really need help with character creation in aToW

[freakacid]

Hi all,
sorry for some really dumb questions, but I read the manual, and it causes confusion...
I am going crazy with character creation in aTow. I was trying to use some of the spreadsheets and tools
(the atow character generator  v4 seems to be best, but totally is confusing me with xp, flex xp, optimize xp and so on),
the BT Character Creator on the other hand seems to have some mistakes or missing parts??

E.g. I want to create a character that is basically an arms dealer.
basically I start by choosing life modules, lets say

liao - victoria
noble born
high school
trade school
deep periphery merchant

this costs a number of points and causes some prerequisites and forces me to make some choices. Alright, easy. Can do that. But: Do I have to pay for flexivble xp, or are they included in the life paths?

When choosing home affiliation/second home affiliation: Do I need to put xp into a second or third language, or can I stack the points up in one language, or do I not need to spend the points, as I do already have two languages from basic points?

Next question: at this stage I still have not spent points on attributes. When do I set them?? In the examples 850 Points at the beginning, for 8 attributes (on level 1 - costing 100/each then), two languages (20+20) and 10 for perception. Do I need to buy attributes after each step, or by the points from the pool that are left over?
But when do i allocate my additional attribute points??? in the end, when all life path modules are complete?

I have another question to traits:
If I allocate a negative trait using the programmes (mentioned above), do I have to type in a negative value (-20..)? In BT Character generator I also seem to need to "delete" xp by adding negative trait - points that I can allocate on something else then, such as attributes or traits - did I understnd this correctly
(e.g. I have a paranoid character with -100 xp on that, that gives a target number of -1).
that would be allright, but then comes p.88
"However, this form of optimization is limited to attaining only the nearest “activated” level of the Trait (the point where its negative XPs round off the Trait to its next lowest level of game play eff ect). For example, if the character has eceived –125 XP in Glass Jaw—a 3 TP Trait that costs –300 XPs to activate—then it will take an additional –175 points to optimize the Trait, adding 175 XPs to the character’s XP Pool in the process."
What is an activated trait?

And a final question on skill use, because the explanation is not very clear in the book:
- lets say someone has to roll on his security systems electronics
he has int 5 (+0) and dex 3 (-1)
in the master skill list it says: Security Systems DEX + INT 9 / CA
Character has skill level 3 (+3)

That means he has to roll with 2d6 - he needs a minimum of 9, but +3-1=+2 will be added to his roll, he needs a minimum of 7 then.
Is that alright?
If the game master decides to modify the specific "difficulty of the task" - can I say: this security system is especially complicated, so you need to add a (-5) modifier, then it would only work with a roll of 12 (-5+2=9)?
Did I get that correctly?

Sorry for the noob questions. I have played the board game, and some other game systems,  but ATOW is confusing for new starters... If there is an additional FAQ or something I did miss, I am sorry....

[Daryk]

To answer your last questions first, yes, you have the skill rolls/targets right.  AToW flipped the way you determine target numbers to try to align with other RPGs (i.e., high is good) vice sticking to the math we all know and love from BattleTech (where high ROLLS are good, but we talk about low TARGET NUMBERS being good).

Returning to the top with your first question:

1) When you pay the points for a life module, you get everything in that module without having to pay any more XP.  The "Flexible" XP in the module can be spent on anything you want later in the process (i.e., after optimization).

2) As a GM, I read the second and third language requirements as exactly that: you can't spend all of them in the same language.  You could certainly spend the points on both of your starting languages, but if there's a requirement for a third, it must be spent on a third.

3) Attributes are optimized just like skills in that you add up all the points given to them throughout the modules, and optimize at the end.  The trick is you likely picked up minimum requirements for attributes in the process, and have to note those to make sure you meet them.  After optimization, you can spend whatever flexible points you have to meet minimums, or any other level you want.

4) With regard to various spreadsheets, I hate to say this, but it depends.  In mine, yes, you'd type in negative traits as negative numbers (just as they appear in the life modules).  I don't use BT Character Generator, so I'm not sure if you have it right or not.

5) An activated trait is one you actually have.  If, for example, you didn't want that Glass Jaw trait, you could just pay 125 XP (positive) to wipe it out.  But if you decide you do want to have it, you get back -175 XP more to spend elsewhere.  The key here is that if you "activate" it through optimization, it doesn't count against your 10% limit for XP gained through non-module negative traits.

I hope that helps!

[freakacid]

helps a lot!
I think now I am getting it...
We met for a few hours and discussed the story of the characters, which was really fun, but the problem is that you cannot do the number crunching in a group... and my players just want to play, and are not into crunching...

I´ll try to generate the characters as basic templates for my players and give them to them, so they can make some adjustments (distrubute the leftover free points).

thank you!

[Daryk]

You're very welcome!  I'm far from an expert, but I'm also not alone on the board here.  Welcome to the forums, and I hope to hear more about how your game goes!

[freakacid]

i´ll write in my other thread (Solaris) on the building of the story.