---
title: Character Generation
---

Character Generation is essentially standard, 
using the core rulebook,
However, one rule is critical.

> **Common backstory.**
  The players have to work together on a backstory which brings
  the characters together.

The troupe can choose how close-knit they want the party to be.
They may or may not have a common purpose other than surviving.
However, the common backstory will decide on the precise setting
and the initial stories, and therefore it is important.

# Some Specific Rules and Interpretations.

1.  The Diedne Magic virtue is allowed, but should not be taken lightly.
    A solid backstory is required.
2.  The Tremere do not join multi-house covenants at this time,
    which may mean that Tremere is not appropriate for player 
    characters.
3.  If the characters decide to play older magi, core rules apply.
    The magi will not have had access to a lab or a library after
    gauntlet, so advancement will always be 30xp or spell levels
    per year.
4.  Each magus starts with some resources using the
    [Covenant Dowry](../Covenant Dowry) system.
    The player has to declare how these resources were obtained,
    as part of their background.  It may well be loot from the war.
5.  Characters should be built using the Core Rulebook and the appropriate
    chapter of *Houses of Hermes*.
    Any other book is subject to troupe approval.

# Background

The players need to declare what the character
has been doing during the Schism War.
This will determine how the saga starts.
There are many possibilities.

- Some magi have been part of the war, accompanying their parens.
- Some may come from a tribunal which escaped the war, and just
  come to Stonehenge to rebuild it. 
- Some may have been scavengers, looting battle fields.
- Some may have gone underground, living as hermits.  A Jerbiton could
  have sought refuge in a mundane household.

If the magi were trained at a covenant in Stonehenge,
it has been sacked in the war.  

The players have to decide collectively what history they share.
This may be something simple, such as having
met recently in a hoplite camp, or been the only survivors 
after a major confrontation.
They may be a task force with a mission.
Or they may have a more complex background and purpose. 

The magi may have formed a covenant without land, that is a pact
between the members, probably with the intent to find somewhere to
settle to form a covenant in the regular sense.

# Some stereotypical roles

1.  Lots of magi take active part in the war, particularly from
    Flambeau, Tytalus, and Tremere, but any house can take part.
2.  Redcaps have an important role in messaging and ordnance.
3.  The Quaesitores have to manage history and the traces of the Diedne,
    for fear that their dangerous secrets could fall in the wrong hands.
4.  Scavengers.  Many resources can be found in the ruins after a battle,
    also magical once.  Scavenging can be attractive even for magi.
5.  Settlers, not quite scavengers, some magi are simply 
    looking for a place to settle, where the war has left empty space.
6.  Survivors.  Some have suffered so much in the war that their only
    purpose is to survive.
7.  Support roles.  Some specialist magi, maybe particularly healers,
    have followed the hoplites to offer their services in exchange for
    a share of the loot.