|
|
Getting Started
Creating a Character
Every character's "skeleton" is made up of the following traits:
Note: We refer to character's as "she." Don't ask me why, Joe wrote that in, but hell, it worked for Vampire: The Masquerade...
Brain-How intelligent she is, how capable she is of solving problems and coming up with new ideas.
Cool-How centered she is, how well she stands under pressure.
Dexterity-How much control she has over her body and her agility.
Liver-How well her body tolerates drugs, booze, and other such crap in her system.
Strength-What size amp can she carry, how far she can run without collapsing.
Style-How good of an impression does she make, how she can get people to eat her shit and call it sugar, other social nonsense.
To get Strength, Dexterity, Liver and Style take three six sided dice (3D6 in game speak) and roll them for each stat. Add the totals.
To get Brain and Cool take two six sided dice, roll them, and add six to the result (2D6+6 in game speak).
Let's do an example: I am creating a character that I decide to name Rose. Digging through the pile of shit that I call my room, I find three D6s. First I roll for Strength and get a 4, a 3, and a 2. Rose has 9 in Strength.
I go down the list to Brain. I put away one of the dice and roll two, getting a 5 and a 6. I then add six to the total, giving me 17. Rose is pretty damned smart, but not too strong.
We've finished the skeleton. Now let's look at concept.
Essentially a concept is a one or two word description of your character, something more detailed than "Goth" that you can use as a reference point for your character. I look over to Rose's stats and her Brain is remarkably high but her style is low (7) so I decide that 'Shy loner' is the best way to describe her. Concepts are the overall “type” of person, or goth, or whatever your character is. Such as, in Vampire: The Masquerade, a concept could be a Malkavian Jedi Knight, or Tank Girl. Both of these are not the character’s actual identities, but give a basic structure to the type of person your character is or tries to be. This also helps a great deal if your character is unemployed (i.e. not defined by her job), and does not belong to any clan or organization.
Hit Points
Hit points measure how far from DEAD your character is. To get hit points add your character's Strength to her Cool, then divide by two (round up). Rose's Strength is 9 and her Cool is 12. I add 'em and get 21. Divided by 2 that is 10.5 or 11 when rounded up.
If a character gets half her current hit points taken off in one blow she must roll under her Strength on 3D6 or she falls unconscious. At zero hit points the character is dead and all her friends hold a big dramatic funeral and compose horrid poetry in her honor.
Example: While Rose is walking to her friend Seth's house, she accidentally gets hit by a car, losing 7 Hit points. Her Strength is 9 and she rolls the 3D6 and gets a 4, leaving her still wake. Wounded, she drags herself into Seth's house to get her face smashed by a pillow the moment she crawls through the door. She only took two points of damage from that, but since all she had was four she had to roll again. This time she got a 13 and passed out on Seth's rug.
Every human heals at a rate of 1D3 (yes, this is just some arbitrary number...) hit points a week, unless they are in a hospital in which case they get 2D3 a week. The Hit points can never exceed their original number.
Intoxication Points
also known as the Booze-O-Meter
These are the Liver Stat multiplied by 2. Until 25 percent below normal the character gets +10 percent to all social rolls (drunks are a lot of fun to watch) to reflect lowered inhibitions. However, below twenty-five percent of the original total the downside of booze kicks up. For every three points below the 25% mark she loses 10 percent on each skill roll she does. In addition she has to roll below her Liver stat on 3D6 (called the Con roll) or pass out. If her Intoxication Points go to zero, she dies of blood alcohol poisoning and her friends throw a big dramatic funeral.
The Ubergoth assigns how many intoxication points each drink is worth. A small glass of wine might only be worth one point while slugging down a bottle of whiskey might be worth ten. Unless a player makes a Booze skill roll the Intoxication point amount is secret, but the Ubergoth can probably base the amount on actual proofs and/or percentages of the alchohol--i.e. if wine is one intoxication point (IP), then so is a bottle of beer, a shot of whiskey, etc, while a 22 oz. bottle of cider might count as 2IP. Ultimately, it is at the Ubergoth’s discretions how many points each drink will cost, although it is recommended to develop a system as above. Intoxication points regenerate at 1 point per hour. Hangovers might put players out of action for a day.
Lets get back to Rose. After spending a week in the hospital for the car and the pillow and another week recuperating at home, she is invited to a party in the city. She gets there and her shy nature takes over, forcing her out on the balcony while everyone is inside. She has a cup of beer the Ubergoth deemed worth 3 Intoxication points. Her current Liver score is 8, so her IP score is 16. After she finishes the beer her intoxication points are at 13, which isn't over a 25% loss (25% of 16 Intoxication points is 4 points. As long as she stays above 12 Intoxication points she gets the 10 point bonus.)
She goes inside and finds a little pretty boy she falls immediately in lust for. Since she gets a bonus of 10 to her Seduce skill she decides What The Hell. With the bonus she pulls off the roll and soon the young lad is hopelessly in her spell. An hour later (giving her a point back, bringing herself up to 14 Intoxication points) she has a larger glass of beer, one the Ubergoth deems worth 5 Intoxication points. That is exactly three more than 25% so she has to roll under her Liver stat on 3D6. She gets an 11 and collapses on the host's bed.
Drugs
Drugs work on the same Intoxication point rules as alcohol but with one difference. If you fail a Con roll you lose 1D4 hit points. In addition, if you take a mind altering substance, there should be some side effects determined by the Ubergoth, most likely a hallucination or a hit point loss.
(Quick Non-Gamer-Geek Note: if you don’t happen to be an ultra gamer geek like the authors, and don’t have 4, 8, 10, 12, or 152,909,902 sided dice, fear not. I used to game with just 3D6, and created a system based on that. For example, if you needed a 1D4, you could use one of those old Yahtzee dice, and if you hit above four, simply subtract four (making it easier to hit 1 or 2, you have twice the chance). It’s rough, but it works until you become a geek 24/7).
Damage bonus
Bulkier people hit harder. If your character has over 15 in Strength then every time she hits someone you can add 1D4 to the total amount of damage. If your character has less than 6 in Strength subtract 1D4 from the damage.
Two useless abilities
To give your character more of a personality give her two useless skills, nervous habits, or personality quirks. Think Malkavian Derangements Lite.
Rose's two useless skills is that she can sing anything by Bone Thugs And Harmony in Italian and when she is nervous she hums the score to "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."
