Character Creation Overview

<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#C0C0C0" LINK="#FFFF00" VLINK="#808080"> <TABLE WIDTH="400" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0"> <TR> <TD> <P ALIGN="CENTER"><IMG SRC="../images/mhb1.jpg" ALT="Magic Horizons Title Graphic" ALIGN="BOTTOM" WIDTH="398" HEIGHT="162"></P> <H2>Character Creation in <EM>Magic Horizons</EM></H2> <P>The information on this web page will <EM>not</EM> be sufficient to build a character for <EM>Magic Horizons</EM>. It should give you enough information to start thinking about doing so.</P> <HR> <DL> <DT><A HREF="#levels" TARGET="Main">Levels</A></DT> <DT><A HREF="#picks" TARGET="Main">Picks</A></DT> <DT><A HREF="#branches" TARGET="Main">Branches</A></DT> <DT><A HREF="#classes" TARGET="Main">Classes</A></DT> <DT><A HREF="#advancement" TARGET="Main">Rate Of Advancement</A></DT></DL> <HR> <H4><A NAME="levels"></A>Levels</H4> <P>The level of your character defines how capable and experienced they are. Levels in Magic Horizons range from 2nd to 36th.</P> <P>In order to advance in levels, you need to accumulate <A HREF="experience.html#ep" TARGET="_top">experience points</A>, which can be matched with <A HREF="experience.html#sap" TARGET="_top">service activity points</A>.</P> <P>Every level your character gains, he gains 4 <A HREF="#picks" TARGET="Main">picks</A>. Picks are used to choose ranks in skills. The higher the rank in a skill, the better your character will be at it.</P> <P>At the experience point total midway between your current level and the next level, your character will gain a half-level, and can take one of the four picks they'd gain at the next level. A half level pick must be taken in the <A HREF="#branches" TARGET="Main">branch</A> that has the most choices per level. </P> <H4><A NAME="picks"></A>Picks</H4> <P>Picks represent a character's abilities in game. A character gains four picks per level; how those picks are distributed among the various skills is dependant upon a character's <A HREF="#classes" TARGET="Main">class</A>.</P> <P>One pick in a skill represents Rank 1 in that ability. Different skills have different maximums, ranging from Rank 7 through Rank 108. The higher your rank in a skill, the more capable your character is in the skill.</P> <P>Every four levels, depending on your character's race, your character will gain a <I>free</I> pick. A free pick can be put into any <A HREF="#branches" TARGET="Main">branch</A> of knowledge, even ones that the character normally wouldn't have access to. The only exception to this is that characters may never take picks from more than one School of Philosophy.</P> <H4><A NAME="branches"></A>Branches</H4> <P>All of the skills in <EM>Magic Horizons</EM> are subdivided into six Branches of knowledge.</P> <DL> <DT><STRONG>Clandestine</STRONG> skills deal with picking locks, disarming traps and the sorts of things associated with thieves and spies.</DT> <DT><STRONG>Craft</STRONG> skills deal with the creation of items for sale in the game, or making money through normal business ventures, or accumulatingknowledge.</DT> <DT><STRONG>Mage</STRONG> skills deal with the 5 mage spell lists (Energy, Life, Matter, Spirit and Void), and the creation of magic items.</DT> <DT><STRONG>Martial</STRONG> skills deal with the use of weapons, and the wearing of armor.</DT> <DT><STRONG>Philosophy</STRONG> skills deal with the abilities gained from venerating one of the five primal forces (Darkness, Death, Light, Nature and Creation), and contain both Discourse lists (spells), and Logic lists (Talents and longer rituals). Unlike the mage lists, philosophic schools are mutually exclusive. You cannot belong to more than one philosophic school at the same time.</DT></DL> <H4><A NAME="classes"></A>Classes</H4> <P>A character's class defines how their picks are allocated each level. For example, the warrior class gains three Martial picks per level, and one Craft pick per level. The half-level pick for the warrior class would go into Martial picks, as that's the most numerous branch represented in the class. A character with an even distribution of picks (someone with two Philosophic Picks and two Martial picks, or a character with one Clandestine, one Mage, one Philosophic and one Martial pick) would choose which of the branches their half-level picks would go into when the character is created.</P> <P>A character class should have a distinguishing name. For example, the two Philosophic and two Martial pick character class is called the Sophist character class.</P> <H4><A NAME="advancement"></A>Rate of Advancement</H4> <P>Characters in <EM>Magic Horizons</EM> gain 100 experience points per game day that they play, regardless of the game's outcome. Additional experience can be gained by wearing a costume (There's a 10% costume bonus, and a 20% costume bonus), and experience point rewards can happen as a result of play.</P> <P>Two day games give 250 points of experience, with the same modifiers as are listed above.</P> <P>Initially, players can expect to add a character level for every day they play as PCs, up until 6th level or so. (Characters start at 3rd level, to give them a range of useful abilities.). After 6th level, it takes two game days as a PC to make a full level, although the half-level picks make up for this. By the time 9th level rolls around, only players getting the 20% costume bonus can expect to gain a level every other game day; for people without the bonus, it boils down to 2 levels in 5 game days. </P> <P>For details on <A HREF="../misc/character.html" TARGET="_top">characterization</A> beyond what's on your character sheet, there is another article on this web site which goes into more detail. A more detailed <A HREF="analysis.html" TARGET="_top">analysis</A> of the splitting of picks is also available on this site, as is a guide to building player character <A HREF="teams.html" TARGET="_top">teams</A>.</P> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0"> <TR> <TD><A><IMG SRC="../images/left_h.jpg" ALT="Left End Of Scroll Bar" WIDTH="32" HEIGHT="116"></A></TD> <TD><A HREF="../info/info_toc.html" TARGET="_top"><IMG SRC="../images/info_h_n.jpg" ALT="[Logistics]" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" WIDTH="45" HEIGHT="116" NAME="info"></A></TD> <TD><A HREF="../game/game_toc.html" TARGET="_top"><IMG SRC="../images/game_h_n.jpg" ALT="[Game Info]" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" WIDTH="60" HEIGHT="116" NAME="game"></A></TD> <TD><A HREF="../misc/misc_toc.html" TARGET="_top"><IMG SRC="../images/misc_h_n.jpg" ALT="[Miscellaneous Information]" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" WIDTH="62" HEIGHT="116" NAME="misc"></A></TD> <TD><A HREF="../faq.html" TARGET="_top"><IMG SRC="../images/faq_h_n.jpg" ALT="[Frequently Asked Questions]" BORDER="0" WIDTH="58" HEIGHT="116" NAME="faq"></A></TD> <TD><A HREF="../new.html" TARGET="_top"><IMG SRC="../images/new_h_n.jpg" ALT="[What's New]" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" WIDTH="52" HEIGHT="116" NAME="whatsNew"></A></TD> <TD><A HREF="../index.html" TARGET="_top"><IMG SRC="../images/home_h_n.jpg" ALT="[Magic Horizons Home Page]" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" WIDTH="59" HEIGHT="116" NAME="home"></A></TD> <TD><IMG SRC="../images/right_h.jpg" ALT="Right End Of Scroll Bar" WIDTH="22" HEIGHT="116"></TD></TR></TABLE> <P>Problems with the page? Email <a HREF="mailto:burnside@itis.com">Ken Burnside</a>.</P></TD></TR></TABLE></BODY>