Rules
Character Creation
Build a character who already has a place, a past, relationships, obligations, and reasons to matter before active play begins.
A life before play
Spindrift uses a lifepath system. You establish where the character began, generate their starting Personality, and then guide them through the major stages of their life.
You choose the broad direction of the character's life. The dice determine the particular opportunities, complications, successes, relationships, and consequences that arose from those choices.
The goal is not to build a perfectly balanced game piece. The goal is to create someone who already feels as though they have lived in Spindrift.
Begin at birth
Origin
Establish the circumstances in which the character begins life. Origin is important, but it does not determine everything the character will become.
Ten opposed pairs
Starting Personality
Personality describes habitual behavior and the choices a character is inclined to make. It does not describe what the character is capable of doing.
Roll ten times
2d8 + 2Record the ten results as a Trait Array. Assign one result to each Trait pair. The opposed Trait receives the remainder needed to total 20.Example: Bold 14 / Cautious 6
Identity tests put convictions under pressure. The player rolls the stronger Trait first and decides how to express the result.
Read Identity tests, action benefits & inspiration →Read Personality & Trait Development →
A life in stages
Life Stages
Birth–10
Youth
2 Youth EventsCircumstances that mostly happen to the character: upbringing, family Bonds, education, fosterage, hardship, early exposure to the wider world, and early Trait changes.
Raised at Court · Fishing Community · Fostered by Another House · Temple Childhood · Raised Aboard Ship · Orphaned Young · Private TutorsAge 10–20
Adolescence
2 Adolescent EventsPersonal choice begins to matter: first Qualities, apprenticeships, mentors, loves, rivals, faction ties, religious commitments, training, ambitions, and scandals.
Trained for Knighthood · Studied Under a Master · Temple School · Served Aboard Ship · Became a Protégé · Fell in Love · Ran AwayAge 20+
Adulthood
1 Event per five yearsCareers, service, marriage, children, office, religion, land, trade, war, scandal, travel, inheritance, patronage, command, feud, loss, alliances, and institutional advancement.
Age 25: 1 · Age 30: 2 · Age 35: 3 · Age 40: 4 · Age 50: 6Choice + chance
Life Events
Choose the Event
You choose the broad path the character pursued.
Roll the Outcome
The dice determine the opportunity, success, complication, relationship, or loss that marked the period.
Make Result Choices
The result answers what happened; the player often answers how the character responded.
Apply Consequences
Record the relationships, changes, rewards, obligations, injuries, and History the Event created.
A strong Life Event should rarely provide only a simple bonus. Whenever possible it should create complicated consequences: something useful, something meaningful, something dangerous, or some combination of the three.
Anatomy of a Life Event
Personality Affects Events
Existing Traits may unlock options, require a Trait test, alter an outcome, or shift a Trait pair. Lifepath Trait changes are directbecause an Event represents years rather than a single moment.
Bonds Affect Events
Existing Bonds may be tested, strengthened, weakened, transformed, or placed in conflict. Events can also create new Bonds and draw existing characters into the result.
In active play, test a Bond when the commitment is uncertain. Record ✓ or × on one development track and resolve change at season's end. Read Bond tests, mixed outcomes, and development →
What a life leaves behind
The Character Record
Personality
How do you tend to act?
Ten opposed Trait pairs describe habitual behavior and the kinds of choices a character is inclined to make.
Qualities
What are you able to do?
Qualities describe learned capability rather than temperament.
Bonds
Who matters to you?
Bonds record meaningful commitments, underpin social influence, and shape the potency and consequences of action.
Prestige
How much weight does your name carry?
Prestige records recognized standing, reputation, and why people know the character.
History
What has happened to you?
History preserves the experiences and accomplishments that explain who the character has become.
Assets
What concrete resources do you control?
Assets are Holdings, Personnel, or Possessions gained through life and play.
Qualities
Qualities describe learned, practiced, or cultivated capabilities. They may be broad, such as Scholar or Navigator, or specialized, such as Fencer, Shipwright, orHippocampus Trainer.
Navigator
Routes, charts, currents, bearings, and wayfinding.
Fencer
Specialized swordplay emphasizing precision, timing, and technique.
Scholar
Research, texts, history, theory, and learned subjects.
Charlatan
Deception, impersonation, confidence tricks, false credentials, and social misdirection.
Shipwright
Building and repairing vessels.
Investigator
Evidence, testimony, inconsistencies, and reconstructing events.
Courtier
Etiquette, noble society, patronage, ceremony, and court politics.
Explore Personal, Faction & House Qualities →
Holdings
Places and fixed property: land, estates, workshops, businesses, temples, docks, and fortifications.
Personnel
People under the character's direction: retainers, troops, crews, workers, agents, specialists, and dependents.
Possessions
Tangible things: money, equipment, vessels, trade goods, heirlooms, relics, and artifacts.
Enter active play
Finish the Character
House & Faction Membership
A character belongs to a House where appropriate and may belong to one or more Factions. House Traditions and Faction Ethos describe collective expectations; they do not replace the character's own Personality. Test Ethos only for a Deed or Endeavour on behalf of that Faction, and Traditions only for one on behalf of, or concerning, that House.
Prestige & History
Record not only a Prestige score, but why the character's name carries weight. History should preserve the experiences and accomplishments that explain their current standing.
Player Sovereignty
The player always makes Identity rolls. A player or the GM may request a test: test the stronger Trait first, then the opposite only on an ordinary failure. A success requires a decision expressing that Trait; the player decides how. If both tests fail normally, the player chooses freely. Exactly matching the tested rating is a critical success; the highest face on any die rolled is a critical failure that immediately commits the decision to the opposite Trait without another roll. See theIdentity test rules.
Aging
Older characters deliberately enter play with more accumulated history. Elder Events, health, and later-life risk are still being developed rather than replaced by a flat age penalty.
Creation sequence
Origin → Starting Personality → Starting Age & Birth Year → 2 Youth Events → 2 Adolescent Events → Adult Events by Age → Apply Consequences → Finalize the SheetA Spindrift character is not created at the moment play begins. Play begins after a life has already happened.