Character Creation

FYI, I named my character Beric.

So Harrigan's PC and Beric grew up around each other a lot, probably. Either they were buddies, or they butted heads a lot. Since Harrigan's PC was the tough kid, maybe he looked out for Beric and stuck up for him?

Drgwen's character and Beric obviously knew each other well, both being helpers for the witch. Drgwen' PC was a charmer and Beric was a problem solver, so they probably got along well.

A location: how about a crumbling ruin of a tower? It's ancient, and stories differ about what it was in the past. For kids it's like the Haunted house on the street. You dare each other to go in or spend the night in it. Teenagers hang out in it to drink ale the terrible alcoholic cider they fermented themselves.

An NPC: Norn, a gruff, middle-aged human man. He is big and muscular, with long gray hair and a wild beard. He has tattoos on his arms. He didn't grow up in the village, but arrived a few years ago. He works does manual labor around town. Talks very little. Rumor is that he used to be part of a mercenary company, but he won't answer questions about his past. No one goes into his house, but though the window you can see a quality greatsword hanging on the wall.

Love it! Harl the curmudgeonly blacksmith with a heart of gold. "Where are those durn kids!"

Maybe we worked the bellows for him. Or perhaps we did simple blacksmithing work. Nothing like silversmithing or swordsmithing, but enough that we would have the blacksmithing skill?

Well that table generally does not give skills, so I guess that would be a bit much.

I see, my first time playing Beyond the Wall. Maybe we just worked the bellows and cleaned up around the shop.

More like gotten in the way. XD

Alright, lots to cover, so I'll try to be methodical and clear.


Synaptic, you mentioned that we could get a little fast-and-loose with adding elements and connecting things together, so hoping you're okay with all this. I have further thoughts, but will hold fire until we seen the next round of rolls.

Now for locations and NPCs...

+Remote Location: Near the far crook in the river, where the weirs and traps are set furthest from the village, Gaelan has found a serene, flower and mushroom-filled glade where dandelion fluff floats and the afternoons seem to last forever. Ideal for naps, daydreams, and frolics.

+Village Location: The docks are not much to speak of. The village's few boats are tied up to a single wharf, and nets, traps, and basket weirs are piled high nearby, in various states of repair. The smell of fish, and really eel, is strong. (Sorry I cheated and added two!)

+NPC: Rolf Miller, Theda's father. Wealthy as anyone in the village, outspoken, and no fan of the witch or people who shirk responsibilities.

My Witch's Prentice is named Ophira.
Ophira and Beric both work for the Witch. Can I flesh out the Witch a bit? I know she plays a role in the story we've chosen, so feel free to revise anything as needed.

The Tale of the Witch

The Witch began her life as a young noblewoman who was exiled from her kingdom for refusing to marry; indeed, she quite aggressively opposed any attempts to make her submit and show deference to men. This led to her being declared unfit to rule and exiled from the kingdom for her "selfishness." As she left, she denounced her nobility and even her name, taking the name she goes by now: Anathema (or Ana, for short).

She had all sorts of strange adventures for many years, during which she learned trades of midwifery, bee-keeping, and herbalism, among others. She took up residence in a lovely, private hollow within striking distance of civilization, setting up shop as a midwife and herbalist, selling her honey, poultices, and other treatments, and mostly serving the women of the village. As she grew older, she began to take on young people to work with and train, hoping that her wisdom and independence would not be lost to the world. Now she lives in The Witch's Hut, a sturdy wooden shack in a secluded hollow built atop short, stout stilts, to keep it dry when the rains come and the hollow's soil grows damp.

So the location would be her Hut in the secluded hollow, where she lives with her cats 9that come and go of their own accord, though she knows them all by name), a pet lizard, and a family of spiders, which she claims all descended from a mother spider many, many generations ago that traveled her with her form her homeland far away.I also think that Ophira would spend some of her free time in the flower and mushroom-filled glade that Gaelan also enjoys.

NPCs: Hugh and Catrin Corwyn. My character's ma and pa. They keep the old stories and know much about folklore and the region round about. They are copious readers and researchers. They have always surrounded themselves with books, scrolls, and manuscripts. If they could just read and research all day long, they would [sounds like my kind of people]. But alas, unless you work at a college in one of the big cities or are a monk, you have to do something else to make a living. So, they opened a bookshop in town. They aren't good booksellers, though, because they have extreme difficulties parting with one of the items in their collection. "What if we need it again later?"

Location: Moonspindle Books. Medium sized, cramped, cozy, and warm. A labyrinth of hastily built bookshelves. Utterly no organization, but the purveyors (Hugh and Catrin Corwyn) seem to know where each and every volume resides. Books, scrolls, tomes, manuscripts, chronicles, treatises, grimoires, codexes, folios, fables, legends, tales, sagas, lore, and yes even some old stories. Dust and cobwebs hang from every shelf. Piles of books litter the aisles and most of the front room. Several comfy chairs that have seen better days face each other; a favored spot for Hugh and Catrin. Between the chairs, a small potbellied stove radiates heat. Hugh's collection of pipes on a shelf behind the stove. A twinkle of sunlight through an open window above that. And we are pretty sure there is a cat around here somewhere.

The cats name is Marginalia (Marge for short).

Side Note: I am really enjoying this. I may be trying to run a Beyond the Wall game with my friends real soon.

See, this is the thing I love about rpgs, you never know what you're gonna have to look into. Next time weirfishing shows up on Trivial Pursuit-night, I'm going to excel.
Absolutely, this is exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping for!
I really like that backstory for Anathema, nothing I think I need to change. But I'll hold off and see if the other PC's connected to the witch (Tim and Aline, particularly) have other ideas or want to add something in addition to what you've written.
I imagine the the witch might be a frequent customer of that bookstore, as well as possibly her apprentice and our resident dark sorcerer-in-training? Depending on what kind of merchant Ophira's father was, and how much he traveled, he might also have picked up books to sell and collected others in his travel that he off-loads onto them?


This is great, loving everyone's contributions so far! We'll stay at this stage for a little while longer, to give everyone a chance to chime in.

I hope you get the chance! It's a really fun game, especially when you get a good group together that can bounce ideas off each other.

Two quick things:

1. Love the bookstore. Gaelan can't read, though. Coming out of childhood his INT is 8 and it just fits to have him listen raptly to Thalen's stories, or someone reading to him from a book.

2. Character art. Any thoughts on trying to be consistent? Should we go for the black and white pencil look used in the book?

Thinking this might work for Gaelan.

Just getting down a few basics based on initial rolls:

My character's name is Thea Wildheart. She grew up as an orphan, never knowing who her parents were, but she always aspired to be the most famous person of the village. She chose the surname "Wildheart" for herself because she thought it sounded suitably heroic.

As a young child, she could usually be found bustling about the village, doing her best to solve mysteries and uncover secrets (often to the chagrin of the older folks who didn't want their secrets uncovered). She recruited a few like-minded kids to her sleuthing squad (including Ophira and Aline's as-of-yet-unnamed character).

When she was a little older, she befriended the grizzled Norn, who may or may not be a mercenary. Whatever the truth of his origins, he taught Thea a thing or two, and as she finished her adolescence, she stood poised to become a great warrior...

Hmm, might be time to bust out

I am very fond of that artstyle, and it fits the game really well. So I certainly encourage people to go for something like that, or other images that evoke that sort of old-school, hand-drawn style of BtW. But if you can't find something like that, that also fits your idea of the character, don't stress out over it.

(I also expect that I might end up being the weak link here, if only because of the breadth of pictures I'm probably going to end up using.)

I don't have drawing skills, and I couldn't find any images online that I liked, so I used AI to create my image.

This is adult Thalen.

Love the images, all of them! So any more NPCs or locations we want to create? I am happy to generate more if needed. Like, for example,

Location: The Old Well
Just outside of the village, over the rocky ridge that stands north of town, is a secluded vale with an ancient, crumbling stone well. The remains of a wooden roof over the stone well persist, with the crossbeam and a rope tied off to a rusted iron ring affixed to the side of the well. The other end descends into darkness, far below. There's water down there, if you go deep enough, but the current rope doesn't have a bucket on the end of it any more. And folks say that something lives down there now, something old and not to be trifled with. But that might just be old husbands' tales.

NPC: Dathana Arborine
Dathana is a middle aged woman who owns and operates a small apple orchard and cider house on the edge of town. She grows apples and sells them for food, but some she keeps for herself, fermenting and distilling them into hard ciders of various sorts, making her quite popular in town. She has a partner, Charina, who raises chickens and sells eggs, as well as food chickens too. Dathana is a gregarious bartender type with a thousand stories and a penchant for gossip, whereas Charina is a quiet and unassuming woman with a way with animals and a deep wisdom, but a secret vice of sweets.

but yeah, I'm ready to roll too!

Great! Yes, we can move on to the final group of tables now. Time for everyone to get their class abilities.