Mutant Future character creation with comments

Finally downloaded Mutant Future to read. Did read it immediately and now after few days I am playing it. And now I will create a character for it. Let's check out the character creation!

Mutant Future Character Creation Step By Step


First we roll stats. Anyone familiar with D&D and clones knows that there are 6 stats which are: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Willpower and Charisma. There are three methods presented for Abilities:
- Roll 3d6 in a row
- Roll 3d6 and put where you like
- Roll 4d6, drop lowest

I choose to roll in a row. My Ability results are: 9, 9, 10, 13, 5, 6. What? I would consider this a hopeless character and re-roll! I bet my GM would say I must keep the following results and that is okay with me. So let's roll again and hope that results won't suck that much. My new (now to keep) results are:
Strength: 11 - Modifier to hit, damage and forcing doors: 0
Dexterity: 8 - AC+1, Missile Attack and optional initiative modifier -1
Constitution: 9 - Poison and Radiation save throw modifiers 0
Intelligence: 12 - Technology Roll modifier 0%
Willpower: 14 - Willpower is used as it is in mental combat
Charisma: 9 - Reaction adjustment 0, Retainers 4 and retainer morality 7

Really around average results, but let's move on.

Next, choose the race. Options are: Android (three types), Mutant Animal, Mutant Human, Mutant Plant and Pure Human. Each race has different benefices. I choose Mutant Plant because... well... in what game you get to play a mutant plant? This and I take it!

So as a Mutant Plant I get these stuffs:

- 1d6 HP per point of CON = 3, 6, 6, 4, 6, 4, 4, 1, 6 = 40 (Nice!)
- 2 plant mutations and 1d6 human/animal mutations divided equally between physical and mental (if unequal I'll decide the remaining). I rolled 6 and get total of 8 mutations! This mutant plant is so fucking mutant! I roll 3 physical and 3 mental human/animal mutations.

My mutations are (rolled randomly 2 plants, 3 physical human/animal and 3 mental human/animal):
- Injected poison sap (poisonous vines PC can use to attack. Poison is randomly rolled = 6d6 damage but with succesful save ½)
- Abnormal size (d20 roll result is 15 and my mutant plant is 20 times larger than "normal specimen". Does that mean that normally my mutant dandelion would be... a dandelion with intelligence? What about mutant oak x15 in size?)
 - Reflective epidermis (d8 roll tells that my character is immune to electric damage)
- Pain sensitivity (Don't know pain, player doesn't know current HP. It's GM data)
- Toxic weapon (30' toxic attack and effect randomly rolled to 8d6 damage or ½ with save)
- Flight, psionic (can fly movement of 10 x WIL)
- Phantasmal damage (when I get damaged some weird shit goes on in my mind and I get double damage)
- Mental phantasm (can make realistic mental projections one sees but isn't real when touched)

Final touch? Rolling 3d8x10 for starting money (got 90) and purchasing equipment (too boring to write and read).

And my character is done!

Crazy mutant plant 15 times larger than normal dandelion (yep, mutant dandelion) what has two different poisonous attack (though at first level 1 per turn), immune to electric damage but vulnerable to other kinds of damage. It can fly and cast mental illusions.
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What are your Mutant Future character creation experiences like? Is your current character totally gonzo or post-apocalyptic survivor?

Creating a character for Werewolf: the Apocalypse

I have Werewolf: the Apocalypse 2nd Edition and never have created a character for it. Actually I haven't played it either. It's only few years I've owned it. Forsaken I played but decided to buy Apocalypse as old World of Darkness suits my taste better.

Anyways. This will be both easy and challenging. Easy because it uses same basic mechanics of Vampire: the Masquerade I have used a lot but challenging because I am not familiar with all the differences like Renown, Rage, Gnosis and Tribes, Gifts and so on. So I have to do a little bit reading to make decisions on what I want. But let's get started.

Step One: Character Concept

First I have to choose Breed, Auspice and Tribe. I have no idea what they are so I have to start this with some inspection. Let's see...

Breed means what my parents are. Garou (werewolf in setting) are only allowed to breed with human or wolf but not with each other. Options are homid (human), metis (Garou to Garou love) or lupus (wolf). It states that metis characters have deformities and checking out that they are basically forsaken. Yeah. My character is metis.


Auspice is under what phase of the moon my character was born. Auspice is like astrological sing giving a hint of personality and also affects initial rage and gifts. I choose Ahroun: Full Moon; Warrior the slayer, mad man-wolf, Rage incarnate. Suits with my deformed body but still also some more philosophical loner would be cool. But this is my first time Werewolf character and I want to rip some butt! my Initial Rage is 5 and beginning Gifts are Razor Claws, Inspiration, The Falling Touch.


Tribe I choose from simplified list describing them narrowly at this point. I have a little idea what different tribes are so I won't read all 13 (times two pages or something) now. Bone Gnawers (vagrants of the streets of the city, well informed but universally despised) or Get Of Fenris (savage and blood thirsty largely of Norse descent and proud of it. They dominate rural towns). I have had my share of urban modern campaigns with Vampire: the Masquerade so I will choose Get Of Fenris.
From Tribe I get Initial Willpower 3 and Gifts Razor Claws and Resist Pain. I cannot get these backgrounds: Contacts or Mentor.

Step Two: Choosing Attributes


This is easy from Vampire: the Masquerade. There are three Attribute categories Physical, Social and Mental each containing three Attributes. I divide 7/5/3 points in them all starting with one dot.
Primary is Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4
Secondary is Mental: Perception 4, Intelligence 1, Wits 3
Third is Social: Charisma 1, Manipulation 4, Appearance 1

Step Three: Choosing Abilities


Abilities are skills divided in three categories each containing ten abilities. I got to spend 13/9/5 points for them each starting at zero.
Primary are Skills: Animal Ken 3, Firearms 2, Melee 4, Leadership 1, Stealth 1, Survival 2
Secondary are Talents: Alertness 2, Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Dodge 1, Intimidation 1, Primal-Urge 1
Third are Knowledges: Enigmas 1, Medicine 1, Rituals 3

Step Four: Advantages


I can choose Backgrounds with 5 dots and they are Fetish 2, Kinfolk 1 and Rites 2.
Gifts I get one each from Breed, Auspice and Tribe. My gifts are: Sense Wyrm, Razor Claws and Resist Pain.

Renown I start with three dots which I distribute as my auspice demands. Not sure if I do this right... But my Renown dots are: Glory 2, Honor 1, Wisdom 0 found in one chart. Good (or close) enough.

Step Five: Finishing Touches


Now I write down my Rage 5 from Auspice, Gnosis 3 from Breed, Willpower 3 from Tribe and my Rank 1 because it says so.

Last thing to do is spend freebie points. Each starting character has 15 of them I can distribute where ever I want but different things cost different amounts of them. I want more willpower, so my Willpower is now 8. I also want more Rage rising it to 8. Two remaining points I use to get Dodge to 2.

And because I am a metis I have to choose a deformity. Madness it is. I like the description and my character write up would be awesome!

Last thing I need to do is flesh up my character. Write background, motivations, determine my Fetish and Rites and other details. There are questions and answers to help this. Also the Pack can be determined with questions helping the job.

[MRQ] Character creation seemed to simple, so let's try it out!

Mongoose Publishing's RuneQuest is one of my new games. It is a light book and easy to read so I thought I'll read it at work when ever I got time for reviewing it.

After I read character creation section, I wanted to try it out. It seemed to be really simple and fast. And I only have this one book, so basically only human characters are available. So, no duck for me.

Let's start.

First I roll characteristics. 4D6, drop lowest and add remaining together. Except Size and intelligence where you roll 3DD6, drop lowest, add remaining +6. That is because human are average in intelligence and size compared to for example animals. I also have a couple of options. Roll all characteristics in order, or I can place them where ever I please (except SIZ and INT I can only swap together because of different rolling). I roll them in order and keep them that way. Here are my results:

• STR: 9
• CON: 12
• DEX: 12
• SIZ: 15
• INT: 18
• POW: 16
• CHA: 12

Weak in strength and both psychically and socially average, but he's intelligent and his willpower/life-force is high. I can see where this is going...

Next attributes, what are calculated and based on characteristics.

• Combat Actions: 2 (how many times per turn my character can act, this is average).
• Damage Modifier: +/-0
• Hit Points: Legs: 6; Abdomen: 7; Chest: 8; Arms: 5; Head: 6

Fast this far! Now I have to determine Starting Skills what are based on characteristics. Characteristics give Starting Skill %-values. Obviously it would be faster to record these on character sheet. Writing takes more time.

Acrobatics: 12; Athletics: 21; Boating: 9; Dodge: 7; Driving: 26; Evaluate: 18; First Aid: 18; Influence: 22; Lore (Animal):18; Lore (Plant): 18; Lore (World): 18; Perception: 34; Persistence: 26; Resilience: 28; Riding: 28; Sing: 12; Sleight: 22; Stealth: 7; Throwing: 12; Unarmed: 9

Weapon Skills: All Close Combat: 31; All Ranged: 12

Previous experience tells character's cultural background from where he is and what is his profession. Both I can choose in Games Master's [sic] approval. I think my character is noble, because he is more brains than body. Cultural Background gives few modifications to my character. Basically in skills. Some of them are from a selection I can choose from to make my character a bit different from other noble.

My basic skills look like this after picking up Noble background:

Acrobatics: 12; Athletics: 21; Boating: 9; Dodge: 7; Driving: 26; Evaluate: 23; First Aid: 18; Influence: 32; Lore (Animal):18; Lore (Plant): 18; Lore (World): 28; Perception: 39; Persistence: 36; Resilience: 28; Riding: 28; Sing: 12; Sleight: 22; Stealth: 7; Throwing: 12; Unarmed: 9

Weapon Skills: All Close Combat: 31*; All Ranged: 12

*These at higher %: Dagger: 46; Rapier: 46

I also get the following Advanced Skills:

Language (Native) +50%, Lore (Regional), Language (Extra), Lore (Alchemy)

At this point I also have 240 silver pieces.

Next I'll choose profession. Not all professions are available for me to choose, because of my cultural background. Wizard it is. I'll get my hands on cool Rune Magic!

After choosing Wizard profession for my character's background, my skills look like this:

Acrobatics: 12; Athletics: 21; Boating: 9; Dodge: 7; Driving: 26; Evaluate: 28; First Aid: 18; Influence: 32; Lore (Animal):18; Lore (Plant): 18; Lore (World): 33; Perception: 39; Persistence: 46; Resilience: 28; Riding: 28; Sing: 12; Sleight: 22; Stealth: 7; Throwing: 12; Unarmed: 9

Weapon Skills: All Close Combat: 31*; All Ranged: 12

*These at higher %: Dagger: 46; Rapier: 46

And my Advanced skills:

Language (Native): 68; Lore (Regional): 18; Language (Extra): 18; Lore (Alchemy): 18; Runecasting (Fire): 28; Runecasting(Cold): 28; Lore (Geography): 28

One of the final touches is freebie points for skills. 100 skill points, 30 maximum usage for one skill, 10 points to start a new skill from characteristic value. Really simple. I used my 100 points to:

• Dodge 10 = 17
• Evaluate 7 = 35
• First Aid 2 = 20
• Influence 8 = 40
• Lore Plant 12 = 30
• Lore World 7 = 40
• Language (Native) 12 = 80
• Lore Alchemy 2 = 20
• Runecasting Fire 30 = 58
• Runecasting Cold 10 = 38

NOTE: Runes have been already Integrated to character. Both of them integrated looses one point of POW from character. Also all skills related to POW are decreased the number POW is decreased! From above skills I should decrease 2% what are related to POW and my character's new POW would be 14 instead of original 16.

General information is a bit boring. Movement for all human are 4m. All beginner characters start with 2 Hero Points and starting character's age is between 15 to 30. It also tells that "upcoming" RuneQuest Companion gives rules to play nonhuman characters.

Appearance is your own description. My character is 26 years old but looks at least 10 years older. His hair is grey like old man's and he looks like sickly and weak although he is in perfect condition. Just not that physical. He is taller than average.

Character personality is next step. He was bullied at school because he was weaker, taller and more intelligent than others. That has determined who he is now. He wants power via intelligence and runes and is willing to sacrifice even his physical health in his quest for "real" power.

And now equipments. 240 silver pieces to spend in weapons, armor, basic equipments etc. I won't purchase them now but I do expect that my character has a hidden knife and a rapier what gives more impression that he is noble than he would be a sword fighter. Armor gives skill penalties and they are too expensive for my character. General items would be like backpack, bedroll and other camping equipment. Parchments to record adventures and findings, lantern and oil, a couple of candles writing kit... All basic items you could think a noble wizard scholar would carry around. If he could afford after all that, a mule (125 SP) would be cool. And enough money for saving so he could afford bed & breakfast.

Conclusion

Mongoose's RuneQuest character creation is really fast. You have also some power to choose what direction your character will take. Different cultural background plus profession combinations produce different starting skill sets.

Unfortunately this book is only the basic book for MRQ and it is not that detailed.

You can basically create a character from different race as you can see how attributes are rolled for diferent races. That doesn't give much detail though and I can only guess what difference RQ Companion provides for character creation.

But for basic fantasy game, I think MRQ character creation is both fast and versatile enough. You can create a character from a commoner to a lord or (rune)wizard.

This works smoothly!

[Mutants & Masterminds] Let's create a character step-by-step

Foreword
Why did I suddenly want to create a super hero? I watched Iron Man 2 last night, and it was an awesome movie. We roleplayers are lucky. Usually when you watch a movie, and it ends, that's it. But we roleplayers can obtain NPC's, plots, ideas, settings... anything for further use.
So anyways, Iron Man 2 was a cool super hero movie, and I started to think how would it be to play Iron Man. Luckily I just got my copy of Mutants & Masterminds RPG so heck, I could try it out.
So I thought, I will create ironman-ish character for it.
There is one problem though. I am not familiar with the game. I know that it uses modified D20 system (similar to True20 who knows) and I have heard that the game is really awesome and... well, that's it. Anyways, I decided to create a character for it.
One problem might be all those super powers. How to make character good enough when you don't know how the rules work. This is also an experiment. I basically test how easy it is to create a character without previous knowledge of game mechanics.
But enough blabber, let's start.

First Step - What Does The Character Look Like?
I first thought I'd create ironman-ish character, but decided not to. It's quite boring actually. It can fly, take lots of damage and shoot energy. And that's it. So I decided to create character concept from the scratch.
For illustration and inspiration I used HeroMachine 2,5 to picture the character. I did not have any idea what I would like to create, so I just checked all the options and came up with this:

There are few things I should concider when statting the character.

1. His right hand produces electricity
2. He uses x-bow
3. He has some mental powers
4. He can fly

So, now we know how he does look like, and what he can do. Let's start exploring the Mutants & Masterminds RPG rulebook.











Creating The Character For M&M When Never Read The Book
 Finding character creation steps was easy enough. Almost at the beginning. Let's see.

0. Choose Concept And Origin
So first I should think about what kind of super hero I want to do. What are his powers etc. Well I already did that checklist based on the picture, so yeah, I have something in my mind. Let's move on. I skip step 1. as it is to check my concept with Gamemaster.

2. Determine Power Level
So, power level range is usually from 5th to 15th, but generally it is 10th. So, 10th it will be then.

3. Allocate Power Points 
Now I have to refer to later chapters to do that. Okay, let's flip pages forward. There is chapter called "Power Level - Superhero basics" what can be translated to "character creation". So let's see. There is table 1-1 about Power levels, and 10th power level is written in bold (as it is the default). So, I get 150 power points. Cool! Now, what do I do with them... Let's read on.

Table 1-2 shows what different things cost. Ability cores cost 1 per point, Attack bonus 3 per +1, Defence 2 per +1 and so on. I also have to remember, that those Power points are used also to buy Power ranks (super powers I quess) and Feats. But you can get points from weaknesses, 10 per one.

Luckily abilities are familiar from D&D, so I don't have to give time to figure out what they mean. So I just start pointing them. Starting Power value for abilities is 10. And extra costs 1 per point. So let's start putting it this way (if I make mistakes, I will correct it during this character creation):
I wonder if different special abilities use different attributes? Well, that is easily fixed later.

STR: 12
DEX: 18
CON: 14
INT: 14
WIS: 14
CHA: 14

Points spent to abilities: 34. So I have 116 to go. Next I will take attack and defence bonuses. (Not sure are melee and ranged attack bonuses different but I buy them separate).

Melee attack bonus: +1 (3 points)
Ranged attack bonus +2 (6 points).

107 to spend now. Let's take a look at skills. My maximum rank for skills is 13. That's well enough for me. So, I first pick up skills I suppose I'd need, and after it point them.

Acrobatics: 4
Diplomacy: 3
Disable Device: 3 +1
Handle Animal: 4
Hide: 6 +1
Jump: 4
Listen: 5
Read Lips: 3
Repair: 3 +1
Spot: 4 +1

I think all skills are good for super heroes. There aren't any useless ones. I spent total of 40 skill points, so now I have 67 points left. Maximum to skills was 13, and my best is 6. I am now concerned, that aren't I good enough?

Next in the list are feats. Each feat costs 2 points, so luckily they aren't that expensive and I suppose I can get good package of them. So, let's select. This part needs a bit of reading so I know how these feats work. Luckily descriptions are short so it doesn't take lots of time to figure out how they work.

Accurate Attack
Aerial Combat
Dodge
Far Shot
Headquarters
Move-By Attack
Precise Shot
All-Around Sight

That's 16 points to feats, so 51 left for super powers. Let's take a look. Luckily there is an over-view table for powers, so I don't necessarily need to go them all through inividually. Table includes power's name, cost per rank and short description how it works.

Armor 5 points rank: 5
Datalink 4 points rank: 2
Energy Blast 4 points rank: 2

Regeneration 2 points rank: 1

Now I got 36 points to buy devices.

Crossbow 6 points

After my crossbow I still have 30 points to spend. I did not find wings, so I decided they are just a prop, and buy new Super power, flight. I take 10 ranks to it so now I have 10 points to spend. With those 10 points left I buy 1 to both melee and ranged attack bonus costing total of 6 points. Last 4 points I use to skill ranks (I add them to skills as +x).

Done
I suppose I am done now. Not sure did I do the character correctly, but I created it as I flipped through the book. I also don't have any idea how good my character is. I did not buy weaknesses at this point.
So, I made a Mutants & Masterminds character without ever reading the book. It took me around 30 minutes.

1000 and 1 characters

Some time ago I saw this challenge at RPG.net (cannot find the topic anymore), where idea was to create character to all games you own for your blog or what ever. I found it really cool idea. If you are a bit bored, this is fun way to get time to pass. I have thought about it some time, and liked to do it. Not necessarily to "officially" announce my share in RPG.net, but for my own fun and challenge. Would be cool also, if I could illustrate the characters - even if the illustration would be kinda amateur-ish, it would definately add extra flavour for my challenge.

I was thinking, what game should I start with. Obvious option to start would most definately be Vampire: the Masquerade. I could do a character 3am in the morning after waked up without rulebook. But that would be a bit too easy.

I decided to start this with the game I am playing now, Fading Suns. Fading Suns is really cool game, and I suppose I haven't done ever a playing character, only npc's. So, in some day I will do a Fading Suns PC to this blog. With a picture (at the moment my scanner from stone age isn't working, so no idea how to transfer the picture to computer. Camera maybe?)

One thing to concider is what type of a character I would like to do. There is several options alone in core rulebook. You can do nobleman from several houses, a guilds member, religious church member, aliens like Ur-Ukar, Ur-Obun and Vorox, barbarians... I have to really give a thought about the character concept, what kind of character I'd like to actually play.

This wouldn't be a challenge, if I'd just simply stat characters. No, I think they need flesh and skin around their bones also.

If I would do a noble from a house, it would be from The House Decados. They are cool, evil, dark (atleast I have that kind of picture of them). In my image they are like Lasombra form Vampire: the Masquerade, or Peacekeepers from Farscape (especially Scorpius and Grayza even if Scorpius is halfbreed with Scarran).

From religious orders I would go with Temple Avesti. Really bad ass witch-hunter. With plasmapistol, vibrant blade, flamethrower, grenades. You get the picture. God(damn) battlemachine of the Lord.

Choosing from Guild would be a bit harder. Those all work good equally, but I think I would choose hot headed Charioteer pilot. Or cyber enchanted Engineer.

From aliens and others maybe Vorox. I have never introduced a single one barbarian, so it could be a challenge to create a character from.

So, as you can see. There are many options for me to choose, what also I find very interesting. I need to give a good thought for this, and be back in business shortly. With a character for Fading Suns.