Non-human Characters

When creating a non-human character, it is important to work out where they have come from. By default, a non-human character will have been created by a harbinger of the consensus putting a soul into a body. That body will either be a naturally occurring one (such as an animal's body) or one which has been created (by magic or artifice).

Commonly characters created by lone wayfinders will have an animal's body, characters created by the Clockmaker's guild (in conjunction with the Wayfinder's Guild) will be Clockwork Automatons, and characters created by “The Arche-Mage” will be Paper Golems.

Because the process of creating a soul results in that soul being (initially) predisposed towards its creator, you should know who created you and what your relationship with them is.

• You may only have one active non-human player character at any one time. This represents the exceptional rarity of new non-human sentients.
• A character initially created as a normal human will never count as non-human for the purpose of the above rule - no matter how far from normal they end up in play. Bizarre bodily alterations are an occupational hazard/perk for experienced adventurers.
• You must pick at least one, and up to two, quirks from the list below, which modify some aspects of your character's abilities. These represent the way in which your character's nature gives them advantages and disadvantages.
• You must provide some background information about your character according the “Back-story” rules below.

• When you start playing a non-human PC (at the latest, before the second time you play them, preferably before the first), you need to send a short backstory to the LARPO explaining how you came to be sentient/came into existence.
• The minimum requirement of this is that it should include a description of your nature, and either an explicit, named NPC/PC who created you, or a broad strokes description of their nature and capabilities if there is some mystery as to your origin.
• If you were created by an NPC, please bear in mind creating non-human characters represents the deployment of world-shaking metaphysical power or considerable resources.
• PCs are more likely to have access to this level of power than NPCs. If the actions of a PC lead to the creation of a non-human character on a LARP, you may stat them up as a PC with the permission of that player and the LARPO.
• Below, we list some of the known NPCs capable of creating non-human characters. Please consider, if you wish to create a non-human character, whether one of the existing NPCs would be a suitable source before creating a new one.
• If you create a new NPC, we are likely to add them to the list in some form. If they are a known figure, this may be a full description. If they are shrouded in mystery, a more broad-strokes description may be used - but if you were created by a mysterious, enigmatic and masked figure for an unknown purpose, it's quite possible they created others too!

• Please consider all the guidelines in the back-story section when planning the use of a non-human sentient as a villain or character in a LARP.
• Bear in mind that if the creator of the non-human sentient is going to appear, they should be of either equivalent power level to a fifth level player character, or be among the very highest echelons of resource-rich organisations in the city.
• Given the cost or power involved in the creation of a non-human sentient, it’s unlikely to be something done entirely on a whim - most (though not all) such creations have a clear purpose in mind. Occasionally, those coming into the power try out a few less purposeful experiments before realising the gravity of their abilities, but this is not the norm.
• If you are concerned that a non-human sentient you are planning to use does not fit the above guidelines, look at whether the role could be filled by one of the other classes of metaphysical oddity the setting contains - foreign religious practices and powerful anomalies can often cover many of the same bases, while more esoteric non-sentients might bear similarities to the machinations of the Dragons or their servants.

The Tough skill provides you with 3 hits rather than 2. You can never gain either dodges or resists. When in areas designed for human use (e.g., buildings) your movement is likely to be restricted and the GM can provide additional rules to simulate this, by default you are only able to move at a slow walk when in restrictive terrain.

You have 3 base hits, and a dodge. When purchasing the Tough skill, you gain an additional dodge instead of additional body hits. You may additionally use your dodges to “roll” with ranged effects, taking the effect component but ignoring the damage component.

You start with three body hits and two armour hits. The tough skill gives you additional armour hits. You can choose if your armour is natural (in which case it is effected by HEAL and vulnerable to poisons) or artificial (in which case it is effected by RENEW and is immune to most poisons).

All your body hits are armour hits. How this interacts with poisons is up to the GM. HEAL calls have no effect on you. You count as light armour for the purposes of repairing, unless you have either of the skills medium armour use or heavy armour use, in which case you count as the appropriate armour type. You gain any hits and effects provided by your armour skill, but cannot gain any benefit from wearing armour. Additionally, you should take a shatter which hits your body as a QUAD.

You may find that you are immune to some poisons and diseases which require an organic base to affect, usually if these are potent enough to have an immediate effect on someone organic they will still have some sort of effect on you in the short term (you do not call resist to poison).

You do not gain beneficial effects from alchemy. You cannot suffer addiction to alchemy. You may choose a proportion of your income to represent an 'energy pool' which you can use to purchase alchemy like effects (for example a paper golem may have paper talismans), these can only be activated by the character (they cannot be activated on behalf of the character). These still count as potions for the purpose of how many potions you can carry.

You may find that you are immune to some poisons and diseases which require a hereditary connection to the Primals to affect, usually if these are potent enough to have an immediate effect on someone they will still have some sort of effect on you in the short term (you do not call resist to poison).

You are not your own master. You gain the effects of the contacts skill with regards to your owner's organisation. Any money you make is claimed by your owner, and access to it is dependant on how pleased your owner is with you (the gm may choose a short roleplay encounter to determine how much of your funds you can access, especially if your last adventure did not produce a profit).

What sits at the end of your limbs is not as dexterous as human hands, you are unable to wield weapons or perform fine manipulation. Your limbs count as one specific type of superior weapon, you should use an appropriate weapon phys-rep for this purpose. You cannot wield weapons or gain any benefit from them. If your limb (weapon phys-rep) is struck with a DISARM then you should take a WOUND 5, if struck with SHATTER then you should instead take a WOUND 30.

You may still use medical or crafting skills, but how you do this should be integral to the character (for example, you may be a Clockwork Golem who has medical tools in place of their hands).

• Paper Golem - inorganic, non-primal blood.
• Clockwork Golem - armoured, owned.
• Cat - unusually small, no hands.

Powerful miracles granted by the Tender can move souls into new bodies. Any non-human created by this route will almost certainly:

• Have once been human.
• Have an organic current body.

It is plausible that foreign or nascent gods of similar purview might be able to achieve something similar.