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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 9418051" data-attributes="member: 93670">I think that it goes deeper than just the ancestry.  The idea is that the PCs are already heroes based on some past deeds (IMO hero could be saved a kid from a startled horse & carriage up to much more dramatic past campaign type stuff), but there are a few steps in actually building the PC & those steps range from species to what you were doing maybe as recent as last week. Chargen has ten steps .  Without getting too deep & writing a novel or rewriting the pdf those steps are:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Think: There are seven example questions to help get a feel for the character you plan to make & more than one is somewhat relevant to later steps</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ancestry: Most of them grant one or more interesting abilities & sometimes a choice of them, your ancestry will make a big impact on how the PC plays.  I'm not going to beat around the bust & just going to say that this is what would have been called your PC's race in the past. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Culture: You get one or two skills from 1-2 of the specific<a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/draw-steel-the-mcdm-rpg.705724/post-9416442" target="_blank"> skill groups</a>  Also you get some language stuff but that's actually interesting & useful</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Career: All of them have some questions to think on & answer about them Things are all over the place  a bit & it feels logical but not easily summarized into you get 2 of x & one of Y because sometimes it's different. Most of them give a skill or two from specific skill groups. Some also add a language and/or renown along with a "title" that grants some ability or rules exception. Going to list the mechanical bits of two :<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Laborer: grants three skills (one predefined & the other two from two specific skill groups).  After that it grants one language 50 project points (I think these are crafting related) & the title of "team backbone which allows you to both make a test & assist another player's test on your first turn of a montage test</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mage apprentice:  Grants 3 skills (one specific & two chosen from a specific skill group), a language, 1 renown, & the title hedge mage... hedge mage grants the "arcane trick" ability & it's kinda long but a slightly more & less functional analog of bits from cantrips like prestidigitation/minor illusion/druidcraft/etc plus a few other things that seem useful. </li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Career (Continued):  All of them have a few examples of an "inciting incident" that is thematically relevant to the career.  Pretty much it explains why you quit doing that thing & went off to go be a hero.   They have a few an example  keyword & a couple sentences for each keyword.  Laborer & mage apprentice have disaster/embarrassment/live the dream & oops/ultimate power/missing mage.  Elsewhere it literally says "</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">(Playtest note: There are currently three inciting incidents for each career. More are coming.) " but they all feel pretty flexible & it doesn't seem to be much of an issue to say "hey gm can my iciting incident be something like xxx instead?"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Class: I haven't had the time to go through these but if you played or read over the previous packet's pregen PCs each of them still has a unique power source  with it's own way of gaining & spending those points.  The included classes are conduit (, elementalist, fury, shadow, & tactician</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Kit:  Here is where things get interesting in ways you don't normally see.  In a nutshell decide if your PC is a martial type or a spellcaster.  There are a few flavors & the type of weapon/armor you choose is a somewhat secondary choice.  The kit gives some mechanical stuff plus some ability related to movement combat positioning etc</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Add free strikes:.  These kinda hook into your class & kit I'll just quote the summary & skip the mechanics<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Every creature can make a free strike as an action on their turn, though doing so typically isn’t the most effective choice. Most of the time, you’ll use "most effective choice. Most of the time, you’ll use free strikes when the rules call for it. Specific rules let you use free strikes as part of an action that allows you to also do something else impactful, such as how the Charge action lets you move and use a melee free strike in one action (see Charge above). "</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Complication: These grant a benefit & a drawback but are optional & require gm approval.  Notably though they all link your PC deeper to the world.  A couple examples are devil deal, punishment curse, shipwrecked, & war of the guilds... they do not seem like a player could do the often seen flaw abuse of "I'm going to take this penalty to heavy weapons & get a bonus to my spellcasting stat on my mage" type stuff.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Determine details: backstory appearance personality etc type stuff</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make Connections:  I'm just going to quote the start of this "Ask the Director if all the heroes start the campaign knowing each other. If they do, talk to the other players and build some connections between your heroes. If you like, you can use the following prompts to make those connections, or to come up with prompts of your own:  "</li> </ul>The chargen summary above should make it clear that it's not just a dungeon crawler but I did see a blurb about torch mechanics somewhere think this little blurb expresses a lot "The Dead Languages table shows some of the dead languages of Orden, and the modern languages related to those ancient languages."This got covered nicely in <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/draw-steel-the-mcdm-rpg.705724/post-9417823" target="_blank">41</a>. I'd call the section on skills various forms of tests crunch that elegantly supports cool stuff at the table rather than just crunch for the sake of crunch.This is part of why I dipped into the chargen above.  There is literally a sidebar in the upbringing bit of culture  titled "but I really want alertness" that talks about working with the GM & making a case for why your culture should be modified to get your pet skill of choice from it complete with an example.</blockquote>

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