Ancestral heritages affect characters from appearance to mannerisms. Aspects form the building blocks of a character’s heritage and can be mixed and matched as a player wants. There are more common collections of aspects that make up what are called Ancestries. This section lays down the Aspects and Ancestries available for play.
Terminology for Aspect
- Aspect. An ability that is inherent to your lineage or culture. It grants bonuses and can have deeper effects than traits.
- Latent. An Aspect with the latent tag means you can either take it during character creation when you are spending Heritage Points or later with Trait Points. Note, the point conversion is the same: 1 Heritage Point = 1 Trait Point. For example, Betoken Talent is Latent and worth 4 Points. You can take it during character creation with 4 Heritage Points or later with 4 Trait Points.
- Single. You can only take this aspect once.
- Special. When this term appears as the cost of an aspect, the entry explains in more detail.
- Supernatural. This is a tag for an ability that is magical or otherworldly.
Purchasing Aspects
The following are the basics you begin play with and can upgrade through various aspects.
- Hit Dice: d8
- Speed: 30 feet
- Vision: Normal
- Size: Medium
- Charm Score: 0
- Life Expectancy: Average*
- Tags: Humanoid
*An average life expectancy is the following:
- Adulthood: begins between 16 and 20
- Middle Age: begins between 38 and 46
- Old Age: begins between 56 and 64
- Venerable Age: begins between 70 and 74
These represent physical, emotional, and mental development but not societal views. Each society has different practices around age, particularly adulthood.
At each stage of life, there are alterations to your Ability Scores, reflective of this passing time.
- Middle Age: -1 to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution and a +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma
- Old Age: -2 to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution and a +2 to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma
- Venerable Age: -4 to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution and a +4 to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma
Cost
The cost is the number of Heritage Points an aspect is worth. You must spend that number of points to gain the aspect. Check with your Game Master to see how many Heritage Points you begin play with.
Important: Unless an aspect is tagged as Latent, you cannot gain any more aspects once play begins, unless at the GM’s discretion.