All numeric values on this page are playtesting values and may be adjusted.
Use the interactive Character Sheet to build your character.
Complete these in order. Each step builds on the one before it.
No dice are rolled. This is a deliberate choice. The distribution you build here shapes every roll your character will ever make, so take a moment to think about who this person is.
See Gifts & Skills for what each Gift covers.
Example: Tilly wants high Presence and Appeal. Charm and Etiquette are her working tools — she optimizes for talking her way out of it. She starts with 1 dot in each Gift (6 mandatory dots), then places her 10 additional dots: 1 more into Body, 2 more into Wits, 4 more into Presence, 0 more into Resolve, 0 more into Channeling, 3 more into Appeal. Final spread: Body 2, Wits 3, Presence 5, Resolve 1, Channeling 1, Appeal 4.
The low Resolve is a choice, not an accident. She files this away for when it becomes someone else’s problem.
A
You learned to fight the way most people learn to swim — suddenly, and because the alternative was worse. Camps, marches, the particular tedium of waiting for something terrible to happen. Nobody taught you form. You picked up what worked and left the rest in the mud.
Bonus dots: Brawl 2, Melee 1, Physical Toughness 1, Grit 1, Coercion 1, Heavy Lifting 1
XP value: 8 points
You polished armor before you wore it, tended horses before you rode them, and stood at the back of every room long enough to understand who actually held power. Service was the education. You graduated when your lord decided you’d earned the right to get yourself killed on your own terms.
Bonus dots: Melee 2, Physical Toughness 2, Defending 1, Etiquette 1, Animal Handling 1
XP value: 9 points
The city raised you the way cities raise everyone who falls through the cracks — impersonally, and with occasional violence. You learned which alleys were safe, which faces to avoid, and that trust is a thing people extend right before they take something from you.
Bonus dots: Stealing 1, Concealment 1, Stealth 1, Alertness 2, Grit 1, Deception 1
XP value: 8 points
You learned to read a room faster than most people read a sentence. Who’s nervous. Who’s lying. Who’s about to become a problem. The work was rarely about what it looked like from the outside — it was labor, negotiation, and performance, and you got very good at all three.
Bonus dots: Charm 2, Empathy 1, Grit 1, Deception 1, Alertness 1, Performance 1
XP value: 8 points
You were born inside the machine and taught how it runs. The right words for the right ears, the correct way to hold a fork, the particular art of making someone feel like they lost while believing they won. Power wasn’t something you reached for — it was the water you swam in.
Bonus dots: Etiquette 2, Politics 1, Persuasion 2, Lore 1, Performance 1
XP value: 7 points
You spent your formative years in rooms where books outnumbered people, which suited you fine. You know things — a remarkable number of things — and have occasionally been surprised to discover that knowing things and surviving things are different skills entirely.
Bonus dots: Lore 2, Medicine 1, Meticulousness 1, Politics 1, Persuasion 1, Plant Knowledge 1
XP value: 8 points
You grew up learning that everything has a price and everyone has a tell. Appraising goods, watching faces, catching the slight pause before someone names a number they made up. The market is just a conversation, and you have rarely left one worse off than you entered.
Bonus dots: Trading 2, Persuasion 1, Empathy 1, Deception 1, Politics 1, Alertness 1
XP value: 8 points
Stages taught you that an audience will tell you everything about themselves in the first thirty seconds if you watch for it. You’ve played taverns, squares, and private halls. You’ve been whoever the room needed. The line between performing and being has never been especially clear to you.
Bonus dots: Performance 2, Charm 1, Acrobatics 1, Empathy 1, Deception 1, Alertness 1
XP value: 7 points
Rules, you’ve found, are mostly suggestions with consequences attached. You learned your trade in the margins — planning the job, reading the room, knowing which partners talk under pressure. You’re not proud of all of it. You’re not ashamed of most of it either.
Bonus dots: Stealing 2, Concealment 1, Deception 1, Stealth 1, Alertness 1, Brawl 1
XP value: 8 points
The sea is not cruel. It simply doesn’t notice you. You grew up learning ropes, weather, the geography of every port you docked in, and how to win a fight in a bar where nobody speaks your language. The world is bigger than most people imagine. You’ve seen a fair portion of it.
Bonus dots: Swimming 2, Climbing 1, Survival 1, Heavy Lifting 1, Brawl 1, Alertness 1
XP value: 8 points
You grew up in the workshop — watching, then helping, then building things yourself. You understand materials the way other people understand language: intuitively, fluently, with an immediate sense of when something is wrong. A practical upbringing. You have always been suspicious of people who can’t make anything with their hands.
Bonus dots: Tinkering 2, Trading 1, Meticulousness 1, Heavy Lifting 1, Lore 1, Persuasion 1
XP value: 8 points
You learned early that the same plant that heals a fever kills a man if you measure it wrong. People came to your door when they were frightened and left owing you something — a favor, a confidence, a debt they didn’t want to name. You know a great deal about this village. None of it was volunteered.
Bonus dots: Plant Knowledge 2, Medicine 1, Survival 1, Lore 1, Meticulousness 1, Trading 1
XP value: 8 points
Seasons don’t negotiate. You learned work by doing it, failure by experiencing it, and patience because the crop didn’t care about your plans. There’s a kind of knowledge that only comes from putting your hands in the ground and waiting — and a kind of stubbornness that comes from doing it again the year after a bad one.
Bonus dots: Animal Handling 2, Survival 1, Plant Knowledge 1, Heavy Lifting 1, Physical Toughness 2
XP value: 9 points
The woods taught you stillness. The things that live in them taught you that patience isn’t a virtue, it’s a survival strategy — because the moment you stop paying attention, something larger than you starts making plans. You came home most nights. That’s not nothing.
Bonus dots: Archery 2, Survival 2, Animal Handling 1, Stealth 1, Alertness 1
XP value: 9 points
Every character receives 45 Experience Points. No roll. No variance. The same budget, every time. What separates one character from another is not luck — it is how they choose to spend.
Everything in Step 4 draws from this single pool: Caste, Wealth, Fame, and Skills. Forty-five points sounds generous until you start pricing ambitions.
One pool. Four places to spend it.
Your XP buys Caste, Wealth, Fame, and Skills from the same budget. Every point you put into social standing is a point not going into competence. There is no right answer — only the one that fits the character you want to play, and its consequences.
Spend Caste, Wealth, and Fame first (or at least decide on them before tallying skills). Whatever remains goes toward skill dots using the triangular cost curve below.
Caste is your social standing in Soltherra. It determines how you are treated on sight — what districts you can move through without drawing suspicion, what clothing you wear, and whether strangers extend basic courtesy or look through you. Caste is purchased at a flat cost from your XP pool.
| Caste | Cost | Starting Clothing | Starting Money |
|---|---|---|---|
| Casteless | 0 points | Rags | 10 Crowns |
| Lower Caste | 2 points | Common clothing — clean, functional, unremarkable | 30 Crowns |
| Middle Caste | 4 points | Respectable clothing — well-made, appropriate for institutions | 100 Crowns |
| Upper Caste | 8 points | Fine clothing — high quality, marks the wearer as wealthy | 500 Crowns |
Clothing has no armor value and provides no mechanical benefit in combat. It shapes how NPCs react to you before you open your mouth.
Every character receives a money pouch at creation, regardless of caste. The money pouch holds Crowns and Bits — nothing else.
High Caste is not available at character creation. High Caste characters are centuries-old, sustained by channeling. A starting character cannot be High Caste. This is a lore constraint, not a point cost.
See Society for what High Caste actually means.
What does each caste level feel like to wear? See Society to learn how each caste is perceived from the inside and outside.
Caste opens doors. It does not guarantee anyone will be glad to see you on the other side. The label is what the world reads first — before your reputation, before your skills, before you say a word.
Caste also determines your housing options. See Living Costs for what each tier can afford on a monthly basis.
Fame measures how widely known your character is before play begins. Fame uses the same triangular cost curve as skills — each dot costs its dot number in points. Fame 3 costs 1+2+3 = 6 points total.
Fame is not inherently positive or negative. A character can be famous — heroism, notoriety, scandal, skill, or brutality. You and the GM agree on what the character is known for during creation. Fame affects how NPCs react, what information is volunteered, and what threats emerge — not dice rolls.
| Level | Dot Cost | Cumulative Cost | Recognition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 — Unknown | — | 0 points | Nobody knows your name. You move through the city unnoticed. |
| 1 — Locally Known | 1 point | 1 point | Recognized in your immediate neighborhood. The baker knows your name. The local guard nods. |
| 2 — District Reputation | 2 points | 3 points | Known across a district. People you have never met have heard of you. Merchants form opinions before you speak. |
| 3 — City-Wide Name | 3 points | 6 points | Recognized across Soltherra. Walking into a tavern changes the room. You cannot go most places unnoticed. |
| 4 — Legendary | 4 points | 10 points | Your name appears in stories. Factions seek you out — as ally or threat. People form opinions about you before meeting you. |
| 5 — Iconic | 5 points | 15 points | Your name is part of the city’s vocabulary. Children play-act as you. Privacy within Soltherra is functionally impossible. |
Fame can change during play at the GM’s discretion based on what the character does. The starting value represents where they begin — not where they stay.
After deciding Caste, Wealth, and Fame, whatever points remain go toward skill dots. The cost structure is the triangular curve shown below, applied on top of whatever your background already gave you.
Each
| Dot | Cost | Cumulative (0 → N) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 point | 1 |
| 2 | 2 points | 3 |
| 3 | 3 points | 6 |
| 4 | 4 points | 10 |
| 5 | 5 points | 15 |
No skill may exceed 5 dots. Points that would push a skill above 5 are lost.
A character with 45 points can max two skills from zero (15 + 15 = 30) and still have 15 points left for breadth — before spending anything on Caste, Wealth, or Fame. Background dots give you a head start in some skills, reducing what you pay to push those skills higher. Deep specialists hit harder in their lane; generalists are harder to catch off-guard.
Five dots in a single skill costs 15 points (1+2+3+4+5). That same 15 points buys fifteen separate skills at 1 dot each. Everything else is just deciding which problem you want to have.
See Dice Mechanics for how skill dots translate into expected successes on a roll.
High Caste, visible wealth, and Fame all do the same thing: they make you easier to find and harder to ignore. This is not a punishment for good choices. It is the point.
You bought these advantages with points you could have spent on skills. The points bought you social power. Social power costs visibility. The GM’s job is to make that cost feel real.
Characters with dots in a channeling skill know the common spells for that skill at character creation, up to their skill level. A character with Fire 3 knows common Fire spells of levels 1, 2, and 3.
Rare, unique, or advanced spells require in-game discovery, teaching, or research. This rule means that a character with channeling investment is immediately playable — no separate spell-shopping phase required.
See Spells for the full catalog of common spells per energy type and level.
Tilly has 45 points and the Street Urchin background, which gave her Stealing 1, Concealment 1, Stealth 1, Alertness 2, Grit 1, and Deception 1. The background fits her history rather well. She does not dwell on this.
She considers her options.
Caste: Casteless. She was born with no standing and has not acquired any. The advantage is that nobody looks twice at someone they have already decided is not worth robbing. Cost: 0 points. Remaining: 45.
Wealth: She spends 2 points for 40 Crowns. Enough to buy tools, not enough to look like someone worth robbing. Remaining: 43.
Fame: She spends nothing. Unknown suits her. The less people know about her, the longer things stay where she left them. Remaining: 43.
Skills: She has 43 points left for skill dots, buying on top of her background values.
That is 39 points on skills. She has 4 left: Empathy 1 (1 point) and Swimming 1 (1 point), with 2 points held until she decides after talking to her GM.
Total spent: 0 (Caste) + 2 (Wealth) + 0 (Fame) + 43 (Skills) = 45. Nothing wasted. She begins play as an unknown Casteless woman with 40 Crowns, rags on her back, and a skill set that is almost entirely oriented toward not being caught. Her player notes this says something unflattering about her character. She notes this is accurate.
Characters need containers to carry things. This section covers what containers exist, what they hold, and how much you can carry before the GM starts asking questions.
Every character starts with a money pouch for free. The following containers are available for purchase at Equipment Prices.
| Container | Price | Capacity | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scabbard | 2 Bits | 1 item slot | Hip or back mount. Holds one bladed weapon. |
| Belt pouch | 3 Bits | 3 small items | Herbs, vials, a lockpick set, a folded note. Not weapons. |
| Vest | 5 Bits | 2 item slots | Interior pockets. Concealed carry for small items. |
| Coat | 8 Bits | 3 item slots | Deep pockets and lining. Keeps weather off you as a bonus. |
| Cloth backpack | 8 Bits | 8 item slots | Local cloth construction. Cheaper and less durable than leather. |
| Leather backpack | 1 Crown 5 Bits | 12 item slots | Standard adventuring pack. Durable. |
| Quiver | 5 Crowns | 20 arrows or bolts | Arrows and bolts only. Does not count against backpack slots. |
Items not stored in a container fall into one of three categories:
A character can carry one backpack and up to two belt pouches without encumbrance. Additional containers beyond this require GM adjudication. The GM determines whether extra bulk creates a meaningful penalty or simply looks awkward.
Weapons are not stored in backpacks. They are worn on belts, slung over shoulders, or carried in hand. A sheathed weapon does not consume a backpack slot.
A character who wants a sword on their hip and a bow on their back is not using any inventory slots to do so. The weapon is simply part of what they are wearing.
The system does not assign a fixed slot value to every item. The GM applies a consistent rule of thumb:
When the slot cost of an item is unclear, the GM decides. Consistent rulings across a session matter more than the specific number chosen.
Housing is a monthly expense, not a starting benefit. Characters do not begin play with a home unless the GM grants one as part of the backstory.
Monthly housing costs range from nothing (slum squat — unsafe, no landlord) to 300 Crowns per month for a fine inner-district residence. The full table is at Living Costs.
Where a character lives at the start of the first session is a conversation between the player and GM, informed by caste and starting wealth but not mechanically determined by them.
Your gifts are rolled. Your background is chosen. Your XP are spent. Now you figure out who this person actually is.
The identity step covers four things: your background story (where you came from and why you left), the defining moments that shaped you, the two mindset axes that describe how you think and react, and your motivations — what you want, what you fear, and what you would give up everything else to protect.
None of this affects dice rolls or action points. It gives your GM the material to build a game around you specifically, rather than a generic person who happens to have your skill spread.
© Soltherra RPG System