Let's Make a Character To Investigate 19th Century Nordic Mysteries in Vaesen
Breaking down the Character Creation Process in Free League's TTRPG
“I have spent my years bowing and scraping in the grand houses of the elite, yet I have perceived what the high-born choose to ignore—the restless, invisible things that snatch children from the fields and leave our livestock mangled in their stalls. It is no longer enough to merely appease them with bowls of porridge or trinkets, for the ancient covenant is broken, and the vaesen have turned aggressive and bloodthirsty in this changing age of steam and iron. We must take the fight, identifying their hidden weaknesses to drive them back before eternal damnation consumes the shining light of our dawning civilisation.”
from the diary of Elias Nyberg, October 6th 1857
Welcome back to my series on Free League Publishing Nordic Horror TTRPG, Vaesen.
I’ll throw links to my previous Vaesen posts down at the bottom of this post, but I want to jump straight into character creation for today’s instalment.
As I hinted in a note published yesterday (January 9th), I was attracted to the Servant archetype in the core rules, and we’ll make “that guy” as we discuss how Vaesen characters are made. Here is the character creation “loop” from the rule book:
It looks more complicated than it actually is! Stick with me…
Choosing an archetype is the necessary first step in creating a Vaesen character, and the core book lists ten: Academic, Doctor, Hunter, Occultist, Officer, Priest, Private Detective, Vagabond, and Writer, alongside our pre-selected Servant.
I’ve decided to pilot a party of three through the Mythic North, so I’ll need to pick two more archetypes later, but we’ll focus on our titular butler, Elias Nyberg (as I decided to name him), first.
We have an archetype and a name, which leaves us with an age to complete the initial setup. This isn’t simply window dressing for role-play purposes. In Vaesen, the age band selected determines the number of skill and attribute points available to us.
In an interesting rules mechanic, an older character has more skill points (reflecting their life experience) but fewer attributes (as they decline physically). Conversely, younger characters have fewer skill points but more attribute points (which plays into their youthful vigour mixed with inexperience in life’s challenges)
I decide I want my Servant to be older—perhaps around 55. He will have 13 attribute points and 14 skill points. For comparison, if he’d been, say, 23, he would have started with 15 attribute points—but only 10 skill points.
It’s the first time I’ve encountered a mechanic like this, and I LOVE it!
Distributing Skills and Attributes
Ok, now we know how many points we have to spend, let’s start distributing them to build up our Servant character…
Vaesen has four attributes: Physique, Precision, Logic and Empathy. They must range between two and five. One key attribute can be at 5; the other three must land between 2 and 4.
OK. So I see Elias as a muscular, physically assertive man (we’ll come to the backstory later), so let’s make Physique into his key attribute at 5. The other three attributes must have at least two points, so that brings us to 11. That leaves two more points to distribute! I see Elias as more of a “punch first, ask questions later” kinda guy, so we’ll leave Empathy aside and place a point each in Precision and Logic.
Next, we have 14 skill points to start with (we gain more through experience as we adventure) to share among the twelve skills in the game. Skills can range from 0 to 5; we start with one key skill at 3, and any others must be 0, 1, or 2.
There are 4 skills linked to each attribute—so, for example, Agility, Close Combat and Force all flow from the Physique attribute. I can’t see anything in the rules limiting me to choosing skills that flow from my key attribute, but it makes thematic sense that—in our example—a physical character will be good at close combat.
It also plays into the dice mechanic at the heart of Vaesen. When doing stuff, we add the relevant attribute and skill, and that number makes up our dice pool. So, as an example, a Physique Attribute of five and a Force Skill of three would give us a dice pool of EIGHT d6s with which to attempt a task requiring physical force. For most tasks, we only need to roll one six to pass that test, meaning that a dice pool of eight gives us a VERY high chance of a pass!
I want my characters to be masters of their craft rather than a jack-of-all-trades, so I’m going to focus my skill points in Agility, Close Combat and Force. After a bit of thought, this is my stat distribution:
ATTRIBUTES
Physique = 5
Precision = 3
Logic = 3
Empathy = 2
SKILLS
Agility = 2
Close Combat = 2
Force = 3
Ranged Combat = 2
Investigation = 2
Vigilance = 2
Learning = 1
Rounding out the Character
Next, we must choose a “Talent” for Elias. Talents are little traits and quirks that add bonuses to skill and Fear tests. We have THREE to select from for our chosen archetype. It’s hard to know which would be most useful before we start playing the game, but after a few minutes thought, I plump for Loyal—which gives me +2 bonus on Fear Tests against anyone I have sworn to protect.
We have more things to choose from now as part of our archetype choice. We need to decide on Motivation, Trauma and Dark Secret, which we can choose from suggestions in the core book or make up our own.
I think it will be more fun to make up our own 😛
MOTIVATION: Seeking the “Master’s Secret
Elias is convinced that his employer (or the Society) holds the key to a specific supernatural event from his own past. He stays close, protects him, and investigates Vaesen only to find the one piece of information he’s missing.
“I will follow you into the mouth of the Forest King, sir—provided you finally tell me what happened to my brother in 1842.”
TRAUMA: The Reflection
During a previous investigation, Elias caught a glimpse of his Master performing a ritual or interacting with a Vaesen through an antique silver mirror. Somehow, this altered Elias’ grip on reality, and he can no longer see his own face in mirrors. Where his reflection should be, there is only a blurry, grey smudge—or worse…
“Sir, don’t ask me to look into that mirror over there. There are some things which ought not to be glimpsed. I will not look, and you can’t make me…”
DARK SECRET: The Fateful Trade
Elias discovered years ago that his younger brother was taken by the Vaesen. He suspects his Master “sold” him to the Vaesen in exchange for his life. Elias is searching for evidence that the Master conducted this exchange and intends to murder him if he ever can prove it.
“My brother was not simply another victim of the vaesen. No, there is more to this. Of that I am certain. And I will kill the person who sold my brother’s soul as a ransom…”
The Finishing Touches
We’ll skip the next part of the Character Creation—defining our relationship with the other PCs, as that only makes sense once we have our three characters.
But we can roll for a Memento, and we have a table for it in the rulebook. We haven’t rolled any dice yet in this process, so we’ll grab a couple of d6s for this d66 table…
It’s 45, and that’s a “Musical box from your childhood”…Oooh, I like that! Will it soothe or disturb Elias? I guess we’ll find out…
Elias has started with equipment befitting a loyal but “hard man” servant—a revolver, a hurricane lamp, a field kitchen, and a few simple bandages.
We also have to pick our “resources level” on a sliding scale of 1 (destitute) to 7 (filthy rich). A servant can fall between 2 and 4 on this scale, and I decided on 2 for Elias. The reason he is a servant is precisely that he lives a modest life with an income which barely covers his basic needs. He holds no property or savings, and loss of his pitiful income would actually leave him destitute!
OK, I like to keep my Substack posts under 8 minutes, so I’ll wrap this one up here and hit the “publish” button. I’ll come back tomorrow with a “potted” version of my other two characters and discuss their (hopefully) intriguing relationships with one another. See you then…
Very good to meet Elias! I'm eager to see what he comes up against!
Elias sounds awesome! Looking forward to meeting the rest of the party.