Black Void Character Creation Helper

By Luke D. Published Updated

The following is a guide intended to help you better understand the process behind Black Void character creation. The order in which information is listed is the order in which I would suggest approaching the creation of your character(s). For each section, I’ll explain what it is and where to find more information about it.

Race

You are human, unless your chosen background makes you some kind of void born. For the most part, what that means is your race is irrelevant for the purposes of modifiers, but if you happen to choose a “Kin” race, then be prepared for a whole new experience. New race backgrounds can be found in Under Nebulous Skies.

Page 74-88 in Under Nebulous Skies are the “Kin” races, which COST points during character creation.

Homeworld

This is where you’re from. Being from certain homeworld types grants different effects to your character. This won’t cost points, so it’s nice to choose a homeworld that supports the type of character you want to play, assuming your arbiter allows you to pick. If you’re looking to be more of a brute, then non-enlightened worlds are the way to go. If you’re looking to use mystic powers, then you’ll want to be from a void world if possible. It’s important to read through all of the options here, as they each come with their own set of flavor and mechanical benefits.

Page 20 in the Core Rulebook.

Trait Scores

Allotted character points are distributed between the eight Traits freely, but no Trait may have less than one (1) point or more than five (5). Newly created characters may never start play with a Trait score higher than five unless affected by an attribute or another applicable modifier. Each Trait ranking costs one (1) character point.

Traits are rated from 0-12, but as stated above: traits may never start above 5 before attributes and other modifiers are applied. Exceptions may occur based on background/race adjustments as well.

If it helps, you might think of the following parallels between the Black Void traits and the D&D abilities:

Talents and Flaws

These are basically the same feats and flaws from D&D, except they’re always tied to a specific trait. These can help immensely when flavoring your character, as they encourage a certain level of min-max that informs what your character is good at and terrible at.

Any trait with a score of 3 allows 1 talent, for each additional 3 beyond that, you’re allowed another talent. E.g. a score of 6 will allow 2 talents.

New talents and flaws in Under Nebulous Skies. Core Rulebook: Talents p.30, Flaws p.34. UNS: Talents p.69, Flaws p.71.

Background

Backgrounds COST points by default, although there are some that are similar to flaws (called detrimental backgrounds in Under Nebulous Skies) which will GIVE you extra points to spend (e.g., illiterate). Some of these are more fluff than crunch, but some of them provide massive effects. Give this section a good browse if you have points to spare. Your background also determines your Caste which by default is the lowest caste, called Kalbi (dog).

New race backgrounds in Under Nebulous Skies.

Core Rulebook: p.40. UNS: Backgrounds p.73, Detrimental Backgrounds p.90.

Attributes

These are physical characteristics for your character. Things like claws, wings, eyes, etc. These range from minor, mostly fluff effects to the cornerstone of a character’s identity depending on how many points you have to spend here. If you’re Voidmarked, you can use esoteric attributes, which make you significantly more… void-like, and often carries with it significantly more power (and cost) than the typical attributes available to a normal human.

New attributes in Under Nebulous Skies.

Ranking Up Skills/Powers

During character creation, one point is one rank (1+) for skills, it costs three points for one rank (3+) for powers. Notably, not having any ranks in a skill (with the exception of the Defence skill) will result in a -3 penalty to all rolls for that skill. Therefore if you intend to do something often, it’s recommended to throw in at least one point to the relevant skill.

Page 173 of the Core Rulebook.

Powers

Blood Rituals

Any poorly prepared site, such as a makeshift or unprepared site, automatically penalizes the practitioner with a -1 modifier to the action roll, while an utterly unprepared place would confer a -3 penalty.

An unprepared sacrifice causes a -1 penalty to the action roll.

During the Ritual the player makes an Intellect roll, adding modifiers for preparation, blood rite ranking and any other relevant factors to the roll. The difficulty of the roll is determined by the potency of the sacrificial creature as shown in the table above. A roll equalling or exceeding the difficulty signifies that the ritual has been successfully performed, allowing the player to roll on the boons and fortunes table determining which imbuement is received. The sacrificial creature’s blood potency and the ritualist’s rank modify the imbuement roll. An exceptional success allows the character to add a +1 modifier to the imbuement roll.

A failed roll indicates that the character was unable to perform the proper rites, thus ruining any transfer of power and wasting the sacrifice. On a critically failed roll, the practitioner has botched the ritual, causing a sudden violent and uncontrollable conveyance of raw power. The recipient is unable to retain the power released and must make a successful Stamina roll, with difficulty equaling the ritual difficulty, or suffer a backlash. The extent of the ritual depends on the potency of the sacrifice. As only freshly drawn blood holds power a disturbed or otherwise disrupted ritual is inevitably unsuccessful, and the sacrifice is wasted. Many ritualists chant and perform ceremonial gestures or dances to enhance and ensure the success of the ritual and characters with the Ritual skill may add a +1 modifier to the action roll during a Blood Ritual. Having proper tools, such as a sacrosanct sacrificial knife, may also grant a modifier to the action roll at the Arbiter’s discretion.

A successful ritual allows the player to make an imbuement roll on the boons and fortunes table. An Imbuement roll consists of a D12 potency roll - with added modifiers for blood potency and bloodletting rankings - to determine the cluster and a D6 effect roll to establish the specific boon. Once the ritualist attains higher bloodletting rankings, the player may choose any boon from the rolled cluster, and eventually have a choice of clusters to choose from. Imbuement rolls and boon duration depend on the potency of the drawn blood as shown in the potency chart. There is a limit to how many boons a character can receive at any one time. The strain the added power causes to a body requires stamina to contain and characters are only able to have one endowment, plus one per positive Stamina modifier, effective at any given time.

Backlash occurs when a blood ritual is critically failed, and the practitioner or recipient fails the subsequent Stamina or Willpower roll. While a bloodletting ritual allows a Stamina roll for the recipient of the blood to negate a Backlash, a sacrificial divination requires a successful Willpower roll to neutralize a Backlash. A backlash from a Bloodletting Ritual will mainly affect a character’s physical state while that of Sacrificial Divination will influence the psyche and mental stability. As noted above the effect of a backlash is determined by rolling a D12 and adding the blood potency modifier applicable to the ritual.

Mysticism

Must have either Intellect or Willpower 4 or greater, and be either Voidmarked or enlightened to become a mystic of any kind. Then you must spend 3 points to become a mystic of any kind.

Buying into either Furore or Gnostic counts as rank 0 of your mystic sphere for the purposes of spending points.

Must have at least one rank in a sphere in order to manifest powers from that sphere.

Furores use Willpower and Gnostics use Intellect.

Each 3 points spent on either Furore or Gnostic grants additional ranks with the respective path of mysticism.

The number of Spheres to which you have access is based on your trait modifier, for Furores use Willpower and Gnostics use Intellect to determine the number of Spheres you may have. For example, if your Intellect is +2 and you’re a Gnostic, you may have only two Spheres.

For each rank in a given Sphere, you gain access to 1 additional potency level. For example, in order to use potency 6 emanations in the Void Sphere, you must have at least 6 ranks in the Void Sphere. This is by default, other effects may change this, such as your Mystic type.

Furores may manifest phenomena with potency equal to their Sphere ranking plus their Willpower modifier. Furores also negate resistance modifiers equalling their Willpower modifier due to their forceful channeling.

Gnostics may subtract their Intellect modifier from calamity rolls, but they are unable to acquire sphere rankings higher than their Intellect score. Gnostics may perform preparatory meditations, reducing the difficulty of the phenomenon by one per half hour spent in meditation. The meditation must pertain to a chosen phenomenon which must be completed instantly after the meditation. The amount of hours which can be spent meditating are limited to the character’s Intellect modifier. Characters with the Ritual skill may add a +1 modifier to their channeling roll.

You create emanations (basically spells) by deciding which effect from which sphere you’d like to use, and at what potency. Add up all of the modifiers to determine the difficulty of using the phenomena.

When attempting to manifest a phenomenon the character makes a roll against the difficulty, adding his or her associated Trait modifier as well as his or her ranking as Furore or Gnostic to the total. Each ranking grants a +1 modifier.

The channeling roll is modified by the character’s Willpower or Intellect modifier as well as Mystic (Furore or Gnostic) ranking. A success indicates that the phenomena manifests and exists for a limited amount of time until the Cosmos reverts back to its natural state and the phenomenon dissipates. An exceptional success allows the character to increase the duration, range, area of effect or effect of phenomena by one degree, or roll a further dice if the roll was not enough to succeed.

A failed roll means that the character has been unable to manifest the phenomenon and the attempt is wasted, while a critical failure denotes that the Mystic has lost control and a Calamity occurs. Calamities are harrowing consequences caused by the chaotic influence of the Void unleashed upon the Cosmos and are described fully later in the chapter.

Manifesting a phenomenon requires concentration and a Mystic who is disturbed while channeling must apply penalties to the difficulty of the phenomenon to illustrate the disturbance.

A phenomenon is made up of at least four aspects: Casting time, range, duration and area as well as one or several effects. Each aspect has an associated potency, and the cumulative value of these along with the effect potency determine the difficulty; the more potent the phenomenon, the higher the difficulty. A character’s ranking in a given sphere determines how potent each aspect and effect can be.

A calamity occurs as a result of a critically failed channeling attempt. The player must make a roll on the calamities table, modified by the phenomenon’s potency adding one to the severity roll for every 12 points of potency. If a Calamity occurs in a location naturally influenced or deprived of Void emanations, the resonance of the calamity may either be increased or diminished; causing a modifier to the roll accordingly.

When a calamity occurs, the Mystic can diminish the impact by soaking the flow of Void power with her own body, sustaining physical harm but containing some of the calamity. The character may decrease the calamity roll by losing an amount of Health points equal to the severity reduction. The player must declare the amount before the die is rolled.

A calamity is a consequence roll made with a D12, the severity die and a D6, the effect die. The severity roll is modified by the spell potency, location and any soaking done by the Mystic, the effect die is never modified. This roll is done by the arbiter secretly, and the effect is then narrated.

New uses for the Void Sphere in Under Nebulous Skies.

Completing the Character

After Character Creation - Experience Points

After character creation you have experience points, NOT character points. They convert on a one-to-one ratio. It’s generally more efficient to spend a character point than an experience point on the same thing, so try to spend your character points in character creation unless you’re hoarding points to unlock a specific ability.

Character points convert to XP and XP may be used to: