Ussuran Adventure: Characters

You can create a new character, or use an old one. New characters will receive:

• An XP award; perhaps equal to the lowest 'old' character XP (45 or so?)
• The opportunity to use the 'destiny spread' additions (I can be somewhat flexible with this for results that really don't fit character concepts--we can do this on-line if someone has the book for your country of origin.)

• Reputation points from past campaigns, plus some bonus rep.
• Any XP you earned in past campaigns

Also! As a special bonus, if you want to revisit your character from Ghogg's campaign, you can take the same character concept and re-create the character, essentially from scratch, keeping the XP you gained from Ghogg's campaign. The idea being that at the time, we didn't know much about character creation, so now you can go back and make the same character the way you 'should' have the first time. If you want to leave your character as-is, of course, this is fine.

All characters need to speak Ussuran. However, since this is the premise of the adventure, but shouldn't have to be the premise of your character, everyone gets 3HP to spend in languages. If you already knew Ussuran or are native Ussuran, spend these points on whatever language you like (or literacy in those languages). The other language you might consider is that of the Fhideli (gypsies), the cost for which is in the Ussura sourcebook (which I have if you need it).

Along these lines, the 'Linguist' advantage means that you are automatically literate in any language which normally costs you 0 points (i.e. your native tongue). Any language which costs one point without 'Linguist' cannot be gained for free if you do have it, but you can get both literacy and knowledge of that language by spending one HP.

Since a few people have asked: Do not feel that you have to mangle a Background into one of the particular ones listed. If you have an idea for a background that you want to play out in the current campaign, just send me the story. If it's potentially dangerous for your character, you can spend points on it, with more points netting you more danger. For example, if you read Charles's background, you'll see that Jota notes both the Montaigne captain that killed his father, and that he has a Drachensian metal disc. He took a 2-point 'Vendetta' background, meaning that if I can, I'll start to work in ways for him to find out more about this guy and what he might have to do to get revenge. He did not take any points for his drachensian disc, which means that it's a 'free' plot hook for me to work with in the story, but probably won't cause any danger to Charles. If he had spent points in it, when I worked it into the story it would have come with an associated danger (a shadowy group who wants it back, say)

Be sure to read the rules tweaks I'll be using, because they can make a significant difference in your character's options. Also note that practicing foreign sorcery is illegal in Ussura, though the rule is often overlooked (see Article 6 of the pravda).