Author Topic: Alternate A Time of War Character creation: It's good to be rich  (Read 1269 times)

Liam's Ghost

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The standard character creation rules in A Time of War treat characters as a Zero Sum Game. No matter your character's background or upbringing, every character is created using the same base XP pool and is, theoretically at least, on an equal footing (though specific play style and campaign details can upset this balance). This is, generally speaking, a good thing. Nobody likes it when their character is overshadowed by everybody else (except maybe Monbvol, the lack of attention gives him a chance to spring terrible surprises on people).

But some might say that it isn't necessarily realistic. Like it or not, some folk just get all the breaks. The rich kid's got the benefit of quality education, money to own cool things, a personal trainer to get fit, and a circle of friends with all the same perks. A street kid who was born a slave probably knows what rat tastes like. Life isn't balanced.

This set of alternate character creation rules is meant to better simulate that reality. It's worth saying that this is not an indictment of the standard character creation rules. A balanced approach has its inherent benefits. This is just a different way of doing things that creates a different feel (mostly how it's good to be rich).

So the Procedure:

Step One:
Allocate 100 points to each attribute
Allocate 10 points to perception, 20 points to english, and 20 points to any languages available to your intended affiliation

Step Two:
Select your Affiliation, allocate all points as indicated, including any flexible XP. Don't worry about tracking the cost of the affiliation. You may accept up to two different affiliations (representing characters who have changed affiliation at some point in their career, including clan characters who are members of the dark caste). If you do so, make a note of exactly when your character changed his affiliation, as that will affect what modules are available in step 3.

Step Three:
Select your modules for each stage of life as you would normally, with the exception of tracking experience point costs. For a set of "starting" characters, you should probably be limited to four modules (usually one for each stage, though a character might take two stage three modules for extra education.) More experienced characters can be created simply by adding additional modules.

Skill Field Rebates: Under standard rules, selecting a skill field in Stage 3 provides an XP rebate. Since the entire module is essentially free under this system, disregard the rebate.

Stage Four (optional):
If desired, you may run the character through the optimization process as described on page 87. Any XP recovered will be added to your total XP pool.

Stage Four (not optional):
Determine the character's age based on the modules taken. If this total is 25 or older, consult the aging modifier tables located on page 333 and apply the XP modifiers.

Stage Five:
Allocate your total XP pool among your attributes, traits, and skills as desired, making sure to account for any pre-requisites you picked up as part of selecting modules, and ensuring all of your attributes have a minimum value of at least one. You get a total of 3200 XP to distribute, plus any XP recovered from optimization. Once again, this total is not modified by the XP cost of the modules you selected.

The optional rule to add or subtract 100 xp per year of life above or below 21 should not be used in this system. With the essentially free modules, getting old is its own reward.

Attributes may be increased at will up to the normal maximums (taking into account any trueborn phenotypes or extraordinary attributes you might have). They cannot be decreased below the level you started stage five at.

Similarly, any positive traits may not be lowered below the level you started stage five at (unless there is a corresponding negative trait that cancels them out). Negative traits may be "bought off" at will, as long as you have the points to do so. In addition you may add up to an additional 500 xp of negative traits (either new ones or increasing existing ones), adding the resulting XP to your total XP pool.

(I suppose you could take additional negative traits beyond that if you want, but you cannot receive more than 500 XP for additional negative traits)

Skills are subject to special limitations. As with attributes and traits, you may not lower or discard a skill you started stage five with. You are also limited to the level you can raise an existing skill, or purchase a new skill. This limit is equal to half the value (rounded down) of the attribute linked to the skill (the lower attribute if the skill has two linked attributes). In the case of tiered skills, you need only track the basic level attribute as long as the total increase you are allocating to it remains at the basic level. If you want to increase the skill beyond that, you have to take both attributes into account.

Example: a character possesses a dexterity of 6, a reflexes of 4, and a melee weapons of 1. Since the skill is at basic level, dexterity is the only linked attribute, and the character's dexterity would normally allow an increase of three ranks. However, this would push the Melee Weapons skill to level 4, which is advanced level. Since advanced level Melee Weapons also has reflexes as a linked attribute, and the character's reflexes only allow for two increases in skill rank, the character cannot buy the third rank of the skill.

On the other hand, if the same character only had a melee weapons skill of 0, then he could raise the skill by three ranks (in accordance with his dexterity of 6), because the resulting martial arts score of 3 is still basic level.

Stage 6
Final Touches are done in the same fashion as a standard A Time of War Character. At this point you are finished with character generation.

« Last Edit: 02 August 2017, 15:48:02 by Liam's Ghost »
Good news is the lab boys say the symptoms of asbestos poisoning show an immediate latency of 44.6 years. So if you're thirty or over you're laughing. Worst case scenario you miss out on a few rounds of canasta, plus you've forwarded the cause of science by three centuries. I punch those numbers into my calculator, it makes a happy face.

(indirect accessory to the) Slayer of Monitors!

 

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