The Player Character Binder

 

The Player Character Binder

The Player Character that is built from ADD&D 2^nd Edition Tools that have been Augmented and customized with a greater level of detail and control in mind for the Player, requires much more than just a double sided sheet of paper.  This post is meant to help walk a new player through helpful organization for their Character.

The Binder should have the following sections in whatever order makes sense to the Player.

·         Character Artwork/Inspiration.  This can be Hole Punched Clear Sleeves and color printouts, some of which will be provided by the DM.  It can be the inside pocket of the Cover, or you can just hole punch things you have printed that give you the emotion and connection to your character that is vital for unforgettable roleplaying.

·         Character Background.  This is the story of your life that you lived prior to the “First Day” that the Player and the Character are united in game.  It will be typed by the DM and will contain info you may want or need to refer back to, although most of the info in the back ground will find its way into the other pertinent areas of your Character Binder.

·         Non Weapon Proficiencies.   This section will have everything you need to know about your character’s skills, what rank they are, your checks, a description of the skill, which evolves through the life of your character, as well as notes on who taught you the skill etc.  Each NWP should have a dedicated third of a page, with the top line being reserved for the technical details of the skill.  The Northern Province Game System accommodates a healthy amount of NWP’s, with characters of 9^th level often having twenty plus proficiencies that have been learned to varying degrees of mastery.

·         Combat.  This section of the Binder should have all the physical attack methods detailed for your character.  This is separate from the actual physical weapons you may or may not have on your person, as that is covered elsewhere.  If you have a talent with Daggers, the Combat Statistics will be detailed here, regardless of whether or not you character has one on them.  No more than 5 weapons per page are advised as talents grow specifically in this game, for instance, after a night fight in a bar where you pulled a dagger out and survived, you now receive a +1 to hit and damage when Fighting in the dark with a dagger in close quarters.  You will need a place to track that, and it will be under your dagger section.

·         Magic Items.  This is where you will keep a record of the items of a magical nature that you have acquired.  What you find out about them and what they do will go here.  No more than 4 magic items per page is advised.

·         Equipment.  This will be where you have details on your equipment, for instance, when you ride your horse, what is stowed on your Pony, your horse or your person, and what you left at the Inn back in town, etc.  This is where the specifics of your articles are maintained for World Mechanics.  Your pages could be titled as follows; On Person in Dungeon.  On Horse when Traveling.  When camping.  Kept in locker at Freeblades Guild.  Loaned to the Dwarf.  The DM may at any time ask for you character Equipment sheets, and use it to determine what a thief steels, or what get eaten by the dragon or what falls off the cliff, so maintain the Equipment section of your binder throughout the Game.  This section has the opportunity to grow as you gain hideouts, strongholds or powerful friends who will safeguard some of the magic items you do not want to carry around with you.  You may also have investments, and those can be recorded here.

·         Languages.  This is an important section, as by the time you are 9^th level, you may speak 10 languages, and be able to communicate in three different forms of somatic languages, you also may know how to read and write some of those and to varying degrees.

·         Saves and Checks.  Throughout the game, saving throws are made and ability checks are rolled.  A great amount of detail is built upon these things.  For instance, you will need to keep track of markers on your Riding Land Based so you can get over the bad fall you took on a horse and be able to ride without penalty again.  You will need to write down the requirements for the different checks you need to make like, Horror Checks, Perception Checks, You need your Intuition stat, and a list of others and it is good to have these items well in hand, and to update them on the regular as things change and the campaign progresses and you gain penalties and bonuses to these rolls.

·         Henchmen and Hirelings.  While the Monster Librarian may have the master list of NPC’s in the gameworld, you are required to have a significant amount of detail around your Henchmen and Hireling NPC’s although the DM controls them.  Here is where you will list your caravans or mines you own or have interests in.

·         Titles, Offices, Permissions, Pacts, Oaths and Agreements.   This section will contain details around things granted to you in the game world, for instance the Lord of Anvil Gap has granted you permission to hunt in his woods.  The Coldwater Guard in Brighten will let you stay in their lodge for free when you’re in Brighton, but you have to pay for stabling your animals and you have to ride out with the guard if asked.  You also have the title of Warden given to you by the Sage Lerian.  This affords you privileges in the Kingdom and with the sages guild and you have those details recorded there.  This is also where you will detail your Membership to the Freeblades Guild and what you are able to do, what you have access to, etc.

·         Home.  For most characters this starts as your bunk on a ship, or your camp when its set up, or the room you have paid for at the Inn.  Details there should be listed as Typical, what and where things Typically are.  Do you have a chest, is it lockable? what’s in it, etc.  This will evolve into details about your Home, your Lodge in the Hinterlands, the bandit hideout you have taken over, the ruined castle your renovating, etc

·           Questions.  This should just be a few pages to write questions down.  Just Questions the PC has.

·           Persons of Interest.  This should be the PC’s personal record of people in certain places that the Character has an interest in keeping a record of, like a blacksmith at a backwater village and notes on disposition or prices.

·           Notes.  This is just where the Player can jot their thoughts or concerns or goals, to keep them all in one place.  Each game should start a new date.

·           Calendar.  It is possible that three charaters will have three different Calendars.  A Dwarven PC if they were raised formally, follows the Dimeronagon, a Numeric Long count that utilizes Star locations and ignores the sun and moon cycles completely.  The Dwarven calendar is not linear, and days are not as important to them as years and lineage.  Elves of the Great Houses and Humans have very similar calendars, both utilizing, Sun, and the year, whereas elves incorporate the moon and the idea of Astrological Houses of Long Time, and it incorporates Ages, where the Human calendar begins when John landed at Kias 3,084 years ago, and they mark early fall as the First Day.  Kords have a Lunar Calendar, and while they count seasons, they do not count years, and value little in the past.       

Pages and sections will be added through gameplay and you will find yourself evolving these layouts and rewriting or correcting them often throughout the game and the life of your character.