Herein I take a look
at how one creates a character before setting off on expeditions most deadly.
Not long after
getting to grips with the system, I gathered a group of friends and suggested
they try Zweihander out. For most systems, when running a one off, I’d create
pre-gen characters. It’s easier. It’s straightforward. Mostly, it means you
exhort a little control as a GM/DM over the world and can plan accordingly. I
was tempted to do the same but then I thought it would be interesting (and
marginally selfish) to test out the creation rules in a live setting for the
purposes of this article.
All the world’s a
stage…
I’ve said it before
and I’ll say it again. For me, the concept of the character has always come
first. I tend to get overly ‘into’ creating a backstory and like to work out
details and motivations before I even approach a set of dice (or point buy
depending on your flavour of system). In the main, this has served me well.
When you take the time on a character, you can become invested and the
experience becomes more rewarding. For some of you, like me, who started on
games like ADnD or Advanced Fighting Fantasy then you’ll know that a more
fleshed out character story helps immensely. In some cases the only choices you
made were what weapon to buy. Zweihander, like its spiritual parentage, flips
this firmly on its head.
The default option
for characters in Zweihander are essentially fully random. Sure, you can throw
certain advice and rules out of the window and pick and chose to your choice.
Remember it’s ultimately your game session so do what brings you and your group
most fun. That said, hear me out. Embracing the random factor lead to more fun
than I’ve seen during character creation in years.
And all the men and
women merely players.
For Zweihander you’ll
need percentile dice and a d6. Get yourself some paper and a pencil, a copy of
the creation rules, and within an hour you’ll have a pretty fleshed out
character; warts and all.
Characters are made
up of seven key stats:
Combat – Your tactical acumen i.e. How accurate you can fire a bow or swing a
blade.
Brawn – Your physique, or lack thereof.
Agility – How well you can balance and sneak around
Perception – Noticing the world around you. What you see, hear, smell, touch or
taste.
Intelligence – Feats of the mind be it memory or learning.
Willpower – Mental fortitude and resolve.
Fellowship – One of my favourites. Your innate ability to be liked or
manipulate.
Getting numbers for
these requires a little bit of arithmetic but don’t worry, it’s only a little.
Roll 3d10 and add 25 for each. Simple. Of course one might be a lenient GM and
decide to allow players to assign rolls as they see fit. That would have been
my first inclination too if not for the little text box that explains this is
not the Grim & Perilous way. Whilst not one is going to come round to your
gaming table and prevent you doing so, having players role-play where the dice
land will more likely give you and your players more, not less, opportunity. Of
course, the designer is not without a little mercy. The standard rules allows
you to swap out a characteristic if you really struggle with a particularly low
stat where you’d rather not have one (I’m looking at you Fellowship!)
Crucially, that’s the
bulk of the ‘crunch’ now done. The majority of the in game rolls that you’ll be
required to make come from either these directly or derived secondary
statistics. So why the fanfare about the character creation process? Well
gather round cause there’s a lot more than just your stats to worry about…
All characters great
and small.
A small note on
choice and nomenclature. Zweihander doesn’t make any rules distinction between
sex or gender. Additionally, despite being humanocentric (I’ll get to that in a
sec), there are a number of ‘ancestries’ that you can potentially roll up or
chose. I’ve seen a number of discussions on social media amongst TTRPG players
and how words matter. Personally I don’t have any real preference but if
conscious choices like these help anyone in any way then it can only be a good
thing right?
So ancestry? We’ve
all encountered the somewhat worn trope of ye olde fantastical ‘races’. Dwarves
are oft ale swigging, bearded smiths with stubborn determination whilst the
fair elves are nimble, lithe, and full of song and poetry. Well yes and no.
Just like humanity isn’t homogeneous, then neither should those of fantastical
ancestries feel pigeon-holed. That being said, there are default internal
balances to account for certain obvious differences. An Ogre is odds on going
to have more muscle mass than a halfling. There’s certain physical
characteristics you can’t ignore. What Zweihander offers though is wide range
of traits that you may have as any given ancestry. In this way, you may
encounter similar elves but it could be either coincidence or they’re from a
similar area, rather than all elves being slightly better at lute playing.
Your lineage matters little when faced
with the sharp end of a cleaver
Its a (hu)man’s world
The default for
Zweihander is that all characters are human, ergo the humanocentric comment
earlier. Although there’s no default world as such, it’s implied throughout
that humans are the most common ancestry roaming the lands. Now you can feel
free to change this up as much as you want; the game includes rules for a
variety of fantastical backgrounds. However, the grim and perilous nature plays
to the human angle better. All too often I’ve encountered players for whom
Dwarves are just small humans with better stomachs and poorer manners, or Orcs
are similarly angry humans with more time working out. It’s hard enough to get
into the mind of another character without also considering how ‘alien’ their
mindset may be. Still, everyone likes a challenge.
All this being said,
I think it’s worth bringing all of these thoughts back towards the implied
tones and themes of the game. This is dark gritty fantasy. Where the game makes
no implicit rights or wrongs in your characters sex, gender, or ancestry, that
doesn’t mean the same holds true in the game world you experience. I’m reminded
of some source books which described cultural norms for their settings. Sexism,
racism, and any other kind of intolerance may be rife. This may convey a dark
realism though so as with all things, best to sound out with your group what
you are all aiming for. No one book will answer that unfortunately.
Archetypes and
Backgrounds
With your stats and
ancestry firmly established you’ll be wanting to know what your life had in
store for you. A quick roll will reveal your archetype; a broad brush stroke
overview of your day to day persona. Whether an Academic or Knave, Socialite or
Warrior, you’ll pick up your worldly belongings at the point, trappings, and
also roll again to further define your profession.
A fair chunk of the
book is given over to professions. In RPG parlance I feel its fair to think of
these as classes. Where one could sort of kind of think of the archetypes in
DnD terms, with warrior being fighter or socialite being bard, these
professions are literally that. You’ve a chance of holding a decent job as
watchman or maybe a scholar’s assistant. Maybe your upbringing was rough and
you’ll fallen in with a group of thieves. Of course, maybe you’ve learned to
rely on your good looks and sharp wit to turn coin at the local tavernas.
Regardless, each profession gives you more traits and skills, as well as
special ability linked to the job.
I’m a big fan of the
profession system overall. It better reflects what you do as a character and
whilst it might be more appealing to just pick the one you want, starting off
with the hand fate dealt you doesn’t prevent you from changing your path.
Instead of levelling up, characters in Zweihander gain experience and become
more skilled at what they would have done in their job. You can then aim to
progress out into a higher tiered profession or switch to something else which
makes more sense. Think of tiered professions almost like promotions within a
career. You might start as a squire but you can aim to be knighted with the
goal of leading your own order. Of course you might as easily start as a
ratcatcher with grand dreams of simply switching to a job that doesn’t involve
crawling through excrement in the dark.
But it doesn’t end
there.
This might all still
seem focused on the ‘crunch’. With your profession established, now comes the
really good meaty bits. It sounds like I’m describing a slow death through
tables and rolls but having witnessed three players generate characters by
random it was amazing to see how fluid ideas were and how quickly little wisps
could crystallise into memorable aspects of their characters.
Things like size and
complexion are all well and good but one of the best aspects of the random
character creation was the distinguishing marks table and the concept of the
Dooming! Distinguishing marks are exactly as you’d expect it’s things like odd
colour eyes or maybe a scar. Its a decent sized list though and one, a wooden
foot, led to a complete quick rethink of how one player saw their character.
Instead of a stealthy stalking hunter type with his crossbow, he shifted to
someone more calculating. He was stealthy but had to hide beforehand as the tap
clump tap clump might be a giveaway. If you’re prepared to embrace these little
touches, you’ll definitely not regret it.
We’re doomed!
Regardless of your
chosen setting you have to shoe-horn in the concept of the dooming. At the time
of their birth, your characters will have had some wise woman or seer, or maybe
just a crazy uncle, cast a portent about their dooming. A cryptic line about
how they will meet their fate or suffer a great downfall.
There’s zero rules to
this. Simply a little line that the character will have grown up with. Maybe
it’s a cryptic line about trusting a snake which has led to a phobia. It could
be that it shapes their outlook on a certain activity. Of course it could as
easily be that the character ignores it or tempts fate to seek out such a
demise to prove everyone wrong. Ultimately it’s just a nice tool that adds
extra depth without having to wrack your brains for a wee hook to get you
going.
Ready to roll…
Be sure to check out
the Grim & Perilous Studios page for a wealth of
information about the game and lots more discussion from those who’ve clearly
enjoyed it as much as myself. You can check out the book directly here
from Andrews McMeel.
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