Far Away Land has been released to KS backers and its truly full of awesome. World creation, mass combat, crafting, monster creation, ruling kingdoms. Its all there with wonderful Order of the Stick or Adventure Time style art. On the surface it may look like a comedic RPG, but there's a lot of depth to the world and the rules are robust whilst remaining simple.

Anyway, what better way to learn a new RPG than make a PC. Its going to be a quick process, but when we are done our PC will look like this:



1. Character Concept
2. Assign Stat Points
3. HP, AC, ACT, Luck
4. Boons and Flaws
5. XP and Level
6. Equipment and Money
7. Starting Magic (if any).

1. Character Concept

I am going to stat up Joirel, the NPC that I wrote for the Tales of Awesome (but isn't statted), at the moment that she had just entered into the world just before she obtains Fuegar's Blade.

The relevant part of her background at this starting point is:

QuoteJoirel is a young Human woman who recently arrived in Far Away Land by means of a rogue fissure that pulled her from her own world. Her arrival caught the attention of Necra the necromancer, whose ancient texts had predicted the arrival of a stranger who would foil her evil plans for conquering the living. Necra believed Joirel to be this stranger.

2. Assign Stat Points

There are three Stats - Brute (BRT), Dexterity (DEX) and Wits (WIT). You can choose to either assign 2 in each or distribute 1, 2 and 3 between them.

Joirel is a relatively normal young human woman. She relies mostly on her wits and her entrance into Far Away Land has awakened magic within her. As such, I opt for:

BRT 1
DEX 2
WIT 3

3. HP, AC, ACT, Luck

Technically, 4 steps but I aggregated them as they are derived stats.

HP is 10 + BRT. You get +1 per LVL after 1st.

AC is 0 for a human.

ACT is 3 + DEX. These are action points and each action has an ACT cost. An Attack is 3 ACT, Move is 2 ACT and Draw a Weapon is 1 ACT. You get +1 per 5 LVL after 1st.

Luck starts at 2. You get +1 per LVL after 1st.

So, that gives me:

HP: 11
AC: 0
ACT: 5
Luck: 2

4. Boons and Flaws

These are effectively Skills and grant +1 to a Stat when used. You can stack them up to +5.

You start with 4 Boons. There 15 in the default list. I could easily seeing this being expanded into something more like Aspects in FATE, but as it stands it is clearly a Skill list with Alert, Book Worm, Sneak etc.

For Joirel, I take Arcane, Athletics, Book Worm and Melee.

Flaws work opposite to Boons and subtract dice from a Stat if they apply. The default process of assigning flaws is that you get 1d3. I roll a 2.

There is a list of suggested Flaws and again these relate to flaws that are personal to the PC (not like Aspects in FATE).

For Joirel, I go with Gullible to represent her newness to the world and Meticulous.

Boons: Arcane, Athletics, Book Worm, Melee
Flaws: Gullible, Meticulous

5. XP and LVL

0 and 1

6. Equipment and Money

This one is easy as she has appeared from another world with nothing. However, to balance this out the GM has decided that she has come across a magic item, Fuegar's Blade (which is in the core rules).

This is details in her background here:

QuoteAlmost as soon as Joirel arrived in Far Away Land, Necra unleashed her undead legions to destroy the girl at any cost. During her escape, Joirel hid in the ruins of Alcron near the Sand Giant Mountains. Within the ruins she came across the renowned Simian sword known as Fuegar's Blade which houses the corrupt soul of the ancient Simian warrior Fuegar. When Joirel wielded the weapon, she was imbued with great power and magic that allowed her to fight off and defeat the undead hordes that plagued her. But with the power came Joirel's constant struggle to defeat the power of Fuegar's soul and it's attempt to take over her body.

Fuegar's Blade does 1d6 damage (which is normal for a light sword) but 3d6 against undead, which are Joirel's common enemy.

However, she must make a daily WIT check TN 5 to avoid Fuegar taking control of her.

Equipment: Fuegar's Blade (1d6/3d6 v undead)

7. Starting Magic

It is up to the GM how many spells Joirel starts with, though 2 or 3 are suggested.

She can cast LVL + 3 spells a day, being 4.

I take Arcane Missile (does 1d6 damage but she can use her WIT + Arcane score to attack), Detect Trap (she has uncanny danger sense) and Light Steps (so she can't be heard or tracked).

Spells: Arcane Missile, Detect Trap, Light Steps

JOIREL

Background: Joirel is a young Human woman who recently arrived in Far Away Land by means of a rogue fissure that pulled her from her own world. Her arrival caught the attention of Necra the necromancer, whose ancient texts had predicted the arrival of a stranger who would foil her evil plans for conquering the living. Necra believed Joirel to be this stranger.

Almost as soon as Joirel arrived in Far Away Land, Necra unleashed her undead legions to destroy the girl at any cost. During her escape, Joirel hid in the ruins of Alcron near the Sand Giant Mountains. Within the ruins she came across the renowned Simian sword known as Fuegar's Blade which houses the corrupt soul of the ancient Simian warrior Fuegar. When Joirel wielded the weapon, she was imbued with great power and magic that allowed her to fight off and defeat the undead hordes that plagued her. But with the power came Joirel's constant struggle to defeat the power of Fuegar's soul and it's attempt to take over her body.

BRT 1 DEX 2 WIT 3
HP 11 AC 0 ACT 5 Luck 2
LVL 1 XP 0

Boons: Arcane, Athletics, Book Worm, Melee
Flaws: Gullible, Meticulous

Equipment: Fuegar's Blade (1d6/3d6 v undead)
Spells: Arcane Missile, Detect Trap, Light Steps

If anyone has any requests regarding another PC to be created, I would be happy to oblige. A psychic dragon, a pulp style barbarian, a dog with an elastic body...

Now for a combat example:

JOIREL v SKELETS
After being discovered by Necra, Joirel is forced to run. She attempts to hide in a cave but is discovered by a pair of Necra's Skelets. She has no choice but to engage them in combat.

QuoteSkelet
Undead, Average (+0)
HP 10 AC 0 ACT 4
BRT 1 DEX 1 WIT 1
Light/Heavy Weapon (0), Night Sight, Bony Defense.

Round One
Both Joirel and the Skelet roll DEX. Joirel gets 2, 6 and the Skelets roll as one and get 6. PCs win ties, so Joirel goes first.

Joirel: Leaping forward, her eyes closed at the point of impact, Joirel slashes Fuegar's Blade at the first surprised Skelet.

She spends 2 ACT to Move. She then spends 3 ACT to attack.

Joirel rolls BRT 1 with Melee 1 and gets 5, 1 for a 5. Skelet rolls BRT 1 and gets 1. That's a MoS of 4.

Joirel's damage is 3d6 v undead, so she gets 1, 4, 6 for 11 damage. She adds 4 from the MoS for a damage total of 15! Skelet 1 goes down on his bony ass.

Skelet: Seeing little chance of overcoming this assault, and remembering that his compensation as a Necra minion are relatively small, the other Skelet runs off to get help. It spends all 4 ACT to Move twice.

Round Two
Both Joirel and the Skelet roll DEX. Joirel gets 6, 6 (for a total of 7) and the Skelet rolls 1.

Joirel: Though she could run after the Skelet, she would not be able to move up to and attack it in one round. That means she has only one option. Magic Missile!

Casting a spell is ACT 4, so that leaves her just 1 ACT which she doesn't do anything with. She can cast 4 spells a day being a LVL 1 PC.

For Magic Missile, Joirel rolls WIT 3 and Arcane 1. She gets 1, 2, 4, 5 for a total of 5. The Skelet defends with WIT 1 and rolls 3.

For damage, that's 1d6 + 2, being the MoS. Joirel rolls a 1 for a total of 3 damage.

Skelet: With the Magic Missile cast, the damage is not enough to stop the Skelet from getting away and gathering his friends. Clever Skelet. Surely he will be given a promotion in the undead ranks.

Aftermath
Joirel is on the run again. She casts Light Step, so she will not be able to be tracked by the Skelet when it returns. Clever Joirel.