Difference between revisions of "Character creation guidelines can be found here."

Latest revision as of 17:27, 25 November 2017

• Note: This section is a work in progress and decisions have not been finalized. Until such time, characters created using the following rules may need to be reworked slightly. Edit: This page has mostly been finalized and is operating at a "high-speed wobble." What's here should work for now. I'll let you guys know if I have to make major changes.

The Basics

Characters created for the Phoenix's Last Rise campaign will use Hero System 6E rules. They will be based on 175 points with up to 50 matching points of complications. You can choose to have no complications; however, invoking complications is a primary method of earning experience (and they simply add flavor to the pile of stats that is your character). Power frameworks will not be allowed. There will likely be some variation of XYZ compliance for player characters, but I haven't settled on the proper formula yet.

Players will have to choose an origin for their character. This is a binary choice. Either they are a member of the Morrow Project (TMP), meaning that they were put in cryogenic suspension before the war; or they are a "topsider," a descendant of the tiny fraction of humanity that survived the apocalypse or some other kind of life form that has mutated into existence.

Each character comes from somewhere, and some have a widely varied past. Each character, whether they are TMP members or Topsiders have a default background, and may choose a background perk for their character at no point cost. This will enable them to purchase certain skills or abilities that are otherwise unavailable to most characters. A character may have multiple background perks, however each one after the first costs 5 points.

Each character will roll randomly for their starting gear. Each level of the Money perk will allow for more rolls on the Master Salvage tables. For TMP characters, this represents a small bit of the stuff they were issued or brought with them from before the war that has not decayed completely over time inside their compromised bunker. For Topsiders, this array of starting gear represents the items they have been able to scrape together over a lifetime of scrounging through the wasteland and trading. They may have had better stuff at one time, but maybe it broke down, or they had to trade it away for food, water and bullets. At any rate, what they roll on the table is what they currently have in their possession.

Character Origin

As stated above, there are two possible origins: TMP or Topsider. Your character was either born before the war when civilization still existed, or you have lived all your life in the wasteland. Each origin has its own incentives and drawbacks.

TMP Personnel

Ideally, the CoT would have liked to have the most rigid of standards for inclusion in the Project. Realistically, almost all volunteers had some shortcomings in at least one area or another, but many were allowed on board because of their status as "area experts" in one field or another that would prove useful to rebuilding a post-war society. Still, the applicants were screened to the best ability of the psychologists and medical staff of the day to weed out the physically infirm or mentally unstable.

The Project selected thousands of people for cryostasis to be awakened after the war. Personnel selected for this service will tend to be more capable than the common man and may, in some cases, be considered the "cream of the crop" when it comes to physical and mental aptitudes. Additionally, all TMP staff have undergone rigorous training prior to being placed in stasis, and will always have a number of skills that would be vital to completion of the project.

TMP characters will be built using the following template, at a cost of 27 character points:

• TMP personnel get the Technical Background perk for free
• Normal Characteristic Maxima

• STR, DEX, CON, INT, EGO, PRE--20
• OCV, DCV, OMCV, DMCV, PD, ED--8
• SPD--4
• REC--10
• END, STUN--50
• Running--20m
• Swimming--10m
• Leaping--10m
• Skill Maxima: 13-

• Everyman Skills:

• Acting
• Concealment
• Conversation
• Deduction
• Language: English (completely fluent, literate)
• Paramedics
• Persuasion
• TMP Team Member: PS 11-
• Shadowing
• TF: Equines, Small Motorized Ground Vehicles, Two-Wheeled Motorized Ground Vehicles, Two-Wheeled Muscle-Powered Ground Vehicles

• Skill Package (23 points)

• Climbing 11-
• Navigation (Land) 11-
• Vocation Chosen by Player: PS 11-
• Stealth 11-
• Survival (Temperate/Subtropical, Mountain) 11-
• Tactics 11-
• WF: Common Melee Weapons, Small Arms
• Weaponsmith (Firearms) 11-

• TMP Rejuvenation Serum

• Power: Regeneration--1 BODY/Day (4 Active Points)

• Penalties: Social Complication (Anachronism)--skill rolls have a -1 to -3 penalty (Pre-war characters talk "funny," have slightly different social norms); No AK skills allowed

Topsider

When the war came, bombs and missiles delivered thousands of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons all across the planet. Few heavily populated areas escaped direct attack, and almost none were spared from the firestorms, fallout and the nuclear winter that followed. Quite possibly up to 95% of humanity perished in the initial attacks and the ensuing devastation, and that doesn't even begin to account for the interference wrought by the evolutionary biocide feeding and breeding chaotically in the irradiated environment. Those that survived in the long run were a hardy bunch, and prepared for survival. They made what they needed out of the world around them. Sometimes, the world around them made them into what they needed to be...

Topsiders have lived their lives in the wastelands, and have managed to survive it all. They are a varied bunch, and come from many different backgrounds. Topsider characters will have fewer mandated expenditures compared to a TMP character, but a life lived in the barren, uncivilized wastes can take a toll on one's mental and physical acumen. Being exposed to the deleterious effects of radiation and lingering bioweapons has, at times, introduced useful mutations in the population, enabling survivors to deal with issues in ways that men and women of the past were simply incapable of imagining. In addition to genetically unaltered human survivors, Topsiders can be mutants with a wide array of mutant powers, human/animal hybridizations, mutant animals that have gained human levels of intelligence and sentience, or even Espers who have begun to unlock heretofore unknown powers of the human mind.

Topsider characters will be built using the following template which costs no character points:

• Topsiders get the Survivor background perk for free
• Reduced Characteristic Maxima

• STR, DEX, CON, INT, EGO, PRE--15*
• OCV, DCV, OMCV, DMCV, PD, ED--8
• SPD--4
• REC--10
• END, STUN--50
• Running--20m
• Swimming--10m
• Leaping--10m
• Skill Maxima: 13-

• Everyman Skills:

• Breakfall
• Climbing
• Concealment
• Navigation (Land)
• TF: Equines, Two-Wheeled Muscle-Powered Ground Vehicles
• Scrounging
• Survival (Mountain, Temperate/Subtropical, Urban)
• Stealth

• Penalties: Mental Complication (Rudimentary Knowledge)--Skill rolls may suffer a penalty when dealing with technology (-1 to -3, depending on complexity); cannot read/write unless skill is purchased. Gear purchased with character points must take the limitation: Subject to Maintenance Rules (-1/4 limitation)

*Topsiders may select one of these 6 characteristics to have a Maximum of 20

Character Background

Each character in the Phoenix's Last Rise campaign will select one or more backgrounds for their character. Backgrounds are used to encourage specialization among the player characters. It represents that a character requires something other than just some experience points to learn a coveted skill or ability. Backgrounds also signify that a character may have a special origin, and are therefore allowed to have certain special abilities that others may not have.

TMP members get the Technical Background perk by default, while Topsiders get the Survivor perk. One background may be selected for no cost. Each additional background will cost 5 points.

Restricted Skills

Some skills are more useful than others, depending on the genre. Not all skills will be available to all characters, either because they logically require a certain amount of specialization and/or to maintain game balance. Some skills will require a specific origin (TMP/Topsider), while others will require a specific background. Restricted skills are as follows:

• Bugging
• Computer Programming
• Electronics
• Forensic Medicine
• Inventor
• KS: Area Knowledge
• Mechanics
• Paramedics
• PS: Doctor
• PS: Mechanic
• PS: Nurse
• Systems Operation
• Trading
• Martial Arts

Background List

• Technical Background--This background perk allows the character to purchase the following skills: Mechanics, Electronics, Inventor, and PS: Mechanic. For Topsider characters, if you wish to spend points on a vehicle of some kind, you must have this perk to build it and keep it running. Coming from an age when technology was everywhere and was a prerequisite for inclusion in the project, all TMP personnel get this perk for free.
• Healer--This background allows the character to purchase the following skills: Paramedics, PS: Doctor, PS: Nurse. This perk also allows the purchase of foci that are medically related (such as med-kits, antibodies and truth serums). While TMP personnel have Paramedics as an everyman skill, it is little more than what would be taught in a basic First Aid/CPR class. If you want to take levels in it as a TMP character, you'll have to have this background perk.
• Mutant--This background allows the character to purchase mutant powers up to 30 active points. Each further instance of this background adds 15 to the active point limit. TMP characters may not take the Mutant perk
• Martial Artist--This background allows the character to purchase up to 15 points of martial arts. Each additional instance allows 10 more points. Over the years, this has become a lost art in the wasteland, replaced by undisciplined barbarism and ferocity. As such, This background is only available to TMP characters.
• Merchant--This background allows the purchase of the trading skill, as well as PS: Merchant. The character may also purchase wealth. Because merchants live by combing the wasteland, they get the autofire version of the Scrounging skill for 3/2 rather than 5/3 for other character types.
• Survivor--This background allows the character to begin the game with Area Knowledge skills. TMP characters may not take the Survivor perk.
• Special--The character has some sort of special background that allows them access to something not normally allowed.

• Robot--The character is an autonomous robot with free will. The character is allowed to purchase automaton powers and a wide array of immunities. TMP/Topsider characteristic maxima still apply.
• Mutant Animal--The character is not a human that has been mutated, but rather an animal that has been mutated in such a way as to have advanced intelligence. TMP characters may not take this background.
• Esper--This special background allows the character to have powers with a "psionic" special effect up to 20 active points. Each further instance of this background adds 10 to the active point limit. Espers were a pre-war phenomenon; topsiders may not choose this background. The GM's "gentleman's agreement" is in effect regarding mental powers: If no one takes powers like mind control, I will refrain from having NPCs with like abilities. (Note: Bruce Edward Morrow was rumored to be a powerful Esper, and this may have been how he was able to foresee the coming war and convince the founders of the CoT to join him in creation of The Morrow Project)

Equipment in the Post-Apocalypse

Evidently, this is actually a thing.

Nothing lasts forever. As the years have ticked by after the fall of civilization, the world's supply of manufactured stuff has been steadily dwindling. Little should be taken for granted in the wasteland; nearly anything might be of value to someone, or could be re-purposed in a pinch. Players will roll randomly on the Master Scrounging list to determine what items their characters begin the game with. If the players desire, they may roll their gear before making any other choices about their character, in case they wish to tailor their character to fit their starting gear (such as selecting weapon skills and abilities to use with items they'll start the game with), or in case their initial gear inspires a particular character concept. Started with a segway and a fishing pole, you say? Post-apocalyptic Segway-Jouster it is, then!

Starting Gear

Each character will start with their clothes and 100 gear points for rolls on the Master Salvage table. Each category chosen to roll from has its own cost (a roll on the weapons table costs more than the junk table). Select a category, pay your points and roll for the item. Continue until you are out of gear points. For characters with the Trader background perk, you can purchase the Money (wealth) perk. Each point of wealth grants an additional 25 gear points. The categories on the salvage table and their costs are as follows:

• 5--Master
• 25--Transportation
• 10--Tools
• 20--Weapons
• 5--Ammo
• 10--Trade
• 20--Armor
• 25--High Tech
• 5--Necessities
• 2--Salvage
• 1--Junk

Some characters may get lucky when it comes to starting gear. Others may wind up with a pile of mostly useless junk. It's a real crap shoot; life ain't fair, and the post-apocalyptic life even less so. Remember, though, that this is just stuff that you don't pay character points for; it's easy come, easy go. Ideally, you'll be able to find plenty of other stuff while scrounging or occasionally looting enemies.

Additionally, your character starts with any items they paid character points for (powers/abilities with the "Focus" limitation). If you paid character points for a rifle or a vehicle or a medkit, you start the game with those items. The ability to start with certain items may require a specific background or origin. TMP characters that start with gear have it in pristine condition, working as advertised. Topsiders' gear is often cobbled together with duct tape, hundred year-old bubblegum and willing suspension of disbelief; all gear (foci) chosen by Topsiders must have the -1/4 limitation: Subject to Maintenance Rules

Equipment Condition

Few usable items in the world have made it this far without becoming at least a bit unreliable. At the outset of the game, characters will have an assortment of randomized gear and items. Useable items such as tools, vehicles, weapons and armor must be checked to see what condition they are in. This is done by rolling 3d6 and consulting the following table:

This may be a partially hidden roll, depending on the circumstances (such as looking over an item for trade), which means that the player will roll 2 of the 3d6 while the GM will roll the other one. The player may have a general idea of an item's condition, but may not know its secret faults.

Maintenance

When an item is used in a stressful situation (often denoted by having to make a skill roll, or where an important task was accomplished) or in combat, there is the chance that its condition will worsen. Proper maintenance of gear is vital to keeping your stuff in (mostly) working order. After each use, or at the end of combat, make a maintenance roll for each item used to see if it degrades in quality. For TMP characters, use PS: TMP Team Member; for Topsiders, use Scrounging. Either type of character may substitute an appropriate technical skill if they have it. If the skill check succeeds, your maintenance of the item is up to snuff, and its condition does not worsen (you either made sure it was in good shape before you used it or were able to tighten bolts or oil things up after use). If the skill check fails, increase the number of the condition by one (Condition A4, 11- Burnout, would become condition A5, 10- Burnout). If the skill check fails with 2 sixes in the roll, the letter of the condition increases by one or it gains a level to condition C (Condition A4 would become condition B4, 11- Jammed, or A4 and C1, player's choice). If you roll an 18 (3 sixes), increase the letter of the condition by 2; if the item has condition B or C, it is now broken. Good job, butterfingers.

If an item suffers burnout or a jam, the appropriate condition effect is automatically increased by 1, and a maintenance check is still required to determine if the item has deteriorated any further.

Condition Levels

There are 4 condition effects: A, B, C and D. Each effect (except D) has multiple effects to reflect how broke the item is getting. Condition effects start off at 1, but as the item wears down, this number will increase. If it reaches the maximum (A8, B8 or C3) and it gains a condition level, its condition effect worsens or it gains an additional condition (A8 would either worsen to B8 or A8 and C1; B8 would worsen to B8 and C1.

• Condition A (Burnout)--The item works, but there is a chance that after use it will break down (such as a gun that has a tendency to drop its magazine after firing a shot, or a first aid kit prone to run out of supplies)
• Condition B (Jammed)--The item works, but there is a chance that the item will break down before it is used (for instance, an ax whose head tends to fly off the handle when swung or a gun with a tetchy firing pin)
• Condition C (Concentration)--The item works, but the user must take special care while using the item, and are less able to defend themselves while attempting to use it. This condition is applied on top of one of the other two conditions. If a maintenance roll fails on an item with Condition A & C or B & C, the player can choose which condition letter to increase.
• Condition D (Parts)--The item no longer works, and is beyond help with simple maintenance. It can be broken down for parts for trade, or used to repair other items. If an item has maximum levels of all condition effects and its condition worsens, it gains condition D and breaks down.

Armor Condition

Since armor is worn instead of used, condition levels affect these items differently. Condition levels A, B and C may be in effect at the same time for armor. The player may choose which condition worsens if a maintenance check fails. If the armor is "pristine" (i.e., has no condition levels), a failed check will result in condition A; failing with 2 sixes will result in condition B and a roll of 18 will result in condition C. If the armor already has condition levels, a failed roll with multiple sixes will add condition levels from the highest letter of condition (if you made a skill check of 6, 6, 3 on an armor with condition A2 and B1, it would then gain condition C1, as well; if you rolled an 18 while maintaining the same armor, it would be reduced to condition D)

• Condition A reduces the protection level. Each level of condition reduced PD or ED (roll randomly) by 1
• Condition B reduces mobility. Each level of condition reduces running movement by 1 (to a minimum of 1/2 starting movement)
• Condition C further reduces mobility. C1 reduces DCV by 1/2; C2 reduces OCV and DCV by 1/2; C3 reduces OCV by 1/2 and DCV to 0.

Poorly maintained armor may quickly become more of a liability, and the user could quite conceivably be better off without it!

Repairing Items

When gear gains condition levels, it is possible to patch things up and repair them. During appropriate times in the game, you may be able to allot time for maintenance of your gear. This is often as important as the time dedicated to scrounging for items, food and water. In addition to those other time sucks, the GM may ask how much time (if any) the players want to spend maintaining their gear.

Repairing items takes a minimum of 2 hours. For each additional 2 hours spent, you can add a +1 bonus to the skill roll, up to a maximum of +3 (by spending 8 uninterrupted hours performing maintenance). This allows the character a maintenance roll (use the skills described above). This is an "autofire" skill; every 2 points that the skill roll succeeds by yields an additional level of effect. Each level of effect can reduce the condition number of one of your items' condition effects by 1. Repair effects can be used on just one item or spread out over several items in your kit. If you exceed your maintenance roll by 4 points, you get 3 effect levels of repair; you could repair one item from A4 to A1, or put one level of repair on 3 items in your inventory. You can also apply repair effects to the equipment of others (if they are around; you can't fix their stuff if they are out foraging unless they left it with you!)

To remove or reduce condition effects requires the appropriate consumables such as duct tape, Krazy Glue, nuts and bolts, wood, metal, cloth, spare parts, etc. The condition level of the effect must first be repaired to the lowest level possible (A1, B1 or C1), then a maintenance period must be spent focusing on the item in question. If the skill check succeeds, conditions A or C can be removed, or condition B reduced to A, though the previous condition effects may return or worsen with failed maintenance rolls! If the item has been repaired such that it is has no condition effects, the item is considered to be in "pristine" condition (or, about as good as it's realistically going to get). You will still need to make maintenance rolls after the item is used, but if wear and tear starts to show up, it's a lot easier to tighten up slight squeak or wobble than it is to rebuild something that has already almost fallen apart.

Scrounging in the Wasteland

The things left behind by millions of people could conceivably sustain a handful of survivors for a very long time. One of the biggest problems is the matter of stuff breaking down over time (see maintenance rules, above) and the fact that all the dead were not conscientious enough to always leave their stuff in an orderly fashion where scavengers could get at it in an efficient, systematic way.

All survivors are skilled to some extent at the custom skill Scrounging. Some TMP personnel may also have this ability; simulations of picking useful equipment out of various places would have been a part of the training regimen. When searching an area or being given the opportunity to scrounge, the players should determine how much time they will dedicate to the task and how many people will be involved. Spending more time scrounging and having the assistance of extra people will improve the chances of finding stuff, if there are any items to be found at the location. Scrounging is part skill and part luck; not only is it the ability to find items that might have some value, but the knack for breathing some life back into items that most would have passed off as junk. Scrounging through an area might reveal a working automobile. "How could anybody have missed that?" you ask. "Shouldn't something like a car have been mentioned in the area description?" If it doesn't work and has no real use, then it's just scenery. A successful scrounging roll might allow a character to pop the hood, wiggle some wires and find a spare key under the visor or hotwire the thing.

The Scrounging skill has two forms. The basic version is an INT-based skill and costs 3/2 points. The advanced version uses autofire rules and costs 5/3. As this is the kind of skill that merchants live by, they get the advanced version for the cost of 3/2.

Time Spent

Scrounging takes a minimum of 2 hours. Every additional hour spent increases the scrounging roll by +1. The skill roll may be modified by the environment (you are more likely to find salvage in an urban area than in the middle of the woods.

Basic Scrounging and Advanced Scrounging

When the scrounging roll is made, success indicates that you have found something of use. Make a roll on the Master Scrounging Table to see what category of item it is, and consult those item tables to determine the exact nature of the items found. With the advanced version of Scrounging, treat the skill roll as an autofire roll; every 2 points the roll succeeds by grants another level of success. The nature of extra success levels is up to the GM, but could be extra rolls on the scrounging table, additional quantities of a single item or a better quality item of the type indicated.

Ammunition

In the wastes, bullets are scarce. Some places might even accept bullets as a form of currency due to their universal usefulness! As an alternative to having to micromanage ammunition lists on your character page and keep track of charges (bullets) for your weapons, a more abstracted approach will be used that is similar in application to the maintenance rules described above.

Rather than keep track of bullets by caliber, length, grain weight and powder charge, ammunition will be tracked by the type of weapon and its damage classes (DCs). Thus, an AK-47 that does 2d6 damage (6 DCs) will use the same ammo as an M-16 rifle that does 2d6 damage, but this ammunition would not work for a .44 magnum revolver (also 6 DCs) because it is a pistol. This is not how bullets work; this is just a convention being adopted to ease one aspect of bookkeeping. When ammunition is purchased or salvaged, it is applied as a bonus to the ammo roll for a particular weapon in your inventory. Once the ammunition of a particular DC rating is applied to that weapon, it cannot be transferred; the "amount" of ammo you have doesn't really track how much ammo you've got, just whether you have run out, which is also a reflection of your trigger discipline during a fight.

When a weapon that uses charges (be they bullets, arrows or energy cells) is used in a combat, the weapon must make an ammo roll after the encounter is over, regardless of whether the weapon was fired only once or a hundred times. It is assumed you have enough bullets to at least get you through this bit of action. The base ammo roll is determined by the number of charges the weapon carries:

If the ammo check succeeds, decrement the ammo roll for that weapon by one and carry on. Your weapon will be available for use the next time you need it. If the ammo check fails, regardless of your current ammo roll, you discover after the encounter that you have run your weapon dry and you are out of ammunition.

Stockpiling Ammo

When ammunition is found or purchased, instead of tracking numbers of charges, the ammunition will represent a bonus to the weapon's ammo roll. Finding lots of ammo will reduce the chances of you running out after a fight, but even if you have mags strapped all over your body, a terrible result on your ammo check reflects that maybe you were a bit heavy on the trigger during the fight and lost track of how much you were shooting.

If you run out of ammo for the weapon, the next unit of ammo you find or purchase will restore the weapon's ammo roll to its starting point. A pistol with 16 charges will give you an ammo roll of 14-.

If the ammo roll exceeds 17-, you can begin a backup stockpile of ammunition for the weapon. If your ammo roll fails, add the ammo count from the reserve to the current ammo roll and decrement by 1. Example: you have a weapon with a current ammo roll of 8- (you've been using it for a while without running out of ammo) and a stockpile of ammo for it at +5. After an encounter, you fail your ammo roll. You dig out your reserve ammo (+5) and add that to 8. You top off your mags, decrementing the ammo roll by one. Your new ammo roll is 12- (8 + 5 - 1 = 12).

Autofire Weapons

Some weapons have the autofire advantage. Autofire and ammunition rarity do not mix well. Every time an autofire weapon is used, you must make an ammo check. If the roll fails, immediately decrement your ammo roll (you pulled the trigger a little bit too long on that burst). When the combat is over, make an ammo roll as normal to see if you have run out of ammo.

Recoverable Ammo

Some weapons fire ammunition that is recoverable, like bows and crossbows. After an encounter where the weapon is used, make an ammo roll to see if you run out of arrows/bolts. If the roll succeeds, decrement the ammo roll by one and carry on. If the roll fails, you have emptied your quiver. Regardless of whether the ammo roll succeeds, if time and circumstances permit, you may try to recover any ammunition expended during the encounter using the Scrounging skill for a 5 minute search. If the initial ammo check succeeded and the scrounging roll succeeds, do not decrement your ammo roll. If the ammo check fails but the scrounging roll succeeds, you have found enough ammo to keep you going, but decrement the ammo roll by 2.

Weapons Scavenged During an Encounter

With the specter of ammo shortages ever-looming, picking up the weapon of a defeated adversary is a viable option. Such weapons will have the burnout limitation based on the charges it normally carries, but will always run out of ammo after the encounter is complete.

Finding Ammo

When ammo is found from scrounging, determine the type of ammo it is (pistol, rifle, shotgun, heavy, arrows, energy cells, etc) and the DCs of the ammo type. Roll 3d6 (+1d6 for every 2 points the scrounging roll succeeded if using advanced scrounging). Divide this number by the DCs of the ammo type to determine the ammo count. This ammo count can be applied to one weapon that does the indicated number of DCs in damage, it can be split among multiple weapons or divided among multiple characters. If you rolled 5d6 for ammo (advanced scrounging roll succeded by 4), and rolled a 20, it would yield an ammo count of 5 for DC 4 ammo, but only 4 for DC 5 ammo. If the rounds were for a .50-caliber rifle (3d6; 9 DCs) it would yield an ammo count of only 3 (rounding in the player's favor). Finding ammo, regardless of the number rolled on the dice divided by the DCs of the ammo will always yield at least +1 ammo.