I'll be honest, I haven't been that impressed with the alternative character generation system in the transhuman playtest. I thought I'd try my hand at it. I haven't play-tested it, but it should be functionally equivalent with the core system and mainly streamlines the core system by reducing the number of points to fiddle with. Here we go.
1. Choose Background and Faction as normal.
2. Set all aptitudes to 15. Move points around to create 10s and 20s if desired.
3. Add free moxie point, 50 rep, 5000 credits, and free language (70 + INT).
4. Choose either method for assigning skills.
a) Choose top 4 active knowledge and 3 knowledge skills, set to 40.
Choose 4 secondary active skills and 3 knowledge skills, set to 30.
Choose 4 tertiary active skills and 3 knowledge skills, set to 20.
Choose 4 hobby active skills and 3 knowledge skills, set to 10.
or
b) Assign 40 active skill ranks and 30 knowledge skill ranks to skills with values no higher than 4.
Multiply skill ranks by 10.
5. Add aptitude, skill level, background bonuses, and faction bonuses together. Make sure no skill is above 80. Find any skill above 60, reduce overflow beyond 60 by half (eg. 70 -> 65), or count the number of ranks above 60 and save for later as "skill overflow." Reduce the skill rank for social skills by half for infolifes. Move any other ranks around to be consistent with the core rules.
6. Choose 4 of the following. You may select the same option more than once. Remember to count "skill overflow" for any skill that exceeds 60.
Lucky - 3 extra moxie, +5 cp.
Wealthy - 50,000 credits.
Connected - +30 to any networking, 200 Rep.
Skilled - choose another skill at 30 and a second skill at 20.
Talented - add 5 aptitude points.
Flexible - +50 CP
7. Spend 100 CP as normal for customization plus any CP gained in step 6 minus any "skill overflow" counted in step 5. Buy morph, traits, specializations, psi slights, extra moxie, rep, gear, etc.
8. Choose motivations and finalize character.
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Alternative Character Generation
Thu, 2013-05-23 02:57
#1
bblonski
Alternative Character Generation
Thu, 2013-05-23 04:05
#2
Smokeskin
The point of the alternative
The point of the alternative char gen is not to cut down on the math side of things. It is to make it possible to generate chars without knowing stuff like the entire skill list by heart. You can look through the packs, decide you want a war reporter and pick soldier and journo packs, and you're done with that part.
Thu, 2013-05-23 08:59
#3
Mephil
Quote:6. Choose 4 of the
There's a glaring problem with this method of creation. You state that you can choose the same option more than once. Well, choosing the reputation one (Connected) more than once will actually break one of the core rules. Where [b]you may never spend more than 35 CP on rep at character creation.[/b] (350 rep) Choosing it twice will give you rep worth 40 CP, choosing it four times will give you rep worth of 80 CP. This totals 850 rep points total (with the free 50) which is more rep than you could ever spend legally anyway.
You can find this rule at page 136 in core.
The same thing is true for the credits one. You may never spend more than 100 CP on credits during character creation. As such, choosing wealthy 3 times will break the core rules.
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Thu, 2013-05-23 14:25
#4
bblonski
Good Catch
Good catch. Like I said, I haven't really playtested and I threw step 6 together hastily, so I didn't check all the limits for stuff like rep and credits. You can also only choose Lucky 3 times before hitting the moxie limit of 10. You could easily solve this by specifying that Lucky can only be chose 3 times, Wealthy twice, and Connected once.
@Smokeskin I guess I see your point. The skill list is a bit onerous and I can see the advantage of being able to just pick a few packs like journalist and soldier. Looking at it from the point of view of someone who has no understanding of the system yet, I can see how the package system is good. There are a few things I like about it. The Skills over 60 table can apply here instead of calculating overflow, and I kinda like the idea of randomly assigning traits using the traits table. I'm curious what the gear packs will look like. This might be the most useful thing for me since gear is usually the longest part of character creation for my group.