Rounding out the first week of the #CharacterCreationChallenge, I return to a fantasy RPG by Free League Publishing called Symbaroum for character number seven.

Idego Mevengai is the firstborn son of the noble family of Mevengai in the Duchy of Kasandrien. As soon as he was of age, he was placed into the Ordo Magica to train in wizardry under the finest instructors. His focus on his studies left little time for the development of physical strength, but he was naturally wiry and quick, which alowed him to avoid the worst of the bullying from other apprentices.

Having graduated with honors, his goal now is to further establish his family’s name by carving out more of the wilderness, civilizing it, and perhaps earning the family a barony, or even higher…

Symbaroum

I recently bought a bundle of the Free League’s games, and I really liked how well-established the Symbaroum world was. And so I spent a few hours building this character, as this is a game I really hope to have a chance to play.

I used the standard distribution for attributes knowing I wanted to try a Mystic Wizard for my character. In the basic rules, your race options are limited and I stuck with the recommendations made by the book and used an Ambrian (Human).

There are a few derived attributes, such as Pain Threshold, Corruption Threshold, and Toughness. The rules for these were a bit buried, though a simple search in the PDF version found them easily enough. If you’re working with the print version it’s on page 101 with the Attributes.

It was a little confusing to me on how to select abilities, but I eventually figured it out (I think). Each spell you want to be able to cast uses one of your abilities. You have two options:

• Three abilities – two at Novice and one at Adept level
• Five abilities – all at Novice

I chose to go with the higher quantity of abilities for flexibility.

For spells, you have Mystical Powers (typically spells used in encounters) and Rituals. And each time you pick one of these, you gain Corruption. By adding the Wizardry ability, as long as I picked wizardry spell abilities, this corruption is impermanent, which seems like a good thing.

And so, by being Ambrian I was given a free Trait ability, and I chose Privileged, which also gave me a lot more money to spend. I then used my five abilities at Novice to add a couple of skill-type abilities, a couple wizard spells (mystic powers) and the wizardry ability.

Despite having lots of coin available, I didn’t immediately see much I absolutely needed to purchase, but I think with a real campaign, there would be options to help ensure the party was equipped to face dangers.

I still have lots more to learn about Symbaroum before I’m ready to bring it to a table, but just doing a character generation has whetted my appetite. Oh, and I love the artwork in the Free League’s releases. They’re worth owning.