Guided Walkthrough: Who You Are Now

You have a lineage, an upbringing, and a Ren journey. Now you fill in the life between those points and land on who your character actually is at the moment play begins.

Record on Your Sheet

Experiences
Adventures
Fears and Goals
Polarities
Relationship Statuses
Points of Favor
Values

Experiences

Experiences are the formative moments that shaped your character’s psychology. Roll 1 + (Realm x 3) times on the table below. At Realm 2, that’s 7 rolls.

Don’t just list them. Think about what each one meant, and how multiple results might connect. A character who rolled “betrayed someone,” “held a grudge,” and “joined a cause” has a compelling throughline.

Experiences also have a mechanical role during play. Each experience is assigned to one of your four values during the Values step below: it is the formative moment that led you to hold that belief. When an experience is relevant to the current scenario and you are using a polarity from that experience’s value in the resolution, you gain an experience boon. Only one experience can apply per resolution. See Boons & Complications for details.

d100	Experience	What It Actually Meant
1	First Betrayal	A close friend chose someone else over you.
2	First Love	You fell hard. It changed you.
3	Public Failure	You embarrassed yourself in front of people who mattered.
4	Public Recognition	You were praised or celebrated publicly.
5	Family Conflict	Major fight at home. You took a side or walked away.
6	Loss	Someone close died or disappeared.
7	Financial Hardship	You had to work to support yourself or your household.
8	Responsibility	You cared for someone who depended on you.
9	Exile	You were pushed out of a social group or place.
10	Belonging	You found a group that truly accepted you.
11	Moral Dilemma	You chose between two people or two principles.
12	Breaking a Rule	You knowingly crossed a serious line.
13	Being Wrong	Something you believed deeply collapsed.
14	Mentorship	Someone older shaped your worldview.
15	Rivalry	A peer constantly pushed you to improve.
16	Injury	You were seriously hurt and had to recover.
17	Isolation	Extended period cut off from others.
18	Relocation	You moved and rebuilt your social identity.
19	Witnessed Injustice	You saw something wrong and acted — or didn’t.
20	Personal Choice	You rejected a path others expected of you.
21	Heartbreak	A relationship ended painfully.
22	Secret Relationship	You hid love from authority or family.
23	Unrequited Love	You wanted someone who didn’t want you back.
24	Jealousy	You envied someone close to you.
25	Betrayed Someone	You broke trust to protect yourself.
26	Public Humiliation	Mocked or shamed in front of others.
27	Took the Blame	You shielded someone else from consequences.
28	Framed	You were punished for something you didn’t do.
29	Bullying	You were targeted repeatedly.
30	Aggressor	You hurt someone socially or physically.
31	First Job	You earned money on your own.
32	Fired	You failed at something with real stakes.
33	Poverty	You experienced scarcity long-term.
34	Sudden Wealth	You briefly had more than you knew how to handle.
35	Authority Clash	You openly defied someone in power.
36	Obedience	You followed authority and later regretted it.
37	Caretaking	Long-term care of sick or vulnerable person.
38	Protected Someone	You stepped in when no one else did.
39	Abandoned	Someone left you unexpectedly.
40	Reconciliation	You repaired a broken relationship.
41	Joined a Cause	You believed in something bigger than yourself.
42	Left a Cause	You became disillusioned.
43	Spiritual Awakening	You felt something beyond yourself.
44	Lost Faith	Something sacred to you shattered.
45	Addiction (Yours or Theirs)	You watched control slip away.
46	First Fight	Physical confrontation changed how you see violence.
47	Near Death	You genuinely thought you wouldn’t survive.
48	Major Illness	Recovery changed your limits.
49	Academic Success	You discovered you were capable.
50	Academic Failure	You realized effort isn’t always enough.
51	Creative Breakthrough	You made something that mattered.
52	Creative Rejection	Something personal was dismissed.
53	Identity Crisis	You questioned who you really are.
54	Kept a Secret	You carried something heavy alone.
55	Secret Exposed	Something private became public.
56	Peer Pressure	You went along with something you shouldn’t have.
57	Said No	You resisted pressure and stood alone.
58	Sibling Rivalry	Comparison shaped you.
59	Sibling Bond	Loyalty stronger than conflict.
60	Found Community	You discovered shared identity.
61	Cultural Displacement	You didn’t fit where you were.
62	Discrimination	You were treated unfairly for who you are.
63	Stole Something	Out of need or impulse.
64	Got Caught	You faced the consequences.
65	Ran Away	Even briefly, you chose escape.
66	Returned Home	And it wasn’t the same.
67	Took a Risk	Social, romantic, physical — and it mattered.
68	Failed Someone	You let someone down.
69	Forgiven	Someone showed you mercy.
70	Held a Grudge	You chose not to forgive.
71	Competitive Victory	You proved yourself.
72	Crushing Defeat	You were clearly outmatched.
73	Social Outcast	You lived outside the circle.
74	Social Leader	Others followed you.
75	Protected by a Stranger	Someone unexpected stepped in.
76	Saved a Stranger	You helped someone you didn’t know.
77	Witnessed Violence	And it changed your tolerance.
78	Covered Something Up	You chose silence over truth.
79	Told the Truth	Even when it cost you.
80	Took Responsibility	You owned your mistake publicly.
81	Learned a Hard Skill	Discipline shaped you.
82	Quit Something	You walked away from commitment.
83	Public Speaking	You faced fear directly.
84	Panic	You froze when you needed to act.
85	Trusted Instinct	And it paid off.
86	Ignored Instinct	And regretted it.
87	First Independence	Lived on your own.
88	Dependent on Others	You needed help to survive.
89	Lost a Pet	First encounter with death.
90	Found Purpose	Something clicked into place.
91	Lost Direction	You drifted without aim.
92	Changed Belief	You publicly shifted belief
93	Defended Belief	You stood firm under pressure.
94	Inspired Someone	Someone said you changed them.
95	Disappointed Someone	You failed expectations.
96	Protected a Secret Identity	Hid who you truly were.
97	Confession	You admitted something difficult.
98	Broke a Promise	And it still lingers.
99	Kept a Promise	Even when it hurt.
100	Defining Moment	A single event you still replay in your head.

Adventures

Adventures are missions, jobs, or ordeals your character has already survived before play begins. Roll Realm + 1 times. At Realm 2, that’s 3 rolls.

Adventures are a great place to build connections with other players’ characters. If someone else rolled “protect a person,” maybe your character was that person.

d20	Adventure	Details
1	Travel	You left your home
2	Attain	Looked for a Treasure / Artifact because you want to get rich
3	Delivery	Had to deliver some object or material
4	Delivery	Had to deliver a person somewhere - escort them
5	Destroy	Group of Monsters
6	Destroy	Individual Monster
7	Destroy	Group of People
8	Destroy	Individual Person
9	Destroy	An Artifact or location
10	Fetch	Had to kidnap someone
11	Fetch	Had to retrieve an artifact/item from someplace
12	Fetch	Had to rescue someone
13	Fetch	Had to find some dossier or records somewhere
14	Investigate	Solve a Crime
15	Investigate	Scout an area/ territory
16	Investigate	Infiltrate a group
17	Negotiate	Convince someone to do something - Diplomacy
18	Protect	Location
19	Protect	Person or Group of People (Security team) - either for an event or expedition
20	Survival	Something bad happened and you had to claw your way through it.

Relationship Status

For each relationship generated across the whole lifepath (upbringing, Ren learning, faction, experiences, adventures), roll d20 to find out where they stand now.

d20	Status	Detail
1-4	Good terms and good health	They live normally and can be contacted
5-7	They Hate you but in good health	Something you did in the past
8-9	Far away by choice	Joined a faction and difficult to contact
10	Addiction	Substance, obsession, or destructive fixation
11	Crippled	Permanent injury or severe illness
12	Taken or Disappeared	Kidnapped, missing, or vanished
13	Ruined or Debt bound	Bankruptcy or social disgrace they caused OR Indentured or trapped paying off obligation
14	Broken mind	Insane or mentally shattered
15	Imprisoned	Long-term incarceration
16	Killed in war	Casualty of conflict
17	Fatal accident or disease	Sudden or Slow loss
18	Murdered: killer unknown	Ongoing mystery
19	Murdered: you know who	Revenge hook
20	You caused their death	Direct or indirect responsibility

Assigning Favor

You have 2 + Realm Favor points to assign across your relationships. Favor represents standing, leverage, and goodwill earned through shared history.

Taking -1 on a relationship gains you +1 to spend elsewhere.

Favor spent must be justified in fiction. If you have Favor with a merchant guild, it doesn’t help you with a temple unless there’s a clear narrative bridge. See Favor for the full rules.

Backstory

Now that you have all the pieces, write a coherent backstory. Order the events, reconcile the tensions, and trace the decisions that brought your character to where play begins.

Focus on choices, not just events. What did they do, and what did that cost them?

Fears and Goals

Fears in this context are not phobias. They are the bad endings your character is trying to avoid: a sibling dying, being forgotten, losing control of their power, watching their nation fall.

Goals are often the mirror of fears. The character who fears their sister dying wants to cure her illness. The character who fears being forgotten wants to carve their name into history.

Keep both grounded in what came out of the lifepath.

Values

Choose 4 values and rank them 1 to 4 (1 = highest priority). Values are the core of your character’s power in Metanoia. They determine which polarities you can develop, and how those polarities contribute to your dice pools through the Circulation passive.

The ranking also matters narratively. When two values conflict, the higher-ranked one usually wins. That choice is where character development happens.

d12	VALUE Baselines	Definition
1	Love / Sacrifice	Compassion, mercy, loyalty, found family, sacrifice for others.
2	Faith	Devotion to something beyond yourself: divine, cosmic, fate, ideology.
3	Knowledge	Truth, learning, understanding, curiosity.
4	Order	Law, codes, hierarchy, structure, discipline, authority.
5	Justice / Honor	Righting wrongs. Accountability. Consequences for harm.
6	Growth	Self-improvement, mastery, innovation, becoming more than you are.
7	Freedom	Autonomy, independence, rejecting control or imposed identity.
8	Power	Strength, dominance, ambition, status, legacy.
9	Peace	Harmony, de-escalation, balance, preservation of stability.
10	Tradition	Ancestral ways, superstition, cultural continuity, inherited wisdom.
11	Beauty	Aesthetic creation, expression, refinement, enjoyment, artistic pursuit.
12	Wealth	You value wealth, money, or assets.

Once you have your four values, go back through every experience you rolled and assign each one to a value. Ask: which belief did this moment push me toward? An experience can point toward a value even if the connection is oblique. A single experience can only be assigned to one value.

Not every value needs an experience assigned to it. Not every experience needs to connect neatly. The ones that do are the ones that will come alive at the table.

See Values for how values and their experiences shift during play.

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