A Step-by-Step Character Creation Example
As an example, we now generate a sample character Tim, who is a
professional sniper who has lost his both arms in an explosion and has
replaced them with cyberware.
Character Description
We start the generating by describing Tim; the exact information about his
past is not determined until it is needed.
Tim showed promise in chemistry at school, and was attracted to
explosives and other dangerous things. In addition, the idea of
shooting people had always thrilled him, and so he went to army
training as pioneer, and simultaneously practiced shooting with sniper
rifles.
After the army he has gained enough reputation to be enlisted on a private
mercanary unit selling its services to those who pay for them. During
these assignments, Tim got more reputation and finally, when he got
his arms blown off by an accidentally exploding mine, his employees
provided him with new experimental cybernetic arms to replace the loss.
But the arms were not perfect and Tim became dependent on drugs
required to stop cyberware, and those drugs eventually caused
hallucinations every now and then. Because of this, Tim was assigned to
more and more suicidal missions, because he was replaceable.
And then, during one mission, Tim killed the rest of his team and fled.
Now he is in the streets trying to find irregular jobs to get money
for drugs.
Characteristics
Now that we have a description of Tim, we can start finding suitable
stuff for him. Of course, not all player characters require that
extensive background; it depends on the character, player, campaign
and GM.
We start from the easiest things each described above:
Tim needs level 2 cyberware for his arms (5 CPs) and 2 arms (2x1
CP). For skills, we take gun (sniper rifle)-2 (4 CPs) and demolition-1
(1 CP). And as disadvantages, we take Drug Addictivity (normal, needs
drugs weekly, -1 CP) and Hallucinations (normal mental problem, -1 CP)
As a start, we have used 10 CPs with 5 points to skills.
Now, we think all suitable skills for Tim, and then take them. By his
army training and later commando act, Tim has at least combat, melee,
stealth, various driving skills, swimming and knife and grenade
throwing.
Tim now has combat-1, melee(commando)-1, stealth(rural)-1,
drive(car)-1, drive (boat)-1, throw(knife)-1, throw(grenade)-1 and
loads of other commando stuff.
Next we fix Tim's attributes a bit: he must have a good endurance having
endured the removal of his arms, so we give him a good endurance (2
CPs). We also take a good willpower for him, so he has kept his sanity
through all the pain he has suffered.
Now, with the total at 19 CPs, we use the last one to take
miscellaneous stuff.
Tim has a very nice sniper rifle at his disposal, and we take it as an
expensive item (0.25 CP). Tim also knows one street doc, who provides
him drugs and the required maintenance to his cyberarms (contact, 0.25
CPs). As the free contact, we take a gunsmith, who makes all special
ammunition and fixes Tim would need.
With the last 0.5 CPs, we take German-1.
Final characteristics for Tim are:
good endurance (+1) combat-1 english (native)-3
good willpower (+1) gun(sniper rifle)-2 drive(car,boat)-1,
melee(commando)-1 throw(grenade,knife)-1,
stealth(rural)-1 german-1
demolition-1 commando free skills
2 cyber arms (0/2) basic education skills
(specified as required)
drug addict expensive item
hallucinations contacts: gunsmith, street doc
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9 CPs 8.5 CPs 2.5 CPs
Equipment
Now, we select suitable starting equipment for Tim.
As a main weapon, we take modified H&K Shark sniper rifle with excellent
range (this modification is expensive and covered by that expensive
item background option). For ammunition, we take 200 explosives and
200 armor piercing bullets, and 6 clips for them.
For other equipment, Tim has a H&K Wolfen Laser-variant with a box of 100
normal bullets, and 3 spare clips. He also has kevlar covert clothing
(commando style), some explosives and a simple stinking apartment rented
from a suburb near London.
Syndicate - The Dark Era (c) Kalle Marjola 1996. All rights reserved.