Character Creation
Table of contents
Steps to Create a Character
The most important part of any legend is the Heroes who partake in it. As such, the first step in playing Reclaim the Wild is to decide what kind of Hero you want to be!
Character creation is tough! For some people, deciding who they want to play can be more difficult than fighting Ganon.
This chapter will go over the steps required to create a character. Some information you may need – such as details on Races, what each Trait can do, and lists of Feats, Spells, and Techniques – are contained in later chapters. While creating your character, you may need to refer to these later chapters.
Character Creation in Reclaim the Wild happens in seven steps, listed below.
- Determine Concept
- Select a Race
- Purchase Traits
- Select Starting Equipment
- Buy Feats, Spells, and Techniques
- Fill in secondary statistics
- Determine Finishing Touches
Determine Concept
The first step is also the most important:
What kind of character do you want to play?
Typically, a character’s concept can be summed up in a quick, broad description: just a few words, or a sentence or two, at most. For instance, you might want to play “a fast-talking knight,” “a romantic herbalist”, or “a wizard who seeks acceptance.”
This concept helps determine what Traits, Feats, Techniques, and Spells you might want to purchase for your character. A “cunning warrior” likely wants to have a high Combat Trait, and strong interpersonal Traits like Guile and Influence, but might choose to ignore Willpower, Mechanics, or Nature.
Typically, most characters start as aspiring Heroes, just on the cusp of beginning to build their legend and make their mark on the world. This means that they are not yet storied, seasoned adventurers! Your character concept should leave plenty of room to grow into greatness.
You may want to consider what Race your character is at this stage, but it isn’t required. “An aspiring songstress” could be of any Race, for instance; you might decide to simply choose whichever Race catches your fancy, or one that has a statistical advantage for you.
Don’t worry too much about the other personal details at this stage. Things like the character’s name, age, and appearance will come at the end of the character creation process, as part of the Finishing Touches.
Concept Pitfalls
In any tabletop game, it’s important to have a character that can work well with both the rest of the group, and with the GM’s intended setting and tone. When you come up with your character concept, you should think about how your character will interact with the other players and their characters, as well as how they’ll fit with the campaign’s tone!
Here, we’ve listed three common pitfalls that character concepts can fall into. If your character falls into one of these categories, you should talk to your GM, and see what you can do to help flesh them out, and to ensure that you (and the other players!) can still have fun with the game – or, you may want to consider working with a different character concept.
Lone Wolves might be a problem, because they’ll be more likely to split the GM’s attention when they go their own way, and less likely to want to participate in the events going on with the rest of the party. This can lead to the Lone Wolf’s player becoming bored and disconnected from events, and other characters simply forgetting about them entirely. If you want to play a loner character, be sure they have a reason to stick with the party, even when your character might prefer to be alone.
“Evil” characters might cause issue, simply because they’re going to do bad things that the other party members might object to – leading to the party fighting amongst themselves more often than they fight actual monsters. You can absolutely play characters with different sets of morals, and your character may have failings or even occasionally do mean things. However, we highly recommend you don’t try to be a bad guy in a group of do-gooders – nobody wants the fight of good against evil to come to blows around the gaming table.
Incongruent characters are those that just don’t fit the game or its world. A disillusioned veteran of a bloody war, for instance, might not fit into a world of simple “good vs. evil” morality straight out of a cartoon show.
Conversely, an innocent, wide-eyed squire who believes in the power of friendship might not make sense in a world under the despotic thumb of an evil overlord. When these characters enter play, they often find that they just can’t handle the world as it was made; at best, they either adjust quickly (the innocent squire learning many harsh lessons very quickly); at worst, they may be shunned by the other characters in the group. When coming up with your character concept, don’t be afraid to talk to the GM, and ask “would my character make sense in your world?”
Selecting a Race
The next decision in creating a character is also one of the simplest: what race are they?
A Hero’s race helps determine how they look, where they came from, and the kind of life they lived before they began their adventure. It also helps determine some of the things they are more naturally inclined towards; for instance, Gerudo are often skilled warriors, while Sheikah are more likely to know forgotten lore.
The Primary Races – Gerudo, Goron, Hylian, Rito, Sheikah, and Zora – are the most likely to be acceptable choices in your game world. These are the most common races in Hyrule, as seen in Breath of the Wild, and the most likely to go on a wide-ranging adventure.
The Secondary Races – Deku, Demon, Fairy, Subrosian, Talking Animal, and Twili – may or may not be available in your game world; be sure to consult with your GM before selecting one of these races for your character.
You can read more about the various races in Reclaim the Wild – who they are, what they represent, and what they’re skilled at – in the Races chapter.
Purchasing Traits
Your Traits describe your character’s skills and prowess. All Traits start at 1 for free.
As an adventurer, burgeoning Hero, or a legend yet untold, you have 80 Tokens of Heroism to spend across all 24 Traits, and can bring any Trait up to a maximum of 5.
This pool of Tokens can only be spent on Traits. This maximum is just at character creation; once you’re past that, you can go above that original maximum of 5.
You may spend Tokens of Heroism to increase a Trait by a single point. The cost is always equal to the number that the Trait will be rising to – for instance, if you wish to increase your Arcana Trait from 4 to 5, that costs 5 Tokens.
All Traits max out at 10 – a person’s body simply cannot contain more skill than that naturally, though the use of food, elixirs or equipment can increase it further.
See the Character Traits chapter for more information on Traits and what they do.
Trait Quick Purchase
Rather than buying your Traits one by one, you can instead use a Quick Purchase array. All of these arrays use all 80 Tokens exactly – just choose which Traits get which numbers!
“Varied” – Three Traits at 4, seven Traits at 3, nine Traits at 2, and five Traits at 1.
“Jack of All Trades” – Two Traits at 4, six Traits at 3, sixteen Traits at 2.
“Ready to Learn” – Twelve Traits at 3, ten Traits at 2, two Traits at 1.
“Strength without Weakness” – One Trait at 5, two Traits at 4, two Traits at 3, and nineteen Traits at 2.
“Focused on Their Strengths” – Three Traits at 5, two Traits at 4, two Traits at 3, five Traits at 2, and twelve Traits at 1.
“Talented but Troublesome” – Six Traits at 4, two Traits at 3, eight Traits at 2, and eight Traits at 1.
Health, Stamina, and Magic
Most Heroes should put some Tokens towards Health, and at least one of either Stamina or Magic. Even if you’re aiming for a “glass cannon” character, it’s strongly recommended to put at least a few Tokens towards your Health! After all, nobody’s going to sing the praises of a Hero who fainted in pain after stubbing their toe on a table leg.
That Last Remaining Point
If you purchase Traits without using a Quick Purchase array, you may end up with a few Tokens that you simply can’t find a good place for. If you find yourself in that situation, there’s a simple trick that might help you use up those last few Tokens:
- Find two Traits that currently have the same score: two 2’s, two 3’s, or two 4’s.
- Subtract a point from one of those two Traits, gaining back the Tokens.
- Increase the other Trait by 1, spending the Tokens you got back in the previous step, plus one. You now have exactly one less Token than you had before!
With this technique, you should be able to spend every last Token you have available for Traits at character creation. However, if you just can’t find any place that feels appropriate for your character’s Tokens to go, speak with your GM – with their permission, you can simply hang on to the Tokens left over, and spend them later, when you’ve acquired a few more. GMs should be careful, though, as this could be used as a long-term way to minmax in the hands of a less scrupulous player.
Secondary Stats
Once you’ve determined your Traits, you’ll need to fill in your secondary stats. This includes your Health, Stamina, and Magic, how well you resist negative effects, how far you can Jump, and how much you can Lift.
See the Secondary Stats section in the next Chapter for more information on how to fill in these numbers.
Movement Types
All Heroes begin play able to walk and swim. They are Natural Walkers, meaning that they can move 6 squares on foot in a single round of combat. All Heroes are also (non-Natural) Climbers and Swimmers, enabling them to tread water or clamber up cliffs, but moving half as quickly as they would on land.
Depending on your Race, you may be able to swim better than most, or even fly in the air!
Be sure to note these movement types down.
See the Movement section for more info.
Selecting Starting Equipment
All Heroes start with a package of Weapons (Listing), Armor (Listing), and Mundane Tools. They may have:
- Two Rank 1 Weapons, or a Rank 1 Weapon and two Rank 0 Weapons, or four Rank 0 Weapons.
- AND, Two Rank 1 Armors, or one Rank 1 Armor and two Rank 1 pieces of Clothing, or four Rank 1 pieces of Clothing.
- AND, Two Rank 1 Mundane Tools, or one Rank 1 Mundane Tool and two Rank 0 Mundane Tools, or four Rank 0 Tools. (2 Bombs may be substituted for a Rank 0 Tool, or 5 Bombs for a Rank 1 Tool.)
Heroes who begin with Ranged weaponry also start their journey with ammo. If you begin with any Rank 1 Ranged weapons, you also have 10 Arrows. If you begin with only Rank 0 Ranged weapons, you instead have 5 Arrows.
If you have a Feat that teaches you a Crafting Style, your Weapons may be made in that Crafting Style, unless the GM indicates otherwise. If your Hero has a backstory steeped in a particular race’s culture, and your GM agrees, your initial weapons may be made in that race’s Crafting Style as well.
Heroes start with a Pack for free, to carry their starting gear and anything else they find Packs have different Pouches for different kinds of items, as per the table below.
| Pouch Type | Starting Slots |
|---|---|
| Weapons | 5 |
| Consumables | 5 |
| Armor | 3 |
| Tools | 3 |
| Ammo Pouch | 1 |
(See the Pack & Pouches section for details.)
Purchasing Feats, Spells, and Techniques
Heroes have 12 additional Tokens to spend on Feats, Spells, and Techniques.
These Tokens cannot be spent on Traits.
All Feats, Spells, and Techniques purchased during Character Creation must each cost 6 Tokens or less, and you must meet their other requirements. (With GM permission, you may begin with one Song, if it fits your character.)
A Note on Rounding Decimals
When rounding decimals, unless another rule says otherwise, round to the next whole number as you were taught in school: anything from 0.0 to 0.499 rounds down, while anything from 0.5 and above rounds up. When in doubt, round towards kindness for the one doing the math.
The Average Villager
An average person, living a mundane life in a small village, has 40-60 Tokens to spend across all of the 24 Traits, and can bring any Trait up to a maximum of 4. They have a single piece of Rank 1 Clothing and two pieces of Rank 0 Clothing, two Rank 0 Weapons or one Rank 1 Weapon, and two Rank 1 Tools. Villagers’ Traits start at 1 for free, and they have a Race, just like Heroes.
Determine Finishing Touches
Once you know all the numbers that your character has, it’s time to put the finishing touches on them – the Finishing Touches.
While we’re presenting the Finishing Touches in order of least to most complicated, it should be noted that they can be tackled in any order – and often, one detail will affect another! If you ever feel stuck on one Finishing Touch, then move on to another; inspiration might just strike while you’re there.
Name, Age, and Appearance
All Heroes have a name, an age, and an appearance. Many Heroes also have an affect, as well.
A Hero’s Name is often influenced by their Race, their origins, and their lineage. A prince fleeing his kingdom might have a long, ornate name, with titles and descriptors; a boy born in the wild and raised by Moblins might only have two different grunts strung together to form his name. A good name can go a long way to establishing a Hero’s character. We recommend evocative names, ones that you don’t hear very often in your own day-to-day life; it helps the Hero seem more powerful, interesting, and unique!
Age and Appearance go hand-in-hand. Think about how you’d describe your Hero’s appearance to someone who was waiting for them to arrive for a meeting, but had never met them before. What color are your character’s eyes and hair? How tall are they? How old are they? Do they have any scars from previous battles, or markings or tattoos that indicate past affiliations? Do they always wear a certain accessory, like an earring or an eyepatch? All of these details can help your Hero stand out from the crowd.
While thinking about your character’s Appearance, you may also want to consider their Affect – how they speak, move, and act. A unique turn of phrase, an accent, or a habitual fidget they indulge in, can all help flesh out your character, making them more memorable (and more fun to play, too!).
Personality
Heroes don’t just venture into the wilderness, fighting monsters and gathering treasure, on a whim. They also aren’t just sentient spreadsheets of combat statistics, either. Heroes have Personalities, Goals, and sometimes, Ties.
A Hero’s Personality helps define how they act in the moment – if you ever aren’t sure what your Hero might do when presented with a given situation, you can fall back on their Personality as a guide. This can be a simple descriptor, like “bold” or “neurotic”, or it can be more complex guidelines for how your character acts when presented with certain things, like “always runs in head-first to help the helpless” or “prefers to steal from criminals, rather than turn them in”.
Goals
A Hero’s Goals, of course, are what motivates them. Why did your character decide to leave whatever comfort and safety they had, to risk life and limb in the wild? This might be as simple as “it’s the right thing to do” or “if I don’t, the world will end”, but even when faced with an existential threat, Heroes will want to accomplish other goals along the way. They may want to keep their particular hometown safe and prosperous, make sure a tragic event in their past doesn’t happen to anyone else, start a business, find their family, fall in love, uncover ancient secrets, or become the world’s most powerful warrior.
When defining your character’s Goals, try to include a mix of short-term and long-term goals. The short-term goals are things that you can accomplish relatively quickly – anywhere from one session to a handful of sessions of play – and will probably be replaced with new short-term goals as you complete them.
Longer-term goals take far longer to complete, generally covering the length of the campaign; they may requiring traveling all over the world, collecting a large number of things or money, or an internal struggle that will take more than a few therapeutic chats around the campfire to resolve.
Both short- and long-term goals should help make explicit what things your character thinks are important to them. Whatever your Hero’s Goals, the GM (and the other players!) can use them as something to help drive your adventure and keep your character motivated.
Ties
While many a campaign has started with a handful of strangers meeting in a bar and deciding, on a whim, to put their lives in one another’s hands, that may not be the case for your character and their adventuring party-tobe. Groups with members that have pre-existing Ties to one another are more likely to stick together, and have more opportunities to roleplay with one another.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the Heroes are already best friends, or even that they know one another at all – but a Tie to another character means that, before the adventure begins, there’s some reason that the two characters might meet up and interact, as more than just strangers. They could be childhood friends who grew apart, ex-rivals for their mutual first crush’s affections, have once been on opposite sides of a battle, or simply be from the same town.
Ties are not required – and depending on the game your GM wants to run, they may not exist at all – but they can definitely be useful, especially during the early sessions as you work out how your character interacts with the other players’ characters. They also help solve the question of, “why would my character work with these people?”
If you aren’t sure what Ties you want your Hero to have to the other players’ Heroes, you might choose to randomly roll one. (GMs might also want to use this to relate NPCs to one another, or to the Heroes!) Simply roll two six-sided dice (“2d6”); one die represents the section, and the other decides the entry within the section, in the table below. If you get an entry you don’t like or can’t use, don’t worry – you can switch your dice around, reroll, or interpret the result “creatively!” The point of this table is to get inspired and excited, not to create a hard-and-fast ruling.
- Bonds of Love
i. Is a sibling of
ii. Is a cousing or distant relative of
iii. Rivals for another’s affection with
iv. Pursued by the same paramour as
v. Adopted into the same family as
vi. Support the same child(ren) as - Bonds of Friendship
i. Childhoof friend of
ii. Drinking buddies with
iii. Share a close mutual friend with
iv. Participated in a sport or hobby with
v. Searching for a lost mutual friend with
vi. Travelled a long distance with - Bonds of War
i. Served alongside
ii. Was trained by
iii. Did mercenary work with
iv. Was ordered to work with
v. Survived a battle with
vi. Hunting a rare / dangerous monster with - Bonds of Adventure
i. Was saved by
ii. Is Protecting / Bodyguarding
iii. Previously adventured with
iv. Is a friendly rival of
v. Dueling partner of
vi. Is searching for the same treasure as - Bonds of Servitude
i. Is magically bound to
ii. On the run with
iii. Share the same religion as
iv. Is a squire or apprentice of
v. Swore allegiance to the same ruler as
vi. Swore an oath to - Bonds of Business
i. Employed at a business alongside
ii. Lost a bet to
iii. Is indebted to
iv. Entertains / Puts on shows with
v. Runs a scam with
vi. Members of the same tradesman guild
Backstory
Heroes don’t just pop into existence, fully formed – they come from somewhere, having lived a life before they began their adventure. A character’s history can inform how they speak, how they act, how they dress, and their outlook on life.
There are many ways to write a Backstory: some players like to write them as actual short stories, with a beginning, middle, and a “to be continued” finale that leads into the events of the game. Others prefer to simply list broad strokes of biographical detail: place of birth, school, the job they had before adventuring. However you want to do it, we encourage you to use your Backstory as an opportunity to learn more about your character!
Backstory is the Finishing Touch that most heavily relies on the game’s setting and world, because your character has been living in that world for all of their life before beginning their adventure. Don’t be afraid to discuss your character’s Backstory with your GM! Working together, you might both discover interesting details – things that the GM can use to come up with new details about their world, or new adventure ideas that cater to your character.