Do you salivate over spreadsheets? Does the idea of using Excel to track how many XP each stage of your character's life gives her towards the "Rank" trait fill you with glee? Then this post isn't for you. ~_^
On the other hand!
If you like the idea of "Life Path" character creation, but
don't want to use third-party bookkeeping software, then here are some suggestions for how to get
most of the benefits of Life Modules without the frustration attached.
1. HOW IT WORKSWhat we're going to do is use Points-Only Character Creation (AToW, p. 51). But we're going to use the Life Modules from each stage of normal chargen as suggestions, to inform which skills, traits, and attributes you buy for your character. Finally, we're going to borrow some ideas from
Fate, to make each stage of your character's life
mean something during gameplay.
I
highly recommend using the simplified version of point-buy in my sig
(or at this link), but if you want you can do this solely with the rules as written in A Time of War. The stuff from Fate is optional, too.
2. LET'S GET STARTEDFirst, get out your AToW character sheet (also included in the back of the A Time of War book). You'll notice on the back of the page, there are ten spaces for "Life Modules," with a section for "Other Notes" next to each. One is for "Early Childhood" and one is for "Late Childhood," but the others are unlabeled.
Let's start by filling those in. Flip to page 65 of AToW, and pick out a module you like for your character's early childhood. Let's say you go with Trueborn Créche, because you want to play a Clan character. See where it says "Fixed XPs"? Those are
suggestions for what you should buy for your character, using the rules on page 89 and the XP cost table on page 85 (or you could just check out my simplified point-buy).
What you
especially want to look for are the things that your module says to put the most XP towards. In this case, it's your STR, BOD, RFL, and WIL attributes. It also suggests taking the Slow Learner trait. I personally don't, since Slow and Fast Learner make XP costs more complicated, and in fact those are the only two traits which are banned in my simplified point-buy. But it's up to you.
2a. DON'T CAUSE A TIME PARADOXSee where the Trueborn Créche module says certain things are required? If a Life Module says that something's required, it's not just a suggestion; it's something you
have to take. In this case, you must take the Phenotype and Trueborn traits, and you must choose the Aerospace, Elemental, or MechWarrior phenotypes.
(Note that Trueborn is listed as "Citizenship / Trueborn," in the alphabetically-organized traits section of the rulebook. You've just saved yourself five minutes of page-flipping.)
2b. BUT WHAT ABOUT AFFILIATION?Affiliation is supposed to be your Stage 0 life module. But for some reason, the A Time of War character sheet lists Early and Late Childhood at the top.
Fortunately, if you look at the front of your sheet you'll see "Affiliation" listed near the top. That's right; it's a life module which isn't listed with all the others. In any event, you can repeat the process in steps 2 and 2a with your character's Affiliation,
or you can check out my more streamlined suggestions for skill and trait purchases
here. (I only have the Great Houses up right now, though. >_< )
3. EXTRA LIFE (MODULES)Repeat the process in steps 2 and 2a until you run out of XP, slots for life modules on your character sheet, or patience! Remember, you don't
have to buy all your skills and stuff via life modules, and the stuff that the rulebook suggests for each one might not coincide with your ideas for your character.
4. EMBRACE YOUR FATE (OPTIONAL)Now we get to the fun part. You're going to need your GM's approval for this, but if you yourself are a GM I
highly recommend trying it out.
What we're going to do is turn some of the life modules you chose into what the Fate system calls "aspects." Aspects are tied in with Fate Points, a resource that Fate characters use much like Edge to boost skill rolls. (You can learn how aspects and Fate Points work
here.)First, though, let's give your character
High Concept and Trouble aspects. These are the two things that most define your character. How do you know what your High Concept and Trouble are? Ask yourself: How would I describe this character to someone else? What are the first things I'd say about her?
- She's this Brash Young MechWarrior, who Doesn't Know When to Quit.
- He's a Beleaguered Planetary Governor, who keeps saying "I Can't Right Now, I Have A Meeting."
- They're a Dispossessed 'Mech Jock who's Hungry For Action ... maybe a little too hungry.
Some of these concepts and troubles suggest traits you should buy for them, like Vehicle or Rank. I
personally suggest hand-waving those requirements. As long as the character's interesting enough that everyone wants to see what happens to her, you shouldn't have to pay a huge XP tax just to play as her. (If you don't want the
specific Vehicle or Rank that the GM assigns you, though, you can purchase the trait anyway. You just have to pay its full cost.)
At any rate, there isn't a space for High Concept and Trouble on the AToW character sheet, but you can write them down in the "Other Notes" part of your AToW character sheet's Life Modules section.
4a. THE PHASE TRIOThat's what Fate calls your character's other three starting aspects. See, in the Fate RPG's default character creation, you describe your character's first adventure and how it shaped her
(aspect #1), then you talk over things with the other players and decide how you crossed paths with them (aspects
#2 and
#3).The way they go through your character's backstory like this is
uncannily similar to A Time of War's Life Modules system. So similar, in fact, that if you want you can turn your life modules into more aspects! If you're going to do so, I suggest the following.
- Keep your number of aspects down. I suggest choosing only three of your life modules to become aspects. When choosing them, you should think about which ones most shaped your character, and which parts of her backstory you'd like to see come up during play.
- Mark each life module you chose. Putting a star to the left of each one should do it.
- Give each aspect a cool name. You can put this in "Other Notes" next to it. For instance, if you want to make your Clanner's Trueborn Créche module an aspect, in the notes section you could write "ASPECT: Literally Made For War."
4b. ASPECTS DURING GAMEPLAYRemember the "Fate Points" we talked about? Let's start you off with three of them. (If your GM approves, you can trade up to two of them in for 300 XP each, during character creation.) Your starting number of Fate Points becomes your character's Refresh, and is the number they start with at the beginning of every new story.
The Fate SRD
explains how Fate Points work, both how you earn them and what you do with them. In a nutshell,
when one of your aspects causes you trouble you get a Fate Point for it, and
when one of your aspects would come in handy you can spend a Fate Point on it.
Fate's dice-rolling system works differently than A Time of War's. I personally suggest that when you
invoke an aspect it should either give you a +3 on the roll, or let you reroll the dice. You can choose whether to spend a Fate Point after you've seen your dice roll's results, and you know whether your character succeeded or failed.
6. ANY QUESTIONS?Let me know if any of the explanations are unclear, or how this works for you if you try it out in your games! I hope this helps someone play the BattleTech RPG, even if they were turned off by AToW's chargen.
