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The FATAL and Friends thread is all about talking about obscure and/or terrible games, and we've all laughed and learned thanks to that series of threads. But you know what part of games never gets enough love? Character creation. Character creation is arguably one of the most important parts of any RPG, but for the most part a lot of games just tend gloss over it without examples of what you should be doing, or breaking down the choices you're actually making. Yeah, they'll tell you what to do, but not why you're doing it, or not give you the level of detail you want about the whole process. So that's what this thread is for. Instead of spending too much drat time talking about weird RPG rules for games we'll never play, we're going to put them to task and spend too much drat time making characters we'll never play. So what games should I make characters for? Whatever ones you want. This isn't the F&F thread, so feel free to make characters for games you like, games you hate, games you can break over your knee without even trying. Make practical characters, make silly characters, make broken-rear end characters. It's all good. The only real rule is to explain what you're doing it as you're doing it. Don't just dump a character sheet and leave. Walk people through it; tell us why you're making this character, tell us why you're making those choices, tell us what your end goal is. If you want to keep things random, Orokos handles die rolling for most of the common die mechanics out there. Alternately, if you want to see the chargen for a specific game, go ahead and ask! We've got enough nerds here that between us all someone's probably got the game and can put together a character for you so you can get an idea of how to do it. Everyone got it? Good. Now bust out some dice and notebook paper and get rollin'.
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Feb 19, 2014 19:29
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Reservin' in case I need it later.
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Feb 19, 2014 19:30
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I need to post links to my F&F where I made characters for Powers & Perils. But... Man. Flashbacks.
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Feb 19, 2014 19:47
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dwarf74 posted:I need to post links to my F&F where I made characters for Powers & Perils. But... Man. Flashbacks. 
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Feb 19, 2014 19:50
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Got my physical copies of Tenra Bansho Zero, so watch this space for Cyborg Grandpa and Bodyguard Pinnochio if things stay slow at work this week.
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Feb 19, 2014 19:59
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Oooo, Ars Magica chargen time. I have fun doing these! I wonder if I should take audience character suggestions.
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Feb 19, 2014 20:02
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I'm happy to take requests. A while back, I decided to make a character for every game I own, and post it up there. I didn't succeed, but I did get 76 games done. Quite a few characters were made while learning the game, entries may contain my opinions of the system, and also some of the life-blog-poo poo that nerds vomited on livejournal back in the day. But it is quite the mass of characters and systems.
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Feb 19, 2014 20:05
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Having given it five minutes of thought: sure, let's take audience suggestions. To a limited extent. We are going to make a House Guernicus magus to start off. Tell me about our wizard judge! If you want to know more about House Guernicus, you can find out here, in sections 149-154.
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Feb 19, 2014 20:10
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Just for the record, I'm putting together a Double Cross character.
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Feb 19, 2014 20:13
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DigitalRaven posted:I'm happy to take requests. Hey, I remember that blog; I've been wondering what happened to it! I think that may be what sparked this idea, actually.
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Feb 19, 2014 20:14
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I heard about this from reading the chat thread, and I figured I should throw my own game in the ring. The full game rules, such as they are, can be found here. I also wrote up some character creation tips here.  Edit: I guess I should explain that I'm hoping some goons will volunteer to make the most broken characters possible so I can get an idea of what things might be overpowered. Also, making characters for my own game and pasting them into the thread seems kinda 
P.d0t fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Feb 19, 2014 |
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Feb 19, 2014 20:14
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Maybe I'll throw together a mecha in Mekton Zero. I mean, giant robots you pilot are basically characters too, right? 
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Feb 19, 2014 20:15
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I, unfortunately, own every copy of Traveller made. So I'm going to go through Traveller character creation for all the editions to see what happens. I also hate myself, so I might start with Traveler 5. 
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Feb 19, 2014 20:22
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Great thread. I'll do FATAL. By hand, no generator.
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Feb 19, 2014 20:24
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unseenlibrarian posted:Got my physical copies of Tenra Bansho Zero, so watch this space for Cyborg Grandpa and Bodyguard Pinnochio if things stay slow at work this week. I demand one of Cyborg Grandpa's Fates be 'Emotion: Longing for the old days'. I'm always down for making characters, so I'll hop on this. I'll start with Spycraft 2.0, the d20-based super-crunchy game of action and espionage. I just need a few suggestions for characters, and I'll get started. So, thread, what kind of spies/soldiers do you want to see?
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Feb 19, 2014 20:24
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Mustache Ride posted:I, unfortunately, own every copy of Traveller made. So I'm going to go through Traveller character creation for all the editions to see what happens. You'll be rolling random homeworlds for each character right?
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Feb 19, 2014 20:33
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Mustache Ride posted:I, unfortunately, own every copy of Traveller made. So I'm going to go through Traveller character creation for all the editions to see what happens. I spent an entire afternoon doing this. For fun. So...we can just make characters here? my god, that's like. all I do.
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Feb 19, 2014 20:33
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Galaga Galaxian posted:You'll be rolling random homeworlds for each character right? Of course.
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Feb 19, 2014 21:06
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Double Cross Double Cross is a Japanese super-hero-ish RPG about animes with weird-rear end powers fighting each other. Chargen is actually pretty simple, because the majority of your character's background information is picked or rolled on provided percentile charts. The options on the charts are all broad enough for you to build a story around them, and also inform your base stats and skills. (Just for the record, I'm not using the expanded tables in the Double Cross Companion; I'm sticking to the main book. The only real difference is that the tables in the Companion have more options.) There are actually three forms of character generation: Quick Start is picking one of the provided dozen or so pregens and moving on, Construction is mostly picking options off a list and just taking four powers all told, and Full Scratch which is full point-buy. Construction and Full Scratch are mostly the same, but Full Scratch gives you more options so I'll go with that. Every character in Double Cross has the same overall base concept: about 20 years ago an ancient virus called "Renegade" was released into the world, to the point where everyone on the planet is infected. For like 98% of the population the virus is dormant, but some people gain incredible powers from the virus. These people, called "Overeds", live and battle in secret to either conquer or defend humanity. The problem is that the virus is intelligent and apparently self-aware, and constantly tries to take over its hosts, turning them into monsters. Everything from this point on is built off this idea. The first part of chargen is determining your Personal Data. Personal Data is your background, current situation, and overall life story. For the purposes of this example, I'm going to roll for everything and see what I can make from it. The first part of your Personal Data is your Life History, which consists of your Origin, Experience, and Encounter. Origin is just your background. I get a 67, which means I come from a Poor background. The description is "You were born into a poor household". Each Origin comes with a recommended NPC connection (called a Lois, as in Lois Lane), and the one for this Origin is a "Friend". That connection will be fleshed out later. Next is your Experience, and there are four tables for this: Student, Adult, Criminal, and UGN (Universal Guardian Network, the default good-guy organization). You pick the most appropriate table to roll on and the result gives you some life event and another recommended Lois. Let's use the Criminal table since that sounds interesting, and this time I get a 40, which is Headline News. Apparently my "actions got unwanted attention", but I'll hash out what that means later. The recommended Lois is a reporter. The last part of this is the Encounter. Double Cross comes with a default setting with about 30 established setting NPCs, and in this step we'll see which one of them I've crossed paths with. A roll of 57 is a Peer, someone I work with often. The NPC in question is Tsubaki Tamano, a UGN drill instructor who teaches people how to use their powers. I should point out at this point that no further detail about these events is provided by the game. The tables are intended to act as a framework for the player to flesh out and expand upon. Yes, my actions got unwanted attention, but what my actions were and whether or not it was positive or negative attention is entirely up to me. It's also worth pointing out that these events don't have to happen in the order I'm rolling them. Again, it's intended to be a way of sparking ideas, not a straitjacket. Anyway, the next thing I need to determine are my Awakening and my Impulse. Awakening is how my powers manifested, and Impulse is the negative emotion the Renegade virus is trying to overwhelm me with. Technically these tables go from 1 to 11, but are listed as d100. Still, through the magic of the internet I can roll d11s pretty easily. My Awakening roll of 6 means my powers activated as part of a Sacrifice; "Someone you cared for was being abused in front of you. As you stood helpless, you prayed for power." Hmm, I wonder if my powers manifesting was the cause of that "unwanted attention"? My Impulse roll is 7, which is Battle Lust. "You want to fight. Not fighting is an insult to nature. Your opponent's or your own death is merely a result." As I said before, the Renegade virus is constantly trying to take over. The level of mind-take-over-ness is called your Encroachment Rate, and is a percentile. If your Encroachment Rate is over 100% at the end of a session, then it takes over and you turn into a rampaging beast based on your Impulse, i.e. you become an NPC the rest of the party will probably need to take down. Using powers and taking damage increases your Rate, and it goes up a few points at the end of a scene regardless. Some powers can't be used until your Encroachment is at 80%, 100%, or even 120%, and the higher your ER the more effective your powers are. Your starting Encroachment Rate is determined by your Awakening and Impulse. Each one comes with a value, you add those together and that's your Base Encroachment Rate. Both Sacrifice and Battle Lust have values of 16, so my Base Encroachment Rate is 32. The last part of this phase is figuring out my Loises. Loises are important, because they're the way you lower your Encroachment Rate due to being your ties to humanity. At the end of a scene, you roll a d10 for every Lois you have thay you have, and lower your ER by that much. That means it's important to keep ties with your Loises, because if they get killed or kidnapped or become your enemy then you're losing that important tie to your normal life. When you generate your background, you get three recommended Loises, but you can ditch them if you want and just make new ones up. For every Lois you have, you have to figure out the Positive and Negative emotion you feel for them, and which of these is the "conscious" feeling and which is the "unconscious" feeling; in other words how you think about them and how you don't admit you feel about them. The emotions are more of an RP thing, a way to help the GM figure out how to work them into stories. My three default Loises are the friend from my Poor background, the reporter from the Headline News incident, and Tsubaki. Rolling for all of these gets me: Friend - Positive: Approval (You feel the other person's actions are worth of merit) / Negative: Alienation (Something about the other person makes you feel alone) Hmm...maybe my friend is starting to dig his way out of the poverty we grew up with and succeeding in life, but I kind of envy him because his ability to lead a normal life makes me realize that I'm stuck in a dangerous life of monster-fighting, and I can't even confide in him? Let's make Approval the conscious emotion here. Reporter - Positive: Obsession (You cannot stop thinking of the other person) / Negative: Fear (The other person scares you) Wow, that's...pretty straightforward. I'm starting to get the idea that the "Headline News" was some big disaster that happened when my powers manifested violently, and now this guy is investigating the so-called "gas leak" and might be getting close to the truth. Fear makes sense as the conscious emotion since I'm afraid he could discover the truth about me. Tsubaki Tamano - Positive: Aspiration (You adore an aspect of this person) / Negative: Pity (You feel sorry for the other person) Hmm, well Tsubaki's the person who trains people whose powers have just manifested, so that's probably what I admire about her. Still, she's kinda stuck dealing with angry, confused people who can't quite get a handle on their powers. She probably feels responsible if they fall too far and go Renegade, so I don't exactly envy her that job. And that's it for background creation! I've got a pretty solid background here with some interesting NPCs involved. The overall shape that's forming is of someone who grew up in a lovely part of town, had close ties to someone in that "someday we're gonna make it out of here!" way, then when someone I loved was threatened my powers manifested. The resulting out-of-control power (whatever it is) wrecked a large part of the area, bringing in the newspapers. Maybe a reporter has a blurry picture of half my face and is not buying the "blown gas main" line the government's dishing out. Meanwhile, I'm training with Tsubaki Tamano to learn to control my powers. Deep down, though, destroying that rear end in a top hat who was threatening my family, and destroying all that property? I hate to admit it, but it felt good. pre:= Life History = Origin: Poor (Grew up in the bad part of town) Experience: Headline News (My first manifestation of my powers and resulting fight destroyed a city block; nobody knows I was responsible) Encounter: Peer (Tsubaki Tamano is training me in use of my powers) Awakening: Sacrifice (A gang was threatening my family. They won't do that again.) Impulse: Battle Lust Lois 1: Friend (Acceptance*/Alienation) - Guy I grew up with who's making good, but is sort of leaving me behind. Lois 2: Reporter (Obsession/Fear*) - He's on my trail because he thinks I had something to do with the destruction of a city block. Lois 3: Tsubaki Tamano (Aspiration*/Pity) - I like that she focuses on training us, but it can't be easy for her. Base Encroachment Rate: 36 Current Encroachment Rate: 36
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Feb 19, 2014 21:26
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quote:Welcome to a fantasy medieval role-playing game that focuses on realism and detail whenever possible without sacrificing fun. Oh, we'll see about that…  Lets get right to it. FATAL has (or had) a generator, but that is just cheating, so we will do this by hand, by the book, with random rolls wherever possible (everywhere). quote:Random determination is more realistic, since no one gets to choose their race in reality. code: We are told that elves are tiny, live in forests, and fart 3d10 times per day because of their vegan diet. Light Elves are the good ones, but they like to play pranks. quote:Sub-Ability Points: Physical Fitness + 5, Strength - 60, Bodily Attractiveness + 10, Health +10, Facial + 10, Vocal + 10, Kinetic + 10, Hand-Eye Coordination + 10, Agility + 5, Enunciation + 5, Drive + 5, Intuition + 10, Common Sense + 10, and Reflection + 5. So now we move on to gender. Again, we are told that no one gets to choose in reality. Now, telling us to toss a coin or something is too hard, so we jump all the way to Chapter 6: Sociality, where, buried a few pages in, we finally find a table for offspring gender, which is probably as close as we are getting, and are told that a roll of <53 is female, and >52 is male. code:Onward to Chapter 2! quote:This chapter is concerned with anthropometry (physical measures of the body), such as height and weight, including genitalia, as well as allergies, intoxication, and diseases affecting the body. Oh joy. First up is our age. As an Elf, we luck out of a random roll, and are told we start at Young Adulthood, and we will live to an age based on the size of our forest. How big is our forest? Well… code:code:Now, Height. code:For being a towering example of elvendom, we gain an extra 4 lbs, +4 Strength, and +3 Bodily Attractiveness. And Weight. code:quote:Characters have never heard of BMI, and will never discuss it with each other. BMI is provided in this book to provide the Aedile and player a better understanding of the relationships between Physique, height, and weight. Seriously? OK. (61/(50^2))*705 = 17.202 Consulting the chart, a male Elf should be between 17 and 20. So we are almost underweight. If we were under or over, we would have penalties to our attractiveness, unless we were female, where, of course, thin is in. Body Part Proportions are next. Really. quote:The information in the table below is unnecessary at the moment if creating a character and progressing through the book page by page. Most Attractive/Repulsive Feature: quote:Roll 1d100 twice, first for the most attractive feature of your character, then for the most repulsive feature. code:code:code:Skin Color. As a Light Elf, we get a -80 on this roll. code:Hair Color. code:Hair Length. code:Hair, Thickness and Type code:Eye Color code:Breadth (one arm and half of torso) we are told is 50% of height in inches. Vision code:Facial Features code:Freak of Nature quote:Roll 1d1000000 (6 dice that are 10-sided) to see if something about a character is a freak of nature. If the results equal 000001, then the character is a freak of nature who has survived; most freaks of nature are killed when their deformity is discovered at birth. code:Now, we get on to the good stuff. Areola Diameter code:Areola Hue code:Nipple Length First, we see if they are inverted. code:code:Tongue Size code:Anal Circumference Potential code:quote:A Manhood that is short but extremely thick is known as a chode. We are instructed to take our height in feet, in inches, for our Base Length (4.16"). Then, roll (10d100/5)-1 and consult a size modifier. code:Then, to get our girth, we multiply our base length by 0.85, so, 3.536, and roll and check the chart again. code:Rare Features! It says these aren't usually generated, but may be useful in game, so I'll do them quick. We have big feet (8-9"), our fist is the same in circumference, we are right handed, our head is 21.13 inches around, we are not allergic to anything (yet), and one beer will get us drunk. Taking a break now, will get to Chapter 3: Abilities, next.
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Feb 19, 2014 21:31
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Oh, man.  I used to have more fun creating characters that I’d never play rather than the actual playing… A while back I posted in F&F about HarnMaster which is a completely ridiculously over-detailed system. Alien Rope Burn described it as “Harn is more for people who really, really think tabards are super-fascinating. Who can't get enough of tabards. It is for immersionites who are really worried about the difference between a motte and an enceinte.” Which is pretty loving accurate. Since it’s a completely random character generation system, there will be no requests. I couldn’t even steer the character to a pre-conceived idea as the player… (also, I can shamelessly re-use 90% of what I wrote before) The game makes extensive use of attributes. In fact there are 13 core attributes (!) scored 1-18 and a whole bunch of derived ones. Also: everything about your character (except, optionally, gender and morality) is randomly generated. Get ready for some dice rolling! HARNMASTER Step 1: The Birth Attributes: SPECIES d100 Here we'll determine if our hero is Human (89% chance), Sindarin (Elf – 1%). Khuzdul (Dwarf – 1%) or one of a variety of Gargun (Orcs – 9%) We roll a 87 meaning that we're unsurprisingly getting a Human. SEX d100 The game points out that ”role playing difficulties are best avoided if players have a character of their own gender.” but we'll roll for it anyway. We get a 09. It's a boy! His name is George. Interestingly, Sindarin have a 45% chance to be male, Khuzdul a 75% and Gargun a 99% chance which probably makes for some awkward high-school dances. BIRTHDATE d30 and d12 First we roll a d12 for the month. A 1 means George was born on the month of Savor. Our d30 roll is a 8 so George was born on the 8th of Nuzyael. SUNSIGN Derived What's our sign? We consult this handy table and we see that the 8th of Nuzyael means that we are the sign of Ulandus, The Tree. Sunsigns will give us some extras later on in character creation. Note that if George had been born on the 1st or last 2 days of a month he would have been “on the cusp”, meaning he would have gotten to choose between two signs for the extra (one or the other, not both). BIRTHPLACE Choice/GM fiat Based on the birthplace chosen we'll know if the place falls under one of these categories: Tribal, Vicking, Feudal, Feudal/Imperial, Imperial, Sindarin, or Khuzdul. This will be important for the next step. I'll pick Feudal as it is the most common one. PARENT OCCUPATION d1000 This will determine George's social class as well as starting skills. We get to roll on this big-rear end table.  We roll a 493 which nets us “(F)Tenant Farmer (0%)”. The (F) means we fall under the social class of Freeman (unguilded). The % is the chance that we come from an urban area for this particular occupation. So we’re the son of a free farmer. Yes, there was a not insignificant chance that our parents were straight up slaves, domestic servants or unskilled labourers. SIBLING RANK d100 This will tell us if we have any siblings and where we fit in the food chain. (Mostly relevant to those who roll things like “Earl” or “Chieftain” on the occupation table). We roll a 29 which means we are an unacknowledged bastard. This gets us to roll some more (surprise) to find if George even knows the identity of his real father (60% that no). We roll 25 meaning we don’t know who our real father is. Maybe George likes to think that it was a wealthy noble or a knight and that sets him off on adventures somehow. There is then a 20% chance that our mother is remarried. We roll a 68 so she’s not. The game then tells us that this means that the status we’ve generated so far is hers, not George’s. Note: the other sibling rank options were: Orphan, Fostered, Adopted, Offspring (i.e has siblings), and Acknowledged Bastard. ESTRANGEMENT d100 Here we'll find out how George gets along with his mother. We roll a 44 Which means George is Average. He’s probably treated like the average farm hand by his mother. Other options were: Outcast, Unpopular, Popular and Favourite. CLANHEAD d100 This will tell us George's relationship to the head of his clan. Which the game points out might be more important that the relationship to a parent. Rolling a 83 means it's a cousin. However, George’s status as a bastard means he likely won’t inherit anything even if it came to him somehow. MEDICAL d1000 Here we'll find out if George has any medical conditions he should be worried about (65% chance of yes). The roll is a 271 “Colour Blindness”. Other results from the table include things like: Double Jointed, Left-Handed, Obesity and Lycanthropy. Step 2: The Appearance Attributes HEIGHT by species Since George is a Human male he rolls 5d6+50 inches to find his height. We get a 21+50=71 meaning George is 71 inches tall or 5'11” which is above average for the setting. FRAME 3d6 Here we'll find George's build. Rolling 12 gives us an average frame (out of Scant, Light, Average, Heavy and Massive). WEIGHT Derived. Looking on the table we cross reference George's height with his frame to find that he weighs 167 pounds. COMPLEXION 3d6 Quote from the game: ”General skin pigmentation is a descriptive attribute, but the GM may use it in other ways; darker people are less susceptible to sunstroke and heat exhaustion for example.” Ok. We roll a 16 Which gives a result of “Dark”. HAIR COLOUR d100 The table has different results based on complexion. Since George is “Dark” and we rolled a 16 it means he has Black hair. EYE COLOUR d100 Again based on complexion. A roll of 38 means Brown eyes. COMELINESS 3d6 ”A general assessment of how physically attractive the character seems to members of the same species.” A roll of 4 (!) means George is “Ugly” Step 3: The Core and Derived Attributes The game offers three methods of attribute generation: 1) Roll 4d6 keep highest 3. 2) Roll 2d6+6 per attribute. 3) Set attributes at 8 and distribute 28 points. We'll go with option 1. PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES 4d6 keep highest 3 The physical attributes are: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Agility, Speed, Eyesight, Hearing, Smell/Taste, Touch and Voice. Yes, the game has separate attributes for 4 of the 5 senses... In order, our rolls are 12, 9, 18, 8, 13, 12, 12, 11, 4 (yikes), and 18 giving George the following attributes: STR: 12 END: 09 DEX: 18 AGI: 08 SPE: 13 EYE: 12 HEA: 12 S/T: 11 TOU: 04 VOI: 18 Our George pretty average except that he is very dexterous, has poo poo touch and has what is classified as an “Unearthly” voice. Note that if George had been a woman his(her) attributes would have been modified as follow: -2 speed (um, ok..?), +1 smell/taste (sure, why not?) and +2 Aura (women are spooooky) PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES 4d6 keep highest 3 The personality attributes re: Intelligence, Aura (mind powers), Will, and Morality. Normally Morality is a choice but where's the fun in that? Our rolls are, in order: 12, 11, 10 and 10 This gives George the following attributes: INT: 12 AUR: 11 WIL: 10 Morality: Corruptible* *other results included: Diabolical, Unscrupulous, Law Abiding, Principled and Exemplary. PSYCHE d1000 Here we'll find out if George has any psychological disorder (59% chance of yes) We roll a 198 which means George has Heliophobia, a fear of the sun. He farms at night I guess. Other possibilities included: Acrophobia (fear of heights), Sitophobia (aversion to eating/food) and Violent Temper DEITY Choice based on Morality. Since George rolled a 10 for Morality, it means he gets to choose from either Agrik (evil god of war), Halea (godess of welath and pleasure), Ilvir (craven god of sorcerous beasts), Larani (lady of paladins), Peoni (lady of healing and virtue), Sarajin (vicking god of battle), Save-K'nor (wise god of riddles) or Naveh (god of thieves and assassins). We'll explain the gods later on but, for now, George will go with Naveh since he’s so corruptible and all and doesn’t like to operate in daylight. Unavailable options due to morality were: Morgath (evil god of undeath) and Siem (god of dreams, elves and dwarves). PIETY 5d6 This will tell us how many brownie points for his chosen gods George has saved up. The basics are that Piety is accrued by prayer and is used when divine intervention is needed. We roll 17 George is not the most devout. SOME MORE DERIVED ATTRIBUTES Although we won't learn much of them now (that comes in the combat section) we'll fill out the sections on George's sheet for Mobility (speed x 5), Dodge (Agility x 5), Initiative (the SUM of END, DEX, AGI, SPE, and WILL) and Fatigue Rate (load / END). This gives George the following: Mobility: 65 Dodge: 40 Initiative: 45 Fatigue Rate: we don't quite know yet since George doesn't have much in the way of possessions. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT The game then talks about rules for bring characters from other systems but advises against it until HârnMaster is fully understood. It then advises GM's to explain the rules briefly to players, asks them to describe their shared experience in order to form a cohesive group and, my favourite part, talks about how it is important that players know the basics of the culture of their characters. For example, the game argues that they would know about their immediate lord, the surrounding countryside and know how feudalism works. It goes on to propose the following: quote:A short seminar can be given to impart necessary background to the player I'll get right on that PowerPoint presentation. It then talks about defining more the character's family background, if they may inherit and so on. There's a special mention about “unfree” characters (basically any character with the (S) (Serf/Slave) prefix in front of his parent's occupation. The gist of it is that the character's feudal lord would not allow anyone to run away to start adventuring, dragons roaming the countryside or no. The character can basically a) suck it up (not very adventurous), b) run away. If running away is chosen, a brief explanations of the different options is given (go to a freetown, evade pursuit for more than a month, be employed by the miner's guild for more than 2 years (they have their own courts) or seek sanctuary in a church). At any rate, the game helpfully points out that you should not kill off the character in what is essentially still the pre-game ”unless they persist in gross stupidity.” OCCUPATION Time for George to find a job. There isn't much future in being the bastard son of a Farmer. The game gives the option to choose your character's occupation as long as it doesn't conflict with your background. For example; the (bastard) son of a Farmer would likely not be a knight. There's also a random table to get your occupation if you're so inclined. Which is what I'll be doing, re-rolling if the result doesn't mesh with George's background / abilities. While George would probably make a decent singer he'd be a poor locksmith with touch like his. The roll is a d100 and we get a 25 which means George is a fisherman. Who fishes at night. Fisherman gives us access to the following skills: Fishing, Seamanship, Weatherlore and Piloting. CALCULATING SKILLS The way the system works is that every skill has a set of attributes (and sunsign) assigned to them; the Skill Base [SB] which is calculated by adding the attributes/3 and adding the sunsign bonus and an Opening Mastery Level [OML]. The SB gives you the basic number for the skill and the OML is a multiplier. So, for example, the skill “Fishing” is listed as: Fishing – DEX TOU WIL [Masara/Lado +2] OML: SB2 This means that, for George, his Fishing SB would be 18+4+10/3 + 0 and multiplying the result by 2. If George had the sunsign of either Masara or Lado he would add 2 to his [SB] of 11. Multiplying that 11 by 2 (the skill's OML) he gets a result of 22 for his Fishing skill. George is a fisherman with 22% chance to catch something worthwhile at each try (lasting 4 hours each). Ok, but which skills does one get? Everyone has the following: Native tongue Ritual (the ins-and-out of your chosen religion) Psionics (if Aura is 12+) meaning George won’t Then they get family skills. These are the skills from your parent's occupation. George gets: Agriculture, Weatherlore and 2 animalcraft skills (George chooses Horses and Pigs). And then you get the skills from your own occupation. Since George already has weatherlore from his profession, he add 1 to the OML since he also got it from his mother. PSIONIC POWERS d100 Any character with an Aura score of 12+ gets a power. In fact, you get one at 12 and a new one for each point above 12. This means that George would get no powers with an Aura of 11. But what if he did? Let’s assume an Aura of 12: To find out which power George has we roll on yet another table using a d100. Our results are: 49, 81 and 18 which gives us the powers of: Negation [16]: George can create a “psychic bubble” centered around his head that prevents the use of psionics. Note that this goes both ways. Nothing goes in, nothing goes out. Sensitivity [13]: George can basically detect magic or psionics being used. Healing [16]: George can either use Empathy (diagnose the injury), Resoration (remove fatigue points), Halt Bloodloss, Hasten Healing (will still take weeks/months with the sytem) and revivification (bring back the dead – note that this doesn’t heal any injuries. Just makes them not dead. Medieval CPR). The game doesn't say what to do if you roll the same power twice. I assume you just re-roll until you get something new. I guess you could also say that the Psionic skill is opened at SBx2 instead of SBx1. The number in brackets is the base fatigue cost of the psionic. The actual fatigue cost is base – SI (SI is the first digit of the skill OML. Ex. If your skill is anything between 10 and 19, the SI is 1). Every psionic opens at SB1 and is calculated with AUR AUR WIL (George doesn't have a relevant sunsign for any of them). That means that George's psionics are all at OML 15. He gets to subtract a whole 1 from the above fatigue costs. To use a psionic you roll like any other skill. The difference being that a critical failure means you have to make a shock roll (we'll cover that in Combat but the basics is roll d100 under END x3) or suffer from “Psionic Blindness”, which means no use of psionics for 2d6 hours. A CS means that the fatigue cost is halved. Other potential psionics include: pyrokinesis, telepathy, and clairvoyance. None of which would be a pain for GM's in an otherwise real serious™ simulationist game, I'm sure. The game does mention that most if not all rolls related to psionics should be made by the GM. In secret, natch. There you have it. Lots of rolls for a very mediocre character that I’m sure you’d all be itching to play.
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Feb 19, 2014 21:39
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Superhero games have a long and proud pedigree of random generation with the potential for completely absurd results, and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying is no different thanks to the handy dandy Random Datafile Generator! The best part of random generation is that it usually has some options that are objectively better than others (say +2 versus +4 HP with no qualifiers), which is assumed to balance out by the fact that the player can't just choose the best options and be on their way. BUT! As countless  players have pointed out when bringing their newly-rolled characters to the table for the first time, there's no reason the dice couldn't happen to roll fourteen 20s in a row- strictly speaking, it's as likely as any other specific outcome. So peer with me, dear readers, into Earth-615, where Margaret Weis Productions kept the Marvel license and things only got ~kookier~ from there!What If Kellsterik Rolled The Best* Possible Options On The Random Datafile Generator? *where 'best' is interpreted as 'gives the most and highest dice' -Smilin' Stan The first thing we roll is a D12 for Origin: Mutant, Altered Human, Non-Human, or Trained Human. This decides whether you have 1 or 2 Power Sets (2 mostly means you can add an additional power die to a roll), along with a grab bag of other benefits like additional SFX or Specialties. I roll a 12, which means I can roll twice and pick the highest number of power sets and combine all other benefits. I roll a 3 (Mutant) and 4 (Altered Human), which gives me two power sets, with an additional D8 power in my primary set and one power die stepped up, plus an additional SFX and Expert Specialty and the Mutant Limit on one powerset. Second, we roll D6 for Affiliation: this is less obviously gameable, so i'll roll the maximum 6 for Team D10, Solo D8, Buddy D6. Third, we'll figure out the composition of our two power sets. First is our primary set, a D12. And would you look at that, we roll a 12! Roll twice, gaining the benefits of both. We roll an 11 twice in a row and add them up, giving us six power traits at D10 and four at D8. After applying the effects of our origin, our primary power set has the Mutant Limit and one D12, five D10, and five D8. Under normal Marvel Method conditions, it would take decades of crossovers and power creep to reach these levels, and we have a whole 'nother set to roll. The second set is rolled on a D10: same deal, we roll a 10 and get to roll twice and add them up, roll two 8s in a row and get four D10 in our second set. Now let's figure out what those powers are. The fourth step is rolling to figure out the general theme of the powers in each set based on our origin. This is biased in favor of Common Powers like super-strength and spider sense for all Origins, all the juicy stuff is on the higher numbers. For our first set, we'll roll a D10 on the Mutant table, and get a 10: we'll be picking from Mystic powers, because there are totally like 3 or 4 mutants whose X-gene straight up gives them magic. Have fun spending decades of your life in a monastery with broken hands, Strange! You just wish you had the narrative power to kick off a company-wide, universe-altering crossover and depower A given individual power is less obviously better* than any other in MHR, so i'll roll these normally, giving us: D12 Sorcery (*except sorcery, which can do anything except direct damage and which we now have with the highest possible die) D10 Elemental Control (a list of 14 elements is provided, randomly rolling gives us Cosmic for this one) D10 Transmutation D10 Teleport D10 Sorcery again (i'll reroll this one: we get three choices of movement power, I roll Flight.) D10 Blast D8 Teleport (rerolling, I get a 9 and so roll on the Uncommon Powers table for this power only: 6. Plant Control. Moving on.) D8 Sorcery, again (the Mystic theme is weighted to make this more likely but you aren't really supposed to roll this many times: this becomes 10, meaning we roll on the Uncommon Powers table for this one as well: 4 means Mimic, so we can have other people's powers too!) D8 Transmutation again (we only really need one power for mastery over matter itself: rerolling this as another 10, I roll on Uncommon Powers again and get 8, Size-Changing) D8 Elemental Control (with the roll from earlier, this comes out as Water. Amazing superpower on its own, somehow pales next to Supreme Sorcery and Cosmic Mastery) D8 Senses Are you choking yet? Keep those eyes from popping out of their sockets for a minute more, because we have a second power set to roll on! This one is Altered Human, presumably the results of exposure to some radioactive chemical we spilled while pranking the Beyonder. Rolling a 10 here means we roll on Psychic Powers, which is usually a theme much more common for randomly rolled Mutant characters, so it evens out. We get: D10 Blast (just in case our magical/cosmic kamehameha is deflected I guess) D10 Senses D10 Telepathy D10 Psychic Resistance Godlike magical ability combined with a li'l pack of secondary psychic powers that are still really good on their own. This is kind of like if, rather than battling the technovirus, Cable had the Power Cosmic. This Collector's Edition #1 Alpha Variant is shaping up to be a monster. SFX are the fifth step, but aren't as easy to randomly generate since they require some actual thought about your character and what these traits mean together. Gross! That isn't really the point of this exercise so i'll just follow the suggestions for SFX based on your origins and number of powers, so the final powersets are: Creation at my Fingerless Glovetips Supreme Sorcery D12 (world-shattering power, far-reaching changes, reach across dimensions freely, etc) Cosmic Mastery D10 (control fundamental forces and other cosmic phenomena across an entire city) Transmutation D10 (change one living or nonliving substance to another, stone to flesh, water to oil, etc) Teleport D10 (across the entire planet, even to the moon) Supersonic Flight D10 (keep pace with a jet fighter) Mystic Blast D10 (as a lightning bolt or heavy explosive) Plant Control D8 (control plant life throughout a room or building) Mimic D8 (copy others' powers at a moderate level of strength) Growth D8 (double in size, 15+ feet) Water Control D8 (control water throughout a room or building) Mystic Senses D8 (remarkable levels of awareness of magical phenomena) SFX: Raining D12s, Baby (Constructs)- Add a d6 and step up your effect die by +1 when using Creation at my Fingerless Glovetips to create assets. SFX: pOwer up (Focus)- If a pool includes a Creation at my Fingerless Glovetips power, you may replace two dice of equal size with one die +1 step larger. Limit: Mutant- earn 1 PP when affected by mutant-specific Milestones and tech. On an Unrelated Note, I'm Xavier's Secret Protege Mind Blast D10 (as a lightning bolt or heavy explosive, of the mind) Psychic Senses D10 (incredible levels of awareness invisible to most practitioners) Telepathy D10 (probe and alter memories and subconscious thought, link multiple minds) Psychic Resistance D10 (substantial, difficult to surmount defenses) SFX: So Much Wage- Step up or double any On an Unrelated Note, I'm Xavier's Secret Protege power for one action. If the action fails, add a die to doom pool equal to the normal rating of your power die. Limit: E/N Bullshit > Can't Feel Love (Psychic Barrier)- Change any On an Unrelated Note, I'm Xavier's Secret Protege power into a complication and gain 1 PP. Activate an opportunity or remove the complication to recover the power. Sixth, we now roll for Specialties, our non-powered knowledge and aptitudes. We have one at Expert already due to our origin, and rolling a 10 on a D10 table gives us 3 additional Expert and one Master specialty. Some Specialties are assigned automatically based on our powers, since a magician presumably has to know something about magic, and anyone can take the Combat specialty. That ends up taking up most of ours, but we have one free. D10 Combat Master (of course) D8 Mystic Expert D8 Cosmic Expert D8 Psych Expert and a randomly rolled 9 gives us D8 Tech Expert, in case our dozen other ways to command reality don't present a solution. Steps 7 and 8 quote:By this point, you should have an idea of who your character is. The last two steps are to drive home that concept; therefore they are less random. Ugh. If Orokos can't generate my character completely automatically, it's storygamer bullshit. I actually do agree with the reasoning here- Distinctions and Milestones are more roleplaying tools that don't lend themselves to being picked off a premade list, and should really come from what the player thinks is interesting. Which is why it's sort of strange that you can still roll for them, but in a weird, indirect way that I can't imagine giving satisfying results compared to official characters. Hooray! Distinctions: we get three, and roll 1d6 for their general type: I get one representing a Personality Trait, one for Outlook or Reputation, and one for History/Backstory (a crucial distinction). Milestones: just two, and we roll D10 for their type. Looks like one Milestone will relate to one of our Power Sets, and the other will center on one of our Specialties. I'll squeeze in two more random rolls: our secondary Powerset (psychic stuff) will be the subject of one, and our [url=http://orokos.com/roll/168196[/url]third[/url] Specialty (cosmic) will be the other. Distinctions Remarkably Little Self-Awareness Cosmic Power Won't Make Sarah Go Out With Me Mentored By Every Super Who Is Cool And Powerful Milestones "Or, I could just summon a bunch of angels" 1 XP when you trivialize a human-scale problem by comparing it to a cosmic phenomenon 3 XP when your cosmic resources and allies make a problem bigger than it needs to be 10 XP when a teammate takes trauma because they asked you not to bring in your galaxy-shaking power on this one Slightly Less Incredible Than My Other Superpowers 1 XP when you complain about your weak psychic abilities to a teammate who has fewer Power Traits than you do 3 XP when you stress out a villain using a psychic power you had forgotten to use until this moment 10 XP when you either resolve to take your powers seriously and use all of them to their fullest in support of your team OR develop a third Powerset to which you can favorably compare your psychic abilities quote:Alpha O'Mega --- If there's any lesson at all here, it's the moment when you look at the sheer number of powers and options this (IN THEORY COMPLETELY LEGITIMATELY) min-maxed character has and realize that, no matter how interesting in a vacuum, all of them become less valuable when you have at least three other solution that are better in all ways. I'd be interested to see this process repeated, but intentionally choosing the 'worst' options that give the fewest dice- the Random Datafile Generator has some safeguards built in to give other benefits to seemingly underpowered characters. I wonder if they would be more interesting to play? Kellsterik fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Feb 19, 2014 |
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Feb 19, 2014 22:30
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When I get home from work tonight, I'll roll up some Dungeon Crawl Classics characters in an attempt to get something that will actually survive past level 0.
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Feb 19, 2014 22:35
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Chapter 3: Abilities quote:There are 5 core abilities (Physique, Charisma, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom), each with 4 sub-abilities. To determine a character’s abilities, begin by calculating each of the 20 sub-abilities. Sub-abilities must be rolled in order and the order cannot be altered. For each sub-ability, roll 10d100, divide the sum by 5, subtract 1 from the result, and truncate the remainder. Here we go. Raw scores, before any modifiers (you'll have to trust me on these rolls, I did them, but they would destroy tables: pre:Physique 100 Charisma 97 Dexterity 100 Physical Fitness 123 Facial 91 Hand-Eye Coordination 77 Strength 96 Vocal 102 Agility 108 Bodily Attractiveness 81 Kinetic 92 Reaction Speed 101 Health 101 Rhetorical 104 Enunciation 114 Intelligence 97 Wisdom 104 Language 68 Drive 117 Math 118 Intuition 87 Analytic 79 Common Sense 105 Spatial 126 Reflection 107 Spatial: 126 quote:This sub-ability is concerned with manipulating visual-spatial images. Spatial Intelligence may be observed during the following: the ability to imagine correctly how objects will appear when rotated in two- or three-dimensional space, finding hidden figures within the contours of a larger figure, accurately predicting where a moving object will be at any given moment, the ability to arrange items to make or resemble a specific design, and object assembly. Language: 68 quote:Those with excellent Language sub-ability are able: to speak multiple languages fluently; acquire, retain, and utilize a large Vocabulary; and demonstrate impressive reading comprehension. However, this is only the potential to do these things. In a fantasy medieval environment where illiteracy is the norm, most of the potential of this sub-ability may go unrealized. Then, the game basically tells us that those numbers are meaningless, and that any ability checks will be done using a modifier from a table. quote:Driven by hormones, the young male agrees, and asks “What is the tonguetwister?” The chambermaid challenges “Huge hung hero hunks hastily hump horny heaving hot whores. How‘bout it, huh?” To make an ability check, roll 3d10 and apply the Skill Modifier to the result. A 6 or less always represents failure or a fumble.  The following 24 pages are all charts with conversions from the raw numbers to the modifier, and other modifiers, like how far you can jump or a number of extra allergies or what level of math you can do or how many hours you are likely to spend relaxing. Lets go ahead and apply our bonuses from our race and features before, and figure out our modifiers. Some of these stats modify other stats, so we'll do that here too. pre:Physique 97 +0 Charisma 105 +3 Dexterity 105 +3 Physical Fitness 128 +14 Facial 108 +3 Hand-Eye Coordination 87 -6 Strength 41 -38 Vocal 112 +6 Agility 113 +6 Bodily Attractiveness 108 +3 Kinetic 102 +0 Reaction Speed 101 +0 Health 111 +6 Rhetorical 104 +3 Enunciation 119 +9 Intelligence 97 +0 Wisdom 111 +6 Language 68 -17 Drive 123 +12 Math 118 +9 Intuition 97 +0 Analytic 79 -10 Common Sense 115 +9 Spatial 126 +12 Reflection 112 +6 With our Intelligence of 97, we consult a chart and find out that is Average for Elves, and so we are not eligible for "Retard Strength." We aren't particularly young or old, so no penalties or bonuses apply there. We also haven't undergone any persistent exercise yet, so no increases to certain scores there either. Our new highest score is a whopping 128 Physical Fitness. quote:Often considered endurance or stamina, a character’s Physical Fitness is not concerned with the size or strength of the muscle, but its ability for durative exertion. Characters with high Physical Fitness have low body fat and are able to perform exerting activities for long durations, such as sprinting. Next, Chapter 4: Disposition! I can't hardly wait! Edit: Forgot height and weight and facial features bonuses, added them in. Dagon fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Feb 19, 2014 |
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Feb 19, 2014 22:48
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Because Kellsterik sniped me on the MHR random datafile plan I'll roll up the theoretical "worst" character in a couple hours.
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Feb 19, 2014 22:54
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Oh man, can't wait to get home and crack open my Copy of Eoris
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Feb 19, 2014 23:00
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Chapter 4: Disposition quote:Dispositions refer to metaphysical beliefs of a character. Metaphysical beliefs are concerned with speculation beyond the physical world, such as gods and conceptions of good and evil. Essentially, metaphysical beliefs produce a blend of 2 related but distinct dimensions: ethics and morals. Exciting. This should be horrible. We are instructed to roll for piety points, and then to roll to see if some other modifiers apply: code:Bodily Attractiveness? <skybot> 68 (d100=68) Nope Culture? <skybot> 55 (d100=55) Nope Drive? <skybot> 51 (d100=51) Yes! Add our Drive modifier (+12) Facial Charisma? <skybot> 44 (d100=44) Nope Health? <skybot> 72 (d100=72) Yes! Multiply modifier by -1 and add (-6) Near Death Experience? <skybot> 51 (d100=51) Yes! I guess it was a bad one… <skybot> 2 (d2=2)<skybot> 2 (d8=2) (-2) Negative Event? <skybot> 99 (d100=99) Nope So, with a total of 50 PP, we are sort of pious (Worships intermittently, but may attend regularly). If we are a priest, this might matter… quote:Each character must have a disposition. Upon character creation, 1d100 must be rolled twice: once for ethicality and once for morality. code:code:The book terms this as NM w/EM tendencies, or Neutral Moral with Ethical Moral tendencies. Oh, this is alignment! quote:NM w/EM: Different from simply supporting the greatest good for the greatest number, characters with this disposition often support ethics, provided the ethics don’t conflict with morals. These characters want to be true to themselves and have consistent behavior, but if a contradiction emerges from this, their own sense of right and wrong is more important than any ethical code. Goody two shoes! This is then followed by a very lengthy description of ethical and moral systems which categorizes them into a bunch of crap that doesn't go on my character sheet. Disposition was blissfully short, so on to the next chapter. Chapter 5: Mind quote:Temperament is a combination of internal processes that are determined at birth and affect the moods and lives of characters. 4 bodily secretions cause temperament: We roll for each of the 4 temperaments, recording the first and second highest ones. Because we are an Elf we get Sanguine + 25 and Melancholic - 25, and because we are a dude we get Sanguine -2 and Choleric +2. code:quote:Sanguine-Phlegmatic: On the outside, this character is happy, emotional, expressive, and a joy to others. However, these characters are very selective of which emotions they show, and behind closed doors they are characterized as unenthusiastic. It is this contrast that causes others to consider their happiness to be fake. Next up is mental illness. If we took a reroll on a sub ability, we get a mental illness. I must have missed that before, so I am going to pretend we took a reroll and go ahead and roll something up. Where is my trusty d1000! code:quote:Over a period of (5 + d100) months, the male experiences an uncontrollable desire for sexual intercourse. This causes significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. This disorder affects only males. Satyromaniacs are also known as sex maniacs. Next time, Chapter 6: Sociality!
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Feb 20, 2014 00:18
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Double post, but probably the last for today... So far, we have a total elf-bro. Hes pretty average. Not very strong, but very physical. Built for speed. Wise and good at math, but not too good at the talking. He's a good guy, and mostly friendly, but will probably date rape you. Chapter 6: Sociality Oh good, another chapter of useless poo poo! Name! Finally! See Appendix 7! Roll a d1000! code:Happy Birthday, Uinfrid! quote:To determine a character’s birthday in a format of (month/day/year) for Neveria (a fantasy world), simply apply the following formula: {1d20* / [(1d12 + 1d20) - 1] / [5100 - age]**} code:Birth Status code:Social Class code:Not bad, considering its all the same except for the money up until a 98. Birthplace code:Siblings code:Marital Status code:Sexuality code:Debauchery quote:Debauchery is the willingness of a character to indulge sexual desire. Some characters refuse all sex, while others are willing to do anything. code:Offspring Number Well, he isn't pregnant and doesn't have a spouse, but if he did I'd be rolling 1d10,000,000 here.  The rest of the chapter is spent talking about society, laws, bath houses, occupation demographics, and recipes. Next time, finally, we get to Chapter 7: Occupation Dagon fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Feb 20, 2014 |
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Feb 20, 2014 01:06
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Since no character suggestions have been forthcoming, I'm going to make aSpycraft character that uses one of my favorite supplements they put out for the line. The Origin of the Species series of pdfs added in nonhuman races for people who wanted to use Spycraft for fantasy games. Classic Fantasy added Dwarfs, Elves, Orcs, and Pechs (halflings), while Light of Olympus added Centaurs, Fauns, Gorgons, and Tritons. But I'm not interested in either of those. I'm going straight to the third pdf, Transmechs. That's right, I'm making a Transformer. Anyone who's looked at Spycraft before knows that character creation can be slightly... involved. Spycraft is built on the d20 framework (ability scores, skills, feats, etc), but it adds a lot of fiddly bits. I'm going to try to keep this character somewhat simple. Step 0 is Character Concept. I'm going to make a classic Autobot-style Trans In this step, you also have to decide if your character is Faction or Freelance. If you're Faction, you work as part of a larger organization, and will track your Reputation over the course of the game, while Freelance characters work on their own, and accumulate Net Worth instead. Reputation and Net Worth are functionally identical, spent to gain special gear or favors in play. Most of the time, a GM will only use one option in their game, but it also suggests the possibility of hybrid games. For purposes of character creation, we'll make Burnout Freelance Step 1 is Attributes. Spycraft uses a point-buy system, with 36 points to spend. I'm going to prioritize Dexterity, since that will help with Drive checks when we're in car mode, and Charisma, since I want him to be personable. Strength and Constitution get next priority, with Intelligence and Wisdom coming in last. Str: 12 Dex: 15 Con: 13 Int: 12 Wis: 11 Cha: 14 Step 2 is Origin. Since Spycraft's default playstyle is that everyone is human, they replaced the human racial bonuses with Talents and Specialties, as a way to differentiate characters from one another. Talents modify your Attributes and provide a few other bonuses, and come in the form of adjectives, such as 'Burly' or 'Graceful' or 'Retired'. Specialties give bonus feats and other perks, and are all nouns, like 'Grifter' or 'Operative' or 'Test Subject'. You combine a Talent and a Specialty to get an Origin like 'Retired Grifter' or 'Burly Test Subject' that gives your character background and a set of bonuses roughly equal to a race in D&D. The Origin of the Species supplements slot other races back in by making them into Talents, so you can have something like a 'Gorgon Operative'. Since I'm making a Transmech, I'll be taking that Talent. This does a lot of things: *Burnout is now a Construct, which means his wounds don't heal normally, he has to use Mechanics instead of Medicine to heal, and he is immune to a metric shitload of things *He is a Large creature with a reach of 1, which gives us 20 wounds, double normal encumbrance, and a penalty to attack, defense, and hide *He has -2 to Dex *He has a base speed of 30 feet *He takes double damage from electricity *He cannot make Acrobatics/Falling, Acrobatics/Swim, or Medicine checks *He is Lumbering, which gives a -2 to Reflex saves and he can be flanked when any 2 opponents are adjacent *He is Reviled, which means that anyone who is aware of what he really is and doesn't have an Interest in his species has their disposition lowered by a grade *His Favored Classes are Soldier and Wheelman, and if he has more levels in another class than either of those, he receives an action dice penalty *Instead of the Lifestyle component of Wealth, he uses Spark. This will be covered when we hit the Gear step. *He has an alt-form. This will also be covered when he hit the Gear step. For his Specialty, we'll take Hot Rodder. This gives him the Lane Dancer feat, a free Drive skill focus in Standard Ground Vehicles and a forte in that focus, and a +1 bonus to Drive and Streetwise checks that will increase as he goes up in level. Step 3 is Class. Since Transmechs favor either Soldier or Wheelman (Unless you take certain feats), I'm going to go with Wheelman; Burnout thrives in vehicle mode. As a 1st level Wheelman, we get 3 d4 Action dice, 11 Vitality, +1 BAB, +0 Fort, +2 Ref, +0 Will, +1 Def, +1 Init, 1 Wealth, 1 Vehicle gear pick, the Daredevil feat, and Custom Ride, which lets us take Vehicle picks as if the mission's Caliber was 1 higher. We also get the Wheelman's Core Ability, Driven, which boosts Action dice when used on Maneuver or Repair checks and makes it harder for a GM to activate critical failures on those checks. Finally, a 1st level Wheelman gets 5 Weapon Proficiencies, which I spend on Unarmed, Handgun, Edged, Blunt, and Unarmed forte, which gives a +1 on all Unarmed attacks. Step 4 is Skills. The Wheelman gets 6+Int modifier skill points, multiplied by 4 at 1st level, and their class skills are Acrobatics, Athletics, Drive, Electronics, Impress, Intimidate, Mechanics, Notice, Profession, Security, Streetwise, and Tactics. Drive and Mechanics are musts, of course. We'll give Burnout Impress as well, so he can make friends. Notice is always handy, so we'll max that out as well. The last 12 points I'll split amongst Electronics, Security, Streetwise, and Athletics, giving us Drive 4, Impress 4, Mechanics 4, Notice 4, Athletics 3, Electronics 3, Security 3, and Streetwise 3. Some skills also have focuses. Cultures, Drive, Profession, and Science each cover such a wide variety of options that players have to narrow down what they're good at. At first level, characters receive a free focus in each skill, reflecting background and personal interest. They also receive one free focus per point of int modifier, to be used where desired. Every 4 ranks in one of the focus skills grants another focus to be spent on that skill. For my starting focuses, I'll pick Culture (Cyber Step 5 is Feats. 1st level characters get 1 feat of their choice, in addition to any feats granted by classes or origins. To give Burnout a little more oomph, I'll take the Protector species feat. This gives him the extra stability and natural attack (slam III) qualities, and grants +1 to Ref and Def for one adjacent ally. Step 6 is Interests. Interests are your character's hobbies, and can add bonuses to any skill rolls where the GM rules the interest applies. Every character starts with two Interests. Burnout's interests will be Automobile racing and Internet surfing. Step 7 is Subplots. In addition to the main mission taking place, every character has their own things going on that occasionally pop up during a session. When activated, they can be worth extra XP to the player whose Subplot it is. Burnout's Subplot is Long-Term Mission; he's here scouting out the Earth for... something. Step 8 is Derived Values. I'll do that after I handle gear. Step 9 is Gear. The first step in sorting out Gear is calculating a character's Wealth. Wealth is determined by a combination of a character's Charisma bonus and any bonuses from classes, origins, and feats. Burnout's Wealth is 1 Wealth from Wheelman and +2 from Cha for a total of 3. Now it has to be divided amongst three categories; Spark, Possessions, and Spending Cash. I'll split it Spark 2, Possessions 1, and Spending Cash 0. Spark replaces Lifestyle for Transmechs, and it measures how advanced their alt-form is. With a Spark of 2 I can take any Caliber I vehicle as Burnout's alt-form, so we'll choose Car, muscle (Classic). Possessions determines a character's personal gear, separate from what they get on every mission. With Possessions 1, Burnout can have 1 Caliber II item and 2 Caliber I items. I'll give him a Grade II Mechanics Kit, a Grade I Electronics Kit, and a Caliber I computer. We have no Spending Cash, so we can skip that. Next, each character gets Common Items equal to their Wisdom score, so Burnout gets 11. Common Items are things like a book of matches, or a phone, nothing major. Last, we record the starting Reputation/Net Worth. Burnout has a starting Net Worth of $100,000. All done! Burnout posted:Freelance Next I'm thinking either Fireborn or Jadeclaw. (Both of which also deserve to be written up for Fatal & Friends). Any suggestions?
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Feb 20, 2014 01:43
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I'm going to make a Torchbearer character! quote:You've come to this inn because you have no other options. You've got to make your own fortune in this damned world. And if that means delving into ruins and slaying a dragon or two, so be it. First up I choose class and stock. Torchbearer interestingly doesn't use the term 'race' anywhere for elves and dwarves and halflings. If you're not a human, you have no choice of class - all dwarves are Adventurers, all elves are Rangers, and all halflings are Burglars. Humans can be wizards, clerics, or warriors. I'm going to create a human warrior, because this is the only class my IRL group isn't using. I'm level one to start with, of course. This gives me the skills Fighter 4, Hunter 3, Commander 2, Mentor 2, Rider 2, and the trait Heart of Battle. I can use any weapons or armour. I need to distribute 8 points between Will and Health, the two base abilities - I'll go Health 5 Will 3. I have the ability to use any weapon or armour. As a human, I also pick a bonus skill - I'll take Haggler 3 since I'm expecting to replace my weapons in town regularly. Next, I choose my home - this gives me an extra skill and trait, and also various advantages when I visit that place. As a human Elfland's right out, so I can choose from Dwarven Halls, the Religious Bastion, the Bustling Metropolis, the Wizard's Tower, the Remote Village, or the Busy Crossroads. I happen to have developed and named the Bustling Metropolis in my game, so that'll do - I'm from Rusko, giving me Sailor 2 and the trait Extravagant. Everyone gets a social skill from Haggler, Manipulator, Orator, and Persuader - I'll take Persuader 2. I also choose a specialty - no two characters can have the same specialty in a party, which gives a little niche protection. I don't think anyone in my group is a Persuader, so I underline that skill on my sheet and increase it to 3. I now choose a Wise - this is an area of knowledge. As Rusko's on the coast and I have some sailing experience, I think I'll be Wind-wise. This augments other skills - it's useful to be able to offer advice instead of helping people directly, since I suffer less consequence when they fail! Like all starting adventurers, I'm Might 3. This is my overall place on the scale of things - a dragon is Might 6, a kobold Might 1. I have a base Nature of 3, and as a human my nature descriptors are Boasting, Demanding and Running. I can use my nature as a skill directly for tasks related to these, or I can tap it for other purposes. I have three questions to answer about my nature first, though: quote:Do you sit by the hearth at night drinking and boasting of your great deeds, or do you spend those chill nights quietly preparing for the dark times to come I boast of my exploits! This increases my nature to 4. quote:When the elves and dwarves voice their concerns, do you demand to be heard as an equal or do you bow your head and listen to the wisdom of your elders? The elf and dwarf in my current group are actually the sensible ones, so I listen to the wisdom of the elder ones - no change. quote:Would you flee from the hordes of goblins, beasts and monsters that prey on civilization or will you plunge into their midst, questing for treasure? Yeah, no fear of those who prey on civilisation! I replace my home trait with Foolhardy. (Traits are most useful when they're both a penalty and advantage in many situations) Next up is Circles, which is a score representing your general contacts and social prowess. I start with Circles 1, and have more questions to answer. I have to answer 'no' to at least one of these. quote:Do you have friends who enjoy your occasional visits or are you a loner, tough and cool? This question's a trap! If you answer yes, you're a loner, you just get the Loner trait and nothing else out of circles, and you have to wait around while everyone else answers the rest of questions. I have friends, so +1 circles, and I choose a profession from my hometown for my friend. She's Teryan the Sailor. quote:Do you have parents you can stomach talking to or are you an orphan? I'm an orphan! I have a keepsake from my parents that's worn around my neck, worth 1d of treasure. quote:Did you have a mentor or did you make your own way in this rough life? Sure - +1 circles again, and my mentor's trade is the same as the specialty I chose earlier, which means he's Sigmund the Persuader. quote:Have you made an enemy in your life or have your dubious deeds managed to escape notice? Life is tough enough, so no enemy for me. quote:The benefit for not having an enemy is not having an enemy. Now it's time for gear. As an adventurer, I have ... no money. Resources 0. However, when starting off, I can choose as much gear as I can carry. In Torchbearer my gear is limited by slots - I need to note what I'm carrying in each hand, what's in bags and sacks, and where, because that's all space that I'll need to use for carrying treasure later. First up, I need to choose between backpack and satchel - the backpack's twice as big, but makes dungeoneering and fighter checks harder. I'll go with a satchel, which gives me three slots of space but takes up one of my torso spaces. My belt has one pouch slot, and a full waterskin. As a warrior, I start with leather armor (one torso slot) and a weapon (I'll take the trusty sword, which is generally my last belt slot). I also have the choice between a helmet and shield - shields are excellent for defending my allies, but I'd rather have that hand free for carrying light and sacks of extra gear, so I'll go with a helmet in my head slot. My neck is already taken up with my keepsake. This leaves me two free hands (with a carried and worn slot each), a feet slot, a torso slot, a pouch slot, and three satchel slots. I'll load the satchel up with four torches, fresh rations, and two small sacks for all the loot I'm hoping to find. A tinderbox goes in my pouch, and rope in my spare torso slot. Shoes for my feet, and I'll carry in one hand a spare sack containing 4 more torches and another set of rations - I'll expect to drop that sack if I need to fight with a torch and sword. I very well might lose it but at least it's spare stuff. I can choose Law, Chaos, or unaffiliated for alignment - I don't feel like committing to cosmic forces, so unaffiliated it is. We're reaching final touches here. I need a Belief - I'll choose 'Treasure has to be taken, not found' - I'll get a reward if this influences my behaviour or if I play against it. I also need an Instinct - this will be 'Keep the rope ready!'. If a situation comes up where I need to quickly lasso or tie off someone before they fall, I'll get a free action. I don't choose a Goal yet - that happens at the start of each session. Finally, I choose a name (Artur) and a piece of distinctive raiment (a knotted sailor's scarf), choose an age (19), and I'm done! quote:Artur the Warrior, level 1
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Feb 20, 2014 02:11
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 Traveller is... well, its Traveller. Here I'll let Marc Miler explain: Traveller5 Core Book, page 11 posted:Traveller is About Travel Wait... that didn't really tell me anything. What the hell Marc? Traveller5 Core Book, page 12 posted:Traveller Is A Role-Playing Game Okay, that's a little better, I guess. Doesn't really tell me a whole lot. So lets start with why we're here, Character Creation. Any good Traveller PC will tell you that the best part of Traveller (besides, you know, quitting and playing something less frustrating) is the Traveller character creation. So lets skip ahead and go to the Characters chapter of the bo  Okay Page 68, I guess?  gently caress what the hell?
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Feb 20, 2014 02:12
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I'd like to do an interest check for something a bit unconventional. I've had some success recently in using the Tarot as a tool for generating interesting characters, and I'd like to know if anybody is interested in seeing a big effortpost on the methods involved, with an example char-sheet being generated and explained from start to finish. So far I've only used the method for Dungeon World (mostly because I'm on a huge DW kick right now), but I'm confident it could be adapted to other pen-and-paper systems. It's worked well enough to generate a couple of winning bids in the Game Room so far, at least. What do you all think? I promise not to drown you all in Crowley-esque esoteric wittering.
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Feb 20, 2014 03:17
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Alumnus Post posted:I'd like to do an interest check for something a bit unconventional. I've had some success recently in using the Tarot as a tool for generating interesting characters, and I'd like to know if anybody is interested in seeing a big effortpost on the methods involved, with an example char-sheet being generated and explained from start to finish. So far I've only used the method for Dungeon World (mostly because I'm on a huge DW kick right now), but I'm confident it could be adapted to other pen-and-paper systems. It's worked well enough to generate a couple of winning bids in the Game Room so far, at least.  I'll roll up a Mongoose Traveller character when I get home. What's more interesting, Robot or Psion?
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Feb 20, 2014 03:27
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Robot. I don't think I was aware of this Mongoose Traveler with its crazy options like Robot and Psion. If no one beats me to it I might make a Dungeons the Dragoning character tomorrow.
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Feb 20, 2014 03:28
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Traveller5 Pt: The drinkining After finding the Characters page (It was page 69, not 68) and opening some liquid courage, there seem to be several steps to make a character. "Traveller5 Core Book, page [s posted:68[/s] 69"] Then there's a whole bunch of text on pages 70-77 that talk about each step in great detail. Its boring, so no pictures or typing, sorry. On page 78, theres a Character Generation Checklist, and on Page 80 is the Homeworld charts, so lets jump there.  Wow... thats something. Okay, lets get started. Handy note pad ready and Homeworld System: Flux for Sp Spectral... Uhhhh, what the gently caress is Flux? Traveller5 Core Book, page 24 posted:Flux. Roll one die, then a second die and subtract it from the first. This roll is the same as D-D, but renamed for easier identification. Fore less confusion, use a light colored die and a dark die; always subtract dark from light. Oh okay. Lets to that then.  So, -2, which when I check my chart means my SP is F, whatever that means... Now roll a decimal. I'll use a d10 instead of the stupid formula to generate a 0-9 number...  Decimal 8. Yay? Now it says to roll on the size column to create the star, so for F, I'll roll flux again.  3-2 means the the Homestar Size is V In total my character's Homestar is F8 V Onto part 2 for Homeworld System, Orbits. It says to roll Flux again in the big chart numbered 2. I'm going to go ahead and roll HZ Habitable Zone variation as well.  Okay, so it says World with HZ Variation of 0. So... oh gently caress, I need more beer. Right, now, to determine the Habitable Zone Oribt, we have to use the Homestar info. So my Homestar is a F8 V, which means the... uhhhh... 4, I think? F7-G8 Column, under row "V" = 4? Sure, lets go with 4, that works. So the Habitable Zone for my Homestar is 4. Wonderful. Lets to the Homeworld then. S. Size: Welp, Size of 0. That'll be fun.  A. Atmosphere: No need to roll, If Size =0, Atmosphere =0. H. Hydrographics: Also no need to roll, If Size =0-1, Hyd =0; If Atmo =0-1 or A+, Hyd DM =-4 (whatever the hell that means) P. Population::  Woah, Population of 5... thats a lot? G. Government:  So Population +Flux roll is... 6? Lets look at what we've got so far: pre:Current Character Homestar: F8 V Habitable Zone Orbit: 4 Homeworld: Size: 0 Atm: 0 Hyd: 0 Pop: 5 Gov: 6 In Planetary we see: Size 0 = As Atm 0 = As Hyd 0 = As So we're on an Asteroid, and gain the Zero-G Skill. Cool. Next for Population: Pop 5 = Ni Non-industrial, and we gain the Driver skill. Economic is next. Atm 0 = Na or Pi or In Hyd 0 = Na Pop 5 = Ag or Pr Well Atm and Hyd matched, but Pop wasn't in the same row, so we don't get a skill from Economic, nor a code. Climate: Size 0 = ... Well that one's a bust. Figures, since we're on an asteroid and all. Secondary: Atm 0 = ... Nothing here either. Political: Pop 5 = Cy Gov 6 = Cy Law Wait, what the gently caress is Law? I never generated a law. WTF book where did this poo poo come from? Mustache Ride fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Feb 28, 2014 |
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Feb 20, 2014 03:42
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I'm going to showcase some  Goon ContentTitan World by ProfessorProf, to be exact. It's a game about fighting man-eating giants with swords and mad equipment-augmented parkour skills. As a human, your likely end is getting munched on by one of said giants. C'est la vie! So, let's roll up a starting Recruit! I'm going to try do this as randomly as possible.  First we need a name! Just a first name though. You don't get a full name until you level up. Recruits die really easily. If you start the game the right way ( ) with a full table of Recruits the first session is generally a hilarious/horrific meatgrinder.Anyway, I'm gonna this generator here. German names seem appropriate to the flavor. I got RodolfI'm surprised there isn't a german flag smiley Next we assign his stats! Titan World has 5 stats total: Agility, Execution, Awareness, Discipline, and Rage. They generally are used for exactly what you'd think. Rodolf here gets to assign +2, +1, +1, +0, and -1 to each stat. I'm going to roll 1d100 for each stat and assign the stats in priority. Agility, Execution, Awareness, Discipline, Rage: 48, 81, 98, 60, 84. The first 5d100 I rolled had a duplicate. loving odds, huh? So, going in priority, that gives Rodolf the following stats: Agility: -1 Execution: +1 Awareness: +2 Discipline: +0 Rage: +1 Rodolf gets 2 things guaranteed in his inventory. One is gas-powered Maneuvering Gear, which enables you to pretend you're Spiderman with only minor property damage in your wake. The second is a pair of Titan-Slaying Swords. Titans are tough, so you need special razor-sharp blades to really put the hurt to them. These blades are pretty fragile as a consequence, so the sword hilts are made to detach broken blades and slot in new ones. He also gets a third piece of equipment. He can choose to carry spare blades, spare gas, a rifle, a torch, or a flare gun. The rifle is good for killing non-giant mans and irritating giant-mans. Torch is good for doing night-time stuff well the titans are sleeping. The flare gun is mostly intended as a signaling device. Randomly selecting one of the items with a d5 roll, I get a 5. Flare Gun it is!  That's it, folks! Rodolf is now prepared to go die for his city. With his stats, the mostly likely course of events for him during his first session is dying due to his clumsy movement (low Agility) getting him snatched up by a titan. He's got a better chance then most of slashing himself free of its grip (high Rage) before being eaten though. I'd expect him to die when he panics mid-fight (lowish Discipline) and freezes up or does something stupid  Luckily his player will be able to whip up a new character in under a minute 
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Feb 20, 2014 04:11
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Tollymain posted:The first 5d100 I rolled had a duplicate. loving odds, huh? 5d100 has a 10% chance to roll a duplicate, so it isn't as unlikely as you'd think! Anyway, as soon as I get the fluff written up, I'll be posting a character from Quick Start Cthulhu, which (I think) is just a short version of the old Call of Cthulhu rules. So expect a lot of random 3d6 stats, percentiles, and SANITY SCORE.
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Feb 20, 2014 04:57
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Traveller5 Character Creation Pt 3 - WTF is Law? So when I got my Kickstarter book many many months ago, I was so excited I went home after work and just sat there making characters. However when I reached the Law part I previously posted about I pretty much had the same reaction I posted, incredulous disbelieving that they would leave something like that out. After the Index and Contents failed to reveal the location of the "Law" generation table, I went hunting. Page by page. I will save you all that hunting. The answer was on page 433, and many many many hours later.  There are also some other interesting aspects about WorldGen on this page, including descriptions for everything rolled in Part 2 including: Homeworld: Size: 0 - Astroid Belt (We knew that already) Atm: 0 - Vacuum Hyd: 0 - Desert World. Pop: 5 - Hundreds Thousands Gov: 6 - Captive Goverment / Colony. Rule by a leadership answerable to an outside group. So lets continue and generate our Law score. The table says: Law = Flux + Gov. Here's our Flux  (-3) So our Law is 6 - 3 = 3 Low Law Prohibition of Acid, Fire, Gas weapons. Now back on our big rear end chart from last time, and continuing with Political, we can get the following code: Pop 5 = Cy Gov 6 = Cy Law 3 = Cy We're on a Colony world and gain the skill... uhh.. no Skill, just a note that says: Traveller5 Core Book, page 81 posted:... There's no loving note here. What the hell? Wait, when I was skimming this book I saw the exact same chart in another location, lets look there. Traveller5 Core Book, page 434 posted:Note 1: A colony is Owned by another World. Note the owning world with O:nnnn (=hex of owning world). The Owner is the Most Important, Highest Population Highest TL world within 6 hexes. Well gently caress doing that, that would require generating uhhh All of these goddamn hexes. Yeah, I'm not sure if you can see the hexes in that box, but yeah, gently caress that. Lets just pick a world from page 82 and call it a day. O.1717 Now the final thing to generate for our Homeworld is the Tech Level. This isn't in the list, nor is it listed anywhere except in the Technology Chapter (which is on page 497, but doesn't make ANY SENSE WHATSOEVER) and Page 433, our magic page.  So lets do that, shall we?... Wait I have to generate a Starport number? Well, luckily I've found our Magic Page number 433 where we do that, but this is news to me!  Oh, here's a WorldGen Checklist as well. I wish this was in the goddamn front of the book so we could do it properly instead of depending on this half-assed checklist that's under "Characters" which apparently tells you half the story. loving Traveller. Anyways, lets get our Starport outta the way:  Comparing that to our table we get a Type A, Excellent Quality Starport. Awesome, thats great! So then lets calculate our Tech Level too:  So 5 + 6 (Starport A) + 2 (Size 0) + 1 (Atm 0) + 1 (Pop 5) = 15 15 is described in pages 504&505, 506&507, and 508&509 Does that make sense to you? It does? Good, you can explain it to me too. So there we go, Our Homeworld generation is complete. Its taken a few hours, and lotsa beer, but we finally have a homeworld. Now all we need to do is give it a name! Our Homestar's name will be: 2983 Circini Our Homeworld's name will be: Skeggiold Prime Knowing what we know about it now, I imagine it looks something like this:  ONTO MAKING OUR CHARACTER!  Before we begin with the character, lets generate his name: Tolman Jenkins A good, space cowboy kinda name for our Cowboy Asteroid, I guess. First things first, lets generate our Characteristics! These are 6 stats, which you roll 2d6 for each. The characteristics are as follows: Str - Strength Dex - Dexterity End - Endurance Int - Intelligence Edu - Education Soc - Social Standing Another thing which I haven't brought up yet, is that for some reason Traveller uses a Hex based system. So their numbers are from 0-F, or as follows: 0-9 (Normal) 10 = A 11 = B 12 = C 13 = D 14 = E 15 = F I know the system (thanks CS degree!) but I have no idea why an RPG thought it had to use it. Anyways, I'm going to be lazy and use Orokos for our characteristics: Human Characteristics: 6#2d6 10 9 4 7 8 10 So our guy so far is the following: Str: 10 (Or A, I guess) Dex: 9 End: 4 Int: 7 Edu: 8 Soc: 10 (A again) Now we're supposed to make our UPP, which is the Hex values of those roles for our character. So this'll be A9478A, which is actually pretty far above average. 777777 is the average, and anything above that is extraordinary, especially when you start going into the 9+ values. There is also an optional Genetics information stuff you can do, but its not really needed for anything except inheritance and other poo poo in game. So now our character is 18 years old, and ready to begin our Career resolution. Before we decide what job to take, we need to determine if its a good idea to go through school. This is usually a good idea, as it will boose characteristics, or provide useful skills that may be helpful in your career choices later. There are several options for schools: 1. ED5 - program to raise Education characteristic to a minimally acceptable level. We're at Edu 8, so we can skip this. 2. Trade Schools - Vocational Education 3. College - Basic College Education. ED5 required. 4. University - Same as College, but is more prestigious. Can also lead to a Masters program. ED7 required. 5. OTC - optional for College/University Graduates 6. Military Academies/Naval Academies - Similar to College except they provide a commision upon graduation. 7. ANM Schools - (Army Navy Marine Schools) One year military trade schools. 8. Command Colleges - For 04 rank military characters. Those that fail don't continue in the military. Education actually starts on page 100, for some reason, which is after all of the career stuff. Go figure. So, since our Education is 8, we qualify for either a College or University entry as a Bachelor. I'll choose University. Now we roll Int or Edu to Apply. This is a "Check" roll, which requires that we roll 2 dice, and if the total of those 2 dice is under our total, we succeed. Our Int is 7, and Education is 8, so we'll roll a check with Education. Education: 2d6 5 So 5 < 8, and we are accepted to University! Now we can determine which University using the handy table on page 101 Uni Flux: 1d6-1d6 1 Uni Rank: 3d6 12 So we're in All-Skeggiold University, which has Rank 12. 12! Before we start passing or failing our school years, we need to choose a Major and Minor to study. Major/Minor Choice: 2#1d13 2 5 Major: Biology Minor: Linguistics Now we roll two checks for each of our four years, and hope its under either Int or Edu (8) School Year 1-4: 8#2d6 5 7 4 8 11 5 7 8 First Year: PASS (Biology Skill increases) Second Year: PASS (Biology and Linguistics Skills increase) Third Year: FAIL (Rolled an 11) Uh oh, we've failed a semester. Knew we shouldn't have gone to that stag party before finals. Anyways, in this case we can try to get an Educational Waiver to continue on. Traveller5 Core Book, page 72 posted:So lets roll that then. Educational Waiver: 2d6 3 Yeah since 3 is much less than 10, we get to continue on! I bet the dean will be watching us this time though. Did we Graduate?: 3#2d6 5 3 5 Third Year (Semester 2): Pass (No Skill increase) Fourth Year: PASS (Biology Skill increase) Now, if we want, we can try for honors. When I did honors it involved so much studying, several papers, written letters to professors, etc, but here you just roll one additional Pass/Fail to see if you get them! How lucky! Honors: 2d6 7 And not only do we graduate, we graduate with HONORS!  Man, that was easy. So now our Education increases to 8 (It already was 8 so it doesn't increase) and we get those levels of skills, plus an additional 1 to our major for graduating with honors. Next time (Probably tomorrow) we'll see how we do in our Life after college. Maybe we'll go to Med School! -------------------------------- pre:Current Character 2983 Circini: F8 V Habitable Zone Orbit: 4 Skeggiold Prime: Starport: A Size: 0 Atm: 0 Hyd: 0 Pop: 5 Gov: 6 Law: 3 Tech: 15 O.1717 Tolman Jenkins Str: 10 (A) Dex: 9 End: 4 Int: 7 Edu: 8 Soc: 10 (A) Skills: Zero-G - 1 Driver - 1 Biology - 4 Linguistics - 1 Mustache Ride fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Feb 28, 2014 |
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Feb 20, 2014 06:16
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xiw posted:I'm going to make a Torchbearer character! Man, I'd love to actually play Torchbearer, but I know it'll never happen.
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Feb 20, 2014 06:40
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Awright, let's try not to die horribly in Dungeon Crawl Classics! Now, like most OSR games, we start by rolling up our stats. 3d6 down the line, no rerolls, no dropping the lowest die, none of that poo poo. Orokos gives us 12, 7, 8, 9, 4, and 6. quote:Strength: 12 (+0) Most of the ability scores are pretty usual, though Luck is a special case, as it can be burned to add to to your dice rolls, as well as some special cases depending on your class. Our character-to-be is reasonably strong, but dumb as a rock, and substandard in everything else, basically. Next, we roll d% to determine his occupation before he heard the call for adventure. I get a 60! quote:Halfling haberdasher My character is a demihuman, which means if he survives, he can become a Halfling (the class, a hybrid warrior and rogue of sorts). Yes, I said survive, because characters start out as a 0-level peasant, and if they can manage to survive long enough to get 10 XP, only then can they choose a class. Fear not, however! We also roll 1d24 to determine a piece of starting equipment. We get...a flask of oil (16)! ...we are so boned. We roll a couple other things (1d4 [-1 thanks to our lovely stamina] for starting hit points [3, as good as it gets], and 5d12 for starting amount of copper pieces [32]), and we're done! Time to send off this adventurer-to-be to the meat grinder! Now, level 0 characters have an extremely low chance of survival, considering Mr. Bimblebottom here is rolling with all of 3 HP. So, the book suggests rolling up 2-4 characters at once, then playing all of them until the inevitable (hopefully) survivor ascends to their first real level. So, let's roll up two more characters... quote:Stats: Not completely terrible. Could be a rogue if he makes it. A human, for reference, since there was no mention of being a demihuman in his occupation. For number three...: quote:Stats: That's what we were looking for! A respectable intelligence means this person can become a wizard when they level up, which means...more rolling! So we'll say that Sheila the Healer survives, using her wits (and pushing the others into the way of danger) to survive, and coming out with a Chaotic alignment and 10 XP. She chooses the Wizard class, gaining 1d4 more HP (4, bringing us to 6 total) and rolls 1d27 four times to determine her starting spells. She gets: 2: Cantrip 20: Read magic 13: Flaming hands 11: Feather fall Not...a terrible bit of magic. She can actually do some damage, in fact! Good for her! Unfortunately, she still has a rather substandard Intelligence, meaning she won't be able to learn level 5 magic at all. That's alright, though! She's ready to head off into the world and
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Feb 20, 2014 07:11
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