Sample Character Arcs

At the start of the game, players can choose one character arc for free. Any additional character arcs a player invests into throughout the game will require spending 1 XP (representing the devotion to that goal).

• Aid a Friend - Someone needs your help.
• Assist an Organization - You set out to accomplish something that will further an organization. You’re probably allied with them or they are rewarding you for your help in some fashion.
• Avenge - Someone close to you or important to you in some way has been wronged.
• Birth - You are becoming a parent.
• Build - You are going to build a physical structure—a house, a fortress, a workshop, a defensive wall, and so on. This arc would also cover renovating an existing structure or substantially adding to one.
• Cleanse - Someone or something has been contaminated, probably by evil spirits, radiation, a deadly virus, foul magic, or the like, and you want to rid them of such influences or contaminants.
• Creation - You want to make something. This might be a magic item, a painting, a novel, or a machine.
• Defeat a Foe - Someone stands in your way or is threatening you. You must overcome the challenge they represent.
• Defense - A person, place, or thing is threatened, and you want to protect it.
• Develop a Bond - You want to get closer to another character. This might be to make a friend, find a mentor, or establish a contact in a position of power. It might be to turn a friend into a much closer friend.
• Enterprise - You want to create and run a business or start an organization.You’ll almost certainly have to make new connections, find (and somehow pay for) a location, and deal with all manner of administrative duties.
• Establishment - You want to prove yourself as someone of importance. This can take many forms—socially,within your order, financially, or even romantically.
• Explore - Something out there is unknown and you want to explore its secrets. This is most likely an area of wilderness, a new planet, an otherworldly dimension, or something similar.
• Fall from Grace - It is something that a player selects on a meta level for the character because it makes for an interesting story. It also sets up the potential for future arcs, such as Redemption. It’s important that this involve actions you take. For example, you fall into substance abuse. You treat people badly. You make mistakes that endanger others. In other words, the fall isn’t orchestrated by someone else—it’s all your own doing.
• Finish a Great Work - Something that was begun in the past must now be completed. This might involve destroying an evil artifact, finishing the construction of a monument, developing the final steps of a cure for a disease, or uncovering a lost temple forgotten to the ages.
• Growth - Willingly or unwillingly, you are going to change. This is another meta arc. It’s less about a goal and more about character development. While it’s possible that the growth involved is intentional, in most people’s lives and stories, it is emergent. A character might become less selfish, braver, a better leader, or experience some other form of growth.
• Instruction - You teach a pupil. You have knowledge on a topic and are willing to share. This can be a skill, an area of lore, a combat style, or the use of a special ability. This is usually a fairly long-term arc.
• Join an Organization - You want to join an organization. This might be a military organization, a corporation, a secret society, a religion, or something else.
• Justice - You try to right a wrong or bring a wrongdoer to justice.
• Learn - You want to learn something. This isn’t the same as the Uncover a Secret arc, in which you’re looking for a bit of information. This is a skill or whole area of knowledge you want to gain proficiency with. This is learning a new language, how to play an instrument, or how to be a good cook. Thus, it’s not about gaining a level or rank in climbing, but learning to be an experienced mountaineer.
• Master a Skill - You’re skilled, but you want to become the best. This arc might logically follow the Learn arc. As with the Learn arc, this can involve any kind of training at all, not just a skill.
• Mysterious Background - You don’t know who your parents were, but you want to find out. The mystery might be something other than your parentage, but that’s a common theme in this kind of arc. You want to know where you come from—there’s some kind of mystery in your past.
• New Discovery - You want to invent a new device, process, spell, or something similar. A cure for a heretofore unknown disease? An invocation with a result you’ve never heard of before? A method for getting into an impregnable vault? Any of these and more could be your discovery. While similar to the Creation arc and the Learn arc, the New Discovery arc involves blazing a new trail. No one can teach you what you want to know. You’ve got to do it on your own.
• Raise a Child - You raise a child to adulthood. It can be your biological child or one you adopt. It can even be a child taken under your wing, more a young protégé than a son or daughter. This is obviously a very long-term arc.
• Recover from a Wound - You need to heal. This isn’t just for healing simple damage. This involves recovering from a major debilitating injury, illness, or shock. Severe damage, the loss of a body part, and emotional trauma all fall into this category.
• Redemption - You’ve done something very wrong, but you want to atone and make it right again. This is like the Justice arc or the Undo a Wrong arc, except you are the wrongdoer. This could be a follow-up to the Fall From Grace arc.
• Repay a Debt - You owe someone something, and it’s time to make good.
• Rescue - Someone or something of great importance has been taken, and you want to get them or it back.
• Restoration - You’re down but not out. You want to restore your good name. Recover what you’ve lost. Rebuild what has been destroyed. You’ve fallen down or have been knocked down, but either way you want to pick yourself up. This is a possible follow-up to the Fall From Grace arc.
• Revenge - Someone did something that harmed you. Unlike the Avenge arc, this arc probably isn’t about tracking down a murderer, but it might involve pursuing someone who stole from you, hurt you, or otherwise brought you grief. The key is that it’s personal. Otherwise, use the Justice arc.
• Romance - You want to strike up a relationship with a romantic partner. Perhaps you have a specific person in mind, or maybe you’re just interested in a relationship in general.
• Solve a Mystery - Different from the Learn arc and the Uncover a Secret arc, this arc is about solving a crime or a similar action committed in the fairly recent past. It’s not about practice or study, but about questions and answers. In theory, the mystery doesn’t have to be a crime. It might be “Why is this strange caustic substance leaking into my basement?”
• Theft - Someone else has something you want.
• Train a Creature - You want to domesticate and train an animal or other creature. While the beast doesn’t need to be wild, it must not already be domesticated and trained.
• Transformation - You want to be different in a specific way. Because the Growth arc covers internal change, this one focuses primarily on external change. This could take many forms, and probably varies greatly by genre. In some settings, it could even be death, which might turn you into a ghost. For the change to be an arc, it should be difficult and perhaps risky.
• Uncover a Secret - There is knowledge out there that you want. It could be an attempt to find and learn a specific special ability. This could also be a hunt for a lost password or a key that will open a sealed door, the true name of a devil, the secret background of an important person, or how the ancients constructed that strange monolith.
• Undo a Wrong - Someone did something horrible, and its ramifications are still felt, even if it happened long ago. You seek to undo the damage, or at least stop it from continuing. This is different from the Justice arc because this isn’t about justice (or even revenge)—it’s about literally undoing something bad that happened in the past, such as a great library being burned to the ground, a sovereign people being driven from their land, and so on.