Ready to plan the perfect heist—and discover who you truly are? Use this guide to create your Vaultlight PC, based on FATE Condensed rules.

1. Decide Who You Are

Think about your desperate specialist: what drives them? What skills put them on this crew? Choose an evocative role and background fitting Vaultlight’s gritty, secretive world. (See the Archetypes List for inspiration.)

2. Pick Five Aspects

Aspects are phrases that sum up who you are, your strengths, weaknesses, connections, and quirks. Common types:

  • High Concept: Your archetype or core identity (“Washed-Up Safecracker,” “Reluctant Mystic,” “Grifter With a Silver Tongue”)
  • Trouble: Your main liability or source of complications (“Old Enemies Everywhere,” “Addicted to the Rush”)
  • Background/Relationships: Friends, rivals, debts (“Owes a Favor to the Mob,” “Haunted by a Lost Heirloom”)
  • Personal Drive/Belief: Motivations or values (“Nothing Left to Lose,” “Everyone Has a Price”)
  • Wildcard: Unique quirks, theme, catchphrase

Important: At least one Aspect or Stunt should have a secret tie to the supernatural world—something with a seemingly mundane explanation that would be recontextualized if the supernatural world were revealed (e.g., “Blends Into The Crowd” → “Latent Fae Glamour”, “Traumatic Childhood” → “Alien Abductee”).

3. Choose Skills

Assign your ranked skills based on what your character does best:

  • 1 at Great (+4)
  • 2 at Good (+3)
  • 3 at Fair (+2)
  • 4 at Average (+1)

Skills should be arranged in a pyramid shape, and future Skill upgrades need to maintain bottom-heaviness.

4. Select Stunts

Each character starts with three to five Stunts. A Stunt is a special trick you can do, usually tied to a Skill (e.g., “Because I’m a Cat Burglar, I can always find an escape route when inside a building”). Stunts can also be tied to unique equipment that your character always has on their person.

Each stunt after the third reduces your total Refresh by 1.

Note: At least one Aspect or Stunt should have a secret tie to the supernatural world—something with a seemingly mundane explanation that would be recontextualized if the supernatural world were revealed.

5. Set Your Refresh

Default Refresh is 3. This means you start each session with 3 Fate Points, unless you take extra Stunts (each extra stunt past the third costs 1 Refresh).

6. Final Touches

  • Flesh out your appearance, habits, notable gear, and quirks.
  • Connect at least one Aspect or tie to another crew member—collaboration is encouraged.
  • Prepare a short “how did you end up this desperate?” story.

Quickstart Aspect Example

  • High Concept: Streetwise Grifter With a Gift for Getting Inside
  • Trouble: Can’t Let Go of Old Scores
  • Relationship: Trusted By All the Wrong People
  • Supernatural: Shadows Seem to Move At My Command
  • Wildcard: Little Details Never Escape Me

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