Here is a question — Are playbooks necessary? The special abilities can be taken (veteran adds) from other areas. So, you could create a slide that starts with one ability from slide and then takes the rest from spider…correct?
Instead of using playbooks, could you create a list of starting archetypes with a suggested first special ability & a menu of special items & xp triggers? OR, would this create too much of a hassle / headache for character creation?
Thoughts?
For example: An archetype for a monk might suggest “Devil’s Footsteps” as the first special ability and then “Arcane Fighter” as the second. So, each character can follow its own path as the fiction evolves.
Or, If I want to create Jesper, a character from the Six of Crows book, I would take Sharpshooter first and then one of the Whisper abilities to add some minor magic.
Yep, you can totally do that. A blank character sheet template is provided for this purpose.
The playbooks exist to facilitate easier character creation and to give focus to game play with the xp triggers.
John Harper Thanks — that is what I thought. I am a bit concerned about the impact on character creation if I don’t use playbooks…
For first time players, I would definitely use playbooks. If everyone has mastery of the system already, it’s not a big deal to make custom characters.
Creating of character at my table often looks like this:
Player: “Oh, I want to be a Hound, because he has some cool special abilities”.
GM: “It may be a good idea to choose your playbook NOT based on special abilities, because you have veteran abilities. Consider choosing the playbook based on the xp trigger because this will be your main method of problem solving.” IMO this helps shaping the PC better in the first session and gives all kinds of freedom for special abilities.
Best example of an awesome player creating an awesome PC: Spider, choosing “A little something on the side” (= Slide) as his starting ability + XP trigger form spider. This was a clear message how this Spider will be played and gave a lots of big smiles not only to the GM but to the other players as well.
Stefan Struck great advice.
Stefan Struck I do the same thing at my table. Pick based on XP trigger first, because that’ll determine how quickly you get new abilities based on how you play. Special items are secondary, since you could find ways to get them in play.
I myself am currently playing a Cutter who started with a Leech ability and is going to have quite a bit of Leech and Whisper if he lives long enough. But I’m playing him as a brutal and domineering fighter, so Cutter made the most sense.