Character Forge is the name given to the character creation program.

The program is initiated by speaking with a Gamemaster NPC while in Dark Age (Note that these NPCs should only exist in a starting area before your character enters the actual world). To initiate the forging process, speak the words ‘Gamemaster Forge’ to the Gamemaster NPC.

You may forge your character repeatedly until you are done and tell the gamemaster that you are ready to begin your journey. Only the latest (current) forging counts as your character’s design.

At first, this may seem a little daunting, but in truth it gives you the greatest control over making a character of your own desire. We dont have a ‘class’ system, you the player get to decide what skill set you want or the limitations placed upon your character. If it still seems like too much, you can see some pre-designed ideas for some characters and use them or improve upon them.

On the first (entry) page of Character Forge, you have the options of Forging (entering the world with this design), Designing (setting up the design), Viewing the design (seeing what the numbers look like), or Exiting. Once you choose to Design the character, you enter one by one through the pages that set up your Stats, Skills, and Backgrounds (including your race). You may go back and forth through each page. On each of the pages for Stats, Skills, and Backgrounds there is a HELP button that will give you more information about that page. Additionally, next to each skill and background is also a HELP button that will give you some information on that skill or background. Do not forget to click the ‘Save your Stats/Skills/Backgrounds’ button after the changes.

Your character is designed starting with a pool of Build Points (BPs). Purchasing a cap in any ability or skill will cost you some BPs (buying higher caps cost more PER POINT than lower caps. Increasing from 90 to 91 costs more in a skill than increasing from 40 to 41). Backgrounds usually also cost BPs, although there are some backgrounds that penalize your character, and to make up for that, they give you back BPs. Some backgrounds also require that you spend Experience Points (XPs) in order to obtain them, and therefore are only available to characters for players who have earned XPs through game play (or otherwise). Note: different stats and skills have different cost multipliers, and these multipliers are listed next to each stat or skill on the appropriate page.

You are purchasing CAPS in the stats and skills. Your actual STARTING stats and skills are a set % of the cap (and that % may be modified by backgrounds). The cap totals are not limited except indirectly by how many BPs you have to spend. The caps in the stats are limited to a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 100. The caps in the skill are limited to a base of 90, but in addition, you will receive a free bonus to ALL skill caps equal to 10% of your INT cap.

To purchase backgrounds, you must first select a race, and Save the racial background, as this will limit your other background choices. Note that certain backgrounds will include others, while certain backgrounds will preclude others. Any such limitations should be in the background’s description (available via the HELP button).

Should you have any questions about skills, stats, or the process of character forge feel free to contact a GM via our IRC channel or page a staff member while forging.

Upon pressing ‘design character’ you will be brought to the stat-cap selection page. You are purchasing the maximum number of points you are allowed to have in each stat, not the actual number you will start with. You will start with 80% of whatever your stat cap is for each stat.

You will start with 20 strength, 20 dexterity, and 20 intelligence, and you cannot lower these values past this point without the use of background options. These three stats cost you a mere 170 of your 4830 build points, though their cost has them listed much higher. For stats and skills alike, the initial points you buy cost a fraction of the listed price, and that price increases as you buy more and more until, at 90, they cost twice as much as the listed price. Averaged across from all the points you can buy, they ‘average’ at the listed price. It is important to note that at this point you will have to use the same Build Points to spread across your stats, skills, and background options, so plan on having to make them go a long way. You can, before finishing your character forging, always come back and spend more or less on stats, though.

If you press ‘store stats’ it will act to tell you how many points you have spent so far, and if the stat values you have chosen are legit. If you press ‘continue’, it will automatically store stats and take you to the next option – Skills.

Strength effects the damage you deal, the equipment you’re allowed to equip, and your number of hitpoints. Like traditional Ultima Online rules, your number of points in strength determines your number of hitpoints.

Dexterity effects the speed of the damage you deal, some rogue / bard skills, and your stamina. Like traditional Ultima Online rules, your number of points in dexterity determines the number of your stamina.

Intelligence effects the cap of your skills, the potency of your magic, and your number of mana. An intelligence of a hundred will increase the cap of all of your skills by ten, an intelligence of zero will not affect your purchased skill caps. For everything else, the value varies as a medium. Like traditional Ultima Online rules, your number of points in intelligence determines your number of manapoints.

Again, you are chosing your cap for each value, and you will start with each skill at 80% of it’s cap upon entering the game. The same rule for purchasing applies, as well. The more you purchase in a skill, the more it will cost, with the ‘average’ from 0-90 being the listed cost. Remember, you will still have ‘background options’ remaining after this, so don’t spend all your points! You can come back and adjust the skill values later, however.

The highest you will be able to raise a skill cap to here is 90. With your INT cap bonus, skill caps will be raised beyond that, with up to +10 to all skill caps at 100int.

For details regarding the skills, go to the Skills Page.

You begin by chosing a background option ‘race’. Any race besides human will cost both BP and XP. For information regarding races, check the Races Page.

After chosing race, all of the background options tied in with that race will be selected, all of the background options prohibited to that race greyed out, and all of the optional ones will be made available to you to chose from.

For information regarding the backgrounds, check the Backgrounds Page.

Although players have a limited amount of Build Points (BPs) when originally forging their characters, you do gain a certain amount of BPs every day thereafter. These can be accessed by using the command .spendbp. Simly choose “DESIGN this character” and you will see how many BPs you have available. You can then change your stat caps and/or skill caps using those BPs. Then simply choose “FORGE with this design” and your new caps will be activated.

• NOTE: .spendbp CANNOT be used to purchase additional backgrounds. All backgrounds can only be purchased in your original character forge. Also remember that BPs can ONLY be used to raise CAPS, whether you use them on stats or skills. They do not in any way raise your actual stat/skill level.

If that all seemed a bit too complicated, there are a few pre-designed characters you can look at and take ideas from, or fully implement yourself. We list them here by their classical titles.

• Warrior or Mercenary
• Ranger
• Thief/Assassin
• Merchant