Character Creation

Before you create a character consider:

• In Shades of Honor, we have a limit of 2 Characters per Player.
• If you already have 2 characters, but you would like to change one, tell your Sanctioning GM to avoid any confusions.
• There are some concepts and affiliations which are not allowed.
  Please review Playable Character Types to make certain you are not planning a banned concept.

First of all, consider that the Character's history should be the main focus of creating and sanctioning. So, no metter if you write the history first, during, or after the mechanical considerations of Character generation, it must integrate wholly with the mechanical aspects.

Due to differences in our setting for Shades of Honor and the base L5R book, you should check these questions that might help you to flesh your Character.

Step 1: Your character sheet is in the form of a Google Docs spreadsheet file. Click this link, and download or save a copy to your own Google Docs area so you can edit it. Be certain that you do not save over the original file.

Step 2: Pick your Clan.
Note: If you wish to play a Ronin, there are some special considerations you should check.
Remember: You cannot play Imperial or Spider Clan members.

Step 3: Pick your Family. Clan pages on the wiki will include some specific descriptions of Families.
Remember: Family Traits can be found on pages 105-130, 215-225, and 231 (L5R 4E).

Step 4: Pick your School.
Note: If you wish to play a Monk, there are some special considerations you should check.
Review stats in the book where your School is printed.

Step 5: Spend your XP on Traits, Skills and Advantages. You have a base XP pool as noted on page 99 or 102 (L5R 4E)
Costs remain as printed on page 103. (L5R 4E)
You may purchase either a total of 3 Advantages (for any cost) or up to 15 XP worth of Advantages (no limit).
You may gain up to 10 additional XP from Disadvantages. Additional disadvantages may be chosen, however, for no additional XP.
You may gain additional XP from the following two House Rules, however the bonuses do not stack. You can only gain benefit from one rule if you qualify for both.

Kharma Rule: For Shades of Honor, whenever you stop playing a character (whether by death, becoming unplayable, lack of interest, etc) you will gain 1/3rd of all XP earned on your last (most recent) character towards your next one.
Example: Let's say you played Doji Bob for a full year (52 weeks) and then changed characters. You would gain 52 XP towards your next character. To put this in perspective, you would probably be able to raise a ring, possibly two, and be much closer to starting at rank 2 than rank 1.
XP Bonus for New Players/Secondary Characters: New characters to the game will receive 3 extra XP for every month the game has been live prior to character creation. (since 11/3/11).

Step 6: Fill in your Honor per your School and any applicable Advantages or Disadvantages.

Step 7: All characters begin with Glory 1 unless modified by applicable Advantages or Disadvantages.

Step 8: Calculate Insight Rank as per page 104. (L5R 4E)
Remember: If, due to spending Bonus XP, you begin the game with an Insight Rank above 1, you also gain the benefits of your higher School Rank. Make certain that all techniques, spells, etc. are written on your character sheet.

Step 9: Enter your equipment onto your character sheet. Your School will provide basic equipment, and you have a travelling pack as per page 207. (L5R 4E)
Note: There may be some extra considerations if you purchased the Gentry Advantage.

Step 10: Calculate your Influence.

Step 11: Type your character's description. There are some setting considerations of what is traditionally appropriate and what is not, so please review the description page to ensure that you do not experience unexpected cultural shocks.

Step 12: Submit your character for Sanctioning!
E-mail your completed character sheet to SOH(dot)GMS(at)gmail(dot)com, or if you have a Google Docs account, simply share the document with the aforementioned e-mail address. A GM will contact you shortly!