A Three-Ring Circinus

[Maelwys]

Sorry for the title, it was all I could come up with. So I've had this character idea stuck in my head for the past few days, and I figure I'll do an example on how character creation goes. Unfortunately, since this wasn't originally planned as an example, you're going to have to suffer another WoB character instead of delving into a new Affiliation. Unlike the others, I'm going to start this thread with the first stage completed, instead of showing the Affiliation step (mostly because I have it already done).

Starting out at 5000 points, shooting for the age of 21. We might flubb that a bit, but that's half the fun. We're shooting for an end goal of around 3075-3078 probably (around the time the WoB recruiting/training was in full swing), which puts birth around 3054-3057. "Grendel" is a native of the Circinus Federation who grew up on the streets. We'll pick up after assigning the points for the Affiliations and the Stage 1 module.

STR: 225
BOD: 155
RFL: 200
DEX: 100
INT: 0
WIL: 320
CHA: 25
EDG: 200

Traits
Equipped: +80
Illiterate: -120
Reputation: -350
Toughness: +500
Wealth: -190
Enemy: -100
Rank: 50
Compulsion/Paranoid: -100
Connections: +150
Enemy/Comstar: -100
Enemy: -100

Skills
Perception: +35
Language/English: +35
Language/German: +15
Martial Arts: +35
Small Arms: +20
Streetwise/Circinus: +30
Comms/Conventional: +10
Interest/Writings of Blake: +35
Negotiation: +20
Interest/Writings of the Master: +25
Protocol/Circinus: +5
Protocol/WoB: +10
Technician/Mechanics: +10
Melee Weapons: +5
Running: +10
Stealth: +10

Well, this is certainly an interesting start. Keep in mind that while some of these are from his future WoB Affiliation, this character at this point in time is only 10. Attributes aren't that bad. Except for the Intelligence. Obviously quite willful, but dumb as a brick. Some might say that's why he joined the WoB, but meh. I've still got a couple of modules to make up that stat.

I think the Traits are the most interesting aspect. Reputation is a trait that ranges from -5 to +5, so just with the first stages of the character, I've almost maxed that trait out. Grendel is well known across a Successor State at this point, and I can see the end stages bumping that down to a solid -400.  Toughness maxes out at a +3, and I had that straight off from the affiliation. The extra 200 for being on the streets is pretty much icing on the cake at this point. Just incase I pick up Glass Jaw points I suppose. Quite a few enemies for a 10 year old as well. And Illiterate and poor to boot. I see alot of trying to fix these flaws in the future just so I can have some gear, and so the well equipped points don't mock me.

Skills are about what I expected. He comes across as a little thug that knows to occasionally run away and hide when someone bigger than him comes along.

So there we go. The first few steps of Grendel..some more to come along. Let me know if you have any questions, or if it seems like I'm doing something wrong (which I apparently completely did on the Blood Spirit character a while back).

[Maelwys]

Actually, I'm having a bit of trouble deciding on what the next module should be. The idea is a street rat that's eventually pulled off the streets and trained as a soldier due to need.

I figure three possibilities for his stage 2 module. Adolescent Warfare, Street, and Military School.

Adolescent Warfare would give him some combat skills, and might explain why he's eventually pulled into the military. Its also got a pretty good amount of flex points which the character could obviously use. The downside is I continue to take hits in things like languages, protocol, etc.

Street is an okay choice. It continues his life from the first module, but it makes me feel really odd about dropping him into an Academy straight away, with the Stage 3 academy module.

Military school again is an okay choice, but I've done it before, but is also a really great stepping stone into the Academy. It would just mean the character would have to leave the streets a bit earlier, and be a bit more polished.

So I'm leaning more towards Military school or Adolescent Warfare more than street..any thoughts?

[Maelwys]

With Insomnia rearing its ugly head, and some discussion I decided to go with Adolescent Warfare. I've never used it before, so I think it might be interesting to see where exactly the character goes at the end of it. At this point the character is 16, and if I've got the timing right, not only might it be some street level fighting, but he might have been able to throw a Molotov cocktail or two during the Hegemony's invasion of the Federation.

STR: 225
BOD: 195
RFL: 240
DEX: 100
INT: 0
WIL: 370
CHA: 25
EDG: 200

Traits
Equipped: +80
Illiterate: -120
Reputation: -350
Toughness: +500
Wealth: -190
Enemy: -100
Rank: 50
Compulsion/Paranoid: -120
Connections: +180
Enemy/Comstar: -100
Enemy: -140
Combat Sense: 80

Skills
Perception: +70
Language/English: +35
Language/German: -10
Martial Arts: +45
Small Arms: +40
Streetwise/Circinus: +75
Comms/Conventional: +20
Interest/Writings of Blake: +45
Negotiation: +35
Interest/Writings of the Master: +25
Protocol/Circinus: +5
Protocol/WoB: +30
Technician/Mechanics: +10
Melee Weapons: +40
Running: +50
Stealth: +40
Leadership: +25
MedTech: +25
Survival/Desert: +25

So this is what he looks like after the second life module. Attributes have gone up slightly, though Intelligence actually dipped. I spent some flex points so it didn't get any worse at the very least. Willpower continues to slowly creep its way up. Nothing too spectacular here.

Traits remained mostly the same. Combat Sense is nice, but it still needs several hundred points to actually be a trait, so its not something to get excited about just yet. An enemy got a little more unfriendly, but not too bad. Wealth took another hit, though it was negated using flex points. The character is also somewhat more paranoid, though considering how many points have been sunk into Enemy by this point, I think the old adage "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you" applies here. His connection trait continues to improve as well, giving me a good reason to switch from the streets into a military roll.

Skills are about what I expected. They mostly built on the skills from his street module in Stage 1. Quite a few affiliation aspects took hits (not streetwise), some so badly that the skill at this point doesn't exist (language/German). Its kind of interesting. The character has two affiliations, a Circinus and a WoB one. I've been applying the skill bonuses and negatives to whichever meets my fancy, but I can't help but wonder if I should be applying the bonuses solely to the WoB affiliation..though it doesn't make as much sense.

I am now of the opinion that the 2nd Stage is where you can really make your character shine and unique. You have so many flex points in most of the modules (there are a few that are exceptions) that you can really add some stuff that your character may not have, or reinforce certain points. You are limited somewhat (no spending 150 points in Gunnery/`Mech for instance), but you can spend enough for it to be noticeable. Want a goofy Interest, or a odd trait that isn't going to pop in the modules? This is the place to get it, or atleast start the process. Quite a bit of the future modules are regimented, so use your flex points well.

[BirdofPrey]

I was going to do one of these threads, but it looks like you beat me to the punch.
Interesting character you have here.

[Maelwys]

Yeah, hopefully the next stage is going to be even more interesting, showing off some of the versatility that's allowed under the current system. I did a few of these under the old system, though I found out I completely screwed up the Stage 2 of the Blood Spirit ProtoMech pilot that I did, which is kind of a shame. Still, its an interesting process. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have trouble with Wealth eventually. I actually like being able to buy gear (Not so much going through long lists, but being able to is always nice).

The funny part is that Wealth only goes to a -1, so I'm already well past that point and unless I see an increase in the next two modules, I'm going to have to spend points just to bring it back up to its lowest level. Some of the traits have been quite bizarrely off with this character.

[Maelwys]

And Stage 3 done. From Adolescent Warfare to a Wob military training Academy. He had the skills, now he's polished them and been given a direction. With the emergence of WoB LAMs in 3085 and its attendant record sheets, I decided to give him a second Advanced Field to cover Aerospace training. Fortunately Basic Training Naval isn't a requirement, so that's good to go. He's now 19 years old.

STR: 275
BOD: 295
RFL: 365 (Min 4)
DEX: 100 (Min 4)
INT: 0 (Min 3)
WIL: 570 (Min 3)
CHA: 25
EDG: 100

Traits
Equipped: +80
Illiterate: -120
Reputation: -450
Toughness: +500
Wealth: -290
Enemy: -100
Rank: +250 (Min +1TP)
Compulsion/Paranoid: -120
Connections: +380
Enemy/Comstar: -100
Enemy: -140
Combat Sense: 80

Skills
Perception: +70
Language/English: +35
Language/German: -10
Martial Arts: +75
Small Arms: +70
Streetwise/Circinus: +75
Comms/Conventional: +20
Interest/Writings of Blake: +45
Negotiation: +35
Interest/Writings of the Master: +25
Protocol/Circinus: +5
Protocol/WoB: +45
Technician/Mechanics: +10
Melee Weapons: +40
Running: +50
Stealth: +40
Leadership: +35
MedTech: +55
Survival/Desert: +25
Interest/Military History: +15
Swimming: +15
Career/Soldier: +30
Navigation/Ground: +30
Gunnery/`Mech: +30
Piloting/`Mech: +80
Sensor Operations: +60
Tactics/Land: +30
Technician/Aeronautics: +30
Gunnery/Aerospace: +30
Navigation/Air: +30
Navigation/Space: +30
Piloting/Aerospace: +80
Tactics/Space: +30
Zero-G Operations: +30

So some interesting changes. Reasonable prerequisites/minimums start to apply. All of the fields set minimums and prerequisites, which I've covered. There's a prerequisite of Prep School or Military School for a Military Academy, but you can get around that by modifying some of your attributes and traits, which is what happened here.

Attributes first...Intelligence continues to remain in the dumps. Even worse, it now has a minimum value it must reach when I round out the character at the end. Physical stats mostly rise (poor Dex), but oh my. That's quite a jump in Willpower. If it get much higher, I might as well buy him a robe and a lightsaber and call him Darth Grendel. Edge took a hit to simulate some stroke of good luck to get into the academy.

Traits..heh. Equipped takes a boost, which is ironic, since Wealth continues to nose dive past the point of no return (another one of the "get into the Academy" modification). And at this point, Vlad the Impaler knows who Grendel is, and thinks Grendel is bad news. I guess those stuck up rich people that go to Military Academies don't like a street kid crashing the party. For those keeping track, I'm just 50 points from being known across all of space. Even the bird people from Far Country are like "Oh..yeah, THAT guy." Grendel must have also opened the door for Avitue a few times or something. His connection trait more than doubled, again explaining how a street hood like him got into the Academy.

Nothing too surprising with skills, unless you missed the first paragraph where I talked about LAM training. Military skills were added, and those that he had advanced. Flex points went into making his piloting even better, since as a LAM pilot, he's going to be riding those skills hard.

There's enough flexible XP here that what I said from Stage 2 still applies. However, it just feels right to spend it on the military fields and skills/traits you gained here, rather than going completely random. Depending on what kind of vehicle you're going to be using, you may want to be dumping those points into Vehicle by now. The Academy doesn't really give you anything other than flex points that helps in the way of combat vehicles.

Next up...Stage 4.

[Maelwys]

Stage 4 is the ComStar/WoB Service. Since I went to a military academy, I could've also used the IS version of the Tour of Duty, but I've done that before, and this always seems like an interesting choice. The module gives me a quite a few options, and is fluffed as being possible for any branch of WoB/CS service.

STR: 275
BOD: 295
RFL: 365 (Min 4)
DEX: 200 (Min 4)
INT: 75 (Min 3)
WIL: 570 (Min 3)
CHA: 0
EDG: 100

Traits
Equipped: +250
Illiterate: -120
Reputation: -450
Toughness: +500
Wealth: -190
Enemy: -100
Rank: +320 (Min +1TP)
Compulsion/Paranoid: -120
Connections: +380
Enemy/Comstar: -100
Enemy: -140
Combat Sense: +155
Tech Empathy: +35
Compulsion/Hatred of CS: -75
Compulsion/Hatred of Clans: -100

Skills
Perception: +95
Language/English: +60
Language/German: -10
Martial Arts: +120
Small Arms: +70
Streetwise/Circinus: +75
Comms/Conventional: +105
Interest/Writings of Blake: +95
Negotiation: +35
Interest/Writings of the Master: +25
Protocol/Circinus: +25
Protocol/WoB: +80
Technician/Mechanics: +10
Melee Weapons: +40
Running: +50
Stealth: +40
Leadership: +35
MedTech: +55
Survival/Desert: +25
Interest/Military History: +15
Swimming: +15
Career/Soldier: +30
Navigation/Ground: +30
Gunnery/`Mech: +70
Piloting/`Mech: +120
Sensor Operations: +60
Tactics/Land: +30
Technician/Aeronautics: +30
Gunnery/Aerospace: +70
Navigation/Air: +30
Navigation/Space: +30
Piloting/Aerospace: +120
Tactics/Space: +30
Zero-G Operations: +30
Administration: +40
Comms/HPG: +55
Computers: +70
Cryptography: +25
Interrogation: +40

So this is the last stage before the optimization process. Attributes are about what I expected, though INT finally got some points, moving it away from 0, only to have Charisma finally crash after circling the drain for so long.

Traits are...interesting. Not too shockingly, both the WoB and CS sections give pluses to the Equipped Traits. There's an option to boost your Wealth, Equipped, or Vehicle trait...I probably should've put it into vehicle, but I used it to buy off some of the hole I'm in with regards to Wealth. In For Life is expected, as is the Hatreds of the Clans and Comstar. Combat sense is an oddity as well. While I know the module is supposed to represent the CG/WoBM troops as well, that's a pretty hefty bump to an expensive combat trait.

Tech Empathy makes less sense to me. Not that the WoB/CS module gives you access to it, but that they give it to you at such a low number of points. Its a 3 point trait, meaning you still have to pay almost 90% of the cost in order to have it. At that many points 10% of its cost isn't going to really sway me one way or another. I was either going to take it even if I didn't get the points, or there's no way I'm taking it at all.

Skills are fun, just what the Renaissance Man of the WoB needs. Perception, Martial Arts, over 120 points on various Communications skills...and oddly Interrogation. Not really sure what that says about the WoB... Interestingly, no Interest related to the Master like there is in the Affiliation.

So far it isn't looking too good for gear. There are no points in vehicle, no points in Custom Vehicle, and my wealth is so low that I probably owe someone else money...we'll see after the points are manipulated.

[Deathknight69]

Very interesting set-up for "Grendel (Igor)", lol. I'm still playing around with Idea's for a PC, and a core of NPC's for a new unit. Keep up the great work. I call him "Igor" because he seems more like a darker version on Marty Feldman's "Igor" char. from "Young Frankenstein".

[Maelwys]

Next part will probably be up tomorrow. Trying to decide if I want to show the "I just rounded everything off, lets see where I am before I spend all the spare points" or show the post spending.

Glad you're enjoying him. he's kind of fun. The fluff is going to be interesting to write at the end.

[Deathknight69]

Show both. Did you encounter the errata that I found w/ the vehicle pts. suddenly coming out of nowhere?

[Maelwys]

Show both. Did you encounter the errata that I found w/ the vehicle pts. suddenly coming out of nowhere?

Nope, and not seeing it either, got a link?

[Deathknight69]

It's in the book. Don't know the pg # off hand, but it is in the description's on how to make char. - step by step process.

[Maelwys]

Hmm, not seeing it at all, though its possible I missed it. Maybe I'll see it while I work on the character. The next incarnation should be up sometime tonight.

[Maelwys]

Okay, hoping I didn't miss anything. Got distracted with my WoB drone Titan so took a day off from the character...

As far as I can tell, after smoothing everything out, I've got about 1400 points left to play with.

STR: 200
BOD: 200
RFL: 400 (Min 4)
DEX: 400 (Min 4)
INT: 300 (Min 3)
WIL: 500 (Min 3)
CHA: 100
EDG: 100

Traits
Equipped: +200
Reputation: -500
Toughness: +300
Wealth: -100
Enemy: -100
Rank: +500 (Min +1TP)
Compulsion/Paranoid: -200
Connections: +400
Enemy/Comstar: -100
Enemy: -200
Combat Sense: +400
Compulsion/Hatred of CS: -100
Compulsion/Hatred of Clans: -100

Skills
Perception: +80
Language/English: +120
Martial Arts: +120
Small Arms: +50
Streetwise/Circinus: +50
Comms/Conventional: +80
Interest/Writings of Blake: +80
Negotiation: +30
Interest/Writings of the Master: +20
Protocol/Circinus: +20
Protocol/WoB: +80
Technician/Mechanics: +20
Melee Weapons: +30
Running: +50
Stealth: +30
Leadership: +30
MedTech: +50
Survival/Desert: +20
Interest/Military History: +20
Swimming: +20
Career/Soldier: +30
Navigation/Ground: +30
Gunnery/`Mech: +50
Piloting/`Mech: +120
Sensor Operations: +50
Tactics/Land: +30
Technician/Aeronautics: +30
Gunnery/Aerospace: +50
Navigation/Air: +30
Navigation/Space: +30
Piloting/Aerospace: +120
Tactics/Space: +30
Zero-G Operations: +30
Administration: +30
Comms/HPG: +50
Computers: +50
Cryptography: +20
Interrogation: +30

So that's what it looks like after grinding through the points, meeting minimums, etc. Obvious the stats need to work (which is going to cost most of the remaining points I think). Getting a medium BattleMech is going to be work. One nice thing is that I bumped the language skills up high enough that Illiterate went away.