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Creating your Boho Character

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Creating your Boho Character Empty Creating your Boho Character

Post by Zash Sat Jul 04, 2015 8:20 am

Alongside your character's background or personal story there are some important components that go into making a character for Bohemia.
Your character sheet would consist of this information:

    Name and Age
    High (or Central) Concept
    Trouble [1 - SupChars, 1-3 - Extended]
    Aspects [3 - SupChars, 5+ - Extended]
    Aspirations [1 (chapter centric)- SupChars, 1-3 Extended]
    Background
    Hook
    Secret
    Dynamics
    Skills & Flaws
    Stress & Consequence Thresholds


That might sound like a lot, but it is all information present in a detailed character. This is just a way to articulate it in a comparative way that can help us create amazing stories with dynamic characters.



Central Concept
The Central or "High Concept" is a single sentence or phrase that sums up who your character is, what they're about, what they do, etc. It's the keynote of who they are and what makes them special when everything else is stripped away. This is the central theme of your character's identity. Your character's identity could stem from any of these questions:

    What is your character's job?
    What is your character's passion?
    What is your character's rank?
    What makes your character stand out from everyone else?




Trouble
Trouble is the thing(s) that regularly challenges or makes things interesting for your character. It should not be easy to resolve, but it should not make your character feel impossible to play, either. It should complicate things but not to such an extent that they spend all of their time dealing with it or worrying over it (they should still be able to get involved with other adventures or features of the story). There are two main types of trouble that your character can have, but you are not limited to them.

    Personal Struggles - Quirks or flaws that pose challenges and complications in a player's life: "I can never turn down a drink", "I can't control my temper", "Addicted to gambling", etc.

    Problematic Relationships - People or organizations that make life difficult for complicated for your character: "My cousin put a hit out on me", "A Spaniard thinks I killed his father so he has vowed revenge and dedicated his life to learning the art of swordplay."

It can be a detail that personalized the character and adds definition to the high concept, but it shouldn't just be the reverse or closely related to your character's central concept.

Example: I accidentally summoned a spirit when I was a kid and now it haunts me.

Example: I was the rightful heir of my kingdom but my brother usurped my throne and ran me out of the land. Now he constantly sends people to try to kill me so I won’t return and try to take it back.



Aspects
Aspects are used in advancing plot, creating dramatic situations, as well as gaining and spending fate points. The best aspects have both a positive side that can be invoked by the player to tell dynamic story and gain bonuses, and a negative side that can be compelled to complicate the character's life, create interesting drama, and collect additional fate points.

Aspects are story tags or little phrases that describe a character and their noteworthy qualities.
Examples:
    “Distracted by shiny things” - Jaid is distracted by shiny things. Sometimes this is problematic because she can never seem to focus on a heist, which has given her some close calls on her resume. However, when she needs to dazzle someone with her knowledge of anything that glimmers she really knows her stuff.

    “Best thief in town” - Dave is the best thief in town. This comes with it’s many perks. His reputation comes with really great contacts. Unfortunately it also means that every thief in the area wants to relieve him of his mantle which means a lot of competition, backstabbing, and never knowing who to trust.

    “Unbelievably sure of himself” - Marcus is unbelievably sure of himself. When confidence is key, Marc has what it takes. He can talk to anyone without fear, whether it’s the lovely girl in the red dress or the blood thirsty mob boss that wants him rubbed out. Whatever the task, he is never worried he’ll falter or fail. Of course, it’s a fine line between a self-assured asset and just being a self-obsessed ass.




Aspirations
These are central goals and objectives that drive your character at their core. Aspirations are what make your character move forward and engage in the world. These should be themes that are somewhat specific so that they are very clearly defined in your character's actions, without being limiting or so short term that they could be accomplished quickly or easily.



Background
This is simply the backstory that tells how all of your character's aspects, troubles, aspirations come together to make them up. This is the history of the character as well, along with a place to give depth and roots that make them who they are now. A thorough background on hand can be invoked with fate points to justify actions in scenes that might not otherwise be available to your character, but make sense for them to do because of experiences they've had in their life.



Hook
This is how your character fits into the bigger picture. How did they come to Bohemia? Why are they here? Who do they know? What do they do? What are they involved in? This is also relevant to how other characters can connect their story to your character's.

    Example 1: Larah and Jane were roommates in college. Jane has run a computer class at the Bohemia community center each week since she moved back to her hometown after graduation. When she heard that the library was interviewing for a new librarian she emailed Larah right away. As it happened, Larah had just finished her Masters in library science and was looking for a job. She decided it was a great time to visit her old friend Jane and the lovely weather in Bohemia she'd heard so much about. When Larah put in her resume, she got an interview right away and received an offer on the spot. She is now the new assistant librarian at the Bohemia Public Library and there is talk of her taking over the children's reading program later this year.

    Example 2: Davin is a cousin of the fire tribunal family. He'd been studying for a long time in the library of the royal family, but had decided it was time to learn and observe near the source of the history he'd only glimpsed on festival occasions. Davin called his Aunt Amelie and arranged to come stay for a while to see if he could get an audience with the Lunas coven leaders and partition to study other magical disciplines under their tutelage.




Secret
This is something that only you, the player, and the narrators will know about your character. This will not be included in the public character sheet. This is a secret that either the character keeps themselves, or meta information that affects your character without them knowing it.

Example: In high school Nick took the blame for starting a fire in an old book store even though it was his brother that had done it. But his brother was looking at 3 strikes if he got arrested so Nick covered for him and has never told anyone but it has put a strain on his family relationships ever since.

Example: Hope thinks she is an ordinary woman. She works in a little organic flower shop and loves her job. What she doesn’t know is that she isn’t even human. She is a fae-born child switched to replace a human child when they were only babies.



Dynamics
Dynamics Modifiers are used in story rp to enhance character interaction and story progression. Different dynamics modifiers influence different bearings of a character and add some notation to their life. See the Dynamics Modifiers section for more details.
(This mechanic is in progress. Leave this blank on character sheets for now. There will be an orientation when released.)



Skills & Flaws
Skills and flaws help round out a character and highlight what sorts of things they excel in or what their everyday burdens are. Explore and describe any additional noteworthy assets, expertise, shortcomings, or vices that your character has.



Stress & Consequences
Stress
Stress is how much harm a character can sustain before being taken out of action. This can pertain to accepting injury or fatigue in combat, performing magic, or general exhaustive action. Each character has a physical and mental stress threshold, the more resistant a character is to that kind of stress or harm the more they can endure in relevant situations. Magic takes stress to perform or resist. Physical stress is fatigue or harm endured.

Think of stress as the sort of minor damage that can be recovered from after some general rest and decompression.

Consequences
Consequences are measured in mild, moderate and severe and are taken on like temporary aspects that take a lasting toll on characters until such time as they are resolved. Consequences need time, patience, and/or effort to resolve. Consequences can be wounds, broken bones, or magical effects, etc.

(This mechanic is ever-changing as rp evolves. Be sure to inform staff members if you have any consequences to add or subtract from your sheet online as they occur to keep things up to date.)
Zash
Zash
Admin

Posts : 23
Join date : 2015-06-20
Age : 34
Location : Bohemia, NY

https://boho.forumotion.com

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