Character customization

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Navigation: Main Page Getting started, step 4: Character customization




Once you have selected your species, it is time to customize your character and build a character sheet.

On the previous page, we discussed three elements for your character: the basic concept and ideas in your mind, whether they are a native to the Mazes or an otherworlder, and the species. If you're wondering why we haven't yet talked about things such as names, backstories, or stats other than racial bonuses, this is the page where it will all become clear, and you will find out why it was done in this order.


What's in a name?

After you've decided on a species, you can now decide on a name. As mentioned in the previous page, humans and halflings generally speak Common (English), while youkai speak their own language (Youkai language, the equivalent of Japanese). These linguistic tendencies extend to names, both given names and family names. Humans and halflings typically have English or Anglo-Saxon names, and Youkai typically have Japanese names. Names with Italian, Nordic, German, or Hispanic origins do exist, but are rare and usually reserved for specific characters or groups of characters.

Although it's possible for a human to have a Youkai given name or family name, or for a youkai to have a Common name, this generally suggests a mixed ancestry and is not recommended unless you are prepared to explain a little backstory for your character. The GM has the right to accept or deny a name that doesn't sound like it would fit in the Mazes.

Your character may optionally be known by a nickname, a shorthand, a callsign, or some other preferred name or designation, and you are free (and even encouraged) to explain where the nickname comes from.


Appearance

Your character's physical appearance is influenced by the following traits: their constitution, sex/gender, age, height and weight, skin color, hair color and length, the presence of distinctive traits like tattoos, scars, etc. or not, and if applicable, any traits unique to their species.

Your character's appearance is purely cosmetic and does not influence your stats or capabilities.

Constitution

Your character's constitution is a general description of their body shape (average, slim, lithe, athletic, muscular, overweight, obese, etc.)

Sex and gender

Your character's sex and gender generally have no effect or influence on the rest of your character's skills and abilities. You may define your character however you wish; any sex and any gender identity is valid.

Certain occupations do have sex-based restrictions (e.g. shrine maidens are female). Feel free to speak to your GM if your character's background or occupation is one of these occupations.

Age

The age of majority in the Mazes is 18 years old for all species. The listed age group may also reflect the character's maturity level. Characters under the age of 18 are children and should not be playable (or even depicted) in a typical MazeWorld session.

It is uncommon for humans and halflings to live longer than 70. Youkai lifespans can go into the hundreds, averaging at 300 years for most species, although some individuals exceed that number. Kitsune, in particular, may not die of old age and can reach thousands... although with no guarantees of mental stability.

Humans and halflings:

  • Teenager (between 18 and 22 years old)
  • Young adult (23 to 28 years old)
  • Adult (29 to 40 years old)
  • Middle-aged (41 to 50 years old)
  • Aged (51 to 65 years old)
  • Old (over 65 years old)

Youkai:

  • Teenager (between 18 and 22 years old)
  • Young (23 to 40 years old)
  • Adult (41 to 100 years old)
  • Middle-aged (101 to 200 years old)
  • Aged (201 to 300 years old)
  • Old (301 to 400 years old)
  • Elder (over 400 years old)

Other appearance elements

You may also list height, weight, skin color, hair length, hair color, eye color, some distinctive elements (tattoos, scars..), and if applicable, species-specific details.

Species-specific details apply if you are a halfling or a youkai. They are:

  • Halflings:
    • Canine, Feline: Ear shape and color, tail color
    • Equine, Murid: Ear color
    • Lagomorph: Ear color
    • Squamata: Tail color
    • Salientia: Skin color (overrides regular skin color)
  • Youkai:
    • Hakutaku: Horn shape
    • Jorougumo: Color of spider parts (abdomen, legs)
    • Kappa, Oni: Skin color (overrides regular skin color)
    • Kasha, Kitsune, Guhin: Ear and tail color
    • Kirin: Tail and scale color
    • Satori: Third eye color
    • Tengu: Feather color
    • Yousei: Wing color


Background information

Though not strictly necessary if you're playing as an otherworlder, it is generally considered good form to write a paragraph or two about your character's background. You can talk about where they come from, what job or occupation they have, what sort of personality they have, or whatever else you'd like - the scene is yours on that one! The point is to describe your character in ways that the rest of the sheet can't get across, and to serve as a quick reminder for you, other players, and your GM of what that character is like.

If your character is a native of the Mazes, writing a little bit about their background is more important; that backstory must be sufficiently believable and reasonable. As with everything else, the GM has final say on what constitutes an acceptable backstory.


Statting

"Statting" redirects here.

Statting (short form for Statistical setting) is the act of customizing your starting character's statistics and equipment so that it conforms to the player's desired playstyle.

Statting is done in multiple parts:

  • Primary stats
  • Species modifiers
  • Character trait selection
  • Skill attribution
  • Equipment selection
  • Character sheet building

Primary stats

The primary stats are as follows:

Your character's primary stats are the "natural" state of your character's stats with no modifiers from equipment or effects. A specific character's natural stats is the combination of their species' natural stats (discussed in the section below) and that specific character's traits.

Species modifiers

Your character species determines your starting primary stats. Check the stats displayed on your species' corresponding wiki page.

Human icon.png Humans

Halfling icon.png Halflings

Youkai icon.png Youkai

Character trait selection

You may customize your character with a wide selection of traits.

You have 3 trait points to spend on traits. Traits are divided in positives and negatives. Positive traits cost points, while Negative traits grant points back. Any unspent Trait points are transferred over to your pool for skills.

  • If your character is a human, you start with 4 trait points instead.

For a full list of traits and their effects, see this page.

Skill attribution

The next part of statting is attributing skills (and skill levels) to your characters. Certain species introduce free skill levels as part of their racial bonuses, but for the most part, new characters are blank slates for you to customize.

Skills in MazeWorld are grouped into two categories: Combat skills and Non-combat skills. This section will list and briefly describe each skill, without going into too much detail. As a rule of thumb, improving your combat skills generally results in increasing your character's accuracy and lethality, whereas improving your non-combat skills either improves your existing abilities, or unlocks new ones.

Combat skills

Combat skills are grouped into subcategories and reflect your character's level of skill and proficiency with the corresponding type of weapon. In total, there are 30 combat skills grouped into three subcategories: Firearms (11 skills), Heavy weapons (4 skills), and Melee/Other weapons (15 skills).

Firearms

  • Bolt-action
  • Lever-action
  • Pump-action
  • Automatic pistol
  • Automatic rifle
  • Automatic shotgun
  • Semi-automatic pistol
  • Semi-automatic rifle
  • Semi-automatic shotgun
  • Double-action revolver (DA)
  • Single-action revolver (SA)

Heavy weapons

  • Grenade launcher
  • Rocket launcher
  • Planted explosives
  • Flamethrowers

Melee and other weapons

  • Archery
  • Axes
  • One-handed clubs
  • Two-handed clubs
  • Crude weapons
  • Knives
  • One-handed swords
  • Two-handed swords
  • Staff/Pole weapons
  • Whip/Lash weapons
  • Exotic Melee weapons
  • Exotic Ranged weapons
  • Thrown weapons
  • Martial arts

Shields

  • Shields

Non-combat skills

There are 9 non-combat skills in total. If the GM deems it necessary, certain non-combat skills may be locked by the GM. Locked skills may, at the GM's discretion, either cost extra points to give to your character, or be entirely impossible to acquire during character creation and will either not be acquired at all, or given as part of a reward or a quest during the session.

  • Hunting - The ability to harvest meat from dead creatures
  • Crafting - The ability to use crafting kits and specific combinations of ingredients to build items
  • Handloading - The ability to use handloading kits and ingredients (casings, powders, primers, projectiles) to manufacture and customize your own ammunition
  • Mining - The ability to use mining tools to extract ore from veins and patches
  • Negotiation - The ability to speak, convince, deceive, barter, and negotiate
  • Repair - The ability to use repair and cleaning kits, maintain weapons in working order, and restore broken weapons back to working condition
  • Lockpicking - The ability to use lockpicking kits to defeat locks
  • Healing - The ability to use medical equipment and administer drugs to heal oneself and others
  • Evading - The ability to evade and parry enemy attacks, and to deliver counter-attacks

Spending points on skills

You can spend up to 12 skill creation points on skills, plus any unspent points during Trait selection. Certain traits may affect the number of points you can spend.

  • If your character has one of the Greenhorn traits, you may have fewer points to spend (9, 6, or 3 + unspent trait points).
  • If your character has one of the Seasoned traits, you may have extra points to spend (15, 18, or 21 + unspent trait points).

You start out at Level 1 (Unskilled) in every skill, and you must reach a certain amount of Skill Points to increase your skill level. Every skill has five levels, in order from level 1 to level 5: Unskilled, Basic, Skilled, Expert, and Master.

All combat skills (except Shields) have the same thresholds: 10 SP to reach Basic, 25 SP to reach Skilled, 50 SP to reach Expert, and 100 SP to reach Master.

  • Shields work differently due to being both useful as combat and non-combat tools: 50 SP to reach Basic, 100 SP to reach Skilled, 200 SP to reach Expert, 400 SP to reach Master.

Non-combat skills have different requirements and thresholds.

When spending skill creation points on combat skills, you will obtain Training Points (TP) for them in return. 10 Training Points are worth 1 Skill Point. Training Points are normally earned through training exercises in the game, and you cannot get more than 250 TP per combat skill - just enough to reach Skilled, and no more. There is only so much experience your character can get by training; you must be on the field to progress any further.

  • If you are purchasing Training Points for the Shields skill, the maximum number of Training Points is 1000. For each 1 skill creation point spent, you get 125 TP.

When spending skill creation points on non-combat skills, you will be buying a certain skill level directly. If your GM has locked certain non-combat skills, your character will be Level 0 (Unaware) in these skills, and you cannot progress at all to Level 1 until you buy access to the skill (if your GM allows it) or unlock the skill during a session. The recommended cost of unlocking a locked skill is 1 point.

Combat skills: 1 skill creation point = 50 TP

  • Skill packages: Certain combat skills are closely related, and you can get a 'discount' and pay a little less than you normally would if you bought them individually. It costs 3 skill creation points to get 100 TP (Basic), and 8 skill creation points to get 250 TP (Skilled) in all of the skills included in the package.
    • Pistol package: Semi-auto pistol + Automatic pistol
    • Rifle package: Semi-auto rifle + Automatic rifle
    • Shotgun package: Semi-auto shotgun + Automatic shotgun
    • Revolver package: Single-action revolver + Double-action revolver
    • Club package: One-handed club + Two-handed club
    • Sword package: One-handed sword + Two-handed sword

Non-combat skills: 2 skill creation points for Level 2 (Basic), 4 skill creation points for Level 3 (Skilled), 8 skill creation points for Level 4 (Expert)

  • If any non-combat skills are locked, they should cost 1 skill creation point to unlock and obtain Level 1 (Unskilled).

GMs are free to adjust the costs of skills depending on how much experience and capabilities they wish the players to have. The recommended costs are ideal for new but balanced characters. The costs can be adjusted up or down, depending on whether you prefer your PCs to have less or more talents at their disposal.

Equipment selection

Unless the campaign is supposed to start with them naked and defenseless, every character should have at least a few pieces of gear in their starting inventory.

At the very least, clothing and armor, some load-bearing equipment, and at least one or two weapons (preferably weapons that match your character's skills), plus accessories and ammunition as needed. Extra stuff, such as food, meds, or items necessary for non-combat skills (e.g. lockpicking kits), should also be considered.

The recommended method of equipment attribution is for the GM to set a monetary budget, and let the players peruse this very wiki to pick and choose their starting gear themselves. Any left-over or unused money should be turned into cash for the character to carry, or added to the character's bank account. Specific restrictions on types of items should also be introduced, in order to avoid min-maxing for the best equipment right from the beginning, and generally to prevent starting characters from getting 'too good' gear.

These are only recommendations for balanced starting characters. GMs are free to adjust or ignore these recommendations entirely.

Recommended parameters:

  • Budget per character: Parallar symbol.png 5000
  • Maximum Rarity for weapons: 3
  • Maximum Armor Class for clothing and armor: A3 or AC tier +3 depending on species
  • Must purchase at least one set of clothing (1 top, 1 bottom, 1 footwear OR 1 outfit depending on species)
  • Must purchase a backpack of some sort

Additionally:

  • If your character has one of the Pauper traits, you have a lower budget to spend on equipment (Parallar symbol.png 3500, Parallar symbol.png 2000, or Parallar symbol.png 500)
  • If your character has one of the Wealthy traits, you have a higher budget to spend on equipment (Parallar symbol.png 6500, Parallar symbol.png 8000, or Parallar symbol.png 9500)
  • If your character has the Gaged Connections trait, the maximum Rarity for weapons is 6 instead of 3, there is no Armor Class limit (however, Power Armor is still restricted), and the GM may, at their own discretion, provide the character with an NPC contact willing to sell equipment at preferential rates.

Naturally, this isn't the only way to pick or assign gear. Ultimately, it is up to the GM to determine the best way to assign equipment. Here are some pointers:

  • Rather than select from the entirety of the game's selection of items (which can be dizzying), the GM can create a pool of "starter" items, and let players spend their budget among these pre-selected starter items only.
  • In lieu of a starting budget, the GM can create a point spend system, or even a limited amount of items from which to choose from.
  • GMs can take out the "choice" part entirely and simply assign new characters standard-issue equipment. Ideal for military or police-themed campaigns.
  • The sky is the limit! If you have other ideas entirely, run with it!

Building the character sheet

Once you have finalized your character's details and equipment, it's time to actually build your character sheet!

Object lines

Two different kinds of object lines.

"Object line" and "Object lines" redirect here.

In MazeWorld, items can be represented in the game through the use of object lines. Object lines are, as the name implies, singular lines of text designed to hold all of the information about a given object. The information may be a little compressed in order to fit into one line.

The purpose of object lines is to be used, edited, copied, and pasted onto inventory sheets. They are, in a sense, ready-made nuggets of information about every object in the game. Certain object lines are incomplete or are designed to be edited. GMs may edit or add information to certain object lines (to indicate quantity, battery remaining, ammunition loaded, maintenance stats, etc.) as needed.

Object lines generally follow similar nomenclature; they begin with a word between [brackets] denoting the category of the object, followed by all or most of the relevant information about that object.

Example:

  • [Weapon] Class 5 Short - R2/Regular - KA-BAR (Knife) - Slash (Sharp), Stab (Piercing) - Steel - Butchering - Weight: 3
    • This object line describes the KA-BAR. Note that there is no mention of the weapon's condition; it is up to GMs to determine the condition of the weapon.

It is highly recommended to use the object lines instead of freeform text to keep track of your inventory!

The majority of Tsuchinoko's commands are designed to return object lines, and constitute the primary reason why the bot is practically required to play the game.

For a complete, searchable directory of the game's object lines (and the source text of every other Tsuchinoko command), please see this Google document. Feel free to use these documents to copy the object lines relevant to your character's equipment, and paste them onto your character sheet.

Final review

Before getting ready to play, make sure that your character sheet is complete and ready. Your GM should review every player's character sheet and give all of them the green light before proceeding, and should retain edit rights over every player character sheet.

If your GM is the really cool type, they will offer you the courtesy of building your character sheet for you, so you don't have to do any of the steps described above yourself. This courtesy should be extended to new players, particularly if they are eager to play. If that's how it was done, you shouldn't need to do anything else! Assuming, of course, that the GM hasn't made mistakes while building your sheet (re-read the sheet before giving it to your player!)

If you are a player and you've followed this guide to build your very own character sheet, you should send it to your GM for reviewing and double-checking.

Once everybody is ready and cleared, then congratulations, you are now ready to play a MazeWorld campaign!


Conclusion

If you've followed this Getting Started guide, you should have a complete character sheet, and you should be ready to play! Feel free to keep reading the wiki if you wish to familiarize yourself with how the game works, particularly if you are a GM.

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Introduction Basic concepts Character creation Character customization