Creating a Character

It is a wild adventure we are on. 

Here, as we are rushing along through the darkness,

with the cold from the river seeming to rise up and strike us,

with all the mysterious voices of the night around us, it all comes home.

We seem to be drifting into unknown places and unknown ways.

Into a whole world of dark and dreadful things.

— Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897)

Character creation in Secret Wars is a simple Step-by-Step process to take a character from conception to a fully fleshed-out character with goals, personalities and mechanical traits to express themselves in the story.

Step 1:  Concept

The initial step is about coming up with the idea of a character you can see yourself playing for several game sessions.

Fundamentally, Secret Wars is about our own real world, only a slightly stranger and more fantastical version of it. Your starting concept could be someone you could meet on the street. Try to boil it down to a simple phrase: "bored medical student," "blogger obsessed with mysteries" or "noble werewolf warrior." It doesn't need to be particularly complex.

Each player takes a different approach to creating a character. Some want a character who will fit well into the story, while others look for a combination of abilities that complement each other mechanically. You might combine these two approaches. There is no wrong way!

If you need ideas, it is useful to jump ahead and look at Backgrounds and Origins to see what options you can pursue.

Step 2: Abilities

At this point, you can start building your character. Your abilities represent your character's skeleton: what they are, mechanically, in the world. Most subsequent decisions depend on your character's Ability Modifiers.

You start off with a modifier of 0 in each of the 8 abilities. You have 25 points to assign as you wish, based on the calculations found on the Abilities page.

When you have settled on your final ability modifiers, mark them down on your Character Sheet.

Step 3: Origin

Select your character's origin: what kind of supernatural creature they are. Are they a vampire? An efrit? A kitsune? Or a mundane human who got dragged into this world of magic and monsters?

Your origin functions the same as your "race" and "class" do in other games, determining most of your supernatural abilities.

Your origin can make the following adjustments to your character:

• Your starting Vitality Points

• Your starting Anima Points

• Your starting Skill Points

• Your creature type

• Your starting size.

• Potential adjusts to ability scores 

• Unlocking origin-specific feats and abilities (discussed later)

Once you have selected your Origin, mark it down in the Origin section at the top of the first page of your character sheet. Underneath that, write your creature type. Adjust your ability scores as needed. Then, in the appropriate locations, write in your character's speed (usually 1 Range for most origins), size (usually Medium - 5 for most origins), and senses in the appropriate spaces. Finally, at the bottom of the first page, add your Origin's Vitality and Anima Point bonuses.

Step 4: Background

Your background represents your upbringing, career, or facet of your life before you joined the Secret War. Most backgrounds provide a single ability boost, two skills boosts, Vitality points, and your starting wealth.

Your background makes the following changes:

• You gain an ability score boost

• You gain skill bonuses to up to two skills

• You gain a wealth bonus. In most cases, this defines your starting wealth score.

• You gain a bonus to your Vitality Points from your background.

Once you've selected your background, write it in at the top of your Character Sheet. Then adjust your Ability Scores as appropriate. Add your Wealth Score under the advantages section of the Character sheet, and, at the bottom of the first page. add your background's bonus Vitality Points in the appropriate location. Finally, on the second page, add your Background's skill bonuses to the appropriate skills.

Step 5: Finalize Advantages and Details

The next step of rounding out your character is to flesh out the type of person they are. During this step, you

• develop up to 3 allegiances your character is tied to

• choose up to 3 aspirations your character wants to achieve

• pick a virtue and vice that hold sway over your character

Record all of the above in the Advantages section of the first page your character sheet, then add 1 Hero Point to the top of the second page of your character sheet.

At this point, you can also finalize some other details about your character, including their age, pronouns, height, weight, eye colour, hair or fur colour, nationality, and hometown.  These vital statistics usually have no mechanical effect on gameplay but help to paint a clearer picture of your character and their background.

Step 6: Feats, Skills and Abilities

Once who know who your character is, it's time to determine how  they do things.

When you selected your origin, you received a number of skill points. During this step, you can now spend those skill points on either skill ranks or feats.

Skill Points can be spent like Experience points, but they can only be spent on skills and feats, and you can only buy up to four ranks in any one skill when starting. You can choose to invest all your skill ranks, and pick up no feats, or you can spend most of your skill points on feats. It's entirely up to you and your vision of the character.

During this step, most origins will also have their own origin-specific decisions to make, such as a Mage's spells, or a Fey's glamours.

Record all the skill ranks you purchase in the skills section, found on the second page of your characters sheet. All feats you purchase should be recorded in the feats section of the third page. 

Step 7: Equipment

Once you have finished off assigning feats, skills and abilities, you will be assigned a basic equipment package by the GM. Additional equipment can be purchased with your Wealth, or requisitioned from your faction as needed,

Typically, this equipment includes one sidearm of your choice, one light melee weapon of your choice (usually a knife), a simple warding talisman, and a smartphone.