Character Creation: Unity

All together now!

The Game: Unity
The Publisher: Zensara Studios
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one 

Production values here are great, art is lovely and intricate. There's some cheesecake, yes, but I don't think it's too gratuitous. Nice clean fillable character sheet, bookmarked PDF. 

Now, do I care about the content? Not especially. Part of it is because the font is small and the color is such that it's hard to read (though maybe that's partially my bifocals), but part of it is because I'm reading the history and I feel like I've been here before. It's someone's special world, they've put a lot of work and love into it, but the history goes from prehistory to now, then there's long, loving descriptions of the races and the places and the...maces, and it's just a lot. 

Is it playable? Hell, I don't know, I haven't even gotten to the system stuff yet. I'm gonna give that a look before I start actually making a character, though of course you as the reader won't notice the time jump. See that? I even had lunch, no time lost at all. MAGIC.

Anyway. 

First we choose a race. Options are valla, furian, human, and afflicted. One thing I do like about this game is that while the valla and furian bear some resemblance to elves and dwarves, respectively, they are definitely not those things. Of the four of them, furian is most interesting to me, but I want to have a look at afflicted again. OK, afflicted are, as the name would imply, afflicted with a disease (the Phage) that eats away their flesh, so a lot of them have mechanical bits replacing parts of them. That's cool and all, but I'm gonna go with Furian. 

Furians are kind of berserkers; they're dwarf-like inasmuch as they are from mountains and they're highly clan-oriented, but they're actually much bigger than humans, have rock-like skin, and have a feral instinct. Pretty neat. Let's call my Furian Hazam Blackstorm.

Next we distribute Attributes. As a Furian, I start with Might 2, Agility 1, Mind 0, Presence 1, and then I can a couple of arrays (either +1, +1, 0, -1 or +2, 0, 0, -1). You know, I think I'm going to choose my class first, so I have a sense of what I should be prioritizing.

Ooh, some of these are pretty dope. Dreadnought is the obvious choice for a Furian, but I don't want to be obvious. Fell Hunter appeals, but it feels like the kind of thing I do a lot. Ooh, Primalist, hell yeah. Primalists are hybrid caster/melee sorts of characters, which makes me think that my Attributes could be evened out. So let's use the more even Attribute spread, and wind up with Might 2, Agility 2, Mind 1, Presence 0.

Starting HP is 10 + 1 (so 11), recuperation die is d8, I can use light armor and light or medium melee weapons, I have two Resources (fuel traits, basically) - Spirit and Ferocity, and my main Attribute is Mind. Whoops, maybe go back and rethink those Attributes. Let's do the other trait spread, and wind up with Might 2, Agility 1, Mind 2, Presence 0. 

I get three Core Paths. Hang on, gotta go read about those. Oh, OK, cool, these are backstory bits that shape the character. There are examples, though I'm encouraged to make them up. To do that, I think about what experience I'm drawing on, what skills it would teach and how, and then I split 5 points between the three core paths. Gotta think about backstory a bit here. 

Well, let's say Hazam is from the Obsidian Forest, right in the foothills of the mountains. His family are loggers and harvesters, but Hazam has never felt good about cutting down trees - when you cut down a tree, it's not just the tree that dies. Let's call this path Raised in the Obsidian Forest, and say that growing up there taught him forestry, foraging, and logging skills, even if he wasn't always keen on it.

Let's say that there was a storm that kicked up enough wind that branches, bark, and debris was being blown everything, and Hazam got separated from his people and lost. He spent a week in the forest alone and eventually wound up wandering west into the mountains, where he got high enough to orient himself. We'll call this Lost And Found, and say that it makes him good at orienteering, wilderness survival, and climbing.

And then, let's say that Hazam fights like a predator. That is, when he absolutely needs to. Furian culture is warlike and there's a lot about family honor and whatnot, and Hazam does feel that, but he also feels that dying for honor is plain stupid. There are demons aplenty in the world, why make it easy on them by succumbing to pride? Better to fight like a big cat - choose your moment, strike, kill, don't stay in a fight you can't win. Actually, hell, maybe that's a Blackstorm family philosophy (and partially why they're out in the forests rather than soldiers or demon hunters). Skill-wise, I think stealth and ambushing make sense.

Now we choose one Class Perk. I can either talk to animals or have nature be kinder to me (and the party) when we rest. I think the latter is more in-character for Hazam. I also get two Class Features; in my case Aspect of the Boat (get stronger and tougher) and Aspect of the Tiger (get faster and do more damage). 

Three Tier I powers! Ooh, these are dope. Well, continuing with Hazam's style of ambush predator, I want Ravage (pounce and tear!), Flurry (multiple attacks!), and Stone Skin (I grew up near mountains!). 

Equipment! I don't feel like shopping, so let's say Hazam has hide armor, a club, and a spear (all homemade).

That's the last thing on the chargen list up there, but I suspect that's not all. Yes, I thought so. Derived stats, dammit! 1 Armor, 2 Speed, 2 Attack bonus (which says it's derived from my main attribute, which for a Primalist is Mind, which seems weird, but whatever), 1 Defense, 2 Mental Resistance. 

I can't write the names of my Resources into the bars because those text boxes aren't working, but Spirit and Ferocity, as mentioned. Level 1, no XP, how old is Hazam? How do Furians age again? They live a couple of centuries, so let's assume he's about 65. 

Hazam has the same rocky feel to his skin that most Furians do, but generations of living in the Obsidian Forest have made his skin very dark and reduced the magma-like veins' visibility. His eyes are blue, but become orange and cat-like when he's angry. His hair is coarse and black, and he keeps it shorter than a lot of Furians do (he doesn't want a mane, it just gives an enemy something to grab). 

That'll do it!