The Dreaming Awake tabletop game is based heavily on White Wolf’s New World of Darkness (‘nWoD’) system. The following character creation guidelines assume that the player is familiar with nWoD. In the future, a version that assumes no prior knowledge may get written.
Stuff at the Top
Fill in your character’s name and brief concept, followed by a Virtue and a Vice. These need not necessarily be from the nWoD list, but must describe a good and a bad aspect to your character’s personality.
Attributes
Your character initially has 1 dot in each attribute. You have 5, 4 and 3 more dots to add in the three groups — Mental, Physical and Social, in any order.
You may not increase any one Attribute above 4 dots.
Skills
Your character does not initially have dots in any skills. Similarly to attributes, you have 11, 7 and 4 dots to add in the three groups — again, the order is your choice. Buying a skill up to the fifth dot costs an extra point (i.e. 6 total).
There are some changes to the skills from nWoD to reflect the unmodernised world of Avalon. The physical skills Drive and Firearms have been replaced by Ride and Archery respectively. The mental skill Computer has been replaced by Culture.
You may add a speciality in up to 3 skills. This is a particular subset of a skill, for example Weaponry (Spears) or Occult (Demonology). These will give an extra bonus when using that speciality.
Merits
This section is for extra facilities your character has at her disposal — for example Allies, Resources, martial arts training or a photographic memory. Basic ones are in the core nWoD book, though there are some in the other nWoD game books that the GM may also allow. Merits that are exclusive to the modern world — for example those that involve computers, or guns — are not allowed.
You can also invent your own merits, which will have a cost in dots and an effect agreed during character generation between the player and the GM.
You have 7 dots to allocate to merits (more if you chose one or more flaws).
Imagery
This is a new section specifically for Dreaming Awake. Characters will have certain material or abstract concepts with which they associate themselves particularly well, such as ‘Winter’, ‘Fire’ or ‘Envy’. These should be recorded here. A starting character may have a maximum of three such concepts, with one dot in each. They should be agreed with the GM during character creation. These will have an impact on the game, as a character performing an action involving her imagery in some manner will receive extra dice.
Flaws / Derangements
Flaws are essentially inverse merits. Choosing one is not compulsory. Flaws free up points which can be spent on other things, for example Merits. As with Merits, many Flaws are detailed in the nWoD books.
Derangements are the side-effect of losing points in the Morality stat, which here is called Sanity. They are recorded in the Flaws section merely to save space on the character sheet. Your character does not have any derangements at the start of the game.
Defence/Size/etc.
These are calculated stats that help the game run more smoothly.
Size: 5 for adult humans, adjust accordingly
Speed: Strength + Dexterity + 5
Initiative Mod: Dexterity + Composure
Defence: Lowest of Dexterity and Wits
Armour: This depends on your Equipment (see later).
Health
Your maximum Health is calculated as Stamina + Size. Record this in the circles, leaving the square boxes blank to record damage.
The box to the right records health levels over and above the normal 10. This box should be ignored at character creation.
Willpower
Your maximum Willpower is calculated as Resolve + Composure. Record this in the circles, leaving the square boxes blank to record usage.
The box to the right records willpower levels over and above the normal 10. This box should be ignored at character creation.
Sanity
As previously mentioned, Sanity is the equivalent of the Morality stat in vanilla nWoD. Each character starts the game with 7 Sanity.
Fame
Fame is the core mechanic of Dreaming Awake. What your character is famous for, and how famous she is, will greatly affect what she is capable of.
There are several spaces for entering Fame, but a starting character may only have a single dot in one Fame. This is a quality or ability that the character is famous for. There is no set list, and all Fames should be agreed with the GM during character creation. Examples include ‘Expert Swordsman’, ‘Spirit Summonner’ and ‘Public Speaker’.
As your character begins with only one dot in their Fame, she is respected locally for their ability. However, her prowess is not exceptional, and news of her ability has not spread far from her home.
Your character’s Fames will have an effect on the game in a similar way to her Imagery, but the Fames will have a much greater effect.
The boxes to the right record Fame levels over and above the normal 10. These boxes should be ignored at character creation.
Shiny
Shininess is a measure of your character’s overall progression. This is the sum of the dots in all your character’s Fames, which for a starting character is 1. The characters’ Shiny level is closely tied in to the meta-plot of Dreaming Awake.
Experience
Record here any experience points awarded to your character that have not yet been used to improve her abilities.
Weapons
Record here any weapons your character begins the game with. Refer to the nWoD books for details. Weapons must be in-keeping with the setting.
Equipment
Record here any equipment that has an in-game effect on your character, such as armour. Refer to the nWoD books for details. Equipment must be in-keeping with the setting.