To help those who haven't got the rules to make an early draft of their character (which I can then help them revise), here is an overview of character creation. (swiped from elsewhere, from someone who went to all the bother of typing this out :) )<br/><br/>The system is skill-based so you can create any “class” you want.<br/><br/>Character consists of Aspects, Skills, Gifts and Weaknesses, Combat Techniques, Taos and Magic abilities.  The basic idea what each of this for is in the demo kit, so I’ll just have to give you numbers.<br/><br/>Aspects range from 1(weak) to 5(legendary), you have 14 points to spend on Aspects<br/><br/>You do not have to pick any gifts or weaknesses but if you do you have to choose one gift and one weakness, the balance of Yin and Yang forces of the universe insures you cannot have one without the other.<br/><br/>Skills range from 0 (beginner) to 6 (godlike), some skills cannot be used unless you have at least 1 rank in that skill (apprentice).  You have 15 points to spend on skills, each rank of skill has to be purchased separately and cost of rank level added up.  Rank 1 (apprentice) costs 1 point, 2 (competent) costs 3, and 3 (expert) costs 6.  So to buy expert level skill you have to spend 10 points.<br/><br/>A player has 15 points to divide between Techniques, Taos and Magic.  The same cost rule applies as with Skills - Rank 1 (apprentice) costs 1 point, 2 (competent) costs 3, and 3 (expert) costs 6.<br/><br/>I intend characters to be a bit more powerful then the standard starting chars so I will give everyone some exp points to spend… but I have not yet decided how many.  The XP is used as follows:<br/><br/>To improve aspect use 5 times the XP as the rank you wish to reach, i.e. to raise aspect from 2 to 3 you must spend 15 XP, you can only increase aspect by 1 rank at a time.<br/><br/>To improve a skill you must spend 4 times the XP as the rank you want to achieve.  You can purchase more then one rank but the cost is cumulative.  So from say level 0 to level 3 (expert) costs 4+8+12=24XP<br/><br/>Same math applies to Taos, Techniques and Magic as to skills but there might be pre-requisites (like certain value of aspect, or certain rank in a given skill)<br/><br/>The reason I'm looking at XP over additional build points is that the build points don't really allow for stat boosting.<br/><br/><br/>ASPECTS<br/><br/>The five Aspects are Metal, Water, Fire, Wood and Earth.  They serve in Qin same role as attributes usually do in other games - define the innate abilities and the basic structure of the character<br/><br/>But in Qin there are also RP elements to Aspects, if the character has a lot of Water in him/her the corresponding traits should show up in the characters personality.<br/><br/>Metal (Yin)<br/>Personality: Metal corresponds to an active and open-minded temperament which is also sure of its own clearly-defined ideas.<br/>Characteristic : martial attribute - strength, resilience, martial spirit<br/><br/>Water (Yin)<br/>Personality: Water is the reflection of a calm, inwardlooking temperament, marked by great sensitivity, dreams and imagination.<br/>Characteristic : Physical attribute - agility, speed...<br/><br/>Fire (Yang)<br/>Personality: Fire corresponds to a dynamic, ambitious and aggressive temperament, which is expressed through physical domination and spiritual elevation.<br/>Characteristic : Social attribute - charisma, intuition, artistic ability.<br/><br/>Wood (Yang)<br/>Personality: Wood corresponds to a flexible and adaptable temperament, but one which is prone to anxiety and instability in times of insecurity.<br/>Characteristic: Mental attribute - intelligence, memory, reasoning<br/><br/>Earth (Balance)<br/>Personality: Earth corresponds to a nervous temperament, where a fragile physical form conceals profound and complex mental activity.<br/>Characteristic: Mystical attribute - willpower, spirit, magical affinity.<br/><br/>Gifts<br/><br/>Agility of the Monkey: better climbing ability.<br/><br/>Beloved of Nature: choose natural environment, you get better survival chances there.<br/><br/>Ease of the Courtier: character feels at ease in high society.<br/><br/>Blessed by the Dragon-Kings: Player feel at home at sea or other large bodies of water.<br/><br/>Unsettling Beauty: just what it says, good for seduction.<br/><br/>Luck of the Hare: better the usual luck in gambling.<br/><br/>Courage of the Tiger: resistance to fear.<br/><br/>Breastplate of Bronze: resistant to damage.<br/><br/>Acuity of the Kilin: good investigator.<br/><br/>Gift of Nezha: better with his/her off hand than average person.<br/><br/>Child of the Shadows: Stealthy.<br/><br/>Favorite of Wen Chang: a talented scholar (pick a field of study - Law, Taoism, Bureaucracy, Literature – you get bonuses in that field)<br/><br/>Strength of the Ox: give a bit extra power to feats of strength<br/><br/>Claws of the Tiger: deals extra damage once in a while with blades??<br/><br/>Heir of Sun Zi: strategy, tactics, the character really takes to the Art of War.<br/><br/>Inspiration of the Gods: choose artistic skill such as Music, Singing, Painting, Dance, etc.  You have special talent in that art form.<br/><br/>Inspiration of the Tao: choose a craft skill, you have special talent in that craft.<br/><br/>Tongue of Tsai Chen: talent to persuasive speaking.<br/><br/>Linguist: learns languages easily.<br/><br/>Hand of the Monkey: talented thief.<br/><br/>Mask of the Demon: intimidation, can make himself really scare if he wishes to.<br/><br/>Memory of the Zhongguo: well versed in the history of Middle Kingdom, pick academic skill such as History, Legends and Heraldry - you have bonuses in that skill<br/><br/>Spirit of Horses: you love horses and so have easier time dealing with them be it riding or say calming one.<br/><br/>Paw of the Bear: extra damage with heavy weapons such as maces and clubs<br/><br/>On The Shell of the Turtle: you love water and are a good swimmer<br/><br/>Placidity of the Turtle: character is in control of his emotion.<br/><br/>Presence of the Phoenix: talent to negotiation and diplomacy.<br/><br/>Eye of the Snake: The character is a born actor.<br/><br/>Health of the Rat: higher then usual resistance to the poison and sickness.<br/><br/>Sharp Senses: just what it says, above average senses.<br/><br/>Sense of the Tao: pick magical school (Internal Alchemy, External Alchemy, Divination and Exorcism) - you have affinity to that school<br/><br/>Feline Grace: talented acrobat.<br/><br/>Audacity of the Phoenix: exceptional self-confidence. But believing you can do it, sometimes actually allows you to do it.<br/><br/>Weaknesses<br/><br/>Alcoholic: You need to drink regularly.  Suffer penalties if you do not, but also suffer penalties if you drink too much.<br/><br/>Amnesiac: You remember nothing about your past.<br/><br/>Ascetic: You have some strict personal code.  For example reject all material possession, never kill, unusual diet, vows of chastity, etc<br/><br/>Blessed by Chang-E: you fall in love easily, love deeply... but burn out fast and soon fall in love with someone else.<br/><br/>Loudmouth: sometimes character lets his/her mouth runs away with him/her.<br/><br/>Code of Honor: Very similar to Ascetic, but with one difference.  Ascetic follows his code due to some personal belief; other people are not required to believe the same thing.  This weakness however… character follows the code because honor demands it, therefore anyone no following same code is dishonorable - so character tend not to get along well with such people.<br/><br/>Curiosity of the Rat: hmm... apparently in China curiosity kills rats just as well as cats.  :)<br/><br/>Disgrace of Fu Xing: you have the terrible luck in the games of chance.<br/><br/>Mind of the Hare: absentminded.<br/><br/>Pride of the Rooster: Character struts around been arrogant, patronizing and irritating as hell, makes it harder to make friends<br/><br/>Air of the Snake: there is something about this person that makes animals distrust or even fear him/her.<br/><br/>Haunted Soul: you are haunted by nightmares and so do not rest well and do not recover as fast as normal people.<br/><br/>Impetuosity of the Horse: hot blooded, tends to overreact and blow up at the slightest provocation<br/><br/>Loyalty of the Dog: loyal to a fault, in relations with friends or loved ones he is a push over, a door mat.  Forgives any abuse and comes back carrying sleepers in his mouth.<br/><br/>Curse of the Five Poisons: you need to sleep at least 10 hours a day or suffer penalties to everything you do.<br/><br/>Curse of Zhu Rong: character is consumed by desire for vengeance; he/she will no hesitate to step over his/her companions if that get's character closer to the object of the revenge.<br/><br/>Sickly : less than average resistance to illness and poison<br/><br/>Misogynist/Misandrist: sexist, intolerant of the opposite sex, will go out of his/her way to prove their genders superiority and humiliate the opposite one<br/><br/>Naïve: gullible, easy to lie to.<br/><br/>Obsessive-compulsive: pick an obsession you prefer - personal cleanness, eating disorders, obsessive collector, personal quest objective, and so on.<br/><br/>Phobia: once again pick the one you like, claustrophobia, agoraphobia, arachnophobia... crowds, cats, blood, water, whatever.  You suffer penalties when the subject of the phobia is around.<br/><br/>Clown: no one takes you seriously.<br/><br/>Wanted: you got a price on your head, which could be a problem especially in a state(s) that issued the bounty<br/><br/>Impure Blood: you got barbarian blood in you, people will treat you with distrust at best.<br/><br/>Lookalike: you look a lot like someone else, someone well known, that often causes trouble.<br/><br/>Hard of hearing: just what it says.<br/><br/>Timidity of the Kilin: you are definitely not the most sociable person in the world; you are shy and uneasy in company.<br/><br/>Short-sighted: you have poor eye-sight.