After selecting your race, nation and profession, you will have an array of stats and skills that form the basic template of your character. While there are a lot of assumptions you could safely make about your character’s back-story and personality from these things alone, nobody is ever an amalgamation of the stereotypes of their heritage or upbringing. This is where you get creative.
Your character will have distinguishing attributes that manifest as unique habits, personality traits or quirks. As “attributes,” these things manifest as boosts to your character’s stats.
If you’ve already got a general idea of what your character’s personality is like, you can select three attributes that fit your idea or just make one up if none of these work (and pick a stat to boost that makes sense).
If you don’t have an opinion or need help forming one, roll twice on the Quirks chart and once on the Vices chart and take the attribute associated with each die roll.
Remember: No stat can be boosted more than twice during character creation. Each attribute has an alternative stat that will be boosted in case you’re already at the limit for the main stat.
| Quirk | +1 Bonus to... | |
| 1 | Amiable | Awareness |
| 2 | Sly | Cunning |
| 3 | Sturdy | Endurance |
| 4 | Nimble | Grace |
| 5 | Strong | Power |
| 6 | Determined | Resolve |
| 7 | Sagacious | Spirit |
| 8 | Perceptive | Awareness |
| 9 | Energetic | Power |
| 10 | Stalwart | Resolve |
| 11 | Reflective | Spirit |
| 12 | Transcendent | Spirit |
| Vice | +1 Bonus to... | |
| 1 | Paranoid | Awareness |
| 2 | Arrogant | Cunning |
| 3 | Coarse | Endurance |
| 4 | Skittish | Grace |
| 5 | Brutal | Power |
| 6 | Unyielding | Resolve |
| 7 | Disturbing | Spirit |
| 8 | Conniving | Cunning |
| 9 | Selfish | Endurance |
| 10 | Vain | Grace |
| 11 | Antisocial | Spirit |
| 12 | Nihilistic | Spirit |
Your character tries to be friendly and helpful. Whether it’s due to profound, all-consuming philanthropic values or a burning desire to just fit in, your character is agreeable company.
Being so vested in others forces you to pay close attention to them. This attribute boosts your Awareness. If your Awareness is already boosted twice, boost your Cunning instead.
Your character has a hard time getting along with others. Perhaps it’s too much trouble, perhaps it’s the way they smell. Insults and annoyances may be a defense mechanism or may just be second nature to your character.
Being without the noise of other people does afford more time to meditate and ponder the workings of the universe. This attribute will boost your Spirit. If your spirit is already boosted twice, boost your Awareness instead.
It only takes a little bit of intelligence to give one great confidence. They know it so much that they let it got to their heads. Your character may or may not have an exaggerated sense of self-worth but the pride is hard for others to miss.
Your character’s so arrogant precisely because this attribute grants a boost to Cunning. If your Cunning is already boosted twice, boost your Grace instead.
One of the best ways to get strong is to beat the snot out of others and in that department, your character is very practiced. It may be a result of some sadism or it may have been a necessity of survival in your character’s childhood, but it’s now a natural part of the way your character operates: strength through brutality.
The life of brutality boosts your character’s Power. If your Power is already boosted twice, boost your Resolve instead.
After living through some of the horrors that prevail in the wake of the Fiend War, it can be hard to care about the niceties of high society. Your character may think that etiquette is a petty, first world problem and that everyone should just be happy they’re alive or your character may see politeness as a sign of weakness.
The school of hard knocks has boosted your character’s Endurance. If your Endurance is already boosted twice, boost your Resolve instead.
Other people may be a means to an ends for your character. Their minds may be clay, waiting to be sculpted by your masterful hands. You may have a wide array of conspiracies going on at once, plans and contingencies to manipulate and coerce the world into giving you everything you want — and what you want may even be a good thing that your character thinks is worth paying any price.
Living this way does boost your Cunning. If your Cunning is already boosted twice, boost your Awareness instead.
Your character has seen quitters get eaten alive both figuratively and literally. The world that the demons left for you is not for the faint of heart. Your character probably sees willpower as the first step to survival — and it’s not entirely untrue.
This attribute boosts your Resolve. If your Resolve is already boosted twice, boost your Endurance instead.
Something in your character’s demeanor is unsettling. It may be crazy bug eyes, a horrific scar, or just the radiant indifference toward the feelings of others that comes with having a heightened sense of the true nature of reality. Whatever the case, people find you off-putting.
Your Spirit gets a boost from this attribute. If your Spirit is already boosted twice, boost your Cunning instead.
Your character never does anything without gusto. Every step is long and purposeful, every time your character opens a door, it swings open swiftly. Even tying shoes could burn a hundred calories with all the zest your character puts into it because you never want to do anything half-way.
Your Power level is boosted by this attribute. If your Power is already boosted twice, boost your Grace instead.
Your character has peered into the fabric of reality, seen the matrix that composes space, time, matter and energy. From these components, the grand vision of how it all fits together exploded into view and for one perfect moment, everything made sense. It was kind of lame.
Your character’s anticlimactic insight grants a boost to Spirit. If your Spirit is already boosted twice, boost your Cunning instead.
Your character knows how to move in ways that some think impossible. Acrobatics comes easier for you than most and safety harnesses only seem a nuisance to your sure-footed ways.
Your character’s Grace gets a boost. If your Grace is already boosted twice, boost your Awareness instead.
It’s easy for people to get sucked into their own thoughts, to live with figurative blinders on. Not so for your character. Every sound, every little flicker of movement, every scent, every sensation is a rich and lively experience, consciously registered and cataloged.
Your character’s Awareness is boosted. If your Awareness is already boosted twice, boost your Cunning instead.
It’s a well-established fact that vagabonds, madmen and the Fouled can lurk behind any corner, waiting for their opportunity to ruin your day or all your days. But just because it’s true, doesn’t mean you aren’t paranoid. You’re more on-guard for threats than others. Maybe you’re good at hiding it or maybe folks think your hyper-vigilance is tiresome. They’re probably going to be the first to die.
Your character’s paranoia grants a boost to Awareness. If your Awareness is already boosted twice, boost your Resolve instead.
A propensity to abstain from action and to ponder the mysteries of the universe prevails over your character from time to time. It’s more important to your character to understand what to do than to rush off to action.
This grants your character more insight into things that others may never understand and therefore boosts Spirit. If your Spirit is already boosted twice, boost your Cunning instead.
Your character is one that others can turn to for guidance. Good judgment comes from a life of self-discipline and contemplation and your character has that in spades.
Boost your Spirit from all that hard work. If your Spirit is already boosted twice, boost your Power instead.
You want it all and you want to keep all you’ve got. That calls for a lot of work and that’s okay. Working harder, longer hours, and through sickness is one of the ways your character may satisfy the ever-burning greed.
Your Endurance gets a boost because this kind of life would kill any normal person. If your Endurance is already boosted twice, boost your Power instead.
Every single hiding place and exit is always kept in the foreground of your character’s thoughts and your character will spring to them at a moment’s notice. Whenever anything goes bump, you’re gone.
Being so flighty is a property of your boosted Grace. If your Grace is already boosted twice, boost your Awareness instead.
When it comes to practical jokes, playing poker, bartering in the marketplace, combat tactics or maybe even fraud and manipulation, your character’s got what it takes to excel at these things.
Your Cunning is boosted with this attribute. If your Cunning is already boosted twice, boost your Resolve instead.
The Fiend War showed people what they were truly made of. Being in the unholy presence of raw, undiluted hatred drove the most rugged folks into frenzied madness. They were wusses. You are not.
Boost your Resolve. If your Resolve is already boosted twice, boost your Endurance instead.
Before the Fiend War, the saying “mind over matter” was a beloved cliche. When the demons invaded, people learned that no amount of intellectual prowess could overcome the devil whose hoof was on your throat. People who would have been mocked as oafish or barbaric in the past are now praised for their intelligent use of strength.
Power gets a boost for your character. If your Power is already boosted twice, boost your Endurance instead.
The world has gotten good at delivering sound beatings and you’ve gotten good at accepting those beatings as evidence that you’re still alive. You may take the abuse with patience or you may hate every minute of it but it doesn’t destroy you either way.
You wouldn’t have survived if you didn’t have the Endurance boost that comes with this attribute. If your Endurance is already boosted twice, boost your Resolve instead.
Your character has a long history of surpassing patience and wisdom. The troubles of the world can’t bring you down and the problems you face are easily overcome with your better perspective.
This attribute boosts Spirit. If your Spirit is already boosted twice, boost your Cunning instead.
Your character understands that perseverance is a necessary part of survival but doesn’t fully understand the nuanced difference between that and irrational stubbornness. You may skirt the border between the two or you may laugh at the idea of reasonable compromise.
Resolve is boosted with this attribute. If your Resolve is already boosted twice, boost your Power instead.
When the demons invaded, they spent a lot of effort destroying beauty in every way they could. Good thing for the world that you’re around! You consider yourself a rare treasure as your every stride, your every breath is poetry in motion — a light shining mercifully on the dreary wasteland that is your home.
Your Grace is boosted. If your Grace is already boosted twice, boost your Resolve instead.
Everyone has a story to tell about how life is dangerous and how it taught them a (probably brutal) lesson. The fact that you’re still alive is evidence that you’ve learned that lesson and have been made better for it.
Come up with three small stories about some hardships that your character overcame and select one distinct skill for each story. These are the skills your character had to learn in order to overcome the challenges in these events. Each of these skill will start at level two for your character.
If you need help, try rolling on the following chart three times.
| 1 | Cage Crasher |
| 2 | Caravan Brat |
| 3 | Tower Monkey |
| 4 | Woodland Noble |
| 5 | Renowned Entertainer |
| 6 | Grave Gopher |
| 7 | Sworn Enemy |
| 8 | Part of the Rigging |
| 9 | [Talon Fangirl/Fanboi](./customizing.html#Talon Fangirl/Fanboi) |
| 10 | Bleeding Heart |
| 11 | Raised by Wolves |
| 12 | Town Hopper |
By the worst of luck, you were captured by a stray demon and taken to an underground lair where you and several other people were tortured for several days. As luck would have it, the fiend got careless and you managed to slip out of your manacles, help the others escape, and organized an uprising.
Select one of the following skills to set at level 2:
You grew up on the road, carrying merchandise between the growing economies of the world. You’re used to seeing a lot of different kinds of people, hearing a lot of different languages and dialects, and you know your way around the marketplace.
Select one of the following skills to start at level 2:
It may have been a Barkenholdt library or a Frostbeard Heliography tower but you spent a lot of time around books and other sources of knowledge. You know a lot — possibly more than you realize.
Select one of the following skills to start at level 2:
The word “xenophobic” is not entirely inappropriate for describing some Greenwalkers but you managed to convince a good number of them that they shouldn’t kill you on sight. They’ve even accepted you as an honored guest.
Select one of the following skills to start at level 2:
Rebuilding civilization is hard on everyone so entertainment is a prized commodity. You’ve somehow developed a reputation for being a good source of it.
Select one of the following skills to start at level 2:
Buried under the mountains of bones and crumbling cities is immeasurable treasure. To get it, you have to brave insane, demon-built dungeons loaded with traps, horrid monsters, and feral survivors. Normal people don’t think it’s worth it. To you, normal is boring and you don’t mind digging, scrounging and navigating labyrinthine terrors left by the demons. The money’s good, too.
Select one of the following skills to start at level 2:
It’s hard to live your life without pissing somebody off. You’re one of the specially unlucky folks to have pissed someone off so badly that there’s no way it can end well for both of you. Maybe this person is wealthy or influential. Maybe this nemesis is just terribly good at killing people. This sworn enemy will leap at an opportunity to make you miserable and probably dead.
You’ve had to stay on your toes.
Select one of the following skills to start at level 2:
The sea is the only place that you truly feel at home. It’s probably frustrating to you that there’s so very little demand for your skills these days but you don’t sail for the money.
Select one of the following skills to start at level 2:
Secluded in a jungle temple, a group of elite warriors hone their bodies to be the ultimate weapon. Sworn to defend the sacred forest from all the threats that yet remain in the world, they must master their minds and spirits through rigorous, physical training to prevail. This monastic order is the Talon of the Fey.
You’re not actually a Talon monk. Nobody really gets to be Talon monks. But that doesn’t stop you from trying to look, act, live and be treated like one.
Select one of the following skills to start at level 2:
The demons left in their wake a dark and cruel world. In some ways, the very fabric of nature may have changed to be as sadistic as the fiends that defiled it. Many threats that lurk in the wilds will go to great lengths to not kill people but will eagerly and viciously mutilate and dismember them. You can’t help but notice that unfortunate travelers don’t usually die but usually wish that they were dead.
You haven’t been able to stop yourself from feeling the pain of those who are so unfortunate and it’s driven you to be a caregiver in some way. Maybe you studied medicine and honed your bed-side manner or maybe you’ve just grown to resent the healthy people as privileged oppressors who don’t deserve their fully functional bodies.
Select one of the following skills to start at level 2:
From childhood, you always knew that you didn’t belong in civilization. At every opportunity, you’d slink away to the great outdoors, perhaps spending your time with animals who are much more honest and trustworthy companions. This may make you curt and maybe even a bit unhygienic — after all, soap is the real stench of society and you aren’t its prisoner.
Some may respect your resourceful ruggedness, some may suspect you of being infested by the Fouled. You may be uncomfortable when in enclosed spaces or anywhere you can’t see the sky or horizon.
Select one of the following skills to start at level 2:
You grew up in a trade caravan or among the wandering herdselves. This makes you very familiar with many different cities. The gypsy lifestyle may not have left you with close close friends but you can get along with folks from anywhere.
On the one hand, people may not be very chummy with you as you seem like a stranger to everybody but on the other, nobody is likely to regard you as entirely foreign either. Knowing where to find stuff is a specialty of yours.
Once you’ve collected your character-shaping events and the skills that go with them, you should have an assortment of nine different skills all at level two.
Now it’s time to further refine your character’s history with a little bit of skill boosting. Boosting skills is the same as boosting your stats (see Character Attributes): You may give a +1 bonus to any skill’s level.
You may also increase skills that you do not have up to level 1 with such a boost. For a list of skills available, consult the Skills chapter (ref Skills).
Repeat the process of selecting and boosting a skill three times. This can not boost any individual skill above level 4.
Selecting a skill to boost could come with some story refinements. Having a skill higher than others may imply that your character was more significantly affected by the event that gave you the skill. You’re encouraged to contemplate how these events affected your character’s personality and world view and play with these concepts as you interact with the other players and non-player characters in the game.
When you are finished boosting your skills, you’ll have an array of capabilities that will help your character survive the rigors of life in Fiend Wake. The Rolling Dice chapter has more detail on how your skills can affect die rolls (see Using Skills).