FASA Games, Inc.

There's been some interest in how character build works in 1879, so here's the short version. 1879 doesn't have Disciplines, as the magic level of the world isn't high enough to support magically-empowered True Patterns of that scope. We don't even have Talents. Instead, what we have are Concepts, assembled from Skills and Abilities. The basic structure goes as follows.

You start with a Profession Skill. This is the absolute central Skill for your Concept. For the Doctor, it's Physician. For the Aristocrat, it's Diplomacy. For the Airship Pilot, it's Pilot Airship. (Kind of a tautology there innit?) The Profession Skill serves as the anchor for the Concept. The Rank of the Profession Skill determines how many Skill slots your character has available, kind of like Versatility in Earthdawn, except you get multiple slots per Rank.

Every character gets Read/Write Language, Speak Language, and Durability. Those Skills don't count against your available Skill slots. Most characters start with a 1 in Read/Write, a 1 in Speak, and a 0 in Durability. Characters from non-English speaking cultures get a 2 in Speak, and a free extra Rank in Read/Write if they want it. It's okay to play an illiterate character, and some Concepts work better that way.

You get a pool of Core Skills and Optional Skills to choose from at your Initiate Tier, and 6 open slots. You have to choose at least 3 Core Skills, as these are the ones that define your Concept. Core Skills can have karma spent on them. Optional Skills cannot have karma spent on them (unless the Skill requires it). Core Skills count toward Tier advancement. Optional Skills don't. You can start buying Ranks in your Skills as you get Adventure Points (Legend Points with a different name for a different game world), including Durability.

When you advance to Novice, you get more Skills added to the Core and Optional pools to choose from. You get more Skill slots. You also get the ability to learn Free Skills, which means anything that's not on your Concept's Core or Optional lists. Free Skills are limited to a Rank of 10. They don't count toward advancement and can't have karma spent on them unless the Skill requires it.

At Journeyman, you get your first Abilities. You'll have four to select from, and can pick one at each Profession Skill Rank advancement, including one when you make Journeyman. This means eventually you'll have all four, but the order you get them in is up to you. Usually, these will include a Karma for Attribute test, a bonus to a Defense, a bonus to Recovery, or other buff, plus a special ability unique to your Concept.

You have to have your Profession Skill and a specific number of Core Skills all at a specific Rank or higher in order to advance in Tier, just like in Earthdawn to advance in Circle. There's training required, from a mentor, as you're making a significant advance in your career. The Skill slots at that Profession Skill Rank don't become available until after you go up Tier.

And that's the Concept in a nutshell. Questions?

How persistent are the characters as compared to how much time is invested in the making the characters? Will we be making a character over the course of couple hours that we will play for a year or two, or will we be making a character over the course of a half an hour that may or may not survive the first couple of adventures?

Persistence / longevity of your character really depends on your campaign, your GM, and how you play your character. I'm very far from being a killer GM myself - I despise TPKs - but I will not save player characters from themselves. I've had some players whose characters go on for years in realtime, and I've had some that only lasted a few sessions. The last couple of short-run player characters were a Thief who id something abysmally stupid after being warned against it, and an Archer whose player left the group under somewhat acrimonious circumstances (not related to the game, social stuff) and who died tragically in the next combat. I'd expect you to be able to put together an 1879 character in half an hour or so once you've gained some practice, and then it's up to you. The system as designed is geared toward long-term play. This is not Rifts, where you need three backup characters before starting play. It is, however, a dangerous game world, and characters will die.

Let me put it another way: The demo adventure has a couple of dangerous moments, and the climactic chase could be lethal, but it's not designed to kill characters, much less be a TPK. The first Plot Point Campaign adventure we'll be publishing has some combat, one scene set in a burning building, and some opportunities for injury and/or death, but is designed to have at least the majority of the party survive so they can go on to PPC#2.

But it really depends on your gaming group. FATE can be lethal and Rifts survivable if you play them that way.