Author Topic: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example  (Read 8377 times)

Maelwys

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Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« on: 28 December 2016, 03:11:34 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #1 on: 28 December 2016, 03:55:25 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #2 on: 28 December 2016, 03:59:11 »
As usual, let me know if you have any questions or comments...

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #3 on: 28 December 2016, 05:11:54 »
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
« Last Edit: 28 December 2016, 05:13:29 by Maelwys »

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #4 on: 29 December 2016, 03:59:25 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #5 on: 29 December 2016, 23:39:45 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #6 on: 30 December 2016, 00:41:21 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #7 on: 30 December 2016, 01:37:40 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #8 on: 30 December 2016, 02:20:39 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #9 on: 30 December 2016, 03:38:09 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #10 on: 30 December 2016, 04:08:00 »
There's one Stage 4 module that doesn't have that problem: Civilian Job.  It makes sense, actually...

monbvol

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #11 on: 30 December 2016, 22:24:36 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #12 on: 31 December 2016, 07:01:24 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #13 on: 01 January 2017, 06:29:08 »
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
« Last Edit: 01 January 2017, 15:44:46 by Maelwys »

Daryk

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #14 on: 01 January 2017, 10:55:07 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #15 on: 01 January 2017, 15:59:22 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #16 on: 01 January 2017, 22:37:08 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #17 on: 02 January 2017, 06:22:23 »
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.
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Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #18 on: 02 January 2017, 12:13:22 »
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.

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #19 on: 02 January 2017, 12:24:35 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #20 on: 02 January 2017, 16:46:55 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #21 on: 03 January 2017, 06:14:11 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #22 on: 03 January 2017, 08:31:41 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #23 on: 03 January 2017, 09:48:00 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #24 on: 03 January 2017, 10:15:55 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #25 on: 03 January 2017, 10:24:40 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #26 on: 03 January 2017, 13:57:35 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #27 on: 04 January 2017, 02:19:26 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #28 on: 04 January 2017, 05:09:03 »
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

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #29 on: 04 January 2017, 14:38:13 »
This is very helpful.  Thank-you!

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #30 on: 04 January 2017, 15:04:04 »
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...

Yeah, ideally each module should give as many points as it takes to buy the module.  You should actually end up slightly ahead (6xp per skill per field) than point buy if you take a stage 3 module.  I made my examples the old fashioned way... in pencil on lined notebook paper.  There's no telling where (or even how many) my errors were.  I'm thinking about re-building... making 4 "new" PCs with the exact same train of module selections and see how differently they turn out.  And pay way more attention to my points this go thru.

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #31 on: 04 January 2017, 15:27:19 »
Yeah, ideally each module should give as many points as it takes to buy the module.  You should actually end up slightly ahead (6xp per skill per field) than point buy if you take a stage 3 module.  I made my examples the old fashioned way... in pencil on lined notebook paper.  There's no telling where (or even how many) my errors were.  I'm thinking about re-building... making 4 "new" PCs with the exact same train of module selections and see how differently they turn out.  And pay way more attention to my points this go thru.

Unless there's been serious errata since my ATOW book.. you already start losing points in the module process just by picking affiliation.  Costs 150 points to take the Draconis Combine affiliation, for example.  But for those 150 points, you actually only gain 40xp in value. (wealth penalty exactly cancels will bonus, net 0.  Combat Sense/Pain Resistance cancels out Compulsion, still net 0.  Then 40XP worth of skills... 50 if you figure you get the flexible XPs even if you don't take an affiliation)

EDIT: after running this one PC build through the fine tooth comb, I learned the following about module points values:
Stage 0: would have been 125XP short of 1000 points had I not picked a sub affiliation.  Picking galedon sub-affiliation ended up at a net value of 1025XP, so went from a big loss to a small net gain vs point buy just in subaffiliation pick.
Stage 1 (Blue Collar): cost 210XP, got back exactly 210xp in value
Stage 4 (Civilian Job- Child Labor baby!): Cost 600, got back exactly 600 in value
Stage 3 (Military Enlistment) Cost 720+408 in fields after rebate, got a net gain in 2XP this pass for a total advantage vs straight point buy of 127xp.

So I clearly messed stuff up on pencil and paper first go thru :)
« Last Edit: 04 January 2017, 16:21:21 by Tai Dai Cultist »

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #32 on: 04 January 2017, 20:00:38 »
Yeah, that's sort of why I'm surprised that the Sub-affiliations are considered optional, since you need to take them to hit the Affiliation cost, IIRC. Maybe not al of them, but some atleast.

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #33 on: 05 January 2017, 22:52:40 »
I haven't forgotten about this. Its just sometimes the points don't quite work out how you expected it, and you have to sit and figure out what you really want to keep and what you have to discard to take a hit on.

So I'm still pondering it all :)

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #34 on: 08 January 2017, 15:44:13 »
Alright, at this point we're spending the leftover XP. We actually get a bit of a bonus because the Life Modules took the character to 22, which means aging experience! We also wind up with 90 extra XP from the rebate from the 3 Fields that the character has taken. And that's a good thing. With the experience from the Buying Additional Experience step basically spent on the prosthetic, points are...somewhat hard to come by.

ATTRIBUTES
STR: +400
BOD: +400
RFL: +500
DEX: +500
INT: +400
WIL: +300
CHA: +300
EDG: +100

Traits
Compulsion/Xenophobia: -100
Wealth: +200
Connections: +100
Enemy: -100
Equipped: +200
Enemy: -100
Glass Jaw: -300
Reputation: +100
Rank: +500
Custom Vehicle: +200
Vehicle: +400
Unlucky: -200
Lost Limb (Left Arm): -500
Implant (Type 4 Prosthetic): +400
Property: +100

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
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
Driving/Ground: +20
Navigation Ground: +50
Gunnery/`Mech: +70
Piloting/'Mech: +70
Sensor Operations: +50
Tactics/Land: +30
Technician/Any: +30
Administration: +30
Training: +80

Attributes are alright, nothing special. CHA, WIL and Edge are unfortunately low enough that they're going to modify any skill checks that involve them. I could get around that by dropping RFL and DEX down by 100 and bumping CHA and WIL, but meh. Edge is tanked, but that might actually work well for the character concept.

Traits are similar. I added 100 XP to Property to meet the minimum requirements for taking White Collar early on. I also managed to bump up the Vehicle Trait just enough to get to 400, which is enough to get me a medium Mech...and it was a stretch. Also got a Type 4 Prosthetic for the character.

Skills remain mostly the same, though I bumped up Admin on the suggestion of someone else. Observant people will note that both Piloting and Gunnery/Mech have 70 points given to them, which isn't enough to up them to the next level, but I've got plans for those points later.

Up next, Equipment!

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #35 on: 09 January 2017, 15:43:45 »
Alright, there are two things to keep in mind when purchasing equipment. The first is the rating of your Wealth trait. This determines how many C-bills you have to spend on your starting gear. If you have Wealth of 0, you start out with 1000 c-bills to spend. Go negative on the Wealth trait and you're looking at 100 c-bills. If you're really lucky, you can get up to 2 million c-bills to spend on gear. I'm not quite sure what you'd do with 2 million c-bills, but fortunately any c-bills that you don't spend at the end of character creation get tucked away in your wallet for use once the game starts.

The other trait that determines what you can purchase at the end of the character creation system is your Equipped Trait. This determines what's the highest Tech Rating, Availability Rating and Legality Rating of gear you can purchase.

For instance, this character has wound up with 200 XP towards the Equipped Trait, which counts as a +2. Checking the chart in the Trait section, we see that the the Tech Rating of any equipment we want to purchase is limited to D or lower (A-C), the Availability of any item we want to purchase must be C or lower, and the Legality of any item we want to buy must also be rated C or lower. In the end, our rating is D/C/C.

There are two caveats to this. First, if you're a Clanner, no matter what the chart says, you get to start out with a Tech Rating that's one higher than what the chart says. So in this case, if this was a Clan Nova Cat character, our rating would be E/C/C instead of D/C/C. Likewise, if you're a Periphery brat, you get -1 to your tech rating, or in our case, you would wind up with a C/C/C rating.

The second caveat applies to the Availability and Legality rating. Some pieces of equipment are found to be the purview of a single faction, and found rarely outside of that faction. Such equipment has a Affiliation code. If that affiliation code doesn't match your character's affiliation, then you have to increase the gear's Availability Rating and Legality Rating by 1 each.

For instance, lets look at the Nambu Auto-Pistol. The Equipment rating according to ATOW is "C/B-C-C/C" The first C to the left is the the Tech Rating of the equipment. The Middle three characters, separated by dashes are the Availability rating, one for each main Battletech Era, Star League, Succession Wars and Clan Invasion (IO provides the Availability Code for later Eras). So comparing that to our D/C/C, we can purchase it.  The Nambu does have an DC Affiliation tag, but since we match it, the ratings aren't modified. If we were playing a Capellan Character, the Availability and Legality ratings would be modified, making the Nambu "C/C-D-D/D" Since both the Availability and the Legality ratings would be higher than our Equipped trait, if we were a Capellan character, we wouldn't be able to purchase it.

So. We have 5000 C-bills to spend, and can purchase equipment with ratings up to D/C/C.

2xKnives
2xThrowing Knives
Nambu Auto-Pistol w/3 reloads
Laser Sight
Holster
DC Uniform Kit (No Helmet)
MechWarrior Kit (Regular)
Swimsuit
Military Communicator
Video Camera
Noteputer
Sunglasses
5xMicro Power Packs
5xPower Packs
Slug-Thrower Kit
Advanced Field Kit
Medical Kit
Flashbang ZZ10000 Motorcycle
Katana and Wakizashi

So. 3799 C-bills spent. Probably the first noticeable bit is that I'm missing the helmet from the DC Standard Armor Kit. That's because the Legality of the Helmet is D, which is too high for me to afford (more on that later). People that are following along particularly closely might note that the Katana's Clan Invasion Availability code is D, but I checked IO, and that has it listed as C, so I went with that, and assume there's some future errata someplace. The Flashbang motorcycle lets the character get around when not on duty, and is the main reason the character has the "Drive/Ground Vehicles" skill.  With a little over 1200 C-bills left over, there's plenty of cash to pick up whatever you might want, within reason.

Why I'm not worried about the missing helmet. There is an optional rule that states the GM can allow a person's faction to issue them gear. So it belongs to the faction and not the character, and it allows you to ignore the cost of the item, and it allows you to acquire 2 pieces of gear with ratings up to E/D/D (or F/D/D for Clanners). These have to be approved by the GM and should be integral to what your character does. For instance, this character could try to convince the GM to let them acquire the Helmet via the Issued Gear rule.

So there you have it. Perhaps a bit more verbose than I should have been, but people seem to get confused on the ratings. So if you have any questions, let me know.

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #36 on: 12 January 2017, 03:28:26 »
So I made a small mistake here. I forgot the character I was making was utilizing the 3052 rules, and so forgot to take into account the Price Multipliers, which basically adjust the cost of personal equipment depending on the era. Which makes sense. These modifiers are done on a very broad, very general basis, and apply to the overall categories of gear, rather than individual pieces of gear. So you're not going to see a modifier for a Mauser 960 in the Succession Wars, because that's already taken into account by the Availability rating, but you will see a modifier for all "Small Arms."

Fortunately in my case, I had plenty of cash leftover, and the modifiers between 3052 and 3067 aren't very high. With the modifiers averaging around 5-10%, it was no problem to pay the little bit extra (200 c-bills or so) to make up for my mistake. But it is something to keep in mind.

And depending on the era those modifiers might not be that small. Small Arms in 3052 have a modifier of 5%. In the war-torn, communications disrupted Dark Ages era, that modifier is closer to 400%.

Edit
I hope to have the final look and background done soon, though I need to take care of a few things first that have actual deadlines :)
/edit
« Last Edit: 12 January 2017, 03:32:44 by Maelwys »

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #37 on: 23 January 2017, 02:41:14 »
Better late than never, right? Here we go, all wrapped up and finished. I didn't detail everything, but its enough to show off the character generation system. I'll add a second post that discusses how I wrapped things up.

ATTRIBUTES
STR: 4 (+400)
BOD: 4 (+400)
RFL: 5 (+500)
DEX: 5 (+500)
INT: 4 (+400)
WIL: 3 (+300)
CHA: 3 (+300)
EDG: 1 (+100)

Traits
Connections: +1 (+100)
Custom Vehicle: +2 (+200)
Equipped: +2 (+200)
Implant (Type 4 Prosthetic, Left Arm): +4 (+400)
Property: +1 (+100)
Rank: +5 (+500)
Reputation: +1 (+100)
Vehicle: +4 (+400)
Wealth: +2 (+200)

Compulsion/Xenophobia: -1 (-100)
Enemy: -1 (-100) - Jilted arranged marriage fiancee (businessman)
Enemy: -1 (-100) - passed over lower ranking member of the military
Glass Jaw: -3 (-300)
Lost Limb (Left Arm): -5 (-500)
Unlucky: -2 (-200)

Skills
Administration: +3 (+80)
Arts/Oral Tradition: +1 (+30)
Career/Soldier: +3 (+80)
Computers: +1 (+30)
Driving/Ground: +0 (+20)
Gunnery/`Mech: +2 (+70)
Interest/Marine Biology: +1 (+30)
Interest/Military History: +2 (+50)
Interest/Star League History: +0 (+20)
Language/English: +0 (+20)
Language/Japanese: +2 (+50)
Leadership: +3 (+80)
Martial Arts: +4 (+120)
MedTech General: +2 (+50)
Melee Weapons: +2 (+50)
Navigation Ground: +2 (+50)
Perception: +2 (+50)
Piloting/'Mech (Quad): +2 (+50)
Protocol/Draconis Combine: +4 (+120)
Running: +1 (+30)
Sensor Operations: +2 (+50)
Small Arms: +3 (+80)
Swimming: +2 (+50)
Tactics/Land: +1 (+30)
Technician/Cybernetics: +1 (+30)
Thrown Weapons/Blade: +0 (+20)
Training: +1 (+30)

Gear (1039.9 C-bills,starting cash)
2xKnives
2xThrowing Knives
Katana and Wakizashi
Nambu Auto-Pistol w/3 reloads
Laser Sight
Holster
DC Uniform Kit (No Helmet)
MechWarrior Kit (Regular)
Swimsuit (Bikini)
Military Communicator
Video Camera
Noteputer
Sunglasses
5xMicro Power Packs
5xPower Packs
Slug-Thrower Kit
Advanced Field Kit
Medical Kit
Flashbang ZZ10000 Motorcycle


Mech: SCP-1O Scorpion

Background
Born on Nashira in the Dieron District, Hitomi Sarakawa's family is a clan of
merchants that serve the Dragon in their own way. While they aren't a noble family,
they are rather wealthy, even for the Draconis Combine, and Hitomi wanted for nothing
growing up. The War of 3039 could have ended that, as Nashira was targeted by the
Lyran and Davion forces. The Sarakawa clan did what they could, providing money and
supplies for civilians as they passively and actively resisted the invaders. It was
from such actions that Hitomi's life would change forever.

With her life disrupted by the war and then saved by the DCMS, it is hardly surprising
that Hitomi felt drawn to the military service. While such a thing may have been
impossible just decades before, the coming of Theodore Kurita's changes to the DCMS
partially opened the way for her. Her family agreed to help her, sending her to a
military school, though at the cost of gaining an enemy when Hitomi's marriage promise
was broken. The military school toughened her up, but she was unable to enter the most
prestigious schools in the Combine, and instead had to settle for the more liberal Sun
Tzu School of Combat. She even managed to enter and pass their officer program, though
she and her instructors found her skills in a Mech somewhat lacking.

The coming of the Clans changed all that. Hitomi found herself graduated and assigned
to a combat unit. Unfortunately for her, her seemingly bad luck and poor skills had
her assigned to a Scorpion Mech, though even her worse detractors can't fault her
administration skill, as Hitomi managed to find a way acquire the upgrade kit
necessary to convert it to the SCP-1O variant. With the losses the Combine suffered
during the Clan War, Hitomi has found herself second in command of a company, though
many feel it is more due to her administration skills than her abilities in a Mech.

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #38 on: 23 January 2017, 03:07:03 »
So the attributes haven't really changed much since I last talked about them. The low edge really goes with the "unlucky" aspect of the character, but there's something there to keep the character alive in the case of a headshot or something else going wrong.

The positive traits get me to where I wanted to be, but aren't anything major. They let me pick the mech I wanted (I used the MUL for it, rather than a RAT). Amusingly, until the ATOW Companion came out, many of these traits would have gone away after character generation, as until that second publication, traits like Wealth and Equipped only applied to character generation. I left them on so people wouldn't wonder where they went to.

Glass jaw for negative traits hurts. Alot. Taking extra damage is never good in a system as lethal as ATOW is. I would've liked to have gotten rid of it, but I couldn't find the 300 points to do so. I fluffed out the enemies, one as someone she spurred when she went into the military, and one an actual member of the military. While they're low level, they would let the GM tailor any issues however they wanted.

Skills remain the same, with nothing higher than a +4. Her gunnery skill has 70 points in it, which isn't enough to raise it to +3, but it gets it most of the way there, and helps show the character's progression. Her Piloting/Gunnery skill is only a +2, and while I said I had assigned 70 points to it as a placeholder, what I had actually done was assign 50 points to the skill, and then spent 20 points to give her a specialization, which allows me to add +1 to the roll when piloting a Quad Mech. Combined with the Quad's natural advantages, her piloting isn't as bad in practice as it is in the theoretical.

Her Mech is the 3049 variant of the Scorpion, so she can sit back and fire away with an ERPPC and hope to hit. The rest of her gear remains the same, with about 1000 to spend if I wanted. Not to mention two possible instances of issued gear.

Her background was kind of interesting. With her being 22 at the end of chargen, and the character being set in 3052, that means she was born in 3030. Which means her first Life Module basically ends right after the War of 3039, and her military training starts up just about the same time the Clan Invasion does. Nice how that worked out.

Thoughts, questions, confusion?

Daryk

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #39 on: 23 January 2017, 04:07:10 »
I'll run the math after work tonight, but she seems short of points.

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #40 on: 23 January 2017, 10:50:13 »
I don't think so, but checking would work for me. Its possible I screwed up my excel sheet that I use, but I think she works out. Part of it is the Implant which eats the extra 500 you'd normally get for adding additional XP.

Of course, it could be I forgot a plus somewhere in the excel sheet, so people checking is fine with me :)

Daryk

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #41 on: 25 January 2017, 19:00:24 »
Sorry for the delay... Was it just me, or has the site been down for the last two days?  Today was a long day at work, and I probably won't have time to do a check justice until at least the weekend, but I will get to it.

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #42 on: 26 January 2017, 02:59:14 »
No rush, and yeah, the website was down for a few days.

Daryk

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #43 on: 28 January 2017, 16:41:02 »
OK, the math all checks out, though I have to admit I completely lost track of how you were spending flex points around Stage 3.  My spreadsheet lets you spend all the flex at the end (and I used your finalized numbers as a guide there).  I think where I would have done it differently would have been to let some of the zero rank skills (like Interest/Star League History and Thrown Weapons) optimize to zero and invested those points in Gunnery and Piloting instead (that's actually more a comment on my spreadsheet methodology... it's possible spending all the flex at the end defeats some of the intent of the designers).  I also missed where you cranked Administration up.  Leaving that at level 2 would also have enabled her to boost her Gunnery or Piloting.

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #44 on: 28 January 2017, 17:14:59 »
Well, good to see the math worked out. :)

And yeah. I definitely could've done things differently to tweak points here and there. Throwing Weapons and Drive/Ground were things I decided to take on spur of the moment.

So yeah, don't take this character as a "Oh my god, she came out as a 6/6, so obviously ATOW is broken." It was done more of an example and was a sort of tongue in cheek build based on one of Plog's images, and I wanted to see if I could recreate it. I could've slipped in extra points here and there, and made some other choices, but it was more of "Show the process" rather than "Lets get this character great!"

But its good to know the math worked out. I thought it did, but never hurts to make sure.

Daryk

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #45 on: 28 January 2017, 17:22:46 »
Oh, THAT picture... I always figured her for at least regular gunnery.  Anyway, it was a good walk through the process, even if the result wasn't what most folks would be looking for.

EDIT: And just to confirm, dropping Administration to level 2 and allowing Interest/Star League History and Thrown Weapon/Blades to optimize to nothing gives her enough points to be a 4/5 Gunner/Pilot with 10 left over to increase Drive/Ground (or Language/English) to level 1 (from 0).
« Last Edit: 29 January 2017, 08:49:25 by Daryk »

ZombieAcePilot

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #46 on: 19 February 2017, 03:47:52 »
Per the AToW Companion, "A 5,000-XP starting allotment is generally recommended to produce a decent starting character, be it a green recruit or a low-level “regular” character." That seems to suggest that 'regular' would be something to aspire to, not the benchmark every character will meet. The more you try to accomplish, the less likely you are to hit that benchmark.

Had the example character not gone for OCS, they could have used those points to buy up their skills to be a more competent pilot instead of a more competent leader/administrator. This will be the decision many characters will have to make. Will they be a regular soldier, or will they be a green special forces operator? Did you really need martial arts at +4 or should those points have gone to something more core to the characters concept? Did you really need to spend 250 points on getting to choose which mech you got? Or might you have been better off by being a better pilot and taking that random unit assignment?

When points are so tight you really need to decide what you need for your concept and what you want. It may be painful, but you have to be able to 'kill your darlings'. What you want is less important than what you need. This example character is deathtrap. Even with a lenient GM using something like my suggestions for reduced damage when a mech falls, this character may be bleeding to death. 2 wounds, multiplied by 1.5 for glass jaw becomes 3, which is greater than half the characters body of 4. Now the character must make unmodified body check, on which they must roll an 8 (they have a body of 4). That's a 58% chance to fail. They have 8 wounds total, so even the first fall has them into their -2 wound modifier bracket. And this is from the gentle GM.

Hardass GM will do the full damage of 1m/3 instead. So 3 x 1.5 = 4.5 (which rounds up to 5). Five damage is over half of their wounds, two of these damaging falls is a death sentance. And because the damage is over half (its actually greater than the total) of the characters body, they need to check for bleeding. If they fail, they'll be dead if they can't stop the bleeding in 3 turns.

And in both of these examples the pilot has to check for passing out as well. So in a game with a GM running things by the book, there is a good chance that you end up passed out and bleeding to death with almost no time for someone to rescue you (this is if they even know you are dying).

We're talking about a character that is too fragile for front line combat and greener than green. I'd have counseled the player that they should either shuffle some points around to shore up their weak areas, or go for a desk jockey instead of a mech jockey. Going with intelligence and then either analyst or intelligence as their advanced schooling would have prepared them for officer school and kept them out of the frontline fighting (where they will surely die before long).
« Last Edit: 19 February 2017, 03:57:49 by ZombieAcePilot »

Maelwys

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #47 on: 20 February 2017, 05:26:02 »
Oh, there are definite issues with the character, it was more of a "See if I can match the picture," type of character. I probably wouldn't have gone for the cybernetics if I didn't have to, and lets face it, spending points to wind up with a 3050 Scorpion...

But the recent discussion on how lethal ATOW is, have been quite interesting...

ZombieAcePilot

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Re: Serving the Dragon: A Character Creation Example
« Reply #48 on: 20 February 2017, 07:39:38 »
Oh, there are definite issues with the character, it was more of a "See if I can match the picture," type of character. I probably wouldn't have gone for the cybernetics if I didn't have to, and lets face it, spending points to wind up with a 3050 Scorpion...

But the recent discussion on how lethal ATOW is, have been quite interesting...

Then I must challenge you to continue until the character is playable! You could simply determine that the scorpion be the random vehicle to which they were assigned, or you could use XP to advance yourself past the 5,000 reccomended starting number (either because its a higher point game or because it is not a starting character.

While some people may have difficulty figuring out how to use life modules, the more important part of character generation is figuring out why you are building the way you are. At the end of every build you should be able to say that it works as intended, the game does not support that at starting levels, or there is something wrong with the game itself. While the consciousness rules may be a good example of something wrong with the game, the survivability factor is something I'd lay upon your creation choices.