Over_the_Edge_Players'_Survival_Guide

CHAPTER 1
Over the Edge
friend exists. Even if the friend does exist, the GM
might turn it into a mixed blessing.
The actual nature of the secret is not as important as
its subjective nature in the mind of the character. The
secret should be something that worries the character
to some degree. The list of example secrets, therefore,
must be taken just as examples that work for some
characters, but not for all. A wild and self-destructive
character may have various obscene tattoos on his
body and be proud of it, while a more reserved and
proper character may have a single obscene tattoo (left
over from a hell-raising youth, perhaps) and would
be mortified if anyone were to find out about it. That
tattoo makes a fine secret for the second character, but
not for the first one. A secret for the first character
may be an abiding devotion to the music of Air Supply.
The point of a secret is to provide for dramatic
tension by creating something that the PC is afraid
others will find out about.
Example Secrets
Light-skinned black passing for white
Sleeps with a teddy bear
Votes Republican
Sports an obscene tattoo
Worked for the CIA (or still does)
Writes romance novels for a living because his
serious fiction keeps getting rejected
Gay (and in the closet)
Donates to charities (if the character pretends to
be hard-nosed)
Fleeing from law because he killed his family*
A cannibal*
Perverse tastes (specify what they are)*
A former criminal who only poses as a reporter*
* These secrets may or may not qualify as “flaws,”
depending on how you define the situation.
Important Person
Choose one person who was important in the PC’s
past, and decide how that person was important to
the character. It could be someone the PC knows
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personally, or merely someone he admires, even a
fictional character.
The point of this detail is to provide your PC with
more depth and to provide some connection, no matter
how tenuous, with someone else in the world. PCs in
role-playing games run the risk of being “orphans,”
with no connections to anyone in their pasts, and this
detail helps you avoid that tendency.
Example Important People
Attila the Hun, who inspired his thirst for power
Her grandmother, who taught her hexing
His father, who kicked him out of the house when
he was sixteen so he could learn to fend for himself
Edgar Allen Poe, whose mystical symbolism he
alone has deciphered
Timothy Leary, an old friend, now distant
The pet lizard she had as a child, who first told her
of her true identity and destiny
His ex-wife, whose unique brand of mental cruelty
has driven him to Al Amarja
A lost love
Drawing
Draw your character. All my players complained
when I told them they had to draw their characters,
but they all did it, and the characters are much richer
for it. Give it a shot. I take this step very seriously
indeed.
If you want to wimp out, claiming congenital
failure of artistic ability, then draw something else:
the PC’s car, his family coat of arms, a prized possession,
etc.
This step is important because it carries the creation
process beyond the verbal and establishes hyperneural
connections among centers of your brain that
are not directly connected (especially motor control
and vision centers).
Background & Possessions
Fill in all the details you want about your character’s
background. What language(s) does he speak, and
how well? List the possessions the character brings to