It's hard to make a decent Company commander pc

[Deathknight69]

It's really hard to make a decent C.O. using AToW. You get further in age and the debt just keeps adding up. I'm really wondering what you have to do to have a even semi-decent pc.

[monbvol]

Maybe my definition of decent is off but I have little trouble creating a Company Commander.

Don't worry about automatically having to make them old.  In many real world armed forces the average age of an Officer isn't much higher than the enlisted men that they command.

The best killer doesn't make for the best officer so don't be afraid to let the combat skills slide a little but there should be more than enough to have 3s or 4s on most of the really important skills.

Don't overly fret about Combat Sense either.  It is nice but not an absolute requirement.

[Deathknight69]

I struggled to make him a Veteran (G3,P4) Mechwarrior in a assault. Most of his other skills are 3's with a few 2's and a few 1's. His rank was a Company XO (5TP). And that's with 3 T.o.D.'s. I mortgaged the farm so to speak to get that much.

[monbvol]

Ah I see part of the problem.

Repeating those ToDs are a harsh XP penalty.  Somewhere around 500 XP right down the drain if I remember right for each repeat.

A trick I learned a long time ago is that just because the PC is in the military does not mean their only module for advancement need be ToD.  Planetary Surveyor does pretty nicely for a low intensity pirate hunt substitute.  Geurilla Insurgent can be a nice stand in for your unit getting caught behind enemy lines for a while and having to fight a little less conventionally.

[Deathknight69]

That's a different way to do things. Thanks for the idea Monbvol. I never thought about using those lifepath's. Do you have any other "alternate" idea's?

[Jackmc]

Also note that the TOD is open ended on length so you only have to take it once.

-Jackmc

[Jackmc]

I built an example character but first, one more thing that comes to mind:  ATOW mirrors BT in that an assault mech is suppossed to be rare and thus you pay accordingly for the honor of driving one. 

OK, now the character:

Built on the concept that a person should make Captain somewhere between 4 -6 years from comissioning.  So this character is set at age 26 and thus built on 5500 pts with the aging rules in effect.


----------------------------------------
Tai-i George Okuda
Aff: DC/Dieron District
Age: 26
Points: 5500
Unspent XP: 5

Paths:
White Collar
Military School
Military Academy
OCS
TOD/IS

Atts:
EDG 2
All Others: 4

Traits:
Compulsion/Xenophobia 1
Wealth 2
Enemy 1/Fellow Sun Zhang Grad
Enemy 1/Regimental Personnel Officer
Connections 1
Equipped 2
Reputation 1
Rank 6
Vehicle 8
Compulsion/Gambling 1
4 pts of Player selected negative traits

Skills:
Lang/Japanese +1
Lang/English +1
Perception +1
Art/Oral Tradition +1
Martial Arts +4
Protocol/DC +5
Interest/Star League History +1
Negotiation +0
Melee Weapons +3
Interest/Japanese Mythology +0
Career/Soldier +4
Computers +1
Interest/Military History +2
Leadership +3
Med Tech +2
Running +1
Small Arms +3
Strategy +1
Swimming +2
Tactics/Ground +3
Navigation/Ground +2
Gunnery/Mech +4
Pilot/Mech +4
Sensor Operations +1
Technicain/Weapons +1
Adminstration +1
Training +1
------------------------------------------

-Jackmc 

[monbvol]

Mostly it depends on what you are trying to do with the character.

A little fudging and maybe To Serve and Protect if the character's unit has to enforce Martial Law somewhere.

If you're trying to create someone who has shady connections Organized Crime can be an interesting module and can be repeated without penalty.

I'll see if I can find my list of Stage 4 Modules that can be repeated and type it up.

[Deathknight69]

Thanks guys. I've got some more work ahead of me. I'm re-booting The Hellraisers thread and re-doing characters also. I've got the CO, next is the XO and the Vehicle lance CO.

[Jackmc]

Here's another that I managed to bring in on a 500 pt build

-----------------------------
Calista Levesque
Age: 24
Aff: Pirate
Points: 5000

LIFEPATHS:
Slave
Adolescent Warfare
Family Training
OCS
Organized Crime


ATTS:
EDG 2
All Others 4

TRAITS:
Equipped -1
Wealth -1
Reputation -1
Paitent
Connections 1
Compulsion 1/Paranoid
Enemy 1/Fellow Pirate
Rank O-6
Vehicle 8
In For Life/ Lady Death's Pirates
Dark Secret 5/Pirate
Bloodmark 1

SKILLS:
Language/English +2
Language/French +0
Perception +3
Negotiation +2
Martial Arts +2
Melee Weapons +3
Small Arms +4
Career/Soldier +2
Protocol/Pirate +3
Stealth +3
Streetwise/Periph +3
Technician/Mechanic +1
Leadership +3
Med Tech +2
Running +1
Survival/Hostile Environment +2
Driver/Hover +2
Interest/Pirate History +1
Navigation/Ground +1
Pilot/Mech +3
Gunnery/Mech +4
Sensor Ops +1
Tactics/Ground +1
Administration +1
Training +1
Acting +2
Career/Pirate +3
Computers +0
Demolitions +2
Escape Artist +1
Forgery +1
Interest/Bloodsports +2
Interrogation +3
Prestidigitation +1
Security systems +2
--------------------------------------


If you chose to make points= age, then you'd have 300 more which is enough to add Attractive and boost Tactics to a +4 and Computers to +1.  That would go a long ways towards making her a real contender to lead the remanants of Lady Death's band.

-Jackmc 

[Deathknight69]

I'll have to see where I did something wrong.

I made a Davion/Capellan March. Blue collar, Military School, Military Academy, O.C.S. And the 3 tours of duty I.S. I took ocs because I wanted him to be an officer.

[Jackmc]

I'll have to see where I did something wrong.

I made a Davion/Capellan March. Blue collar, Military School, Military Academy, O.C.S. And the 3  tours of duty I.S. I took ocs because I wanted him to be an officer.

Ok, i'll  run that later tonight, but 1 thing I see for sure is that this guy better be incompetent to have pulled that many TOD's and only advanced to captain.  Realistically, you should earn that promotion at the end of your first tod.

-Jackmc

[Deathknight69]

In theory, after the 1st tour your rank pts are about 500+.

[Jackmc]

In theory, after the 1st tour your rank pts are about 450.

you do realize that you can voluntarily put more points into a trait, right?

-Jackmc

[Deathknight69]

Ya, I know that. Also, the traits and attributes are awarded once when repeating stage 4 lifepaths.

[Jackmc]

OK, following your life paths, I get a competent company CO is a medium mech if I build on 5000 pts. 

--------------------------------------------------------
Alexi Rostov
Aff: FS/Cap march
Pts. 5000
Free XP: 5

LIFE PATHS:
S1: Blue Collar
S2: Military School
S3: Miliatary Academy
S3: OCS
S4: Tour of Duty/Inner Sphere

ATTRIBUTES:
EDG 2
All  Others 4

TRAITS:
Connections 1
Compulsion 1/Distrusts Capellans Confed.
Rank 6
Equipped 1
Vehicle 4
Wealth 1
Compulsion 1/Addicted to Something
5 points of Player-selected Negative Traits

SKILLS:
Language/Englsih +1
Language/Russian +1
Language/Mandarin +0
Perception +3
Protocol/Fed Suns +4
Interest/Fed Suns History +1
Career/Soldier +4
Interest/Military History +2
Tactics/Ground +4
Computers +1
Leadership +3
Martial Arts +3
Med Tech +2
Melee Weapons +2
running +1
Small Arms +3
Strategy +1
Swimming +1
Naviagation/Ground +2
Gunnery/Mech +4
Piloting/Mech +4
Sensor Operations +1
Technician/Electronics +1
Administration +1
Training +1
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Now if I choose to Age him to 25, I pick 300 points from the ageing table and 400 points for him being 4 years past 21.  The 400 points can be sunk into the Vehcile trait which boosts it to 8 which qualifies him for an Assault mech and you can use the other 300 to customize him as you like.


-Jackmc

[Deathknight69]

Thanks again Jackmc for your continued help. Btw, what did you use to generate them so quickly?

[Deathknight69]

Also since I'm thinking about it. How did you convert MW3 to AToW??

[Jackmc]

Thanks again Jackmc for your continued help. Btw, what did you use to generate them so quickly?

No problem.  I actually use pen and paper.  I generate a lot of characters for various reasons from rules exploration, to torubleshooting, to planting seeds to grow story or plot ideas, to even more esoteric stuff like otnight I did up a character as a tribute to the late Marie Colvin (that was fun, 8500 pts but no combat skill above +3 and no other skill above +5, but man the breadth of skills...) . After the first few hundred you make, you start getting used to doing it and start to get a feel for how stuff will fit together and what not and you begin to develop a routine.

Also since I'm thinking about it. How did you convert MW3 to AToW??

I don't actually.  These are all built by running the moduels in AToW.  If you're looking for formal conversion rules, there aren't any.  Most of the stuff ports directly over from MW 3 and where it doesn't it's usually pretty obvious how to model it in AToW.


-Jackmc

[Deathknight69]

"After the first few hundred you make...", Damn, I thought I was obsessed. j/k The converting stuff is a real good idea, how did you figure out what to do? Like +1 = say 25 xp? Something like that?

[Jackmc]

how did you figure out what to do? Like +1 = say 25 xp? Something like that?

First thing to remember is in the conversion, you're not tryign to establish a points total but rather just trying to emulate the MW3 cahractersheet on a AToW character sheet.

Most of the stuff likes Atts , Traits and Skills and Skill Levels transfer straight across  ie.  A 100 point trait in MW3 is a 100 pt trait in AToW.  If I have a MW3 character with Pilot/Mech 4+ they are going to have the exact same skill and level in AToW.  The only real issues for conversion are when you run into deleted things like SOC, Traits (rarely) or skills (most common).

 In the case of deleted Skills, a careful reading of the ATOW's Skill lists virtually always shows what the deleted skill was condensed into frex like how MW3's Bureaucracy skill has been rolled into AToW's Protocol skill.  The only real exception that comes to mind is when you have the hyper-specialized skills in MW3 such as Gunnery (Ballistics/Lasers/Missiles) or the various skills covering small arms.  For those, I use a judgement call.  If all the subskill are within 1 or 2 of each other, I'll just set the relevant AToW score equal to the hgihest one from MW3.  If there's a big points spread, I'll award the optional specialization to the highest one and set the skill level one below what it was in MW3.  Frex.  If I had a MW3 character with Rifles +4, Pistols +3, Shotguns +4 and  SMG's +2, I 'd give them Small Arms +4 in AToW.  OTOH, if I had a character with Gunnery/Mech/Ballsitics +2, Gunnery/Mech/Lasers +2 and Gunnery/Mech/Missiles +6, in AToW I'd give them Gunnery/Mech +5 with the Misisle optional specilization.  On MW3 skills with exactly two specializations such as Piloting/Mech (Humanoid or quad), I base it off whether or not the have pruchased both specializations in MW3.  If not, then I just treat it as a straight up conversion to the AToW skill, if they did,  iuse the above paramters.

Deleted traits can often be covered by other AToW traits or Skills.  The few that can't can be just plowed back into the appropriate Attribute(s).  Frex.  Magnetic Personality could be modeled by dumping the equivalent number of points into the AToW CHA attribute.     

SOC is really the only oddball.  If SOC is 3 or 4,  I just ignore it as that's the normal range.  If it's below 3 I'll either add a abd rep in AToW or if the character is from a society with "Citizenship" I'll nto give them that.  If SOC is above 4, I'll model that by using an appropriate mix of Wealth, Good Rep, Extra Income and Property based on the characters backstory. 

-Jackmc