In His Majesty the Worm, character creation is simple enough: 5 multi-stepped steps for, if you've a character in mind, quickly getting up and going.
But, what if you've no specific character in mind? Well, the game uses tarot cards. Just divine a character using said cards. Here's how!
Using Divination to Generate a Character
The idea is fairly straight forward: instead of using your brain meat to come up with a character, layout eleven cards from the players deck in the pattern shown below, then consult the charts. It can be further expanded to include random gear generation, but it'll need some adjusting and additional gear descriptions to make the math work. Basically, it'll take longer than I was looking to on this thing. I'll circle back to it.
The Spread
1. This is your Kith (Human, Fay, Underworld, Orc)
2. This is your Kin, basically for selecting a subtype of Kith. For humans, it doesn't matter, but regions have been provided for role playing purposes.
3. This is your major attribute. The suit of the card determines which attribute a 4 is placed to.
4. This is your secondary attribute. The suit of the card determines which attribute a 3 is placed to. If the suit of the card is already in use, then look at the value. If even, move to the Right along the chain (Swords-Pentacles-Cups-Wands) until an unused suit is found. If odd, move to the Left.
5. This is your minor attribute. It determines your weakest attribute, in which you'll place a 1. I'm going to leave you guessing as to where to put the 2. Think as hard as you can. You got this.
6. This is your first motif. Card A represents the descriptor, and Card B represents the profession.
7. This is your second motif. Card A represents the descriptor, and Card B represents the profession.8. This is your third motif. Card A represents the descriptor, and Card B represents the profession.
Kith and Kin
Motifs
Example
In case you can't read off my poorly lit floor:
1. 3 of Swords 6.A 8 of Cups 8.A 4 of Wands
2. 6 of Cups 6.B 6 of Pentacles 8.B 9 of Cups
3. Ace of Cups 7.A Knight of Pentacles
4. 10 of Swords 7.B 10 of Pentacles
5. Ace of Swords
1. Taking a Kith and Kin of Swords/Cups, we see this is a Human from the East.
2. With Cups being the Major attribute, it gets assigned a 4 and becomes the adventurer's Path
3. Swords gets assigned a 3. A book nerd with a pension for violence.
4. With Swords already in use, and the card here being odd (Ace = 1), we shift suits to the Left, bringing us to Wands. With a Wands of 1, this person isn't terribly magically inclined.
5. At first they were a Silent Friar. There's that book learning during quiet contemplation.
6. Then they made their way as a Numb Hunter. Looks like there was trouble at the monastery.
7. But now wander as a Twisted Raider
Meet Licinius, a human from the eastern lands (Swords 3 | Pentacles 2 | Cups 4 | Wands 1). They were, once, long ago, a Friar bound by a vow of silence, who spent their time learning and reflecting on the creations of Mithras. That was until the Orc raiders came, and sacked the monastery for its idols and shiny bits. Being the only survivor, they attempted to hunt down the twisted Orc raiders for revenge, becoming what they hated in the process. Rumor has it the leader of the Orc raiders has taken the monastery's prized marble Mithras statue as a trophy, deep within the Underworld. Are you a bad enough dude to retrieve the statue?
Make up a House name and words, pick a mastered skill, and grab some gear. Simple.
The longest part of the process was finding my tarot deck and trying to figure out how to take a decent picture. I failed at both, but the task still got done.
