How to build your very own virus riddled character.
In this section I will divulge unto you the relatively simple system of making a character. At the bottom is a fun example of Jim (GM) and John (Player) creating John's virus incubating character.
1. Name, heritage and gender. Name and gender go without saying, you think of a name and then pick a gender (or the other way round if you'd rather know what sex you'll be before giving a name.)
Heritage, on the other hand, is vital(ish) to the character creation process. Heritage is what your family did before the fall of civilization. It describes what d# you roll for each attribute. Below are a list of the heritages you can take. I must inform you now that in this part of the process higher D#s are bad!
Labourer: Strength: D4 Stamina: D6 Agility: D8 Intelligence: D8 Sense: D6 Charisma: D10
Entertainer: Strength: D8 Stamina: D6 Agility: D4 Intelligence D8 Sense: D10 Charisma: D4
Engineer: Strength: D8 Stamina: D8 Agility: D6 Intelligence D4 Sense: D6 Charisma: D10
Economist: Strength: D8 Stamina: D8 Agility: D10 Intelligence D6 Sense: D4 Charisma: D6
Soldier: Strength: D6 Stamina: D4 Agility: D6 Intelligence D10 Sense: D8 Charisma: D8
2. Attributes. As you can see on the character sheet there are two columns beside each attribute. One is natural and the second is enhanced.
The first column is what we will be dealing with today. All attributes in this section start at -1. From here roll the die for each attribute and then deduct the numer scored. Huzzah your natural stats are all now at a minimum of -2.
This is true for all stats except Immune, this stat starts at 0.
3. Viruses. There are many different types of viruses that attack your body's bioenhancement system. You now get to pick two to be infected with.
Each of these viruses affect one of your bioenhancements and lowers that attributes enhanced score. Before you take any viruses your enhanced score for each attribute is 0. Pick two of the viruses below and deduct their scores from your enhanced attributes as described.
AS-53: -2 Strength
MI-06: -1 Strength -1 Stamina
BND-P10: -1 Intelligence -1 Sense
PT-CD1: -2 charisma
MF-AA14: -1 Charisma -1 Stamina
NSD-RM: -2 Agility
AN-T4: -2 stamina
PN-CS9: -1 strength -1 charisma
MFD-AR27: -1 Agility -1 Charisma
LND-ADI9: -2 Immunity
BPR-1MI: -2 Immunity -1 Stamina +1 Strength
BEA-2WD: -2 Wisdom
BSD-1: -2 Intelligence
4. Aptitudes. Aptitudes are the different areas that your character is good or bad at. There are eight different aptitudes and they are as follows.
Combat, Medical, Survival, Technical, Social, Sporting, Rogue and Thoughtful.
For each of the categories you ascribe a D#. To do this you have a D4, 2D6s, D8, 2D10s and a D12. Each category must have a dice! In this section higher is better.
5. Skills. The final part of character creation is picking your skills. You have 20 skill points to spend. A skill can be anything you wish, so long as it is not too wide a descriptor. Decide with your GM what categories your skills will go under and what attributes they will use. You buy skils on a 1 point = 1 skill level basis. You may not put more than 5 points into a skill and must have at least 5 skills.
6. Your character is given whatever your GM decides you have. The only thing your entitled to is 10 injection packs. 1 injection pack equals 24hrs of stats at their enhanced scores, without them you use your natural scores.
The GM may decide if your characters get a cybernetic enhancement or not. If he lets one person have one who isn't you, demand one.
Confused!
OK. For attributes, the higer d# is bad, but for skills the higher d# is good ... Could you please explain the logic behind this, as it is confusing and not intuitive - bit loke Old Skool D&D :)
All will become clear.
It is difficult to understand as the mechanics aren't up yet.
Basically for attributes you choose what your character is bad at. This is because the game is based around people having bioenhancements that make everyone perfect and equal, this means that the standard score is 0, everyone is the same. However character's without their bioenhancements (when they run out of injection packs) are operating at under average levels. This means that they get negatives depending on how poor their attributes are, because the lowered stats are more of a disadvantage than having higher stats is an advantage. It was me trying to get the mechanics to fit the system, if it doesn't work I will change it.
Aptitudes (not skills) are good with high D# because these are the dice you roll when using a skill in this category. Skills themselves then add modification to these rolls.
Example: John has a character who is operating on non enhanced stats (poor him), his agility score is -4. He is trying to jump over a river for some reason or another. He has an Acrobatics skill of 5 and a Sporting Apt of D8. In all he rolls D8 +1 (5 skill - 4 attribute.) If he was working on enhanced stats and his viruses didn't affect his agility attribute he would roll D8 +5 (5 skill - 0 attribute.)
Hopefully this will clear things up, if not the mechanics section should. If you are worried about characters having low rolls then I have to say this game is about struggling and success should not be overly common.
The most important parts of any game are story and characters. Master these and a good game is on its way.
Denied Comments
The following two comments are blocked.
1. There are no viruses to take.
Why:Because I haven't done them yet.
2. There is no example character creation.
Why: Because without viruses the character creation system isn't complete yet.
The most important parts of any game are story and characters. Master these and a good game is on its way.
Viruses.
Viruses are up. I'll put seperate descriptions of the systems that they affect in the viruses chapter, as there will be more that can be contracted in game.
The most important parts of any game are story and characters. Master these and a good game is on its way.