Yay, we’ve made it to Day 7 of the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge and today we will be making a character for Everyday Heroes by Evil Genius Games. I’ve read on several reviews that this game is the spiritual successor to the D20 Modern, especially since Jeff Grubb had worked on both titles. I had picked up the PDFs on a recent Bundle sale (I can’t remember which provider currently) that not only included the core rulebook, but several setting books based off of different movies. These included Escape From New York, Highlander, Kong: Skull Island, Pacific Rim, Rambo, The Crow, Total Recall and Universal Solider. All inspiring movies that I never thought would have their own RPG books.
This is another generic rule set where you can use just about any world setup like the D20 Modern, GURPS, Basic Roleplaying and more. Before I would have made a character, the GM would have told us if we were playing in a modern military campaign, an espionage campaign, law enforcement/criminal underground campaign or a host of others. I’m going to pluck out of the air that this is a troubleshooting campaign. The characters are members of a team of troubleshooters who are privately hired by different individuals and organizations who are in need of help.
So hopefully this will be a fast build. The character creation information starts on page 20 and provides three approaches. The concept-first approach for when you already know what you want to play. The rules-first approach if you already know the game rules and you have a notion of what you want your character to do in combat. It warns that there is a lot of reading and searching for the various options. Perhaps I’d do this one if I was making a character for an actual session/campaign. The last option is the “Just Wing It” Approach for if you don’t know what you want. Just read some of the descriptive text for each class, background and profession and see what sparks the imagination. I’m feeling random today, let’s go with this one.
Now the book gives us six steps to make a hero. The first step is what is the concept of your character. While you are asked to answer several questions about your character. The Who, What, When/Where and Why/How of when they became a hero. I’m not certain I can answer these questions now, so I’ll com back to them. The Archetypes (the type of hero your character is) and the Class (the way you express your archetype) are available to choose from are listed. The Archetypes are Strong (uses physical powers to resolve issues), Agile (uses coordination to accomplish tasks), Tough (can outlast the problems that are thrown at them), Smart (big brains solving big problems), Wise (uses their wisdom and insight to find resolutions) and Charming (using leadership, charisma or manipulation to reach their goals). There is a table that lists the possible classes that match the different archetypes and and recommended ability scores. Looking over the list I’m drawn towards the Sleuth class under the Wise archetype.
The second step is to think about the background for your hero (there’s a lot of thinking at the start) which gives your hero an ability score increase (but we haven’t even rolled them yet?), skill and weapon proficiencies, equipment and a special feature. I had to go searching for the background chapter and read what was there and this is the upbringing of the character. There were some good ones, and some that made me scratch my head. But none of them really inspired me with the creation of my Sleuth. While there were guidelines for creating new backgrounds, that goes beyond the scope of this blog post. I plucked the Orphan since I needed to move on and wrote down the provided benefits the background provided.
Now we pick the profession for step 3. From what I’m reading this isn’t really the class, but it can match if available. This is the day job of the character. They are broken down by types (Academia, Customer Service, Journalism, etc.) and from there you pick a career (Librarian, Phone Support, Photojournalist, etc.). I looked for the one that was closest to private investigator. This career was listed under Investigative Services. I wrote down the benefits from the profession.
And finally we are generating the ability scores on step 4. Being a D20 game they have the standard STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS and CHA. Some of these have already received bonuses from the above steps. To determine them, the game lists three options. A standard set (boring, but good if you needed a quick set), Point Buy (ehhh… lets think about this one) or rolling 4d6 and use the three highest to generate six scores and assign them as desired. I think I’ll stick with rolling as I want to roll some dice.
Archetype and Class are listed as step 5, but I thought we had already chosen them (for this character he is Wise/Sleuth)? So, apparently I’m gaining all of the benefits listed under the Sleuth. I also listed the equipment and filled in the hit dice and defense bonus.
Oh, I guess I need a name before I scan the character sheet. Found a random name generator for private investigators (I’m not certain I like this site) but it did give me the suggestion of Alex Carter. So I’m going with that. Here is the sheet. I didn’t really scan the second page as the only thing I had written on it was the equipment. The third page Had a lot of spots for background information.
Afterthoughts:
After seeing the benefits of flow charts earlier in this challenge, I really wish there had been a flow chart available here. I think it would have spread the process up much faster. There were benefits listed in one section, then different benefits for class listed in another chapter.
The character sheet is three pages long (my preference is two max) but the third page mostly seemed to be background information.
I… could see myself playing this game. While I was thinking about some of my standard homebrew targets (aka, what would the stats be for a favorite character from a video game), I don’t know if I’d want to jump into the Everyday Heroes homebrew pool just yet. I think I’d want to play it a few times as I’ve got several other modern RPGs that I could play and homebrew for already.
Additional Notes:
Thank you to LexTenebris on Mastodon who responded to my question yesterday about the length and detail in my Character Creation Challenge. One of the things he said was “It comes down to how much time you have and how much the process is compelling you at any given time. If it’s fun, document all of it. Somebody else is likely to find it fun. If it’s not fun, well, document how it’s not fun because that’s going to be helpful to someone sometime.” And you know what, he is right. I’ll have to make decisions when I sit down to generate the next several characters.
Coming Up Next:
Dark Places & Demogorgons
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