Chapter 19 — Finishing Up
A few last steps turn the results of creation into a Wanderer ready for play. None of them takes long.
Index§
The lighter scars heal§
When you finish creation, clear the Wounded and Shaken nodes if either is marked. The bumps, broken nerves, and bruises of the life you lived are assumed to mend in the stretch between your last term and the start of play.
Maimed and Broken do not clear. A severe, lasting injury or a deep psychological break is exactly the kind of wound that still demands a full recovery session at the table (Chapter 10). The practical effect: you only ever begin play marked on a second node, never a first. If you placed your creation trauma sensibly — first nodes before second — a character who took only one or two points starts completely clear, while any point that overflowed into Maimed or Broken is a scar that carries into the campaign.
At least one connection§
Every Wanderer ends creation with at least one contact. If you finished the career phase with no contacts — your D66 and Life Event rolls never landed on one — gain a single contact tied to your most recent career: an old colleague, rival, or acquaintance from that life. No one reaches the Shore entirely unconnected.
For what a contact is, how to call on one, and a generator for fleshing out the people you've collected, see Chapter 35.
Reset for play§
A couple of values are play resources that simply start at their defaults — they were not tracked during creation:
- Momentum begins each session at 3 (Chapter 7).
- Base armor is 3, plus anything your gear provides (Chapter 10).
Fill out the sheet§
Confirm everything is recorded on your character sheet:
- Name and heritage (and lineage, if a Companion)
- Characteristics — which are Advantage, which Disadvantage, which neutral
- Skills and ranks — fixed skills from careers, plus anything raised with XP
- Boons and Banes — each with the situation it applies to
- Trauma — any Maimed or Broken node carried in from creation (first nodes now cleared)
- Contacts — everyone you collected, plus the guaranteed one if it applied
- Credits and gear — your starting package and anything career rewards added
- Unspent XP — whatever you held back, ready to spend between sessions
- Age — a record of the life lived
You're ready§
Your Wanderer is whole: a person with a past, a web of relationships, a set of hard-won competences, and the occasional scar to show for it. Take a moment to introduce them to the table — who they are, where they come from, and why they're not staying put. Then the campaign begins, and what you do with this life becomes the game.
The chapters ahead fill in the detail you'll reach for in play: the twelve careers and their full benefit tables (Part IV), skills and equipment (Part V), travel and trade (Part VI), the setting (Part VII), and guidance for the Game Master (Part VIII).