Character Creation Advice for Classic BT RPG

[GermanSumo]

hey guys...

for years i had a certain character type in mind. a real rtc commander with knowledge of ground and aerospace and dropship warfare. a real and full combined arms tactician who can single-handedly plan and carry out an invasion. but i am not very happy with all path choices. so how would you actually build this character. it should be a noble background in any way. but how to go on from there. and which faction would fit best? steiner/davion for nagelring and its soc-based officer course? please help me out here. and because this is just a pet concept, some number crunching is actually wanted and fine. this character will certainly never see playing in any kind of group.

and now: go! :D please help me out.

[Daryk]

Noble is a bit more expensive than White Collar, but still doable.  You definitely want Military School for Stage 2, and Military Academy for Stage 3, with Analysis and Military Scientist fields on top of Basic Training.  And OCS is a must.  From there, take a Tour of Duty.  After that, Civilian Job and Think Tank do a decent job of simulating staff tours.  If your faction is right, ComStar Service is also a good choice.  Make sure you're using the aging rules that give you 100XP per year.  Civilian Job is one of the few modules you can take repeatedly without losing any XP (it has no Attribute bonuses).  Plus, it doesn't actually prohibit you from boosting any Tactics skills.  Covert Ops isn't a bad choice, but probably hard to fit in.  Travel is another net positive with the aging rules, but probably even harder to justify for a senior officer.

[CoreWatch]

Good evening GermanSumo,

So, I have seen this question sitting here for a few days and was giving it some thought while waiting to see if anyone else chimed in with plausible answers for you.

Perhaps instead of trying to build the character via the lifepath method for which you already stated that you are not very happy with all of the choices. Why not use the point buy method as described on pages 89-90 of Battletech ATOW (2nd printing)?

In truth, so many folks get caught up on the minutia of every little +/- that the life method describes and worries so much that it's not going to be the exact character stats that they like that they forget to think about the character that they wanted to create in the first place.

Unless you yourself or your GM is limiting you to using only the life module system I recommend giving the point buy a shot first. Plan the attributes, skills, and positive and negative traits out in your mind. Imagine how you really see this RTC Commander's roots and upbringing to justify the stats, skills, and traits that you are assigning him/her. Be humble and truthful with your assessment of this character as you build him/her. If you make them the jack of all trades with nothing but positives then what true fun is that? Give him/her the flaws and story hooks that may justify some of those stats, skills, and traits.

In the end, you'll either find that you may like this method better or perhaps, of course, you may just learn to like the structured life method more.

Hope that helps!
-CoreWatch

[Daryk]

If the minutia is a hindrance, there are spreadsheets that help with that (mine among them).  I find the life paths give you more well rounded characters, personally.

[CoreWatch]

G'day Daryk... and perhaps any others as well listening,

I'm not sure if the 'minutia' comment was targetted as sarcasm to what I mentioned or not. But I definitely wasn't knocking the life path character generation for those wanting to go that route. I simply noted that GermanSumo was not very happy with the life path choices. So I gave him the advice of using the obvious alternative that many folks for one reason or another cannot accept at their gaming table, yet it's obviously part of the system as an alternative way to create your character.

Having said that... Daryk is right as well. I too find the life path method personally more well rounded and rewarding for character generation as it is designed to give the character some guaranteed built-in flaws as well as some unknown skills and traits that you wouldn't normally picked via the point buy method. So, unless you know exactly what you intend to make for a character and stat him/her accordingly with both proper positives/negatives by using the point buy method often times you'll find a more authentic and well-rounded character can come from the life path method.

Daryk's spreadsheet as well as many others on this forums are very helpful as well in assisting you to create your character easier as well. But you do have to invest a little time and effort to learn and understand how to use them first. Unless of course your already a spreadsheet type of person who keeps good notes that is.

The biggest takeaway here to notice is that it does take most folks some time and effort to enjoy this RPG system. However, once you do have a fully developed character and a decent working knowledge of the game than it will make for a more rewarding campaign for both the players and GM alike.

Cheers!
-CoreWatch

[Daryk]

No worries, CoreWatch... sorry for the delay in responding.  I've been without connectivity for the last couple of days.

As far as minutiae, I wasn't trying to be sarcastic.  I acknowledge the system is very detail oriented, but that's one of the things I find attractive about it, and why I built my spreadsheet.  I think others might find the life paths as rewarding as we do if there are tools that help them with the details.  BiggRigg42 has been extremely helpful in that effort.

[CoreWatch]

G'evening Daryk,

No worries, it's all good! Fully understandable as well on the response.

Yeah, I know BiggRigg42 was working on a video for your sheet, hope that all works out. I'm sure it will prove helpful to the community.

Hopefully, in time someone with some mad coding skills gets the gaming itch and makes a full-fledged character creator/generator that automates allot the small details of the life path system. I'm not knocking spreadsheets at all but a true GUI interface of some sort would encourage more people to play the game if it shortens the character creation time. Hands down the character creation process in most games are from my experience all too often what either draws a person in or turns them off to that particular game in general. And because this particular game is one that has so much detail with all of the +/- 's and has a fairly lengthy startup time and rules burn-in that it can often be seen as too intimidating (or at the least, impatient) for some to take the time and effort to learn to enjoy.

Cheers!
-CoreWatch

[Daryk]

If no one else gets around to it by the time I retire (in about 5-6 years), I plan to give a character generator a shot.  I particularly like SSW's GUI, and would want to do something like that (if possible),

[CoreWatch]

Well to that good sir I say! Take your time, retirement will come soon enough! But when it does, enjoy life as you see fit too!

I've partially retired myself though I still have about 11 years for my true pension to kick in for it. I did 25 years in the military (12 Army/13 Air Force), not all of it was active, some was Guard and Reserves and there's a formula for the pension to kick in counting back from age 60. For me, that's 56 and some change. Hence I'm dating myself now. ;)

But in the meantime, I can't complain about the gig that I have now as I have plenty of time available if I needed it.

Anyway, point is, that time will fly by and you'll be able to do what you wish too soon enough!

Cheers!
-Chris

[Daryk]

Nice... I hit 26 years this year, and due to some oddities with my entry on to active duty, I might get an extra year or two in.  The really strange thing is that there's no longevity raise at 28 years, but there is one at 30.

[CoreWatch]

Nice bro nice! Stick it out as long as you feel the need too and weigh the scales when it's worth it for you, to call it good for you!

The pink retirement ID card is so worth the effort. Do yourself a favor now and make sure you get any ailments, illnesses, and pains documented while you're still on active duty. Father time catches up to everyone and you'll be able to make claims to the VA if they're legit problems.

Yeah, the couple percentage points are just a little icing on the cake for each year after 20 years. Hopefully, you set some good cash aside with the TSP throughout the years for the matching benefits and invested a bit wisely throughout the years.

Cheers again!
-Chris