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....