There are two species available to Spirits (player characters) in GiantLands: The 3rd Age.
If you wish to take an Anakim (subspecies of giant) you will need permission from your Bone Keeper (games master)
Otherwise you must choose Sapien.
Which species will your Spirit be?
[S] apien or [A]nakim?
Now there is an requirement to roll six scores to later assign to core abilities.
The system is to roll 1d20, discarding rolls of 1-2 or 19-20, until you get six scores between 3-18.
These scores will be arranged later and then be adjusted by your choice of species.
They will also decide the amount of Life Points.
[R] oll the dice.
If your Bone Keeper decides you have low rolls, and allows: You may take a [m] ulligan
If you take the mulligan option, you must accept the new roll, even if it is worse.
Otherwise, the next step is [a] llocating abilities.
First you have to pick which score to replace. (There is no rule specifying it must be the lowest, or even less than maximum)
You must now allocate each of the rolls to an ability.
Your rolls are:
The 1st roll is
Which ability do you wish to assign this to?
[S] pirit | [M] ind | [B] ody | [T] oughness | [U] rgency | [L] uck
Your abilities receive bonuses decided by your species.
Anakim receive standarized bonuses to their stats.
I have updated your's as follows:
+1 to Spirit
[N] ext its on to calculating your Life Points.
As your Spirit is a Sapien, you can assign a +1 bonus to any two of your abilities.
Please pick two from the following:
[S] pirit | [M] ind | [B] ody | [T] oughness | [U] rgency | [L] uck
Your Life Force is calculated by combining your spirit's highest and lowest ability scores.
Your spirit's highest ability is:
Your spirit's lowest ability is:
Total Life Force:
That's all there is to it.
[N] ext you must choose a Chiefdom.
Your chiefdom is your population hub of origin, but more important - your respawn point. There are six* chiefdoms listed. Please choose a chiefdom:
[A] shfall[B] rokenridge[K] eth-Amara[W] indhollow[F] rostmere.
Each Spirit has a sigil associated with the type of Ley Energy they are associated with.
You can choose the aesthetics for your particular Spirit, but the type is chosen for you.
Your Spirit's sigil will be:
Your randomly assigned sigil and abilities are added to your sheet. [N] ext: Choosing a profession.
Professions set your character's combat abilities, and give them one randomly assigned special ability specific to the profession.
Please choose your starting profession (key abilities):
[H] unter (Body, Urgency, Mind)[W] arden (Body, Toughness, Spirit)[S] eer (Spirit, Mind, Luck)[R] aider (Urgency, Mind, Luck)[p] eaker (Mind, Spirit, Luck)
Each Spirit has a deep seated fear, with adjustments that kick in when relevant.
Fears are randomly assigned. There is no stated expectation for your to invent a reason for your Spirit's fear.
Your Spirit's fear is:
[N] ext, your equipment.
Your equipment will be assigned via random generation in three batches: weapon, armor and gear.
There is no factoring in of starting profession, sigil or species.
Your character will also start with the clothes on their back, and one personal item of no mechanical value you are encouraged to name.
[N] ext we'll roll for your Spirit's weapon.
Each spirit has a single weapon that they take with them when they begin their adventure by setting out on the ice.
There are ranged weapons and melee weapons (as well as melee that can be thrown). In order to have both or dual wield, your Spirit will need to acquire another weapon elsewhere.
Your Spirit's weapon is:
I hope that is what you wanted - no takebacks.
[N] ext is armor.
Each Spirit begins with one type of armor, assigned randomly.
The options range from literal ragged furs to ancient, supernatural artifacts (which are not described, so the form of which must be decided by the Bone Keeper).
Your armor is:
Whether this is suitable to the rest of your Spirit's build or not, it's what you get.
[N] ext is gear.
In addition to weapons and armor, you begin with a randomly assigned bundle of gear:
Your starting gear is:
Hope there's something useful for you in there.
Spirits do not start with any currency, so the group fails to get an essential you will need to source it elsewhere.
[N] ext is finding out your mutation.
Each Spirit begins with a randomly assigned mutation. These are rolled for after you choose profession.
Your mutation is:
If your mutation is better than the rest of your group's, your Bone Keeper may make you re-roll. If it's worse: unlucky.
[N] ext, it's time to choose your name.
Alright, all the mechanics sections are now complete.
It's time to name your Spirit.
What name will your Spirit go by?
Press [Enter] when you are ready to progress.
As name's are mandatory no name is supplied, a random one will be generated by this application. There are no example names in the book.
Every story needs a beginning, so you have the option to give your Spirit a back story.
As per the rules, backstory should be limited to two sentences:
Your Spirit,
There is no option to reset because trying to work out how to make this work with all the exceptions, weird order, etc made getting this far much more complicated than it should have been.
I hope this process has been illustrative to you and re-enforces my opinion that this process is tedious, deprives the player of agency in the areas they want it and ultimately makes them feel like they have no ownership or investment in the character.