The Nitty Gritty

Okay. Enough fluff and me rambling. Down to business. Here's how to create a character, from the very start to a finished, playable jumble of numbers and words. Lets take this one step at a time.

Step One: A concept.

Yeah, that seems so obvious, something a million people have said before. Well that's because it's really the most important part. This is a roleplaying game, the role you play is the whole point. This can be a difficult and complex thing to come up with though, so I'll talk briefly about it here and in more depth in a later post.

My best advice would be, "Either start really big, or start really small." By this I mean that, in my experience at least, creating interesting and enjoyable characters is easier if you start simply.

Lonely Renegade. Honorable Marshall. Greedy Banker. Grieving Mother.

All you have to do is read two words and your mind will automatically start filling in the details. This is a good thing! It is a natural human inclination, especially for people with good imaginations and a creative streak, like us roleplayer people! Hell, don't stress yourself out trying to think of a cool idea, let your subconscious do all the work. Start cobbling together some adjectives and nouns until your inner storyteller strikes gold.

He's lonely because his brother and partner in crime got captured so he could escape. Okay, good. Then what? Their escape went wrong because they were betrayed to the law for a reward. Okay, good. Then what? Who betrayed them? What crime were they trying to commit? Why was there a reward on them? What happened to the brother? What is the renegade doing now? Etc, etc.

Thinking along those lines will eventually result in you knowing enough about your character that filling in the numerical details rules wise will be both fast and easy.

The other way is to start small. Like, so small it's trivial. It's not even a character at this point it's a single random fact or tidbit of information.

Owns a blue rock. Is afraid of the sound of grasshoppers. Lights three matches every single night and lets the wind blow them out. Was teased as a child.

And just go from there. The blue rock is special because it was a gift from a shaman. Okay, good. Then what? The shaman gave it to you as he was dying. He said it was a guide to your destiny. You had no idea what he was talking about because you aren't Native American and the Shaman didn't speak very good English. So now you go around and ask every wise woman and shaman you can find about the blue rock.

See what I mean? Just start either very small and specific or very large and vague, and just keep going one step at a time until you are satisfied. Honestly, you don't need to write out a 20 page life history. Shucks, you don't have to write anything down. Just have this stuff in your head while doing the rest of the steps, and it will almost be like the character stats choose themselves.

Step Two: Guts, Grit, & Grace.

These three are the corners of your statistical triangle. At character creation every player has 15 points to spread between the three. All three have a minimum value of 2, so logically the highest possible number is 11. How you distribute them is mostly influenced by your character concept, the better you know your character the easier this should be to distribute, more or less. The following are descriptions of each.

• Guts - Guts represents a character's overall physical health. It does not directly relate to muscle mass, so while a big, strong, fit character will probably have a decent or high Guts score, it is not automatic. Guts represents your resilience to disease, your stamina, your reflexes and coordination, your hearing, your eyesight, your ability to get hurt and keep going, and basically everything else related to the well-being and quality of your body. The average for all humans is 4 with about 90% of the population between 2 and 6, though of course people vary drastically, and Guts is not necessarily tied to gender or age or body weight.
  
  Guts goes up and down for a few different reasons, most commonly injury and recovering from said injuries, so it's important to keep track of your current Guts score and your maximum Guts score.
  
  Guts is connected, rules wise, to Physical Injury, Death and Dying, Disease, Poison, Starvation and Dehydration, Healing and Recovery, Running, Jumping, Hearing, Eyesight and "other things of a bodily nature not listed right here at this moment".
   
• Grit - Grit is, in general, how tough you are and how hard or long you can push yourself to your limit.When everyone else is collapsing from the heat and the thirst and the many miles of walking, Grit is what keeps you on your feet. When you're hanging off a cliff by a rope, and your arms are screaming and your hands slipping, Grit is what keeps you holding on. Grit is also mental. When gunfire is crackling all around you, when you're drenched and weary and lost in the woods, when the bull is charging right towards you, that's the time Grit comes into play.
  
  Like Guts, a character's current Grit goes up and down. Unlike Guts though, Grit is spent at the choice and under the control of the player and is used to modify the results of dice rolls. A player may spend a point of Grit in one of two ways. They may add a +3 modify to a roll that has YET to be made, adding the three to whatever number comes up, or they may spend it AFTER a roll has been made but BEFORE the results of the roll are revealed by the Gamemaster, allowing them to re-roll the dice. You may not use multiple Grit to stack the +3 bonus's but you may keep re-rolling the dice as long as you have Grit to spend. You may also not use Grit to grant a re-roll if you also used Grit to provide a bonus for that same roll, though both forms may be used in a single turn on separate rolls.
  
       *The exception to the rule about only re-rolling before the results are revealed does not apply to opposed rolls, which are often made in Guts, Grit and Grace games. A player may elect to re-roll even after seeing the result of the opposition's dice.*
  
  Aside from spending it to modify dice results, Grit is also connected to, rules wise, Hunger, Fatigue, Intimidation, Alcohol, Fear, Dying, Injuries, Extreme Heat and Cold, and "other things of a similar nature not listed right here at this moment".
   
• Grace -This is the Grace of God. Religion was taken very seriously in the West, and though people expressed their beliefs in different manners and amounts, faith was a powerful force in those times. But simply being a Christian is not enough to merit God's Grace. Someone must truly uphold the morals and behaviors of a pure soul. 
  
  Note that a character's Grace score is NOT a measure of how "good" they are. A person can be a kind, lawful, honest, and even outright heroic individual and still have little Grace. Grace is not a measurement of morality but rather a way of thinking and acting.
  
  Aside from being a core concept of the game on a stylistic and storytelling level, Grace has in-game uses and effects, as described below.
  
• Grace may be used to automatically succeed at any one die roll so long as the action is not of a sinful nature. The character, if they choose to spend Grace, may do after seeing the result of their die roll and even after the GM has informed them they have failed, so long as they do so immediately after being informed of their failure but before the effects of failing have occurred.
  
  For example, a player that is drowning in a river may use Grace to automatically succeed at a Swimming roll to reach the shore. Regardless of the result of the die roll, that player subtracts one Grace from their current amount and their turn/overall play continues as normal.
  
  This automatic success may strictly not be used for any action which would kill another person, result in wanton destruction or pain, for personal gain of a selfish nature, to deceive someone, or anything else that is not clearly and obviously for virtuous aims.
  
  Though rare, there are a few situations in which violence may qualify, for example: You are ridding hard towards a villain who is about to push a helpless victim off a high ledge, and you will never reach them in time to stop the villain or save the victim, and they are too far away for an accurate shot, so you use a point of Grace to shoot the villain in the shoulder, delaying the victim from being pushed. These kinds of situations are the exception, and they should not regularly occur.
  
  *In general, Grace is not meant as an "I win button". If the Gamemaster feels a player is abusing the Grace system simply to succeed, they may veto the point, and that player does not lose the Grace point but does not automatically succeed. Also of important note, Grace may represent a miracle, but it's not supposed to allow people to do the impossible. Improbable and unlikely yes, but not impossible. You may not use Grace to leap across 30 foot gaps, recover perfectly in minutes, or other implausible things, even if those things are for a clearly virtuous goal.*
   
• Grace can give a circumstantial modifier to rolls, if the Gamemaster believes Grace to be relevant. A character with high Grace might get a bonus to recovery rolls when recuperating inside a church, or a character with low Grace might receive a bonus to resisting alcoholism cravings if they make a specific point to sit down and read the bible instead of drink. These bonuses are on a per-situation basis and are at the discretion of the Gamemaster.

• A high Grace score should influence the reactions and decisions of Non-Player Characters. The sheriff is much less likely to hurl a character with a high Grace score into jail based solely on questionable evidence than a character with a low Grace score. A butcher might offer reduced prices to a very poor woman if that woman has a high Grace, the local undertaker more likely to help a stranger if that person, through a high Grace score, gives him the impression of a trustworthy fellow.
  
   

Step Three: Skills

Skills and the points put into them represent the things a character has practice and experience doing. Everything from a hobby to a profession, if you have to study, practice, and work to get better at it, it is usually a Skill. Every character begins the game with 15 Skill points, which they can distribute among skills of their choosing. You may put up to 3 points in a single skill during character creation, with 5 as the maximum any skill may rise to. Below if a brief reference of what different skill levels mean. Note that skills do not represent what your character can DO, they represent what your character is GOOD at. Rank 0 does not imply your character is a clumsy, clueless incompetent, merely that they are not better then everyone else.  

• Rank 0 - Greenhorn: If you can do it, anyone can do it. Rank 0 in a skill does not in any way mean you can't try, but if you succeed is as much a matter of luck as intentional effort. You have no proper training in this skill and while you may have done it before during your life, you are not practiced enough to make a difference.
• Rank 1 - Handy: You aren't all that great at this but you know what you're doing and can hold your own. You're better than the average bear, with practice and knowledge, either self taught or trained.
• Rank 2 - Steady: You can definitely pull your own weight when it comes to this skill. You are capable of directing and leading others in use of this skill, and you can act for long times independently without needing any assistance. Even to the untrained observer, you appear competent and reliable.
• Rank 3 - Deft: You clearly know your stuff in regards to this skill. You are trusted by all to get the job done and done well, and people come to you with requests for help and ask you to teach them. You're publicly known to be good at this skill, and you succeed at it even under pressure and in tough situations.
• Rank 4 - Master: No one doubts your skill and expertise. You are respected by your brethren in this skill and held as an example to others. People gladly work with you and under you, and you know you can drive a hard bargain for your services or aid. You are bored by the day to day use of this skill and always look for new things to challenge you.
• Rank 5 - Legendary: You are a legend of the West for your abilities in this skill. Everywhere you go people tell tales of you and your accomplishments. You are one of the very best and your peers are few and far between. Your name and your deeds will be forever tied to this skill.
 

The numerical use of skills is explained in detail in a latter section, but for those that are concerned about their characters actions being limited, remember the following: a character receives a bonus to skill rolls made for a Rank 0 skill IF they have at least one Rank in a clearly connected or similar skill. For example: a man good at cards but unskilled at dice can apply at least some of the same concepts, and surely has at least peripheral experience being around dice. A professional furniture maker probably has never repaired a wagon wheel before but he knows about working with wood and putting things together. He's definitely still Rank 0, but it helps.

The following is a list of 70 example skills to pick from. These are NOT the only skills in the game, and if you wish your character to have something not listed here, just run it by the Gamemaster for approval and carry on. For those with an * you pick a specific focus when taking that skill, such as "Piano Playing" or "Gun Maintenance/Repair".

1.      Acrobatics 2.      Animal Husbandry 3.      Artillery 4.      Blacksmithing 5.      Bows 6.      Brewing 7.      Car Driving 8.      Card Playing 9.      Carpentry 10.  Cart/Wagon Driving 11.  Cartography 12.  Climbing 13.  Cooking 14.  Dancing 15.  Dicing 16.  Dog Handling 17.  Dollmaking 18.  Drawing 19.  Explosives 20.  Farming 21.  First Aid 22.  Fishing 23.  Fisticuffs 24.  Gardening 25.  Glass-making 26. Grappling 27.  Hatchet/Tomahawk 28.  Herbalism 29.  Herding 30.  Hiding 31.  Horse-riding 32.  Instrument Playing* 33.  Knives 34.  Knot Tying 35.  Lassoing 36.  Leatherworking 37.  Long Arms (Rifles/Shotguns/Etc.) 38.  Maintenance/Repair* 39.  Midwifery 40.  Mining 41.  Moving Stealthily 42.  Navigation 43.  Observation 44.  Orating 45.  Painting 46.  Photography 47.  Pickpocket 48.  Poetry 49  Preaching 50.  Quick Draw 51.  Recordkeeping 52.  Rowing 53.  Sabers 54.  Sailing 55.  Sewing 56.  Singing 57.  Sleight of Hand 58.  Small arms (Revolvers/Pistols) 59.  Spears 60.  Steamboat Piloting 61.  Surgery 62.  Swimming 63.  Teaching 64.  Tracking 65.  Train Operating 66.  Trapping 67.  Washing 68.  Whistling 69.  Woodcarving. 70.  Writing

Step Four:  Possessions

In Guts, Grit, and Grace it is assumed that characters own more than they literally carry around with them all the time. Some characters own more than others of course but most have homes, filled with everything from animals to books to cloths to food to keepsakes to whatever. People have money stored away in banks, or hidden on their land, or just kept in a jar by the bed. The point is you typically own a lot of things, far too many to literally list down every single item. Fortunately in Guts, Grit, & Grace you only need keep specific, detailed track of what you happen to have on you during times you are away from home, and even then not every single thing. 

During character creation, as you don't yet know where, when, etc, the Saga starts, you don't need to draw up a specific inventory. Just take a piece of paper and write down a general list of stuff, both vague and unique, that your character has access to and may use. Let the Gamemaster look over this list for approval, and that's enough for right now. Before the first encounter of the first game session, the Gamemaster will set the scene, and everyone will take a quick moment to work out, as a group and with the Gamemaster, what they happen to have on them at the time, as realistic for the opening scenario.

Inventory and Possessions are discussed in more elaborate detail in a later section.

Step Five *Optional*: Aspects.

Aspects are short one sentence blurbs about your character that speaks to an essential part of who they are and their lives up until the start of gameplay. They are partially a roleplaying guide for the character but can provide tangible benefits and penalties during play. They are the most difficult to explain piece of creating a character, as well as being 100% optional. Since they are strongly recommended but not mandatory to play, they will be described in full during a later section.

Since it is possible for one player to desire using aspects with their character during play and others to not, it is recommended that everyone, especially the Gamemaster, at least glance over the Aspect section of the rules. Note that Aspects give just as much grief and trouble as they do reward and benefit, so don't worry about your character being underpowered or less important during gameplay if you choose not to use them.

Step Six: Basic Information

Some of these things have no significant effect on gameplay, but players should take a moment and write down on their character sheet basic information about their characters, including but not limited to things such as:

Age, Gender, Height, Weight, Hair/Eye Color, Ethnicity, Distinguishing Features such as scars or tattoos, Family such as spouses, brothers, children, etc, the location of their Home, and "other things of a similar nature that may not come up often but are good to have written down and figured out before you start playing."

Whelp, thar' ya' hav' it. Making a character, more or less. A few things are doubtlessly going to be confusing or hard to understand at this moment, but rest assured those things will all be clarified, elaborated on, and discussed in upcoming posts and segments. Please also remember that this ENTIRE game is a work in progress, and thus it is all subject to modification at any point in the future. I would love to hear any questions you may have, just leave a comment. Trust me I gladly read them all and would be happy to answer queries and listen to advice/ideas. More nitty-gritty posts comming soon!