Initial Character Creation
Initial character concepts should have both a "past" concept from when the character was first around in the Dark Ages and a current concept of what the character currently is in the Victorian Age. The Dark Ages concept need not be too detailed at the start, but should contain one of two things that they have done. The concept of the current character should be more detailed and should reflect the melding of the soul of the hero with the current body it is in. This melding will often mean that the character has characteristics of both the soul they have joined and the hero. It is only when they have awakened that the hero part of the characters soul will come to the fore and players will then be allowed to add abilities to the character once they awaken.
Characters are created as per Unisystem light using the points detailed in the System section.
Additionally characters must have three major goals that they wish to achieve throughout the campaign. They must be difficult to achieve and related to the character themselves. The goals can be tied to any part of the character (Awakened or not).
You can either write a full background for your character or answer the questions from the Character Creation Survey.
Problematic Mergings
Throughout history the heroes that have been marked with woad tattoes have have their fare share of problematic soul mergings. The heroes sould will naturally seek out a suitable infant soul to merge with, and most mergings occur without issue. Sometimes though there is no such sould nearby when the hero dies and one of two things will occur. Either
a) The soul will seek out a less suitable soul to merge with.
b) The soul will wander for some time until a suitable soul is found.
Both these situations lead to problems. The first problem is most often seen when a soul of one sex merges with one of the opposite sex. Results are often unpredictable leading to a confused soul in many ways. The second problem is perhaps harder to deal with, often leading to madness of the hero or very wild mood swings. Such undesirable mergings have caused great problems between the heroes over the years, although these alone cannot be blamed for the betrayals and treachery that has gone on over the years.
Initial Interactions
All starting characters will be members of the Society of the Betterment of Mankind which is run by Lady Temperance Patience and holds bi-weekly meetings. You have (for your own reasons) joined the society and in some way want to see the Victorian Age made better for all mankind. I would like initial characters to have links to two other characters (determined randomly) such that there are connections throughout the party (in a similar way to SotC). The game will start with a meeting of the society in London at the Royal Horticultural Society Hall.
Awakening
Awakened characters will need a more detailed background relating to their past in the Dark Ages. I would like awakened characters to have interesting and inter-related backgrounds to each other and some of the major extras in the campaign. I want characters that perhaps have past issues with each other, but work with others as they feel they need to so as to achieve a goal. Either this is because they want to keep their enemies close, or because they feel it is the only way to achieve their objectives. What I'm looking for is some degree of character strife, but not enough that the party will not work together.
I will be letting players define some of the things that happened in the past and I will build on it. There will be some fixed things though that I will define. Feel free to be creative.
Session Interactions
At the end of each session I will be drawing three players names out of the hat (in a semi random fashion so everyone gets a chance). The first two will come up with a story from their characters past that will get revealed during the session and will become important to their interactions. The third will come up with an interaction with me with an NPC in the same way. This way history (throughout the past 1500 years) will gradually make itself felt on the current goings on.
Casting
Player Characters will either be awakened Dark Age characters or will be half faerie characters. I don't want too many faerie characters (with at most 2 from the group), so I will ask for two casting ideas from each player. One of these casting ideas must not have a faeries background. Characters with a part faerie background will have been born here in the real world and will not know of their heritage. Half faerie characters must have Faerie-Touched (7 points) as one of their qualities.
Casting ideas for Arthur, Merlin, and Hengist will be rejected as these are NPCs in the game. Anything else is fair game at this point.
