Players

This space reserved for guides and resources for players of FO:E - APMRPG.

Okay, you want to create a character to be able to play a game with your friends.  Great!  You pull out the rules, open it up... and come up completely blank.  Naturally, right?  I'm going to detail how I go about creating a character with my group and hopefully it will give you a bit of a guide to get you over that starting block.

First things first: that critic.  That voice that's stopped so many stories, pointed out in so many cases just how tired an idea is before you really get to play around with that idea and see what it can do.  Shut it off for a bit.  Fifteen minutes, half and hour, any amount of time that allows you to brainstorm.  When I first started I literally had to set a timer for ten minutes and force myself to not think any negative thoughts while brainstorming.  It's hard, I know, but it does get easier with practice.

With that annoying voice eating a jar of peanut butter, talk with the people you'll game with, especially the game master.   In games like this, it's the characters that drive the story and a stuck game master will love to know what pieces s/he's working with.  My group lays out what skills we consider a must: like climbing, persuasion, medicine and survival to give examples.  We use roles/archetypes as bases to make sure we can handle any situation.

Silverlight is an oddity for me, as I was very aware of what material I used when I was creating her.  I chose to play test the healer role.  I decided right at the start that I had a goal for myself: create a character that isn't a clone of Velvet Remedy.  For a medic, that's hard to do as Velvet is defined by her medical skills more often than almost any other trait.  With this in mind I looked at the races to see what would work best.  Pegasus I decided against: wings are handy things but don't automatically add anything to medical skills.  Earth pony has a special ability that adds 20 to any skill roll.  Since medicine only has a minimal DC and everything after that DC is used, it synergies with earth pony grit extremely well.

Alright, we have an earth pony medic.  That's enough to get you to the start of the game.  But what about personality, background, history?  These things are what can make a character truly fun to play.  I... have a personality clash with Velvet Remedy.  Don't get me wrong, I think she's a very good, we rounded character.  I'm just doubtful I'd be friends with her, is all.  Using this I continued my quest to not make a Velvet Remedy clone.  Noodling with that over a couple of days, I started with background for Silverlight.  Opposite of Stable Dweller is Wastelander.  Alright, running with that how does a mare growing up in the wasteland learn about healing?  Tenpony tower has a good standard of healing.  Okay, so Silver lived in Tenpony and learned medical skills there.  What could possibly bring her to want to leave the tower and venture through the wasteland?

That one stumped me.  So I took a break, played some of the Jedi Knight's story in Star Wars: The Old Republic to give my creative brain a rest.  Ended up talking with the companion Doc.  Who left medical school with the idea of bringing quality healthcare to the outer rim: whether they wanted it or not.  Light bulb!  Silver's not as forceful as Doc, but that's an extremely good way to get her out of the tower and around wasteland life, healing those who need it.  But, again, she's starting to sound... for lack of a better word Sue-ish.  Doc prevents that image from taking by being a complete hang dog.  So, what would prevent Silver from having that perfect image?  I didn't want her to be a complete lay-a-round, though she'd be willing to flirt.  Again, took a break to work on Mass Effect 2 since the hard drive ate my saves a while back.  Aria mentions Mordin Solus and how "he's as likely to shoot you as he is to heal you."  Second inspiration hits.  It makes sense for a pony to be like that if they've grown up with the wasteland horrors.  A certain amount wouldn't phase them.  Rather than take that directly, I crafted Aria's line into Silver's motto: Are you going to shoot me?  Yes, I shoot you.  No, I'll help/heal you.

Now we have a medical earth pony mare who's use to the wasteland but refuses to let the horrors of the land prevent her from helping the few good ponies who are left, but won't let the fact that she's a doctor prevent her from putting down bad ponies.  A wise cracker, flirt and sparkle-cola addict as the game continued.  A pony who thinks on her hooves and always tries to make sure the situation favors her the most.  Inspiration comes from sometimes strange places, but that doesn't prevent themes from working in different genres.  Keep that critic quiet when you're brainstorming, hash things out with your gaming buddies and interesting characters do come.