Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example

[Maelwys]

So its been a while since I did a character online, and while I'm waiting for an answer to a question or two, I figured I'd write up a quick character and put it online so people can see the steps. Perhaps it will help people figure out that character creation isn't so much complex, as just involved. The idea for the character came about after browsing some Battletech art, and while I'm taking some liberties (the exact mech design may not work, but is an unseen issue, so it can be handwaived), I hope to follow the picture as much as possible.  After looking over the picture, and randomizing some of the starting stats, the character will be from the Draconis Combine, with the Dieron District Sub-Affiliation, and will be using the rules for creating a character based in 3052, rather than the Jihad era. As usual, the character will be based on 5000 points.

So the first step is the default points. 850 of your 5000 points are spent on these "Universal Fixed Points" as described on page 52 of ATOW. After these points are spent, you're left with 4150 points, and your character looks like the following.

ATTRIBUTES
STR: +100
BOD: +100
RFL: +100
DEX: +100
INT: +100
WIL: +100
CHA: +100
EDG: +100

Skills
Perception: +10
Language/Japanese: +20
Language/English: +20

Pretty much every character will look like this in the beginning. All characters get +10 to their Perception skill, and every character gets +20 to the English skill (as the universal language, and wouldn't it suck if your group can't talk to each other). The points spent on "Language Japanese" could go to any of your Primary or Secondary language choices for your affiliation. I could have chosen Arabic, Swedenese, or even English if I had so desired, rather than Japanese, but this fits the character.

After this, we'll be looking at our Affiliation choice.

[Maelwys]

Alright. A quick note on Affiliations. Like all modules, they have an XP cost, and since we picked the Draconis Combine as our affiliation, our cost is 150. I will say one thing that might surprise people, but the Sub-Affiliations that pretty much all Affiliations have are Optional. You don't have to take them (see page 52 again). As such, I'm going to show this step in two forms. The first is just with the Draconis Combine data entered, and the second part will be with the Dieron District Sub-Affiliation added in.

ATTRIBUTES
STR: +100
BOD: +100
RFL: +100
DEX: +100
INT: +100
WIL: +150
CHA: +100
EDG: +100

Traits
Compulsion/Xenophobia: -100
Wealth: -50
Combat: Sense +100

Skills
Perception: +10
Language/English: +20
Language/Japanese: +20
Arts/Oral Tradition: +15
Martial Arts: +10
Protocol/Draconis Combine: +15
Thrown Weapons/Blade: +10

I don't think there's anything too surprising with the Draconis Combine affiliation. Xenophobia, limited Wealth due to a poor economy and some classic Kuritan skills. I like to think of the "Arts/Oral Tradition" as throwing out haikus during the middle of combat or something. Even this early in character creation there are optional choices, with options in the traits to take, as well as flex points, so if you're afraid of cookie cutter characters, you can rest assured that there are options to make it your own. Below this, I'll show you the character with the Sub-Affiliation, Dieron District added to the character.

ATTRIBUTES
STR: +100
BOD: +100
RFL: +100
DEX: +100
INT: +150
WIL: +100
CHA: +100
EDG: +100

Traits
Compulsion/Xenophobia: -50
Wealth: 0
Combat: Sense +100
Connectons: +60
Enemy: -100

Skills
Perception: +10
Language/English: +20
Language/Japanese: +35
Arts/Oral Tradition: +30
Martial Arts: +10
Protocol/Draconis Combine: +15
Thrown Weapons/Blade: +10
Interest/Star League HIstory: +5
Negotiation: +5

Those attributes aren't a typo. And you'll see similar situations in the character. One section gives your character something, and in other, it takes it away. In this case, the points we accumulated earlier in Willpower are taken away, and we're given some extra Intelligence. Our Xenophobia is lessened as well, and we gain a bit of wealth, bringing that trait to 0. We get some connections, and the enemy to go long with them, and we see the people of Dieron remember that they once were part of the Star League. Sub-Affiliations don't majorly change the character, but they provide nice little hooks. Frankly, I'm sort of surprised that they're Optional.

[Maelwys]

As usual, let me know if you have any questions or comments...

[Maelwys]

Probably the last post for the night, before the numbers start to blur.

After a bit of not-so-random selection (I asked someone for their decision, rather than making it mine), we're going with the White Collar Life Path. There is one thing that needs to be explained. The White Collar Life Path has a Prerequisite of "3+ TP (total) in Wealth or Property Traits." I've always taken that to mean at the end, when you've finalized your character, you need some combination of the Wealth and Property Traits that adds up to 3 TP total (or more). I could see it argued that you need to have +3 in one or the other and not combined..ask your GM for specifics :) Or I suppose I could always ask...

Just remember, these prerequisites have to be met at the end of character creation, NOT at the Life Path they're assigned to.

ATTRIBUTES
STR: +50
BOD: +50
RFL: +100
DEX: +100
INT: +225
WIL: +50
CHA: +175
EDG: +100

Traits
Compulsion/Xenophobia: -50
Wealth: 100
Combat: Sense +100
Connectons: +60
Enemy: -100
Equipped: +80
Enemy: -100
Extra Income: +50
Glass Jaw: -50
Reputation: +50

Skills
Perception: +15
Language/English: +20
Language/Japanese: +40
Arts/Oral Tradition: +40
Martial Arts: +10
Protocol/Draconis Combine: +20
Thrown Weapons/Blade: +10
Interest/Star League History: +15
Negotiation: +5
Swimming: +5

Some of the physical stats have taken hits, while the mental stats continue to rise, except for Willpower, which keeps taking hits. Wealth is back at its highest level, which is good since we have that Prerequisite to think of at the end. Glass Jaw is a worrisome trait to have, and I expect to buy it off. You'll notice there are two Enemy traits listed, both at -100. Its considered a Multiple Trait (see page 107 of ATOW), so you can have the trait more than once. Its up to you to decide if you want to have multiple lower-level enemies, or fewer higher-level enemies. Right now I've kept it split up so I can keep track of it better, but I might combine it in the end.

One thing about the flex XP of the White Collar Life Path. Its such a minute amount that it feels like its just going to be lost later on in the chargen when the optimization process hits. While that may be true, its still worth placing them carefully, even if its just to remind yourself that you want this skill or trait or to pay particular attention to the attribute.

But for now, I'll leave it there for the night. Let me know if anything is confusing.

Edit
Oh yeah! The character is considered to be 10 years of age at this point, for keeping track of your background when you write it up. You are going to write a background, right?
/edit

[Maelwys]

Well, no questions so far it seems. The next life path chosen is the Military School. "Its for the DC right?" At the end of this lifepath, the character will be 16. Not much to say before hand, though we've gained another Prerequisite. At the end of character generation our Willpower will need to be 3 or greater.

ATTRIBUTES
STR: +50
BOD: +50
RFL: +100
DEX: +100
INT: +225
WIL: +50
CHA: +225
EDG: +100

Traits
Compulsion/Xenophobia: -50
Wealth: +100
Combat: Sense +100
Connectons: +75
Enemy: -100
Equipped: +80
Enemy: -100
Extra Income: +50
Glass Jaw: -50
Reputation: +50
Fit: +15
Rank: +20

Skills
Perception: +20
Language/English: +20
Language/Japanese: +40
Arts/Oral Tradition: +40
Martial Arts: +40
Protocol/Draconis Combine: +50
Thrown Weapons/Blade: +20
Interest/Star League History: +20
Negotiation: +5
Swimming: +35
Career/Soldier: +25
Computers: +35
Interest/Any: +30
Interest/Military History: +40
Leadership: +20
MedTech General: +10
Melee Weapons: +20
Running: +30
Small Arms: +50
Strategy: +10
Driving/Ground: +20

Surprisingly the attributes don't change much. A bit of charisma for being educated presumably and some of the traits reflect school life with points put towards connections and the Fit trait. Skills are really where it pays off, with a wide variety of skills added at a substantial level of XP in some cases.

One thing I do like about this Stage is that the flexible XP is substantial. Unlike Stage 1 where the XP seems like a rounding error, the amount of flexible XP in this Stage is enough to really make a difference when you decide to use it. If I had wanted, I could've added an entirely new skill, with similar XP to skills that I had gotten in affiliation stage. When you can do that, you can really start making the character your own. On this character, I spent some of the points to level skills up high enough that they would count as bought skills in the end, while at the same time buying "Driving/Ground Vehicles" just for the hell of it.

Next up, Stage 3 where things change.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

I'm following your progress with interest.  It seems like skipping modules and just doing a straight point buy should be the recommended method, but I rather like the quirky things that come up organically in the modules.  It's a shame that it requires no small amount of system mastery just to make a character using that method.

But, in my own experience fiddling with with the character generation process I've seen that some modules give back more or less XP than the price of buying them.  I never decided if that was an imbalance in the design or intentionally programmed choices (or if I simply failed on the math).  I'm curious to see how you feel about it.

[monbvol]

There were some math errors in certain modules.  I haven't gone through to double check that they've all been ironed out via errata yet or not.

I know there are some modules that if you repeat them you do actually get more than what you pay for but most you get far less.

[Maelwys]

I'm actually working on an a NPC that's a straight point buy right now. Its probably easier just based on straight math/effort (Just keep counting down/up to 5000, careful of Field rebates). And if you're an experienced player/fan, you can probably get away with simply using it.

The big disadvantage to the point buy system I think is that you don't have any real guidelines. If I had been creating this character just using the point buy method, then I probably wouldn't have thought about the fact that Dieron was once part of the Star League for who knows how long, and wouldn't have thought to include an Interest in Star League History.  Instead those points might have gone straight for a skill that would be useful more often. Is either way wrong? No, not really.

Also, the Life Modules give you a baseline that allows your players to judge where they are in relationship to others. "Okay, I've just finished Stage 3, and I've put some of my flexible XP into my main skills, and I'm at this many XP, and I see the other people in the group are at similar levels.' Whereas if you were doing the point buy method "Well, I put 300 XP into my Gunnery skill, because that gives me a 7 in the skill, and on a system that's 1-10+, 7 is slightly better than average of that so I'm good, right?"

So yeah. The Point Buy method is probably easier and quicker. But I'd limit it to people who were experienced with the setting and the game, whereas the Life Module system works for new players, as long as they aren't put off by the math and keeping track of things.

Here's a good example of how the modules can help. With the character I'm working on, I've received -200 XP in the Enemy trait. 100 of it came from the White Collar Life Module, and 100 of it came from the Dieron District sub-affiliation. A new person looking at that might say "Well, maybe its 2 enemies instead of just 1, and the one that I got from the Dieron Distict is some sort of Terran Hegemony nationalist who wants Dieron out of the DC (Despite the TH being long gone..hey, people hold grudges). The other 100 points came from being White Collar, so maybe that's a more personal family rival." Whereas if you just went with the point buy method, all you would know is that you have -200 XP in the Enemy trait.

Basically after all this writing, it can be summed up pretty easily. The Life Modules provide CONTEXT that new players are more likely to need.

As for modules not being a zero sum game, I haven't run across any, except for the Stage 3 ones where you're provided with a rebate on skill fields, but I haven't crunched the numbers on all of them to check. And of course you can lose out pretty heavily if you wind up repeating a Module in Stage 4, since the price remains the same and you just gain the Skill and flexible XP. TOD: Clan costs 1000, but pays out around 600 if you don't get the attributes and traits the second time around.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Yeah I love the modules... they're just about a million times more complicated than a point buy is the problem.  Which is a giant shame because people new to the setting are exactly who the modules would be best for.

Even using the modules, a GM really should allow for creative leeway when multiple PCs take the same/similar life paths.  It's one thing to have quirky skills, but it loses its charm when they repeat across the party.

[Maelwys]

Sure, but that's what the Flexible XP are for. Even if you're playing an all Trueborn crew, you're going to wind up with a couple of hundred flexible XP to make the character yours, and that's not even counting all the optimized XP that you wind up with. If all your PCs are winding up with the same quirky skills, then its probably them and not the system.

Of course, now I'm visualizing a group of PCs, all playing Elementals as part of the same point, and all of them with "Interest/Ballroom Dancing." :)

And I think I'll have to wait until tomorrow for the next installment. But as a Preview...military academy, Basic Training, MW Field and OCS.

One thing that might be interesting is to see a Clanner built using the point buy and using the modules, and attempt to make them exactly the same and see how they line up.

[Daryk]

There's one Stage 4 module that doesn't have that problem: Civilian Job.  It makes sense, actually...

[monbvol]

As of the printing of my PDF you can repeat Organized Crime and actually get 50 more XP and Clan Watch Operative and get 55 more XP than what you paid for them.

[Daryk]

I completely missed those... They're in my old hard copy too.  Thanks for pointing them out!  Organized Crime at least kind of makes sense, in that the module is all about cheating the "system".

[Maelwys]

Alright, so a bit of delay, but we progress. We're now at Stage 3, which details the schooling that your character will undergo, and things are a bit different. Instead of having your age fixed at the end of the Stage like Stages one and two (10 and 16 respectively), here the options that you select determines how your character ages. The cost of the Stage is also variable, again, based on what you select. Each school has a base cost, and then you have the option to take up to 3 Fields. Each Field provides 30 XP towards the skills in the field. The cost of the field is the number of skills provided multiplied by 30, though you get a slight rebate for each skill as well.

So in this character's case, I took the Military Academy field. Since I took the Military School in the previous Life Module, I was able to avoid the Prerequisites for the Military Academy. However, many of the fields have their own Prerequisites, so we need to keep those in mind. To keep the character moving on, I selected Basic Training, which requires us to have the Rank Trait at the end of character generation, as well as certain minimums on the Int and Wil of the character. It also adds one year to the age of the character. Next up is the MechWarrior field. Another year added to the age, and now our Dex and Reflexes stats have minimums that we'll need to keep in mind.

Next up, I could have selected another Field, but I decided not to be greedy. I did however choose to take the Officer Candidate School, which works just like any of the other schools, where you have a base cost and add the OCS Field's cost to it. At this point the character is 19 and pretty much fresh out of school.

ATTRIBUTES
STR: +100
BOD: +150
RFL: +225
DEX: +100
INT: +225
WIL: +150
CHA: +325
EDG: -100

Traits
Compulsion/Xenophobia: -50
Wealth: +200
Combat: Sense +100
Connectons: +125
Enemy: -100
Equipped: +230
Enemy: -100
Extra Income: +50
Glass Jaw: -50
Reputation: +100
Fit: +15
Rank: +470
Custom Vehicle: 200

Skills
Perception: +35
Language/English: +20
Language/Japanese: +40
Arts/Oral Tradition: +40
Martial Arts: +70
Protocol/Draconis Combine: +120
Thrown Weapons/Blade: +20
Interest/Star League History: +20
Negotiation: +5
Swimming: +50
Career/Soldier: +55
Computers: +35
Interest/Any: +30
Interest/Military History: +55
Leadership: +70
MedTech General: +40
Melee Weapons: +50
Running: +30
Small Arms: +80
Strategy: +10
Driving/Ground: +20
Navigation Ground: +30
Gunnery/`Mech: +30
Piloting/'Mech: +30
Sensor Operations: +30
Tactics/Land: +30
Technician/Any: +30
Administration: +30
Training: +30

And there are some definite changes. The Edge score isn't a typo. Its lost 200 XP. Presumably the reasoning behind it is "Your character was lucky enough to get into OCS," but its a pretty brutal hit. The rest of the Attributes have jumped up a bit, but nowhere near the minimums yet, but we've still got a Stage to cover.

Wealth has gone up. So has Equipped. Contacts has finally gotten high enough that its reached its minimum threshold. Rank has taken quite a jump. With OCS you now use the Officer column on the General Rank Table which indicates this character has already reached the Lance Leader level. Not bad for fresh out of school. I also had quite a few Flexible XP, so I wound up spending most of them on the Custom Vehicle trait. Since I know the specific `Mech that I want, I just went ahead and spent the points that would allow me to choose a `Mech from my faction. I'll of course still need to put points into the "Vehicle" trait, but that will come later.

Skills have seen a large change, not that surprising since I added 3 Fields (Basic Training, MechWarrior and OC) to the character. Many of those field skills have reinforced other skills that I already had, while others added brand new skills to the character. And since all of them had 30 XP given to them, you're guaranteed to have these skills at the end of chargen. Protocol is obviously the winner, though Leadership gained a big boost as well.

So the character has really come together, but we're not quite done. Stage 4 is next. Just something to smooth the rough edges out, so the character doesn't start straight out of school.

edit
Added a word or two
/edit

[Daryk]

I think AToW explains how fields work a little more clearly, since the "rebate" you get is actually dependent on the number of skills in the field.  From pages 70-71:

"Skill Fields are special “package deals” of Skills that cover an entire occupational role (such as MechWarrior, Cavalry, Scientist and so forth). Characters who purchase such Fields must pay a total of +30 XPs for each Skill in the Field (in addition to the Module’s XP Cost). For this, they receive +30 XPs in each of the Field’s Skills, as well as 6 XPs per Field Skill awarded to their XP Pool as a special “rebate”."

[Maelwys]

Oh yeah, they definitely explain it better. I'm not trying to fully explain all the rules unless people have questions. For instance, I didn't mention that the fields in each School are split up into three categories, Basic, Advanced and Special, and you can only take a single Basic Field, and then if you want, add up to two Advanced Fields, or one Advanced Field and one Special Field (though you can't take a Special Field without taking an Advanced Field first). So yeah, the book explains things in better detail definitely.

Oh, and just as a heads up, using the DC Rank Table in the ATOW Companion, the character so far is a Chu-i, to use the correct DC terminology.

[Maelwys]

And here we are, Stage 4. I could've done something odd (technically Solaris), but since this character was going in a rather unsurprising direction, I went with the obvious and chose the Tour of Duty: IS module. Like Stage 3, instead of your age being set at the end, each module simply adds to the age of the character. In this case, the ToD adds 3 years to the character's age, putting it at 22. Which is somewhat interesting, but that can wait for another post :) A nice bonus in the ToD module is that there are a lot of "Choose between these options." You can tailor the character more to your choice. Maybe your character concept will want more personal gear, so you go for Equipped rather than Vehicle, when offered the choice. Its not major, but it helps direct the character, IMO. So without further ado, here's the raw character right after finishing up the Stage 4 Module.

ATTRIBUTES
STR: +100
BOD: +150
RFL: +275
DEX: +150
INT: +225
WIL: +150
CHA: +325
EDG: -100

Traits
Compulsion/Xenophobia: -50
Wealth: +200
Combat: Sense +100
Connections: +150
Enemy: -100
Equipped: +230
Enemy: -100
Extra Income: +50
Glass Jaw: -50
Reputation: +100
Fit: +15
Rank: +520
Custom Vehicle: 200
Vehicle: 250
Compulsion/Any Addiction: -50

Skills
Perception: +55
Language/English: +20
Language/Japanese: +55
Arts/Oral Tradition: +40
Martial Arts: +145
Protocol/Draconis Combine: +160
Thrown Weapons/Blade: +20
Interest/Star League History: +20
Negotiation: +5
Swimming: +50
Career/Soldier: +105
Computers: +35
Interest/Any: +30
Interest/Military History: +55
Leadership: +110
MedTech General: +60
Melee Weapons: +75
Running: +30
Small Arms: +105
Strategy: +10
Driving/Ground: +20
Navigation Ground: +70
Gunnery/`Mech: +55
Piloting/'Mech: +55
Sensor Operations: +55
Tactics/Land: +30
Technician/Any: +30
Administration: +30
Training: +30

Attributes have slowly crept up, but Edge is still completely underwater. I had Flex points to spend that I could've tried to raise the attribute, but I spent them elsewhere.

Traits had some big changes. The Rank trait ticked over to 500, which means promotion time. Between Flex points and choices in the Module, I managed to get Vehicle up to 250, close to what I need for the character. I also picked up another Compulsion, but since that was one of the "or" choices, I might go back and take the other choice, which would give the character Unlucky instead.

Martial Arts and Protocol seem to be the winners in the end, though other skills got nice little bumps. The MW's main skill points got small rises as well, taking them fully into the +2 level, though those will probably see some points dedicated to them later on.

Up next, optimizing. Its listed as optional, but I'm not really sure why...

[Sharpnel]

This is the point in character creation where I would decide if I wanted a more seasoned character and take more than one Stage 4 pass. Then again if I wanted a more seasoned character I could always go the points-based route.

[Maelwys]

Yeah, it gets kind of odd at this point. You could go for another Life Module, and while  you suffer penalties, though you also gain aging experience. And once you go through Optimization, you have plenty of points to spend.

I think this character is going to wind up with about 1000 points to spend at the end, and that's even after making sure all the prerequisites are paid for. But I'll have to post that up later after I do some math.

[Daryk]

This and optimization are why I built a spreadsheet to do most of the math for me.  By copying and pasting the modules into a reference sheet, future characters are reduced to copy, paste and tweak.

[Maelwys]

Yeah, I use a Spreadsheet as well, I just needed to check a few things.

So. Optimization. Its theoretically an optional step in character creation because in ATOW the character is considered evolving with its XP. Take Pathfinder for example. Its a clear step between having 1 rank in a skill, and having 2 ranks. You put a skill point into the skill, and the skill increases. ATOW isn't like that. You don't have to dump enough XP into a skill to raise it to the next level all at once. You can gradually increase it over time, until you finally raise the level.

For example, when we look at the Stage 4 post, we see that the character has 110 XP going towards their Leadership skill. Since there's no Fast or Slow Learner trait, we use the Standard skill level column and see that while Leadership has enough points to make it to Level 3 (80 points), it doesn't quite have enough to reach Level 4 (120 points). That's fine. You just note the skill as being Level 3, and mark that you have 110 XP in the skill, showing your progression to Level 4. Get 10 more XP, and you can increase the skill.

Optimization is the process in taking all of these "almosts" and shaving the points off and returning them to your XP pool. So in our Leadership example, you would subtract 30 points (110-80) from the skill, and return it to your XP pool, where you can spend it on whatever you like. You can do this with Attributes, Skills and Traits, but there are a couple of caveats. You always subtract from the bit in question and add it back to the XP pool. The second caveat is that you can only optimize down to the next closest level. So in the case of Leadership, you can subtract points from it down to 80 (the next closest level), but you can't go past 80, say down to 50, to get extra points. For negative traits, you can optimize down to the next viable negative level (so our Compulsion/Xenophobia at -50 could be optimized down to -100, but not to -200). You can optimize positive traits and skills down to 0 to remove them, as long as they haven't reached the threshold necessary to hit the lowest level of the trait or skill.

So, with that bit of explanation, away we go. I've optimized the entire character, Attributes, Traits and Skills, but you don't have to do all three if you don't want to.

ATTRIBUTES
STR: +100
BOD: +100
RFL: +200
DEX: +100
INT: +200
WIL: +100
CHA: +300
EDG: -100

Traits
Compulsion/Xenophobia: -100
Wealth: +200
Combat Sense: 0
Connections: +100
Enemy: -100
Equipped: +200
Enemy: -100
Extra Income: 0
Glass Jaw: -300
Reputation: +100
Fit: 0
Rank: +500
Custom Vehicle: +200
Vehicle: +200
Unlucky: -200

Skills
Perception: +50
Language/English: +20
Language/Japanese: +50
Arts/Oral Tradition: +30
Martial Arts: +120
Protocol/Draconis Combine: +120
Thrown Weapons/Blade: +20
Interest/Star League History: +20
Negotiation: +0
Swimming: +50
Career/Soldier: +80
Computers: +30
Interest/Any: +30
Interest/Military History: +50
Leadership: +80
MedTech General: +50
Melee Weapons: +50
Running: +30
Small Arms: +80
Strategy: +0
Driving/Ground: +20
Navigation Ground: +50
Gunnery/`Mech: +50
Piloting/'Mech: +50
Sensor Operations: +50
Tactics/Land: +30
Technician/Any: +30
Administration: +30
Training: +30

See, nice round numbers. I was going to invest in enough XP to raise the attributes to the minimum level that I need at this stage, but I figured that might just confuse people, so I just left them as they are right now. Edge is still negative, and will have to have points spent on it.

You can see that Combat Sense, Extra Income and Fit were optimized down to 0, since they didn't make it to the lowest "activated" level of the skill. If I don't spend points on them later, those will be gone. Negotiation and Strategy were also likewise optimized into oblivion.

Keep in mind you don't have to optimize everything. For instance, I optimized Glass Jaw all the way down to -300, but I didn't have to. I could've left it at -50 and bought it off later. But it serves as a good example. After all this number crunching I've got about 2000 XP left to spend, but most of it is going to be going towards Attributes, since I have to meet the minimum requirement by the end of character generation.

Though technically we're not there yet, next up is "Buying additional XP"

[Maelwys]

Well, this was relatively quick. The process of buying additional XP has a few limitations. The first is that you can only buy extra XP up to 10% of your starting XP value. Since this character was built using the default 5000 XP, that means I can buy up to 500 points of additional XP. Another limitation is that you can only buy additional XP by taking, or enhancing, negative traits. So I could gain additional XP by effectively making worse the character's "Compulsion/Xenophobia" by taking enough negative XPs to make it a -200 XP trait. Which would effectively give me 100 extra XP to spend. The final limitation is that you have to enhance the negative trait to the next fullest level down. I can enhance the -100 Compulsion to -200, but I couldn't enhance it to only -199.

If you want the bonus XP, you have to accept the negatives that go with it, rather than skirting by.

So. Since this only affects the traits, that's all I'll be posting.
Traits
Compulsion/Xenophobia: -100
Wealth: +200
Combat Sense: 0
Connections: +100
Enemy: -100
Equipped: +200
Enemy: -100
Extra Income: 0
Glass Jaw: -300
Reputation: +100
Fit: 0
Rank: +500
Custom Vehicle: +200
Vehicle: +200
Unlucky: -200
Lost Limb (Left Arm): -500

Pretty simple, huh? The character gains 500 extra XP to spend on fleshing out the character by taking a negative Trait. In this case, the Lost Limb trait at its maximum level. Probably the easiest decision in a while. Making a character based on a picture is helpful at times.

So. 2590 XP to spend to flesh out the character. I'll need to spend a bunch on attributes, especially since most of them don't meet the minimum requirements that came about as a result of the various Modules and Fields that were taken.

Oh. Observant people will notice that the "Compulsion/Addiction" that appeared in Stage 4 is gone, and the character suddenly has "Unlucky" instead. That's because I couldn't think of a decent compulsion, and since it was still in the process of being created, I simply switched them out. Its a game. You can make adjustments until the GM accepts the character :)

After this, its spending the leftover XP to finish up the crunchy part of character generation.

[Daryk]

The addiction that leaps to mind with a lost limb is pain killers, but unlucky fits that pretty well too.  How much are you looking to spend on a prosthetic?

[Maelwys]

Its going to be a basic type 4. I'm kind of interested to see how it comes out, since the implant will be eating up most of the XP gained from getting the Lost Limb to buy extra XP. I come out 100 ahead, but that's 400 that won't be going into attributes, positive traits or skills.

I also find it somewhat amusing that without spending any flex points on Rank or Piloting and Gunnery/Mech, the character wound up being a a 6/6 Tai-i.

[guardiandashi]

a couple of negatives I have chosen is enhancing and or additional enemies.
the only difficulty with that one is the specific interpretations between enemy and addictions/compulsions can make it tough to balance between the interpretation of multiples and or strong ones.

for example I would tend to judge that an awful lot of people I know would tend to have addiction: coffee at rank 1 or 2 (its not a huge thing if coffee is available but if its not available ..... )

on the other hand enemies are a little tough to balance properly.  a 1 point or so enemy (or even several) are more of a nuisance than anything on the other hand a major enemy can be a pretty serious thing to deal with if they get involved. 

my biggest issue with the "lost limb" is it always seemed like more of a trait that is really hard to use and or balance correctly because its kind of situational IE if you have a decent (high level) prosthesis its effectively not an issue or even could (arguably) be an advantage in some circumstances on the other hand if you have a low level prosthesis (or none at all) its crippling

[Daryk]

The reason it's a drawback even if you have a level 4 prosthetic is how much harder to repair you are.  It takes more than first aid to fix a mangled prosthesis, or even make it less useless.  Throw in the fact that it takes access to cloning technology to remove, and I have no problem seeing it as a net -100 trait.

It is amusing that the modules by themselves seem to give more Rank than skills, but I think that's just a result of good design.  It should be possible to have over-promoted officers, and by leaving most of the skill improvements to Flex points, players and GMs can make them easily.

[Maelwys]

I've always found Compulsions to be kind of weird. I know they aren't always triggered, but it just seems like so many things crammed into a single category.

As for the Lost Limb/Implant, they basically cancel each other out for the most part, which works out well if you just want to slip one in during chargen, though I must admit, I am running out of points quickly...

[Tai Dai Cultist]

I'm curious where the character stands on how many XPs it'd have taken to just do a point buy to end up with the exact same build.   

The thread started an ATOW itch for me and I ended up making a quartet of MechWarriors.  I used the module method, and planned on posting them to show that even if you have a party of all one thing (mechwarriors, in this case) you don't have to all take the same modules and end up with very similar PCs.  So as a challenge to myself, no module ever repeated across all 4 PCs.  (that's right, only one went to a military academy.  Only one had a Tour of Duty module.  etc)

But a funny thing happened on the gambling merc-who-succumbed-to-the-company-store-syndrome PC.  His stats just looked.... low.  I added everything up, and he was over a thousand points short of what a straight 5000 point buy could have gotten.  Which is even worse than it sounds because he also sunk the maximum -500 points into extra negative traits, so he was actually on the wrong side of being a thousand and a half points worse off than a point buy.

I looked over the other ones, and they *all* were short.  Not quite so bad, but the best one was still 700 points shy of what a straight 5000 point buy could have built.  And I'm not even sure where the math is failing to reconcile, since I didn't notice until after the builds were all done.   Hence my curiosity about where your example stands.

[Maelwys]

That seems weird. Looking at mine, and based on the points I haven't spent yet, I'm right where I should be I believe. I might have to rework the math off to the side to make sure I haven't screwed up the spreadsheet, but it looks right...

[Domino]

This is very helpful.  Thank-you!