Reverse Lifepaths: How to Create a Character Backwards

The vaishineph player characters in The Way of the Earth are created in a very similar way to characters in other role-playing games. Players roll for their character's attributes, make choices about their kind, class, and abilities, and then furnish their characters with a starting set of equipment. One major differences about characters in The Way of the Earth is that a character's background and personal history is not fleshed out during character creation. These elements, as crucial as they are, are left vague to begin with. This is because the vaishineph characters themselves remember little of their former lives upon being resurrected by their aihalan. They lived lives prior to their death and resurrection, but aside from some lingering emotions, and broken bits of memory, they have no access to that part. Access comes eventually though. As the player characters adventure through the world of Chaesharin and increase in experience, they gradually unlock more and more of these crucial memories, and with the memories comes more knowledge of who the character was in the past and how this might shape their future aspirations, as well as more power and skill in the present.

As a role-playing game player and now designer, I was very affected by the Burning Wheel's lifepath system. In Burning Wheel, players create well developed histories for their characters by going through a series of major events, professions, and journeys in their character's past. All of these things contribute to the player character's starting skills and abilities, and gives them a well defined identity for when the player begins the game with them. 

In a way, The Way of the Earth is like Burning Wheel's lifepath system in reverse. When a character is created, their entire past is defined by a few elements. They have a class, which represents the profession they had in their mortal lives. They have a single key memory, which is their first major clue as to what the character desires atonement for. And they have a writhing, which is a prejudice so deeply ingrained into their bones that not even death and resurrection could get rid of it. Along with a astrological sign, that describes the fundamentals of the character's personality, these are the only pieces of the puzzle that player characters begin The Way of the Earth with. But each time a character levels up, not only are their mechanical aspects improved (better attributes, more skills and abilities, etc.) but they gain a new piece of their character's puzzle. For the first five levels of a character's progression, these puzzle pieces are additional key memories. When put together, these key memories explain what tragedy or horror in the character's life they desire to atone for and who is ultimately responsible for their death. As characters continue to level up from levels six through ten, they unlock the pieces of the character's unique Axis of Atonement, which is the character arc they will take to atone for their mortal lives, find justice, and make peace with what happened to them.

Leveling up in The Way of the Earth then is about more than increasing numbers and increasing power. Although this happens, leveling up is more profoundly about learning more about a character's past, and how that past sets the path towards the future. Since these puzzle pieces only fall into place over time, as the characters progress, it provides unique opportunities for story-telling. Player characters can discover that allies in their present lives were enemies in their past mortal lives, or the other way around. Player characters can come to find that they knew each other in their former lives, and perhaps had relationships with one another before. Player characters can fit newly encountered NPCs into their histories, or incorporate present events into their past. Since the histories are created retrospectively, they are free to playfully incorporate all of these elements and more.

I'm hoping that allowing player character pasts to be fluid things provides players with a unique opportunity for story-telling.

- ABH