character creation
Dawnstone is a collaborative, high transparency larp, which means we’ll be creating our characters together, out in the open, with input from one another.
It’s also a costumed larp, which means people need plenty of warning to put together their look before the event, so we’ll be making them online beforehand.
In order to ensure that everyone gets a character they like, that everyone gets plenty of help from other people in finding interesting directions to take their character, and that they don’t all reflect the creativity of just a small handful of writers, we’ll be using a round robin system that encourages everyone to take part.
WHO THE CHARACTERS ARE
You'll be playing the luminaries of this world, those who would have some claim or reason to be in the great hall of Castle Iriya on the night before the Stormsworn attack.
You might be royals or nobles, watching your world fall apart around you. You might be scholars who think they have some insight into how to save everything, or generals readying your troops to repel an unbeatable foe. You might be the heroes who quested for the Dawnstone and brought it back in the hope that it would save you. Whoever you are, both your past and your future are tied irrevocably to the fate of the world.
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You'll represent all four nations, the Steppes, the Mirror Sea states, Andar, and Iriya, and how you got here is up to you. Old political quarrels are far from forgotten, but the Iriyans have opened their doors to anyone who can help the free peoples survive the night.
Your characters should have a reason to want to win, or at least a clear way to bring them round to the cause of survival. They can be personally and politically powerful, including having old magic in their blood, though any magical abilities should be relatively minor and specific. And they should be nuanced, well-rounded individuals, or have plenty of opportunity for other players to add nuance during character creation.
HOW CHARACTER CREATION WORKS
STEP 1
Everyone is sent a Google doc that only they and the larp team have access to. The doc will contain a template that shows what the character sheet will look like when the whole thing is complete, with a few pieces highlighted to be filled in:
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The character overview, a 200-word summary of who you’d like to play in the game
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Space to indicate what you'd like to play on, and what you'd like to avoid
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The madlib, a set of standard statements with blanks that you’ll fill in with one word answers in order to guide other people who write for your character
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The chance to ask a specific question for another player to answer to bring variety to your central character concept
STEP 2
The larp team will review all of the character summaries and get in touch with any players whose ideas contain conflicting information. As much as possible, we’ll try to negotiate a way that everyone can have what they want, so if two people ask to be Queen of Iriya we might suggest they be sisters who rule jointly, or the queen and her vizier who rules from the shadows. We’ll help edit any summaries that need tweaking so they’re ready to share.
STEP 3
Once all the character concepts are aligned, they’ll be opened up. All the players will be able to see all the characters and start to get an idea of what the game will be like.
STEP 4
Here’s where the round robin structure comes in. Each player will be assigned two other player’s character sheets and will be asked to describe a relationship between their character and those ones, using the character concepts and madlib answers as guidance and inspiration. Each one will be a maximum of 200 words, and everyone will have a two weeks to write their piece.
STEP 5
If any player can’t write their entry in time, the larp team or a volunteer from among the players will step in to make sure no one’s left out.
STEP 6
Next, each player will have a week to edit what was written on their character sheet. They can make big changes or small ones, working together with the person who wrote the relationships, with absolutely no judgement on the changes they’ve made.
STEP 7
Repeat! Everyone will be assigned more character sheets to write for that are different from the first two, and will be given time to write additional sections, until each character sheet contains two relationships, the character's greatest hope and fear, a vignette of their defining moment, and an answer to the question that was posed during initial character creation.
STEP 8
Finally, when all the sections on the character sheet have been filled in, players will be asked to go back to their own character sheets and join the dots, adding the final touches to turn their character sheet into a finished description of someone they want to play.
Then it’s done! There will be some relationships written into the characters during the round robin, and more will be formed during the workshops on the day of the larp, but players are absolutely free to talk to one another and build more ahead of time if they want to.
GETTING THE PERFECT CHARACTER
The aim of this system is to give everyone a chance to get inspiration and cool material from other players, not to leave anyone playing something they’re in any way uncomfortable with. Any player who’s not 100 percent excited by their character is encouraged to make changes or ask for help, no matter what stage of the process we’re at, and any player who sees things they’ve written being edited can be reassured that it is no reflection on them, just that their vision might not have matched another player’s.
If there’s anyone you particularly want or don’t want to be involved in writing your character sheet, you’ll have the opportunity to let us know.
Any players joining later than the round robin start date will be fast tracked to the point where they can join in, with the help of volunteers from the player base who are willing to give their time for a little extra writing.