Character Creation

Progress on the Player-facing Side

Today’s post will be all about character creation for Ashen Frontiers. I’m still getting art together, but I’d like to share with you the parts that I have been able to get to a laid-out draft stage.

Ancestries

There will be four Ancestries available to select for the game:

The idea for the art is that it represents the ancestry in a non-adventuring capacity. I’m also trying to use the stat-block as something of a height-scale, but I don’t think it’s quite precise, as I imagine if both the Human and the Behemoth stood up at their current scales, the Human would be as tall as the Behemoth, when they should be about a head shorter. I’ll try to adjust that, but I don’t want any of the detail of the art to be lost.

You’ll note that the Ancestry gives you some physical information, and then you have a Variety to each Ancestry that gives a bit further customization.

Ancestry Talents give you options to take during character progression that tie into your choice of Ancestry and Variety.

You’ll also note that under Society several potential Community choices are listed (more on that soon).

Ancestry provides your starting Health (which factors into Natural Healing); Senses, Size, and Speed; and two Traits (one for the Ancestry, one particular to the chosen Variety). Choosing to make a blended Ancestry is as simple as choosing a Trait from each Ancestry and then working with the GM to choose a value for Health, Size, and Speed, and which Senses you possess.

Communities

If Ancestry is the biological component of a Character’s background, Community is the social aspect. These are the first five Communities, Ashen Frontiers will also feature Hill-folk and Mountain-folk; Sea-folk, Shore-folk, and Tundra-folk will wait for the generic version of BLEND20.

The illustrations for Communities are intentionally generic and monochrome, so that your imagination can fill in the space with how you view the place you grew up.

Community gives Training in one Skill, and two Qualities. Creating a custom Community or representing an upbringing in multiple environments involves choosing a Quality from each Community and working with the GM to select a Skill to become Trained with.

Classes

There are six Classes for Ashen Frontiers, the raging Frenok, the Hierant that harnesses the power of the elements, the primal magic using Iéreas, the stealthy Katergar, the arcane wielding Magos, and the death-dealing Thanator.

The one ready for a preview is the Katergar:

One of the things worth noting here is how Multiclassing works in BLEND20. When you choose a Multiclass, you become Trained in one of that Class’s core Skills, gain access to that Class’s Power Source, and become Trained in the Weapons that the Class uses, if necessary.

Then, when you advance in Level, you can swap out one of the two Class Features that you would get from your Class for a base Class Feature from the Multiclass as long as it is for a lower Level than your current Level. That way, a single Class character and a Multiclass character end up with the same number of Class Features.

Each Class has three Focus options, allowing to hone into what aspects of the Class appeal to you the most. Each Level (except 20) always gives you two Features, some of which allow you to add Talents or improve your Character, others give you new things to do in the game.

For Character Improvements, there are usually a few guaranteed things (advancing Skill and Defense Proficiencies, adding Recovery Points, increasing a Class-specific rating) and some optional things that allow you to make one big change to the Character, like improving an Attribute or gaining a new Skill.

Each Focus provides five Class Features that help refine the Class or give it new options for the game. For example, Bandit leans into the rogue-like nature of the Katergar, while Entertainer tweaks the Class to provide more bardish options.

The last part of a Class entry is its specific Talents. These often enhance one of the core Class Features, allowing a player to emphasis what they like about their chosen Class.

Character Sheet Update

While listening to a review of another RPG product, I realized there was an opportunity to tweak the Character Sheet to make things easier on players:

I’ve added a little explainer to most of the Conditions. The two that don’t have it are Winded (you’ve taken Damage equal to or higher than half your total Health) and Wounded (the next time you gain the Dying Condition you die outright).

You’ll also notice the Dying Condition is gone. This goes with my philosophy of only having Conditions that stick on the Character Sheet. Much like Blinded or Seized, the Dying Condition most often ends quickly, one way or the other. You don’t need to mark it on your Character Sheet to remind you to deal with it during your next Rest.

Sign-off

That’s the extent of the player-facing news at present. I’m waiting for more art to show off the other Communities and Classes, but expect to see more Foes before then, and perhaps more about the peoples and places of Pherot as I build out the setting in anticipation of bringing this project to a close towards the end of the year.

Thank you,

Jacob