EYE OF THE GORGON: Character Creation

Character creation rules for my Sword & Sorcery game.

Abilities:

Your character has 6 abilities

• STR
• DEX
• CON
• INT
• WIS
• CHA

Abilities vary from -3 to +3 with 0 being average.

Roles:

• Warrior - wandering mercenaries who live by the blade
• Rogue - specialists, adventurers and opportunists; tomb robbers and explorers
• Sorcerer - delves into knowledge best left buried, channels chaos into spells, makes pacts with spirits and powers
• Cultist - attracts followers to their cause, channels the power of an ancient and/or alien god

Choose a background:

Sword and Sorcery games are focused on humans but the humans in the settings often come from very diverse backgrounds. Their geographic origin and ethnicity adds a distinctive flavor to the setting. In addition there is a relatively broad range of levels of civilization, from sophisticated city-states to primitive warbands:

Origin	Cultural shorthand	Civilization	Attribute bonus	Classes available
Lost valley, undiscovered island, etc.	Neanderthal	Bestial	+2 STR,  -1 DEX, +2 CON, -1 INT, -2 CHA	Warrior or Cultist or Warrior/Cultist multi class
Forest, plains, mountains, swamps, desert, seas, etc.	Picts	Savage	+1 DEX, +1 CON, -1 INT, -1 CHA	Warrior, Rogue or Cultist; Can multi-class any combination
Western Barbarians	Proto-Celtic	Barbaric	+1 STR, +1 CON, -1 INT, -1 CHA	Warrior, Rogue or Warrior/Rogue multiclass
Northern Barbarians	Cimmerian
Southern Barbarians	Proto-Kushite
Northeastern Barbarians	Scythian
Southwestern Barbarians	Amazons
Southeastern Barbarians	Proto-Thamud
Northwestern Barbarians	Thracian
Kronos	Mycenaean	Civilized/Barbaric	+1 STR, +1 CON, -1 WIS, -1 CHA	Any single class
Byblos	Proto-Phoenician	Civilized	-1 STR, -1 CON, +1 INT, +1 CHA	Any single class
Akamati / The Alabaster City	Ancient Egyptian	Civilized
Akamati / City of the Scepter		Decadent	-2 STR, -2 CON, +2 INT, +1 WIS, +1 CHA	Cultist, Sorcerer, Rogue or any multiclass combination
Ki-En-Gi / Ur	Ancient Sumerian	Decadent	-1 STR, -1 CON, +1 WIS, +1 CHA	Any
Labrys	Minoan	Decadent	-1 STR, -1 DEX, -1 CON, +1 WIS, +2 CHA	Cultist or Warrior
Ancient ruin, lost city, caverns beneath the earth, etc.	Melnibone, Xuchotl, Gollum, Xuthal, Opar, Xapur, Pool of the Black One	Degenerate	-2 STR, +1 DEX, -2 CON, +2 INT, +1 WIS	Warrior, Cultist, Rogue,  Sorcerer or any multi-class

Bestial - primitive bands of hunter gatherers, something akin to Neanderthals or similarly archaic humans. They tend to come from isolated regions far from civilization. Their level of tool use is typically, stone, bone, wood and horn. They may be found in lost valleys or caves in rugged mountains or burrows in deserted hills. They have some aspect of the animal still in them, the way they move or smell the air or eat raw carrion.
Savage - tribal hunter gatherers. They can manufacture sophisticated tools and weapons of stone, bone or wood and often own a few copper items they have acquired via trade networks.
Barbaric - often organized into clans and engaged in farming, hunting, or herding. They are able to manufacture copper weapons and implements, gold and silver jewelry and ornaments and will have access to bronze tools and implements via trade networks.
Civilized - the ‘younger’ city-states, with rising prosperity, sophistication and specialization. Dedicated craftsmen are generally organized under the king or high priest in a ‘palace economy’. They know the secrets of forging bronze.
Decadent - the older cities where the elite classes while away their lives consuming exotic foods, imbibing rare wines and rarer drugs, appreciating sophisticated arts but at a loss to some of their vitality, passion, purpose, creativity. Often their lifestyles can only be supported by a large slave class.

Degenerate - People from lost civilizations that have fallen to ruin when the society could no longer support their excesses. They may come from cities that are half in ruins being reclaimed by the surrounding jungle or from strange underground complexes carved from bedrock or huge empty palace cities eerily lit with magical gems. Often they have a touch of the uncanny about them, a strange tint to their skin, a pronounced facial features, hunched postures or abnormally tall and slender bodies, lambent eyes, slit pupils or fang like teeth, a lack of hair, nails, ears or nose.