Character Creation

Starting Off in FR

The Character Creation guide provides expanded information on creating a character, providing additional information that the character template does not provide.

Lurking

As a new player, you are expected to introduce yourself and mingle with the community before you attempt to create a character. In this way you can familiarize yourself with existing players who play the game, the Game Masters who run it, the universe the roleplay takes place in and the mechanics and rules in which the game is played.

How do you lurk?

  • Join the chat. The channels the roleplay uses are the Out-of-Character (OOC) channel (#farreconooc) AND the In-Character (IC) channels (#farrecon & #redpool). You are free to converse in the OOC channel, however you are not allowed to participate in the IC channels, only observe. Feel free to ask or discuss about events happening IC in the OOC channel, or anything else pertaining to the roleplay.
  • Read the instructional material. By the time you are allowed to start creating a character, you must understand the way the roleplay is played.
    • Roleplay Mechanics
      • The Rules - The page that details the rules you are expected to abide by
      • The Manual - Details how the mechanics in FR works
      • Combat Mechanics - Details how combat in FR works
      • Skills - Provides explanations of the skills in FR
      • Equipment - Lists the equipment available to your character at the start
      • Character Creation - (You are here)
      • FAQ - Containing commonly asked questions and information we couldn’t fit elsewhere
    • Far Recon Universe

When have you lurked enough?

  1. When you have been engaging in the chat and participating in the community for at least a week.
  2. When you have read all the listed material and understand it
  3. When you have sat through at least 1 full run or incident
  4. When people start to ask when you are going to make a character

When you have reached the majority of these points, it is considered that you have sufficiently lurked enough to begin creating your own character. Please note that you are expected to work with Staff and other players when working on your character.


A note

Before you do anything, please note:

NO ANOMALOUS CHARACTERS

You are not allowed to create a character that is in anyway magic, have a superpower, is paranormal, or would otherwise be considered an “Anomalous Persons/SCP” by the Foundation. There are no exceptions to this rule. If you try to pull a fast one on the GM team, you’ll be asked to remove the trait and rewrite the character until it conforms to this standard.

Name & Nationality

Name

As long it isn't obscene, ridiculous, overly long or hard to type, you're free to come up with whatever name pleases you.

One caveat though - don't choose the name of an existing character. It's hard enough to keep track of everyone as it is, without duplicate names.

Nationality

There are no restrictions in nation your character may come from. However, there are a few points to bring up:

  • You are free to create a character from another country besides your own, especially if you are familiar with the customs and culture of another nation. We appreciate variety.
  • However, if you are NOT familiar with any customs outside of your own country, it is advisable you do not attempt to do this. Failure to accurately portray a * foreign character will result in (possibly offensive) stereotypes, caricatures, bad accents and bad roleplay.
  • Your character will work in a Canadian site, filled with mostly Canadian and American personnel. It is required that your character is fluent in English, able to operate in a settling that uses military and scientific vernacular without any trouble. No language barrier should exist in an organization where being able to follow instructions and precisely carry them out is crucial for everyone’s safety.
  • Not all nations are created equally. The Foundation may not want to hire personnel from certain countries for certain positions. Consider this if you’re vying to create a military character from Japan or a scientist from Niger.

Classes

As part of Character Creation, an important thing to work on at first as what your character does for the task force. That broad role can be set into a Class, and that class pointed into a specialization. The second, but no less important, part of the character is who they are, as people. There is an important distinction to make between different kinds of characters, between a doctor and a researcher, though sometimes the mechanical skills might overlap, in cases of special training. In general, you should keep in mind that a character is more than stats on a page: they are a person.

Departments and classes tend to overlap, but they are not the same thing. Personnel working in departments are part of Area-354, while your character is assigned to the task force, which is stationed in Area-354.

Please note that there are no gender restrictions on any class.

Concept

This is pretty much the foundation of your character: a short and sweet summation of who they are. Ideally, you don't want to push this out anywhere past about half a sentence. Keep it succinct. If you can't convey the major thrust of your idea in a few words then it's likely you've bolted on a bunch of extraneous characteristics in your enthusiasm. Trim it down as far as you can. If you're having trouble, take a look at existing characters for examples of how other players have done it. Don't rip off their work, obviously, but check how well their summary does.

The biggest thing you need to decide at this point, is this:

What makes your character special?

What distinguishes them from all the other infantry, or doctors, or scientists? The SCP Foundation only recruits the best, and they only take the best of those for their special Task Forces. If your character is here, it's because they have some quality or trait that the vast majority lack. What is it?

Character History

Character history is an important component of the character creation process. Your character's history will provide insight into why they joined the Foundation, how they acquired their skills, and a third thing Pres can't think of yet.

Skills

You will start off with 26 skill points you can distribute as you wish, according to the Skills List. Every skill caps at 4, and you cannot add more to it. You cannot allocate points into XP, or directly into Load. Body and Mind are dealt with below.

  • Your character starts off with 5 Body and 5 Mind. Every point you put into Physical Defense and Mental Defense increases your Body/Mind by 1.
  • Pdef/Body, Mdef/mind, Strength, Agility, and Perception are important. Your character should have points here.
  • Make sure your skills reflect both your character's history, job and established abilities.

Aspects

Aspects will probably be the hardest part of your character sheet to write up. Basically, they're concepts of your character's personality, used in game to their benefit. Aspects can be compelled or tagged. Compelling is when a GM activates one of your Aspects, making you play along. Compelled Aspects can be resisted for the cost of an Action Point; however, playing along with them gets you another Action Point for that scene. Tagged Aspects give you a bonus in the form of a +2 to a certain skill. They cost an Action Point, and a GM must accept the tagging declaration.

You need three aspects for your character. It is also recommended that you pen your aspects in last, as they determine a lot about who your character is and how they work.

Aspects are intended to do three things:

  1. Give the character an advantage that is clear, well-defined, and can be invoked depending on the situation.
  2. Give the character a disadvantage that is clear, well-defined, and can be invoked depending on the situation.
  3. And finally, say something unique about the character's personality, history, or style that might not otherwise be possible within the skill point system.

When writing an aspect, think about who your character is, how they work, how they function. Go into the juicy details; each aspect should at least be a minimum of 2 sentences long. Aspects are not simply character traits, similar to how a human being's personality is not simply a hodge-podge of character traits.

Also keep in mind in what ways your aspect can be tagged, and in what situations. Avoid making an aspect that can be tagged in a very specific situation, for a very specific skill. But on the flip-side, an aspect that is so bland and vague that it can be tagged for anything, in any situation, is also a poorly written aspect, and should also be avoided.

Possesssions

Possessions are two sided: The gear that your characters takes with them to missions (Which in the context of this guide will be known as "Load"), and the belongings that they keep in their room.

What's Left In Your Room

Possessions that are not taken on missions should be clearly separated from those that are. Non-mission possessions should be kept to a reasonable level - remember, your character is being flown out to the middle of Canada to work at a highly dangerous Site. It's not a holiday, and they will not be able to bring many personal items, particularly bulky or fragile ones.

That said, there are three points of order you really gotta remember when considering what your character is bringing with them:

  1. Dry site (No alcohol)
  2. You're at an ultra-secret facility in the middle of nowhere, which restricts your access to consumables.
  3. You probably didn't get that much luggage space when you came.

A general good rule of thumb is that your character should be able to fit all of their belongings1 in a dufflebag or suitcase. This means you can carry things like a laptop or several books, but nothing like a desktop computer or a small TV or your mother's delicate china set.

Possessions can be quite varied. Think about what your character might bring with them, what items they may cherish enough to bring with them on a dangerous assignment, or wish to bring with them to ease the boredom of Area-354. It could be a wedding band, or a photo album, or a Nintendo 3DS or a laptop computer stuffed to the gills with games bought from Steam Sales.

Your Mission Gear

For equipment you are required to have, your character must have:

  • Radio
  • PDA
  • Department appropriate Equipment
    • Medical supplies, if you are from Medical
    • Science, if you are from Research
    • Engineering equipment, if you are from Engineering
    • A 2+ Load weapon, if you are from Security (And probably a back-up weapon, too.)
  • Something to carry your equipment with (e.g. Backpack, LBE vest or harness)

Note that all archaic weapons2 are forbidden. This doesn't mean that you can't have a 2-load melee weapon, but please make sure it makes sense for the setting of this RP, and note that your 2-load melee weapon will be subject to GM approval.

Load

Load is difficult, mainly because it's subjective. Once all other parts of your character have been finalized, a GM will look over your inventory and assign load values to your equipment.

More information about the Load mechanic can be found here

Appearance and Fitness

Although this is something that's written in the Misc. section, it's important enough to warrant a section of its own.

Appearance

Despite the roleplay being played out on a purely text-based medium, it's recommended that you at least have some idea of how your character looks. You are free to be as vivid or beige as you'd like here, or even supply a photo, but we ask that you follow a few guidelines when dreaming up your character's looks.

  • We're not picky on how your character looks, but we ask that you keep your character's appearance within believability.
  • Your character's looks should not be their only defining trait in their personality.
  • Your character's appearance and clothing should be appropriate for their job. Doctors and researchers should wear lab coats when working in the labs/infirmary; security characters should choose something practical to fight in.
  • We're fairly forgiving in terms of appearance, but we like for your character's looks to at least correspond to their basic stats somewhat (Strength, agility, body).

Fitness

Characters are expected to be in good mental and physical health, and at an above average level of physical fitness. The key here is that your character should be physically and mentally able to do their job.

It should also note that your character should not start out under an anomalous effect from an SCP, either to their advantage or to their detriment. See: No anomalous characters.

Specific, more exacting requirements may vary by department. Security characters, for example, would be held to a higher standard of physical fitness than characters who's purpose is not to fight.

A Character is Born

A qualified member of the FR staff will look over your draft, and suggest areas for improvement. Feel free to discuss this with them, or get a second opinion, but be courteous and understand that they have the final say. In the worst-case scenario, they may decide that your character concept as a whole is unworkable or unsalvageable, and you may have to make another. If you've been working with the community from the beginning, this is very, very unlikely to happen, but nothing is outside the realm of possibility. If it does happen, don't be discouraged - it's not a rare occurrence, and we're not going to think any less of you. Jump back on the bike and try again

Approving Your Character

Once you've got your feed back from the FR Staff and made their suggested changes, and added some polish, it's time to get your character approved. When approving your character, ask FR Staff that are active. Don't ask admins or GMs that are considered inactive to get your character approved, as they are not necessarily "in the loop" and may not want to review characters. Another important thing when approving your character is to be patient. Just because you're ready and pumped to start roleplaying doesn't mean that the GM is ready and pumped to give you the final say you need.

Once the active Staff member has given you the green light, you are ready to introduce your character into our wonderful roleplay.

Character Introduction

Once your character is approved, one of the GM team (Most likely the guy who green-lit your character) will introduce your character to the myriad world of Far Recon via helicopter. There, you'll be able to mingle with other characters and possibly suffer under the wrath of the capricious GMs.

Character Advancement

Get involved in some hard RP and eventually you'll start accumulating XP. That shiny XP isn't just for looks, however. With that XP you are able to buy buffs and equipment for your character from the Unlockable Equipment list.

Maybe I can finally buy a war goat, with matching mountable rocket launcher…

Changing Your Character After Approval

Feel free to update most of the information on your character sheet yourself, such as keeping track of possessions, equipment, and XP earned.

You can also add additional details to sections like personality or character history. However, changing those sections instead of expanding them, along with changing skills or aspects, requires GM approval. Be advised: We don't make these changes lightly.


It might have been a long read, but don't get discouraged! Soon enough you'll be ready to immerse yourself into the grand world of Far Recon, make some friends, learn some new things, and have a grand old time.

This has been Tehpillowstar, with help from PresidentEvil, with the guide originally been written by ShockwaveLover, saying good luck, and Happy New Year!

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