Let’s go through the character creation process for Zweihander and throw together an NPC or two.
Excerpt from the book. I’ll go through these in stages.
So Step 1, Begin basic tier
Okay, this just seems to be an overview of the process. Spend points, get prizes.
Step 2 Primary Attributes
So Combat Bonus, Brawn Bonus, Agility Bonus, Perception Bonus, Intelligence Bonus, is the bonus bit really required? Willpower Bonus, Fellowship Bonus, oh right it’s a bit confused giving me the names of the random bonuses before it’s given me that stats, let me guess, the stats are the thing without the word “bonus” right they are… So the stats are actually in the table below, now apparently the best way to do this is 25 + 3D10. So let’s roll. 14, 13, 14, 9, 20, 11, 18 for, 39%, 38%, 39%, 34%, 45%, 36%, 43% (hope I did that right…). I’m feeling something of a brutish thug, a former soldier turned mercenary. Apparently at the end of character creation I we get to change one value to 42%
| Statistic | Bonus | Value |
| Combat | 4 | 45% |
| Brawn | 4 | 43% |
| Agility | 3 | 39% |
| Perception | 3 | 39% |
| Intelligence | 3 | 34% |
| Willpower | 3 | 38% |
| Fellowship | 3 | 36% |
Step 3, Sex & Race
While in the game world I imagine there are some other races they have been pushed to the edges of the world and the darkest depths of the forests. This is going to be somewhat closer to the real world, so while possible to have a female warrior she would have to hide the fact she was a woman during the army and likely would be widely shunned as a sell sword or other vagabonds. So Human male, for simplicities sake.
Racial Modifier,
The vanilla seem to be +1 to cb, ib & pb, -1 to ab, fb & wb, think I’ll need to work on that a lot.
| Statistic | Bonus | Value |
| Combat | 5 | 45% |
| Brawn | 4 | 43% |
| Agility | 2 | 39% |
| Perception | 4 | 39% |
| Intelligence | 4 | 34% |
| Willpower | 2 | 38% |
| Fellowship | 2 | 36% |
Racial Trait (or cultural or ethnic by the sounds of it)
This is a d100 roll, so “Grim Resolve” may spend a fate point to ignore a melee or ranged weapon attack after suffering damage.
Step 4: Archetype & Profession
Well, I’m not rolling for this, Warrior archetype, got Man at Arms. A professional soldier.
Step 5 Secondary Attributes
Well that willpower reduction due to the racial traits gives this chap a Peril Threshold of 5 (3+ WB) so it’s 5 (11/17/23). Damage Threshold this is BB plus your armour’s damage threshold modifier. Well, I don’t have any armour atm so that is 4. Encumbrance limit is 3+ BB so 7. Initiative is 3+PB so 7. Movement is 3+AB so 5.
| Derived Statistic | Formula | Value |
| Peril Threshold | 3+wb(+6/12/18) | 5(11/17/23) |
| Damage Threshold | BB+Armour damage threshold(+6/+12/+18) | 4(10/16/22) |
| Encomrance Limit | 3+BB | 7 |
| Initiative | 3+PB | 7 |
| Movement | 3+AB | 5 |
Step 6: Background
Season of Birth – rolled 79 which is winter.
Dooming – Dooming of Winter – 76 which gives him “Fear change, as it changes you”
Age group – rolled 20 which is young so no distinguishin marks. Now I wonder if the character gets a modifier to the number of creation points they get due to this, because they should.
Body Type – 100 – Corpulent, well it just says you’re a fatty, but given “husky” means you can be well muscled I am going to say that this doesn’t mean the chap is fat but very tall with a broad muscular build. +20% price modifier for armour and clothes.
Height/Weight 6.2″ 301 lb I’ve got no idea what that kind of weight looks like… which is a general issue with these kinds of random rolls plus random weights. I’ll just ignore the number.
Hair – 37 – Light Brown, Eyes – Dark brown
Upbringing – 88 – Reverent, my old man was a mad priest of some sort.
Social Class – 53 – Lowborn
Drawback – apparently you get a fate point for these 10 Branded
Step 7 – Hand of Fate
By default you start with 1 fate point, if you took a drawback you get 2. So we start with 2 fate points.
Step 8 Alignment
Order Alignment : Pride
Chaos Alignment : Arrogance
I’ll insert the game text for that here.
Character Name, I’ll get to that later
Step 9 Build your profession
So you get 1000 points to spend on things from your character profession that we picked like 7 steps ago, see imo I’d give older characters probably 20% extra starting points for each bracket they were above young.
So we need to spend 100 reward points to enter the first profession, with this you gain the professional trait, and an iconic trapping.
The man at arms gets “Shield Wall” which sounds pretty useless, “when engaged with an ally and they fail to parry or cannot do so, you may immediately parry in their stead for 1AP.”
Now I’ve gotta say, that this is probably the most confusing esgment of the character creation, after reading it a few times I’m guessing you you can spend the last 900 points on the things listed in the profession however you like, and you must purchase all of those things before you move to the intermediate tier. I think that’s it.
So the advances book is below
Guess we will, purchase an extra rank of BB and CB, Sword & Board, Martial Melee, Simple Melee, Awareness, Ride, Toughness & Simple Ranged. That comes to 100 points.
Final Stat blocks look like
| Statistic | Bonus | Value |
| Combat | 6 | 45% |
| Brawn | 5 | 43% |
| Agility | 2 | 39% |
| Perception | 4 | 39% |
| Intelligence | 4 | 34% |
| Willpower | 2 | 38% |
| Fellowship | 2 | 36% |
| Derived Statistic | Formula | Value |
| Peril Threshold | 3+wb(+6/12/18) | 5(11/17/23) |
| Damage Threshold | BB+Armour damage threshold(+6/+12/+18) | 5(11/17/23) |
| Encomrance Limit | 3+BB | 8 |
| Initiative | 3+PB | 7 |
| Movement | 3+AB | 5 |
Skills
| Stat | |||
| Martial Melee | C | Apprentice | 1 |
| Simple Melee | C | Apprentice | 1 |
| Simple Ranged | C | Apprentice | 1 |
| Awareness | P | Apprentice | 1 |
| Ride | A | Apprentice | 1 |
| Toughness | B | Apprentice | 1 |