Character Creation

PC Building - A Quick Guide

1. Pick your Career. This greatly determines how you do things out of combat. You always gain your Career’s Root Skill.
2. Then choose 2 other skills from your chosen Career.
3. Pick your Regular Order. This greatly determines how you do things in combat.
4. Pick a Secret (if you want one).
5. Pick a Bonus.

A Character Spreadsheet is available here to assist in selecting skills.

Then you can submit you character here.

Ref Fiat: Your character (at least at start of play) has volunteered to join a group that is explicitly about helping and defending their local community. Whilst they may have different methods of doing so, at game start please do not gen a character with malicious intent towards fellow members or the Cambridge Branch, or those coming to the Cambridge Branch for help. This may, of course, change in play.

CAREER

Your career is what your character does for a living - how they make their way in this world of magic and unnatural creatures. Do they pull strings, and keep people pointed in the same direction? Do they provide information on the lay of the land, or dive deep into occult mysteries?

All of the below are career ‘types’ and are not prescriptive to your characters actual job - your character can be a librarian Official, a Scholar who provides protective EFFECTs to MI-13 when they investigate incursions, or an Occultist private detective who protects their neighbourhood from threats.

Scholar

Investigating the deeper mysteries

Scholars are magical researchers, experts at analysing magical phenomena and finding answers in long lost libraries. In Cambridge Scholars are often affiliated with the university or one of the government agencies, but others work freelance. Some specialise in a particular area - Outworlds, occult history - whilst some dabble in whatever takes their interest.

Wherever they work, what defines a Scholar is their training; all Scholars are trained to handle Out of Place Artefacts (commonly known as OOPAs), commonplace objects with magical cores which require specialist intervention.

Whatever their area of interest, Scholars are most comfortable chasing down leads, and investigating Occult effects.

You can find Scholar skills here.

Example Character Concepts:

• A student in search of a dissertation topic, cataloguing out-of-place artefacts.
• A technician insisting that the right tool for the job will always be the cursed one.
• A lab technician with the cleanest pentagrams in the city, pushing for safe, standardised séances.
• An archivist, clutching an ever-full gas-lantern as they delve into the stacks.

Official

Keeping the city running smoothly

‘Officials’, as they are commonly called, are defined by one thing; a government sanction to carry Writs, and to negotiate and sign off on Contracts with Occult entities. Addition to the Government Registry of Officials typically requires rigorous exams and thorough background checks, but like anything, these can be gotten around if you know the right people.

Beyond that, an Official can be anyone in a position of public trust, and they are essential in any area where deals with Outside entities are commonplace; some are in politics, some are lawyers, some in libraries, treating with Devils for valuable tomes. Used to social maneuvering, Officials work best when they have others to direct and inspire.

You can find Official skills here.

Example Character Concepts:

• A clerk, stamping papers and handing them to the ghost of their predecessor to file away.
• A librarian who keeps the air in their library unnaturally silent and still, thanks to an Outside entity from a world without sound.
• A tollbooth operator and the hulking devil employed to enforce payment.
• A croupier at a sanctioned casino, still waiting for the right partner to enlist.

Occultist

Dabbling with otherworldly forces

The system of magical Rituals to create long term effects is still in its infancy, and with the recent crackdowns on Ritual research, information is scarce and sanction for investigations rarely granted. As such, ‘Occultists’ as they have become known, are more grassroots - typically self taught rather than via an institution or apprenticeships. Some Occultists work openly as exorcists or providing magical wards, some are hired on a case by case basis to solve magical problems, and others are attached to specific businesses or clubs.

Used to working with limited information, Occultists have their own methods for dealing with problems, but ultimately they are best making it up as they go; converting problems too large to solve into other, smaller problems, then using rituals and ‘home grown’ methods to solve them.

You can find Occultist skills here.

Example Character Concepts:

• A believer in search of a forgotten god, certain that the next ritual will be the true one.
• A gardener who claims their instincts will always show them which runes to cast and which to prune away.
• A charlatan whose props one day began to twist the veil around them.
• A paper-boy saving his pay for the runes he is certain will make his fortune.

Warden

Defending the country against Incursions

‘Warden’ is a slang term for anyone who provides active defense against Outworld incursions and their denizens, either as part of official response groups or locally/independently. This continued exposure to Outside entities has meant Wardens can Astral Project; separating their spirit from their body to explore the Astral Plane, where places steeped in magic glow like beacons in the dark, time fluctuates, and visions of far off places are possible.

Ultimately, when working in places where the laws of physics can change in seconds, all Wardens know that the key to victory is preparation and supply; Wardens learn the lay of the land, learn from their fallen enemies, and always ensure they have the right things on hand.

You can find Warden skills here.

Example Character Concepts:

• An old soldier who never unfixed the bayonet, soul wandering in search of lost comrades.
• A student of meditation who found herself able to calm her mind and the world around in the same way.
• A teenager lost in daydreams who started hearing secrets from other people's dreams.
• An engineer who specialises in percussive maintenance, so well they do it in their sleep.

SECRETS

What do you do covertly? What don’t you want other characters to know? (Selecting a Secret is not mandatory - these are for flavour and potential hooks for plot.)

Ideas:

• Saboteur: You are working with one group to secretly frustrate the plans of another
• Debtor: You owe a debt to someone dangerous
• On the Run: You’re lying low, having earned someone’s ire
• Collector: You are on the trail to obtain a very illegal artefact
• Wanted List: You have committed a crime that is known to the authorities, even if you aren’t
• Cultist: You are a member of an illegal cult.
• I Have My Own Idea: If you’d like to submit your own idea, please contact the refs!

BONUS

Select one of the following, or submit your own idea.

• Wealthy: You begin play with extra resources. (This is the default option.)
• Plane-Touched: Contact with the occult has changed you physically or mentally- and other occult entities may react differently to you.
• Favor: You are owed favors by or are friends with someone with influence
• Leadership: You have a position of some influence in a faction
• Doomed: You’re Doomed by prior entanglements. You have sold your immortal soul, found a deal and are under the protection of another entity. You have an alternative wound tab, rather than having a bar tab.
• Extra Doomed: You’re definitely on your last legs. You will start the first session terminal and need to find a deal immediately to save your skin.
• I Have My Own Idea: If you’d like to submit your own idea, please contact the refs!