(Disclaimer: the following contains some houserules.)
Step 1: You have 135 points (exclusive of points from Disadvantages) to create your character. Before anything else, think about what you want your character to do. Go into as much detail as it pleases you to do, and tell me about it; I’ll be happy to help pick out abilities and numbers that best fit your conception. (Truth be told, I strongly prefer characters be created with me in the room.) A number of templates are available as “starter kits” for various archetypes, if you think you need them. I will be happy to go over the various races with you, each of which is its own template. Wizardly orders and clerical options are as well.
Step 2 - Attributes: ST/HT cost ten points per level for the first three levels; DX/IQ cost 15 points per level for the first three levels. They cost 15 and 20 points, respectively, for the next two levels. Scores lower than 10 have a negative cost: -10 pts per level for ST or HT, -15 per level for DX or IQ.
It costs double to improve an Attribute as it does to purchase it at character creation. It’s best for long-term planning, therefore, to place your Attributes as high as you dare, then squeeze your skills further and see if you can raise DX or IQ that crucial extra point.
Think long and hard before having Attributes lower than 10. GURPS doesn’t have a “dump stat” – low Attributes will absolutely impair your character. The inevitable result the times someone’s ignored my advice and gone with “Oh, I’m playing a wizard, I can afford DX & HT of 8" has been a grumpy tradeout a couple sessions later.
Step 3 - Disadvantages: You may have up to 40 points of Disadvantages or Attributes lower than normal, combined (this includes any you get from Templates), and up to five points worth of Quirks. Check with me; many are either not suitable for PCs or for this particular campaign, or combine poorly with existing PCs. You may keep a couple “quirk slots” free for a couple of sessions. A Disadvantage at the -15 level or higher involves some significant drawbacks to your character; I don’t recommend them.
Step 4 - Advantages: A number of Advantages are on a “restricted” list, requiring either special circumstances or Unusual Background as a prerequisite. It costs double to learn (or improve) most Advantages after character creation, and most Advantages can’t be purchased with earned experience; get all the Advantages you have to have up front.
The Minimum Package: The closest to a must-have Advantage is Luck. It’s not cheap, and it doesn’t affect magic in my campaign, but there’s nothing like having a mulligan once a session for a blown roll.
Step 5 - Skills: A number are on a “restricted” list, requiring either special circumstances or Unusual Background as a prerequisite.
In general, a skill level below 11 is unreliable, 11-12 is fair – in the “it’s good to have someone in the party who knows something about literature” camp – Skill-13 good, 14-15 quality (and is about where you want the make or break ability upon which your character relies), and 18+ is expert. Certain skills (Rapier, Shield, magical spells) have efficiency break points for which it’s useful to consult me.
It is almost always the case that if you have thirty or more points invested in either DX- or IQ-based skills, it saves points (and gives other benefits!) to halve the amount put in those skills and raise the governing Attribute instead. It is also considerably easier to already know a skill and improve it later, even if your skill level is mediocre to start, than to learn the skill from scratch down the road.
Save some points for utility skills. Moreover, feel free to take skills that might not seem to have direct applications to adventuring. It’s an axiom that a clever player can make a Glassblowing, Musical Instrument or Architecture skill work in surprising ways.
The Minimum Package: Above and beyond any templates or options, strongly consider dropping a point each into the following skills no matter the type of character you’re seeking to play:
Carousing, Fast-Talk, and/or Savoir-Faire: Sooner or later, everyone needs to talk to someone.
Hiking, Stealth: The party’s often only as good in these as their slowest/clumsiest member.
First Aid: Even when there’s a healer (not always the case), everyone gets banged up sometimes. Just put a point into it, no matter what kind of character you're running.
Observation: Noticing interesting things takes training.
Streetwise, Survival: I run a lot of urban adventures. I run a lot of outdoor travel adventures. Being incompetent in both environments isn’t a great idea.
Brawling or Judo: Even the party scholar gets jumped, sometimes. A point into any weapon skill is easy. Parrying an attack without one is formidably hard.
Step 6 - Appearance: Outstanding good or bad looks are an Advantage or a Disadvantage. Otherwise, whatever you prefer.
Step 7 - Numbers: Speed is (HT + DX)/4. Move equals Speed (round down) minus encumbrance penalty.
Defenses: Dodge = Move + 3 Block = ½ Shield Skill, round down, + 3. Parry = ½ Weapon skill, round down, + 3. Damage Resistance (DR) = total DR from armor, advantages.
Encumbrance: if the weight you are carrying is up to twice your ST in pounds, no penalty; if up to 4 x ST (“Light”), penalty of 1; if up to 6 x ST (“Medium”), penalty of 2; if up to 12 x ST (“Heavy”), penalty of 3; if up to 20 x ST (“Extra-Heavy”), penalty of 4.
Your weapon inflicts damage based on your “basic weapon damage” depending on what you do with it. Most weapons do differing damage depending on whether you swing or thrust with them.
Step 8 - Equipment: Barring a wealth option, characters start with 500 silver sinvers and one suit of clothes appropriate to their social station. If players prefer not to choose Wealth, they can get extra silver by spending one initial character point for a month’s pay at their profession. For more than a few points’ worth, this is not cost-effective; take Comfortable Wealth instead.
Capital equipment is expensive; day-to-day living is not. Those 500 silver sinvers would last a frugal character for about a year’s worth of modest inns. It will also buy a broadsword, a buckler and a quilted cloth jerkin, and a couple extra luxuries, about. Characters, especially beginning ones, often make out foraging the swords of the fallen than rifling pockets in the hope of finding a pouch brimming with gold.
Wrapping Up: I strongly recommend broad-based characters. Someone wholly maximized for melee combat will be bored for long stretches in my runs. Someone with no combat skills will be twiddling thumbs in any prolonged battle. An outdoorswoman who can’t stand being within town walls and a city slicker whose idea of “roughing it” is spending ten silver a night on the inn suite will have big problems.
Party compatibility is a must. A necromancer in a party of fanatical Upuaut worshippers, a thalassophobe in a nautically-oriented campaign or a compulsively lawful gentleman in a group of thieving lowlifes generally won’t work. In similar fashion, few groups need (say) three dedicated physicians.
Note: the genre is cooperative, and it is neither my job nor those of existing players to come up with schemes to motivate your character to become part of the team. It’s yours. A handful of players have had problems with this in the past (which is why I’m mentioning it), and I anticipate that all players will be proactive in fitting in with the party and in buying into the adventures presented.
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