In this example, we will walk through a level-one gunslinger being created by a player named Tom.

Step One: Generalization

The GM has determined that the players are able to choose their generalization instead of flipping for it. Knowing that he wants to play a gunslinger, Tom first looks at the class itself. The gunslinger class grants a bonus to Substantial Perception [SP] and Physical Attack <PA>. Because Physical Attack <PA> is based on Substantial Perception, it’s essentially giving him a starting value of 3 <PA>, which is pretty accurate for a level one character.

Instead of doubling down on [SP], Tom decides he wants to gain some agility for defensive purposes. Soft Strength [SS] also combos well with the rank 4 talent for gunslingers, “Equilibrium”. He looks at some of the generalizations that provide an increase to [SS] and determines he wants to go with “Sneaky”. This will give him +1 to [SS], a rank in the Stealth skill, and the Careful Movement advantage.

Since Tom’s character was granted a rank in Stealth, he also gets to choose a specialization for that skill. The options are:

Silent Movement
Hide
Ambush
Shadowing

This gives Tom some ideas for his character concept. He takes Ambush as his specialization, thinking that maybe his character was a former road bandit who is trying to change his ways after the fall of the Wall. Maybe he’s seen some former friends and associates become corrupted and twisted and doesn’t want to follow that same path to damnation.

Tom writes down Sneaky, +1 [SS], +1 to Stealth (with the Ambush specialization), and Careful Movement.

Step Two: Class

As stated before, Tom wants to play a gunslinger. The class benefits are:

Aspect Bonus: +1 [SP]
Combat Value Bonus: +1 <PA>
Starting Skills: Assessment, Discipline, Dueling, Intimidation, Any one other skill
Starting Proficiencies: Light Armor, Pistols, Any one other proficiency
Starting Money: $100.00

Every class gets one selection for “any one other skill”. Looking over the list, Tom chooses Notice [SP].

Every class also gets one selection for “any one other proficiency”, which could be a weapon or armor proficiency. The gunslinger class, being specialized, is very limited in what proficiencies they are granted. He decides to take Medium Armor proficiency. This means his character isn’t proficient in any kind of melee weapons, but it’s a risk he’s willing to take.

Step Three: Customization

Tom has 50 points to spend to customize his character. The options are:

Aspect increases – 10 points each, maximum of one per Aspect
Combat Value increases – 10 points each, maximum of one per Combat Value
Skills – 5 points per rank, maximum one rank per skill
Specializations – 5 points per 2
Advantages – 10 points per rank
Disadvantages – Negative 5 points per rank, which can be used for more customization purchases

The first thing Tom wants to do is look at disadvantages to get some additional points. Tom immediately decides to take “Annoying Personal Habit” and decides that his character will always laugh at very inappropriate times. This is worth 5 points.

Tom then looks at “Bad Reputation” because of his character’s history as a bandit. Bad Reputation is a ranked disadvantage and there are some decisions to make. Tom restricts the area of the Bad Reputation to the area around Hickory, in the northwest of the Frontier. The GM has said that some of the campaign will take place near there so this choice adheres to the rule that “disadvantages must actually be a hindrance to count”. If Tom had chosen some random town back East and there was almost no chance of it ever coming into play, it wouldn’t be allowed. Tom knows his character was only a low-level minion in a gang, so he limits the impact to Standard Rank 1 (a negative flip shift). Looking at the chart, Tom gets 1 rank from the number of people and zero ranks from the impact for a total of 1 rank (5 points).

Tom also wants to further enhance his backstory by including an “Enemy”. He wants his character to have a brother who stayed with the gang and won’t forgive Tom’s character for leaving. This type of disadvantage can impact a campaign, so he makes sure he runs the idea past the GM first. The GM agrees that the idea of the brother showing up occasionally can work with the story. Enemy is a ranked disadvantage, so again there are some decisions to be made. The brother is just as powerful as Tom’s character (1 rank) and will appear only rarely (0 ranks). Tom wants the brother to know Tom’s character has a weakness (a younger sister that he wants to protect at all costs). The GM agrees this is ok and this is worth another rank. The total is 2 ranks for 10 points.

Tom could continue to take more disadvantage if he wants, but he’s receiving the maximum of 20 points back so he decides to move on. He has 70 points to spend on customizations now.

He looks at advantages first. He received one rank of Careful Movement with the selection of his generalization. Two Guns Blazing makes absolute sense for a gunslinger. That’s 10 points. He knows that two heavy pistols will cost him $80, which is almost all of his starting $100. He decides to take Wealth to double his starting money to $200. There are some other good advantages, but with 50 points left, Tom decides to look at other things.

Aspects are a good place for new characters to invest some points. Tom increases his Substantial Perception, Soft Strength, and External Endurance by 1 point each. This is a total of 30 points, leaving him with 20.

For skills, Tom puts a point into Athletics, Stealth, Survival, and Thievery. That costs 20 points and he’s done.

Step Four: Calculated Values

With his selections made, Tom has received:

Aspects:

+1 [EE] from customization points
+1 [SS] from his generalization
+1 [SP] from his class
+1 [SP] from customization points
+1 [SS] from customization points

Combat Values:

+1 <PA> from his class

Skills:

+1 Assessment, Discipline, Dueling, Intimidation, and Notice [SP] from his class
+2 Language [Native]
+1 to Stealth from his generalization
+1 to Athletics, Stealth, Survival, and Thievery from customization points

Proficiencies:

Light armor, pistols, and medium armor from his class.

Specializations:

Stealth (Ambush) from his generalization

Advantages:

Careful Movement 1 from his generalization
Two Guns Blazing and Weath from his customization points

Disadvantages:

Annoying Personal Habit, Bad Reputation (Small Area, Standard Rank 1 Impact), Enemy (As Powerful, Knows a Weakness)

The final Aspects are:


[II]	[HS]	[EE]	[SP]	[PC]
1	1	2	3	1
[AI]	[SS]	[IE]	[IP]	[MC]
1	3	1	1	1

The final Combat Values are:


<PA>	<SA>	<PX>	<PD>	<ID>
4	1	1	3	1
<ER>	<IR>	<SPD>	<N>
2	1	5	2

Skills:

Assessment 1, Athletics 1, Discipline 1, Dueling 1, Intimidation 1, Language: Native Tongue 2, Notice [SP] 1, Stealth 2 [Ambush], Survival 1, Thievery 1

Advantages:

Careful Movement, Two Guns Blazing, Wealth

Disadvantages:

Annoying Personal Habit, Bad Reputation (Small Area, Standard Rank 1 Impact), Enemy (As Powerful, Knows a Weakness)

STUN

[[E]] x 8 = ([EE] + [IE]) x 8 = (2 + 1) x 8 = 24

LETHAL

[[E]] + 8 = ([EE] + [IE]) + 8 = (2 + 1) + 8 = 11

Step Five: Buy Gear

Characters start with $100 unless they take the Wealth advantage (which Tom did), in which case they would get $200 instead.

Tom knows that he wants two pistols for his character to be able to use Two Guns Blazing:

Prerequisites: Soft Strength 2

If you are armed with two pistol weapons, you may fire both at the same target. Choose one of the weapons to be the primary gun. Make an attack with the primary weapon. Unless you have the Ambidexterity advantage, this attack has a (flip-1) penalty.

If the attacker wins the high card comparison, the primary weapon does its damage as normal. The defender does a second defense flip. Compare the second-highest card for the initial attack flip with the highest card of the new defense flip. If the attacker wins the second flip comparison, the second pistol does its damage as normal. If the attacker is not flipping two cards, this secondary attack does not take place. Essentially, the attacker is making one attack flip for two shots, while the defender gets two defense flips, one for each.

The damage counts as coming from two sources for purposes of External Resilience and other effects.

The recommended equipment for the gunslinger class is:

Light armor, two pistols, sturdy clothing, traveling pack, pistol ammo (50 rounds), $3.15 left

Tom decides instead of normal pistols, he wants heavy pistols. These are $40 each. He took medium armor proficiency when he chose his class, so he buys a reinforced greatcoat for $30. The detriment of medium armor is the wearer will suffer a (flip-1) on Athletics and Stealth, which basically cancels out the two points he put into those skills during customization.

Sturdy clothing ($4.80), a traveling pack ($26.05), and 50 rounds of pistol ammo ($1.00) make sense as recommendations, so Tom purchases them. He has $58.15 left.

Step Six: Details and GM Approval

Tom names his character Jarami Dust, decides that he’s 21 years old, and fills out his backstory. He then gives it to the GM for final approval.

Character Sheet

The following pictures show the output of the Excel spreadsheet (work-in-progress) for Jarami Dust:

What Does it Mean?

You’ve seen a lot of jargon and numbers, but what does that look like when it comes to playing the game?

Skills

Let’s start by looking at a few skill check examples.

Stealth

Jarami has 2 ranks in Stealth, which has [SS] as its associated Aspect. Jarami has an [SS] of 3. If he doesn’t have his reinforced greatcoat (medium armor) on, Jarami would flip two cards and add in 3 when he performs a skill check. If the check was being made in regard to an Ambush (either setting or detecting), Jarami’s specialization would grant an additional card.

Medium armor imposes a (flip-1) penalty to Stealth checks. This would reduce the number of cards flipped to 1 (or 2 for an ambush).

Acrobatics

Jarami has zero ranks in Acrobatics. Acrobatics is a basic skill, so it can be used even without a rank in it. Because of the core rule about Flipping Zero or Fewer Cards, Jarami would flip two cards and keep the worst of them. He would then add 3 for his ranks in [SS] as Acrobatics is also associated with Soft Strength.

Attacking

Now let’s take a look at Jarami’s offensive capabilities. He’s using two heavy pistols that he’s proficient in:

Weapon	Attack <PA>	Damage <X>	Range Increment	Shots	Cost	Weight	Keywords
Heavy Pistol	1+PA	8	8	6	$40	4 lbs.	–

Normally, a character could only use one pistol when making an attack but, as discussed above, Jarami has Two Weapons Blazing. We’ll first look at what a single pistol attack would look like.

Jarami has a Physical Attack <PA> of 4. In the absence of any other modifiers, he flips four cards and keeps the best. That card’s value is compared to his target’s Physical Defense <PD> flip.

As a gunslinger, Jarami also has the Rank 1: Pistol Mastery talent:

Rank 1: Pistol Mastery

When attacking with a pistol, increase the Damage <X> by 1.

You do not provoke Opportunity Attacks while taking the attack action or when reloading.

This increases the damage of a heavy pistol to 9. If Jarami’s flip value is equal to or greater than the defense flip value, he does:

STUN: 9 base STUN damage plus 1 for each Heart in the attack flip, reduced by his target’s External Resilience <ER>, minimum 1.
LETHAL: 1 per Heart in the attack flip, maximum equal to the STUN damage dealt.

With Two Guns Blazing, if Jarami wants to attack with both pistols he can. Jarami didn’t take the Ambidextrous advantage so he would suffer a (flip-1) penalty to the attack. Jarami would get only 3 cards instead of 4. Tom would compare Jarami’s high card to his target’s high card just like above. Then, the target flips defense again and Tom compares Jarami’s second-highest card in the attack flip to that second defensive flip. If Jarami’s card is equal or higher, the second gun does damage.

Defending

Defensively, against mundane attacks, Jarami has a Physical Defense <PD> of 3 without armor. He has an External Resilience <ER> of 2. When defending against a physical attack, Tom would flip 3 cards, keeping the best, and reduces incoming STUN damage by 2. When wearing his medium armor, Jarami’s <PD> goes up to 4 and his <ER> up to 3.

Against magical attacks, things aren’t as good for Jarami. His Intangible Defense <ID> and Internal Resilience <IR> are both only 1.