General Advice

Here are some suggestions to help you and your group create your characters.

Avoid the one trick pony.

While it may seem cool to be a Master of everything, you may find that the smaller number of skills and effects that your character can generate to be limiting and less fun. By choosing to not be a master of all your skill, you give room for your character to learn them in story, developing as they learn their place in the world.

• I would suggest a distribution such as 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1 milestones in an array of skills. This gives your character a strong ability to draw upon or help define their role and several options.
• Make sure to choose some Aspect(s) or skill(s) that have direct non-combat uses.  In most campaigns there are many opportunities or requirements to solve problems without violence.  In addition, taking these types of skills, with a mind for the campaign you are playing in, often lead to rich and surprising results and roleplaying opportunities.  Give your Story Guide a chance to say YES! to your resourcefulness.

Spend those milestones.

When you gain milestones use them. You will get more! Leaving unspent milestones is a form of reverse cheating (hamstringing your own abilities). Another form of this is choosing skills that will not be useful given their general circumstances.  Every choice does not need to be optimized. However, it is rarely fun to have skills that your character will not or cannot use.
For example, it is not advisable to make your passivist character a Master of Great Weapon Style with a Master of Damage. This is what Aspects and character histories are for! If you really wanted to have that in your back pocket, you might want to speak to the Story Guide, keep enough Minor Milestones available to swap some designated skills and change an Aspect when it is dramatically appropriate to do so.

Embrace the world.

Some people like to plan their character’s progression from start to finish. That is certainly valid. I would suggest leaving room to adapt to the other characters, the story, and the world. Your character is much more than stats.

Make everyone shine.

Don’t make choices that overshadow or diminish other players and characters. Let everyone have their own time in the spotlight and that includes choosing skills and Aspects. Diversity in Ancestries, Skills, and Aspects helps to give everyone a more defined role. This does not mean that you cannot duplicate certain choices. It does mean that you should take the time to make sure that each character has their own unique contributions.