Your character is the person you play in session and whose plans you layout in your turnsheet. Each character in Crusade! begins with 40 character points and these are used to buy the quirks and skills that define the mechanics part of the character.
In Crusade! you play those at the very top of their game, capable of affecting the world in any number of ways. While you are generally not the Great Kings, Queens, Emperors and Empresses, you are their right hands, or even their most feared opponents. All just a step from holding tremendous power. There is also, of course, scope to play the more shady characters of the world, those who are powerful, but may be just outside the main power structures of the major Kingdoms and Empires.
If you are a seasoned role-player or have played many Society Games before and are confident with how this all goes, check out the Quick Guide at the end.
As we intend to run as many sessions of the game as possible during the one term that Crusade! is running, we are offering you an incentive to send in your characters early. If we get your complete character, and a suggested biographical blurb, before the Sunday of 1st week of Trinity Term (26th April), you may have one additional Character Generation point to spend on your character. We would advise getting as much of the concept in at least a week before that to give the GMs time to process the information and make comments about your character - if you do that, then the GM team will give you their love, which is far more important than XP!
Creating your character should be fun and interesting, and we want to make the process of describing them within the Crusade! world and system as easy as possible. Here are the major steps to take on creating your character.
The concept behind your character is possibly the most important aspect of character creation. This is what, more than anything, tells you what your character is about and who they are.
There are many different concepts out there, both from within the Crusade! setting and from without, adaptable to it. There are of course some things that simply don't work (Spacefaring Alien with a Desire to Rule the World), but a lot can be adapted to the feel of the Crusade! setting.
Read through some bits of the site and get a feel for the setting. It is by no means necessary to read all of pages, indeed, not even most of them, but the setting and background material should help you understand what the game is all about. If you are stuck for ideas, read more, maybe some gobbet of information will inspire you! If you are completely stuck, but still determined to play, get in contact with the The GM Team who should be able to help you.
The different skills and quirks are there to describe your character in system terms, and give some system mechanical representation of them. They are by no means the limitation however, and your concept, and how you play that character, may far exceed the simple mechanisms of the game.
There are a number of different factions in the Crusade! world. They are split into three larger factions, which are broadly defined by their faith. Within each, there are 3 different factions which are generally friendly with each other and the relations between the governments cordial. This does not mean there are no tensions or concerns, but there will need to be a significant effort for the status quo to change.
When choosing your faction, consider your character concept and how they fit into the different factions. This may help sharpen your ideas and get a much better feel for your character.
Furthermore, there are different advantages that factions get - one is a bonus to one of your skills, which you will need to take into account in the next section. The other is your choice of magic, which may be one of the things affecting your choice of faction. Each of the faction pages details what advantages and choices of magic are available to that faction.
Skills are the things that your character is particularly good at, or has some kind of experience or training with. The GM Team uses your skills primarily to determine whether you succeed in a give action during Downtime and just how well (or badly) you do it.
They help us resolve both your character's action against the environment and non-player characters and against the characters of other players. In a simple contest, a higher-ranked skill will win, but few are simple contests of one skill. With many different skills interacting with each other in Crusade! it may be more beneficial to take a number of skills at a lower level to work with each other than one at the highest rank.
Quirks flesh your character out with possessions, omens of fate, aptitudes and resources at their disposal.
Unlike skills, quirks can be negative, giving you extra points to spend. Negative quirks will affect you in a negative way, but they are usually fun to play, add some more challenge and excitement to your character, and of course allow you to get yourself more benefits! You can get up to an extra 10 Character Generation points.
Remember - you have 40 Character Generation points to spend (with a maximum of 10 more if you have taken a number of negative quirks) - split these up as you wish between Skills and Quirks.
Magic is priced differently, depending on which level of school you wish to take. Furthermore, some magics are only available to certain faction. You will be able to progress and develop in your magics, researching and learning new spells.
There are a number of other important aspects to consider, chief among them being your character's faith. While this is chosen to some degree by your faction, you may choose to be an outsider, practicing a different religion to the majority of your faction. This may either be a choice of one of the other main religions, or your may have taken the Heretic quirk. Whatever the case, consider your character's attitude to religion and religious matters
What is the status of your character politically? Are they the chief advisor to the king, or the Emperor's chosen General? Are they the leader of a faction opposed to the country's current ruler, or the feared leader of a desert tribe?
You should think about your political position within the world of Crusade! While some of this may be defined by quirks, there is some freedom to otherwise choose your position - there ought to be some reason for your character being and important player in the Holy Land.
You must also consider the reason why your character will be regularly attending the yearly sessions of the Peace of the Covenant. This is especially important to consider if you appear to be more of an outsider.
Less important than the others, but still important and interesting to think about. What is the family you are from like? Who are the people nearest you that somehow affect you? Are you married or looking for a husband?
All these things will further help flesh out your character.
If you have not already chose one… it is worth thinking about it at this point! There are many names to choose from and they will be quite different for each faction. You may wish to have a title to go with the name (Lord of Someplace, Duke of Somewhere, Master of the King's Horse, First Eunuch) and may depend on your chosen political position.
Looking at historical figures is one way to get a feel for names in the period. Movies and literature is another good source of names and ideas for names. If you are completely stuck of course, the GM Team may be able to give you a hand with choosing an appropriate name.
It is possible you wish to share some background and connections with another player's character. Discuss your relationship and let us know about what each of you knows and doesn't know.
Please note that none of the following players are allowed to link character concepts with each other - Joe W, Chris V, Mark J, Ellie.
It will be a great help to both yourself and the GM team to consider your character's goals. What do they want to achieve? What are their ultimate goals? These will help us get a better grip on your character and improve your game by knowing what sort of thing we need to be throwing at you and what you might like to see happen.
Send us an e-mail with all these details. We'll have a look at the character, discuss it with you and set up a character page to keep track of all your information on the wiki.
Unless we get an e-mail from you with the character, we don't know who you want to play!
When generating your character please consider which of the two faction advantages is available to you that you wish to take and note it on your email to the GM team.