Okay, you've got 5 ability scores in this game.
Muscle- governs damage bonus
Speed- governs initiate bonus
Stamina- governs healing rate and hit points
Mental- governs your power bonus (more on that later)
Luck- determines your luck bonus. Duh!
Most are self-explanatory, except power.
Power determines how well and how long you can control the various special powers higher level characters can gain.
To get the scores, you roll 2d10 and add them together (not as a %), getting a number from 2-20.
Start recording when you have a 16 or above.
Do this 5 times, once for each ability score.
Divide each ability score by 10 and round fractions up. (Getting either a 1 or 2)
Add 5 to the luck bonus only.
This determines your bonuses, and healing rate.
An average person has about an 11 in each ability, and a 2 for all his bonuses, except luck, which averages a 7.
Physical score- add muscle, speed, and stamina, and divide by three. Round up.
You'll have a number from 1 to 20. This is your chance to hit in combat on a 1d20.
If you have a combat skill, this chance goes up.
If an enemy has armor, it'll lower your chance to hit.
Higher physical scores will eventually give you extra attacks in combat.
An average person will have about an 11.
Personal Force- one of the most important concepts of the game.
This shows how in tune you are with creation.
Add all 5 ability scores and divide by 10, round up, getting a number from 2-10.
This number is your personal force, which determines your character title as well.
Normal people don't have personal force. Most starting characters will have about a 6.
Character Title: You'll start as a Neophyte.
You have a knowledge that's there's more out there, but don't know what that is. You also haven't learned yet to use Power to shape the world or cause special effects. But you are separated from all the normal people of the world by that knowledge, and have one special ability- Dimensional Sight.
You can see other-dimensional things that are invisible to the rest of the world- such as ghosts, elementals, sprites, etc.
It's easiest for a neophyte to gain power, because there's so much for them to learn.
Once you adventure and gain more personal force, you'll become an Apprentice.
You'll gain another ability (Dimensional Language), and you'll gain a power at this point, either magical, psychic, or futuristic. We'll cover those more when someone makes it to that level.
It becomes harder for an apprentice to improve (compared to a neophyte), but it's still relatively easy overall.
As you can see, personal force is determined by ability scores; so obviously, you can raise ability scores in play.
For every 10 experience points a neophyte spends, they can roll 1d6 and add it to an ability score, possibly changing personal force, one of their bonuses, physical score, or their hit points.
Hit points are called life points in this game. I give max at first level. Add 10 to your stamina to determine starting Life Point total.
If stamina increases, so does the Life Points. You also get to add 1d10 to the total for every new title you gain.
At 0 you are unconscious.
Normal folks die at -6.
You die when you go below zero a number of points greater than your personal force.
Move: start at 60'/turn. This goes up as you gain more titles.
Money: Roll 1d100, and multiply by 10. You've got that much cash.
Skills: You have a number of skill levels equal to your personal force.
There's an entire skill list that I'm not going to write out, unless absolutely necessary.
Suffice it to say that there are 5 separate skills in a category, and the categories are these:
Building
Bureaucracy
Commando
Communication
Computer
Detective
Engineer
Espionage
Master Criminal
Mechanic
Medical
Pilot
Scientist
Social
Stage Magician
Street Criminal
Theatrical
Wilderness
There's also Futuristic and Magical categories, but you cannot take them to start, those will have to be taken when you raise personal force.
There's also Combat- simply choose any weapon or unarmed combat of your choice and put skill levels in it.
So, if you have 6 skill levels, you may take one in Medical, two in rifle, one in rapier, and two in computer.
Or you may take 4 in commando, one in martial arts, and one in pistol.
You can't put more than 4 in any skill to start. You can raise this to a five with a higher personal force.
Equipment: tell me what you want and I'll tell you how much it cost. I suggest you buy your weapon, ammunition if needed for the weapon, a medical kit if you took that skill, and several weeks of food, plus request whatever else you think might be handy.
Now, I've written all this presuming that you're making a modern day human character. You aren't limited to this though. You can make someone from any time in the past, or a futuristic human, if desired. The only difference will be in the skills you choose and the equipment you buy.
If you're from 1364 AD, don't buy a computer. And thrown spear is a lot more likely than rifle skill.
If you're from a closer past time, you might take flintlock pistol, or musket, instead of shotgun or submachine gun.
A futuristic guy can choose something like laser, or blaster, or needler, etc.
You can also take something other than human.
Choices I allow are these...
*Futuristic Races*
Draconid- 8' bipedal lizard race
Felines- catmen
Lupines- dogmen
Mantis Lords- 7' insectmen
Pongoids- human/great ape crossbreed
Oliphants- elephant men
Serpentines- snake men
*Fantasy/Ancient Races*
Goblin- 4' humanoids, live underground
Hobgoblin- 5' humanoids, live in forests and caves
Orc- humanoids magically created from animals
Amazon- human women warriors
Myrmidon- the human warriors created from ants that served Achilles
Neanderthal- cave men
Bigfoot- you know him
Dwarf- 4', tend to live underground close to mines
Elf (dark or light)- 5' tall, affinity to magic
light elves live in forests
dark elves live underground glowing crystal caverns and are allied with dwarves
Saurians- lizard men
Mandragora- 2' humanoids that grew from plants
If you choose a character from one of these lists, make them exactly as you would a normal human character, and then I'll tell you what the modifiers are, and if there's any special rules. That should pretty much do it...
Updated 13 Oct 00