Making an Avalon Character
Welcome to the Avalon Character Creation tutorial. This tutorial is meant to give you a run through of making a good foundation for a character and along with the Event Tips page, this tutorial will help you with costuming and props for your character. The skills, talents, and other things of the sort that you need to complete your character can be done within the character creation form, at a players meeting or at your first event.
Concept
You need to pick out a good concept for your character. Without a concept, your charcter will be thin and you find it hard to become passionate about things in-character. Some of the many concepts you could choose are a noble-warrior style concept, the shady-thief style concept, the assassin, the merchant, the child or the drunk. The list is endless.A question that you could ask yourself to help determine this is "What would my character do if he/she had nothing to do?". This question will give you a sort of "fall back" activity that you can do during the time that you have nothing to do. It isn't any fun to just sit in the tavern all day.
Combat Style
You need to determine what your character will do during combat because at some point during any event you will be confronted with combat of some sort. Do you want to be a fighter? Would you rather cast magickal spells? Would you rather sit back and heal those who have fallen? Do you see yourself sitting back and killing from afar with a bow? Or are you the type to skulk through the shadows, stabbing things in the back?Once you have determined this, it will be very easy to determine what sort of props you need to make for you character. Please refer to the Prop Making Page.
Race
Now that you have determined a concept and combat style, your race should be the next thing to figure out if you haven't already. Some races are more adept at some weapon styles than others, but remember, this is a Role Playing Game, not 48 hours of fighting. A character that is a Yllilly and is a fighter would be a very interesting character or a Kuranin Mage would be a very interesting character to roleplay with. No matter what you choose to play, make sure that you will have fun with the foundation of an idea you started with. There are many different art-forms to choose from, so be confident you will find something you will enjoy.Check out the Race Pages for information on each race and their costume requirements. If you wish to play a Planar Race (which have prosthetics) you must contact the staff of the chapter that you wish to attend and ask permission. They are going to want to see pictures of your costume and will have some questions for you.
History
No character is allowed to have amnesia. You must come up with a brief character history (where are you from, names of family, any racial house you might belong to, why you are in the town you are in, any outstanding goals you might have, etc.). This history is subject to approval so take this into consideration when writing it. Staff are not going to let you be the King, for instance, or start as a noble.Make sure to have fun with it. Perhaps as a child you ran away from home and were abducted by a Gurnei family and lived with them for a year before going back to your real family. Maybe you are a Brendylian and have a Danali half-brother who disappeared mysteriously when you were children and you have pledged yourself to find him. The sky is the limit (with approval, of course).
Name
Your character needs a name. Most characters can use just about any name you can come up with. Although some names will fit some races better than others. Refer to the Race Pages to get an idea about what sort of names different races have. Many races also have a "House" style structure to their society. For instance if your name was Steven and the house you belonged to was named House Morgan, then your full name would be Steven Morgan or Steven of Morgan. You might have a smaller family name, the name of your direct family (mom and dad) which is Brown. Then your full name would be Steven Brown Morgan or Steven Brown of Morgan.Truthfully any name combination will work for any character. At the player's meeting or the event at which you finish up this charcter you will be able to choose a "House" for your character to belong to if it is appropriate. Yllilly, for instance, do not have houses while Brendylian society weighs heavily on them.
Costuming
Think back to your character concept. Thieves would wear lots of black, maybe a face covering. They most likely wouldn't wear clanky armour. Warriors, on the other hand, would wear lots of armour and lots of big epic clothing. Perhaps a merchant would carry a large bag filled with goods or a mage might have long robes in the color of their element. Brendylians see it as uncultured to wear furs while the Kuranin see it as the best possible thing to wrap your body in.Again, check out the race pages for costume requirements and ideas for costumes. Please stay away from anything out of character, things with logos, t-shirts, sweaters, tennis shoes, weightlifting gloves, showing white socks and rims of boxer shorts showing up during the summer all look bad. Now, you don't need to go out and throw down $100 on a costume, thrift stores have excellent items you can wear as your costume. For a first event costume, you should look to spend around $15-20, then if you want to, slowly build up the pieces of your costume.
Guilds
One of the best ways to get involved with a plot line is to join a guild. A guild is a group with a common purpose. The Nilvera, for instance, is a healer's guild. There are many guilds already in operation in every chapter. To learn more about these guilds, ask around in-charcter or read the guild websites on the respective chapter pages.Joining up not your style? Create your own guild. All you need are a few friends, a name and a purpose. There are many mercenary contracts out there for mercs to take up. Perhaps you want to form a guild around a style of combat; a guild devoted to studing a specific martial art. The possibilities are endless.
