Liberi Gothica: Character Creation

These are all the basics you need to know to make a character for Liberi Gothica, along with the rules for advancing your character throughout the game.

Step 1: Character concept

Current character options are Liberi and skilled adult.

Liberi is short for Liberi Gothica - the Tainted Children. Liberi Gothica are children who have come into contact with a demonic doll, known as a Foci, and formed a spiritual contract with it. Liberi gain a number of benefits from this contract, and a number of vices as well. You choose one Liberi ability tree as a Primary tree, which grants you a free ability, and two more as Secondary trees, which do not grant you a free ability.

As a skilled adult, you start with more experience and skill, but no magical protection. You gain one Mundane Ability Tree for free.

Once you've decided between the two, decide what you want your character (and your Foci, if you have one) to act/look like, your name, your gender, and any interesting ideas you want to incorporate into the character, such as your character's motivation, what they were before the game starts, how they feel about the world, etc. The rest of character creation will be in effectively getting this concept to work.

Step 2: Assign TACKS scores.

All TACKS scores start at 2. You have 8 points to spend to improve these 5 stats. Your TACKS have a maximum starting value of 6.

Toughness: Represents your overall fitness, and the amount of punishment your body can take.

Athleticism: Represents everything physical about you that toughness doesn't cover. How fast you can run, how high you can jump, hand-eye coordination, and more.

Charm: Represent how attractive and likable you are in terms of both physical appearance and personality.

Knowledge: Represents your Necromancer's skill in her magical craft, as well as general intelligence.

Spirit: The strength of your will, and ability to resist non-physical damage of all types

Step 3: Calculate secondary attributes.

Determine what your starting Vitality, max Life, Attack, and Defense scores are.

Vitality: The power that is holding you together and keeping you immortal. This stat is mutable, and changes over time depending on how much you take from others, how much you use your abilities, and natural decay over time. Vitality is 5 + Spirit + Toughness. Your max Vitality is twice this base number. Vitality drops at the rate of one point per day. You can only gain Vitality by stealing or praying for lost souls. Below 0 Vitality, you die.

Life: Your body's physical status. This stat is mutable, and changes over time depending on how much damage you have and how wounded you are. Life is 5 + Toughness + Athleticism. This is the maximum your life can be - damage reduces it below this maximum. Below 0 life, you fall unconscious. Below negative Toughness Life, you die.

Attack: How well you can hit things with your attack abilities. The same number is used for ranged and melee attacks. Attack is Spirit + Athleticism - Size.

Defense: How hard it is for others to hit you. Defense is 7 + Knowledge + Athleticism - Size.

Wound Threshold: How much damage it takes to cause you serious trouble. WT is 1 + Toughness + [Size x 2]. If a single attack deals more Life loss than this number, you have a chance at taking a Crippling Wound.

Melee Damage Modifier: This bonus is added to all of your melee attacks. You do not get this damage with abilities unless noted otherwise. MDM is [Toughness/2], rounded down.

Ranged Damage Modifier: This bonus is added to all of your ranged attacks. You do not get this bonus to damage with abilities unless noted otherwise. MDM is [Athleticism/2], rounded down.

Step 4: Choose skills and perks.

You gain 10 + Knowledge score XP to spend on skills and perks only.

Step 5: Select your class.

If you haven't already done so, select your class. Then, choose a base ability to begin the game with, and if applicable, choose however many spells the ability grants you. You start with 0 XP to spend on progressions.

Step 6: The Foci

Determine what ability your Foci will have. Your Foci begins the game with 2d6 Vitality, and up to two articles of clothing.

Step 7: Equipment

What equipment you have to begin the game is determined by the LM. It is largely contingent on any backstory you may have for your character.

Character Advancement

Experience: Abbreviated to XP. XP can be used to purchase skills, perks, and class abilities, and to buy progressions for class abilities you already have. XP is awarded at the end of each session by the GM, and how much each player receives is entirely up to how well they played and the GM. It is recommended that 3-7 XP be given out per session.

Milestones: Every 20 XP, your character hits a milestone. Their maximum Life increases by [Toughness], and their maximum Vitality increases by [Spirit]. Every 3 Milestones, one of their TACKS attributes increases by 1.

A Perk can only be taken once, unless specified otherwise. An ability progression can be taken as many times as you like, unless specified otherwise.