Character Generation

In Summary

The character generation system is, in brief:

  • All characters are part of one Organisation.
  • Characters get 10 points with which to buy Backgrounds.
  • All characters must buy at least two Major backgrounds.
  • Players should fill in a Myers-Briggs Personality Type for their character.
  • Decide on your character's real-life name and online alias.
  • We need to know where in the world you live and what you do for a living.

Optional, but highly recommended:

  • A public bio for your online alias. At game start, nobody will know who your character is offline.
  • We always appreciate more detail about your character's history.

In Detail

There are three pieces of information that are required for all characters; your Backgrounds, your Organisation and your Myers-Briggs personality type. However, we would also love to get a more detailed description of your life, how you got involved in your Organisation and whatever else you want to tell us about your character!

Name

Characters in Classified have two names. One is their ordinary day-to-day name that they use for ordinary day-to-day activities. The other is the name of their online persona. Nobody in the world of Classified uses the same name for both, and at game start no characters will know each others' offline names. You can never be sure who on the #CLASSIFIED# chatroom can be trusted - even more so than most, since it's the best place to find the people who know enough to be dangerous. And you really don't want to get traced..

Backgrounds

Characters in Classified are built around a set of Backgrounds. These are a broad description of their history and life so far. Obviously not everything in a person's life can be described by Backgrounds; however, these are the experiences which have helped the character make contacts and gain skills. The description of each Background gives an idea of the contacts and skills that a character will have as a result of taking that background. Classified is a game about contacts and information. Your contacts will be far more important than any abilities your character will have aquired from their backgrounds.

Backgrounds are split into Major and Minor backgrounds. Major backgrounds describe longer-term careers and experiences. minor backgrounds are less important events and special quirks relevant to the character. In depth involvement in an Organisation is also a Major background.

Unless stated otherwise, each background may be taken ONCE only. Some backgrounds include other backgrounds as part of their cost; for instance, Time in the Military (Ranked) includes Time in the Military (Grunt), and so you do not need to buy both.

You should give us some idea as to who your contacts are for each Background. You can choose more than one contact, but the total information-gathering capacity of your contacts will be roughly the same whether you choose one, two or more. One contact is more likely to have better information, whereas multiple contacts will be able to gather more information of a somewhat lower quality.

Organisation

All characters are part of one of the seven Organisations. You should pick an Organisation that they are a member of. This may be a large or small part of the character's life - perhaps your interest in surviving a power cut has got you a friend in the Global Militia who thought you'd be interested in what's going on, or perhaps you got into the New Illuminati in order to get a leg up in the business world and got brought along by another member.

Myers-Briggs Personality Type

In the world of Classified, you've almost certainly been profiled by a number of organisations - schools, employers, government, insurers will all likely have tried to get a basic handle on your personality. Your character's Myers-Briggs Personality Type is a high-level view of how their mind works. Filling this in will give you (and us) a better idea of how your character's mind works and how they act. This isn't meant as a restriction to your roleplaying, but it does give the GMs an idea of what your character would do when we need to make decisions to resolve your turnsheet actions.

Current Circumstances

The denizens of #CLASSIFIED# connect from all over the world. We need to know which country (or at least which power bloc) your character is based in. We also need to know what they do for a day job - are they an office worker? A charity worker? A government employee? It's assumed that all characters have access to food, shelter and a high-bandwidth internet connection.

Character Background

Where does your character live? Where do they work, what exactly do they do? Where are they from? Who are their main contacts? How do they know them? What do they believe in? How did they get involved in their Organisation? These questions and more help flesh out your character, turn them from a simple collection of backgrounds into a real person. Thinking about your character's background will help you get a handle on how their mind works and where they're going.

Telling us more about your contacts also allows us to have more of an idea as to what kind of information you're going to be able to get hold of. It also gives us an idea how your contacts are likely to act. But remember, contacts are not just resources - they're minor characters in their own right, and will act like it. Choosing who your contacts are will always be a trade-off - if one of your contacts is a close friend who'd never betray you, they're also more of a danger to you if they get caught.

Public Bio

Every character has a public bio for their online persona. This is a small page, a paragraph or two describing what is commonly known about the character - on the #CLASSIFIED# chatroom, at least.

charactergen.txt · Last modified: 2009/10/12 18:04 by gareth
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