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Creating a character in Moonrise involves the following steps:
Individual souls also have a shape/nature which can determine some overarching detail of a character and provides a wide-reaching effect of some sort. These can be thought of as “playstyles”. All characters must choose a Primary Soul Shape which will to a degree define the way in which they play. Characters may have any number of Lesser Soul Shapes. These are chosen at character creation and cannot subsequently be changed.
If none of the Primary Soul Shapes particularly seem of interest, you can default to being Unyielding - there is no IC significance to Soul Shapes and no obligation to ever invoke the option it provides, so if you don't want to avoid character death you can just… not do that.
If you want to just “play normally” with no modifications, therefore, the default is Unyielding (which you don't have to invoke) with no Lesser Soul Shapes.
For players who don't like character death/things not going their way, or for the rest of us.
A tenacious soul which refuses to be changed by the void. Can spend <n> XP to undo death/long-lasting effects between adventures, where <n> is the number of times this ability has been invoked including this usage.
For players who love metaphysical deformities.
A tenacious soul which refuses to be lost to the void. Can spend 1 XP to undo death at the end of the adventure, this will have long lasting consequences which between multiple uses will eventually make the character unplayable, these will be almost entirely negative and in some way thematically linked to the circumstances of death.
For players who revel in character death and want to rush to the higher levels of power for a fast turnover.
Each XP spent on this character is worth two skills (this may be tweaked based on actual system lethality with the current estimation that 50% of characters will die before hitting level 4).
After 12 adventures they will cease to be playable.
For players who want to drop in and out.
Intended for those who cannot come to LARP regularly or just awkward characters to fill in slots on LARPs for which nobody has a level appropriate character:
For players with a flair for the dramatic.
If you die/become unplayable, you always get the opportunity to have a drawn-out dramatic death. If someone else dies/becomes unplayable, you can take their place and also get this opportunity. If sacrifice is made for someone else no mechanism can save you (not even one that could have saved them if you’d only waited 30 seconds for the person with the clever idea to come along).
Death Count is reduced by 30 seconds.
For those that sometimes just want to get the job done.
You can choose to accept, at any point on your death count or whilst being executed, that something needs to be achieved at any cost. At this point you are already dead and cannot be saved from death by any means nor can you sacrifice your life for some other purpose, you will return to a more normal state of death at the end of the adventure regardless of outcome. Take a HEAL, you now Refresh your Resource whenever you HEAL, you may permanently lose a maximum body hit in order to HEAL yourself (for simplicity effects that work on fractions of your body hits operate based on your original maximum). You appear as a spectral figure for the duration of this affliction having left your corpse behind.
The character’s soul does not anchor to anything around it after death and cannot respond to beseechment.
For those who can’t stand using up goodwill. You do not have a cap on the number of organisations you can participate in.
You are incapable of burning reputation for favours. General goodwill reputation can be assigned to a particular organisation, or kept for assignation later.
For those who want emotional trauma from their NPCs.
Where GMs have NPCs undergoing suffering at the hands of their adventure (kidnapped, dead, missing) or poorly fleshed out minor bit part villains they may ask someone with this Soul Shape pre-LARP, “Who that you love (with required trait X) has gone missing lately?”. They can then use elements of provided characterisation/identity in the victim/bit part villain.
For those who don’t like judging when to use long term combat resources
Your class resource is replaced as per below. You are unaffected by the call EFFECT “REFRESH YOUR RESOURCE” (please warn any Spirit Guides in your party of this fact), you cannot call in favours to acquire alchemy or Ennarian medical kits. You cannot buy the skill Traditional Alchemy.
These are intended as a jumping off point to characterisation and a sometimes useful setting hook. If you don't have any characterisation yet or aren't interested you can treat your character as Indifferent to all aspects.
Some have made attempts to describe the gods as having shared elements of their ethoses. Regardless of the in universe validity of those shared elements they are a convenient game mechanical hook to identify how much a character agrees with or is repulsed by the fundamentals of a given religion. Choose the statement that best maps to your characters opinion on the axis. The characters answers are important to how they interact with priests and potentially other metaphysical elements. Your character's opinions on these elements are free to change and develop in play. Declaring yourself fully aligned to everything will get the LARPOs to give you some very suspicious looks.