Character Creation Challenge Day 7: Mothership

Mothership had a recent, successful kickstarter campaign. The beta character sheet and player survival guide beta pdfs were released just before New Year's. Perfect timing for a character creation challenge. I already had it on my list to do assuming I would do a version 0 character.

Looking at the original sheet and comparing it to the new 1st edition sheet, you can see the changes. Mothership is known for its fantastic layout and a character sheet that tells you how to build a character right on it. The tradition continues.

There's no rank/title on the sheet anymore. Health has been given a big change from a standard health pool to having up to 3 health tracks. Your class's Sanity/Fear/Body are now a roll+class bonus instead of a flat number. Armor is wholly subsumed into equipment.

Dexter

No, not that one. Dexter Hargreaves is the steward for the Chapter 238 of the United Belt Miners Union on ABO3498.  He knows mining. He knows his people. He knows whatever Larry found down in the shaft 16 isn't normal. Larry hasn't been himself. Sent him to the clinic. Now the doc hasn't shown up in a day. The next hauler is weeks out. The nearest marine station is over an AU away. They found a natural cavern on the other side of the goo. And Ed's gone missing down. Dexter and a few others are going in to see if they can find Ed alive or his body. Either way the family will need peace.

Character Creation Challenge Day 6: Star Trek Adventures

Star Trek Adventures uses a Life Path system to create characters. There's an option to use rolls to determine various aspects of your character or you can just choose. I've decided to go the random route because it can be fun, weird, and interesting. 

I'm setting this in the setting I know best, the Next Generation era. 

Species

With that in mind, the first step is to determine your species. I roll a 7 and come up with a Denobulan. I am not familiar with this species at all, but it is right there in the core book. They must have featured in something, but I don't remember them. 

I went over to the Memory Alpha wikia and discovered that they featured in a few episodes in the Enterprise series. I've never seen the Enterprise series so that would explain why I'm ignorant. Going by the entry in the core book they are a very sociable and inquisitive group.They get a +1 to Fitness, Insight, and Reason. All Attributes start at 7 and go up through the character creation process. Twelve is humanoid max. 

They get to choose from two Talents plus all of the other talents that show up later in the book. I've noted down Cultural Flexibility for now. It gives a better chance of working with new cultures or learning about them. I'm all about that. 

Environment

The second step is determing the Environment they grew up in. It's a 1d6 roll and I got Another Species' World. This is another roll on the first table to determine species. I roll a 6 on the d20 and it looks like my Denobulan grew up among Betazoids. Not a bad group to grow up around for a sociable type. I get to choose a +1 from one of their three Attribute bonuses. I choose a +1 to Insight. His time on Betazed made him more introspective. 

His environment allows him to increase 1 Discipline by +1. I choose Science because it seems natural considering his species and his environment. 

Finally, environment provides our first value. I set it at Honesty in All Things. I believe he picked up his honest streak from Betazed culture. If I was to play it might change between Session 0 and Session 1, but that's where I'm at right now. 

Upbringing

Upbringing represents the character's family and way they grew up. There are 6 options and I got number 2, Business or Trade. My immediate thought is that he would rebel against the idea of spending his life selling/trading goods. Not in a raucous way, but a polite, "I must find my own way. There's far too many other things to see." Since his upbringing was so odd, traders on another world, I can see Mettux being able to handle a life not surrounded by his people.

That's right, his name is Mettux. It came to me in the middle of this step. You take what you can get when you get it. 

Anyways, being a rebel gives him a +1 to Reason and +2 to Insight. The non-rebel gives +1 to Daring and +2 to Presence. I'd like some Presence but it's not meant to be yet. Hopefully some comes later. 

I get to add 1 to Command, Engineering, or Science. Mettux is inquisitive so I put it in Command. 

Finally, I need to choose a focus. I'm going with Negotiation on this. He gains another Talent, but I'm putting that off to the end. I don't want to flip around the book too much. 

Starfleet Academy

Mettux is off to Starfleet Academy. He's looking to meet new, interesting cultures. Learn about the universe in the best way possible. He's kissed the family good-bye. If this was an actual game his family would have to show up at some point. They'd push him into returning to help the family and to rejoin their little collective on Betazed. 

It's a d6 roll to determine the track Mettux will be on, and it's a 6. He's moving into the Sciences Track.It fits with an inquisitive nature, but Command could have worked too. I don't know how well Denobulans could handle commanding a starship. 

As an up-and-coming science officer, Mettux gets a value, +3 to distribute between 2 or 3 attributes, an increase to three disciplines, three focuses, and another talent.

Mettux's value is Precise to a Fault. It's an example value on the same page as the Science Track and I think it fits well with Honesty in All Things. Mettux is a very direct, intentional person.

I place a +1 in Reason and a +2 in Presence. Starfleet courses help Mettux with his overall knowledge but he really gains a lot of confidence at the academy. All that time with his parents wheeling and dealing along with the positive Starfleet Academy atmosphere gives him some more presence. 

On his disciplines, I raise his Science to 4. His minors are in Medicine and Engineering. He's found his love for problems both social and technical.

He picked up three focuses. Anthropology and Linguistics are good choices for him. Warp Field Dynamics come out of left field. Why? I'm tired and being able to do some random technobabble at some point appeals to me. 

The talent comes later, but I've noted it on my character sheet. 

Career and Career Events

The fifth step is the beginning of Mettux's career. This step is short. You decide between starting as a Young, Experienced, or Veteran Officer. I'm going with Experienced. There's some appeal to a Young Officer, but I think the future meeting with his parents would be best served by not seeing them for several years. 

This step gives a value and a talent. His new value will be Social Animal. He's not a reserved Science officer. The talent comes later. 

The sixth step is coming up with two career events by random roll or choice. I'll go random. Each event features some questions to answer, gives a bonus to an attribute, a discipline, and a focus.

The first roll is a 5, Required to Take Command. Somethign went wrong on a mission and the mission leader was unable to lead. What was the mission? What went wrong? Was the mission successful despite the loss of the leader? This event increases his Daring by 1 and his Command discipline by 1. He gains the Lead by Example focus.

The second roll came up a 9, Mentored. Mettux spent some time as the pilot and aide to a senior officer. Who was the officer? Does the officer remain a contact or even friend to the character? I feel Mettux would grow attached to anyone that provided mentorship to him. He likely sees the Commander as a father figure away from home more than a friend though. I increase his Control by 1 and his Conn goes up by 1 because of his time as a pilot. He gains the Composure focus. 

Finishing Touches

Mettux gains another value, Starfleet is My Family. Through the mentorship and experience of taking command he has gained an appreciation for not just the mission of Starfleet but the people as well. There's no going home for him at this point. Or is there?

He gets to add 1 to two Attributes since he has nothing at or above 12. I make his Insight a 12 and his Reason an 11. The one in Reason could go into Presence because of the command experience.

 He gains +1 in two Disciplines. I will put this in Command and Science.

We do a final check on numbers, 56 points in Attributes, 16 in Disciplines, 6 Focues, 4 Values, and 4 Talents (still to be chosen). 

His stress is a 9 because his Fitness is an 8 and Security is a 1. He gets a bonus of 1 to his damage. I already have a name though I check it against the listed ones for Denobulans anyways. It appears to be in sync with what they usually have. He's in the Science Department. He will be the Science Officer in the crew and have the rank of Lieutenant Commander. 

He receives a Science Officer's uniform, tricorder, communicator, and a type-1 phaser.

I note all this on the character sheet and now I get to choose some talents. 

I've already taken Cultural Flexibility from his Denobulan species. I think it still fits. 

His Command is a 4 and I think Defuse the Tension fits him perfectly. Any time he attempts to persuade someone against violence he adds a bonus d20.

I pick up In the Nick of Time and Intense Scrutiny from the Science Talents list to finish out the talent section. 

Final Thoughts

I enjoy life path systems and I like Star Trek. I like them both together. One problem using just the core book is that there don't feel like enough Talents. I don't really feel like the ones I chose from Science are great fits, but it's what's available. I would definitely play Mettux and I would love to try Star Trek Adventures as a player or GM. 

Below is the final character sheet. 

 

Tomorrow Mothership!

Character Creation Challenge Day 5: Scum and Villainy part 3

Today's offering is a two for one. In Scum and Villainy you have to create your ship and crew at the same time. I've left that for the end because the final character is the pilot. This crew doesn't have a reputation at the moment. They are unknowns. I've made them Audacious because they are in a whole heap of trouble. 

The Pilot

Jerric Natoth was a smuggler for Janus Syndicate. Running guns mostly, but sometimes he smuggled people. He also carted around a lot of killers. Guys that needed to get in and out fast and quiet. Jerric was witness to a lot of these killings. People didn't pay up so they got canned, permanently. He told himself it was all about business. It wore on his soul. He took to drugs and alcohol on his days off. Eventually he burned out. Became useless to the syndicate. They let him keep his ship. He was wasting away one drink and pull at a time. 

All of a sudden he has a job and he's acting as travel guide for a pair of upper class people. Life's turned around. Or has it? These two are looking over their shoulders constantly.

The Ship

Character Creation Challenge Day 04: Scum and Villainy part 2

On days like this where it's rainy outside and I'm tired from a lack of sleep, it's nice to be able to pump out a quick character. She's been on my mind since I decided to switch to making three characters for Scum and Villainy. It's rather simplistic, but I could see a couple of my original players really taking to the dynamics between Armad and Kylun. 

Once again into the breach of Scum and Villainy. Filling the second position in this three-person band is Kylun Albros. Her bosses fledgling friend and full-time protector. She doesn't know what's going on exactly, but she trusts that we wouldn't just abandon his lifestyle on a whim.

Character Creation Challenge 03: Scum and Villainy

1It's day 3 of the challenge and I've already changed what I'm doing. Today and for the next three days I'll be putting together a small crew of 3 characters for the Scum and Villainy game. Scum and Villainy is based on the Forged in the Dark system started by Blades in the Dark.

Characters are created around playbooks. These are class-like constructs that give you everything you need to play the game and your character. Below I begin with Armad Clabor. He's a noble of a minor house. The house had big ambitions of moving up in the world. Normally Armad might go along with such ambitions but the method proved too much for even him. Now he's on the run with the only friend he truly has, his bodyguard and confidant. Of course, he views it as a paid relationship. 

He's got an ancient Ur artifact, no idea how to use it, and a house that's after him for the piece they need to solve their minor status. 

Character Creation Challenge 02: Mongoose Traveller 2e

Today...this week, I move into the future. It's Sci-Fi week! Today's character comes from Mongoose Traveller 2nd edition. There are a lot of editions of Traveller. This is my first. I know. It's a travesty. 

Traveller character creation can be fun. If you go into it with the right mindset. Approaching it with the same mentality as other traditional rpgs will leave you disappointed. Unless the stars align and you receive all the blessings in the world to your dice rolls.

Character creation is confusing. I've created dozens of characters for Traveller 2e and I'm still not sure if I'm doing it right without visual aids. I've used several different workflow sheets others have created. 

That said, meet Alina Shevchuk:

Alina aspired to become a great admiral in the navy. Just like the ones she had seen in the holovids. 

Name: Alina

Species: Human

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 7

Endurance: 9

Intellect: 7

Education: 7

Social Standing: 9

Psi: 0

 

She grew up on the agricultural world of Conway. She spent time helping her family with the crops and animals they tended. Overall, her childhood was average. She was average at school, athletics, but her family was in good standing with the local baron giving her the chance she sought.

 

Animals-0

Art-0

Athletics-0

 

At 18 she applied for the Naval Academy. It was time to achieve her dreams. Even with the support of the baron, she was unable to attend the academy. Her application was denied. Despite missing the chance to become an officer, she took a chance and enlisted. Even if she couldn't be a general, maybe she could fly through the depths of space instead of being stuck on a rock. She was accepted into the pilot program for the Navy.

Pilot-0

Vacc Suit-0

Athletics-0

Gunner-0

Mechanic-0

Gun Combat-0

 

She excelled at it and looked forward to a long career. As a young pilot aboard a massive starship she met plenty of people in power. She was able to leverage those opportunities into a commission! 

Receive +2 DM to next Advancement roll. Successful Commission. 

She was on her way to living her dream. She almost immediately received a promotion from Ensign to Sublieutenant. She took to being an officer.

Melee(blade)-0

As her career progressed she focused on the leadership skills she knew any good officer needed. 

Leadership-0

During a training exercise in the Trojan Reach, her ship maneuvered into the path of another causing a collision. On the flight deck one of the massive beams fell and crushed her left arm. 

Life Event - Injury - Missing Limb - Strength reduced by 2.

Despite the injury she maintained her commitment to the Navy and progressed to the rank of Lieutenant. She spent the next few years working hard to recover from her injury. 

Personal Development - Strength +1

 

She continued to develop as a naval officer. 

 

Tactics (naval)-0

 

She had created a number of friends and confidants in her time. She enjoyed her career immensely. She felt she could achieve her dream. It was when she felt everything was going her way that she was brought to her lowest emotional point. Her best friend, and sometimes lover, had been working against her. Kateri was executive officer for the captain aboard her ship. Both women were promoted to Commander, but their once intimate relationship had grown strained.

Gain Rival (Kateri Lidmila)

She continued working on her rehabilitation and had regained her strength, if not her limb.

Personal Development - Strength +1

She focused the next four years on becoming a better leader. Unfortunately, Kateri had convinced their new senior officer that she was no longer navy material. Admiral Alfredo Viliame gave Alina a Do Not Promote rating on her next 3 evaluations. Alina left the service broken-hearted and confused. She was able to leverage some of her remaining good will into receiving a re-grown left arm for free. 

Roll of 2d6+4(rank) on Medical Bills.

Taking what money she had stashed away, Alina invested in a ship and began gathering a crew.

Cr55,000

Ship's Boat or two Ship Shares 

TAS Membership 

Personal Vehicle or Ship Share 

 

Takes 3 ship shares, TAS Membership, and Cr55,000.

 

Character Sheet

Final Thoughts

Character creation went better than expected. I'm kind of sad it did. I was expecting a girl that aspired to be something great and ended up a drifter for the majority of her adult life.

How Caelius was Made

 

Three Big Choices

Creating a character in Pathfinder is a series of choices. It can be complex. If you want to start with anything other than a 1st level character, it can take a while.As my players have said multiple times, the choices can be overwhelming, especially if you open the flood gates and allow all supplements.

The first three choices to make are Ancestry, Background, and Class. Each determines the bonuses you get for your starting Abilities, starting languages, skills, HP, and feats.

Choosing Human provides Caelius 8 HP, Medium size, a Speed of 25 feet, 2 free Ability Boosts, and the Common language with 1 + Intelligence modifier additional languages. All abilities (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma) start at 10. The ability aoosts give +2 to an ability. I set Caelius's Dexterity and Charisma to 12.

Next up, I chose Ward as his background. Every background gives you a choice between two abilities to boost and then one free boost that can be used on any other ability including the one that wasn't chosen. Ward gives a boost to Constitution or Charisma. I place a +2 in Charisma and in Dexterity again. He is now at 14 Dexterity and 14 Charisma. He also becomes trained in the Performance and Genealogy Lore skills, and receives the Fascinating Performance skill feat. 

I knew I wanted to make a Bard from the start. The key ability of the Bard is Charisma so his Charisma is now a 16. He receives 8 + Constitution modifier in HP. 

Set Abilities and Choose Skills 

The next step is adding four ability boosts to any four abilities. I chose to add +2 to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom. I'll boost Constitution later.

At first level all skills start at Trained which gives a +2 to the skill and you get to add your level to it. I chose Acrobatics, Deception, Diplomacy, Society, and Stealth. Bard gives Caelius Occultism and Performance trained by default. So I get to choose one more skill because my background also gives Performance. I put it in Survival to represent all the "on-the-job" training he did to keep everyone alive and on the move. Each skill starts at +3 (Trained + 1 level) + Ability modifier. 

Heritage

There are a lot of heritages to choose from nowadays. I want to stick to the core book as much as possible so that leaves me with Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Skilled Heritage, or Versatile Heritage. I pick up versatile heritage because I know Caelius isn't half-anything, and he doesn't need another skill. Typically people go for non-skill feats when taking versatile heritage, but Bon Mot falls into the direction I want. Adding +5 movement, +2 initiative, or +1 HP isn't a big priority for me. 

Feats, Feats Everywhere

I've already picked up one feat from my heritage. Next I get an Ancestry Feat, which I chose Natural Ambition which gives me a class feat. Caelius is a support character. So, I pick up Hymn of Healing so he can do some healing in a pinch.

He also has the Fascinating Performance feat from his background and the Lingering Composition feat from his chosen muse, Maestro.

D20 Legacy

Paizo has improved upon its game with 2nd edition. The designers, developers, writers have engineered a game that is tight mechanically. It's character creation sets it a part from modern day D&D and OSR. It's built as a character creation machine. The number of feats alone make it possible to create most anything you desire and have it mechanically supported. This won't appeal to everyone. It does a great job of what it sets out to do for those that want that complexity and mechanical support.