Ideas

[Teh_Az]

Creating Characters

I am in no way an experienced roleplayer or gamemaster. I am merely a person who likes to play games. Whenever I play these games they usually share certain elements which I consider to be the finest points of any game. These elements include a great story, tactical and action oriented game mechanics, and unbelievably great art. Whenever I play a game, these are the things I want to see. This game which I am trying to run now should be no different.

Thus, I created this little system for creating characters. Take note though, that this system is merely the mechanics and bookkeeping part of a character. The in depth and more substantial part shall be discussed on another time.

In reading this little instructional it should be kept in mind that this system is inspired mostly by Tri-Stat Dx and Tazlure. I'll be making modifications on each to convey the kind of game I want to play.

In keeping this game mostly freeform; you may ask why I would even bother to do this. Simple; I love stats. I developed my love of stats not from playing DnD or any D20 incarnation. Truth is, I've never actually played any of those games. I developed my love for it from tactical simulations like Fallout Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Front Mission 3 and 4.

I like the concept of statistics as it is used in these games because it allows one the ability to gauge one's self in relation to everyone else through a fair and objective instrument. However, that instrument should never interfere with the other elements of any game. For this, I would like to cite The Window RPG concerning their stance on how these stats could be represented. I will be following their example in the sense that I'll be using both words and numbers to convey my message.

[Words will be used as accurate descriptions of a character's physique, while numbers will be used in the background for exact measurements.]

Now, moving on to the subject of creating characters, let us define our terms.

First; there is the Character. Character is the free form essence of your character. It could be written in any form or format just as long as it does not fail to give a proper portrait of the character. This portrait must always include the given name of the character; the gender, history, age (or date of birth), spatial dimensions, personality, and description. All of which could be set in any order or style for as long as it could be understood easily. An enjoyable read is also a wonderful bonus. Oh, and specie; race should also be determined. I forgot to mention that one.

Second; there is the Potential. This one is directly inspired by Tri-Stat Dx as it is almost a facsimile of that system's character creation system.

Potential is a character's potential to do well or horribly concerning a specific kind of activity. This is the character's most naked and base point of measurement.

Here, four things govern the character. That is Mind, Body, Soul, and Attribute.

It should not be too hard to understand how this works. Mind, Body, and Soul are the three aspects upon which a character can spend his efforts on to develop. The Mind is for abilities of mental prowess and academic exercise. The Body is for pure physical power which could be molded into any physical direction. The Soul is your character's connection to something beyond the material boundaries of mere flesh and mortal thought.

However, these concepts are not an overall rating for what a character truly is. For this, Tri-Stat Dx presented a simple answer; Attributes. Attributes are the things that make your character unique. These attributes could both be good or bad things. They are all involved in separating your character from the rest. These attributes include the following as an example for the kinds of concepts Attributes make up.

[Also, keep in mind that there are several kinds of attributes too. These kinds most definitely include inherent talent and acquired modifications.]

Strong, Tough, Die Hard, Agile, Deft, Ambidextrous, Fast, Physically Conditioned, Compact, Intelligent, Wise, Iron Will, Quick Instinct, Weak, Clumsy, Heavy, Big, Slow, Foolish, Spineless, and even Special Attributes. All of these help to set your character apart from the rest according to how you want your character to be. Tri-Stat Dx does a better job of explaining these things though so do expect that I will be picking things up from that book.

One additional thought which I should mention is this. All concepts mentioned above are graded into scales. These scales are the levels upon which are shown how powerful or weak a character is at that aspect. This scale is quite simple; I will use the Tri-Stat Dx grading scale. I am at the moment trying to make a point buy system and my own grading scale that represents my thinking on the matter of power scales but for now I'm using Tri-Stat Dx.

Also, it should be kept in mind that Tri-Stat Dx has a very easy to use system for creating custom attributes so do expect that I will draw from a lot of concepts within that book.

Third; there is Career. This is the professional or academic aspect of your character. Once again, this is nothing more than a facsimile of the skills system Tri-Stat Dx and Tazlure is using. Here, I'll only be separating it from the other two ideas I've already mentioned for the sake of producing something more akin to that of a Résumé. In keeping things under the perspective of Modern Fantasy, I would appreciate it if this part of the Character Sheet does assume the form of something professional or corporate. I'd also welcome information on your character's academic and professional history.

Keep in mind though. I am not at all trying to create a new gaming system for everyone to play. I am merely trying to set down a plethora of rules that best represent how I wish to play my games. You may consider this play testing, but no. I'm not testing anything. I am only trying to play. If something comes up, I'll deal with it, if it doesn't, I continue on.

Now, instead of using classes or levels, I will instead use the career. Career is similar to what one would understand to be a class, but career here is not a structural framework which judges which goes best where, how, and why. It is not an instrument of keeping play balanced. Career, as taken from Tazlurian Game Design theory, is nothing more than a reminder of what it is your character does or should do in order to achieve the schema of an occupation. Examples of this would be Soldier, Engineer, Mechanic, Praetorian Guard, and etc. These titles give out no situational bonuses or penalties. They are merely outlines of the functions and reasoning behind their occupational title which would guide the character on further development.

I will take directly from passages in Tri-Stat Dx for so far I have yet to encounter an easier to understand yet complete to a point book which lists various disciplines for characters to learn.

Armaments

Armaments are anything that could protect or harm.

They come in three measurements that are essential to the story, Structural Integrity, Structural Intensity, and Structural Fortitude.

Structural Integrity is how much harm an armament could take before it breaks down into useless chunks of garbage which could be salvageable. For every point taken from this measurement, both Structural Intensity and Structural Fortitude are proportionately affected unless stated otherwise.

Structural Intensity is the amount of harm an armament could produce. This is highly relative to the action taken with the armament in question. It should also be specific in the kind of harm it produces once the situation calls for it.

Structural Fortitude is the amount of harm this armament could endure without breaking down into useless chunks of garbage. It should also be specific in mentioning the kind of harm it best endures once the situation calls for it.

Also, consider the following numbers as an example on the levels of Structure in accordance to their scale. O is negligible; 1 is Low Power Personnel Weaponry; 2 is High Power Personal Weaponry; 3 is Low Power Vehicular Weaponry; 4 is High Power Vehicular Weaponry; 5 is Low Power Artillery; 6 is High Power Artillery; and 7 is God's Number.

Personnel who successfully incur harm from numbers higher than 1 immediately find themselves in the situation of certain death.

Chances

I love dice, but I love tension even more. Frankly, I don't really care anymore what people use to simulate entropy or chaos factor. To make my game fun, however I'm going to use something that would allow me an extent of flexibility, enough to meet any situation which calls for a judgment of fate; success or failure.

Chances was thought up for this very situation. Chances are basically your chances of success or failure. How you measure it though is highly up to the game and the moderator.

These chances should, however, come in levels and terms that help the character and player understand his or her odds easily. What I will be using for these terms shall be in three levels; Minimal, Ample, and Certain. This should be enough and I will develop my own method of measurement as it is relative to the situation.

Just for the Philosophical fun of it, I might also be using the level God Wills It. If I use it, we'll have fun.

Concentration Points

These are used to keep things in perspective whenever a contested action is taken. Contested actions are actions where in there is a need to process for moderator judgment. These actions usually include attacking, using a skill, modifying items, interrogation, and so on and forth.

In a single round a character must have at least five concentration points; for an action to occur without penalties, at least three concentration points must be spent on that individual action; an action cannot be done without at least one point of concentration to be spent on it. For every point of concentration that is spent or taken from the standard of three there should be a number of modifiers given to the action in question. These actions could either be penalties or bonuses assigned accordingly to the chances of an action being done.

These actions must only occur on one post as every character is allowed one post for ever round in a single thread. All concentration points not spent in a round are lost on the next round unless there is a player action that allows for conserving concentration points.

Contested Situations

These are the instances in a given thread that require the need for moderator judgment. These situations call for the use of Chances, Random Instruments, Actions, Modifiers, and whatever.

Basically, Chances is what you move against. In my games, Chance and Fate is always against you. You're actions and how good you are at doing them is the pen that rewrites how fate should be. As a moderator, it is primarily up to you how to measure these chances.

Now, concerning the action itself, consider first that the moment an action is taken the character enters a situation. That situation calls for a measurement of how good that character is at doing that specific action and comparing it to his chances of success.

How do we measure this? Simple, that is up to the moderator, all you need to do is act and see if you failed or succeeded. The measurement is all up to the moderator's discretion. Why? Because the rules are at the mercy of the moderator and I will keep up no pretense on the fact that every situation is beneath a context entirely unique from every other context and it is up to the moderator how best to judge that situation.

How will the moderator judge it? I don't know. He might be using a stack of cards, all kinds of dice, coins, and even a random number generating tool. All that you the player should keep in mind though is this. Whenever judgment is made, it is always made with your character and what he is capable of in consideration. If your character is good at doing this particular action, then expect that to be measured into the computation. If your character has equipment that aid his action, that will also be measured into the computation.

Endurance

This is quite simple. It is merely the measure of how much strain of any kind your character could take according to the situation. These situations could affect any of the three major measurements of your character; body, mind, and soul. These all depend on the situation that strains the character.

It does not matter what kind of strain that would be. What does matter though is the amount of strain that character incurs. The moment that amount exceeds the character's limit; the character must be immediately afflicted with Loss of Consciousness.

How do we measure this? It is all up to the moderator. What the moderator says will always go.

An example of how this works would be how I would measure it and account for it. First off, to keep the bookkeeping easy, every five continuous rounds where the character does actions that concern contested situations; I will check his endurance to his chances of strain. For every three checks that the character fails to meet his endurance, his chances for Loss of Consciousness shall rise from Minimal, to Ample, to Certain. Once the character fails his chances at certain, he will be afflicted with Loss of Consciousness.

Keep in mind that this example and concept could be used for any situation which incurs strain. This could be structural strain, physical strain, sanity strain, mental strain, and etc. Also, the moderator is not stupid. He or she could easily modify any method in accordance to the situations that arise.

Lethality

Death in my games is a concept of situation. Lethality is an attempt at measuring that situation relative to the subjects that happen to find themselves in it.

Death is not welcome in any house. It is hated, feared, and always misunderstood. If Death was to become a man; he would have no friends. This has'"since the start of time'"always been what man cares to reject the most.

This attitude helped a bit as in time man achieved the ability to constantly delay Death's visit. Some have even gone to the extent of cheating Death.

In every of those visits there should be a simple meter.

That meter is lethality and it measure's the visit itself rather than the actions that caused it. This meter comes in three forms; Status, Potential, and Affliction.

Status is the adjective that defines what a character is at a certain point in time. It is either Healthy or Afflicted. Afflicted here could be anything which the situation calls for.

Potential is the situation's potential for afflicting the character with instant Death. There are three levels of this potential: Minimal, Ample, and Certain.

If the character somehow evades the situation, Affliction is the after effect of survival. Affliction is actually the kind of status which will now define the kind of affliction the character will have to experience. This affliction could be a disease, weakness, or even loss of consciousness brought by pain and/or shock. Once again, this affliction is up to the situation and what it calls for.

Round Phases

Moderator Phase
Outlines and narrates the subjects and objects which are related to this round. This would include all the personnel on a given area and their spatial relations to each other; the background objects within that area which would include the area itself and their spatial relations to each other and the players; and the background events that are occurring as the round continues.

Initiative Determination also occurs in this phase. Players who roll for the initiative judge who acts first and so on. The Slowest roll always posts first but in the context of a round the slowest always acts the most delayed. In other contexts this could be reversed but that should be left to the moderator to judge.

Player Phase
The players here are to narrate the actions their characters will take. In relation to this statement, it should always be kept in mind that the player only holds authority over his character and no one else's. NPCs and other PCs are at the finger tips of their respective players and the moderator.

Closing Phase
This is where the round ends and the moderator narrates the effects of each of the actions taken by the players. It is as simple as that. This could also be seen as the moderator phase for the next round; thus resulting in a change where in the moderator sets the scene, players act on it, the moderator then changes the scene according to the actions the players have taken, and then the players react to this change and so on and so forth.

Threads

Play by Post runs not on sessions but threads. These threads usually account for either a finite length of time in an exact area or a single plotline itself. There should at least be one moderator for every thread to run the campaign setting's physics. There are situations, however that do not require or may even need more than one moderator. These situations are usually the kind of situations where in a single moderator could not handle properly, or situations where in there is little need for moderation at all'"an example would be a thread filled with player conversation rather than actions that need a moderator to run the game physics. Here, it is up to the moderator to judge whether the situation requires more moderators or not.