Character Creation Challenge 2024 - 1: Samastina daughter of Aranda daughter of Nerestina [Runequest Glorantha]

 A new year, a new CCC. I will start with another Runequest character, as I am assuming Runequest will end up being my most played game in 2024 - and I still do not fully grasp the finer points of character creation and the rules. So here we go!

Fundamentals/Concept

Since there is fair amount of random involved in Runequest character generation with the stats, planning a concept for one specific character is hard. The previous character I made on this blog got to be the chaos hating farmer who is a member of the Humakt cult, with a tragic family history and a bit of a mean streak. Other things I'd like to create is a mystic, a soldier of some type and some more mundane occupation characters that aren't farmers. Out of these, soldiers seems to be the bad stats go-to, as maxing out a weapon skill and getting free armor from the occupation makes the character good at something at least. Mystics on the other hand will get nowhere without good POW and CHA.

Let's begin!

Step 1: Homeland

The rulebook has a list, where the "default" Sartar starts the list instead of it going in alphabetical order. The last one was a Sartarite, so I'll just go in order and pick Esrolia as the homeland. Esrolia gives me the following passions:

• Love (Family): 60%
• Loyalty (City): 60%
• Loyalty (Clan): 60%
  

Step 2: Family History

Esrolia is a matriarchy. So to go with more opposites of last character, this character will be female. With mother and grandmother as the most important figure's in the character's life. To be even more stereotypical, Healer will be the matrilineal occupation.

1561: Grandparents born.

1582: Parents born this year. Grandparent not present at Battle of Grizzly Peak.

1597: Grandparent had a normal year.

1602: Grandparent had a normal year.

1603-1604: Grandparent had a normal year.

1605: Grandparent fought in the Building Wall Battle, was blessed by Belintar. Gained 1 Reputation, 600 L and Loyalty (Holy Country) 70%. Grandparent survived chargen!

1608: Parent had a normal year.

1610: Parent had a normal year.

1613: Parent died of illness.

1622: Character survived the Great Winter Year Two.

1623: Character nearly killed by Trolls. Gain Hatred (Trolls) 60%.

1624: Character survived Battle of Pennel Ford. Gained +5% Battle.

1625: Witnessed the Dragonrise.

Overall a lot less eventful than the previous character's family history. Blessed be the Grandmother.

Step 3: Rune Affinities

I will do this the same way I did this with the previous character, that is look over Cults first. Babeester Gor (again), Chalana Arroy, Ernalda and Maran Gor are the cults I could consider. Earth is the only elemental rune they want. Chalana Arroy and Ernalda wants Fertility and Harmony, while Babeester Gor and Maran Gor wants Death and Disorder. As previous character was tied to Humakt (Death), Chalana and Ernalda wins out this time.

Being from Esrolia gives +10% Earth Rune.

 

Elemental Runes

Pick Earth Rune at 60%, that is then increased to 70% due to Esrolia.

Pick Fire/Sky at 40%.

Power | Form Runes

Fertility 75 - Death 25

Harmony 75 - Disorder 25

Free additional points

Put 5 points into Earth, for a total of 75%.

Put 35 points into Fire/Sky, for a total of 75%.

Put 10 points into Moon, for a total of 10%.

Since the character started with high Earth, Fertility and Harmony it was kinda hard to spread the rest. Augmenting with 40% Runes and stuff like that is not very interesting, so I just blindly picked something here.

Step 4: Characteristics

Rolling

• STR: 13
• DEX: 10
• CON: 15
• POW: 16
• CHA: 4
• SIZ: 16
• INT: 11 

 Modifications

The total is 85 points, so under the 92 point limit to get 3 extra points to put where I want. With 16 POW I really really want to have a higher charisma to be better at magic stuff, so I increase CHA by 3.

Runes then comes into effect. Earth and Fire/Sky are both 75%, I pick Fire/Sky as primary. I pick the +2 CHA from Primary, and get +1 CON from the secondary.

Esrolia does not modify statistics, so starting stats then become:

• STR: 13
• DEX: 10
• CON: 16
• POW: 16
• CHA: 9
• SIZ: 16
• INT: 11

 Attributes

• Magic Points: 16
• Hit Points: 17
• Healing Rate: 3
• Damage Bonus: +1d4
• Spirit Combat Damage: 1d6+1
• Maximum ENC: 13
• Dex Strike Rank: 3
• SIZ Strike Rank: 1
• AGI Skill Modifier: +0%
• COM Skill Modifier: +0%
• KNO Skill Modifier: +0%
• MAG Skill Modifier: +5%
• MAN Skill Modifier: +0%
• PER Skill Modifier: +0%
• STE Skill Modifier: -5%
   

Skill Base Chance Changes

Esrolia adjusts some base skill chances:

• Bargain +5%
• Dance +10%
• Intrigue +5%
• Sing +5%
• Speak Own (Esrolian) 50%
• Speak Other Language (Tradetalk) +20%
• Customs (Esrolian) 25%
• Farm +25%
• First Aid +5%
• Spirit Combat +15%
• Battle Axe +15%
• 1H Spear +10%
• Rapier +10%
• Self Bow +10%
• Thrown Axe +10%
• Small Shield +15%
• Medium Shield +15%
• Large Shield +10%
  

 

The stats looked really good, and the high MP and HP always looks good. The skill category modifiers aren't all that however. Which reinforces the point that bad stats = go soldier still. High POW made me think Priest, but then I rolled 4 for CHA which forced all of the free points to be put into that, and the Priest idea died.

Step 5: Occupation

Character almost made it to Priest or something mystical like Shaman, but due to CHA roll the character will stay in the family occupation and become a Healer. 

Occupational Skills

• Orate +10%
• Treat Disease +30%
• Alchemy +10%
• Treat Poison +10%
• First Aid +30%
• Devise +10%
• Plant Lore +30%
• Insight (Human) +10%

Other Stuff

•  Standard of Living: Free
• Base Income: 80 L
• Love (Family) +10%
• Ransom: 500 L
• Equipment: Healer's Kit, 20 L in coins, misc items worth 100 L.

 No starting weapons nor weapons is kinda bad I must admit. Grandmother's heroics in the Building Wall Battle lets the character start with some capital to remedy this, thankfully.

Step 6: Cult

Earlier I put down the choices of Cults as Chalana Arroy or Ernalda. Just like last time there was a surprise. Chalana Arroy cult members swears an oath to never harm intelligent beings and avoid causing pain to any living thing. While from a roleplay perspective this is very interesting, the idea of just not doing much when combat happens (like self defense) seems a bit dumb in a typical adventure setting. So Ernalda it is.

Ernalda cult bonuses and spells

• Dance: +20%
• Plant Lore +15%
• Sing +10%
• Speak Other (Earthtongue) +20%
• Cult Lore (Ernalda) +15%
• Worship (Ernalda) +20%
• Meditate +5%
• Sing +20% [First Bonus]
  
• Dance +15% [Second Bonus]
• Rune Magic: Absorption, Heal Body, Restore Health.
• Spirit Magic:Ignite [Free], Demoralize [2 pts], Strength [2 pts], Heal [1 pts]
• Devotion (Ernalda) 60%

Generally less constant use bonuses from Ernalda than Humakt it seems. But also very characterful. The Rune Spells are amazing however to fix things First Aid cannot. And the Spirit Magic spells are the generic good use ones. Having Demoralize means that if there's combat in the adventure, the character is going to get POW exp checks every adventure with 16 POW to begin with. So sacrificing POW for more Rune Points for even more magic makes the magic potential of the character a lot better than the last character. Add to that no real need to pay for POW training, so getting some spirit magic training (with a huge roster of associated cults for big selection) during downtime means a bright future in general here.

Step 7: Personal Skill Bonuses

4 skills with +25% and 5 other skills gets +10%. Not having any weapon skill bonuses from occupation nor cult makes this a bit awkward.

• First Aid +25%
• Battle Axe +25%
• Throwing Axe +25%
• Medium Shield +25%
• Worship (Ernalda) +10%
• Meditate +10%
• Dodge +10%
• Spirit Combat +10%
• Orate +10%
  

 One of the few things I knew before starting up Runequest, was that having shield + melee + ranged weapons are expensive to get going at the start if you want all three. No shit!

Step 8: Other Info

Name: Samastina daughter of Aranda daughter of Nerestina

Clan, Tribe and City: Hulta Clan, Nochet City, Tribe Unknown

Birthday: Earth Season, Fertility Week, Godsday

Family Heirloom: Ancestor Worshiped as Hero by your cult. Gain Devotion (Ernalda) +10%, +5% Orate and +5% Reputation.

Starting Reputation: 16 (Base 5, Free 5, Heirloom 5, Grandmother 1)

I still wish there was an exhaustive list of tribes and clans and stuff. Wonder if it's in either the big Glorantha guide or the small one...

Character Summary

Samastina daughter of Aranda daughter of Nerestina

Characteristics

• STR: 13
• DEX: 10
• CON: 16
• POW: 16
• CHA: 9
• SIZ: 16
• INT: 11

Runes

• Earth 75%
• Fire/Sky 75%
• Moon 10%
• Fertility 75% | Death 25%
• Harmony 75% | Disorder 25%

Skills

• Bargain +5%
• Dance +45%
• Intrigue +5%
• Sing +35%
• Speak Own (Esrolian) 50%
• Speak Other (Tradetalk) +20%
• Customs (Esrolian) 25%
• Battle +5%
• Farm +25%
• First Aid +60%
• Spirit Combat +35%
• Battle Axe +50%
• +1H Spear +10%
• Rapier +10%
• Self Bow +10%
• Thrown Axe +35%
• Small Shield +15%
• Medium Shield +40%
• Large Shield +10%
• Orate +20%
• Treat Disease +30%
• Alchemy +10%
• Devise +10%
• Plant Lore +45%
• Insight (Human) +10%
• Speak Other (Earthtongue) +20%
• Cult Lore (Ernalda) +15%
• Worship (Ernalda) +30%
• Meditate +15%
• Dodge +10%

Passions

• Loyalty (Holy Country): 70%
  
• Love (Family): 70%
• Loyalty (City): 60%
• Loyalty (Clan): 60%
• Hatred (Trolls): 60%
• Devotion (Ernalda): 70%
  

Equipment

• Healer's Kit.
• 620 L in coins.
• Misc items worth 100 L.
• Some clothing and the other basic items.

 

Opinions

I am pretty happy with how the character turned out. She would complement the previous character I made (Garandangian) well with the skillset. Perhaps generally less generally useful skills (weapons and perception skills and suchlike), but have a bunch of really important ones, and even more important magic stuff.

Playing

Would be a very social creature, try to talk and make deals and generally be positive. Be the voice of reason in most cases. If given a chance to sing and dance, take it. Generally be helpful to others in the party and strangers. Perhaps a bit frugal, chaste in public settings but in private a bit more forward, likes good food and drink and having a good time.

In combat mostly try to have an eye out to keep other adventurer's in action. But try to fire off Demoralize for that POW exp check, and also being generally handy against tougher soldier type enemies.

Development

While most skills comes from checks during adventuring, downtime has some choices. Sacrificing POW for more Runepoints when given the chance (as long as some POW flows in). Learn some more Spirit Magic, like Bladesharp and Protection to get bit more fighty and bump the Heal one until CHA cap. Prolly put the free checks into perception and social skills, or the weapon skills already had if no checks are had during the adventure.

End Note

I spent less than half the time to create this character compared to the previous Runequest Glorantha one. It was a massive undertaking then, but having a feel for the flow of it like and limiting the later options early when picking Homeland and Runes makes choice bloat less of an issue.

Rolling a high POW is also the best thing when making a character, I was so happy about that and I'm not even gonna get to play this one!