The campaign will use a variant on the DragonLance 5^th Age (DL5A) system. You will need to refer to the world handout during character generation as well.

As always, character generation will be rather give-and-take. I’d much rather you ended up with a character who’s fun to play than make sure you stick faithfully to the rules.

I have found that it is useful to be able to redesign the character’s stats a little bit into the campaign to suit the way he has evolved during the first couple of sessions of play. You therefore have my permission to jigger about with things on the character sheet for the first few sessions until you are happy. In particular, your character’s role and skills should be revised after a few sessions of play.

If you don’t like it (for example, it doesn’t suit the character you were thinking of), you can discard it and draw a new hand.

Choose a card to act for your character’s demeanour and nature as per DL5A.

In DL5A, you used a card to determine your character’s wealth and social status. If you don’t want you character to have any special abilities, just do this. Otherwise, make a random draw or assume your character is of moderate wealth, a commoner or tradesman and put a card into an area of special competence for your character. You can choose to be particularly good or particularly bad at the area and you can discuss with the GM exactly what area that is.

The following list of examples should give you some ideas. In general, you will need to play a seven or better to get reasonable benefits from the ability. If you play a 3 or lower you’ll have some serious handicap in that area.

The character has some knowledge of sorcery. His Reasoning stat will determine how many sorts of magic he can cast and his chance of casting it but his special ability card will determine how many spell points he has to spend (square the number).

The character is an initiate priest and member of a temple. His special ability card will be used to determine his position in the religious hierarchy- see the religion handout for more details.

A lucky character gets to change his hand "for free" once (7-8) or twice (9) or thrice(10) per session. A character with bad luck (1-3) can never change his hand, even with rest.

The character can understand and to some extent communicate with animals or plants. A low score might indicate that animals hate the character or that he is violently and possibly fatally allergic to certain plants, etc.

The character might be especially wealthy or impoverished regardless of his social standing.

The character has some position of power, despite his wealth or social status.

The character can regain one (7-8) two (9) or three (10) cards suffered as wounds after a few hours rest.

Normally a character will have just one auto-trump ability from his role. This character has one (7-8) two (9) or three (10) roles which he somehow manages to maintain simultaneously. He gets the auto-trump ability of all of them but also gets the never-trump penalties unless he can come up with a good reason why he should not.

The character has a skill that ranks amongst the best in the world. Any character might be a sculptor; a character with this special ability will be able to craft statues so beautiful and so emotionally charged as to reduce people to tears and cause minor wars over his works.

Please think up other special things for your character to have!

Allocate your remaining cards to your various stats as per DL5A. Remember that your reason and spirit scores are used to resolve spell casting but in order to be able to cast spells you must have some spell points as a special ability.

Some of these are a bit different from DL5A:

B All but very heavy shields

C Very Light, Light, Medium

D Light, Very Light shields

X Very Light shields only

A Any missile weapon

B All but very heavy missiles

C Very Light, Light, Medium

D Light, Very Light missiles

X Very light missiles only

B All but very heavy armour

C Very Light, Light, Medium

D Light, Very Light armour

X Very Light armour only

A Any weapon combo

B Two of 2h, 2 wpn, wpn/shield

C One of 2h, 2 wpn, wpn/shield

D Single handed weapons only

X Very light weapons only

The weapon combinations are two-handed, two weapons, weapon and shield. A character with a D code can’t use a shield as well as a weapon; characters with X can’t use any shield and are limited to very light melee weapons only.

Characters using two weapon combo can choose to attack twice per round by forgoing their defence, attack and defend using the damage of their on-hand weapon for their attack and using the damage of their off-hand weapon as defence, or fight purely defensively as per Heroes of Steel.

The GM will advise on what is reasonable for a character to use in a two weapon combo, depending on your character’s strength.

B Literate, two languages

C Literate, one language

D Illiterate, one language

X Illiterate, command of native

language is limited.

B 2 spheres

C 1 sphere

D 0 spheres

X 0 spheres

A Two acute senses

B One acute sense

C Normal senses

D One diminished sense

X Two diminished senses

own and other religions

B Very knowledgeable about

own religion, some knowledge

of others

C Familiar with own religion

D Knows few facts about own

religion

X totally ignorant about religion

B Can call on friendly gods

C Can call on own god

D Can call on one avatar only

X Unable to call on any god

The character’s spirit code indicates his knowledge of religious matters and creative ability and artistic skill. Characters with a spirit code of B or better may choose to be lay preachers of their religion. This gives an increased chance of being able to call upon their god. Any character with a code of C or better can call upon their god in extremis but it is easier for lay preachers and easier still for initiated priests. See the religion handout for more details.

A Excellent leadership skill

B Good leadership skill

C Average leadership skill

D Poor leadership skill

X No leadership skill

If you don’t quite meet the requirements for the race you want, the GM will let you swap a few details around. If you exceed the maximum, you should just reduce the stat or stat code. You can increase above the race maximums during play but if you want to start out above you should supply a story to explain how that came about.

Cannot have an endurance greater than 8. May add +1 to one mental stat and improve reason or spirit code by one.

Cannot have a reasoning greater than 8. As these plains nomads live in the saddle from an early age, they get an auto-trump when riding. However, as the nomad social code is rather simple, the never trump when faced with complex legal systems or other bureaucracies.

Cannot have a spirit of more than 7 or a sprit code better than B; will be illiterate regardless of reason code. These tribesman live on the savage and brutal edges of the settled world. Their lives are hard and usually short, so they must have strength and endurance of at least 4. They get auto-trump on all tasks purely related to survival- including taking damage in combat! This makes them extraordinarily difficult to kill.

The southern civilisations are already old and becoming decadent and the people from there are political animals. They must have a dexterity and reasoning of at least 4 but cannot have an endurance above 7. The get auto-trump on any action involving long-term planning or political corruption. However, they do not generally deal with surprises well and so never trump on any action involving instant reactions or improvised planning.

The plant-men of the Northern ice are both empathic and intelligent, requiring both reasoning and spirit of at least 5C. They can communicate empathetically with plants (the conversations tend to be rather slow as plants don’t think very fast). They auto-trump against cold based attacks but never-trump against heat or fire-based ones.

They don’t need to eat because they can photosynthesise and they can shapeshift between fully plant-like and fully humanoid shapes in a couple of rounds. In fully plant form they have a defence of +15; in the intermediate form they have +10 but never-trump on agility or dexterity and cannot use a shield or missile weapon. The transformation only affects the Pagoth’s flesh, although the Pagoth can envelop a small amount of material within his body (a couple of swords, for example). As a result they tend to be scantily clad.

The Kemes are four-armed fighting machines. They require a strength of at least 5B and an endurance of at least 5D. Because of their unique musculature, they cannot wear the heaviest armour (max. B code in endurance). They are also restricted to a B max. agility and dexterity code because they cannot co-ordinate the heaviest shields and weapons. They are also limited to a maximum of 7 in spirit and reasoning. Their immediate outlook makes it difficult for them to plan much in advance, they have no gift for it and get it as never-trump.

They get two attacks each round, which can increase to four if they use two two-weapon combos for all-out attack. Their tough skins give them a natural +3 defence, or +1 to any armour worn over the skin.

The slender Svika tend to physical fragility, with a maximum 7 strength and endurance. They can never-trump on actions requiring brute physical strength (melee attacks are an exception as their extra speed makes up for their smaller build).

However, they are fast and clever. They must have an agility, dexterity, reasoning and perception of at least 4. They get an auto-trump on any action requiring speed.

The uncouth Sathros are the bottom of the social heap in most societies and hence never-trump on presence actions. It would be rare for a Sathros to have great wealth or social status, so such an individual should have a story behind his success. They must have an agility, strength and endurance of at least 4 but cannot have a reasoning of more than 8 or a presence of more than 7.

You need to come up with your character’s role in consultation with the GM and decide on his auto-trump ability or abilities and his never-trumps and other disadvantages or restrictions. Normally, you will get auto-trump ability in one rather road area (like swordplay, thieving or illusions) and one never-trump in a similarly broad category. In certain instances it might be better to have three narrower areas to customise your character. (For example, the Solamnic Knights get autotrump when charging and when fighting Knights of Takhisis rather than just "when fighting"). If you want more detailed guidelines, look at the SAGA rules companion.

You should also choose some skills for your character- you get one per card you hold in your hand. Skills should be narrow and generally not combat orientated.

Example areas include: poetry, singing, sculpture, storytelling, music, carving, painting, calligraphy, map-making, jewellery, smithing, cookery, leather-working, wood-working, pottery, glass-working, etc..

The basic technology at the start of the campaign is bronze age, so the choice is rather restricted. 2h= two handed. *= throwable.

Knife * VL +1

Dagger * VL +2

Short Sword L +3

Scimitar M +4

Cosh/Sap VL +1

Stick VL +2

Bludgeon L +3

Cudgel L +4

Mitre M +5

Mace H +6

Adze VL +1

Hand Axe * VL +2

Sickle L +3

Scythe L +4

Pick M +5

Epsilon Axe H +6

Great Axe(2h) VH +7

Poleaxe(2h) VH +7

Staff L +3

Javelin * L +3

Dart * VL +2

Light Spear * M +4

Long Spear * H +5

Pike * VH +7

Self Bow L +2

Rider’s Bow M +4

Long Bow H +6

Great Bow VH +7

Blowgun VL +1

Sling L +2

Staff sling M +4

Padding VL -1

Hardened Linen L -2

Leather L -2

Cuir Bolli M -3

Thin Bronze Plate M -3

Scale H -4

Thick Bronze Plate H -4

Buckler VL -1

Small hide shield L -2

Large hide shield M -3

Small bronze shield M -3

Large bronze shield H -4

At this stage you can also outline a bit about the character’s life, what he might have on him on a typical day, what he’s doing for a living at the moment, how he knows the other characters... and his name!

Sorcerers must now choose their magical spheres- see separate sheet.

Priests must choose their god- see the world handout- and perhaps which avatar or aspect of their god is their personal patron.

Whenever you get a quest, you may try to improve one stat. Draw a card from the fate deck. If it exceeds the value of your stat, your stat improves by one. If the card is the nine of the correct suit, your stat code increases by one step.

The other way to increase your stat code is by training. In general the times required to improve by one step are as follows:

X to D 3 months

D to C 1 month

C to B 1 month

B to A 3 months

These times assume that the character is pursuing his training diligently. The time can be spread out if necessary but at least quarter of the time must be done as a solid block.

First aid can return a single card of wounds if successful.

Wounds heal naturally at the rate of one per week of rest; if the character is active he only recovers if a random draw from the fate deck is less than or equal to his endurance. If he is very active he cannot heal.

Note that magical healing is both rare AND TEMPORARY. Characters will of necessity have to rest and recover.

Combat is intentionally dangerous, so do everything you can to turn the odds in your favour. Fighting dirty is the only safe option!

As you may have spotted, most of the names in Ellenida are of Greek derivation. It would be nice if you could choose your character name to fit in with this. All characters have a true name but few who have any knowledge of sorcery choose to use this openly, so you might like to write down the character’s common name as well as his true name.

The main exception to the Greek pattern is sorcerers, whose secret languages resemble Latin. They often translate a common word or choose an obscure Latin phrase as the name by which they are known because they believe that having anyone know their true name is very dangerous.

The following languages are common in Ellenida:

Vorras – the common tongue of the Northern Pithekos cities.

Seenkeno – spoken by the outlander Pithekos tribes of the North.

KouKoun – the language of the Pagoth from the frozen north.

Leekeeo – the language of civilized peoples of the Southern valleys.

Sfodos – the language of the Svika.

Kemes – the language of the Kemes.

Prepon – the church language of the southern tribes, both city and nomadic.

Agrammos – the language of the nomadic tribes that follow Kavalaress the rider.

Ligua Immanis – the tongue of sorcerors, used to write magical tomes. It is also said that Lingua Immanis is related to the true language of demons

Ask the GM which languages your character is most likely to know.