For reference, I’ve uploaded the character sheets for the PCs being played in my War of Ashes’s beta test.  I might add NPC sheets as well later.

Player Characters

Grun, Styrsik of the Big Sword clan

Blagaard, captive Elvorix turned priest of Akka-Maas

Faas, secret descendant of Fullas Has

Bonecruncher, misunderstood Nhilde Troll

If you’ve not played Fate Accelerated Edition, which is the system that War of Ashes is based on, then why not?  You do realise you can get it online for free at Evil Hat’s website?  But anyway, if you’ve not played Fate Accelerated Edition, here’s a brief overview of the different parts that make up the character sheet:

Refresh.  How many fate points you start with.  By default, everyone gets 3.  You can increase the number of stunts you start with to decrease your refresh by the same amount, down to a minimum of refresh 1.

Weight.  A unique stat for War of Ashes, this essentially measures how big you are.  By default, all PCs are weight 1, though the book has NPC monsters with a weight higher (and lower) than that.  Weight is important in combat; in each zone, you have to add up the weight of all combatants in each side to calculate who “outweighs” the other.  Outweighing two-to-one gives you a slight bonus, essentially a +1 on every action you take.  Outweighing four-to-one allows you to inflict lethal damage with your attacks, which cannot be mitigated by stress… which is a really powerful kind of attack, basically.

Aspects.  Aspects are a word, phrase or sentence that describe something centrally important to a character.  With the exception of Faction Aspects, which are chosen from a list, aspects are designed by the players themselves.  Of particular note are a character’s High Concept, which describes in a nutshell what that character is all about, and their Trouble, which is the one thing that causes problems for the character more than anything else.  Ideally though, ALL aspects should have an upside and a downside.  This will make them easy to invoke, wherein you can spend a precious fate point to take a bonus in a situation where the aspect is relevant, but also easy to compel, wherein the aspect causes you trouble but you gain a fate point as a reward.  The ebb and flow of fate points is the core part of any Fate game, and aspects are where this economy interfaces with the mechanics most directly.

Approaches.  Whilst other games (including Fate Core) use skills, which indicate What You Can Do, FAE uses approaches, which are instead a descriptor of How You Do It.  Every PC, and some special NPCs, get the same six attributes: Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick and Sneaky; each of them gets assigned a number bonus, initially between +0 and +3.  These are the things you actually roll when it’s time to take action.  You describe what you’re doing, pick a relevant approach, roll the four fudge dice and add the result to your approach.  To succeed, you’ll have to roll higher than the GM’s difficulty number, or higher than whatever the opposing character rolled.

Stunts.  These are special rules that apply to your character that allow you to interface with the mechanics in unique ways.  Again, Faction Stunts are chosen from a short list, but other stunts are created by players themselves (though there are plenty of examples in the book).  Whilst in Fate Core these can be pretty much anything, FAE has two templates for stunt creation that make coming up with ideas quicker and simpler: +2 or a specific action with a specific approach in specific circumstances, or a once-per-session special ability that breaks the rules in some way.

Stress, Consequences, Divine Interest and Divine Consequences.  These boxes are used for absorbing physical and mental damage (for the first two) and for tracking the attention you have from the gods and how that’s causing you trouble (for the last two).  I don’t bother including these in the character sheets for PCs, because everyone starts with the same.

[Vacant].  PCs start with five aspects and three stunts.  However, the book advises that you can start the game before every player has completed every stage of this – they can always fill out the rest of their aspects and stunts as the game is going on.  To track this, and the effect it has on play, I’ve used square brackets to indicate the aspects and stunts that didn’t come out of character generation.  One session in, some of these are still empty, and I’ve listed these simply as [Vacant].