Author Topic: A Hell's Horseman of course of course  (Read 3634 times)

Maelwys

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A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« on: 05 April 2015, 22:33:45 »
So I've been poking around ATOW the past week or so for various reasons and figured I'd make another character, but with a change or two.

The big one would be using the rules for a character in 3145. I'm sort of curious about the differences between the eras.

The second is I'll be building a TankWarrior. I still think the image of the Hell's Horses' tanker dual wielding pistols with the crested helm is probably one of the more iconic images from Field Manual Crusader Clans, and the style has continued on with the image of the Hell's Horses infantry from TRO3085.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/File:Clan_Hell%27s_Horses_Warrior.jpg

So we'll be looking at a Tank Warrior based in 3145. I'm not quite going to guarantee that the character gets a vehicle quite as heavy as the one in the picture (What is that, a Burke?), but it should be interesting to see where it winds up.

Maelwys

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #1 on: 05 April 2015, 23:19:09 »
Right, so, 3145 Affiliation. Like ATOW, the Hell's Horses are still an IS Clan. The Affiliation has double in cost from ATOW, and from some of the bonuses, it looks like the Elementals are in charge of the fitness regime for everyone. Its actually a pretty well rounded military character straight from the Affiliation, thought not all of the skills have reached the lowest level yet. I guess from the Reputation his that the Horses are still looked down upon. Oh well. That's why they've got Hellstars :)

The TankWarrior is an interesting little quirk. Its not a Phenotype on its own, but a modification of either the Elemental or MechWarrior Phenotypes (due to the build of the person in the picture, I'm going with MechWarrior for this one). You also have a different set of attribute boosts for being part of that "caste."

STR 200
BOD 250
RFL 125
DEX 175
INT 100
WIL 50
CHA 50
EDG 50

Compulsion/Arrogance -50
Compulsion/Distrust of IS -100
Introvert -50
Reputation -150
Toughness 75
Thick-Skinned 75

Perception 10
Language/English 20
Language/Swedish 20
Language/German 10
Interest/Clan Rememberance 25
Protocol/Clan 25
Interest/Any 10
Martial Arts 5
Melee Weapons 10
Navigation/Ground 15
Protocol/Hell's Horses 15
Small Arms 10
Survival/Any 15
Technician/Mechanical 10

Nothing too surprising.  A nice start to some of the stats, though like many character, we see Charisma and Edge dropping early. I like all those little skills that the character gained (I notice the Falcons gain something similar), though I look at that Toughness and really wonder if I'm going to be able to find the extra 225 points to activate it.



Maelwys

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #2 on: 06 April 2015, 10:28:18 »
There is one thing I forgot to mention that I thought I'd chime in with while I work on the next stage. There are rules for playing a Clan Warrior character that was born in one of the Clan enclaves that dotted the Republic. You pick your Clan affiliation as normal, but you pay a few extra XP for it. In return you gain some modifiers to your starting traits and attributes, and gain The Protocol and Streetwise skills for the Republic.

You can find this info in the notes section of the Republic Affiliation in the 3145 Era Report (it took me a while to find it, since I was looking for it at first in the Clan notes section).

Maelwys

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #3 on: 06 April 2015, 20:55:36 »
It'd be kind of weird if Stage 1 wasn't the Trueborn creche. This life path hasn't changed from ATOW to 3145. Its all about teaching sibbies how to survive and kill and all about being Clan. On the plus side, this is a good Stage to kind of flesh out the character, since most of the life paths have lots of little flex points that can be spent here and there to make the character unique.

STR 300
BOD 375
RFL 250
DEX 175
INT 100
WIL 150
CHA -10
EDG 50

Compulsion/Arrogance -50
Compulsion/Distrust of IS -100
Introvert -50
Reputation -150
Toughness 75
Thick-Skinned 75
Compulsion/Clan honor -100
Phenotype (MW) 0
Slow Learner -300
Trueborn 200
Ambidextrous 40

Perception 25
Language/English 20
Language/Swedish 20
Language/German 25
Interest/Clan Rememberance 35
Protocol/Clan 35
Interest/Any 10
Martial Arts 15
Melee Weapons 15
Navigation/Ground 15
Protocol/Hell's Horses 15
Small Arms 30
Survival/Any 15
Technician/Mechanical 10
Swimming 10

Prerequisites: Clan Affiliation, Trueborn and Phenotype Traits.

So there we go. Unless I've screwed up the math of the transcription of the math, there's the character at age of 10. Skills haven't changed alot, they've just been reinforced from what we got with the Affiliation. That could be an argument that Affiliation skills should be more specific rather than sort of generalized combat skills, but we could probably have another whole thread for that.

One thing I do find interesting is the Protocol Skill. You wind up with a generic "Clan" skill and a "Specific Clan" skill. So you know how to handle Clan society as a whole, as well as your specific Clan. Theoretically atleast :)

The phenotype is MW as I said. I could've gone with Elemental instead, but the picture looks more MWish to me. Though the automatic Toughness of the Elemental is tempting. The Slow Learner is...well. Painful. It can start to add up. I'm sure people have done the math to figure out when its worth getting rid of and when its better to keep it :) The Compulsions are also adding up. Sure, they're only -100, but when you start getting alot of them, the negatives can seem like they're always there.

Attributes are slowly creeping up in some cases, and down in others. Charisma remains a dump stat for now, though I'm trying to keep it close to 0.

ATOW Companion's Random Life event netted a rather boring average roll. On the plus side, being a Trueborn IS Clanner gives you some advantages, so a bit of extra XP was added.

Maelwys

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #4 on: 07 April 2015, 01:46:18 »
And naturally something came up that requires a question or two in the Ask the Writers thread :) Will continue on, hopefully I'll get an answer soon :)

Maelwys

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #5 on: 07 April 2015, 18:39:15 »
Alright, a quick reply from Herb and away we go. Trueborn Sibko shouldn't be that big of a surprise for the 2nd Stage. Its kind of the point of the character. Again, there aren't any changes in the Life path from being in 3145. Numbers to follow.

STR 300
BOD 415
RFL 300
DEX 235
INT 100
WIL 170
CHA -40
EDG 50

Compulsion/Arrogance -50
Compulsion/Distrust of IS -100
Introvert -50
Reputation -150
Toughness 75
Thick-Skinned 75
Compulsion/Clan honor -150
Phenotype (MW) 0
Slow Learner -300
Trueborn 200
Ambidextrous 40
Rank 200
Custom Vehicle 200
Vehicle 70

Perception 25
Language/English 20
Language/Swedish 20
Language/German 5
Interest/Clan Rememberance 85
Protocol/Clan 35
Interest/Any 10
Martial Arts 65
Melee Weapons 65
Navigation/Ground 65
Protocol/Hell's Horses 65
Small Arms 95
Survival/Any 15
Technician/Mechanical 10
Swimming 10
Career/Soldier 80
Negotiation 50
MedTech/General 50
Gunnery/Ground Vehicle 95
Piloting/Air Vehicle 50
Artillery 80
Driving/Ground Vehicle 80
Gunnery/Air Vehicle 80
Sensor Operations 80
Tactics/Land 80

Prerequisites: Clan Affiliation, Trueborn and Phenotype Traits BOD: 3+, RFL: 3+, DEX 4+, WIL 3+, Clan Basic Training

Alright, so a few things to note. There's been no Wealth or Equipped Trait for the character so far. That's something to keep in mind when making the character. You can get around it sort of with the Issued Equipment rule, but if you're expecting the game to swing you out of the Clan sometime soon, you may want to start working it up to buy items.

The TankWarrior is an interesting sort of kludge. Basically since I picked MW as the base, I select the "Mechwarrior" part of the Trueborn Sibko, but I get a Cavalry related skill rather than a MW skill, and I get the Cavalry Field rather than the MW field. Which is what caused the problem that delayed this for a day. Since Field costs are based on the number of skills, you can't just slip the Cavalry Field in where the MW field is, since they have a different number of skills. Hence, asking Herb, who suggested slipping in an extra skill or two to make up for it. Since Cavalry has multiple choices for several skills, that worked out fine, and why the character is able to fight in both the air and on the ground.

Those Compulsions are beginning to add up, annoyingly. Oh well, something to consider later on

Maelwys

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #6 on: 09 April 2015, 13:13:00 »
Alright, 3rd Life Path in, and since its a Clanner, that means its time for a Tour of Duty (and skipping over Stage 3 and straight to Stage 4, real life). Since we're not going for something odd like Dark Caste or a technician, Tour of Duty is it. If we had been making this character for an slightly earlier era, from 3100 to 3132, then the Tour of Duty would have had its duration extended by 2 years to show the limited warfare of the era. After the Blackout, the duration goes back to normal as warfare picks up and your character has more opportunities to experience it.

STR 300
BOD 415
RFL 300
DEX 310
INT 100
WIL 170
CHA 35
EDG 50

Compulsion/Arrogance -50
Compulsion/Distrust of IS -100
Introvert -50
Reputation -150
Toughness 75
Thick-Skinned 75
Compulsion/Clan honor -150
Phenotype (MW) 0
Slow Learner -300
Trueborn 200
Ambidextrous 200
Rank 200
Custom Vehicle 200
Vehicle 300
Connections 25
Bloodname 50
Enemy -75
Combat Sense 75

Perception 45
Language/English 25
Language/Swedish 25
Language/German 5
Interest/Clan Rememberance 85
Protocol/Clan 35
Interest/Any 10
Martial Arts 130
Melee Weapons 65
Navigation/Ground 105
Protocol/Hell's Horses 105
Small Arms 120
Survival/Any 15
Technician/Mechanical 20
Swimming 10
Career/Soldier 130
Negotiation 50
MedTech/General 75
Gunnery/Ground Vehicle 120
Piloting/Air Vehicle 75
Artillery 105
Driving/Ground Vehicle 105
Gunnery/Air Vehicle 105
Sensor Operations 105
Tactics/Land 105
Communications/Any 15
Computers 15
Interest/Any 20

Prerequisites: Clan Affiliation, Trueborn and Phenotype Traits BOD: 3+, RFL: 3+, DEX 4+, WIL 3+, Clan Basic Training, Must have one Military Skill Field.

Well, that was interesting. Skills aren't bad. Some specialization could've made them better, but why limit yourself? If the group needs someone to pilot an Anhur to make an escape, you've got it covered! Attribute are going to need some work as usual. The only reason Charisma is positive because I dumped 75 "Put into any attribute" points into it.

Traits as usual are kind of weird. I've got a bunch of "almost" Traits, which are going to disappear during the optimization phase. On the plus side, using flex points and some points that I picked up from a Random Life Event (ATOWC), I managed to get the Vehicle trait up high enough to net me a Medium design. Only 2 more points to have enough to swing a heavy tank.  I also maxed out ambidextrous, so the character will start with that (which was half the point).

The lack of Wealth and Equipped are going to make themselves known. Sure. Poor Clanner and all that, but the economic modifies that come into play in 3145 are..well, brutal. Almost brutal enough that I wonder if they shouldn't come into play at chargen (but we can discuss that later).

Custom Vehicle is also kind of weird. If I don't have the Trait, as a trueborn Clanner I get a Random front line unit. In order to match this with Custom Vehicle, I need 4 points. So unless you really want something specific, or to design your own, its not really worth going for. Of course, since vehicles don't have Second Line charts, I'll be rolling on the same chart if I had made this character a freeborn. Mostly. I suppose as a GM/player you could argue that you should get to roll on the FM:3145 chart, using modifiers for Front Line and Second Line, but only Hell's Horses get those modifiers, and the charts in the Era Report 3145 are the standard 2-12 chart. But that's a pretty big digression.

Next up is optimization and trimming to see where exactly the character stands.
« Last Edit: 09 April 2015, 13:24:32 by Maelwys »

Maelwys

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #7 on: 11 April 2015, 00:37:18 »
Right, well, optimization done. At this step I've shaved off any excess points (so 415 becomes 400, with those 15 points returning to the XP pool), and I've lowered any negative that weren't fully expressed to the next level (so -150 reputation becomes -200). I've also spent points to bring Edge and Charisma up to 100, to meet the minimum requirement for a character. More on that stuff later, and I'll add my thoughts to the end of each section, instead of at the end (Attributes, Traits and skills).

STR 300
BOD 400
RFL 300
DEX 300
INT 100
WIL 100
CHA 100
EDG 100

As you can see, attributes are...yeah. Half of them are at 100, and that's after spending over 100 points to get two of them to that point. Willpower is no where close to its minimum of 300, while Dex is close to its minimum. Fortunately there are alot of points to work with after optimization, but its going to take alot of points just to get the character to average (about 400 for each stat).

Compulsion/Arrogance -100
Compulsion/Distrust of IS -100
Introvert -100
Reputation -200
Compulsion/Clan honor -200
Phenotype (MW) 0
Slow Learner -300
Trueborn 200
Ambidextrous 200
Rank 200
Vehicle 300
Enemy -100

Traits are about what I expected. 3 Compulsions, one of them at -200 could possibly suck. A -200 Trait gives you a -3 modifier to all rolls when its active. Of course, what exactly "Clan Honor" means, even when things were "simple" during REVIVAL, is up to your GM. Basically the character is an arrogant introvert with a bad reputation and no connections to speak of (which explains the lack of Bloodname as well). Its kind of an interesting quirk that I might keep. The Custom Vehicle trait was shaved away, since it hadn't reached a point where it would activate for a Clan character. Maybe a little handwaiving there, but its an odd trait.

Perception 36
Language/English 24
Language/Swedish 24
Interest/Clan Rememberance 60
Protocol/Clan 24
Interest/Any 24
Martial Arts 96
Melee Weapons 60
Navigation/Ground 96
Protocol/Hell's Horses 96
Small Arms 96
Career/Soldier 96
Negotiation 36
MedTech/General 60
Gunnery/Ground Vehicle 96
Piloting/Air Vehicle 60
Artillery 96
Driving/Ground Vehicle 96
Gunnery/Air Vehicle 96
Sensor Operations 96
Tactics/Land 96

Skills don't look too bad. I've lost a couple that I'll probably add back in, but it doesn't seem like to bad of a character...for a Clanner. Outside of combat situations, there might be some issues, but uh. I did mention that this is a Clanner, right? :)

The Slow Learner Trait is...yeah. There are a couple of skills that hit 120, which as a normal character, would be a +4 to the skill. Instead, they're at +3, and dropping alot of points back into the XP pool. Some quick math shows that my optimization of the skills freed up enough XP to buy off Slow Learner, but for now those are just sitting in the regular XP pool, waiting for the next step.

So that's the character after optimization. Spending the remaining XP points, possibly buying some additional points (at the cost of negative traits), and then finishing touches like Gear and background/personality.

Maelwys

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #8 on: 14 April 2015, 21:43:28 »
Right, I've been working on it, and it didn't turn out too badly. I managed to bump the attributes up enough that I don't feel too badly about the character, and with the MW Phenotype bonuses, she'll be able to apply a bonus to any Dex or Ref related skills. The Aptitude: Cavalry Field is kind of interesting as well. I mean, there are like 3 different Gunnery skills and a like number of Piloting skills, so you and your GM are going to have to decide if the aptitude bonus applies to all of them, or just the first ones you select or something.

Skills remained mostly the same, though I spent points to rebut some of the skills that had been erased via optimization (Survival, Technician, German, Swimming, Communications and Computers). The rest of them stayed the same, though I could've bumped them up a bit if I wanted.

Traits are pretty standard as well. I bumped Rank to a +4 which makes her a Point Commander, so she's in charge of two tanks, and bumped the Vehicle trait up to +5, which lets her use a heavy Combat Vehicle, which atleast puts her in the same level as the Burke in the picture.  And just to give the character a bit more of an issue, I gave her -500 points in Unlucky (using the buy XP option) in order to gain a few more points to play with.

So all in all, pretty standard stuff. However, there's a reason I haven't posted the next bit of stats. I actually have 408 XP left to spend on the character. That's enough to get rid of slow learner (and trigger a recalculation of skills and optimization), or buy pretty much any positive trait that I could want. I could also bump some of the attributes to crazy levels.

But, this is a good place to look at Equipment. As you can see, I don't have any levels of Wealth or Equipped. Which means I have 1000 c-bills to spend and can buy items with ratings up to and including E-B-B. The good news is, I'm not in the Periphery, which would make it C-B-B :) The bad news is that any pistol needs atleast a C in the final value.  So we're going to have to bump that up atleast, depending on the kind of gun.

The other issue is the cost adjustments for the 3145 era. You're looking at almost a five-fold increase for weapons. Doubling of armor and melee weapons. If you want a military vehicle (not using the vehicle trait), you're looking at what it used to cost to buy a binary, for that one vehicle. The prices are insane, and that 1000 that you start with really isn't going to far, unless you go for the very basics.

So something to keep in mind with, considering the points I have left.

Maelwys

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #9 on: 23 April 2015, 06:16:38 »
Busy this past week or so, should be able to get back to this after the weekend.

Maelwys

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #10 on: 06 May 2015, 15:48:08 »
Name:         Affiliation: Clan Hell’s Horses
Height:   5’8      Weight: 130
Hair: Red      Eyes: Green
Age: 19         Money: 331.75 C-Bills (30.86 Kerenskys)

Attributes
STR: 4
BOD: 5
RFL: 6(7)
DEX: 6(7)
INT: 4
WIL: 4
CHA: 4
EDG: 4

Traits
Ambidextrous: +2 TP
Equipped: +3 TP
Phenotype (MW): 0 TP
Rank: +4 TP (Vehicle Point Commander)
Trueborn: +2 TP
Vehicle: +5 TP (Heavy Combat Vehicle – Athena Combat Vehicle (HAG))
Wealth: +1 TP

Compulsion/Arrogance: -1 TP
Compulsion/Clan Honor: -2 TP
Compulsion/Distrust of IS: -1 TP
Enemy: -1 TP
Introvert: -1 TP
Reputation: -2 TP
Slow Learner: -3 TP
Unlucky: -5 TP (3 Points)

Skills
Artillery             Int+Wil      +3
Career/Soldier            Int      +3
Communications/Conventional EM   Int      +0
Computers             Int      +0
Driving/Ground Vehicle         Rfl+Dex      +3
Gunnery/Air Vehicle         Rfl+Dex      +3
Gunnery/Ground Vehicle       Rfl+Dex      +3
Interest/Clan Rememberance       Int      +2
Interest/Any             Int      +0
Language/English          Int+Cha      +0
Language/German          Int+Cha      +0
Language/Swedish          Int+Cha      +0
Martial Arts             Rfl      +3
MedTech/General          Int      +2
Melee Weapons          Dex      +2
Navigation/Ground          Int      +3
Negotiation             Cha      +1
Perception             Int      +1
Piloting/Air Vehicle          Rfl+Dex      +2
Protocol/Clan             Wil+Cha   +0
Protocol/Hell's Horses          Wil+Cha   +3
Sensor Operations          Int+Wil      +3
Small Arms             Dex      +3
Survival/Any             Bod+Int      +0
Swimming             Str      +0
Tactics/Land             Int+Wil      +3
Technician/Mechanical          Dex+Int      +0

Equipment
Hell’s Horses Armor Kit (Clan Generic Kit: Helmet, Suit, Gloves, Boots) - Issued
Tanker’s Smock
Sternsnacht Python Auto-Pistol (x2)
Holster (x2)
Advanced Field Kit

Background
It was a common joke in the sibko that if Ilsa didn’t have bad luck then she wouldn’t have any luck at all. A perpetual cloud of misfortune seems to follow her around; weapons break during training, equipment malfunctions and once during training and unfortunate set of events lead to her trainer being covered in the contents of a can of oil that Ilsa had been using during routine maintenance. Some attributed this luck to a quirk of the genetic tinkering that went into the creation of the TankWarrior prototypes, and this belief left Ilsa rather isolated, even for a Clan Warrior.

Despite the unlucky streak that seems to envelope her, those around her can’t help but comment that if she were really unlucky, she would have graduated during the so-called Pax Republic. Instead her graduation came as conflict engulfed the Inner Sphere once again. After a single Tour of Duty, Ilsa has found herself in command of an Athena in the Hell’s Horses’ Touman, allowing her to be on the front lines against whatever opponents the Khans point her towards.

Maelwys

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #11 on: 06 May 2015, 16:16:19 »
Alright, so the character is done with a basic background.

A few things to talk about. Since the main thing I did this time around was equipment, I figure I should talk about that. Not having any levels of Equipped is potentially a killer when it comes to gear, though +1 is enough to let you pull down a pistol if you want to. I could've done a similar equipment list with just +1 Equipped and no Wealth, even with the price modifiers for playing in 3145, but it would've been done with the basic auto-pistols instead of the larger, more damaging Pythons that I ultimately chose.

The Armor Kit had to be issued. There was no way I was getting the Equipped Trait high enough to allow me to purchase it outright, not to mention the Wealth trait to get enough money to purchase it after taking into account the price modifiers.

Strangely there don't seem to be any price modifiers for Weapon Accessories. I'm not sure if that's deliberate or an oversight, but atleast I'm not paying 100 C-bills for the holsters :)

The Tanker's smock isn't too bad, and easy to forget in all the hustle and bustle. You lose some armor on the Torso, but gain cooling abilities and can avoid having the equivalent of Thin-skinned while in a vehicle. I purchased it instead of having it issued, maybe she has a favorite one or something :)

I rolled up an Athena (HAG) for the vehicle. Its not a Burke, but I'm not going to complain about multiple HAGs and 70 points of armor on the front.

Still, its kind of interesting to see the differences in characters, though there aren't that many. I'd say the biggest of course are whatever Life Paths that disappeared, and of course, the potentially ruinous Price Modifiers. Its definitely something to keep in mind when you're designing the character. Those Auto-Pistols that I wound up going with cost over 600 C-bills. Even the basic auto-pistol is going to wind up costing over 200 C-bills. A laser Pistol is almost 5K.

So that's that. Thoughts, comments?

Col Toda

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #12 on: 28 June 2015, 03:02:37 »
I would make him one of the Solaris VII Hells Horses Stable with a custom hover tank . Say with armored motive systems and Hardened Armor too eliminate the hover penalty for motive criticals. 10 med chemical lasers 3 tons of ammo and a Targeting Computer . No turret so you have 4 locations to armor .  That is a 10/15 hover tank that can fire 10 med lasers at range 3 for 15 turns in a row doing up to 50. Pts of damage per turn.  When the HPG network went down it forced many stables to go mercenary as the economic model for the games chnged

Maelwys

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Re: A Hell's Horseman of course of course
« Reply #13 on: 28 June 2015, 05:00:26 »
That would be quite a change. I wasn't aware there was a Hell's Horses' stable on Solaris, got a source for that? As for the design, it sounds okay, but doesn't really match the original image that I was basing it on :)

 

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