#Character Creation For the games played live on my twitch channel, we have a character generation website for viewers to use. The rules here can guide use of that website, or help create a character by hand for your own purposes.

##Name Although they may come face to face (or some other face like substitute) with nameless horrors from beyond time and space, your character is not nameless. Give them a name so that there will be something to carve on their tombstone.

##Description In Despair you will mostly be creating characters for someone else to play. Give them a brief description of what kind of person you have created to help the player who ends up playing them to get into character for the game. It doesn't have to be detailed. Something as simple as the name of their job, their favorite hobby, and a word or two about their personality is sufficient. At the rate that characters can die, you may need to make a lot of them. So don't spend too much time on it, and try not to get overly attached.

##Special Knowledge While the Skills section below will cover the basic things that any person in modern society should know, a character will also have a collection of professional and personal interests, hobbies, talents, and fields of expertise that are special to that character. These are referred to as the character's Special Knowledge. List eight Knowledges on the character sheet. Don't worry about their skill levels yet, you'll be able to add levels to them in a later step. Keep in mind that the character will not learn new Knowledges through play, so include in this list any fields of study that you want the character to be interested in learning at a later time, should they survive long enough.

Special Knowledge can be both broad and specific, with different advantages to each. In almost all cases, Knowledge is used to try to earn helper dice for your own, or a party member's skill checks. These helper attempts will ask if the Knowledge is relevant and if the Knowledge is specific to the task. Satisfying these conditions will reduce the target number by one per condition met. Thus a broad Knowledge such as Firefighting might be relevant for both driving a large truck as well as lighting a building on fire, reducing the target number for both by one. A more specific Knowledge, such as Arson, would only be relevant to lighting the fire, not driving the truck. But it would also be specific to that task, giving a total reduction in difficulty of two.

##Skills.

###If using the website character generator: You will now have a character sheet with 8 Knowledges and 16 Skills. By default the website puts all Knowledges to level 1, and all Skills to level 2, with a Character Point balance of zero. Using the buttons to the right, you can lower the values of Skills and Knowledges in exchange for character points to raise other Skills and Knowledges. Note that higher levels of Skills and Knowledges cost more points, and that you can not have more than eight of the Skills at a level below 2. Reducing a Skill or Knowledge to zero does not prevent the character from using it, although with significant penalties, or from raising its level during play.

###If creating your own character sheet by hand: Under your eight Knowledges, list the following eight mental skills.

• Oration
• Deception
• Persuasion
• Teaching
• Academics
• Navigating
• Electronics
• Investigating

And underneath them, list the following eight physical skills.

• Aiming
• Throwing
• Fighting
• Medicine
• Athletics
• Driving
• Mechanics
• Scavenging

Next choose eight of the Skills and set their level to 2. Set the rest of the Skills and all Knowledges to zero. You may now spend 24 Character Points raising the level of Skills and Knowledges for the following Character Point costs.

• From 0 to 1 costs one point.
• From 1 to 2 costs one point.
• From 2 to 3 costs two points.
• From 3 to 4 costs three points.
• From 4 to 5 costs four points.

Having a Skill at zero represents a facet of modern society that the character has not yet come to terms with, and a Knowledge at zero represents something the character has never learned, but has a keen enough interest in. Leaving a Skill or Knowledge at zero does not prevent the character from using it (with significant penalties) or from raising its level during play. The struggle to survive can be a rapid, if dangerous, form of education. However, it is best to make sure all 24 points are spent before continuing, as Character Points are never used beyond character creation and thus unspent points are lost.

##Attributes If using the website, this step will be done for you automatically. However, it may be helpful to understand the process if you desire a particular level for a particular attribute. The three attributes are Will, Health, and Propriety.

###Will: Add up the total skill levels (not character points) between all mental skills.

• If the total is 11 or less, set the value of the character's Will to 3.
• If the total is within the range of 12 to 20, set the character's Will to 4.
• If the total is 21 or higher, set the value of the character's will to 5.

###Health: Add up the total skill levels (not character points) between all physical skills.

• If the total is 11 or less, set the value of the character's Will to 3.
• If the total is within the range of 12 to 20, set the character's Will to 4.
• If the total is 21 or higher, set the value of the character's will to 5.

###Propriety: Add up the total number of skills, both physical and mental, that are at a level of 2 or higher and subtract eight. Set the character's Propriety to this level.

##Items and Equipment If you are making the character sheet by hand, leave space for the following.

• Funds, representing the character's ability to make large purchases such as vehicles, buildings, or politicians.
• Meals, representing the number of days that the character can feed themselves should they leave the economic safety of the village.
• Bandages, representing the number of attempts (not necessarily successful) the character has available to undo the effects of an injury, if they are somehow lucky enough to find a safe place and a moment of time where they are not fighting for their lives.
• Bullets, representing the number of times they may make use of a firearm. It is presumed that characters will only pickup ammunition for a gun they actually possess.
• Four slots for large items such as weapons, tools, or important objects for their mission.

A starting character should leave all of these blank. However, at the GM's sole discretion, before the start of a character's first mission, the player may present a story about the character's history to explain why the character would possess a single item from their mysterious past. The story must be dark and tragic, and the GM gets final say.