The Player's Guide
A role playing game is an exercise in imagination and
personal creativity. The organizer of the campaign the Game Master, must use the
system to devise an individual and unique world. Into this world of metahumans,
supernatural monsters, strange peoples, multitudinous states, and fabulous
treasures of precious items and powerful magic stride fearless heroes - you and
your fellow players. Inexperienced and of but
small power at first, by dint of hard fighting and clever deeds, you advance in
ability to become forces to be reckoned with. As a role player you know how
strong, intelligent, wise, healthy, dexterous and, relatively speaking, how
commanding a personality you have. Details as to your appearance your body
proportions, and your history can be produced by you or the GM. You act out the
game as this character, staying within your given abilities, and as moulded by
your alignment. This is a world where supervillains, sorcerers, monsters, fierce
demons, and even
the gods themselves may enter your character's life.
The game is ideally for three or more adult players:
one player must serve as the Game Master, the shaper of the world in which all
action will take place. The other participants become heroes by creating
characters to explore this alternate world and face all of its challenges. As is
typical for most of us in real life each character begins at the bottom of his
chosen class. By successfully meeting the challenges posed, they gain experience
and move upwards in power, just as actual playing experience really increases
playing skill. Imagination, intelligence, problem solving ability, and memory
are all continually exercised by participants in the game. All in all this is a
game for your enjoyment.
| Introduction |
| Each participant in the campaign must
create a player character, as opposed to non-player characters or NPCs which
are controlled by the GM. Each player develops the abilities of his
character through random number generation by means of dice rolling to
determine the basic characteristics of the persona, the abilities. The
player then decides what race the character is, what the character's class
is, the alignment of the character, and what the character's name is to be.
He will have a certain amount of money to begin with, and these funds will
be used to purchase equipment needed for fighting villains. Finally each
character begins with a certain number of hit points, as determined by his
race and class. All characters begin at first level, i.e. the lowest
possible level for a player character. The higher the level number, the more powerful the character is. Following now are how to create your own character.
1. Character Points
|
| 1. Character Points |
| Every character begins play with a
number of character points determined by his race and class. Further every time a character advances a level he gains additional character points. The points serve numerous purposes; Purchase skills and increase skill scores. Purchase advantages, and bonus character points are awarded for taking disadvantages. Increase attribute scores. Acquire meta powers. Acquire racial abilities. Acquire class abilities. Acquire spells. In Combat; |
| 2. Attributes |
| The character's abilities are
Strength (STR), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), Dexterity (DEX),
Constitution (CON), Charisma (CHA), and Movement Rate (MR).
The scores range between 3 and 18 for most characters, though it is possible for some attributes to go much higher. The premise of the game is your character is above average and has superior potential. Furthermore it is usually essential to the character's survival to be exceptional (with a rating of 15 or above) in no fewer than two ability characteristics. Each ability score is determined by rolling 3D6. Character points can be used to later increase these scores. Alternate Method; 4D6 is rolled for each and the lowest die in each case is discarded. Alternate Method 2; 3D6 is rolled 14 times and the highest 7 scores are retained and assigned to each attribute as desired. Alternate Method 3; Roll 3D6 seven times and jot down the total for each roll. Assign the scores to your character’s seven abilities however you want. This gives you the chance to customise your character, although you are not guaranteed high scores. Alternate Method 4; Each ability starts with a score of 8. Then roll 8D6. The points from these dice can be added to your character’s abilities as you wish. Attribute descriptions can be found here. To round out the character's physical body the player should next consult the Physical Characteristics tables. |
| 3. Races |
| After a player has determined the abilities of his character, it is then time to decide of what racial stock the character is to be. This is not a race in the true sense of the word: Caucasian, Asian, etc. It is actually a fantasy species for your character which may be chosen from either one of the Earth based Races or depending on the campaign one of Alien origin. Each race has its own advantages and disadvantages, powers, and variations in attributes. This should be checked with the GM first as some races may not exist in his world. |
| 4. Classes |
| Class refers to the
profession of the player character. The
approach you wish to take to the game, how you believe you can most
successfully meet the challenges which it poses, and which role you desire
to play are dictated by character class. Non meta vigilantes will hardly be
able to up against Darkseid. The character's class is what he has worked and
trained at in the lead up to the campaign. If you wanted to become a doctor,
you could not walk out the door and begin work immediately. First you would have to get some training. The same is true of character classes in the game. Your character is assumed to have some previous training and guidance before beginning his adventures. Now armed with a little knowledge your character is ready to make his name. The Classes available will depend on the era you are playing in and in some cases which race you choose. |
| 5. Personality |
| Next it is necessary to determine the
personality of the character.
First up is
Alignment, which describes the broad ethos
of thinking, reasoning beings. Note that alignment does not necessarily
dictate Next are the Disposition and Motivation tables which will help with his general attitude and motivations for being a hero. Now we really should give him a name, so lets start with his real name. Next if he has a secret identity then he also needs a superhero code name. Finally, we need to ask; does he have a family, where was he born, does he have any notable friends or enemies, and is he wealthy or are they poor? All of these can be determined through the Life Path tables. A character's background is a role playing tool. It provides the player with more information about his character, more beginning personality on which to build. It should complement the GM's campaign and help spur it forward. |
| 6. Skills |
| Most of what a player character can
do is defined by his race, class, and attribute scores but three
characteristics don't cover everything. Most people have a variety of skills learned over the years.
Skills measures a character's knowledge and training in specific areas. When
a character uses a skill either the attempt is automatically successful or the character must roll a proficiency check. If the task is simple or the skill has only limited game use (such as carpentry) a proficiency check is generally not required. If the task the character is trying to perform is difficult or subject to failure a proficiency check is required. Of course to use a proficiency the character must have any tools and materials needed to do the job. A carpenter can do very little without his tools and a smith is virtually helpless without a good forge. The character must also have enough time to do the job. The GM can raise or lower a character’s chance of success if the situation calls for it. Factors that can affect a proficiency check include availability and quality of tools, quality of raw material used, time spent doing the job, difficulty of the job, and how familiar the character is with the task. Character points must be expended for each skill selected. The same skill can be bought more than once, each time adding a +1 bonus to any rolls. Characters cannot improve their unmodified ratings in skills above 19. Regardless of how high a character’s modified proficiency rating becomes, a roll of 20 on a proficiency check is always a failure. In general characters will not be able to perform a task unless they have some level of proficiency in it. However the GM can allow nonproficient adventurers to attempt proficiency tasks under a few circumstances. In general the tasks performed must be very simple and the character will not be able to perform them very well. A nonproficient character must roll a successful check using the proficiency’s initial success rating, modified by the character’s relevant ability. All skills are linked to an attribute and a skill check is performed by rolling under that attribute score (plus any bonuses or minus any penalties). A 20 is always a failure, no matter how many bonuses. Each time a character advances a level, he gains more character points which may be expended on skills if desired. Complete information on skills can be found here. |
| 7. Combat |
| This broad heading covers all forms
of attack and fighting. It includes
meta powers, magical control, spell attacks, breath and gaze attacks,
weapon attacks, magical device attacks, missile discharge, and melee
combat. Combat occurs when communication and negotiation are undesired or
unsuccessful.
Complete information may be found here. |
| 8. Powers |
| Powers are those abilities which
ordinary people do not have, only certain classes have access to them. These
classes grant a specific amount of character points exclusively for the
buying of powers. More points may be obtained for buying by taking
disadvantages.
If the character does have
powers he needs to determine when they manifested; Complete information on powers may be found here. |
| 9. Magic |
| Unlike other game systems characters
in my universe don't use a standard spell progression table. Instead they are
assigned a number of Mana points based on their character class and level.
Mana
are the flows of magical energy that mortals can manipulate
to cast spells. There are thirty two spheres, each reflecting a particular
branch of magic. Each time a mage wishes to use the force of magic, he must
do so by using a spell. When a spell is filled with mana, the mage wills
into being a desired outcome. He can cast any spell he knows so long as he
has sufficient mana remaining to do so. It is also possible for spells to
perform critical hits. Some classes like Deacons receive all their spells from their patron, and can access any spell their patron knows. They are still limited though by how much mana they have. Additionally their patron may decide to cut off their spells (usually as part of a much larger storyline in a campaign). Anyone can cast spells but not everyone knows how to or has enough mana to cast even the simplest cantrip. |
| 10. Equipment |
| Careful selection of equipment and supplies for characters is very
important as often there will not be sufficient funds to purchase everything
desired, so intelligent choices will have to be made. It may even be necessary for the characters to shop in a number of places in order to obtain everything they desire. It will depend on how much starting money the player rolls up or sometimes on the class. And that's it, you're ready to go out and fight evil. |
| 11. Levels |
| Characters start as fairly weak and
untrained. When a sufficient amount of experience is obtained, the character
"levels up", achieving the next stage of character development. Such an
event usually increases the character's statistics, such as health points
and strength, and may permit the character to acquire new abilities or
improve existing ones. By gaining a level, a character's abilities or stats
will increase, making the character stronger and able to accomplish more
difficult tasks, including safely battling stronger enemies, gaining access
to more powerful abilities (such as spells or combat techniques), and to
make, fix or disable more complex mechanical devices, or resolve
increasingly difficult social challenges. The levels are associated with a
character class. An experience point (often abbreviated XP) is a unit of measurement used to quantify a player character's progression through the game. Experience points are generally awarded for the completion of quests, overcoming obstacles and opponents, and for successful role-playing. As the difficulty of the challenge increases, the experience rewarded for overcoming it also increases. As players gain more experience points, the amount of experience needed to gain new abilities typically increases. Complete information on Experience Points can be found here. |