff Sling	10	2d10 Blunt	Far	Two	Can be used with stones to deal 1d10 damage. Cannot be used in melee.

(If I missed any classics, let me know.)

Other Equipment

Most equipment, with few exceptions, is not closely tracked. If you want your character to have a lantern, they have a lantern. If it makes sense for them to bring a rope, they brought a rope. You may be asked to list all the equipment your character is bringing with them ahead of an event, but in all other cases if a piece of equipment isn’t listed on here and it fits with the setting, you can just have it.

Specialized Tools. These cost 30 pence. They confer advantage on all checks made with one specific skill. These take whatever form makes sense for the skill in question - lockpicks for thievery, glass vials for alchemy, etc. These are mundane tools, something like an enchanted bookmark for mathematics wouldn’t fit while a very well made abacus would.

Clothing

NAME	COST	EFFECT
Winter Clothes	20	Advantage on Body saves against cold weather.
Noble Regalia	100	The minimum standard of dress to be taken seriously by Empyrean nobility.
Senatorial Dress	400	What the highest echelons of Empyrean society wear.

Pets

Pets provide advantage on Rest saves. Whenever they take damage, its master accumulates 1 stress. If the pet dies, they must make a panic check.

Becoming the Monster

If you would be interested in having your character starting with some abilities that would drastically alter their story, let a DM know. Including if you have any ideas of your own that aren't listed here. The tradeoff is that since your character becomes integral to some aspect of the story, some narrative freedom is taken away from you. Your character doesn't become an NPC, but there is some expectation that you play ball with other players more than if you were just a mundane addition to the server.

This same caveat applies if your character does not start out this way, but starts becoming the monster in the course of play.

Magic

The magic of the Hours requires cannibalism. Even if they do not steal an existing mage’s Second Heart to make their own, growing in power all but requires consuming the soul of other mages.

Lineage

There is something monstrous in their blood. Something more than human. Their ancestry affects changes in their body and sometimes to their mind, the sins of their fathers becoming manifest.

Vampirism

The Red Dream, the Blooded curse. There is no cure. There is only the gradual descent into violent madness.

Other

You never know. There’s always something weird going on.