Character Creation

Character Creation in Palimpsest consists of the components detailed below.

• OC information: Inform the GMs (and eventually your fellow players) of your name and pronouns. In addition, you will need to supply an email address, and if you are under 18, you will need to alert the GMs for safeguarding reasons (this information will not be shared, as per our Privacy Policy).
• IC name(s) and pronouns: Choose a name for your character. Please also tell us your character's pronouns.
• Character Questionnaire: Answer some important questions about your character. See below for more details.
• Quirks: Quirks shape your experience throughout the game by reflecting aspects of your character and their history, and communicating the content and themes that you're comfortable with. See the Quirks page for information about the Quirks you can take.
• Private Bio: A brief (2-5 paragraphs) biography of your character visible only to you and the GMs.
• Public Bio: A shorter (1-2 paragraphs) biography that will be published on the Player Characters page on this wiki, visible to all players.
• OC Notes to GMs: An optional message to the GMs, primarily to inform them how they can make the game more comfortable or accessible for you.

If you have any questions for the GMs concerning Character Creation, or are simply looking for inspiration for what sort of character to play, we will be running a Character Creation session both online and in-person. See the When and Where page for more details.

Untir is filled with a diverse range of people and places. If you want your character's name to be influenced by the region they're from, feel free to have a look at the name examples on each region page for inspiration, and/or speak to a GM (either in person or on the Discord Server) about that region's language influences.

In addition, please tell us your character's IC pronouns, so that we and other players know how to refer to them. These will be visible beside your character's name on the wiki.

The Character Questionnaire is a set of questions that helps make sure players have decided on, and GMs know, some important details about the submitted character. The five questions are:

Where were they born? Which culture(s) had a presence in their upbringing? Do they speak more than one language? What does ‘home’ mean to them?

Do they have any blood family or found family? Do they have history with anyone? How have their relationships shaped them? Are they positive, negative or somewhere in between?

This question is an opportunity for you to make GMs aware in detail of any links your character might have with NPCs (for example, through the Relationship Quirk) and other player characters. Please also feel free to come up with NPCs! However, do bear in mind that if you create a large number of them we may not be able to include them all in Uptime.

What kinds of Telling did your character interact with growing up? Are they a storyteller, artist, or maker themselves, or are they content to experience the Telling of others? Do they idolise a particular Legend, or pay Legends no heed? Do they have a favourite story?

Is being known of by others something they crave, or something they’re wary of? Do they even care about it at all? If they already have a modicum of fame, do they fear returning to obscurity?

What are their circumstances immediately before they begin to dream? Do they see their arrival in the House of Fame as the result of something that has happened recently? Do they believe it marks the beginning of their inevitable rise to glory, or do they think it portends something dark? Is it a chance for them to share stories with others, or an opportunity to get ahead?

In the event of oversubscription, we are using a computerised balloting system to decide who places will be allocated to. The ballot will be done jointly with Ex Nihilo with a view to ensuring that as many people as possible get to play in one of the games. You will be able to state which if either game you would rather play in, whether you would be willing to play your second choice game instead, and whether you wish to become a GM for Ex Nihilo in the case there are not enough spaces. Balloting will be done in the following priority groups:

• Oxford University students for whom this is their last possible Society Game.
• Oxford University students who have never played a Society Game before.
• Oxford University students who have played a Society Game before.
• Non-Oxford University students.

To express your preferences, please complete this form by 23:59 on Wednesday 22nd April (0th Week). Results will be released on our Discord servers then; if you do not have access to these, please let us know so we can send you the results by email. After this, if there are any places remaining, anyone who did not participate in balloting for any reason will be able to claim them from the CAMPOs, at their discretion and on a first-come, first-served basis.

The source code of the program that will be used for balloting is available here. A plain-English description of the algorithm used is also provided there.

After your place in Palimpsest has been confirmed, you should start completing the Character Creation Form. It contains the questions described above.

If, for whatever reason, you would prefer not to use this, we will also accept character submissions by email to: gm@palimpsest.oxfordrpg.com.

The deadline for character submissions is on Saturday 25th April, 12.59.

The ORPGSoc Society Game is a format centred on collaborative human storytelling. The GM team will thus reject character submissions which have been produced by generative AI.