When I look at a new RPG, the first thing I do is peruse the character creation. I enjoy, both, the serious character hours-long build and the 5-minute character of old school games, but I prefer something in between—chargen that isn't overly-complicated, but that allows some interesting character choices. That's where we've put Reaver character generation.
Every Reaver character has six Attributes, an Origin, a Class, and Careers.
Attributes fill the role they do in other games and represent your character's raw abilities. In Reaver, we've chosen more Sword & Sorcery-inspired names: Brawn, Agility, Stamina, Cunning, Intuition, and Presence.
The character's Origin represents their culture and nationality. It offers no mechanical benefits, but informs the player about their character's background and society. Because the Sagas of Cennor Setting is very much inspired by our own ancient world, many of the Origins represented in Reaver will be familiar to those with even a passing knowledge of history. While historical peoples have inspired the Origin, they are not necessarily analogous.
The character’s Class is the basic framework of the character, imparts their basic abilities, and informs their core role. As a class-based system, these should feel familiar to most role-players, and indeed the OSR roots of Reaver are still plainly seen in many of these classes. However, they've all been given an overhaul with the S&S genre in mind. The classes are Barbarian, Berserker, Fighter, Magus, Priest, Rogue, Scout, and Sorcerer.
Finally, all characters begin the game with one Career and gain two more as they advance in levels. Careers represent the character's expertise and background and grant a feature (which may be mechanical or narrative in nature). There is no skill system in Reaver, instead Careers fill that role and it is the player's duty to advocate for their character's abilities by linking their Career to a task. If the player and Chronicler agree that a Career will assist a task, the player receives +1d to their roll. For example, a Sorcerer with the Freebooter Career, is likely good at climbing ropes, prognosticating the weather, and staying on their feet on a slippery deck and would receive the modifier when checking their success on such tasks.
Reaver comes to Kickstarter on September 9, 2024.
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