In the realm of classic medieval fantasy tabletop RPGs, Earthdawn is considered a second generation game, having come not long after a second edition of Dungeons and Dragons was released. It has all the familiar races – Human, Elf, Troll, Dwarf, Ork – and a few most haven’t seen before – the T’skrang, a lizard-like race, the Obsidimen, who are the rock-people, and the Windlings, who are a bit like ADD-addled Kinder in nature, and stand only about 18 inches high and have wings.

My first campaign was Earthdawn, in which I played a T’skrang archer, the elfiest T’skrang you’d ever meet – because I was teased that every girl’s first character is an elf. To avoid that stereotype, which is a bit silly, I admit, I picked the T’skrang, the least conventionally attractive (besides the Ork) of the lot. And I was timid during my first campaign, because all these gentlemen had been gaming for years – decades for some – longer than I had. But my timidity coupled with the absolutely ridiculous damage that the archer class deals made me come off as a silent, wandering crusader, a la Clint Eastwood. The problem in this is that Earthdawn Elves are much more like Vulcans than they are the airy-fairy waify Fae creatures that most imagine they are, they are much more stoic and reserved.

I have since, more or less, gotten over that Girls Only Play Elves stigma (which, I suppose, stems from there being no “Pretty Pretty Princess” class), and I try to enforce the silliness of that stereotype to any woman I bring into the gaming fold. If you want to play an elf, you can play an elf and don’t let any boy stop you. In fact, I had an elf in the short-lived D&D 4e campaign back in October. And I quite liked her.

We have started a new Earthdawn campaign, and my boyfriend, who is known as Blur, is running it. The table borders on large, with four players, two of whom are a married couple, Michael and Ashley, a gentleman by the name of Brian, and myself. With the exception of a one-shot session of Lacuna Blur ran for Michael, Ashley, and me, this is Ashley’s first experience in role-playing. I’ve been trying to be her guide and voice of reason, beyond what the GM can provide. I know what she’s going through, and I’m trying to address the problems that I’ve had and still have, character-wise.

So we made characters back in December, but didn’t get to play a session until January. By then, I had lost the feel for my character (which was a human thief loosely based on Parker from TNT’s Leverage), and Ashley had lost the feel for hers as well. Blur, in his infinite GM-saintliness, as also his knowledge of having to live with me, granted that we tweak our characters to our desires, or even remake some. Games have been few and far between, and as I write this in February, we have only had two sessions, and I think it’s fair to let people fiddle around with characters and their development – especially because he runs such a character-driven game.

So during one of our regular evenings together with Netflix, a roaring fire, a beagle and a chihuahua mutt, Blur instructed us to remake our characters, so that they aren’t the same person. That had been a problem – our original characters, her elf troubadour and my human thief, made out of sight and earshot of the other’s, ended up being remarkably similar, names, coloration and everything. And when we had been discussing revamping them, totally separately, we kept coming up with the same ideas. So Blur sat us down with our Player’s Guides and new character sheets and said, “Talk to each other this time. Get out of each other’s heads.”
New result: Ashley has a human scout, who is city-based, and I have an elven beastmaster, who is obviously wilderness-based. The similarities of characters has never been the real problem; it has only been that we haven’t discussed how to cover all the bases between us. We have a backstory that will allow us to integrate really well with each other, and with the storyline.

During her character generation, we talked about stats that were important to the class, racial bonuses she’d be getting, and how to avoid the Jack of All Trades syndrome. Since she is going to be a city-based scout, her dexterity and perception stats are going to be the most important. She also threw a bunch into strength and toughness, and had little left over for willpower and charisma. This all sounds good if you’re going to be a woods/wilderness-based scout, because you’ll have your navigation talents and survival checks, but if you’re spending all your time in the city underworlds, you’re going to need to be able to talk to people, manipulate them, and not get pushed around. Toughness is a great stat to have high, of course, because it gives you more recovery checks after combat, but I told her strength was probably going to play a limited role in what she wanted for her character.

And that’s the point: you pay attention to the stats you NEED for your class, but you have to consider them in light of the PERSON you’ve got forming in your head. Personality is the key part in determining the rest of your stats, unless you’re just looking to twink the hell out of the character and the game, and I suppose everyone goes through that stage.

But the point is if you’re going to play, and play successfully, you need to have someone (or everyone) be willing to fill in some gaps, even if filling them in isn’t precisely what they originally intended their character to do. It is, after all, only a game, and as long as you have fun, you win.