Characters

In any role playing game, the character is the center of focus, the core of the game. You imagine yourself as someone else (or yourself) in a different world and time period. In Harath, characters are primarily defined by their Attributes, Abilities and Disabilities, and Skills, which combine to make each character unique. Additionally, your character’s race and personality also play a large part. Your character’s race directly affects your Attributes, Abilities and Disabilities, and serves as a loose guide to your choice of Skills. However, you alone decide your character’s personality. You can be good or evil, devil-may-care or highly focused, introverted or extroverted, a drunk or a paragon of virtue, a hero or a villain — the choices are endless. So let’s get started!

Age

The “unit of currency” for building a character in Harath is the Character Point (CP). At the start of the game, you begin with 1 CP for each month your character has been alive. You “spend” CP to “purchase” your Attributes, Abilities, Disabilities, and Skills. In other words, the older your character, the more skilled they can be. After the game begins, you earn CP at the steady rate of 1 CP/month during months your character is not adventuring. While your character is actively adventuring, the GM will award CP based on your game play – excellent role playing, clever problem solving, and creative use of your Skills and Abilities can earn you additional CP.

Gender

Male or female, the choice is yours. Although females of all races tend to be shorter, lighter, and less strong than their male counterparts, because you choose your character’s height, weight, and strength, gender actually has no significant impact on character creation.

Race

Different Races have unique sets of Attribute modifiers, inherent Abilities and Disabilities, and Skill restrictions.

Attributes

In Harath, Attributes are numerical representations of a person’s physical and mental capacity: how strong, durable, and flexible each is. The physical Attributes are Strength (Str), Constitution (Con), and Dexterity (Dex), while their equivalent mental Attributes are Will (Will), Mana (Mana), and Quickness (Quick). These Attributes must be purchased using CP.

In addition to these six Attributes, your character also has numerous four Secondary Attributes that determine the character’s appearance. They are Age, Height, Weight, and Comeliness (attractiveness). You do not need to spend CP on these secondary attributes. They are free.

The human average for Attributes is 5.

Abilities and Disabilities

Abilities and Disabilities are your character’s inherent advantages and disadvantages. Many of them serve to supplement one or more of your character’s Attributes or Skills or somehow limit them. This is a reflection of the fact that most people are naturally good at some things and have to work twice as hard to get the hang of other things. Most Abilities and Disabilities are listed as having X points/level. This is the number of CP you must pay to get each level of an Advantage or that you will receive when you accept each level of a Disadvantage. The level indicates the strength of the ability, and generally equates to the number of Ss you need to receive when making a statistic roll.