Character Generation

Like everything else in Nameless, creating characters should be a fast and fluid process. Most RPGs tell you to start with a "character concept" in mind, and that's a perfectly reasonable way to do things. However, going into this process with only vague ideas like your character's profession, back story, or function within the group is also perfectly acceptable. Do whatever works best for you... and only what you have time for. (That goes double for GMs creating NPCs!)

Philosophy

Mooky Stats

Don't bother writing up complete game stats for minor characters. It really is just a waste of time, and most mooks wouldn't have Motivations, Talents, or Flaws anyway!

Instead, you should just decide how competent you want your mooks to be and give them a few Target Numbers to use (if they need game stats at all).

For example:

Cop: Combat (5) Police Work (6) Sneak (4)
Scholar: Field of Study (8) Social Skills (4)

This is a statement of how the character views the world; it serves as a personality-in-a-can for NPCs and helps players decide how to approach problems and moral choices. It can be as long and detailed as a list of religious commandments or as short and vague as "Always look out for number one." It has no real game effects, though a GM can certainly give out Bad Karma for acting against your character's philosophy (without a good excuse).

Motivation

Simply put, this is the reason your character does what they do. Personal quests, revenge, duty, and honor are all good places to start. Discuss with the GM whether it would be better to have a long-term goal that would last many adventures or a more focused, specific goal that might have to change as the game goes on. Needless to say, the best motivations are tied into the game's plot and setting.

Whenever your character is confronted with a situation that's directly related to their Motivation, they automatically get a bonus card for all their actions. (Note: Don't let players take things like "Obsessed with Death" just because they want a bonus card during combat. If they really wanna be serial killers, make them act like serial killers!) This means that motivations need to be relatively narrow, too. A good Motivation gives a character focus and gets them into more trouble than it solves.

Flaws & Talents

Every character should have at least one Flaw because that's how you earn Karma during play. Things like Oblivious (never notices anything that's not in her face), Honorable (refuses to fight dirty or set traps), Paranoid (thinks X is pursuing/watching him), and Curious (can't leave any stone unturned... even when there's probably a snake under it) are good examples. Flaws should be things that can be easily role-played without resorting to cards.

Any time a player acts out one of their character's flaws and it makes things difficult for them, the GM should give them a point of Karma.

Characters can also have Talents, and GMs should encourage their players to use them, because they generate Bad Karma during play. Talents are special advantages a character can call upon without using cards. Good examples include Ridiculously Wealthy (has access to lot of toys and cash), Contacts (knows people in high places), and Regeneration (ignores acute and minor injuries like punches and gunshots).

When a player uses one of their character's talents to gain a special benefit, the GM puts a point of Bad Karma into the pool. (Note: Since there are no special weapon modifers in Nameless, Talents used in combat way not merit any Bad Karma. Only hand it out when there are special benefits.)

Abilities

You can also create unique abilities that are tailored to your game. Common examples are:

Honor: Increases and decreases based on the character's actions; used to command respect, resist tempations or coersions, etc.

(In)Sanity: Increases and decreases based on mind-bending experiences; used to resist madness, peer into the unknown, use twisted psychic/magical powers, etc.

Nameless uses Abilities to represent a character's basic physical and mental attributes. Each is rated from 1-5 with 1 being virtually crippled, 3 being good, and 5 being peak condition. Players should get 18 points to split between:

Brawn - Strength, endurance, and general physical condition.
Agility - Balance, coordination, and manual dexterity.
Perception - The physical (and magical and psychic) senses.
Intellect - Memory, command of information, and reasoning ability.
Will - Mental fortitude. (Often used with psychic and magical skills.)
Charisma - Social skills. (Use with any skill to find contacts in that field.)

In addition, there are two Derived Abilities:

Reflex - Used for defensive actions; average of Agility and Perception, rounded up.
Stamina - Used to resist injury; average of Brawn and Will, rounded up.

Skills & Tricks

Skills are things a character has learned through study or training. They should be broad, more like professions than individual tasks. (For example, a thief should use "Cat Burglar" instead of "Pick Pockets," "Sneak Around," and "Crack Safes.") Like abilities, they're rated from 1-5. Talk to your GM about how many total skill points your character should have: 8-10 is usually good for a professional charater, while 10-12 is more like an expert or highly-trained special operative.

If you'd like a skill that's narrower than recommended, turn it into a Trick. Tricks are focused skills, magic spells, limited powers, etc. They don't get a rating and only cost one "skill point" against your total. This means you can't add them to an ability to get a target number; instead, you get to treat actions based on the trick as Unskilled and add two abilities together to get your target number.

Nameless does not provide a list of skills for you to choose from. Besides being a waste of space, we couldn't possible think of all the skills you'd need in any game. Besides, it's sooo much more fun to make them up (and name them) yourself. Don't knock it 'til ya try it!

There are no rules for "advancement" in Nameless; if you want to tweak a character during play, just shuffle their Skill points around. (People have to use their skills if they don't want to lose them, and there are only enough hours in the day to be good at so many things!) Talents, Flaws, nifty gear, and in-character benefits can all be used to develop characters during play.

Gear

There are no game mechanics for gear beyond using bonus and penalty cards. Usually, you can describe what an item lets a character do in words alone and just role-play it out. As far as chargen goes, characters should always begin play with any gear they need to use their Skills. Beyond that, make them justify their gear with talents, flaws, bribes, etc.