Character Creation

This guide covers the character creation system in WestMarches.games, including how to configure it as an admin and what users experience when creating characters.

Overview

Character creation happens at the community level. Each community has its own character creation form that users fill out, with optional image upload and GM approval workflow. Admins can customize the fields, limits, and approval process.

For Admins: Configure character creation settings in Community Settings → Character Settings. You can set limits, make character sheets optional, and define custom attributes.

Character Creation Guidelines

Admins can set custom character creation instructions that appear prominently when users create or edit characters. This is ideal for communicating community-specific guidelines such as Allowed Source, Character Restrictions and Community Standards

These guidelines are displayed every time a user creates or edits a character, ensuring important rules are always visible.

Character Limits

There are two types of character limits:

Per-User Limit
Admins can set how many active characters each player can have (default: 3)
Community Limit
Total character limit based on community boost level from Patreon supporters

During character approval, GMs can manually check if community-specific restrictions apply before approving characters. Users who reach their limit must retire, mark as deceased, or delete an existing character before creating a new one.

Custom Attributes

Admins can define custom attributes for organizational purposes. These are not a replacement for character sheets, but help organize community-specific information:

Text Fields
Free-form text input for things like character class, subclass, or patron
Single Select Options
Choose one option from a predefined list (e.g., character race, faction, starting location)
Multi-Select Options
Choose multiple options from a list (e.g., multi-class options, affiliations)

Attributes can be marked as required and can be shown in character listings for easy filtering and organization.

Starting Experience & Currency

Admins can enable a feature that allows players to set initial experience and currency values when creating characters. This is particularly useful when transferring an existing community to the platform:

Experience Points
Players can enter starting experience points for existing higher-level characters
Starting Currency
Players can set initial amounts for gold, silver, or custom currencies
Experience Ladder
If multiple progression tracks are enabled, players can choose which experience ladder to use

Important: Players can change these values while their character is pending approval, but they become locked once the character is approved by a GM.