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Emergent Characters is available free of charge, but if you wish to support my efforts, consider donating when downloading this supplement and encourage me to make more things in the future!

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FLEXIBLE CHARACTER WORKSHEETS

Emergent Characters presents an alternative way of conceptualizing tabletop RPG characters, focusing on concise details that are relevant to both the player and the GM. These push to the foreground the facets of your character that influences their interactions with the world, as well as the quirks in how they do so.

The worksheet included is designed for players to fill in and hand to GMs. Instead of written backstories, this allows GMs a focused look at the characters, and allows players to leave blank spaces for improvisation!

FANTASY CHARACTER GENERATION

The system also includes a set of tables that can be used to generate worksheet-ready characters! This is intended to inspire creativity, form characters quickly, and push players outside of their comfort zone. The level of magic and mystery within the setting can be quickly accounted for through adjustments to a few dice rolls!

The character generator will tell you key facts about your character that will be relevant for their interactions with the world, and their reason for adventure. It also gives guidance on the kinds of immediately noticeable traits that help define the character's personality.

The GM can guide their player in how to use these tables, or whether to use them at all, giving them a chance to guide players in the right direction for the setting and game!

CHARACTERIZATION FIRST

It's all too easy to come up with an interesting character idea yet struggle to find an immediate way to engage with other characters or the story as a whole. Emergent Characters claims that placing the engaging things first and having story details be filled in later makes for a more engaging, flexible, and easier way to form characters.

As key facts are placed before pen hits paper on a cohesive character concept, Emergent Characters encourages players to work backwards from the facts that matter most for the game, rather than the other way around. 

Emergent Characters ensures all player characters have some ties to the world, interesting tools to leverage, and immediately visible hooks to show some of their character and personality!

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LICENSE

This work is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, found here. 

This means you can incorporate elements of Emergent Characters into any work you wish, even commercial ones, so long as you give attribution. Sending me messages / comments of using the system in another work is not needed but is appreciated, as is if you simply used the system and want to recount your experiences!