Characters

Each character card has six sections.

1. Character name

2. Character statistics - 6 (used for stat checks throughout the game)

3. Traits - 2 (used mostly in side quests, and occasionally in the main Plot)

4. Unique Character Ability

5. Unique Character Items - 3

6. Descriptive quote from source material - flavour text​​

Names are self-explanatory, so let's move on to statistics. Each character is given a rating in six stats:

• Strength (physical force)

• Dexterity (speed, flexibility)

• Intelligence (known facts)

• Wits (wisdom, ability to improvise)

• Communication (written/physical/verbal, given and received)

• Ease (appearance, confidence, basically how "at ease" they make others around them feel)

Every character is given the same number of points, distributed among the stats. As such, Anne Shirley is able to keep up with Anubis. It may not seem realistic, but we'll blame that on wormhole fluctuations.

​

Each character is given two traits out of a possible eight. These traits can influence how they experience events happening around them. For example, take the side quest, from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, "You find yourself lost in a dark wood and surrounded by various beasts." The traits that your character has determines how they would react and therefore what stat they need to check. If they're a fighter, they're more likely to, well, fight, so they'll need to do a Strength check. A child, however, is more likely to run away, so they'd need to do a Dexterity check.

​

Unique Character Abilities are my favourite part of making any character card. It's how their personality shines through the most. For example, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is known around town for her needlework skills. In The Library Adventures, her unique ability, therefore, is "Fancy Needlework: On your turn, you may spend an action sewing and gain 2 gold." Mary Shelley's Frankenstein's main character, however, is a self-proclaimed alchemist, so "Creator of Life: Victor knows how life works – how to create it and how to end it. He starts the game with 13HP" suits him better.

​

Starting the game, when the first wormholes summon the characters into the chosen Plot, they don't come alone. They have three items with them that are very characteristic of them. Nobody else in the literary multiverse has their exact items (unless they decide to give or trade them away, which they are free to do). Most items in the game give a stat boost, such as Anastasia Romanov's (never-ending) chocolate (+1 Ease); some give a different sort of boost (like Phoenix's Cinnamon: +1 HP per round); some are altogether their own thing, for example, Golden Legend's "Sacrificial Sheep: Sacrifice (discard) to avoid any failure  consequence. Get it back at the start of every map."

​

Finally, for a bit of fun (and to help you get in character), the flavour text. This is simply a quote from the source material that describes the character in a way only a beloved author can.