To make a new character, the GM first assigns a starting block of stats. For green characters with little experience, for instance, the GM may start all stats at 11. Each character may then customize by adding and subtracting points. Each value costs the number of points equal to the value above or below 10, with 10 costing one point. Thus each value would have the cost (in bold):
3(7) 4(6) 5(5) 6(4) 7(3) 8 (2) 9 (1) 10(1)
11(1) 12(2) 13(3) 14(4) 15(5) 16(6) 17(7) 18(8)
You must raise or lower each stat one integer at a time to calculate the number of points gained/lost. If you were to drop a stat from 11 to 8, for instance, that would earn three points: one to drop to 10, one to drop to 9, and one to drop to 8. Dropping from 8 to 7, however, would earn 2 points, as raising the value from 7 back to 8 would cost 2 points.
Alternatively (assuming a base character with 11 across the board), you can simply assign stats from these points:
8, 9, 10, 11, 11, 12, 13
Example: say your character starts with 11 across the board, like so:
FIN(11) ALL(11) BOD(11) STR(11) INS(11) MEN(11) NER(11)
and you wish to customize. You want a smart, agile character who's pretty, so you want to increase MEN, FIN and ALL. You'd need to take some points away from the other stats to accomplish this, so you reduce the other stats like so:
FIN(11) ALL(11) BOD(11) STR(8) INS(10) MEN(11) NER(7)
Reducing STR from 11 to 8 gives you 3 points. Reducing INS gives you 1 more point, while reducing NER all the way to 7 gives you 5 points. This means you have 9 points to play with (3 from STR, 1 from INS and 5 from NER). Raising an 11 to 12 would cost 2 points, then raising it further to 13 would cost another 3 points, for a total of 5 points. With 9 points to play with, you could raise one 11 to 13 and have 4 points left. So with three stats to increase, you could raise one 2 points and the other two 1 point. Deciding ALL would be the character's best stat, your final stat set would be:
FIN(12) ALL(13) BOD(11) STR(8) INS(10) MEN(12) NER(7)
and you would have no points left to spend. We see here the character is agile, smart and very charismatic. Though healthy, the character also is weak physically and has no willpower to speak of.
Skills are handled in a similar manner, taking into account where they're common, trained, or specialty (C, T, & S). A skill at rank 0 means nothing for common skills (people untrained can still use at rank 0), but a trained skill at rank 0 may mean weeks or months of study, while a rank 0 specialty means years of work just to grasp the basics. Also, while rank 0 is where skills begin, rank 6 represents masters of that skill, the best of the best. Green characters with little experience may start with 12 points to spend at the GM's discretion.
To begin, the GM assigns a number of points for skills. Raising a skill costs a value equal to its bonus. For instance, raising a rank 2 to rank 3 would cost 3 points. Trained skills cost 2 points to begin at rank 0 and double the cost beyond that, while specialties cost 4 points to begin at rank 0 and four times the cost beyond that, summarized here:
Common: free at rank 0, x1 point value for next rank
Trained: 2 at rank 0, x2 point value for next rank
Specialty: 4 at rank 0, x4 point value for next rank
So raising a trained skill from rank 1 to rank 2 would cost 4 points, while doing the same for a specialty skill would cost 8 points. Players are encouraged to come up with skills to fit their character concept, pending approval from the GM. Use the Skills section as a guide.
Example: say our character from the example above has 12 points to spend. Some of her options would be:
four common skills at rank 2
two common skills at rank 2 and six common skills at rank 1
two trained skills at rank 0, two common skills at rank 2, and two common skills at rank 1
one specialty skill at rank 0, one trained skill at rank 1, and four common skills at rank 1
one trained skill at rank 2, and two trained skills at rank 0
one specialty skill at rank 1, and two trained skills at rank 0
and so forth...
Let's say she picks the forth option, with four rank 1 common skills, one trained skill at rank 1, and one specialty skill at rank 0. For her skills, the player wishes to play on the character's strengths, so she's looking for skills that work with ALL, FIN, and MEN. For her common skills, she picks Persuade(ALL), Search(MEN), Dodge(FIN), and Block(BOD). Envisioning a swashbuckler type, for her trained skill she chooses Blade(FIN). For her specialty skill, she chooses Heal(S) - she studied medicine for a career before she chose a life of adventure. She chooses a few other common skills she expects to use, even though they'll be at +0, such as Spot(INS), Sneak(FIN) and Run(FIN\BOD). Her skills now look like this:
FIN(12) ALL(13) BOD(11) STR(8) INS(10) MEN(12) NER(7)
so
Dodge(C) Skill [1], FIN[+2]: Target [13]
Parry(C) Skill [0], FIN/STR[+0]: Target [10]
Block(C) Skill [1], BOD[+1]: Target [12]
=============================
Heal(S) Skill [0], MEN[+2]: Bonus [+2]
Blade(T) Skill [1], FIN[+2]: Bonus [+3]
Persuade(C) Skill [1], ALL[+3]: Bonus [+4]
Search(C) Skill [1], MEN[+2]: Bonus [+3]
Spot(C) Skill [0], INS[+0]: Bonus [+0]
Sneak(C) Skill [0], FIN\INS[+1]: Bonus [+1]
Run(C) Skill [0], FIN\BOD[+1]: Bonus [+1]
There are no hard and fast rules for starting gear, as it's so dependent on the campaign. Players are encouraged to view the Gear section and speak with the GM on what type of equipment they'd like to start with. The GM can then assign stats to each piece. If the player has a particular concept in mind, be certain to discuss with the GM. With our example character, for instance, perhaps the player wants the rapier to be a family heirloom that the character takes up to avenge her family. The GM may decide to give the weapon some special stats or bonuses.