The Road Not Taken

In many tabletop role-playing games, character creation starts with the usual routine: roll some dice, assign stats, pick a class, maybe sprinkle in a few skills or a tragic backstory involving wolves. It’s a time-honored ritual.

In Scribarchy, though, when you create a Person in a Multiverse, things begin a little differently. You start in a Place called The Past, with all of your Roles set to zero—essentially a blank slate in a non-place.

Now, if you’re a Multiverse Curator (that’s you) who wants some character generation to happen before the story really kicks off, what can you offer your players?

One helpful mechanic, borrowed from other RPGs, is something that RPGGeek calls Lifepath Character Generation (source). Systems like Traveller, Twilight 2000, and Burning Wheel use this to build a character’s past—giving them a bit of history, some starting skills, maybe a limp.

Scribarchy takes a similar approach, using Choices that branch off from The Past. These Choices give a Person un-droppable Things—elements of their upbringing, training, or significant life events.

For example, in the Fog Of War Multiverse, from The Past you might choose...

...Grow Up As An Army Brat. This gives you a Thing called An Army Brat Upbringing, which adds +1 to the Role Muscle and -1 to the Role Sprinter (those big biceps slow you down). It also moves you to a new Place: The War Has Come, and from there, you might make another Choice...

...Volunteer For NATO—and continue layering on backstory until you arrive at the Place where your players' actual adventures begin with an appropriate set of Roles.

And of course, if a player doesn't like the Choices on offer, they’re free to propose their own. (See the None of the Above devlog entry for more on that.)