The First thing the Game Master will have to do is decide upon which races he will allow into his game. After this decision is made, he will have to see to the task of the players choosing their races in what ever manner the DM sees fit. Once this is done, the GM will decide upon how many characters each player will get to begin with. In the past found 20 to be a nice number, but GMs may obviously do as they will. Ultimately I have found most races balance pretty well save perhaps for kobolds and Bullywugs who you might want to give a slight numbers advantage and disadvantage to. Once this is decided and done, players may use the steps below to make their characters.

Elves and Dwarves live long lives and as such tend to be exceptionally skilled. This gives them a great starting advantage. In the long run however they do begin to suffer drastically by numbers. They reproduce by far the slowest.

Humans, Halflings, Orks and Goblins tend to be relatively similar. They reproduce and are skilled to a similar degree. Each has their differences in many areas, but none particularly stands out. Orks excell physically, Humans are a nice average of all things, Goblins and Halflings are also relativley mediocre.

Bullywugs tend to be the most physically powerful creatures with good natural defenses. They do breed in large numbers, but few of them survive. Bullywugs do also tend to be the least intelligent and the least skilled. Bullywugs tend to start the game as remarkable good fighters due to natural armor class and their leap attack. If I were going to do my game again, I dont think I would allow bullywuggs again.

Kobolds are smart enough and longer lived than humans, and as such are well skilled. The reproduce quite quickly and thus gains numbers well, but are physically the weakest of the lot.

Better Statistical data on the races can be found HERE

HERE is a character form I like to use for characters using this system. It's done in .bmp image format, so it comes out pretty well. You'll most likely have to save it to your hard drive and print it.

Ability scores are quite important. One of the first things we want to do is to decide a method of deriving the Ability Scores. Like always, I'll make a few suggestions.

Method 1): Simply take 3D6 and roll um for each Ability Score. I like this method for this particular type of a game because to me the game is about taking what you get and struggling to make due. Also remember these will be modified by racial things.

Method 2): For each character get the results of six separate 3D6 rolls and allocate them among the six Ability Scores. These are also modified per race. This method is a compromise between method 1 and 3 and isn't that bad.

Method 3): This is the method players like best, though it in many ways defeats some of the intent of having a group of "normal" people. In this method each character is allotted a number of points to be allocated as the player sees fit among the six Ability Scores. GMs may choose this number as they like, but I like 63 which is 6 X 10.5 which is the average roll of 3D6. In this method, don't forget to modify based upon race. My real problem with this is that characters tend to all be idiot savants, each having their particularly needed stats at 18 and everything else at 7.

I believe in a game such as this, skills are by far the most important element of a character. After all, building something from nothing takes a lot of know how. I believe there are a couple ways that skills can be done. Like all things, these are suggestions. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. The real difference is if you want simplicity or more complicated realism.

Method 1): Use a version of the AD&D skill system. Give characters a number of Proficiencies based on their Intelligence and age. I like the idea of giving a simple number of slots which may be spent on WPs as well as NWPs. Numbers I like to recommend are 2 skills plus any additional generated based on the number of additional languages from Intelligence, plus perhaps 1 for every 10 years of age a character has over his maturity. You may wish to limit what categories may be chosen from, or allow them to be purchased at additional cost. Keep in mind that AD&D allows additional slots to be spent on a skill a character already has to raise it's score by one. GMs might consider a +2 instead because +1 is kinda pathetic considering you could have learned an all new skill from scratch with the same skill point.

Method 2): This method uses the skill system I present on this web page HERE . I like this system even though more complicated because it allows a better variety of skills as well as providing a good method for improvement. On the down side, it is complicated and takes some time, particularly to do many individuals. Again the number of "KPs" a character has to spend to obtain skills is based upon intelligence and age. I like about 35 KPs per point of Intelligence that character has plus 10 per year older the character is than their maturity age. I do warn GMs that this system can be abused. Somebody always wants to spend all points in a single skill. I recommend that you put a cap on how many KPs may be put into various types of skills to begin. Weapon Proficiency / Specialization, Thief and Mystic skills seem to be the most abused.

I STRONGLY recommend that for the island game you use my NWP Skill System and Weapon Specialization system. THIS is the link to my NWP system, and THIS is the link to my Weapon Specialization system. My reason for these recommendations are many fold. The first is that I wrote them and are naturally bias towards them. The second is that my NWP system is far more flexible than most and includes skills which allow fore very specific elements of the game. My system also allows for all characters to begin in the same way and learn what has in the past been "classes" without actually having to be one. It allows for characters to develop the abilities that had once been associated with classes without having to be locked into a class which limits other things. Ultimately it's much more logical. If you have a character who you believe would be good as a fighter, you use the skill system to get him all the things he needs. The same is true for a thief, magic user, cleric, blacksmith, carpenter, sailor or what ever. In essence the system allows for a character to be a character and not a cookie cutter class.

In running a game like this for relatively mundane characters I find it interesting to eliminate concepts like "Class" and "Level" all together. This of course makes some things difficult. The most obvious things that get lost are Saving Throws, Hit Points, THAC0, and spell casting. If you wish to try something different and not have Classes and and Levels for your characters, yet still seek a method of advancement and develpoment on a character, I'll present you my rules for this.

For the system I'm about to present, Improvement Points, also known as IPs, are earned and used to improve independent elements of a character that were once a function of Level and Class. IPs are earned in specific areas when a character engages in that type of activity. Those who fight get better at fighting. Those exposed to lots of toxins develop resistance.

Hit points can be determined primarily by the character's race and constitution. The character's "Base Hit Points" are found by comparing these two factors on the table below. Your base hit points are how may HPs your character begins the game with, yet this is not his long term situation. To do this we will make up a new Attribute I like to call "Warrior's Heart". Warriors Heart will be an Attribute that will accumulate IPs whenever a character is involved in a real situation in which he is doing his best avoiding and dealing with the trauma of physical attacks ( generally one per battle in which he has been attacked ). The more IPs the character gains in Warrior's Heart, the better the character gets at minimizing injury and dealing with that which he does receive. As a result, the character effectively gains more HPs. When a character gains enough IPs, he gets a multiplier to his base HPs. Lets say a character has 6 base hit points. If that character lives long enough to acquire 8 IPs in his Warrior's Heart Attribute, that entitles him to 150% of his base HPs. Thus this character now effectively has 9 HP rather than his old 6. A progression chart for Warriors Heart may be found on THIS page.

THAC0 is another one of those things which is generally determined by level and class. Because we have eliminated those things, we have to develop a different way of deriving that score. For the sake of determining THAC0, were going to make up another attribute I like to call "Combat Accuracy". In a manner similar to Warrior's Heart, Combat accuracy confers the character a better THAC0 based upon how many IPs that character accumulates in it. Characters begin with 0 IPs in Combat Accuracy, and thus a THAC0 of 20. IPs are earned in Combat Accuracy each time that character engages offensively with a weapon ( or bare handed) in a real combat. One IP per fight is a good rate I believe. When enough IPs have been accumulated in Combat Accuracy, that character's THAC0 improves as noted on the table on THIS page.

Traditionally in AD&D there are five categories of saving throw. A character's scores in these groups are of course primarily determined by level and class as well as receiving bonuses from race and ability scores. A first revision I like to make for the Island game is adding a sixth category of saving throw which is "Disease, Illness, Disorder". I think this helps with the particulars with this type of a game and makes up for an oversight in AD&D. Now, how do we actually determine the scores. There are two ways I believe can work well for this. I'll list them below.

Method 1): Assume a starting score of 20 in all six categories of saving throw. From that roll a D2 and subtract the result from the score of 20 in that category. Do this for each of the six categories leaving scores between 18 and 19.

Method 2): At start of character creation each categories begins ranked at 20. At character creation a player may subtract a total of 10 points as is seen fit by the player from among the scores of those six categories.

Now we talk about betterment of saving throws, a function previously associated with level. Each of the 6 categories of saving throw will have associated with it a new attribute I will call "Learned Resistance". When a character is forced to make a saving throw, he will earn an IP in his "Learned Resistance" for that category of save. When a character earns enough IPs in a category of Learned Resistance, that category receives bonuses for any saves of that kind in the future. Again the table which denotes how many IPs produce what bonuses can be found HERE .

I like to use perception checks in my games a lot. I generally break down perception into it's six basic types. See, Hear, Smell, Taste, Feeling, and 6th. Each of these has a score of between 5 and 20. Realize that a score in any of these attributes less than 8 constitutes a handicap. Scores of 5 or less are an outright disability. As always I present a few methods of deriving these perception scores.

Method 1): Each score is rolled using 5D4. This makes for a neat and simple method that goes with the theme of "make do with what you have".

Method 2): Each character generates 6 scores using 5D4 for each and allocates them as he desires among the various perception attributes.

Method 3): Each character is given 75 points to divide among his six scores ( which averages 12.5 each). Players like this one best, and with this method don't be surprised when there are a lot of very high see, hear and 6th sense scores.

Some players will without doubt want to play spell casters if you allow for such. This is hard to do once you eliminate class. The way characters may become spell casters is to spend their KPs and learn skills from my skill system which lead to spell casting ability. A character who wants to be a mage will need a good knowledge of spellcraft. Would be clerics will need Religion. Upstart druids will need druid craft. All of these skills are classified as "mystic" skills in my system. With the GMs blessing, a character may purchase some of these mystic skills to a rank high enough where he receives a "Casting Grade" of 1. What this means is that he has enough training in the topic such as to be a spellcaster of first level equivalent. Higher ranks of those mystic skills allow the character to progress to higher casting grades, but DO NOT impart them. Casting grades are raised only by the in game use of that particular type of magic. Casting Grades gain IPs as they are used. Accumulating IPs in Casting Grade increases it as show HERE . For sake of spell casting, think of that character's Casting Grade as his level where spells are concerned. Ranges, duration, damage, etc which are otherwise determined by level are now figured using Casting Grade. Determining how many spells a caster can cast, assume he is of the class that casts that type of spell and his level is equal to his Casting Grade. Look at the appropriate table and that will let you know how many spells are castable. Art Type is a simple way of Differentiating different types of casting styles. If you have a high Druidcraft, you'll have an Art Type which is Druid magic. Spellcraft will produce a casting grade in the Art Type of Wizard magic. Religious devotion may grant a casting grade in the Art Type of Clerical magic.

Writer's Note: Do not confuse IPs with the score itself. Enough IPs raise your scores. Also do not confuse KPs with IPs. They are completley diffrent. KPs you can earn through instruction, education and pratice. IPs come only from experiencing the real thing. KPs go only into skills. IPs only go into Attributes such as Combat Accuracy, Warriors Heart, Learned Resistance, and Casting Grades.