Characters in Camelot Cosmos can be generated randomly or by making choices. Characters are normally defined by:
A physical or psychological aspect
A racial or regional aspect
A professional aspect
There are also other aspects available for NPCs or with the GM’s discretion, villainous attributes, heroic attributes and so on.
Camelot Cosmos starts out much lower powered than normal FATE games with much more potential for character growth. Aspects start out weaker, but can become stronger over the course of play. Aspects are also much more defined, in keeping with the more rigid roles of class and societal structure in the Cosmos.
For my example character I’m going to go with the random method, because that can throw up some interesting quandaries and ideas that you have to reconcile in working out who and what this character is.
I choose a physical aspect first, I want the character to be more defined by what he does than who he ‘is’. I roll ‘Slow’ as my aspect, which can be both good and bad, but which can also be taken to mean methodical. This gives me access to the following skills: Academics, Appraise, Craft, Endurance, Resolve, Search.
I choose a racial aspect next. I want to tie into the setting closely and give my character a connection to place and people. I roll a Mordredder. Mordred is a wasteland, hellhole of a world which indicates a tough, dangerous life. Perhaps a reason for being slow and methodical? Being a Mordredder gives me access to the following skills: Alertness, Ambush, Danger Sense, Recall, Scavenge, Stealth.
Lastly I roll my professional aspect and get a Druid. That’s going to be tricky to fit with being a Mordredder but perhaps I can work something out. Being a Druid gives me access to Animal Handling, Herbs, Hunting, Stonedweller Lore, Survival and Weather Sense.
Each aspect also gives me some suggested equipment. In this case, heavy shoes, herbs and a staff, and a lucky charm to wad off evil.
I read up on the description of Mordred (the planet) and its people and jot down a description of my character ‘Knum the Wanderer’ as a tall, lanky man with large, piercing, flint-grey eyes. I ask the GM if I can have a sun hat as extra equipment, and he agrees.
I finalise the character by choosing where to spend my skill points (6 in each skill set of each Aspect) and adding a ‘phase’ description for each aspect, describing how I came to be each one.
Character:
Name: Knum the Wanderer
Concept: Wandering healer
Aspects:
A). Slow, Rank 1: “Measure twice, cut once.”
B). Mordredder, Rank 1: “Surrounded by death, I try to bring life.”
C). Druid, Rank 1: “In the harshest land, life springs anew.”
Level/Skill/Aspect
1 Academics A
2 Alertness B
– Ambush B
– Animal Handling C
– Appraise A
– Craft A
2 Danger Sense B
2 Endurance A
3 Herbs C
1 Hunting C
1 Recall B
1 Resolve A
1 Scavenge B
1 Search A
1 Stealth B
– Stndwller Lore C
1 Survival C
1 Weather Sense C
Gear:
Heavy boots, staff, herb pouch, hat, lucky charm.
Description:
Knum grew up in the harsh landscape of Mordred and around Asylum City, as an orphaned street brat. Here he learned to be careful. He was eventually taken under the wing of an off-world Druid who taught him a few things before cutting short Knum’s apprenticeship. Since them Knum has wandered the wastes around Asylum city, picking Mordred’s scant herbs and doing what he can to help Asylum city’s underclass, battered, torn, sore and abused as so many of their bodies are through indentured servitude to the dead of the world.
Postmortem Studios 