Player Characters
You will be playing a rabbit, one of the many new occupants of Poisonwood Creek Warren. Your character already knows the others in the party -- perhaps they are even good friends already! There are many rabbits in this warren, but you know the names of most of them, because you largely moved in the same circles back at the old warren.
In this campaign it does not make sense to have a lot of high-status rabbits. Most of the rabbits are young and untested, still finding their feet in a warren where they are among people they know, but may have new responsibilities or opportunities. Your character need not have any special status at all, though the following skills will be useful to have in the group:
- Herbalist/Botany
- Brawling
- A few different animal languages - particularly bird and carnivore languages
Resources
These resources will help you build up your character. If you are new to GURPS, your GM will walk you through it.
- GURPS Lite (FREE) - The basics of character building in GURPS. Additional advantages, disadvantages, and skills are available from the full Basic Set, but this is a good place to start.
- The Instant Bunnies sheet from the GURPS Bunnies & Burrows book - Provides the basic outline of rules for creating a rabbit character.
- B&B-specific skill details are listed in the GURPS 3rd edition style. Steve Jackson Games offers a free resource to help convert 3rd edition character creation rules to 4th edition.
- Bun Fu and Enthrallment are not applicable for this specific campaign, at least for now. Unless you can make a good argument for them.
- Available Languages for Bunnies - Updated to fit our game world and GURPS 4th Edition.
- Character Templates - These are starting points for different types of characters. You don't have to start from a template, but it's helpful if you're looking for ideas or new to GURPS!
Character Points
Player characters in this campaign start off with 100 points.
For those unfamiliar with GURPS, points are used to customize your character. You "buy" advantages, disadvantages, attributes (i.e. basic stats) and skills. A 100 point character is described as "above average" - your character has skills or talents that set them apart from the masses, but they're not a superhero.
Character Names
Rabbits are typically named after edible plants or after some personal characteristic.
Examples from Watership Down:
- Named after plants: Hazel, Clover, Dandelion, Blackberry, Cowslip, Campion
- Named after a personal trait: Fiver (runt of the litter), Bigwig (has a big thatch of fur on his head)
It is strange to name a rabbit after a poisonous plant or something harmful, or to have a name that doesn't mean anything, but it's not unheard of. If your character has an unusual background, they may have a very unusual name.
Tips for Character Creation
- Come up with a vision for your character. Write a brief backstory for them (involve the GM and other players if you like!) and develop an outline of their personality. This will make it easier to both get into your character's head and translate your idea into a consistent set of attributes, advantages, disadvantages, and skills on a character sheet. You may keep the same character for a while, and they will grow and change over time -- try to create someone you'll enjoy playing!
- It's okay (and recommended) to have a character focus. What kinds of special skills do they have? Keep in mind your character is above average for a rabbit, so they should have some special talent. Is your character a brawler, or a healer, or a psychic? A storyteller? A clever trickster? Or maybe something else? Give your character one or two central strengths that allow them to shine.
- When selecting advantages, disadvantages, and skills, choose ones that make sense within the setting. Rabbits can't use weapons, for example. If you want to have a skill or advantage that is unusual for the setting, you must come up with an in-game reason for it. Talk to the GM.
- Don't go overboard with disadvantages. Disadvantages should make up no more than half of your starting points (i.e. -50 points in disadvantages for a 100 point starting character). The key is that disadvantages should be interesting but not crippling.
- Take 5 quirks (each worth -1 point). They needn't even be particularly disadvantageous, but you have to role play them. Pick 2-3 quirks before play starts and fill the rest in as your character develops.