Character Creation
A Breath of Life
If this is your first LARP, we've created a primer for you to take a look. Check it out here:
The mechanics of character creation are fairly straightforward, but because large amounts of the game are intended to be discovered in play, we’ve attempted to unfold enough of the story to help you build a character who fits in the world, and we’ll blur the lines slightly for how they found themselves in Chalcedony.
At each game, there will be a New Player mod, which will include an introduction to the systems of the game, as well as a brief narrative to help hook the players into the world and understand why they’ve wound up in Chalcedony.
The actual VIPs and Laws in the town are things you can find out about in play. But for general morality and some noteworthy characters, check the Beans section of the guide
A Story About a Town
In Gethsemane, the players will all portray a cast of characters inside the city of Chalcedony, and each game will unfold the city's story, and be set there.
Chalcedony is a boom town, and it's small population is being constantly (re) filled by the Overseers. As such, all PCs in Gethsemane are players from outside of Chalcedony who have been taken and transported (willingly or not, it's up to you) to Chalcedony. At your first game you will meet the PCs and NPCs who make up the town and find your place in the hierarchy of things.
A Strange Weird World
In Gethsemane we encourage you to either start with a concept and build out a character from there, or to look over skills and use these as a starting point, making a character to fit your choices. The general guidance here is to tell self-contained stories, and avoid explanations of things (Keep an element of the unknown/mystery to them).
The game itself has a large amount of meta-plot, and finding out about it and learning those secrets is part of the fun of the game, so we encourage you to keep your stories from your background small in scope and focused on the formative experiences for your character.
It's great to tell a small ghost story about a farm that was burned out by bandits that seemed to be made of ash, who left no trail when the sun raised, and when you submit your character, our Plot team will work with you to make sure your choices fit inside the greater landscape of Gethsemane.
To help with this, Chalcedony is surrounded in a fog that warps the mind of all those who enter it. Throughout the course of the game you might hear about places and people and realize that your character should have a tie in to them, feel free to 'remember' these parts of your past as the story continues on
Generally if your background is more than 1 page, it's more background than you need to get started in Gethsemane
If you're struggling, feel free to check out our Concept Help section. This section also contains some potential starter plotlines to help tie your character to others in the game.
Creation Steps:
- Background: Take a look at the background section and choose one of the Background headings. These background headings also list favored Skill Headings. Pick one of these and add it to your sheet
- Race: Generally speaking this choice will be Human. If you have gained Favor (see the section), you may pay it to start as a different race. Mark down the skill heading for your race.
- Profession: If your background is how you grew up, this represents what you’ve been up to lately. Decide what that profession is, and choose any one skill heading that represents this profession and add it to your sheet.
- Each skill you’ve picked will give you starting equipment, record these down as well as any patterns you begin play with. Keep in mind any gear you’re bringing into play you’ll need a phys-rep for (You can check out the gear section for advice on phys-reps)
- Echoes of a Past Life - You also may begin the game with a training in any Cheap item under a skill heading. This reflects some path you thought you were going to follow in life but turned away from. Mark this on your sheet, but you don't start with this equipment
- Review the Code of Conduct and Before you Begin section of the game
Headings
Headings are tags that are applied to a character that describe a character. These headings not only inform roleplay (and costuming) but also represent skills that are available to a character. Characters may train to have new headings added to their character sheet (in a process detailed later). Once they’ve gained a heading they generally may never lose it (once a Streetrat, always a streetrat). Headings include character creation prompts to help players think of things which may help them form a character but these are not mandatory to answer.
Note: Some skills, races and traits require Favor to begin the game with. Favor represents contribution to the game and are not intended for new players to Gethsemane. For more information on favor please check out out Beans, Bullets and Bandages
Background Headings
Streetrat
“It’s not so bad. As long as you get over some of those pesky morals, and some of the more tedious parts of your psyche, like say pride and honor, you can get by just fine” - Tim Tucker, Ribsplitter 2nd class, Gethsemane Meat Fields
You learned that people need a lot less to get by than what fat merchants and crusters use in their day to day life. You grew up in one of the conquered, decimated cities that the Legion have trampled through. You were exposed from a young age to deprivation and degradations that would balk even the most hardhearted. Despite the odds though, you persevered, maybe even thrived (in your own way).
You didn't grow up working a farm or being a mover and shaker among the corrupted Houses. Instead you learned what scraps were edible, who not to cross, and which shadows were the deepest.
The towns of the world are like anthills, they all ebb and flow. The shithole town you’re from is probably long dead, but even in a world that’s moved on, people drift from one place to another and writhe through the cracks, and like a determined cockroach, once your home is shattered you scurry to the next dark place to hole up.
This Background is for: people who want to play social characters, criminals, merchants, knife-fighters, gamblers, fixers for various Houses and generally the kind of people who make you walk across the street to avoid.
Costuming Suggestions:
[Text to be Added]
Available Skills:
Killer, Brawler, Rumormonger, Criminal, Connections, Survival
Special Ability:
Gutter Finery - You may access the ‘Gutter’ lifestyle which is normally unavailable
Special Flaw:
You may never take the Etiquette skill, and always must have an Enemy on your sheet, even if you get rid of one you’ll just make another.
Character Creation Question:
What do you think of honest folk? Honest work? How do you feel about living off others table-scraps?
Waster
“We’re all sheep. Here in the city you’re kept for wool. Out in the wilds, you’re just meat”
You grew up out in the wastes, a subsistence living that you never should have survived, but somehow did. Your neighbors were mutated wolves and your bedtime song a merciless howling wind. The land made you hard and you know that survival is the most important thing there is. You’re more acquainted with loss than most people and know better than to grow fond of anything before it’s taken by the wastes.
You might have travelled into cities from time to time to gather supplies or trade, but if there’s one thing you’ve learned out in places like The Great Big Nothing, it’s that people are the most savage beasts there are, and they aren’t to be trusted. You also know big clutches of people draw The Legion like pigs to shit, and so the further away you stay the better your chance to survive
All that being said, sometimes the pay is too good or the lure is too strong and something quiets the wanderlust long enough for you to stay in a city.
This Background is for: people who want to play wanderers, survivalists, scouts, vagabonds, and ‘seen it all’ hard cases
Costuming Suggestions:
Pintrest Inspiration Board
To be Determined
Available Skills:
Sword-Wielding Psycho, Trigger Puller, Gathering, Survival, Wastelore, Scout
Special Ability:
You may read and interact with Wasteland Lore cards
Special Flaw:
Wanderlust - If your downtime action is spent performing Labor in the city you start the next game depressed.
Character Creation Question:
What keeps you moving from place to place; are you running to something or from something? Are you searching for something? What is it you like least about people? What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen in the wastes? Whats the time you almost died?
Cloister
“In the still moments, between breaths, you can hear the movements of the universe, and if you listen even closer, sometimes you might hear it’s ragged weeping”
Far away from people, you grew up in one of the hidden temples. Here you learned things about yourself, and about the universe, but these learnings left you divorced from the world around you. You’re different as a result, people look at you and know.
While others grew up in fear or struggling to survive, your struggle was an internal one. You struggled to understand the great beliefs of your temple, the cult’s power is strong and their demands on those who grow up within the Cloister are fierce. Not all those who leave the Cloister do so willingly, or with it’s blessing.
This Background is for: people who want to play fanatics, aesthetics, go-against-the-grain types, people motivated by logic, people with swords, outsiders
Costuming Suggestions:
Pintrest Inspiration Board
[Text Version Here]
Available Skills:
Sword-Wielding Psycho, Brawler, Marked, Etiquette,
Special Ability:
Hardy Constitution - You gain resistance to the diseases of the land. This will help defend against narrative diseases and disorders
Special Flaw:
Untainted Flesh - You are particularly delicious to The Legion
Character Creation Question:
What were the beliefs of your cloister? Why did you leave? How do you feel about other cloisters and their beliefs? How do you feel about the impure/free lands?
High-Falutin
“It’s no less deadly, just a different kind of trap”
Whether it was from Back East or one of the other boom towns that just never stopped booming, you’re used to a certain set of creature comforts. These have left you capable of navigating the refined life and having the skills to navigate the savage mazes of refined society
That being said, refined society is still a bit of a joke. You know that humanity lives and dies at the whims of the overseers, so you know how to placate and cajole and there is no debasement too low if it means your life can be free of concerns and worries. You do know that nothing comes without risk though, you just prefer to have someone else pay the costs if you can help it
This Background is for: people who want to play smug aristocrats, people brought up with money, socialites, moral purists, hedonists, luxury seekers
Costuming Suggestions:
Pintrest Inspiration Board
To be Determined
Available Skills:
Pistolero, Killer, Connections, Marked, Etiquette
Special Ability:
Ectoparasite - While in a social setting, you may ignore Fear caused by The Legion (Though it's not always the smartest thing to ignore these instincts)
Special Flaw:
A Taste for Finery - If you begin a game with a lifestyle lower than Fed and Bed, you begin with a Shame.
Character Creation Question:
You grew up with money, how important is it to you now? Do you respect or resent what you came from? How do you feel about the Houses and the Overseers? What would you do for power? Where do you draw the line?
Cruster
“Better to Toil than Boil”
Some break their backs trying to stand up to the Overseers. Your family knew better. Keeping your heads down and carving out a corner for yourselves meant food on the table and relative safety. While some choose the gutter and others the life of wealthy merchants and the politics of the Houses, your family kept it's head down.
You lived in a small town, probably the size of Chalcedony before it blew up. Your family worked and labored and you did to. You tried to stay out of trouble and follow the rules. You focused on staying alive and doing as you were told, and figured if you hauled more rocks, or dug more holes than the next guy, then you'd at least be safer than he would.
This Background is for: people who want to play salt of the earth types, those who are willing to cooperate with others, crafters and gatherers, cantankerous old miners, townsfolk, support characters and those people who can blend in to a crowd
Costuming Suggestions:
Pintrest Inspiration Board
To be Determined
Available Skills:
Trigger Puller, Rumormonger, Marked, Etiquette
Trained Equipment:
Cheap Farming Tools or Cheap Gathering Tools
Special Ability:
Born Sufferer - You can withstand an amount of pain and abuse that would put most people to shame. You may ignore the first time your Worn Out or Exhausted conditions would be complicated each weekend
Special Flaw:
You begin each game with the Cowed condition.
Character Creation Question:
Your family always kept their head down and was willing to get pushed around, are you? What type of labor did you grow up doing? Are you happy with your life or do you want more?
Race Headings
Human
“He prefers average lookin’ people. It’s why He made so many of us”
In a world full of pig-faced weirdos and horrible creatures, sometimes it’s enough to just be Human. You’re part of the race that inhabited the Earth Before. Jury’s out on how long you’ll be here After.
Skills: Human Skill Heading
Mutant
“Bigger. Better. Stronger”
Lots of those who have been exposed to the radiations of the Place wind up broken, or sterile, or their offspring don’t live. You’ve survived somehow, or were born this way, and it’s left your body obviously different. Cities tend to have a few mutants in them, your kind can do tasks that no one else can, and you have access to strengths others can’t even fathom.
Favor Cost: 5
Available Skills: TBD
Special Ability: Pick a positive mutation
Special Flaw: Pick a negative mutation
Character Creation Question: TBD
Trueborn
“Rightful Heirs of a Rotting World”
You can trace your bloodline, thin or thick, back to one of the Overseers. As such this gives you a natural right to rule. You have a natural propensity for Blood Magic, and you are entitled to benefits and stations that only a Trueborn might access. Others who play politics are just pretending at the true power you wield.
Of course, while they may never admit it, Humanity has a natural hatred of you, as do most of the Overseers. Almost everyone in the world is out to get you as a Trueborn, so while you wield great Authority, you're also in constant danger.
Favor Cost: 20
Available Skills: TBD
Special Ability: Access
Special Flaw: Demonic Weakness
Character Creation Question: TBD
Skill Headings
In Gethsemane a skill header represents a set of basic training that you have that allows you to demonstrate progress. We firmly believe that LARPing should augment your real life skills you have and as such, skills act as sets of achievements. As you achieve various tasks, predicated by your skills, you unlock a series of powers. As the game has no experience points, accomplishing these tasks is the way that you gain your abilities.
Generally, in order to achieve one of your achievements it must either be witnessed by a Marshall, or done upon an NPC in order to ensure that achievement gain is fair. It’s also possible to lose achievements if players don’t seem to be maintaining their roleplay requirements. You may call "Can I get a Witness?" or "Witness Me" if you do something awesome and someone else sees it. You may then have your witness go with you to ST Camp to record your action. Generally speaking though, these activities should be performed in public with multiple people witnessing them
Taking a skill generally gives you a roleplay requirement and in order to continue utilizing the skills from that header. We’ve added loose groupings around the skills to help sort out the kinds of activities you may want to do, and the skills that support them.
Generally, a character can never have more than 5 Skill Headers, and a character’s advancement is capped once they reach 5 Headers. Around this time is generally when characters will begin exploring Retirement opportunities (outlined in Beans, Bullets and Bandages)
To view the list of skills: