Live Role Playing

How do I create a character?

Creating a character is fairly simple, it's where do you start that is generally the problem.

Characters have many parts to them; these mainly are name, race, faction (where you're from), group (who your with) and skills, generally a reflection of what you want to be. The following is advice on all of these to try and help you decide.

This section is the guide to character creation, taken from the Lorien Trust Role Playing System 2nd edition, which can be downloaded in full from here.

The high fantasy/medieval world of Erdreja has been created to accommodate a wide variety of characters within it's campaign world. This allows for a wide and varied set of characters and concepts to use, when you create your character.

Choose a concept.
You may already have an idea of the type of character you would like to play. This will be your basic template for creating your character within the Lorien Role Playing System. If you do not have a basic idea for a character, think of a favourite story or film character you may wish to base your character upon. You will hopefully have this character for a long time to come, so you don't want to get stuck playing something you don't enjoy.

Part of your character concept is your race, information on this is below. Also, where you come from, or the Faction you're in - these are not always the same. Select a faction from those listed in the Factions area. The Factions also give information on the lands they control.

Remember as well that most Lorien Trust events last for a considerable period of time - up to four or five days. You should come up with a concept that you are comfortable with role playing for this amount of time. If once you've come to an event and you realise that you have made the wrong choice, don't worry, you can change the character you play. Come down and talk to the Games Control staff about your reasons for changing character and they will do their best to help you.

Choose a character name.
Choose a name for your character. This can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Think about where you're your character is from, and what race you're character is. Generally, you may want to just have one name and see if you can't find or earn yourself a surname once you begin to LARP. Try to avoid putting titles like Lord or Baron in the name. Such titles are earned, not assumed and titled characters tend to take exception to a simple peasant calling himself 'King' something. If you can't think of one, try using something you like from a fantasy novel, or you can find hundreds of name generators on the web. Do not give yourself too long a name, otherwise it will not fit on your character card!

Choose your character's race.
Numerous fantasy races exist within Erdreja. Many are widespread, but others remain all but unknown. For purposes of simplification, we have grouped all the common known races together into racial groups (listed below). If your choice of race does not fit into these categories, then please specify your chosen race within reason. Use the table below as your guide. For more information on the races follow the links by name. They will open a new page in your browser you simply close it to return here.

Choose your Faction.
Each faction has a unique theme and character. To get more information look at the Faction pages listed in the Factions area.

Choosing your group
This is one of the hardest things to do. The groups in character are generally a reflection of out of character friendships if you are coming to the event with some friends either choose their group if they have one or create one between yourselves. You will need to list a group leader who you all agree on and a group name. Alternatively the group pages provide a list of available groups in your area for you to contact and possibly join. If you can't decide on a group don't worry; when you choose a Faction each Faction has a generic group under the Faction Command, you can start in it whilst you get to know people and find a group.

Choose your character's skills.
Use the list of basic skills to choose the abilities with which your character will begin the game. You should read through the descriptions of all the skills carefully before deciding which skills to buy. Your character has 17 Points to spend on basic skills. You cannot buy the same basic skill more than once. All the skills can be found in the Skills Section. The skills you choose should also be considered when you develop your character concept, Wizards have spells, Warriors generally use weapons, and scouts don't tend to wear heavy armour.

The out of character constraints on choosing skills must also be considered; look in the costume and weapons section in the new player area to get some more advice on this.

BACK