COMMANDMENT: Creating a Character

For making characters in COMMANDMENT. These rules are loosely based off the 3 Little Brown Booklets (OD&D).  I say loosely because they're not really a complete game, but work well enough to build fun stuff out of.

The type of characters
You may end up playing.

You have four stats.

Savvy - This is your mental acuity, cleverness, guile, and skill. This also represents your ability to learn, to notice things, and to mentally adapt to the situation.

Athletics - This represents your physical ability, your coordination, your agility, and your overall constitution. A higher Athletics indicates a higher endurance, as well.

Weird - This represents how deep you are into the realms of the Weird--the occult, strangeness, how well you deal with Powers beyond your own, and all manners of things.

Oblivion - This represents how many times you can be reborn through Iron Circles before your soul peters out and turns into clay.

For the first three stats, roll 2d6 + 6. These are your attributes.

If you want, you can use the classical 6 stats, with Depredation being an added 7th (that is never rolled for). I prefer 4 stats in my games, but it doesn't ultimately matter. Anything that would target Strength/Dexterity/Constitution now targets Athletics. Anything that would target Intelligence/Wisdom/Charisma now targets savvy. Anything that targets levels/exp/energy levels now targets Weird.

Damage you take is dealt to your Athletics score. When you advance in one of your classes, roll your hit die. This becomes a second pool of hit points for the purpose of making you a bit more durable. Once your hit points are out, damage goes straight to Athletics. Once Athletics hits 0, you die (and are hopefully reborn at your Iron Circle).

Some people wait at Iron Circles, even build shrines at them.
For requests of the reborn.
Or for reasons more sinister yet.

You have three saving throws.

Vs. Doom - Whenever you encounter something that will likely horrifically hurt you or maim you, save vs Doom. Traps, avalanches, sudden falls, all that stuff.

Vs. Iron - Sometimes, iron will call to you from afar, will sing to you, will sings of bloodlust, of carnage. In order to resist the mind-controlling effects of an enemy's iron, of walking through battlefields, and of exploring ruins, you will need to sometimes save vs Iron.

Vs. Wands - Spells and curses are dangerous. The wand-words of magicians, warlocks, sorcerers, and necromancers will destroy you if you are not prepared for them.

Roll 3d6 + 1 for each saving throw, down the line. In order to succeed on these rolls, a d20 roll above them is required. If the save is particularly hard, the referee will say roll with powerlessness, where you roll 2d20 and take the worse result.

A clear case of Save vs Wands.

Pick your character's class from the options below.

Fighting-Man - As it is in OD&D. One modification: every 3 levels, on a successful attack roll (1d20 vs thac0), you get an additional d6 you can roll for damage. This damage can be against any target that is within range of your current weapon.

Magic-User - As it is in OD&D. One modification: roll for a mancy. You know and can perform this. 

Cleric - As it is in OD&D. One modification: clerics do not Turn Undead but instead Turn the Barbarous. All Sea People and all Gods of Conquest are barbarous.

A COMMANDMENT magic-user.
A hidden identity prevents
the Sea People's curse from afflicting loved ones.

If you have for spells, roll for them and consult the OD&D spell chart. Spellbooks do not exist in commandment, nor do spell scrolls. Reflavor your spellbook as one of the following:

1. Tattoos sprawling over your skin.
2. Sigils and signs woven into your clothing or mask.
3. Hieroglyphics covering your many daggers and implements.
4. Words etched into a slab of lapis lazuli that you carry.
5. Symbols covering an idol, with each symbol being its own spell.
6. Scrimshawed bones that contain your secrets.

Spell scrolls come in small amounts of one of the above. For example, human hide with spiritual tattoos, stone tablets, and so on. Same for treasure maps, really.

This slab of worked bronze
Could easily be a spellbook of some sort.

When you wake up, your head is burning from a pain you can't identify. You have very little with you.

Fighting-Men Have: Two weapons of their choice, a shield, and a set of leather bands for armor (treat as leather w/ shield)

Magic-Users Have: A dagger and a spellbook.

Clerics Have: A weapon of their choice and a set of bronze panoply (treat as chain mail).

In addition, roll 1d12 and consult the table below. Your result is an item you are carrying without remembering how you got it or where it came from.

1. Anointed Skull - A skull anointed in a necromancer's oils. Can be spoken with once, and it will answer one Yes/No question before turning to dust.
2. Iron Weapon - An iron weapon that you can use. +2 to attack rolls. Save vs Wands for Barbarous reasons.
3. Olive Branch - This branch still blossoms with olives and leaves. When waved, a hostile monster of your choice that sees it will seek parley with you. The olive branch then withers and dies.
4. Bronze Menat - This menat, when played, causes Gods of Conquest to temporarily regain their sane, human minds. This will last for 6 rounds before the menat crumbles to dust.
5. Lightning-Rich Opal - This opal, as all opals are, was created when lightning struck a desert. Can be crushed to cast Lightning Bolt. 
6. Iron-Hating Stele - Etched into this stone slab are poems and prayers that remind one of the humanity within them. Once stuck into a ground, produces an invisible 300" x 300" barrier that no creature holding Iron, no one who is barbarous, and no God of Conquest can pass through for 10 rounds. Afterwards, the stele breaks into pieces.
7. Polished Looking Glass - A looking glass of silver, finely polished. Anyone who looks into it has their appearance remembered. The next person who looks into the looking glass looks exactly like the first for 10 rounds. The looking glass then becomes dull and unreflective.
8. Burning Sun Lens - This clear lens absorbs sunlight. After absorbing sunlight for a total of 2 hours, it explodes in a 20" x 20" blast. Treat this blast a fireball and the lens as destroyed in the conflaguration.
9. Poet's Scroll - This papyrus scroll has countless Achaen poems written on it. Subdued monsters, including men, who hear this scroll will roll a 12 on their morale check to become your hirelings. However, after the first creature does this, fame of your scroll transcends you and thus loses its charm.
10. Astrolabe - This bronze astrolabe is perfectly functional. It also is sentient, and will try to lead you to a certain destination. The referee rolls a d%. There is a 40% chance this leads to the place you first died, a 30% chance this leads to treasure, and a 30% chance this leads to an ambush of some sort.
11. Bronzework Bird - A bird of worked bronze. Upon closer inspection, it is a graceful prinia. When you pass a secret door, the bird will come alive and fly through it, revealing its location. Afterwards, it becomes permanently inert.
12. Lapis Lazuli Shardbook - A shard of lapis lazuli with one spell magic-user 1st level spell written on it. Treat as a spell scroll.

My favorite of the revival gifts.

The Dwarf, Elf, and Hobbit race-class variants do not exist. If your referee allows, you can be a sphinx.

Now that your character is made, keep these things in mind:

• You don't know who you are.
• You don't know where you are.
• You don't remember how you get here.
• You have an innate hatred towards the Sea People and all things barbarous.
• You have an innate distrust of iron.
• You have an innate trust of sphinx.

COMMANDMENT games begin in the Godsblood, the mouth of the deific Nile River. All around you are boats with burned out pyres filling them, and black corpses. Venture into the world and find what you have lost.