Disclaimer: This is what I have inferred from creating a character with the free players guide. This character has not seen play, nor have I seen the full Crown and Skull book. Things such as custom spells would have to be approved by a GM.
Two main takeaways from creating my first Crown and Skull hero.
1. I recommend rolling some of your character traits.
I rolled my flaws and core ability. This generated a crazy timid spellsinger. I couldn’t help but laugh! Squeezing these character traits gave me plenty of creative juice to work with, both story and mechanics wise. Without having rolled these traits this character would not have been nearly as novel or compelling.
2. Limitations are the bees knees.
Limitations for spells, items, and companions can save you a lot of points and add heaps of flavor to your character. I realized glancing through the spell limitations that if I took the Painful limitation I could have a companion act while Morien was stunned by the pain this limitation would inflict on him. Painful got the ball rolling on my character’s mechanics and story. What if the songs Morien sings have a painful toll on him, and that’s why he’s timid? Timid means he can only act on phases 4-5, the prime phases for a support character. What if he’s a support caster that can buff his allies? The songs aid others, but harm him! That’s cool!
I noticed some limitations can be redundant. For example, I added the Madness limitation to all of my spells because all it does is make you crazy. I’m already crazy! I also took the Exhausting limitation for all my spells which stops me from using magic for one round after casting the limited spell. The Painful limitation takes away your characters action the following turn. No Magic being used if I don’t have my action.
GM’s might be against their players taking redundant limitations, but here me out! If a limitation is redundant, that means the character is already limited in some way. If anything, the flavor of the limitations reinforce the characters story / concept. For example, without the redundant nature of the Madness limitation when combined with the Crazy flaw, I wouldn’t have thought of the idea that it is my character’s magic songs that make him crazy. Furthermore, now we know that these songs Morien sings not only cause him pain, but also exhaust him. That’s more flavor we can lean into and roleplay, and one more element to my character the GM can use within the story, possibly against me. If Morien ever lost Renth, casting any spells would make him a sitting duck due to these stacking limitations. This lends Morien and Renth a co-dependent, synergistic, wholesome, yet tragic friendship that could lead to disaster for Morien. This vulnerability propels Morien to fight that much harder to keep his childhood friend safe. The narrative soil here is ripe for planting.
From my initial impressions of creating my first character, it seems as if in Crown and Skull, in order to min max, you have to limitation max. I like that, and I think GM’s will too.