Character Creation

A Character in Tag & Tally is a collection of tags that can ease or hinder game play.

Procedure

Follow the following simple steps to create a character. It is recommended to create a Young Adult or Adult character for best options.

Create a concept of what you want your character to be and do.
Design the character sentence around this concept.
Choose your Childhood Life Stage tags (1 background, 1 flaw, 2 additional tags)
Choose your Adolesent Life Stage tags (1 background, 1 flaw, 2 additional tags)
Choose your Young Adult Life Stage tags (1 background, 1 occupation, 1 flaw, 2 additional tags)
Assign Skill Tiers to your Tags, and if they are a spell caster, MAI and Tier
Create a character arc for your character -- their purpose for adventuring. A character are is a personal quest.
Decide upon what gear your character will start out with
Choose what lore a character knows at the start of the game (locations, factions and personal relationships).
(optional) If in a party, decide upon the relationships between all party members and how you met.

Character Sentence

We lay out your character sentence in the following format, and all tags are in square brackets.

Name is a [descriptor] [species] [type] who [specializes in]

All tags except descriptor in your character sentence are Umbrella Tags.

Eldrin is a cunning elven rogue who weaves shadows into deadly blades

Lena is a resourceful private investigator who uncovers secrets.

Vex-7 is a rogue AI bounty hunter who tracks fugitives.

Dr. Alistair Cogsworth is an eccentric clockwork engineer who builds automatons.

This sentence defines the characters at a high level detail.

Each of the words in the brackets are tags that describe your character. They can be used to ease or hinder an action check.

Descriptors should define a key personality trait or something about the character that is a basic essence of the character. This can be good or bad, it is your character.

Species is just what it is. In an all human world or for a human character choose a second descriptor to fill in the sentence. The species of a character can tell a lot about what society perceives the character as. In some cases it could also be used in tasks that a species might be good at.

A species tags has up to 3 experiences for the life of the character in addition to background. These added experiences are Static tags and cannot be tiered up, they are a lesson you learned or changed you in some way like a background tag.

Include all species tags in your character sheet for easy reference under the species name.

If you have a Psionic species. These characters are going to be really good with mental tasks, since that's what they're born to do. Mental tasks can be eased. But it also might make them vulnerable to psionics because they have a much more open mind. It's all about how your world works.

Types are what most other TTRPGs call classes or archetypes. They can range anywhere from Warrior as a most basic type to something as specific as Professional MMA Fighter.

You may choose two tier 1 skills or 1 tier 2 skill that are associated with your type to add under your type tag on your character sheet.

The Specialty tag is one of the most important bits. This is a major defining action for your character. It can go hand in hand with the type, or it can be something completely off the wall and go against the types typical associations. This is what your character is known for or uses to their advantage.

You may choose two tier 1 skills or 1 tier 2 skill that are associated with your specialty to add under your type tag on your character sheet.

Uses Magic

Wields Two Weapons

Made a Deal with a Devil

Entertains the Masses

The phrase should always start with a verb. While is, can or has are perfectly acceptable ways to start the sentence, try looking for action verbs instead.

Life Stage Tags

There are 5 life stages of a character: childhood, adolescence, young adult, adult and elder. Each stage has a number of tags you are required to choose upon character creation based on the age of your character. All ages are based on human years. Check the species for age ranges of your character.

There are a number of different tags for each life stage: background, flaw, occupation, experience and additional tags.

Background Tags: Background tags describe a defining moment in that Life Stage.

Flaw Tags: Flaw Tags describe some flaw or weakness they displayed during this Life Stage of the character. It might be helpful to assign the flaw to one of the seven deadly sins. As an Elder these flaw tags should be in reference to getting older. Things like "Losing Mobility" and "Hearing Loss".

Occupation Tags: Occupation Tags are tags that encompass what you do for a living at that particular Life Stage. As a young adult you may choose "Student" or some other career. But as an Adult you must have at least 1 occupation, though it may be "Vagabond" or "Homeless" if that is where your character was at that stage in life.

Experience Tags: Experience Tags are like background tags, but they are tags your older self has experienced throughout their life.

Additional Tags: Additional Tags can be any skill, trait or ability that a character has during that Life Stage. An Additional Tag can be used to increase the Tier of a prior Life Stage tag

Childhood (0-10)

Background Tag: Defining moment of childhood.
Flaw Tag: Personality flaw shaped by early life.
Additional Tags (up to 2): Early abilities, traits, or learned habits.

Adolescence (11-18)

Background Tag: Defining adolescent experience.
Flaw Tag : Personality flaw emerging in adolescence.
Additional Tags: Skills, traits, or habits formed during adolescence.

Young Adult (19-25)

Background Tag: Defining life-changing event or experience.
Occupation Tag: Current occupation or primary life role (job, apprenticeship, or student).
Flaw Tag: Flaw tied to ambition, independence, or early mistakes.
Additional Tags: Skills, habits, or traits developed in young adulthood.

Skill Tiers

Characters starting as a Child may have 1 Tier 2 abilities and 2 Tier 1 abilities (4 points)
Characters starting as an Adolescent many have 2 Tier 2 abilities and 4 Tier 1 abilities (8 points)
Characters starting as a Young Adult may have 1 Tier 3 ability, 2 Tier 2 abilities and 6 Tier 1 abilities (10 points)

Optionally you may start with the number of points assigned to the Life Stage (the number in parenthesis) and create your own breakout.

Tier	Point Cost
2	2
3	4
4	6

Each Tier must be bought before purchasing the next. If you have a tag at level 1 and you want it to be level 4 you need to purchase 2, 3 and 4 for a total of 12 points.

Use this method ONLY at character creation! Skills are earned and upgraded during game play by finishing quests and character arc as rewards.

Any unused points at character creation are lost.

Character Arcs

Characters should start with a Character Arc — something they are trying to achieve.

Character Arcs should reward a new tag at the completion of its arc relative to what the arc was trying to achieve. It may offer other rewards as well depending on what the arc was meant to achieve.

On the character sheet, character arcs are recorded under Quests (one quest per arc); there is no separate "Character Arcs" section on the sheet.

Gear & Wealth

Characters can carry up to ten items and have a starting Wealth of 3.

Characters start with a weapon of choice, armor of choice, and should select a specialized piece of gear. Some settings may require additional items at character creation. Starting gear is all Level 1.

The Inventory Module has other methods for gear and character creation.

Optional Level 10 with Mini-Quest Backstory

In addition to these starting items a player may opt to give a character a level 10 passive item that overcomes a flaw. If the character wishes to have this they need to complete a back story question and make it part of their story.

There are a few options how to do it.

Write a narrative
Play a flashback with the group
Play a solo mode quest

Each of these methods must answer the following questions:

What flaw are you trying to overcome? This should be one of the flaw tags you added during character creation.

What is the item you are trying to gain, and what does it do? This item should have an item sentence will be Level 10 and can stablize or ease actions hindered by your flaw by 2.

How are you going to obtain the item?

Make it Myself
Purchase from a vendor
Quest for the Item

The Solo Quest Loop

In solo mode, you play through the following sequence. Each success or failure answers a narrative question about the character's journey.

Question A: What is the "Entry Price"?

Action: Negotiate with a vendor, gather rare components, or track down a lead.
Dice Roll: A social or investigative task (like Alex's Silver Tongue check).
Narrative Result:
- Success: You find the item/vendor easily.
- Failure/But: You find it, but you have to perform a dangerous task (The Trade).

Question B: What is the "Conflict"?

Action: Perform the task, steal the item, or survive the ritual to create it.
Dice Roll: Combat, Stealth, or Magic (like Alex's Dream-Walk/Fight).
Narrative Result:
- Success: You get the item cleanly.
- Failure/But: You get the item, but you suffer a lingering injury or mental strain (like Alex's Shame injury).

Known World Lore

Assume all player characters know two locations.

Their residence
Their place of employ or similar location

A character's background, or place of employment (such as city government or a bounty hunter association), may determine their starting faction. The character should have a starting relationship with their faction that is up to two steps from indifferent.

A character may have up to three known NPCs (family, employers, contacts, etc.). Assign each known NPC a relationship status up to three steps away from indifferent.

Appearance (Optional)

When detailing a character's appearance, you may roll or choose from the Character tables: pronoun, age, distinguishing feature type, skin tone, complexion, build/height, hair (texture, style, color), eye color, clothing, and voice.

Group Play

If playing with a group either as individual players or as a solo player, the group should figure out how they know each other. It can be helpful to think about how they met, and why they are all together. You can also assign each character a relationship status to remind you how your characters interact with one another.

Advanced Options

If you want a much older character we have rules for that. While you know more, and learn more, you also have a lot more flaws as you advance with age. So keep that in mind when using these rules.

Adult (26-50)

Occupation Tag: Main profession or life role.
Flaw Tag: Personality flaw or challenge in adulthood.
Additional Tags (2 per 5-year block): Skills, traits, or experiences.
Optional Career Change Tags (up to 5 total careers): Additional occupation tags if changing careers.

Structure:

Age Range	Occupation	Flaw	Additional
26-30	+1	+1	+2
31-35	+1*	+1	+2
36-40	+1*	+1	+2
41-45	+1*	+1	+2
46-50	+1*	+1	+2

* Optional if Career change otherwise can increase Tier of the Tag up to 4

Elder (51+)

Flaw Tag (1 per 10 year block): Reflecting aging, limitations, or consequences of life choices.
Experience Tag (1 per 10 year block): Reflecting wisdom, mastery, or societal reputation.