Let's Create A Character - Beyond The Wall by Flatland Games

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Harl Quinn

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This is a character generation demo for Flatland Games' RPG Beyond The Wall. As with Endless Flight's Conan thread, I'll do my best to explain things clearly and with enough detail for those who don't have the game. Beyond The Wall (henceforth BTW), as I wrote in my review here for Tribality, is an RPG that mixes OGL and OSR mechanics and concepts while keeping things simple.

This first "Let's Create" thread for BTW will cover the creation of a solo character. Future posts will cover multiclassed characters as well as creating groups of adventurers and their home region using the playbooks and supplements for the game.
 
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Step One: Assign Ability Scores
Ability scores (and their related modifiers) are rolled using 4d6-L and then assigned as the player sees fit. In this case:
STR 14 (+1)
DEX 13 (+1)
CON 16 (+2)
INT 13 (+1)
WIS 11 (+0)
CHA 12 (+0)​

Looking over the scores, there's a lot that can be done. Since this is our first character, let's keep it simple ala Mentzer's D&D and create a human warrior.

Step Two: Select Class and Alignment
BTW greatly simplifies things by giving three character classes - warrior, mage, and rogue. These three act as archetypes which a player can customize to create a variety of characters. This can be taken further with multiclassing, but that's another post for another day. So, we've decided our character will be a warrior. Next, we need to choose an alignment.

Like Basic D&D, BTW relies on three alignments - Law, Neutrality, and Chaos. Unlike Basic D&D, the definition of each alignment in BTW is a bit broader.
"Characters with the alignment of Law are not necessarily good or kind individuals. A hero who seeks to provide for her whole village and protect the lands, making them peaceful for all, is a lawful character. But so is a tyrant who punishes crimes overly harshly and stifles all celebrations and merriment in his lands so that things remain forever quiet and orderly...
"Chaotic characters are not necessarily evil, wicked, or selfish individuals, though many are. A brave warrior who wanders the land, righting wrongs which bother him and ignoring those in which he has no interest, is a chaotic character, but so is a wicked thief with no respect for others’ property, taking what he wants from other folk...
"Alternatively, some characters and creatures have a vested interest in maintaining a balance between the powers of Law and Chaos. Such rare individuals turn Neutrality into a philosophy of its own and seek to always bring a balance of the two.
"A simple farmer who makes his decisions on a case-by- case basis, caring nothing for where those actions fall in a grand cosmology, is an example of a neutral character, as is a wanderer seeking to stop both the worst ravages of chaos and the most stifling acts of law." - Beyond the Wall, p.6
In this case, we'll make our character a bit of a free spirit. Basically good, but not too keen on restrictive and unfair laws. So her alignment will be Chaos (with good tendencies).

As a warrior, she receives the following:
Hit Dice: The hit die for the warrior is a d10 and all first level characters receive maximum hit points, modified by their CON score. In this case, our warrior has 12 hit points (10 + 2 CON mod) at first level.
Initiative Bonus: As in the 3.5 OGL, BTW characters have an initiative bonus. This is based on their experience level, class, and modified by their Dexterity modifier. As such, our fledgling warrior receives a +3 bonus (+1 for class, +1 for DEX mod, and +1 for her experience level).
Armor: As usual, warriors can wear any type of armor. We'll cover that when we get to equipment.
Base Attack Bonus: Continuing the adherence to the 3.5 OGL, characters in BTW have base attack bonuses. At first level, the warrior's BAB is +1.

Warriors have two class abilities; they can choose a weapon specialization as well as a special knack. Weapon specializations grant the warrior a +1 to hit bonus and +2 bonus to damage when wielding that particular weapon. It also gives them that weapon for free at the start of the game. In this case, we'll give her a specialization with the longsword.

Knacks are tricks of the trade that the warrior picks up, whether it's from a mentor or through experience on the battlefield. The character receives one knack at first level and then an additional knack at 3rd, 6th, and 9th levels. A character can have the same knack multiple times as the bonuses stack. In this case, to make our warrior a little more versatile, we'll give her a second weapon specialization in the longbow.

Saving throws in BTW are a variation on the standard five-save system: Poison, Breath Weapon, Polymorph, Spell, Magic Item. The variant rules in the book also provide for the simplified three-save system (Will, Fortitude, and Reflex), but for this example, we'll stick with the old school five. At first level, the warrior's saves are:
Poison: 14
Breath Weapon: 17
Polymorph: 15
Spell: 17
Magic Item: 16​

Step Three: Pick Skills
Starting characters begin the game with two skills. The exception to this is if the character is a rogue, which has the Highly Skilled ability (giving them an extra two skills out of the gate). To keep our warrior versatile, we'll give her the skills Hunting (WIS) and Pathfinding (INT or WIS). The character receives a +2 bonus to their ability roll when using either of these skills.

In my next post, we'll cover languages, equipment and other finishing touches.

Harl Quinn
 
Whats the premise of Beyond the Wall?
 
I think that the game really shines when you do group character creation. I think that a lot of people will be impressed by that aspect of the game: creating a bunch of youngsters with shared backstories, strong connections to one or more NPCs of the community and ability score generation that is directly tied to personality traits, life events and upbringing.
 
Whats the premise of Beyond the Wall?
Beyond The Wall basically takes D&D and runs with the tropes of young adult fantasy fiction - more Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain or C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. Group character generation focuses on ties between characters. That type of character generation uses playbooks which are more a cross of lifepath chargen and d6 Star Wars character templates. The rules are a very simplified mix of OSR and OGL concepts (skills, ascending AC, etc. from the OGL; five saves from the OSR, etc). I really want to run it using some of hte old Basic D&D modules like In Search of the Unknown and The Keep on the Borderlands.

Harl
 
I think that the game really shines when you do group character creation. I think that a lot of people will be impressed by that aspect of the game: creating a bunch of youngsters with shared backstories, strong connections to one or more NPCs of the community and ability score generation that is directly tied to personality traits, life events and upbringing.
I agree. The group chargen is an excellent aspect of the game and it best exemplifies the game's focus. I'm thinking my first PbP here is going to be BTW.

Harl
 
I think that the game really shines when you do group character creation. I think that a lot of people will be impressed by that aspect of the game: creating a bunch of youngsters with shared backstories, strong connections to one or more NPCs of the community and ability score generation that is directly tied to personality traits, life events and upbringing.

Yeah, that's the thing that really separates it from the pack of D&D clones
 
Sorry for such a long gap between posts, folks; to recap what we've completed for our first character in Flatland Games' Beyond The Wall:

Name: Brigit
Class and Level: 1st Level Warrior
Race and Gender: Human female
Ability Scores
STR
14 (+1)
DEX 13 (+1)
CON 16 (+2)
INT 13 (+1)
WIS 11 (+0)
CHA 12 (+0)

Alignment: Chaos (good tendencies)
Hit Die: d10
Hit Points: 12 (10 + CON modifier)
Initiative Bonus: +3 bonus (+1 for class, +1 for DEX mod, and +1 for her experience level).
Base Attack Bonus: +1
Weapon Specialization: Longsword
Knack: Extra Weapon Specialization - Longbow

Saving Throws
  • Poison: 14
  • Breath Weapon: 17
  • Polymorph: 15
  • Spell: 17
  • Magic Item: 16
Skills
Hunting (WIS)
Pathfinding (INT or WIS)
At this point we've reached the finishing touches stage. Being a human, Brigit speaks Common; having a +1 Intelligence modifier she gets a bonus languability rage. Living near a dark forest, Brigit has learned enough of the goblin language to call their bluff and possibly even bargain with them if necessary, so we'll add Goblin to her list of languages.

With regard to starting funds, each character starts with 4d6 silver pieces. Rolling the dice, we find Brigit has 21 silvers with 10 silver pieces equaling one gold piece.

Equipment in Beyond The Wall is a bit more narrative than most RPGs:
(Beyond The Wall, p.9) "A starting character begins with simple clothing and all of the basic equipment necessary to use his skills, if the player wants. A character who knows how to pick locks is assumed to have a set of lockpicks, a seamstress has needles and some thread, and a fisherman has some hooks and bait. A blacksmith may well have his smithing hammer, but he does not necessarily begin the game with a workshop and forge of his own.

"Whichever skills you have, be sure to write down what equipment comes with them. If you don’t tell the group that you have lockpicks, it’s no fair having them magically appear in the middle of a game!

"All characters also start with adventurer’s equipment: a few feet of rope, flint and tinder, a water flask, a whetstone, and some other stuff; basically, what your character needs to survive in the wilderness. Anything out of the ordinary should be agreed upon ahead of time and written down."
Brigit's inherited the following gear from her father, a retired adventurer:
  • A longbow (d8+1 damage)
  • A longsword (d8+1 damage)
  • Chainmail armor (+4 AC for a total Armor Class of 15)
  • A simple shield (+1 AC, raising Armor Class to 16 when used)
  • Flint and tinder
  • A water flask
  • A whetstone
WRITER'S NOTE: Beyond The Wall uses the OGL's ascending Armor Class scale, so Brigit's AC would be 15 with the chainmail, 16 with the chainmail and shield.

With her 21 silver pieces, she purchases:
  • Two daggers (d4+1 damage, each - 8 coppers)
  • A quiver of 20 arrows (1 silver)
  • Six torches (2 coppers)
  • One week's rations (3 silvers, 5 coppers)
  • A belt and pouch (5 coppers)
  • 50 feet of rope (1 silver)
  • A large sack (5 silvers)
  • A bedroll (2 silvers)
  • A backpack (3 silvers)
This leaves her with 4 silvers to her name.
WRITER'S NOTE: Yes, I copied part of Morgan Ironwolf's equipment list. Don't judge me, Internet! :p:grin:

Finally, all player-characters in Beyond The Wall have what are known as Fortune Points. These can be used to stabilize when they hit zero hp, reroll a failed roll, or help a friend with a +2 bonus to that friend's ability score for a single roll. Warriors and mages start with three (3) Fortune Points. Rogues get to start with five (5). Lucky dogs. :eek::grin:

While I could conceivably go into the character's background, I won't as we've completed the mechanical portion of basic character generation and there's no real lifepath/background component unless you create a group of characters using the playbooks. That in itself is going to be the second thread I post for Beyond The Wall. If anybody is interested in helping create the character group, it would be awesome and I can easily provide playbooks from the rulebook. :grin::cool:

This is what Brigit's basic character sheet would look like:
file

Any questions or mistakes? Let me know.:grin:

Later!

Harl
Brigit%20-%20BtW.jpg
 
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Tell us more about this group chargen process. What makes it special?
 
As you go through Lifepath Chargen and players find out more about the village, they build the map of the village together. Also at one point, some major event happened to that character, and the character of the player to your right, and both PCs get bonuses as a result, so every PC is tied to at least two others via personal history.

To be honest, I don't see why you'd play the game without going through the Lifepath chargen, even if it was a solo PC, that's kind of the point of the system.
 
Does the village map have any special meaning or importance in game other than its the map of the village?
 
Does the village map have any special meaning or importance in game other than its the map of the village?
The adventures involve threats to the village, either internal or external, so it it is going to see use in play. The map creation also lead to NPCs with ties to the PCs being created.
 
As you go through Lifepath Chargen and players find out more about the village, they build the map of the village together. Also at one point, some major event happened to that character, and the character of the player to your right, and both PCs get bonuses as a result, so every PC is tied to at least two others via personal history.

To be honest, I don't see why you'd play the game without going through the Lifepath chargen, even if it was a solo PC, that's kind of the point of the system.
True, you could go through solo chargen using a playbook and it would be no different from regular chargen, just with life events already rolled in. I think the only difference really is that your character doesn't get the bonus ability score points from sharing a life event with the character belonging to the player on your left.

I have to confess this has gotten me thinking about how to hack the lifepath systems from Pathfinder and/or D&D 3.5 to work with BTW. :grin:

Later!

Harl
 
Given all the talk about the group chargen, should I take that to mean any or all of you would volunteer to do a group chargen thread with me? :smile:
Later!

Harl
 
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