As such, one of the first questions you need to ask yourselves is this: "How many PCs will there be in the party? Will there be one? Two? Three? Four?"
GMs intending to run sessions with a party size larger than 2 must be careful not to be too generous with equipment and rewards, and to adjust the difficulty of their campaigns accordingly. There is strength in numbers, and it is at its truest with a group of player characters. One or two highly skilled PCs with good gear and weapons are a force to be reckoned with. Three or four such characters may be close to unstoppable.
For all of the reasons cited above, party sizes over 4 are not recommended at all, out of practicality concerns.
= Character concept =
Although ultimately, GMs and players should work together to build characters that are suitable for the campaign you're going to play, what kind of character you wish to play as is entirely up to you. If you already have a solid idea on of what kind of character you want to play, then that's great! You can probably skip to the next section. But if you're not sure where to begin, keep reading.
When thinking about creating a character you intend to play as, it helps to already have an idea of what that character will be like. Their appearance, their personality, their likes and dislikes, fighting style, background... All of these details are things you can think about to help you find out who you wish to play as.
Although it's not against the rules to play a character that is based on yourself (what is popularly referred to as a ''self-insert''), it is generally frowned upon, as it is considered to be bad form or unimaginativeand against the spirit of roleplaying.
As explained in the previous ''Getting started'' pages, MazeWorld is combat-centered, so it lends itself more easily to characters that would have combat experience or weapon knowledge of some kind, and though it is entirely possible to play pacifists or weapon-shy characters, it is considered to be much harder than not, as you may need to spend time and resources during your sessions to improve your combat skills, and you may need to work with an accomodating GM to build a campaign that can be played by characters with little to no combat experience.
A player character may either be a '''human''', a '''halfling''' (8 different species) or a '''youkai''' (12 different species). In total, there are 21 different playable species.
The species you select will determine your starting natural statistics. You will later get a chance to fine-tune your character's stats, so that you may stand out from regular humans, halflings , and youkai.
This page will not go into too much detail about each species and each statistic (visit the relevant wiki links for more in-depth information), but will provide enough information for the purposes of character creation.
=== Limb health ===
Limb health represents the maximum amount of damage each limb can take before being disabled. If a limb falls to under half maximum value, it is '''damaged'''. If it falls to zero, it is '''disabled'''. If it falls to negative half maximum (e.g. negative half maximum of 40 is -20), the limb is entirely completely '''destroyed''' and may not be recovered or replaced, except under exceptional circumstances.<br/>The effects caused by damaged, disabled , and destroyed limbs may vary, but do note that if your torso or your head is disabled, you will instantly die!
Every playable species has what is called a ''base limb health value''. This value is used to calculate the limb health (amount of hit points, or HP) for each limb. This base value can be looked at like as a general indicator of how tough this creature is. Decimal values are rounded to the nearest integer, half up.
* Head HP = (1/7) x (Base value)
* Torso HP = (4/7) x (Base value)
=== Max Blood ===
If it bleeds, you can kill it. Most living creatures have Blood, and depend on it to survive. You don't want to run out of blood.
Max Blood represents, well, the maximum amount of Blood that creature creatures can have inside of their bodies. Naturally, the higher, the better. The more Blood you have, the longer you can survive having open Wounds (which drain Blood continuously), and the better you can resist the effects of Venom and Alcohol.
=== Armor Class ===
Armor Class, or AC for short, represents the general toughness level of a creature's body. There are seven different ratings, in order from lowest to highest: '''C1, C2, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5'''.
The AC ratings with a C-prefix (Cx) indicates a protection rating that is on par with layers of '''Clothing''', whereas the A-prefix (Ax), if you haven't guessed yet, means a protection rating on part par with '''Armor'''.
Weapons may have a damage chart that shows how much damage they deal against each Armor Class; the amount of damage dealt against C1 (the lowest AC) is often considered to be the "base damage".
All '''Ax''' ratings also affect limb damage, reducing all incoming damage by a number corresponding to their level. So for instance, A3 means -3 to all received limb damage.
Humans and halflings have an AC of C1, and are special in that they can use clothing and armor to modify their Armor Class on specific body parts. For instance, the same human character can wear a body armor vest that improves their torso's AC to A3, a helmet that improves their head's AC to A2.
Youkai may have various natural Armor Class ratings, and they may only wear youkai-only outfits. Certain, rare outfits can affect their AC, and unlike human clothing and armor, the outfits affect their entire body's AC rating, not just certain body parts.