This is an overview of the different options you have at character creation: choosing a name, culture, statistics, skills, starting scenario, starting location, game path. I try to give you enough information to make intelligent decisions when creating the game and handling the starting scenarios. In doing so I cover every part of character creation.
Please give feedback on the guide, since I intend to maintain and update it as long as I keep playing URW.
I've posted this guide to Steam, to help the influx of new players likely to be attracted by the release there. You can see it here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =634104582
Here is a video I made that covers the same material: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-jmf8mLnVc
General resources
The most up-to-date information and chat can be found at the forum.
The Wiki is a good general resource.
There's an IRC channel devoted to the game where you can often find players who can talk to you about the game: ##URW on chat.freenode.net (see here for help)
Long-time player plotinus has made a Python script that can suggest a starting character for you, which is useful if you want a challenge. I find it especially useful for suggesting a name appropriate to the culture and gender you're looking to play. You can also ask UrwBot at the IRC channel, who can give you the same output, and much more besides.
What kind of character creation should I use?
'Quick and easy' entirely randomises character creation. It also makes this guide redundant. 'Custom' allows you to choose the features of your survivor, and is highly recommended. 'Custom - easy' and 'Custom - too easy' affect the skill selection part of character creation by allowing you to take chunks of skill points away from one skill and putting it in another. This allows you to min-max your character skill, taking from marginal skills like 'Flail' and 'Crossbow' or easy-to-improve ones like 'Climbing' and 'Skiing' and putting them into vital ones like your favoured weapon skill or Fishing or Trapping. With 'Custom - too easy' you can take one of skill points away from each skill; with 'Custom - too easy' you can take two. If you know what you're doing, this can remove the challenge from a game, so I don't use it. Experienced players almost always play on 'Custom'. Note that in the 'Custom' modes you can randomise your culture, starting stats, and starting location.
What should my survivor's name be?
Here is a list of common Finnish names. You're can also use UrwBot or plotinus's script (mentioned above) to get a culture-appropriate name.
What culture should I play?
Each culture gives a different range of statistics, starting skill bonuses, and starting equipment. The equipment doesn't matter a lot because you'll be replacing it pretty soon and the choice of starting scenario has more influence on what you get.
Your starting stats are the most important influence on your starting skills, so stats are the main thing people take into consideration when choosing a culture. The most popular choices are Kaumolainen, because they are the strongest, or Owl-Tribe, who have the best overall stats but low strength. Other choices can be made for a very specific type of game (say, Islander or Seal-Tribe for someone depending on fishing), for roleplay, or for a challenge (Driik are considered the hardest culture to play). Here is a comprehensive guide to starting stats for the different cultures which seems to apply for the current version of the game.
There are three broad cultural groups playable in URW. What group your culture belongs to makes a thematic difference to your survivor, such as how they look. They tend to have broadly similar stats as well, but each culture is distinct. The kind of settlements you find in the world vary greatly depending on their culture, so this matters a lot for your starting location.
Northern cultures: Kuikka-Tribe, Owl-Tribe, Seal-Tribe.
The northern peoples are more nomadic than other cultures, and wooden buildings (and the skills and tools to build them) is much harder to find there. Instead, people tend to live in 'kota', tents made out of furs stretched over a frame. They tend to be small, lacking in strength, but with very high agility, dexterity, and speed, making them nimble hunters and excellent bowmen. Seal-Tribe are specialist fishers.
Western cultures: Driikiläinen (Driik), Sartolainen (Sartola), Koivulainen (Koivula), Islanders.
The western peoples live along the western coast and the archipelago at the south-western corner of the map. They have low physical stats, and tend to do more trading, except for Islanders who are excellent fishers but poor otherwise. You can normally buy anything in Driik lands except for culture-specific items.
Eastern cultures: Kaumolainen (Kaumo), Kiesseläinen (Kiesse), Reemiläinen (Reemi). They live in the forests towards the east, and tend to have good physical stats, with Kaumo being the largest and strongest strongest people in the game (and most popular choice for a survivor). Hunting, trapping, and woodsman skills are common. They are also close to the Njerpezit, the foreign slavers who are based in the south-eastern corner of the map, so Njerpez are a common threat in Eastern lands. Njerpez are always hostile, but sometimes will run away if they don't fancy a fight.
Your choice of gender and player portrait is purely cosmetic, and has no in-game effects.