The Character Creation Guide for New Arcana

Greetings! Allow me to be the first to Welcome you to Persona: New Arcana! I'm the current site-owner and plot lead, Jerry. Pleased to meet you.

In this here topic, I'm going to guide you through the process of making a character that you can feel comfortable playing in the current (and future) plots. I know the site's quite daunting, and there's a lot of things to read, but I feel like the first step to this whole process is actually making your character. Lets ignore all the rules surrounding combat for the moment. We'll get back to those in a bit.

Step 1- Picking a Class:

So the first order of buissness for you as a new, budding player is to pick your character class. We have 7 different classes to choose from right out the gate. While the Character Types Page will go a bit more indepth about each of the classes, I'll give you a short rundown of each, and give good reasons for picking them.

The Persona User:

The Persona User is essentially the Good Guy class, to put it simply. More or less aligned with the Good Side of the Moral Compass. They often fill the role of the "Protagonist Group" within the plots they are featured in, and have been a mainstay on the site since the start. More or less the Hero/Heroine/Supporting Cast of the Good Guys, pretty self explanatory. They wield a Persona which was grown naturally from their soul, with their class defining ability being the Fusion Skill, which is a heavily customizable spell, with all manner of effects.

The Nyarlathotep Child:

Normally, the Nyarlathotep Child is the Joker to the Persona User's Batman. The main Antagonistic-side of New Arcana, these neer-do-wells sit on pretty much all sides of the Moral Spectrum in the latest plot. As a Nyarlathotep Child, you can make your morals as ambigious or as defined as you please, but generally speaking they aren't the good guys. They have this stable connection with an Entity known as "The Countess" who grants them the Gift of the Tainted Persona, a Power not too different from that of the Normal Persona Users. The Children can fuse with their Personas into a more powerful form which increases attack and defense potency.

The Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon:

Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons (Or Simply ASSWs/"Toasters") are androids built to fight the creatures of the Dark, spawning a Persona from a module deep within called a Plume Core. This Plume Core can hold a Persona from either Philemon or Nyarlathotep, and as such, they aren't beholden to the same rules as the previous two classes are. As a Robot, they often lack a lot of characteristics that make up a human, such as emotional maturity or understanding. While this doesn't have to be the case, it makes for a good starting point should you like there to be more growth and change in your character over time. Personally, I highly recommend this class for beginners, as it allows for so much freedom. For More Info, refer to the hotlink above.

The Velvet Room Attendant:

These often eccentric and out there residents of the Velvet Room, a place between dreams and reality, attend to the needs of their Guests, whom are often Persona Users. They hold a vast knowledge about Personas, Shadows and other supernatural concepts, but lack understanding regarding the real world from where their clients hail. As an Attendant, you're also heavily restricted by Igor and Philemon, and are expected to fulfil your duties by aiding your clients. Forging Bonds with other players makes an attendant stronger. Due to the restrictions placed on an Attendant, they make poor starting characters, but I'm not going to stop you from making one.

The Forgotten:

As a Forgotten Experiment, your soul has been fused together with that of a Shadow or Demon. With Two hosts within one body, living in Symbiosis makes for a lot of interesting character design space, as what a Forgotten's Shadow/Demon Weapon looks like varies so widely between Experiments. Typically, the Forgotten are on the run from their creators, having escaped the confines from which they have been created through some means (Which again, are different based on both plot and character). This gives the Forgotten a rather good starting point towards building motivations and backgrounds, as a good chunk of the heavy lifting has been done for you.

The Rogues:

As a Rogue, your Character would wield a Persona which has been awakened through unnatural means, which has lead to it becoming unstable. This means your character has to rely on medication or other supplements to rein in the persona within your own control, so it doesn't end up killing you, or anyone else. Rogues make for very entertaining characters due to this inherent flaw, and some of the Site's best characters have been Rogues.

The Shadow Self:

The Shadow Self is essentially someone's repressed feelings and emotions given physical form, and killed the original to take their place, making them 'Real'. This is true for most plots, and makes them rather difficult, but satisfying to write for, as you essentially have to write in two sides of your character (One before and After you awaken.). In the Current Plot, due to Lore reasons, A Shadow Self is formed in a different way. When people die to the Demons of the Desolation, their egos are left behind as mindless shadows. They yearn to be whole again, and once they come across another living human, they will try to assimilate and take their place. Two Egos within one body is quite a tumultous life to lead, and as such they're intriguing, but still a bit on the more complex in terms of how they're written. Very rewarding from a character growth perspective though.

Step 2 - The Sheet:

When it comes to making a character here, your first focus should be your Character's most defining characteristics. Things like your Character's Arcana, their Motivations, Personality Traits, Quirks, Flaws and other things you can think of that makes your character feel believable and real. These things will not only make your character more fleshed out, but it'll also help out more when you're playing them, as defining your character in a clear, clean and precise way makes understanding them as a player easier to do.

Leaving a lot of room to grow and learn is another aspect which I think is important to keep around too, as you'll come to see your character change over time. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING. Character progression is inevitable when they take part in a narrative that moves forward, and can be incredibly rewarding and satisfying for both me as a GM and you as a player to see happen.

Once you've outlined what your character's most fundamental traits are, lets have a look at your Character Sheet. Lets skip Name, Age, Gender and so on for now, and just focus on one of the two most important parts of your entire Character Sheet: The Personality. While we only have a minimum of 1 Paragraph here, I suggest you devote some time into figuring out who this person is, and write down what makes them tick in here, both positive and negative. Don't be afraid to make your character have flaws. I cannot understate this enough, that flaws make conflicts, and eventual resolutions, all that much more rewarding.

Next, turn to History at the bottom of the Page. Here's where we can outline Character Origin, Motivations, Background, and so on. What they've gone through, and what's made them into the person that they are today. After that, we can FINALLY give our character a name, gender, age and so on.

Congrats, you're almost done.

Next up is Appearance. Having a Face-Claim is fine and all, but I'd prefer it if you also included a General description of your character too. The essentials like Height and Weight need to be included. This is all to help our fellow players grow a better picture of your character in their heads as they write. Once you've finished that, we can finally turn our attention to the last parts

Step 3 - Strengths, Weaknesses and The Weaponry:

Now that we've outlined what our character looks like, and given them a personality and a place within the world through the background, with proper motivations, lets turn our eyes towards the Strengths and Weaknesses section. This is the part that primarily affects combat (though not always), along with your weapons. Each character has a minimum of 3 strengths and a maximum of 5, and they have an equal amount of weaknesses. You can trace these strengths and weaknesses back to your History or Personality, and I highly encourage that you do so. Having flavorful strengths and weaknesses that make sense enhances a character so much from a writing standpoint. These can be related to combat, but they don't necessarily have to. Try to keep any in-combat effects (things tied to Movement, Damage and so on) relatively balanced (Roughly around the level of our Arcana Boosts, if a bit more focused. Read more about them here.)

Finally turn your attention to your two weapons: The Soulbound and your Side-Arm. You need to give your two weapons a description, much like how your character needs one. Pictures go far, but we still need a length of your Soulbound Weapon.

Once you've fixed both of these, congratulations. You've now finished your first character on New Arcana. All you have to do is Post it within The Character Creation Subforum.

What's Next?:

Once your first Character is finished, alert a Forum Moderator about it in the Official New Arcana Discord Server.

Post a Link to the Page in question in here:


And tag the Forum Moderation team (Or Jerry if he's not busy). They'll take a look at it, and ensure nothing's out of line. You might have to make adjustments here or there, but that's okay. The Forum Moderation Team is only there to help, not to needlessly criticize. We just don't want any player running around with an unfair advantage. I hope you understand.

Once you've been approved, you're free to interact with the rest of the Player Cast within the Parisian Desolation (or any plot that replaces it upon conclusion.)

If you have any questions, feel free to make use of the Discord Server. I am almost always on and available to pester in case something's confusing you. The other members should be able to help you get your Persona/True Self/Demon Weapon off the ground, as it's not nearly as important as the character you play.

Best of Luck, and I hope to see you out in the Desolation, making both friends and enemies alike.