Barbarians of Lemuria: Creating a Character (Step by Step)

Today, I decided to try actually creating a character for Barbarians of Lemuria from Beyond Belief Games.

The first step is to select the character's attribute ratings.  There are four attributes:

Strength - Physical strength and toughness
Agility - Speed and coordination
Mind - Intellect and knowledge
Appeal - Looks, persuasiveness, and likeability

The player has 4 points to spend on these attributes, but no attribute may start higher than 3. A 0 in an attribute is considered to be average, and if the player wishes, one attribute may be reduced to -1 to get an extra point to be allocated to another attribute.

I decided to create Korgrym the Unrelenting, a mighty-thewed barbarian hero, so I focused on Strength and Agility.  I decided to buy my Mind score back to -1 because I didn't envision Korgrym as a particularly bright fellow.  Thus, his starting attributes were as follows:

Strength: 3
Agility:   2
Mind:     -1
Appeal:   0

Next, it was time to choose Korgrym's combat abilities.  The process is very much the same as attribute selection.  There are four combat abilities:

Brawl
Melee
Ranged
Defense

Again, the player has 4 points to spend, with a maximum score of 3 in any on ability and only one ability permitted to be reduced to -1.  I saw Korgrym as a sword and axe fighting kind of guy who wasn't very good with bows, so I decided to go with the following:

Brawl:     1
Melee:     3
Ranged: -1
Defense:  1

Next, it was time to select Korgrym's careers.  Careers in barbarians of Lemuria are what provide characters with their skills.  There are no skill lists, but chosen careers are intended to give guidelines as to what the character is able to do.  Each character has 4 points to spend on 4 skills.  As with attributes and combat abilities, the maximum is 3, but unlike previously, carers cannot be bought down to -1.  The minimum for each career is 0.

I decided that Korgym began life as a youth in the barbarian wastelands, but longed for adventure and set out for civilization.  Upon reaching civilization, he took up as a mercenary, but grew weary of military discipline and drifted into thievery.  After being arrested for thievery, he was forced to fight in the gladiator pits from which he has only recently escaped.

Korgrym's careers are as follows:

Barbarian   2
Mercenary  1
Thief            0
Gladiator    1

Korgrym's Lifeblood score, which is how much damage her can take, is 10 plus his Strength, in this case 13.

Next, it was time to choose Korgrym's origin.  I decided that he would be a Valgardian, just like good old Thongor for those Lin Carter fans out there.  The character's origin allows him to choose one boon, or two boons if he also takes a flaw.  I decided that Korgrym was hardy and took Quick Recovery, which allows him to recover an additional Lifeblood point  after combat.  I decided that he was also the master of the Valgardian Broadsword, and took the Valgardian Blade boon.  Having taken two boons, Korgrym was now required to take a a flaw.  I chose Illiterate, as it seemed to be keeping with my dumb barbarian theme.

Normally characters begin with 5 Hero Points, but as Korgrym chose an extra starting boon, he only got 3.  Hero points allow the character to dig deep within themselves when the chips are down.

For equipment, I chose a Battle Harness and a Helmet (Light Armor), along with a Valgardian Broadsword and a dagger.  I was ready for adventure!

Here is Korgrym the Unrelenting's character sheet:

Powers & Perils

Back around 1984, I picked up this little gem, Powers & Perils from Avalon Hill.  It was poorly organized, and deadly dull to read, but it did have a cool box cover.  In all the intervening years, I never played the game.  I never even made a character, as I was convinced that it wasn't possible.  But recently, I've decided that any roleplaying game that I own and have never even created a character for must be disposed of.  I've just got too much crap., but for some odd reason, I can't let go of this game.  Maybe it's the fact that it was part of my childhood, maybe it's the artwork, or maybe it's just because it has a box.  I'm a sucker for boxed RPGs.  So I set off to create a character for it.

It was a trip.  The rulebook is filled with abbreviations and formulas that made me feel like I was reading my college calculus book, but I got though it and rolled up Goram the Grim.  He's a fighter of sorts.

I can't say that it was fun, but it was certainly interesting, and surprisingly not as complicated as I had believed.  Oh, sure, there was a lot of math, and I made a few mistakes, as the scratched out numbers on the character sheet show, but it wasn't THAT bad.  All in all, it left me with a slight feeling of accomplishment.  If you are interested in learning more about Powers & Perils, I would direct you to this website.  Everything you could ever want to know is there.

For those of you who are really interested, here is the scratch paper I used in this endeavor.