[All Systems] Process of Character Creation – Examples
I just finished reading Willow’s thread on creating a character for World of Synnibar. I found it very interesting. I have the game, but never went through the process, and this was very educational. I also enjoy the process of creating characters for other systems (heck that is half the fun). I was wondering if other people would like to go through the exercise of creating a character for their favorite system and post it in this thread, so people unfamiliar with the system can see how easy/complicated it is. Also point out any pitfalls you might have experienced so people who come after you can avoid them (answering questions new players might have – this is an educational process). Post the complete character at the end when you are done. This might also peak some interest in other people to take a look at other systems that they don’t own (yet).
Have Fun.
__________________
Bramha_Bull
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
-Buddha
Educate yourself! - read the Uncyclopedia! Currently Gaming - Nothing Looking for group.
Laugh Points: Inire-1, Racinocovix-1
"I have forgotten the face of my father" Point: Tom McCambley
Re: [All Systems] Process of Character Creation – Examples
Here is Willow's original post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Willow
I recently borrowed the World of Synnibar from my “friend” Tim. (Friends don’t lend Synnibar to friends, Tim.) My level of amazement at this game is huge. I don’t think I’d ever be able to run or play in a WoS game, but out of shock, awe, and curiosity (which killed the cat, you know), I had to go through Synnibar’s chargen process.
I start by rolling 7d20 for my six Basic Characteristics, which are in no way completely derived from D&D. Except that I reroll any that are less than 9 until they are 9 or higher, take the best five, and then roll another until its higher than the two rolls I dropped.
I get: 18, 15, 12, 14, 19, 18, 11 for my first rolls. The 11 and 12 I drop, and are replaced with a 13. Final scores: 13, 14, 15, 18, 18, 19. I have no idea how good this is.
Synnibar has four chargen methods, which seem to boil down to ‘play a random character archtype,’ ‘pick a race and a class,’ (all of which are random character archtypes), Non-Class Adventurers (Raven C.S. McCracken’s attempt at a skill based chargen for the anti-class players out there, which from my reading gives a number of serious disadvantages and is more complicated than it’s worth), and ‘play a monster.’ I go with the first “Traditional” Method, since it’s what Raven C.S. McCracken recommends, and I just love typing out that name.
I get to roll (again) three times on a table and pick what class I want. I get Tiger (Golden/Scarlet), Alchemist, and Gnome. I meet the ability score requirements for all of them, so I must be pretty good. Tigers are apparently badass martial artists (not actual tigers), and according to the text “It is sometimes said that one Golden or Scarlet Tiger can defeat five Ninjas of the same level,” so obviously they have a killer-rep in game.
For being a Golden/Scarlet Tiger, I get +3 Agility and Dexterity, and they both have to be at least 20 afterwards. I get +1d4 x10 Strength (!). After carefully looking over the staggered-as-hell old-skool tables, I assign my abilities, without really knowing what anything is.
I roll for a random mutation: 5% chance! (I don’t get a mutation.) From my Intelligence, I have a 5% chance to be Psionic (and as far as I can tell, this is pretty much all Intelligence does for me.) I am also not Psionic. I have a Super Personality, which makes me slightly more likable. Go me!
I figure out my derived stats (see the final character sheet at the bottom), and roll up a random physical appearance. I am female, White, with White Hair, Violet Eyes. I’m right handed, six feet tall, and 186 lbs. For random physical appearance, I get ‘ugly,’ and the book suggests I wear a mask. I am 23 years old.
I randomly determine my starting funds: $20,000.
I get to pick an Aura, which is totally not just another name for Alignment. The ‘good’ auras seem a lot more violent than the ‘evil,’ auras. I pick Gold, because it gives me a reason to fight anyone for pretty much no reason at all: “hates and seeks to destroy all evil and semievil creatures, including their closest friends if may (sic) they show even the slightest tendency towards evil.” Check. I’m a really nice person.
I now record my Golden Tiger abilities and skills. I have a choice; I take Tiger Fire since it lets me attack people, fly, or heal people. (It costs Con to use, but it can also heal Con, so I’m an unlimited hit point battery. As long as I don’t run up against Flying Ninja, I’m pretty sure I could take at least five of them.
With my $20,000, I buy a White Wolverine Skin Cloak (it matches my hair, and is overpowered!), which means I take 1% damage from everything, and a Blue Rain Grenade, which does 1d6 times 10,000 damage. I don’t need any more weapons since my hand to hand attack is better than all of them, and I have an innate ranged attack. I’ve got over $2000 left, which is more than enough for typical adventuring gear, which I don’t bother listing out. There’s no price listed for the mask the book suggests I buy.
Advantage Bonus: +3
Attacks Per Turn: 2
Shot Bonus: +7
Dodge Score: 59
Damage Adj: +10, x16
Weight Limit: 3100 lbs.
Chance to Locate Traps: 30%
Life Points: 640
Fate vs. Magic/Psionics/EP: 8%
Fate vs. Alchemy/Chi/Mutations: 9%
Fate vs. Disease/Poisons/Chemicals: 24%
Miscellaneous Fate: 10%
Metabolic Shock: 38%
Reaction Adj: +0
Surprise Class Scores:
AA: 84, A: 69, B: 64, C: 45
Skills:
Balancing & Juggling
Biology
Biology, Marine
Biology, Xeno
Climbing
Combat, Dodging and Blocking
Combat, Grappling
Combat, Handheld Weapons
Combat, Hand-to-Hand
Combat, Martial Art Disarming
Combat, Martial Art Empty-Hand
Combat, Martial Art Throwing
Combat, Martial Art Way of the Body
Combat, Martial Art Weapons
Combat, Projectile and Throwing Weapons
Computer Operation
Cooking
Detect Traps and Secret Doors
Fishing
Math, Basic
Medical, First Aid
Meditation
Moving Silently
Navigation, Air
Navigation, Land
Navigation, Water
Nerve Pinch
Piloting, Boats
Reading
Running
Sewing
Survival, Wilderness
Swimming, Basic
Weaving
Wood Carving
Writing
Abilities:
Beam Attack Advantage
Beam Attack Dodge
Hand to Hand Damage
Jumping Bonus
Meditation
Shadow Vision
Tiger Fire
Gear:
White Wolverine Skin Cloak
Blue Grenade
Random Stuff
__________________
Bramha_Bull
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
-Buddha
Educate yourself! - read the Uncyclopedia! Currently Gaming - Nothing Looking for group.
Laugh Points: Inire-1, Racinocovix-1
"I have forgotten the face of my father" Point: Tom McCambley
Re: [All Systems] Process of Character Creation – Examples
I rather like the character creation system from Artesia. If you aren't familiar with it, it's based upon the Cyberpunk Lifepath Generation system. Depending on the preferences of the Guide (GM/DM/ST/etc), you can pick or roll for most of them. I'll be rolling mostly but allow myselt to replace up to 3 rolls with my choice from those tables if I dislike what the dice provide. Unless otherwise noticed, all rolls are on a D10. There are four basic steps:
Step One: Culture & Social Class
The first decision is which culture I grew up in. I roll a D10 and get an 8, which means I come from the region of the Middle Kingdoms ruled by the Watchtower Kings, a warlike land on the frontier with the Wastes of Utedmael. I also roll to see if I have an unusual family situation - there's only a 1-in-10 chance and it doesn't occur.
The next choice is my specific birthplace. I roll an 8 - I was born in a Port City such as Nomath or Warwark. I choose Warwark, the city ruled by one of the most influential of the Watchtower Kings. This gives me a +2 bonus when I roll for my Social Level, which I'll do next. I roll a 10, which gives me 12 overall! 10 or better is the Patrician class and 12 is fairly high up in it (as high as some petty kings). Social Level is very important for the game, so this is really very good.
Rolling for my parents professions I get 1 and 8: 8 means a Physican-Healer and is only open to men (in this culture anyway), so that can be my father's profession but 1 means roll at a lower class - and I roll another 1, sending me even further down. Eventually I get a 7, making my mother a Midwife. Clearly I have a strong medical background and my father married far below his status.
I decide now that my character is a man and named Lewyr, a fairly common name in the area. His father's name is Durace and his mother's is Anid. By the customs of the area this makes him Lewyr son of Durace of Warwark.
Step Two: Lineage and Birth
Rolling for my parents lineages I roll a 6 for my father, making him Danian and for my mother I roll 11, making her Maelite (both rolls were on a D20). Both of these are quite common ethnicities for the area. However, I'd like something different here, so I'll opt to replace my father's rolled lineage with Archaic Durean, an unusual lineage that traces back to the legendary lost isle of Urune Durea.
Now that I know the general heritage that Lewyr has, it's time to make it more specific. The full lineage tables are in the appendices and I turn to Archaic Durean first. I have a 60% chance of getting a common lineage, but instead I roll a 10 and am descended from a relatively recent hero or heroine. Obviously this is my lucky day, as I roll another 10 and can claim descent through my father from Ferise - the last hero to leave Urune Durea before it sank. This gives me 1 point bonuses to STR, STAM, WILL and CONV, plus the Gift Unearthly Mask at level 3! On the down side, I take a 1 point penalty to my WIS. My mother is a Maelite, and I roll a 5, which gives me a Common lineage. Still, that's nothing to be ashamed off and gives me a +1 to COUR and WIS (cancelling out the penalty from my father), with a -1 to my EMP.
Now I'll need a D12 to determine my birthsign. 11, which is Star-Child, implying great insight into the world but physical weakness. Not too bad. I roll a 7 to determine the strength of the influence of the sign: moderate influence. That's a +1 to my WIS and CONV (stacking with the previous bonuses), but a -1 to STR (which cancels the bonus from my father's lineage).
I'll roll on the Heroic table for Birth Omens - that's a D20 roll isntead of a D100 and I get 16, which says I have No Omens (the most likely outcome whatever I rolled). I think that that's boring though so I'll use my second pick to declare I have a Great Destiny! D3+1 rolls on Good or Tricky Omens gives me 2 in total, so one of each. The Good Omen is the Great Star (+1 WILL & PRE) and the Tricky Omen is a Satyr (+1 IMAG & PRE, -1 WILL) so I am meant for great things but my life will be filled by trickery.
Step Three: Family and Childhood
Obviously I have 2 parents, and a roll of 5 gives me that many siblings. By random determination, I'm the second oldest. Now I have to roll for each sibling to determine their genders and how each member of the family feels about me.
Durace (father) is my ally
Anid (mother) is my agent
Gaebril (older brother) is my friend
Liacill (younger sister) is my enemy
Cadier (younger brother) is my compatriot
Airfale (younger sister) is my compatriot
Aliss (younger sister) is my friend
Although it's not part of the rules I could also roll to determine how they feel about each other and work out a relationship chart. This can be great if the family is going to be important to the game For now, knowing that I'm the apple of my parent's eyes and that the older of my three sisters hates me is enough.
I roll my childhood fortune, which turns out to be Ill Fortune - I am homeless, my childhood home destroyed by natrual disaster of by the hand of man. This will mean that my parents cannot spare me any money to get started in life! I decide that it was the act of man, and gain an Enemy and the Binding Hate Your Enemy at 2.
Step Four: Previous Experience
By default, I should take up the same Occupation as my parent of the same gender. Physican-Healer seems quite interesting, so I'll stay with it rather than rolling to try to get another occupation. I'll alos accept the default age of 21, meaning that I roll for Lifepath events for the years when I was 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. The first year I get Nothing Happened, and the same the second year. The next year, however, I get to go on a Great Adventure: a Great Success! in fact. I gain a bonus of d10 x PRE x 10 in gold (I roll 3 and my PRE is 7 (see later), so this becomes 210 gold, a small fortune!) and an Ally at the highest levels of my culture. I also gain a Vanity 1 binding, however. The year after I get Major Good Fortune, obtaining a Mentor, who will act as an Ally and gives me an additional 3 Training Points every year. And finally, another Great Adventure: a Bloody Feud involving myself, my friends and my family. I lose a Friend or member of my family and gain Bindings of Grief 1 and Hate Your Enemy 1, as well as an Enemy to go with it. I can also take a military occupation this year, but choose not to.
Putting It All Together
Now all the above has given me an idea of who Lewyr is. But now it's time to put some cold hard numbers to that.
The first thing to do is to work out his Characteristics. There are fifteen of these, and each starts at 5, which is average. I then modify them using the modifiers generated by the lifepath.
Thus, Lewyr is of fairly average physique, although he's quite healthy. He is quite brave, insightful and creative and has quite a degree of charisma and personal faith - in the Cult of Islik as practised in the Middle Kingdoms.
Lewyr also has the Gift of Unearthly Mask 3, which indicates that he is marked by the beauty of the heavens when it is active - a not insignificant advantage in social interactions. On the other side of the equation, he has several Bindings: Grief 1, Hate Your Enemy 1, Hate Your Enemy 2 and Vanity 1. I decide that he is mourning the death of his older brother at the sword of an Angowrie knight and would go to great lengths to take his revenge, a hate exceeded only by that he holds for the rivals who drove his family from Warwark when he was a child. In addition, he is a bit overly proud of his skills as a Physican-Healer. Outside of his family, he has a Mentor and another powerful Ally, but those he hates are his declared Enemies and his sister blames him for their exile when they were children.
The next step is to work out what points Lewyr has in his skills, and how propserous he is. Everyone starts with their MEMx3 Training Points, which in this case is 15. These can only be spent on Everyman Skills, Cultural Everyman Skills or Cultural Language Skills. Lewyr also has a skill equal to his MEM in speaking his native Language, so he has The Middle Tongue 5. I decide to purchase basic skills in Awareness 2, Divine King Cult Lore 2, Etiquette (Watchtower) 2, Persuasion 2 & Wardrobe & Style (Watchtower) 2. These cost 1 for the first point and 2 for the second, and so forth, so these five skills cost me all the 15 points from here.
I also receive MEM + REAS Training Points for each year that I rolled on the lifepath - this will be 10 each year and 3 more for the last 2 years as I gained a Mentor. I can spend these on the same areas as before but also on my Occupational Skills. Obviously, I want to be good at these, so I decide to buy Healing Arts at 5 (costs 15), Herbal Lore and Midwifery at 4 (10 each) and Letters and Writing at 3 (6 each). 5 is unusually skilled and 3-4 are levels of professional use - Lewyr is indeed a very competent Physican-Healer. It has cost me 47 of my points however, so I'll spend the remaining nine buying Etiquette (Watchtower), Persuasion & Wardrobe & Style (Watchtower) to 3 each.
Now I work out my Arcana Points. Every year I roll on the lifepath gives me Arcana points equal to my WILL of 6 - 30 points! I can spend these in any areas covered by my Occupation's Arcana: Sun, Hanged Man and Great Priest. These include selected Characteristics, Skills, Gifts and Bindings that can be bought off. It's tempting to buy off that Vanity Binding, it's listed under the Hanged Man and would cost only 3 Arcana Points, but I decide that it fits Lewyr's character. It would be expensive to increase a Characteristic (3x the cost if increasing Skills) and none of the Gifts appeal. This leaves Skills and I decide to improve Lewyr's Healing Arts to 6, buy Teaching and Composition at 4, and raise Letters to 4. Lewyr is not only an expert in the field of medicine, he also passes on those skills to others and is well educated. Healing Arts is listed under Sun, and the others under Great Priest, so I record 6 under the Sun Arcana, and 24 under the Great Priest.
My personal wealth is 291 gold and 4 silver per year, plus that windfall of 210 gold, but nio starting inheritance from my parents. That comes to 1666 gold (as 20 silvers = 1 gold). Most of this will be landed property, probably a large townhouse.
__________________ D.
Honestly, who did he think they were? The sort of people who stopped to think before picking a fight with a ridiculously powerful opponent? Where would the fun be in that? There'd be at least two mountain ranges left standing if they were that sort. Boring.
Last edited by drakensis; 09-18-2006 at 02:50 PM..
Re: [All Systems] Process of Character Creation – Examples
I only make characters when I actually have something to use them for, unless I'm trying to come up with pregens. So I give you the last character I made, for an upcoming PbP game Scarlet Wake Reloaded. This is a Wushu game, but I decided to go with a different method to my usual Trait Categories approach used in the Open Reloaded edition. Instead it was going to be with the Traits-as-motivations approach. Something more character-driven, and less competency-focused than the other method. For anyone curious, both are purely optional methods of chargen for Wushu, the standard is freeform.
1. Concept
Always my starting point with any character, regardless of system. I look to the setting to inspire me, and they usually come unbidden to me while discussing the conventions of the setting.
Scarlet Wake is based on revenge movies like Kill Bill. Someone has wronged your character, and the focus of the game is avenging yourself on them (usually plural). This particular game is themed "Hong Kong Blood Opera" - with all the connotations of dark mood and heroic bloodshed. It's not going to be pretty.
Two ideas come to me; my character a martial artist played by Brandon Lee and a villain, played by Gary Cole. He's out to avenge the death of his father.
Some time after that initial idea, everyone agrees that it'll be set in the 1920s/30s, rather than the present, for some added pulp flavour.
2. Initial Trait assignment
Most Wushu characters are built on 6 points. Each point raises a Trait by 1 from the default of 2 to a maximum of 5. Thus the standard spread is a Trait at 5, one at 4 and one at 3. You also have to come up with a Weakness, which is rated at 1 and you roll against that whenever you try to go against it. I came up with the following:
I Will Prove My Worth/In the Name of the Father 5 - His father's legacy is a tough one to live up to, a master of martial arts and a local hero as well. This is his Trait related to struggle, combat and physicality. His drive to excel.
Best of Both Worlds 4 - Being half-Chinese he sees things in a way people from both cultures often don't, representing a fusion of cultures and ideas. He is often like a bridge between them bringing understanding and showing mutual gains. This is his relationships Trait, how he finds a way to communicate with almost anyone.
No Place is His Own 3 - But when you straddle two cultures you are still acutely aware of how you don't really fit into either of them. You walk your own path. This is the corollary to the above, when he finds himself alone in a place no one else can identify with. It's also the things he's done that he's not proud of.
Never Show Your Pain 1 - A hard lesson learned in a hard place, which makes it difficult to open up to people and be vulnerable.
OR
Honour His Memory 1 - Never let insults to his father's name, honour and achievement stand. He worships the ideal of what his father was, because the man himself never acknowledged him, never showed him and affection.
Vaguest bio idea I had here was that he's the unwanted illegitimate son of a local sifu who was a hero to the community. He (the father) was murdered in an illegal duel by a rival, which was covered up by the cops (of whom the villain is the boss, complicit in all this). Definitely shares some themes with my character Jiang Lo from the Four Tigers of Shaolin game, in terms of the importance of the father and being unwanted. The whole mixed-race angst is something I can identify quite strongly with on a personal level.
This gave me a pretty obvious second villain - the man who killed his father. He was another sifu and Triad boss, played by Yee Kwan Yan.
3. Finalising and filling out the rest
I'll focus on the bits to do with my character, rather than the villains.
I decided I wanted to go with the second Weakness; the first felt like a cop-out and not that restrictive.
I decided I should twist the whole idealised father business. As in he might once have been a good man, and every bit the honourable paladin he's thought to be, but towards the end he'd grown arrogant and complacent. He was killed for reneging on a deal he'd made with the Triad boss, thinking he was too big and important to be held to such things by mere criminal scum. The Triad boss acquired the name Iron Shirt Kun Liang.
For the rest, I started out a bio and had a think about his personal style, as well as the perennial trouble: a name.
Final sheet looks thus:
Name: Bobbie Chung Wei Casting: Brandon Lee Brief Bio: Bobbie is the illegitimate son of a martial arts master who was a local hero to many people. The revelation of his paternity was a minor scandal for the married master, Chung Tao, doubly so because the mother was a British woman. But he was a popular man, and made a show of supporting the boy and his mother honouring his obligations at a distance.
The elder Chung was killed in an illegal duel with another master, then Triad lieutenant Kun Liang. There are many differing stories as to how this happened, and indeed whether it was a fair fight or not. The killing was covered up by the investigating police authority at the time "for the good of the community". And a fat envelope full of cash to stave off any official enquiries.
[more to come when I think about a couple of other villains]
Personal Style: Bobbie dresses simply, often in the garb of a common labourer and carries no weapons.
Traits and Weakness:
In the Name of My Father 5 - His father's legacy is a tough one to live up to, a master of martial arts and a local hero as well. This is his Trait related to struggle, combat and physicality. His drive to excel.
Best of Both Worlds 4 - Being half-Chinese he sees things in a way people from both cultures often don't, representing a fusion of cultures and ideas. He is often like a bridge between them bringing understanding and showing mutual gains. This is his relationships Trait, how he finds a way to communicate with almost anyone.
No Place is His Own 3 - But when you straddle two cultures you are still acutely aware of how you don't really fit into either of them. You walk your own path. This is the corollary to the above, when he finds himself alone in a place no one else can identify with. It's also the things he's done that he's not proud of.
Honour His Memory 1 - Never let insults to his father's name, honour and achievement stand. He worships the ideal of what his father was, because the man himself never acknowledged him, never showed him and affection.
Here's a Tri-Stat fantasy chargen walkthrough I posted a while back:
I'll go for a 100pt d8 character.
A good rule of thumb is to have an average stat of around X (eight in this case). Fighters will probably want a slightly higher average (since a lot of derived values are combat-related) and wizards might want a slightly lower one (since they want to save points for magical powers). I'll split the difference and stick with an average of eight.
Body 6, Mind 9, Soul 9 [48pts]
Okay, now for attributes. The most expensive is going to be magic, so let's deal with that first. Dynamic Power is easier to handle than Power Flux. War is a 20pt/level category, so we'll stick with a single level for now. We'll go for Area 2, Duration 4, Range 2, and Targets 1. That means our fighter/mage can affect himself or one other person/object up to 100 yards away, and that spells with a duration last for ten minutes; long enough for most combats. Now we'll stick a Restriction (must be able to speak and gesture freely) onto the power. It's relatively minor (1BP) but since DP is so expensive we'll bump that to 2BP.
Dynamic Powers 1: War [20pts]
PMVs: Area 2, Duration 4, Range 2, Targets 1 [9pts]
Restriction: Must be able to speak and gesture freely [2BP]
We're not going to be able to afford many more attributes, but that's okay since our battle magic will allow us to use them as spells. For example, our fighter/mage can increase his combat scores, or take an extra attack per round, or pump his melee damage, or throw a fireball.
We will take a single level of Attack Combat Mastery, though. Even without magic, fighting skill is worth having.
Attack Combat Mastery 1 [3pts]
Now how about some counter magic? A level of Nullify will let us cancel out minor magic. We'll give it the same PMVs as the DP, for the sake of simplicity. Also, since Nullify normally works on any attribute, restricting it to magic is worth 2BP.
Nullify 1 [7pts]
PMVs: Area 2, Duration 4, Range 2, Targets 1 [9pts]
Restriction: Magic Only [2BP]
We'll take a level of Gadgets, giving four minor gadgets and one major one. The minors will be a sword, light armour, a riding horse, and a journal/spellbook. For the major we'll take an adveturer's kit; a backpack containing rope, rations, a lantern, a ten foot pole, and all the other things we need to crawl dungeons.
As a fast, smart fighter, we'll invest in two levels of Combat Technique, picking up Lightning Reflexes to win initiative and Judge Opponent to spot weaknesses.
It's not normally worth investing too heavily in skills, but with combat and magic skills to buy we may need a few extra points.
Highly Skilled 1 [1pt]
Let's have a 'detect magic' sense. While we're here, we'll invest in Special Defences against illusions and mind control due to magical training. One level of each grants a +3 to the defending stat check; given our good Mind and Soul stats, we're pretty much safe from them.
Sixth Sense 1 (Magic) [1pt]
Special Defence 2 (Illusion Magic, Mind Control Magic) [2pts]
Divine Relationship has a funky name, but is basically just luck. Even a single reroll per session will be very handy.
Divine Relationship 1 [1pt]
I've left Special Attack until last, because it's more complicated than the others. It's not too bad, though. Let's say we want our fighter/mage to be able to set his sword on fire. We could do that with the DP, of course, but this way we don't have to roll or chant to do it. We can probably only afford a level one attack (20 damage). Luckily, Melee is worth two disability slots, and Hand-Held is worth another one. We'll add Burning (for a single ability slot) to it as well, because setting people on fire is fun. The attack has three disabilities and one ability, for a net of two disabilities. That means it's effectively bumped up two levels for damage purposes, doing a max of 60 damage.
Special Attack 1 (Melee, Hand-Held, Burning, 60 damage) [4pts]
Secondary attacks are cheap, so let's a get a big fireball as well. Uses Energy means it costs 10 Energy Points for each use and is a single disability (technically it could be two, but that's rules-lawyering and I'm trying to avoid that). Short Range is another one, and we'll throw in Static as well for two more. Now let's chuck on Area Effect twice (two abilities) so it hits everyone within two meters of our target. Four disabilities, two abilities; that's the same damage as the sword, but to more people and harder to dodge.
Special Attack 1 (Short Range, Uses 10 Energy, Static, Area Affect 2, 60 damage) [1pt]
Now skills. We have 30 skill points, plus 10 from Highly Skilled, and will be using the High Fantasy costs. Melee Attack and Melee Defence are obvious, and Special Ranged Attack will apply to fireballs and similar. Acrobatics makes the character more agile than his relatively low Body score suggests. A couple of levels of Occult will help for magic knowledge, as will a couple of obscure languages. Wilderness Survival and local Area Knowledge reflect the adventuring lifestyle. And how about some Riding, since we bought a horse? Pick specialities and we're done here.
Okay, we've currently spent 106 character points. Time for some defects. Note that I already added a couple onto attributes as I was picking them; the order you do these things isn't too important. I could go back and add some Restriction, Reduction or Burns Energy defects to some powers, but I won't for the sake of simplicity.
Instead, we'll have low-level Marked and Owned defects. Our fighter/mage is a student of the Red Dragon school of fire magic; he has a small brand marking himself as such (which can occasionally make things awkward with members of rival schools) and is expected to do what tutors and senior students tell him. Since I've been going for a bit of an anime flavour, having watched more Rune Soldier last night, I'll add in Easily Distracted (cute girls), Cursed (said cute girls tend to take an instant dislike to him) and Nemesis (the half-demon girl who cursed him in the first place). These tend to be minor, humourous problems rather than serious life-threatening ones.
Re: [All Systems] Process of Character Creation – Examples
Hmmmmmm. I think I'll widen this thread up a bit, and take the opportunity to detail the design of a combat mecha in Mekton Zeta Plus. Mekton Zeta does have a very nice character creation system, but mecha design is just as important to the game, and IMHO more fun.
First step - concept and limits. MZ+ allows you to build just about anything imaginable, so this is important. I decide I want a strong close-assault mecha, with good armor and speed, and short-range weapons to get in among the enemy and rip them apart. The GM figures this'll work, and gives me 200 Construction Points (CP) to play with. He also says that my design has to weigh a minimum of 20 tons, and reserves the right to veto any use of unusual systems like forcefields, cloaking devices, and teleportation devices. This is fine by me, as I wasn't planning on using any of that anyway to start.
Armed with my concept and pool of 200 CP, I first build my mecha's frame. Frames are built of servos - arms, legs, torso, head, et cetera - and range in size from Superlight to Megaheavy. I decide to take the middle road, and buy a basic Heavy Striker frame - a little less than halfway between the two extremes. This will cost me 39 CP, and has a base weight of 19.5 tons. I have the following servos in my frame:
- Heavy Striker Torso: 10 Kills, 10 spaces; 10 CP, 5 tons
- Heavy Striker Right Arm: 6 Kills, 6 spaces; 6 CP, 3 tons
- Heavy Striker Left Arm: 6 Kills, 6 spaces; 6 CP, 3 tons
- Heavy Striker Right Leg: 6 Kills, 6 spaces; 6 CP, 3 tons
- Heavy Striker Left Leg: 6 Kills, 6 spaces; 6 CP, 3 tons
- Heavy Striker Head: 5 Kills, 5 spaces; 5 CP, 2.5 tons
It's pretty easy to see that 1 CP buys 1 Kill's worth of durability (the mecha-scale equivalent of Hits), 1 space's worth of room to place equipment, and half a ton of weight. (Actually, 1 Kill's worth of durability weighs half a ton, but it works out to the same thing. More weight is generally worse in MZ+; it makes your mecha slower and less maneuverable.)
After some reflection, I shrink the head somewhat, to Striker size, and also add a backpack Pod at Heavy Striker size. This is absolutely permissible; there are only a few restrictions on mixing and matching servo sizes (no putting a pair of spindly Superlight legs on a Megaheavy torso and expecting it to walk, frex) and I'm not breaking any of them. The Striker head will look somewhat shrunken against the rest of my mecha, but I'm here to win fights, not beauty contests. My final frame looks as follows:
- Heavy Striker Torso: 10 Kills, 10 spaces; 10 CP, 5 tons
- Heavy Striker Right Arm: 6 Kills, 6 spaces; 6 CP, 3 tons
- Heavy Striker Left Arm: 6 Kills, 6 spaces; 6 CP, 3 tons
- Heavy Striker Right Leg: 6 Kills, 6 spaces; 6 CP, 3 tons
- Heavy Striker Left Leg: 6 Kills, 6 spaces; 6 CP, 3 tons
- Striker Head: 3 Kills, 3 spaces; 3 CP, 1.5 tons
- Heavy Striker Pod: 0 Kills, 10 spaces; 5 CP, 0 tons
Note the stats on the Pod; this is essentially an 'empty' servo without internal bracing, held together by external armor. This makes it lighter-weight and cheaper than other servos, but also less durable. If I wanted a backpack with more bracing, I could buy a second 'head' and rename it as desired, but this is fine. I've spent 42 CP, and my mecha has a weight of 18.5 tons at the moment.
Now I add armor. Because I'm a close-in brawler, I want the best armor I can get - which is 7 points' worth of stopping power for most of the servos, but only 5 for the head (smaller and less bracing to support the armor plate). Armor in MZ+ is semi-ablative, losing one point of stopping power with each hit; if my chest gets hit with a 10-Kill blast, the armor will let only 3 Kills through to do damage, but be reduced to stopping only 6 points for the next attack. There's an option for 'improved' armor that is more difficult to ablate, but it's expensive and I'm on a budget, so I let it go for now. The current (and likely final) frame looks like this:
- Heavy Striker Torso: 10 Kills, 10 spaces, SP 7 armor; 10+7 CP, 5+3.5 tons
- Heavy Striker Right Arm: 6 Kills, 6 spaces, SP 7 armor; 6+7 CP, 3+3.5 tons
- Heavy Striker Left Arm: 6 Kills, 6 spaces, SP 7 armor; 6+7 CP, 3+3.5 tons
- Heavy Striker Right Leg: 6 Kills, 6 spaces, SP 7 armor; 6+7 CP, 3+3.5 tons
- Heavy Striker Left Leg: 6 Kills, 6 spaces, SP 7 armor; 6+7 CP, 3+3.5 tons
- Striker Head: 3 Kills, 3 spaces, SP 5 armor; 3+5 CP, 1.5+2.5 tons tons
- Heavy Striker Pod: 0 Kills, 10 spaces, SP 7 armor; 5+7 CP, 0+3.5 tons
My frame costs me 89 CP, and weighs 42 tons. Pricey, but it makes for a very solid core for my design.
I've now got 61 CP left, lots and lots of space to fill, and plenty of options in place - weapons, ammunition, cockpit and sensors, and so on. First things first, I need a cockpit. The basic version takes up one space, but costs no CP; after some reflection, though, I decide on an upgraded cockpit with ejection-capable environment pod. This'll let me bail out of a dying mecha and survive any hostile environment, even hard vacuum. Could be important if things get hairy. As for my sensor package, I go with the standard version, no need for a special upgrade, but do buy a set of backup sensors in case my main set is damaged in combat or burnt out by some special effect. The sensors go into my mecha's head, while the cockpit is placed in the torso. This'll make it a bit tougher for me to bail out in an emergency, but it's also the toughest place on my suit, and my character is an anime brat who expects to live forever anyway!
- Cockpit with E-Pod: 2 CP, 2 spaces (Torso), no weight
- Main and Backup Sensors: 6 CP, 3 spaces (Head), 1.5 tons
Next up, weapons. I figure I need a gun, first off. There's three main kinds of ranged weapons in MZ+ - beams (long-ranged, accurate, no ammo needed normally, but expensive), projectile weapons (cheaper but less accurate than beams) and missiles (single-shot weapons, fireable in large volleys but also easily countered). I decide that my main gun will be a projectile weapon, and turn to the appropriate section of the design guide.
If mecha design is a minigame in Mekton Zeta, weapon design is a game within the minigame. Weapons can be built to fill just about any role. For my mecha, I decide I want a somewhat lightweight, rapid-fire autocannon - the sort of multi-barrel monstrosity that always seems to be hidden behind a mecha's chest armorplate. I start with a 4-Kill damage projectile, take the default values for range and accuracy, and add the special quality of Burst Value 4 to represent its rapid-fire capability. It'll be able to potentially hit four times in a single attack, if my to-hit roll is high enough, and should be great for mowing down mooks. Against tough enemies, it'l be less effective, but still should work to ablate armor (yes, each separate shot on a rapid-fire attack counts as a separate hit for this purpose!)
The base cost of the Vulcanus-Beta autocannon (as I'm calling it) is 10 CP, and it takes up 10 spaces. Slight problem - it's too large to fit anywhere in my design (except the backpack pod, and I've got other plans for that)! Fortunately, MZ+ has a fix for this - space efficiency. Increase the cost of a weapon or other piece of equipment by 1 CP, and you can reduce the number of spaces it takes up by 2. So 11 CP, 8 spaces, and the autocannon fits snugly into my Torso, just below the cockpit. The durability of the gun itself is 4 Kills (equal to its damage value), so it weighs 2 tons.
Guns aren't very good without ammo. A 10-shot clip for a projectile weapon costs 10% of the gun's own CP cost, spaces and weight; I decide I want a total of four clips, each costing 1.1 CP, taking up 0.8 spaces, and weighing 0.2 tons. Two clips go in each arm of my mecha, taking up 1.6 spaces each. There's also options for specialty ammo (armor-piercing, incendiary, wide-area blast shells, and so on), but for the moment I'll just take basic HE.
- Vulcanus-Beta autocannon: Damage 4K, Range 6, WA +0, BV 4. 11 CP, 8 spaces (Torso), 2 tons
- 4 clips AC ammo: 4.4 CP, 0.8 spaces each (2 in R Arm, 2 in L Arm), 0.8 tons
Guns are useful for more than just offensive purposes. A special type of projectile weapon called 'Phalanx' provides solid missile defense, which can be VERY useful if you run into something that tries to throw thirty missiles at you and run! I decide on two Phalanx systems, one mounted in each shoulder.
- Phalanx cannons x2: WA +0, BV 7. 4 CP, 2 spaces each (R Arm, L Arm), 1 ton
- 4 clips Phalanx ammo: 0.8 CP, 0.2 spaces each (2 in R Arm, 2 in L Arm), 0.4 tons
Arms, in MZ+, don't automatically come with Hands on them - there's a lot of mecha which use their arms as semi-articulated gun mounts only - but I figure a couple Hands will be, well, handy. You can build a Hand of any size as a melee weapon in MZ+, allowing for the use of anything from a standard-size manipulator to a massively powerful battlefist able to deliver 20-Kill damage punches. I don't need anything fancy, so I use the basic design.
- Hands x2: Damage 1K, WA +0, Quick, Handy. 4 CP, 1 space each (R Arm, L Arm), 1 ton
Now that I have Hands, something to hold in them would be nice. An Arm with a Hand can hold a weapon equal to the total number of Spaces in the Arm, for free, and large weapons can be 2-Handed to allow extra space. (The main downside is that they lack any sort of Armor protection, so can get destroyed easily if the enemy gets a lucky shot in.) In my case, I figure a nice Plasma Sword is just the ticket - good damage, lightweight, and with some nice special effects. A heavy 10K-damage weapon should do nicely, with a base cost of 10 CP and 10 spaces. I could use it as is and wield it two-handed, but after a bit of thought I apply some Space Efficiency to get it small enough to carry in one hand.
- Plasma Sword: Damage 10K, WA +1. 12 CP, 6 spaces, 1 ton.
At the moment, I've spent 133.2 CP, and used all the spaces in my Head and Torso, and have 1 space left open in each Arm. My mecha weighs 48.3 tons - a lumbering beast indeed. Again, though, there's a tool in MZ+ for changing this - Weight Efficiency. Spend 2 CP, and your mecha's weight can be reduced by 1 ton. I want something better able to handle itself in a furball, so I drop 24 CP to reduce my weight by 12 tons. This brings me down to 36.3 tons weight, much more manageable.
It's probably time to buy a flight system. Flight speed in MZ+ is dependent on your mecha's weight and the size of your thruster system. I figure that the ability to burn at 2G acceleration (equivalent to a tactical movement speed of 16 hexes/turn) is good for my design - this will cost me 24 CP base, and require 24 spaces. Pretty pricey - fortunately, though, flight systems (unlike most other systems) can be freely split up between multiple locations without affecting cost or usability. I elect to buy only 1 CP worth of Space Efficiency, and put 6 spaces of thrusters in each Leg, with 10 into the backpack Pod. Thrusters require Fuel, equal to 10% of the weight of the rest of my mecha (so 10% of 36.3, in this case).
- Thrusters: Flight MA 16. 25 CP, 22 spaces (6 in each Leg, 10 in Pod), 3.6 tons.
My mecha currently costs 182.2 CP, weighs just under 40 tons, and is squeezed full of systems except for 1 lonely space in each Arm. There are minor roleplaying-based add-ons (storage space, damage-control packages, and so on) that I could squeeze in here for minimal added cost, such as storage modules or a damage control package, as well as 'zero-space' additions like spotlights and a cockpit stereo. I decide to leave the design alone for the moment, though, and further pimp my ride after checking with the GM and the other players about the tone of the game. For the moment, I've got an essentially finished mecha!
Akhileos-class Close Assault Mecha
Servos:
- Heavy Striker Torso: 10 Kills, 10 spaces (0 free)
- Heavy Striker Right Arm: 6 Kills, 6 spaces (1 free)
- Heavy Striker Left Arm: 6 Kills, 6 spaces (1 free)
- Heavy Striker Right Leg: 6 Kills, 6 spaces (0 free)
- Heavy Striker Left Leg: 6 Kills, 6 spaces (0 free)
- Striker Head: 3 Kills, 3 spaces (0 free)
- Heavy Striker Pod: 0 Kills, 10 spaces (0 free)
Weapons:
- Hands x2 (R Arm, L Arm): Damage 1K, WA +0, Quick, Handy.
- Vulcanus-Beta autocannon: Damage 4K, Range 6, WA +0, BV 4.
- 4 clips AC ammo (2 in R Arm, 2 in L Arm)
- Plasma Sword (Hand-held): Damage 10K, WA +1.
- Phalanx cannons x2 (R Arm, L Arm): WA +0, BV 7.
- 4 clips Phalanx ammo (2 in R Arm, 2 in L Arm)
Cockpit: In Torso, with E-Pod
Sensors: Main and Backup, in Head
Thrusters: 16 MA (4 MA each Leg, 8 MA Pod)
Final Note: Phew. And the scary thing is, this barely cracks the surface. No examination of beam weapons, missiles, electronic warfare, alternate forms such as mechatanks or beastmecha, improved powerplants and control systems, alternate forms such as mechatanks or beastmecha, alternate-size systems like power armor suits or starship-sized mecha... Mekton Zeta Plus can do just about anything. On the other hand, MZ+ isn't necessarily needed for playing Mekton Zeta - there's a solid set of 'basic' design options and weapons in the main corebook, with MZ+ as an addon that provides more construction rules and options. But hey, I like to tinker.
Re: [All Systems] Process of Character Creation – Examples
I'll give Exalted 2e a nice little stab.
First, we want a basic concept. I've fairly recently read some Jo Walton, and so feel like taking yet another stab at building Lancelot. I find a nice little outpost of the Realm, which has been abandoned in the recent troubles: Greyfalls. There's no canonical Arthur character for this landlocked Britain, but I can either take him as an Ally or talk one of the other PCs into playing him.
Of the five Castes, Lancelot is inarguably a Dawn, the warriors. For my Motivation, I'll take "Place a strong and just ruler on the throne of Greyfalls." Note that I don't specify an individual; this lets my Motivation be turned against me by an opponent who can try to convince me that my current candidate is unjust or weak.
Next, we select Attributes. Out of Physical, Social, and Mental, that looks like the right order; Lancelot is a warrior first, a leader of warriors second, and a scholar very little. That gives us 8 points to distribute between Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina (plus one starting point for each). Really, I should probably distribute them fairly evenly, with Dex getting the short end, but my inner munchkin points out that Dexterity is the most important stat when it comes to hitting and not getting hit, so I end up with a spread of Strength 3, Dexterity 5, Stamina 3. Socials is easier; I've got 6 points for Charisma, Appearance, and Manipulation, and looking at how they're used, I definitely want to max Charisma (it's rolled in mass combat to keep troops in order), and have no real use for Manipulation (it's handy for people who intend to be deceitful, but that's not Lancelot's forte). We end up with Charisma 5, Appearance 3, Manipulation 1. Mentals, I have 4 points; Intelligence isn't going to come up that often, but I shouldn't be an idiot, so I'll put one into it (Int 2 is average), one into Perception, and two into Wits (so I'll be just a little quicker on the draw).
Next, we go onto skills, called Abilities in this system (a trifle confusing, but you get used to it). As a Dawn Caste, I automatically favor the abilities of Archery, Martial Arts, Melee, Thrown, and War (that is, everything directly involved in putting sharp things into the other guy). I have five other selections from the twenty other Abilities. I definitely want to make sure to favor Integrity (so I'm less easily swayed or cowed) and Resistance (helps keep me on my feet against poison, fatigue, or pain). Likewise, I should be skilled at Ride, and there are a couple Charms in the Athletics tree I might like to pick up later, those dealing with feats of strength, so I should probably grab that one. I have one left; I could grab Presence, so I could take an active role in social combat, but I think Awareness is going to be more important in not getting killed by ninja.
Of course, this is only the first step; I now get 28 points to assign to all of my Abilities, with at least 10 of them required to go into Favored or Caste. At this point, each can only go up to 3. I'll max out Martial Arts, Melee, War, Integrity, Resistance, and Ride right off the bat; I may need to spend a few on other ones, just for basic functionality, so I'll hold off on the others, though I am required to put one point each into my Favoreds (but not Caste). That's spent 3+3+3+3+3+3+1+1=20 points already. I remember that I should put one into Lore, so I'm not illiterate, and one into Linguistics, so that I can speak both the language of the Realm and Riverspeak, which is spoken in this neighborhood. That gives me six points left, so I'll get my Awareness and Athletics up to 3, and drop a couple points in Thrown just in case I'm attacked by someone with too much mobility for me to close.
Now, I get Backgrounds, seven points of them. I'll assume at this point that I haven't managed to con the Zenith (priests and visionaries) into being my Arthur, so I'll create some legionary captain whom I'm backing; he'll be a Terrestrial, so basically weaker than I, but with enough more experience and a large enough army that he's considered on par with a starting Solar. This is a one-dot Ally. Now, I'm going to need a lot of gear to pull off this "feudal knight" schtick, so I'll get as much Resources as I can right now; that's three dots, which gets me a prosperous farm, a good riding animal and a spare, one suit of any armor and any two weapons. I've still got three points left, and I'm remembering how much weaker mortal gear is than Artifacts, so I'll spend those remaining points on the Artifact background. Exactly what I take, I'll decide later.
Next, I get ten Charms. I look at what I want to be able to do: be a peerless warrior, both in single combat and on the larger battlefield. What Charms can help me with this? I know I'll want a lot of Melee Charms, so I'll hold off on buying those until I know what else I absolutely need. I'll want the Master Horseman's Technique, the one that means I can't be unhorsed; that's important for my image. For War Charms, all the best stuff is later on; I'd like to buy some now, but the way mass combat works, if I'm a good enough fighter in single combat I can hold my own with an army. I should grab some Resistance Charms, since they help a lot with lessening damage; the Body-Mending Meditation will speed my healing tenfold, and two selections of the Ox-Body Technique can grant me twice as many health levels as a mortal (admittedly, at such injuries I'll suffer penalties from my wounds, but better hurting than dead). This leaves me six Charms with which to boost my Melee. First, I'll want to get an Excellency, a generic booster. Since I'll often be attacking, I take the First Excellency, which buys additional dice; the Second, which buys successes, is more reliable when trying to hit a static number, but since a hit by 7 is better than a hit by 1, and a miss by 7 is no worse than a miss by 1, the element of randomness introduced by a giant bucket of dice favors me on the attack. I'll want some better defenses; I'll acquire the Dipping Swallow Defense, which cancels all penalties for one parry, then the Bulwark Stance, which does the same for an entire action (though at an added cost), the Fivefold Bulwark Stance, which eliminates two common sources of penalties for an entire scene, and the Heavenly Guardian Defense, which is an expensive Charm but will flawlessly stop any one attack.
Now, I've got one Charm left, but I should check to make sure I meet the prerequisites of all my Charms. As it turns out, I've been paying attention to the Charm trees (which Charms must be purchased before permitting me to buy the next Charm), but my Melee score needs to be 5 in order to have the Fivefold Bulwark Stance. Fortunately, I've got 15 bonus points, and I can spend two of them to increase my Melee by 2 (if it weren't Favored, the cost would double). Now, I've got the one Charm left, and I'm not quite sure whether to spend it on an offensive Melee Charm or whether I'm better off with something else. Remembering that this is Exalted, and ninjae are an ever-present threat, I decide to buy the Third Awareness Excellency. This one lets me reroll an Awareness roll if I flub it; while it doesn't produce giant numbers of successes, I don't need to decide to use it (and thus, pay the cost of it) until I know whether or not I'm going to need it, which makes it nice and efficient.
Now, the next step is to buy Virtues. I have 5 points to spend on these, with a base of 1 in each of Compassion, Conviction, Temperance, and Valor. Now, an average score is 2; with five points, I'll only be above-average in one, unless I'm willing to dip below average on another. I'm playing Lancelot, so that's clearly not going to cut it. I can buy additional Virtue dots at a cost of three bonus points each; I want to be seriously virtuous, so I'll splurge and spend 12 of the 13 I've got left. That lets me spend 9 points; I'll get a Valor of 5, so I'm as brave as humanly possible; a Conviction and Compassion of 3 each, so I'm notable in both categories; and a Temperance of 2. I'm no Galahad, but at least I won't swoon the first time a doe-eyed woman of negotiable virtue tries to lure me from my post.
I've got exactly one bonus point left; looking at what I can purchase with this, I see that I could grab either one point in a Favored or Caste Ability, two specialties in a Favored or Caste Ability, or one specialty in a non-favored Ability. Remembering that, in mass combat, my Melee is treated as no higher than my War, I decide I should buy my War up to 4, so I'm not losing quite as many dice.
That's it for point assignment, but I've got some derived calculations left, and some equipment to select. First, my Willpower score is equal to the sum of my two highest Virtues; that's 8, which on a scale that only goes up to 10 isn't bad. Next, since I didn't spend any bonus points to increase it, my Permanent Essence score is only 2. This lets my calculate my pools of temporary Essence (the stuff that I use to power my Charms); Personal, which can be spent without concern for revealing my nature as an Exalt, is equal to (Essencex3+Willpower)=14 motes, and peripheral is (Essencex7+Willpower+sum of Virtues)=35 motes. My virtuous nature pays off here. Now, I select Intimacies; these are things I care about, but not quite as much as my Motivation. You can start play with as many of these as your Compassion, and I'll choose to do so; I take one to my Circle (so it's harder to convince me to betray them), one to Greyfalls (likewise, for the bonus in social combat), and one to my Ally's sister (because there obviously needs to be some room for conflicts of interest, but I don't want to completely copy the Lancelot story and be in love with his wife).
Lastly, gear. I get one suit of mortal armor and two mortal weapons from my Resources. I want the heaviest armor I can get, which is aptly named "superheavy plate", and a decent shield, too; I take a target shield, because while the tower shield provides better protection, it looks kind of wacky if used on horseback. For my weapons, I want a lance, for work on horse, and some kind of sword for groundwork; looking at the statistics, I see that the straight sword offers the best accuracy and defense, so I'll take that and sacrifice the little bit of extra damage I could get from a chopping sword.
But wait! I also have some artifacts that I need to determine. Looking in the corebook, I see a number of attractive weapons, but I also see that my armor is pretty shabby compared to what an Artifact can do. In particular, only Artifact armor has the trait of Hardness, which lets me completely ignore a weak attack. I decide that I'll spend all three dots on getting a reinforced breastplate made of orichalcum (the Magical Material which is best attuned to a Solar), which has the same soak as my mortal superheavy plate, enough hardness to stop some hand-to-hand attacks and almost any arrow, and is much lighter to boot.
Now, I just need to calculate a few stats derived from my gear. First, my soak is equal to what my armor gives me (11 bashing and 12 lethal, after I add in the bonuses for orichalcum), plus I can add my full Stamina to my bashing soak and half of it (rounded down) to my lethal, totalling 14B/13L, with 9B/9L hardness. I'll also write down my weapon stats; with my Dex+Melee of 10, my straight sword gives me 12 dice to attack, and with its damage of +3L added to my Strength, I do 6L plus extra successes. Not that high, compared to what an artifact can do, but I expect to roll plenty of extra successes. My lance is less accurate, at a -1, so I only roll 9 dice if I haven't used my Excellency, but from the back of a charging horse I do 13L damage, enough to punch through any mortal armor. My Parry Defense Value is equal to (Dex+Melee+Defense mod)/2, rounded up; that would make it 6 with the sword, and 4 with the lance, except that my shield adds 1 against both ranged and melee attacks. That means, when wielding my sword and board, I subtract 7 successes from my opponent's attacks, enough to let me completely ignore any non-heroic character with fewer than 8 dice (which is to say, anyone but a veteran soldier or someone striking from ambush). If I wanted to dodge, I'd use my Dodge DV, which is (Dex+Dodge+Essence-Mobility Penalty)/2, but since that's (5+0+2-2)/2=3, I'm better off parrying unless the attack is specifically impossible to parry (and this is Exalted, so I can at least make a good-faith effort at parrying arrows, ballista bolts, or flaming streamers of Essence from a fire lance).
I also have social combat stats. My Mental Dodge Defense Value, my ability to simply ignore the social attacks of others, is (Willpower+Integrity+Essence)/2=7, so again fairly formidable. If I try to actually debate, though, it's going to be (Charisma)/2, since I have no social skills, and a PDV of 3 isn't going to stop much. Fortunately, if my Appearance is higher than my opponent's, I can add the difference to my MDV; against a warty peasant, my hauteur will boost my MDDV to a good 9. Unfortunately, the inverse is also true; an Appearance 5 seducer (such as my Ally's sister, most likely) need only contend with an effective MDDV of 5.
Re: [All Systems] Process of Character Creation – Examples
Weapons of the Gods
Basic concept: an outlaw swordsman. Scoundrel-y guy who drinks, woos the ladies, and then messes up the local guardsmen when they've come to arrest him for causing public disorders.
Step one is easy then, the choosing of an Archetype. Given the choice between warrior, scholar, and courtier, this rogue is a warrior.
Next is the choosing of attributes; Might, Speed, Presence, Genius, and "Wu Wei" (harmony, perception, zen-ishness etc.). Now this step is a bit tricky because these scores also dictate how much chi you have of each type, which you'll need to fuel your kung fu. In other words: we'd do well to determine desired kung fu at this step too.
Assume I already did that for the sake of convenience. I got 15 points to divide amongst the attributes and they should be within a range of 1 to 5. I pick:
Might 2
Speed 5
Presence 3
Genius 1
Wu Wei 4
Note that this guy is not dumb per se, nor is he fast by definition. He just has the potential to be fast, and it will be harder to be smart. But that's what skills are for.
So now we do those skills. We got 30 points to buy skill ranks with. The maximum you can buy at chargen is 3 ranks in one skill. We buy:
Initiative 3 (we want to be fast!)
Dodge 2 (good evasion)
Finesse 3 (lets him pick pockets and tie knots in cherry-stems with his tongue)
Melee 3 (gotta fight off those guards)
Confidence 2 (he doesn't back down from a little smack talking)
Inspire 2 (in fact, he can do a fair bit of that himself)
Learning 1 (well he can read at least)
Tactics 1 (he's picked up some basic ideas over the years)
Awareness 3 (always on guard)
Senses 2 (keen eyed)
Stealth 3 (to sneak away when her husband comes home...)
Athletics 2 (runs pretty good when he has to)
Fight 1 (can take a little care of himself when without a sword - but still prefers something sharp)
Hardness 2 (to resist all that boozing he does)
Now for the fun part: 50 destiny (= experience points, sorta kinda) to buy various stuff with. Most importantly we can buy more skills, more attribute points, kung fu, and various advantages. We select the following advantages to start off with:
Good Looks, cost 3. (Hey, gotta be a ladies man)
Wealth advantage once, cost 1. (Not broke but not wealthy either)
We also pick up the Hunted disadvantage while we're at it, to represent various law enforcers on his tail. This neither costs nor gives points, but it rather provides points in play when it actually coems up.
Ok, 46 points left.
Let's do some kung fu.
Everybody starts with the first technique of Lightfoot, letting them run over water and on walls on stuff. But we want a bit more than that so we buy the second technique (for 2 points) and the third (for 3 points).
Now, we're a swordsman with a high Speed score, which means a lot of Crimson chi. Looking through the styles we find that Dragon Saber is a perfect style. The initial buy-in if 5 points, and each technique costs points equal to its level. We buy the first through third techniques, so the total cost is 11 (5 + 1 + 2 + 3). We repeat this for another style that works well with swords, Waves Like Water.
Two good sword styles to combine is pretty sweet, but maybe we need some defense and utility as well. So we finish this up with the first two techniques from Cloud Mastery (5 + 1 + 2).
11 points left.
Now we've run into a little spot of trouble here. Cloud Mastery works off Jade chi, which is tied to your Might attribute. Having only 2 points of chi there is a little dear, and the same can be said for Waves Like Water - it requires silver chi (from Wu Wei) which doesn't give me much to play with.
Never fear! I use 5 destiny points to increase Might by 1 point, and 5 more to do the same for Wu Wei. Our silver chi now has comfortable breathing room. Cloud Mastery still would like a bit more chi, but that's just tough luck. As it's a defensive backup it won't see extensive use anyway.
1 destiny left. Meh, just buy 1 skill rank in in Athletics I suppose.
All we need to do now before I fill in the sheet is select which weapon he'll use (the longsword), pick a name (Irresponsible Yung), and total up his 5 attributes to find out how much points he has in a health level (17). Oh, and find out his motivating passion. Easy, really.
The sheet looks like thus:
Irresponsible Yung
Rank/Archetype: Fourth Rank Warrior
Passion: Live fast and enjoy to the fullest what the world has to offer (joy)
Re: [All Systems] Process of Character Creation – Examples
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bramha_Bull
I was wondering if other people would like to go through the exercise of creating a character for their favorite system and post it in this thread, so people unfamiliar with the system can see how easy/complicated it is.
Classic Traveller, here we go:
Step 1: Characteristics. Roll 2D (that's 2D6, of course, since CT only uses d6) for each of the six Characteristics.
Strength 11
Dexterity 10
Endurance 4
Intelligence 2
Education 5
Social 4
So the character has a UPP ('Universal Personality Profile') of BA4254 (the numbers are routinely expressed in hexadecimal notation, so 10=A, 11=B, &c.).
Step 2: Name. George Devon, because I feel like it. A good Solomani name.
Step 3: Enlistment. Eighteen years old, George attempts to enlist in the Marines. The roll required (on 2D) is 9+ with a bonus of +2 due to George's high Strength. I roll 5. Having failed to enlist, George must submit to the draft, rolling 1D for a random Service. I get a 4, which indicates that George is drafted as a Scout. Oh dear.
Step 4: Career. George needs a 7+ on 2D to survive his first (four-year) Term as a Scout. I roll 7 exactly (a brush with death for George, I imagine). He acquires the Skill Pilot-1 just for being a Scout and, this being his first term, may acquire two other Skills. I roll 1D on the Personal Development Table, getting a 5: +1 Education, and 1D on the Service Skills Table, getting a 1: Vehicle.
Twenty-two years old, George has a UPP of BA4264, Pilot-1 and Ground Car-1. That brush with death has shaken him, though, so he doesn't fancy another four years with the ISS. I have to roll for re-enlistment anyway, though, in case they won't let him leave. I roll 2D and get 6. Since I didn't roll a 12, George is free to leave.
Step 5: Mustering Out. George gets one Mustering Out roll for his one Term of service. I roll 1D on the Benefits Table, getting 5: Gun.
Quote:
Post the complete character at the end when you are done.
NB I have listed everything with headings for clarity. CT characters are routinely listed without headings like 'Skills' or 'Savings', since the layout is standard.
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'For GOD the father Almighty plays upon the HARP of stupendous magnitude and melody./For innumerable Angels fly out at every touch and his tune is a work of creation./For at that time malignity ceases and the devils themselves are at peace.' - Christopher Smart Jubilate Agno (Fragment B Part 2)
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