Making a Character

Character Creation: The Bidding System

Character creation in Fate/Clocktower is split into two sections. The creation of your family, and the creation of your individual Magus. Families can have more than one active member but, due to the way in which the Magic Crest is passed down, this tends to weaken the line. As such, to describe members of your own family as being 'natural allies' is accurate only from the perspective of your grandchildren.

Before you complete the character sheet, you should play through a Twine game. This is a small visual novel in which you describe your own background. It is perfectly fine to play through it a few times, see where the different options go and then make final decisions at the end, copy/pasting the result and sending it to us at fateclocktower@gmail.com with any comments or additional information you want to include. This is where you can co-ordinate grievances, alliances or character interactions with others! We will then translate this into a character sheet if you haven't and send it back for any fine-tuning and to check that we have interpreted things correctly. At that point you will be able to see your ranks, though not the raw numbers. This will also provide you with a full list of your personal and family resources.

An element of the character sheet which needs explanation is that some parts have resources which are marked as being 'bids'. These are the only parts with numbers assigned. These resources have several groups so that, say, a Magus cannot entirely neglect their family to provide personal power. The number put into each resource is compared to other people's characters, providing a relative strength which will determine your abilities. It is important to realise that the highest and lowest bids in each resource will merit special attention, granting disproportionately strong effects in both cases. Magus should consider their character and bid in areas which they wish to stand out in, both positively and negatively. This part of the character will only be finished once you have already done the full outline.

Character Creation: An Example

This is a sample of how the character creation process *can* work - this is an example taken from the setting. Hopefully it will give some ideas for the kind of characters which can exist. This one is fully worked, while the other is only a summary at the end to show another potential result.

Personal Information

Name: Luvia Edefelt
Age: 21
Element: Water
Origin: Strength

Personal Ranks

Magic Circuits: D
Combat Strength: A+
Magic Crest: C
Atelier: E
Influence: D

Family Information

Name: Edelfelt
Location: London
Membership: Clocktower
Tradition: Gem Magic
Trait: Twin Crest

Family Ranks

Size: D
Wealth: D
Power: A+
Allies: E

Wealth

Money: £50
Estates/Property: Mortgaged, crumbling estates.
Mystic Codes/Relics: Magical Gems, on loan.
Magical Estates: Leased, up for renewal in 6 months.

Other Information

Allies: Sister (missing).
Known Enemies: Rin Tohsaka, Archibald family, The Atlas Institute, several Lords.
Objectives: To reunite with her sister and perfect the Twin Crest for her family.

Here is the starting results of the mini-visual novel for the first character - Luvia Edelfelt.

So, Luvia...

In your family, magic is a birthright.

Of course you were going to be a mage. It's rare to have someone born without talent in your family. And naturally, you have the talent to go with it.

There are problems that have gone hand in hand with magic, of course.

You have a particular affinity for Water, and your unique talent lies in Strength.

You learned your magic in a structured environment, via years of dedicated schooling with your peers. You put in significantly more effort than most of your peers. Of course, you have to in order to retain your reputation.

You have a bit of a reputation for being haughty and for always looking down on others.
You've retained some of your connections in Clock Tower.

This isn’t exactly what you wanted probably - feel free to add as much or as little detail as you feel to this next stage. 

The revised results could look like this:

So, Luvia...

In your family, magic is a birthright. In particular you have a unique Crest - one which is given to two descendants rather than one and twins are born to each generation. Your twin sister has, however, chosen a different path. The last time you saw her, she had gone missing in Moscow, leaving only a trail of empty of shells with no memory behind her.

Of course you were going to be a mage. It's rare to have someone born without talent in your family. And naturally, you have the talent to go with it.

There are problems that have gone hand in hand with magic, of course.
You have a slight affinity for Water, but your unique talent lies in Strength. You have a secret love for wrestling, something you have developed by fusing it with your magical traditions. You do not regard this as detracting from your appearance as a lady of society.
You learned your magic in a structured environment, via years of dedicated schooling with your peers. You put in significantly more effort than most of your peers. Of course, you have to in order to retain your reputation.
You have a bit of a reputation for being haughty and for always looking down on others. Constant arguments with other people have only reinforced this and resulted in few friends.
You've retained some of your connections in Clock Tower, though you have more enemies than friends. More people owe you favours than like you.


The GM then takes this information and keeps it attached to your character - specifics can be used later, so feel free to put in any detail, locations or the like. In particular they put a note on the location of Moscow for when they are writing about the area. Mechanically, they also hand back the following numbers as a start for character creation - these determine the relative power in each category to other Magus. Luvia's PC amends these as desired and ends up with the following, explained as:

Family Rank Bids:

Size (How many heirs and PCs of the family are present): 15
Wealth (Money, estates and Ley Lines):10
Power (The starting strength of inherited Traditions and Family traits): 60
Allies (General reputation, debts and the like): 0
Potential (Hidden or locked-away powers - GM decides where): 10

Any PC arriving as part of the same family will use the above statistics and will skip this part of character generation. The individual statistics are:

Personal Rank Bids:

Magic Circuits (How much raw magical energy you can handle):15
Combat Strength (Covers both physical and magical combat): 40
Magic Crest (How much have you mastered/advanced your family's magic): 25
Atelier (Your personal stronghold's power - this will determine what magical resources you create): 5
Potential (Hidden or locked-away powers/influence - GM decides where!):15

In the end this results in the summary at the top! But here's another finished one to look at, which could be made at the same time or simply linked up through the GM.

Additional Sample Long Master Character Sheet and Process:

Personal Information

Name: Rin Tohsaka
Age:19
Element: Special (All elements)
Origin: The Average One (Attuned to all Elements)

Personal Ranks

Magic Circuits: A
Combat Strength: C
Magic Crest: B
Atelier: D
Influence: D

Family Information

Name:Tohsaka
Location: Other (Japan)
Membership: Clocktower and The Church
Tradition: Gem Magic
Trait: Kaleidoscopic Ancestor

Family Ranks

Size: E
Wealth: A
Power: C
Allies: C

Wealth

Money: £10000
Estates/Property: Houses in Japan, magical patents relating to gems.
Mystic Codes/Relics: Magical Gems.
Magical Estates: Control of Fuyuki City Ley Lines.

Other Information

Allies: Makiri, Einzbern, Kirei, Shirou.
Known Enemies: Luvia Edelfelt, Shinji Matou
Objectives: To reach the Root of all Magic