Graham Rose, author of The Hooded Man, breaks down creating characters in his roleplaying game of medieval outlaws. 

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In The Hooded Man, characters are detailed in such a way as to present them as one would see a character in a book. Characters are defined by their Traits – essentially adjectives such as ‘cunning’ or ‘resilient’ that measure their capabilities without using numbers or other statistics. This enables players to write about their characters as one would in a journal or work of fiction.
Characters also have Talents, representing their previous occupations or experiences, which provide advantages during the game. A character may have the archer Talent, which allows them to attack twice with a bow, or the hunter Talent, which means they’re able to issue commands to a faithful dog companion. Other Talents include blacksmith, cutpurse, forester, friar, mummer, pagan, reeve, rioter, and many more.
A unique aspect of The Hooded Man is that each character has a Companion – a faithful friend who assists them. When players create their character, they also create their Companion, who then then functions as a supporting character, providing help when needed. Companions are also useful when a character is temporarily removed from play, such as when captured or injured. In these situations, the player can still take part in the game, assuming the role of their character’s Companion. Should a character be killed, the Companion can even become a new protagonist, instantly available to take part in the game. 

An illustration, all in shades of black and green, depicting a woman in ragged medieval clothing, with a dagger on her hip, running through a forest as arrows strike tree trunks around her

Here’s an example of character creation:
To begin with, let’s find the character’s name. Like everything in character creation, names can be freely chosen or randomly generated – and I decide to use the random option. I roll three dice and get 11, so the character’s name is John. For his ‘byname’ (his last name), I roll again and get 12. This means I can choose ‘Hunter’ (which would mean he’s named after his own or a parent’s profession) or ‘Northwick’ (which would mean he takes his name from where he grew up). I choose Northwick, giving us ‘John of Northwick’.
Next, I determine his appearance and demeanour, which are adjectives to quickly describe the character in the broadest of terms. My first roll is 10, which means John is ‘rugged’. The second roll is 15, so John has a ‘surly’ demeanour. It would seem John is not the most approachable of characters…
To see what motivates John (other than his need to survive), I roll on the motivation table. A result of 16 indicates ‘revenge’. So far then, we have a character called John of Northwick, who’s rugged, surly, and out for revenge.
I need to identify what crime John has been accused of, which means a roll on the crime table. The result indicates ‘poaching’. I decide that John was falsely accused, and this may be why he’s now out for revenge. This is a backstory I could perhaps expand upon later.
Starting characters receive three Traits and for John I roll up ‘resilient’, ‘strong’ and ‘wilful’. This tells me that John is a tough man, both physically and mentally. While I have the option to gain a fourth Trait, I choose not to so as to avoid also taking a Hindrance. Hindrances are disadvantages or weaknesses that might hamper a character – a distinctive appearance that makes them easily identifiable, or an enemy hunting them, for example.
My roll for John’s Talent indicates he was a bowyer. This is a useful Talent – John gets a bonus die for crafting and using bows. It also means that he starts with a bow in his equipment. 

An illustration, all in shades of black and green, depicting a man in medieval hunter's clothing standing on the edge of a forest, firing an arrow from a longbow

I finish off creating John by selecting a few items of equipment. The finished character is shown below:
John of Northwick is a rugged, surly bowyer seeking revenge; and is accused of poaching. He is resilient, strong and wilful. John has a bow, a bundle of 12 arrows, clothes, a bag, torch, and tinderbox.
John’s story is just beginning, of course – I need to create his companion before he’s ready to embark on his first adventure. That, however, is a story for another day… 

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 The Hooded Man is available to pre-order now. 

Begin your story with character sheets available to download and print from our resources page.