Walkabout Character Generation - Phase 2: Childhood

One of the things that I've forgotten to mention so far in the character generation process is the fact that players need to buy a diary to write their stories in. This diary may not be a specific book created for that purpose, it could be a notebook, or even a pile of scrap papers stapled or bound together... the nature of this booklet sets the tone for the character. Over the course of several sessions, or even several campaigns, these "diaries" may be used in later stories to help flesh out the world and build a more cohesive setting. New campaigns might see players portraying children of earlier wayfarers, or descendants of those whose lives were changed in earlier sessions. New sessions might apply new perspectives that add depth to the events of the game. All actions have repercussions.


During the first session of play, players will be defining their characters by working through this series of phases, asking questions of one another as they link their characters together in a network of bonds. In some cases, multiple characters may share a bond to a common place, or a common third party character... in rare cases they may share a direct bond to one another before the game begins. This whole process is about linking characters to the world, and integrating them into the setting (to avoid lone-wolves, because this isn't about that sort of character).

Roll 6 d6 to determine relationships and events during your childhood.

Advances:

• Gain a random attribute. If you have 3 or more relationship levels to a specific culture, you may instead choose one of the two attributes commonly associated with this culture.
• Gain two common abilities from your culture. If you have 3 or more relationship levels to any specific culture, or member of that culture (including a parent), you may choose a common ability associated with that culture.

Write a sentence or two describing the events that lead to the improved attribute, and the abilities gained. If you want to write more, you can once again write about what happened to improve or degrade any relationships. If you rolled one or more multiple results, each instance requires you to ask another player to answer a question; incorporate that answer into at least one of your sentences (or add a new sentence).  Some of these sentences could describe times when you began exploring the world on your own, learnt things for yourself, or started to develop connections to the wider world around you; your sentences will start to show how you took on certain traits, how a specific item became precious to you, or how a certain person played a recurring role in your life as a friend or an enemy.