On Day 21 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge we are using the Underhaven OSR Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying Game. I had picked up this game from a Kickstarter campaign where I reviewed it here. I also gave a brief rundown of the system used and a brief background of the game world. There is a two paged character sheet used for Underhaven.
The character creation steps begin on page 58 and end on page 71. The first step is to generate the stats used by the character. They are Strength (STR), Constitution (CON) and Dexterity (DEX) as the physical stats. Then Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS) and Charisma (CHA) for the mental stats. Being an OSR inspired game it uses the standard stats. However instead of rolling 3d6 (or 4d6) you distribute either d4, d6, d8 or d6, d6, d6 to each stat group. As mentioned in my Kickstarter review (linked above) a player would roll a D20 and a stat die to try to meet or beat a target number. I selected my stats for this character.
Next you select your Ancestry. The races available in the core rulebook are Dwarfs, Gnomes, Gray Elves (aka Emo Elves who were banished from the surface), Halflings, Humans and Zurkhas (aka Armadillo people). For this character I’m running a Dwarf and wrote down the traits in my notes.
On step three we select the character’s archetype (aka class) from one of the ten presented in the book. These are Artificer (aka Inventor), Cleric, Confidant (aka Face Man), Fighter, Mycologist (a mushroom searcher and apothecary), Ranger, Thief, Spelunker (Cave navigator), Verminists (spellcasters who summon swarms) and Wizard. Since I’ve never made a Spelunker before, I went with that class and wrote down the traits that came with it.
The Background is the item that is selected next. This is what the character doing before they became an adventurer. When the character uses a skill that they would have learned from the background, they get to add their Proficiency Bonus (+2 at first level) to the die roll. There was a few examples listed but it was very generic. “pirate”, “beggar”, “scholar”, etc. I had to think about this for a moment. What would a dwarven do before he became a spelunker? I fell into the trope and made him a former Smith.
Here we are at step five and we get to equip the character. I love the fact that the book is pretty straight forward. Choose up to 2 weapons, an armor that is allowed by your class and 3 pieces of gear that costs 25 GP or less. Then we get to roll (for the first time in the creation process) 5d6 for the starting gold. This can be kept or used to round out the equipment. I picked some equipment and rolled up 16 GP. With this I purchased some additional items that I thought my unnamed character would need.
The last step contains the finishing touches. Hit Points are calculated by the highest number of the CON die. And since the character is a Dwarf, he has a +1 to the starting HP, so 5. Defense is 8+max of DEX die (in this case 8) for a total of 16. If the character had a shield this would have been increased by 1, but nothing was listed for the type of armor (light, medium, heavy). I checked the combat section really quick and it turns out the type of armor worn gives a damage reduction. The Proficiency Bonus for a level 1 character is +2 (this can be raised when the character advances levels). Since the character is not a magic user, he doesn’t get any magic points (used in spell casting). I’m then instructed to record the ancestry and archetypes traits (already done above), give the character a name (um…. lets go with Thorronlir Whitbraid) and note a Fate point (aka the ability to reroll a failed roll). The character sheet is two pages, but I didn’t scan the second page since it was all organized for spell casting abilities.
Afterthoughts:
I liked the fact that they had an ending to the character creation process with a “You’re Done!” comment. There were too many times the writers would start the process without telling readers that they have reached the end.
The way they did the equipment allocation helped out quite a bit. A character should already have armor, weapons and some equipment. But I did find myself picking the most expensive items that I could before spending the randomly rolled starting gold.
I could see myself playing this game. Most likely a one-shot at an upcoming SaltCON. I could also see myself homebrewing for this game. For a game with a “locked in” world, there is a lot of sandbox play present.
Additional Notes:
In response to my Rocket Age entry with Ace Rimmer, a lot of feedback that I received was “Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast.” I’m glad to see that everyone got the Red Dwarf reference.
Coming Up Next:
D.A.M.N.I.T.
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