The new character begins with the average values for his race, which for humans is 2 for all Primary traits. Each character has 10 trait points with which to improve these. Each trait may be increased by 1 at a cost of 2 trait points, or increased by 2 at a cost of 5 trait points. If the player does not have enough trait points to improve the Primary traits he wishes he may reduce traits, receiving 2 trait points for each Primary trait reduced by 1 level, and 5 for each reduced by 2 levels. The end result is the type of individual the character is, big, clumsy, smart, dumb, tiny, quick, charismatic or whatever.

The one exception to the above is Size. All other traits confer benefits, the higher the level. Size confers some benefits if it is high, and others if it is low. A larger character, for example, can intimidate and impress, but has trouble hiding. A smaller character can sneak around more easily, but finds it difficult to be taken seriously.

Thus the player may choose his character’s Size. Like the other Primary traits it may not be more than 2 levels above or below the racial average. It is also restricted by the physical Primary traits: Size may never be more that two levels higher or lower than Body or Strength.

Trait points may be converted to Experience Points and used for Secondary traits. These are converted at a rate of 5 XPs per trait point. This conversion is most commonly used for leftover trait points, but is not restricted to this.

Example. A player wishes to create a huge, hulking warrior called Tulip the Barbarian. Tulip requires maximum Size, Strength and Body. The player can choose the Size he wishes up to the racial maximum of 4 without cost, and chooses to increase Strength and Body to 4 also, which costs 5 trait points each.

He has thus used his entire allotment of 10 trait points. Tulip could be left at that. However the player wants him to have presence (apart from his size), and so increases his Aura to 3, which costs 2 trait points. To do this he must get an extra 2 trait points, so he reduces Tulip’s Mind to 1, which yields the necessary 2 points.

Tulip’s final Primary traits are: Strength 4, Body 4, Size 4, Dexterity 2, Agility 2, Mind 1, Aura 3.

The player now works out his character’s Hit Points. This is a measure of how much damage he can take and survive, and is a product of the Body trait.

For a Body of 1 or more the player has a choice. For each level of Body he may either take 3 hit points, or roll 1d6. This can be mixed, with some Body levels taking the 3 hit points and some rolling d6s. To this the player adds 6.

For a Body of 0 the character can take 3 hit points total or take 6 and subtract 1d4. For a Body of -1 the character has 1d2 hit points. For a Body of -2 or less the character has 1 hit point.

Example. Tulip has a Body of 4. If the player decides to take all hit points as guaranteed he simply multiplies the Body by 3, which would give him 12 hit points (to which he adds 6 for a total of 18). If he wishes to roll them all as dice he simply rolls 4d6 (1d6 for each Body level), totals the rolls and this is the number of hit points he has (which could be anything from 4 to 24, averaging 14). Dice on average will give Tulip a higher number of hit points, but there is also the risk involved of rolling low.

The player decides to split it down the middle. He takes 2 levels at 3 hit points per level, and rolls 2d6. He thus has 6 hit points guaranteed, and if he rolls a 7 or higher will come out ahead (5 or lower and he comes out behind). His roll is an 8, giving Tulip 14 hit points, which is 2 more than he would get from straight conversion.

He adds 6 to this for a final total of 20 hit points.

Any character intending to use magic may roll up his Magic Points. The process is identical to that used for Hit Points but using Aura instead of Body. Thus Magic Points = Aura time 3, plus 6.

A character not using magic need not roll up Magic Points at this time. If he later needs magic points he can roll them up then. Once Magic Points are determined, however, they may not be changed.

The player now chooses an occupation for his character. Each occupation lists a number of skills, which the character automatically has at their base level. During play these may be increased individually, but during character generation they are all treated as one trait, and so can be increased together as if they were one.

Some traits require a decision on the player’s part. For example, if an occupation calls for "1 combat trait" the player must decide which combat trait his character will have. Of course he can always choose more combat traits later, but his is the weapon he has used in his occupation.

By choosing the character’s age the player determines how long the character has spent in his profession. The older a character is the higher his level in his Occupational traits. The character may be any age the player wishes, which affects all traits in his occupation as follows:

These ages are for humans, and will vary for other races. The ranks given are there simply to provide an idea of what these mean, and are late 20th century British/Australian army.

Example. Tulip is obviously a warrior, and so he chooses the Warrior occupation. This gives him Combat-Brawl and one other Combat trait. The player chooses Combat-Blades, as he wishes Tulip to use a large sword.

A character may acquire secondary traits, either on character generation, or sometimes during play. Once acquired they can be improved and taken to a higher level.

Most Secondary traits are connected to a Primary trait. This means that they use that Primary trait as their base level. Once acquired the trait exists at that base level. Those not connected to a Primary trait have a fixed base level.

Acquiring a trait has a cost in Experience Points (XPs). Traits may only be acquired by a character who has reasonable access to learn that trait. It costs 5 XPs to acquire a trait.

Inherent traits are those which every character can be expected to have, and include basic skills such as Climb. These traits do not have to be acquired by the character; all characters have them automatically at base level. They may be improved by XPs.

Natural traits are those, which everyone can do, such as using a weapon or climbing a tree, but without specific training they do not do them well. If not acquired a character can still use the trait, but at base level -2. Once acquired the trait exists at base level.

Trained traits are those which cannot be used without specific training. A character that has not acquired the trait cannot use it at all. Once acquired the trait exists at base level.

New characters receive 50 XPs to flesh out their traits. The player may use these to acquire or increase traits as he wishes. The referee has the power of veto, however, which he may use if the player chooses an unreasonable skill (e.g. a character that has spent all his life in the middle of the desert trying to take Seamanship).

It costs 5 XPs to acquire a trait at base level. It costs 10 XPs to increase from base level to base level +1, 15 XPs to increase from base level +1 to base level +2, 20 XPs to increase from base level +2 to base level +3, and 25 XPs to increase from base level +3 to base level +4. Traits cannot be increased beyond base level +4.

In all cases traits may never rise above Base Level +4.

Example. Tulip’s player now has 50 XPs with which to improve his barbarian. He already has his occupational skills at base level +2, so the player spends 45 XPs to take him to the maximum +4. He needs to be able to ride a horse, so the player pays 5XPs to acquire Ride Horse at base level. He also wants the traits Wilderness Survival and Scan, the latter at base level +1, the former at base level. This will cost 20 XPs more than he actually has, requiring him to take negative traits to compensate (see below).

Negative traits are used to allow a character to get more than his 50 XPs worth of Secondary traits, but also provide a good deal of color.

Negative traits are disadvantages and problems, and largely administered by the referee. These traits go in levels like normal traits, but yield XPs instead of using them. Thus a character who takes a negative trait at base level gets 5 extra XPs, at base +1 he receives a total of 15 extra XPs, and so on.

Negative traits may only be acquired and increased when the character is initially created. They may not be acquired thereafter. Although things can happen during play that will create negative traits, these do not give any XPs (e.g. a character blinded in combat does not get XPs for being blind). XPs gained during play can be used to overcome negative traits (buy them back, as it were), but only if this is reasonable and believable.

Obviously some negative traits cannot be chosen if certain other traits are already taken (and vice versa). For example a character cannot have Hostility-Animals AND Affinity-Animals, or a higher than base level Sight AND Poor Eyesight.

Negative traits, once acquired, must be used if they can (the player has no option). This is why the referee is usually in control of the trait.

Where a negative trait must be rolled on it is the failure of the roll that allows the player to do as he wishes. The best way to view this is as if the negative trait itself is rolling. If the roll succeeds the trait succeeds in controlling the character. If the roll fails the trait fails, and the character may do what the player wants to.

Many Negative traits are psychological disorders, and it is important for the player and the referee to understand that this is not under the player’s direct control.

Take lying, for example. Normal lying or truth-telling is up to the player. If he wants his character to lie he will lie, if he wants his character to tell the truth he will tell the truth. The Liar trait, however, is a compulsion. Even if the player wants the character to tell the truth, even if the character wants to tell the truth, even if the character’s life depends on telling the truth, he is compelled to lie. They can only tell the truth if he is strong enough to overcome the compulsion via a trait roll (i.e. the trait failing).

The reason these disadvantages provide XPs is because they are not under the player’s control. He must always roll if he wishes to overcome the compulsion of the disorder. Referees should be aware of this and enforce it strictly. No sympathy should be given as the character has had the benefit of more XPs to improve or acquire positive traits, so in the long run the character should not be disadvantaged. In fact it would be unfair to players and characters without negative traits (who are, as a result, not as good in positive traits) to ease off on the enforcement of negative traits. However, keep it in perspective, victimizing a character for having a negative trait is not fair either.

Similarly it should be made clear to other players that, for example, a player with a narcissistic character who is continually complaining about his hair is not, as a player, trying to irritate them, but must do these things in the nature of his character. In fact if he does not complain and whinge the referee should encourage him to do so. Thus the anger of the players at this constant droning and whining should be directed against the character, and not the player.

As another example the Hatred trait is a compulsion. A player may decide that his character doesn’t like someone, and abuse them, beat them up, kill them etc. However this remains under the player’s control. Hatred, however, is a compulsion, and requires a trait roll (with the trait failing) to keep it under control.

The actual effects of the compulsive behavior are up to the referee. For a character with a hatred of priests, for example, the referee (usually with advice from the player) must decide what drives the character and compels him to violence. He may, for example, go psychotic when he sees a holy symbol, because priests wear them. On the other hand he could be a "controlled" psychotic, who does not act on impulse but instead lovingly plans exactly what he is going to do for days beforehand, prior to performing very unpleasant things. Few psychotic racists, for example, will attack someone of the hated race on the street, they will instead plan their vicious actions carefully (and come back wearing white hoods and carrying burning crosses).

The referee must, however, be consistent. If the character doesn’t react to a holy symbol once then it is unreasonable for him to react to it on a future occasion. Discuss the compulsion with the player to make sure he (and the referee) understands what will trigger the compulsion and what he will do if it is triggered.

Example. Tulip has gone over his XPs by 20, and must make these up in negative traits. A huge hulking barbarian might be fond of his drink, so the One Drink And . . . trait is appropriate. Similarly a Code of Honor might be appropriate.

The player decides to give him Code of Honor at base +1 (15 XPs), and One Drink And . . . at base (5 XPs). Thus his traits are finally complete with Code of Honor 4 (Aura linked), One Drink And . . . 2.

Tulip’s final character is 33 years old with the following traits:

Primary: Strength 4, Body 4, Size 4, Dexterity 2, Agility 2, Mind 1, Aura 3.

Secondary: Combat-Brawl 6, Combat-Blades 6, Ride Horse 2, Wilderness Survival 3, Scan 2.

Negative: Code of Honor 4, One Drink And . . . 2.

Hit Points: 20.

Any inherent trait may be reduced in order to yield XPs for other use. Thus a character may be quite agile but unable to Dodge to well, or might be very good at processing information (high Mind), but with a bad Memory.

Reducing an inherent trait by one level yields 5 XPs, by two levels 15 XPs (total, 5 for the first, 10 for the second). Inherent traits may not be reduced by more than two levels.

Future XPs may be used to reclaim this deficiency, at the same cost as the original yield.

The step-by-step method of creating a character is not strictly binding. For example, if a player uses XPs on his character and ends up owing 30 XPs, then decides that he doesn’t want to be burdened with 30 XPs worth of negative traits, he may go back and reduce his positive traits. At the end, however, the character must have 0 XPs or a positive amount left over.

Any left over XPs are available to be used in the future on any trait the player desires. During play, however, a character may only use XPs to acquire or improve traits once a year, on his birthday (or at the beginning of the year if the referee prefers all characters to use XPs at the same time).

In gameworlds where alignment is appropriate the player may choose an alignment for his character. Most alignments follow the Law-Balance-Chaos pattern, but there can also be Elemental and Elder alignments. A character may begin with up to 5 points in any one allegiance if he wishes. A Priest of an aligned god must begin with 15 points in the allegiance of the god.