Character Creation: Emerald Templars

The only opening lines I can think of involve riffing on "Emerald" with "Fennell", and that's just weird.

The Game: Emerald Templars
The Publisher: Geek Lyfe
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Emerald Templars is a fantasy RPG that kinda doesn't even rise to the level of "heartbreaker" (which is normally something that includes some cool and original element but is otherwise either subpar or just a D&D clone). It doesn't have anything in particular that made me think "huh, that's new." The system is weird, though not incomprehensible (I might be feeling charitable on that front, though, because I spent yesterday making a Shadowrun 3rd Ed character), and the game really needed some love on the editing front. Lots of passive voice, a goodly number of typos, and there's this weird formatting error where the space after the word "Magi" gets deleted, so there's a mention of "Magior Witch" and I though that was some kind of Witch that I'd missed.

And yet...it has some charm. It was clearly made with some love, and unlike a lot of the small-press fantasy RPGs I read, this was made by a team of people rather than one dude. There's advantage to tight focus, but there's also advantage in a diverse team of voices, which is kinda what we get here.

Anyway, the setting is pretty simple: There were Old Gods, they created young gods, there was a god rebellion, the Old Gods and a few loyalist gods got locked away, humanity (well, there are a bunch of non-human species) has had problems with Chaos Magic and it used to be that Emerald Templars were protectors for that kind of thing, but nowadays most governments can handle it so the Templars are more community-service or ceremonial...but the magic is getting worse! (Dramatic music sting.)

So let's make a Templar! One thing I like is that there's some attention paid to how one gets recruited, and it basically cooks down: You volunteer, you get voluntold (a few firstborn of every generation have to join), or you choose a Templar's life over going to prison/getting exiled. I think I prefer the first, so we'll start the chargen process from that jumping-off point. Chargen is an 11-step process, but it's never summarize on one page, sadly. It is, however, all gathered together in a chapter rather than spread out through the book, so good form. (Also the PDF is bookmarked, though the chapters are listed bottom-to-top, which I've seen before and I have to assume is a formatting error or something.)

Stage One: Age. I can young, middle-aged (you mean adult, ffs?) or elder. Hmm. I dunno, really. Well, if I'm a volunteer that implies not elder (I could make it work, but eh). I think I'll go with young.

I was worried when I saw the %s and such low numbers, but it actually looks pretty forgiving (if weird). Basically, you roll a d10 to set the 10s place of your roll, then add the appropriate Attribute and Skill together as the 1s place. So if my Attribute + Skill total is 4, and I roll a 5 on the d10, I've rolled 54, which is then compared to a difficulty. It does seem a little swingy in the way that single-die rolls often are, but the fact that I can explain it from memory puts it light years ahead of a lot of other games I've read.

Anywho, Stage Two: Distribute Attribute Points. As a yute (oh, sorry, YOOOOTHE) I get 26 points to split up, they have to be in increments of 2, and I can't go over 12. Our six Attributes are Agility, Awareness, Influence, Intellect, Strength, and Will, or AAIIWS for short. I get little bonuses at 6, 8, and 12, too.

Well, I could put 4 in each one and have 2 points left over, if I wanted to be an all-rounder. Let's assume I don't, however. I kinda want to play a magic-user of some kind, so assume I want to be a Magi, I should bump up Intellect and Will. If I put Intellect at 8 and Will at 6, that would leave me 10 for the other four Attributes. Hrm. I guess I could go 2s across the board and put the extra 2 into Awareness? Sure, we'll try that.

Stage Three: Stress Meters. Every Stress Meter (there are 5 different ones) starts at 30, and then gets modified by the Attribute(s) linked to it. So:

My Agility, Influence, and Strength are all 2, so there's no bonus from them. My Awareness is 4, which gives me a +5 to Anxiety and Lucidity Stress (35 each). My mighty Intellect gives a +15 to Anger and Lucidity, which makes Anger 45 and Lucidity 50. And my Will gives me a +10 to my choice of Lucidity, Anger, or Physical. Um, Physical, please, I need some help there. So in the final analysis:

Physical 40
Exhaustion 30
Anxiety 35
Lucidity 50
Anger 30

Stage Four: Skillz. As a Young Parson who eats their yogurt from a tube, I get 4 points to spend in Skills in sets of 2, which means I can bump two Skills up by 2. Do I have a starting rating? I don't seem to. Well, the temptation is to put all 4 into Focus, since that's the spellcasting skill, but I think I'd like to diversify a little, so let's put 2 in Focus and 2 in Charm (I'm not naturally anything special in the social arena, which might explain why he's put some effort into faking it).

Step Five: Tradeskills. Same principle, just more focused on professional stuff, and again, I get 4 points (rather, 2 sets of 2). I think I'll take Therapist and Kennel Master and say that my guy's family breeds and trains therapy animals (there's a whole system for them and how they reduce stress). 

Step Six: Vices. Pobody's nerfect, but your flaws can help in certain circumstances. The Vices are actually the Seven Deadly Sins (I mean, sure, World of Darkness 2004 did the same thing initially), I get 20 to split up in increments of 2, and I can't go over 8 in any one so no just dumping everything into Lust and being Super Horny. 

Well, my guy is young, and so Lust actually does make sense, so I'll put 8 there. 12 left, so let's put 6 in Envy and 6 in Pride. 

Step Seven: Pick a Heritage. Here's where it really starts to get fun (I almost think this should have been first, but whatever). I'm picking a species here, and sure, we have a few standards (human, goblin, orc) but also oni, kitsune, and risen (someone who was raised from the dead as a sort of zombie). 

You know, maybe it's just the artwork, but I kinda want to make an orc:

Dawwww

Well, this is weird. No slot for Heritage on the sheet. Oh, no, wait, it's on the second page. I might have to print out at least that one. There's another one for spells. I have to say, though, the sheet design is pretty clean and it's easy to find stuff once you know where to look.

Stage Eight: Pick Culture. Where ya from? I think I want my orc to be from Sanamana, more specifically the city of Khawab-al-Deyo. The city has a bad relationship with the Emerald Templars, partially because they embrace chaos magic, but in my character's case I think what happened was that a group of them was invited in to contain a situation that the locals couldn't (they hate doing that, but it does happen). My character had served on the Adaalat (a council of elected officials from various stages of life meant to mediate conflict) and isn't so vehemently opposed to the Templars, and wound up joining up as his time on the council was coming to an end anyway (when you age out of your cohort, you leave the council rather than just joining the next one up). 

Being from Sanamana, I get a +2 to Daunt and I take half damage from the Poisoned/Venomed Condition.

Stage Nine: Class & Subclass. Well, I already know I want to be a Magi, but what subclass? Well, first of all, I get to bump Focus or Perform by 2. I think I'll put it into Focus, I don't see this guy as much of a performer. I also get 2 Spells, but I'll worry about that momentarily. 

My subclass options are Chronomancy, Necromancy, Astromancy, and Elemancy. Man, I'm so tempted by Necromancy. Does it make sense for this guy? I actually think Astromancy might be better. Sure, staring into the cosmos is risky, but for someone who grew up around other people's trauma, I can see how he might have come across someone who was exposed to cosmic shit and needed a puppy. 

I get Trick of the Light (I can create illusory duplicates that add to my Defense Value) and Cosmic Understanding (I don't get Anxiety from witnessing cosmic events or creatures). 

Two Spells! I'll take Alter Gravity (let's me speed up or slow down targets in an area) and Tongue of Another World (I speak to someone in a cosmic tongue that inflicts damage, but the next spell they cast goes Chaos. Nothing says I couldn't whisper to myself!).  

Stage Ten: Equipment. OK, fine. I get a basic weapon and a shield or two basic weapons, let's start there. I'll take a Talwar (basically a saber with a knuckle bow, but useful for disarming) and a rungu (lightweight throwing club). I get a choice of various kinds of armor. I can wear armor, but it has to be light. Agbada it is, then. 2d6 monies (no, really, that's what the currency is)...3. Great. And a small backpack.

Stage Eleven: Knacks. I get an upbringing Knack and a standard Knack. For my upbringing Knack, I'll take...hmm. Therapist's Child makes sense, but I think I'll take Political Child to reflect his time with the Adaalat. That increases Influence by 2 and Perform or Charm by 2. Again, not a performer, so Charm. 

For my general Knack, I'll take Beloved by Nature. I get a bonus on non-hostile interactions with animals and plants.

Stage Twelve: Hindrance. Yeah, I know, I thought it was 11 stages, too, but then there's this one! But it's also misspelled as "Hinderance", so what the hey. I get to roll a d12 for this, if it sucks I can reroll once. I think I'll just roll 2d12 and pick which one I like better. 2 and 4 gives me a choice between Quick to Anger (all Anger Stress is doubled) or Realm Sensitivity (all Lucidity Stress is doubled). Well, the latter makes more sense, though I don't think it'd be a good gameplay strategy, but fortunately I won't actually be playing this guy. 

The unofficial thirteenth step can be to reconcile all of this, so I wind up with:

Agility 2
Awareness 4
Influence 4
Intellect 8
Strength 2
Will 6

Only one that went up was Influence, does that change Stress? Yes, it bumps Anger and Anxiety by 5. So that leaves me with:

Physical 40
Exhaustion 30
Anxiety 40
Lucidity 50
Anger 35

Skills, I get Therapist 2, Kennel Master 2, Focus 4, Charm 4, Daunt 2.

Yep, I think that's everything. So! Marwak the Orc grew up in Khawab-al-Deyo, and was elected to the Adaalat at age 10. His family breeds dogs for use as therapy dogs, and Marwak was known as an orc with an even temper and a kind heart. As he got older, his interest drifted away from kenneling and more towards cosmic spellcasting, and by the time he turned 20 he was well and truly ready to leave town. That was the year that the Emerald Templars came to town, and Marwak wound up chatting with an oni Magi who convinced him that it'd be worth getting out of town. Figuring that since he only had a few more years till he'd be off the Adaalat anyway, he volunteered for duty.

Marwak is about 6'2", so medium height for an orc. His skin was sky blue when he was a kid, but it's deepened to a kind of teal now. His tusks are still pretty puny, though (his dad tells him not to worry, his came in late, too).