Building up the background for a character is often times the most difficult part of the character creation process for new (or even experienced) players. More often than not the player will pick a standard archetype and end up with a fairly cookie-cutter character.

Considering the flexibility of the HERO System, this is rather unfortunate. To alleviate that problem and to give players (new and old) a chance to spice things up a bit I have created the following creation system. This system takes some caveats, however. The first is that it assumes that all characters come from the Igardian Confederacy, this will be added to as I expand the game world. Second, it presumes that the player has no problem with an absolutely random character creation process from birth to early adulthood.

The system itself is a highly modified form of what can be found in Central Casting: Heroes of Legend.

The process is fairly straight forward. Simply start at Table 1 - Land of Origin and follow the instructions. For the time being I am going to have the basic tables laid out and then I will add the expansion tables as I walk through and test the system. The sheer volume of possibilities will require a large amount of writing and I would prefer to generate those excess tables on an as needed basis.

1. Table 1 - Land of Origin
   Once your character’s Species is determined go ahead and record it on your scratch paper.
2. Table 2 - Cultural Background
   Record your characters Culture and Culture Mod on your scratch paper and give the character the appropriate Cultural Skill Package. When rolling on Table 3: Igard Confederacy Social Status, be sure to roll 1d100 and add your Culture Mod to the roll.
3. Table 3 - Igard Confederacy Social Status
   Record your characters Social Status and Social Mod. Don’t forget to add the appropriate Social Status Skill Package. Now go to Table 4: Birth Legitimacy.
4. Table 4 - Birth Legitimacy
   If the character is Illegitimate, record the Legitimacy Mod and roll on the table below to determine the reason for being Illegitimate. Be sure to roll 1D20 and add your Culture Mod and Social Mod and subtract your Legitimacy Mod to the roll
   Be sure to roll 1D100 and add your Culture Mod and Social Mod and subtract your Legitimacy Mod to the roll
5. Table 5 - Family
   If Table 5A changes your Social Status then be sure to change your Social Mod and the Social Status Skills Package to properly reflect your new Social Status.
   If you roll a result of 12 on Table 5C, then you must go back to Table 1 start over to determine the family that you were raised by. This could result in a family that is of a different species. Do not change your species. If the new family results in a different culture and/or social status you will need to change your Cultural Skill Package, Culture Mod, Social Status Skill Package and Social Mod to accurately reflect your new family upbringing.
6. Table 6 - Siblings
   Randomly determine the characters birth order and which siblings are older and/or younger.
7. Table 7 - Time of Birth
   Roll 1D30 to determine which day of the month you were born on.
   When rolling on Table 8 - Place of Birth, be sure to roll 1D20 and add your Legitimacy Mod to the roll.
8. Table 8 - Place of Birth
   Be sure to roll 1D100 and add your Birth Mod to the roll.
9. Table 9 - Unusual Birth Circumstances
   Table 10 - Parents is designed to add some details to the person or persons that raised the character. If the occupation of the person(s) that raised the character has already been determined (or if they were not raised by a “person” at all) then ignore this table and go on to Table 11 - Childhood Events.
   Table 10 - Parents refers to the “Head of Household”, this represents whoever is in charge of the household that the character was raised in and could be a Mother, Father, Grandparent, Aunt or Uncle, etc.
10. Table 10 - Parents
    When rolling on Table 11 - Childhood Events, be sure to roll 1d20 and add your Social Mod to the roll. Roll 1D3 times on this table. These events all happen between 1 and 12 years old. Once all of those have been determined, roll on this table 1D3 more times, the second set of events all happen between 13 and 18 years old.
11. Table 11 - Childhood Events
    Within the Igard Confederacy it is mandatory to enlist in the military for a term of 4 years in order to gain or maintain citizenship. If you do not want your character to be a full-fledged citizen with all of the inherent rights you may skip this table and go straight to Table 13: Adulthood Events. If you chose to do so change your social status to Civilian. This requirement is only for men as women are expected to have been married off by the time they reach adulthood. However, women are free to join the military as well if they so chose.
    Military enlistment starts at age 16.
    Roll 1D20 and add your Social Mod. Once you determine your Military Branch go on to Table 12A.
12. Table 12 - Military Experience
    When rolling on Table 13 - Adulthood Events, be sure to roll 2d20 and add your Social Mod to the roll. Roll only once on this table.
13. Table 13 - Adulthood Events

• Table 528 - Tragedies
• Table 539 - Enslaved
• Table 541 - Religious Experience
• Table 649 - Exotic Personality
• Table 750 - Others
• Table 762 - Rivals
• Table 863 - Gifts & Legacies
• Table 875 - Crimes

Package deals allow the combination of various skills, talents and capabilities to better reflect a given educational basis. There are several categories that all Package Deals will break down into.

• Genetic: Not really skills but templates that apply to each specific race which include only abilities and characteristic maxima that come from, well, genetics.
• Cultural Package Deals: Skills that every single individual of any given culture would learn just for being raised in that culture (native language, AK and CK, a couple of KS's regarding cultural and religious beliefs, etc.).
• Childhood/Adolescence: Small familiarities that are picked up during childhood based on various events they are exposed to. These include skills from working in the family business, etc.
• Professional Package Deals: These are the baseline skills/abilities that the character acquires from being trained in the characters “Class/Profession/Trade/etc.” These are optional but recommended to help give the player some direction.
• Extension Packages: These I nicked from Killershrike and I use them to add a bit more color to the Profession Packages. These, for example, will take a Light Warrior Profession Package and (with the addition of the Wilderness Extension) turn it into a Scout/Forester. These are also optional as well.

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