Character Creation

Now that all the players are gathered and your DM has set the stage, it's time for our band of treasure seekers to finally form. During this initial phase of the game, each player will create a treasure hunter through which they'll engage in the world. They'll each have a backstory, a personality, a class, stats, abilities, and so on, that, as the game proceeds, will grow in strength, endurance, and power, until, ultimately, they're ready to face the final opponent and save the world.

We'll begin with breaking down the process into three steps.

1. Biography
   • Class
   • Level
2. VSSAs
3. Equipment
4. Starting the Adventure

Biography

Start by thinking of who your treasure hunter is and where they come from. Are they well-intentioned? Are they on a noble journey to help someone, or are on they looking for personal gain? Maybe they're out to save themselves from an impossible debt, or to resurrect someone dear?

Dewprism is a game about going after the ultimate Relic - a magical item so powerful it is can grant any wish - and so your character's motivations should justify them going after it.

This will all tie into their behavior around others. Do they work well as a team, listening to their friends and heeding their advice, or are they the type to run head-first into danger with the only plan being to improvise it all on the fly?

In a way, this all ties into their appearance. It's common sense that most people dress the way they want others to perceive them, and Dewprism being a JRPG from the late-90's, there's plenty of room for creativity. Though the description doesn't have to be too verbose, it should fit comfortably into a single sentence. Ultimately, most people - including your fellow treasure hunters - should be able to accurately predict what kind of person your treasure hunter is based on their appearance alone.

Once you've figured that all out, go ahead and write down their backstory, behavior, and appearance in their respective sections under the Biography section at the top of your character sheet.

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Class

Your character's class is going to be the core of their strengths and abilities. Over the course of the game you'll go on to become something completely unique that is set apart from all the others.
But for now, you get to pick one from the base list.

Whatever class you choose, you'll it list as your Primary Class in the Biography section of your character sheet, and again on your Classes portion just beneath. With your class you'll write down what level you are in it - this called your Class Level, and is separate from your Level attribute.

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Abilities

Once you take your primary class, you know all of the abilities that belong to it. Write down the abilities, including the Doctrine Ability, to your character sheet.

In addition, choose one of your non-Doctrine abilities to learn to your sideboard, and another to take as your Natural ability. Mark each of the abilities in between parentheses.

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Level

Your level is the best indicator of how far into their journey your character is. It's a measure of strength, endurance, and power. The higher their level, the more formidable a force they are.

Most likely your party will all be starting at level 1.

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To put things into perspective, you may consider the average townsperson to be level 0 - they effectively have only 1 point of health, 1 stamina, mana, and focus, 1 power and 1 evasion for their melee, magic, and skill listings, and have no class (and thus no abilities).

VSSAs

Standing for Vitals, Scores, Stats, and Abilities, your VSSAs (pronounced Vee-suhs or Visas) are the center of your character's combative abilities. These scores are all initially determined by your starting class, and are continually influenced by the classes they take as they level-up.

Referring to your class's documentation, you'll start by copying down its base Vitals, Scores, Stats, and Abilities down from it to your character sheet, ignoring any values marked in between parentheses. Keep in mind that you'll have a separate sheet for all your abilities, along with another sheet (or two) for your sideboarded abilities.

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Vitals

Your vitals section contains four attributes.

• Health.
  Representing the amount of punishment you can endure before you are finally defeated. Once it reaches 0, you're Knocked-Out (KO'd), and at negative its max value, you're dead.
  This score continually grows over the course of your campaign, and can even reach into the thousands.
• Stamina.
  How many points you have to spend on your Melee abilities (if they require any). Actions made with stamina are going to be feats of strength, endurance, and power. Once it reaches 0, you feel exhausted.
• Mana.
  The measure of your mana pool and therefore how many spells you can cast throughout a battle. Mana is always used for spellcasting, be it raining fire from the score, turning invisible, or healing somebody from the brink of death. When it reaches 0, you're emotionally exhausted.
• Focus.
  The measure of your logical and sensory acuteness. In battle, your skill-type abilities, be they secret arts or flick-of-the-wrist actions, will depend upon your Focus. Focus is the power of knowledge and wisdom, under which you can do incredible things. Once it reaches 0, you feel mentally exhausted.

All of these vital values can be restored from a quiet night's rest, or through handy potions.

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Scores

Your scores are generally static, being determined by your primary class and then staying that way. They do not grow, though they may be affected by your abilities.

• Element.
  Your base element. This will determine which attacks you are weak to and which attacks you're strong against.
• Initiative.
  Your base bonus to your initiative roll at the start of combat. 0 is normal.
• Carry.
  How much equipment you can carry on your person at one time. What your outfit looks like or how big your pockets are has nothing to do with it (thankfully). The value is measured in Units (u), which is approximate to 10ish pounds. If you exceed your Carry, your movement and be penalized.
• Rank.
  A score attached to every weapon and just about every ability. It is a score held between parenthesis used to multiply an adjacent power score. Your Melee, Magic, and Skill Damage tables are determined by their own respective Ranks. Using an attack that has elemental advantage, or rolling a natural 20 for an accuracy check, increases the rank of that attack.
• Melee Damage.
  A brief reference of potential damages based on your base melee power multiplied by different ranks.
  When using a Melee-type weapon, you'll determine its damage based on the matching rank found on this table. Likewise, abilities that use Melee Power determine their damage from here.
  
• Magic Damage.
  A brief reference of potential damages based on your base magic power multiplied by different ranks.
  When using a Magic-type weapon, you'll determine its damage based on the matching rank found on this table. Likewise, abilities that use Magic Power determine their damage from here.
  
• Skill Damage.
  A brief reference of potential damages based on your base magic power multiplied by different ranks.
  When using a magic-type weapon, you'll determine its damage based on the matching rank found on this table. Likewise, abilities that use Magic Power determine their damage from here.
  
• Critical Damage.
  Beside each damage score is a score called Crit, which stands for Critical Damage.
  Crit is equal the attack's Rank+1. It is possible to increase an attack's Rank multiple times in a single action.

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Stats

Your three primary attack-type scores are listed here.

• Melee - Represents your melee ability.
• Magic - Represents your magical ability.
• Skill - Represents your skillful ability.

Each attack-type is split into three columns: Power, Evasion, and Accuracy.

• Power.
  Measured as the general effectiveness of your ability.
  Many abilities use it for damage.
• Evasion.
  How often you're able to dodge an attack of a certain type.
  The higher the score, the harder it is to hit you.
• Accuracy.
  How good your aim with a certain attack-type. The higher it, the more often your attack hit.

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Abilities

Your Abilities list is used to record all your actively used abilities, of which there are 10: your Natural ability, your Doctrine ability, and your regular abilities.
Though very few abilities look completely similar, they do share a set of some common attributes that indicate how they're to be used and how they behave in combat.

• Type, Method, and Application.
  These attributes are bundled together at the front of your ability. Type indicates how your character uses the ability; method describes the intention the ability; and application describes the terms you use it under.
• Use.
  The general cost and conditions under which an ability is used. Most abilities require an amount of AP, and others yet will demand an amount of either, Stamina, Focus, or Mana (or all three). Some abilities are limited to an amount of uses per round or battle.

Abilities are treated similarly to computer programs; you start from the top and work your way down, following the instructions to the best of your understanding. Abilities are also quite specific at times, and mean exactly what they say.

This means that some abilities that don't list a Use cost are free to use, such as passive abilities. Some abilities don't list an Evade or Accuracy check, so they always hit their mark. And some abilities don't list range, so they can presumably reach anywhere in the battlefield.

Ultimately, abilities depend on the instructions within their Effect, OnHit, or OnPass statements. They get the final say.

Since abilities are so data-dense, you can optionally list the bare-bones of the ability and reference its full details from the class documentation.

Natural Ability

First chosen when you create your character, this ability is tied to your physiology, and is often reflected in your appearance (at your discretion).

This ability will always be featured in your skills list, and cannot be un-learned or replaced. When you take a new class, you must replace one of the class's non-Doctrine abilities with your Natural ability.

When you've taken a Natural ability, simply mark it apart from the others, so you don't forget it.

Doctrine Abilities

The first item listed in your Abilities list is your class's Doctrine Ability. This ability is unique to your class and will go on to define your character on the battlefield. Unlike regular abilities, you cannot learn this one.
The Doctrine ability is always listed at the top of the list and is indexed with a 0.

Regular Abilities

Regular abilities make up the bulk of your abilities list. From the start, your abilities will be comprised of your primary class's abilities. However, as you continue to advance through the levels, you'll be able to mix-and-match your learned abilities from other classes.

At level 1, as you're recording your abilities for the first time, you may pick an ability to learn for future use with other classes. Write this ability down on your sideboard sheet.

You may mix-and-match as many Regular abilities as you like, with the exception of your Doctrine and Natural abilities.

Talents

More than just a treasure hunter, your character possesses a set of non-combat talents that allow them to be proficient during peace-time. These talents can be used for a variety of tasks, even during combat.

There are six general talents that you have to work with.

• Craft. Used for the manufacturing of items from resources.
• Harvest. Used for collecting vegetation and meat from carcasses as resources.
• Scholar. Used for studying and learning new information from books, tablets, and other objects.
• Navigate. Used for traveling over long distances, especially when no clear path is visible, such sailing, exploring caves, or the forest.
• Acrobatic. Used for navigating around physical obstacles, such as pits, walls, or swinging from vine to vine.
• Arts. Used for the creation of art through dancing, painting, literature, and so on.

As a starting adventurer, you don't have much in the way of talents. However, everybody has things they're good at and things they aren't.

• Pick one talent to get +2.
• Pick one talent to get +1.
• Pick one talent to get -1.
• Pick one talent to get -2.

However, if you're starting out at a higher level, you gain additional points to increase your talents by.
Gain +1/point per level to increase your Talents by.
No Talent can go beyond 10.

Equipment

While out adventuring, it's always good to come equipped. You'll need food, medicine, tools, and, most of all, weapons. Beware finding yourself under-equipped while out in the great unknown - as it could be days before you can make the trip back to town.

However, there's a limit to the amount of weight you can carry on your person at once, which is dictated to by your class's Carry score. Carrying anything beyond your Carry score poses penalties to your Movement scores, which may eventually result in your complete immobilization.

Your equipment section is split into five areas for you to list your stuff in.

• Primary Weapon
  The weapon in your dominant hand. Attributes listed, aside from its name, are Type, Rank, Use, and Weight.
• Secondary Weapon
  The weapon in your non-dominant hand. Attributes listed, aside from its name, are Type, Rank, Use, and Weight.
• Tools
  Your list of tools. Among the variables are listed Weight and effects.
• Consumables
  Generally anything you can eat or drink, this ranges from sandwiches to magic potions.
  The items are listed as a free-form list, indicating the amount of matching items, their names, and effects.
• Materials
  Collected either from foraging or from looting monsters after a battle, materials are primarily used for crafting consumables, weapon mods, and new tools. However, they can also be consumed once for a lesser effect.
  If one wishes, they can also sell the materials at the local store for some spare change.

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Your Starting Equipment

Each treasure hunter comes into the story with naught but the clothes on their backs, their trusty weapon, and anything granted from their background kit.

Background Kit

When starting a campaign, you don't always have to start in the same destitute condition. Instead, as the DM wills it, each player can start out with a kit of support items and some money to help get them started.

Ideally, the DM should pick the same starting kit for each member to start with, according to how difficult the campaign will be when starting out. The harder the difficulty, the fewer resources they have to start out with.

Difficulty	Kit
Easy	5x Level 1 Health Potion 750 Gil
Medium	3x Level 1 Health Potion 400 Gil
Hard	1x Level 1 Health Potion 100 Gil
Brutal	Nothing, lol.

Weapon

What your weapon looks like is up to you - but keep in mind that there will be no other weapon quite like it in the land. There may be weapons of a similar or same type, but yours is unique! It has you written all over it, and has even developed some unique qualities.

In this regard, start by building your weapon. Below is a list of attributes that you select one of each from.

1. Type.
   • Melee.
     The weapon is used in melee. Most often a kind of sword, an axe, or a mace.
   • Magic.
     The weapon is used in spells. Most often a kind of staff, wand, or magical item.
   • Skill.
     The weapon is used in skills. Most often a ranged weapon like a whip, throwing star, or a bow.
2. Weight Class

   WC	Use	Rank	Weight	Attributes
   VL	2/turn	1	0.2u
   L	5AP+(2/turn)	2	0.5u
   M	10AP	3	1u
   H	10AP + 3sta	4	2u
   VH	10AP + 5Sta	5	4u	Huge

Attribute

Pick one attribute from the attributes section to apply to your weapon. Whatever attribute you chose, its X variable is equal to 1.

Level Adjustments

Finally, if the party is starting out as higher-level adventurers, the quality and quantity of their starting kits can also be adjusted. This means, granting them better equipment to simulate previous adventures.

Your Damage Scores

You have three kinds of damage scores: Melee, Magic, and Skill.
Your melee damage is equal to your Melee Power times your melee weapon's rank. If no melee-type weapon is equipped, your Melee Damage is rank 1.
Your magic damage is equal to your Magic Power times your magic weapon's rank. If no magic-type weapon is equipped, your Magic Power is rank 1.
Your skill damage is equal to your Skill Power times your skill weapon's rank. If no skill-type weapon is equipped, your Skill Power is rank 1.

Next Steps

Now that your character is finished, you're ready to move onto the next steps. First, look into Combat, so that you'll know how to engage in combat and do your best.

After that, you can look into Character Progression and Adventuring. Once comfortable, you can familiarize yourself with the world's Lore.

Starting the Adventure

Now that you know who your character is, where they've come from, and why they're on this quest, you should work together with the other players - including the DM - on how all of your character come together for the campaign.

Typically, it begins with sail boat coming in from along the coast. Each of the characters are at the end of a two-year long journey, in which the little town they're venturing to is their last chance. During that time on the boat, they might have had some chances to get exchange glances do greetings.

How it all happens is up to the players. Once the boat lands in port, the game begins for real. Happy adventuring!