Character Creation Rules

Step 1: Choose a character concept.

Step 2: Buy your attributes.

Step 3: Choose your species type and body type.

Step 4: Buy your group skill ranks.

Step 5: Buy your miscellaneous skill ranks.

Step 6: Choose your basic sciences.

Step 7: Fill in additional information.

Step 8: Round out the character.

Step 2: Buy your attributes.
Your character will have the following attributes.
agility - Quickness and nimbleness.
dexterity - Your character's aim, and skill at pawwork.
resilience - Physical toughness and health.
strength - Physical might and power.
intelligence - Ability to think, solve problems, and analyze things.
willpower - Determination, courage, and refusal to give up.
You have 20 points to distribute among your attributes. You must gain at least 1 rank in each attribute. The attribute with the highest number of ranks must not be more than twice as high as the attribute with the second highest number of ranks. The attribute with the second highest number of ranks must not be more than twice as high as the attribute with the third highest number of ranks.

Example: Bill feels that the two main traits of his medic character will be a will of iron, and an impressive I.Q. He places 6 points into willpower, and 4 into intelligence. So far, he has spent 10 of his 20 attribute points. From there, he decides to give the character a 2 in agility, 3 in dexterity, 2 in resilience, and 3 in strength. That brings the total up to 20. His highest attribute (6) is not more than twice as high as his second highest attribute (4.) His second highest attribute is not more than twice as high as his third highest attribute (3.) Each attribute has at least one point. The point distribution is legal.

Step 3: Choose your species type and body type.
Choose a species type and body type from the available lists. Gain the bonuses of the species type and body type you chose.
It's okay for the bonuses gained from the species type and body type to raise your highest attribute to more than twice as high as your second highest attribute and/or raise your second highest attribute to more than twice as high as your third highest attribute.

Example: Bill chooses to have his character be an otter. The species type is Mammal, Aquatic. This species type provides a +1 bonus to both intelligence and willpower, thus bringing the character's intelligence up to 5, and his willpower up to 7. Bill feels that the bonuses to holding breath will be useful when rescuing people from smoke-filled burning buildings, areas filled with toxic gas, and people who are drowning in water (of course, the bonus to swimming will also be useful for that last one.) For the body type, Bill chooses Balanced. This body type provides a +1 bonus to agility, dexterity, resilience, and strength. The character now has an agility of 3, a dexterity of 4, a resilience of 3, and a strength of 4. People might expect an otter to have a body type of Limber, but it's okay to be a bit of an odd otter.

Step 4: Buy your group skill ranks.
You have 4 normal points and 2 master points you can use to buy group skill ranks in the following skill groups.
Combat - How well your character uses weapons and dodges attacks.
Negotiating - How well your character persuades others.
Psi Atom - How well your character uses psionic forces which manipulate psi atoms.
Psi Energy - How well your character uses psionic forces which manipulate energy.

Example: Bill decides to put all 4 of his normal skill ranks into Psi Energy. He also puts both of his master ranks into Psi Energy. The character now has a total of 6 ranks in Psi Eenrgy, two of which are master ranks. He doesn't have any ranks in any of the other 3 skill groups. Obviously, this character will be very good at using Psi Energy forces, but not so good in any of the other 3 groups.

After buying your group skill ranks, you receive an additional 2 points to purchase ranks, but which can not be spent on ranks in the skill group you have the most ranks in. You may either gain 2 ranks in the same skill group, or 1 each in 2 different skill groups. If 2 or more groups are tied for having the most ranks, these 2 points can be split among any 2 of those skill groups.

Example: Bill thinks it would be cool to have Gentlepaw be able to effectively speak encouraging words to his patients. He wants to be able to heal people emotionally as well as physically, and to inspire people to pull through. He puts the two extra points into Negotiating. Note that he could not have put them into Psi Energy, since this is the group Gentlepaw has the most ranks in.

Step 5: Buy your miscellaneous skill ranks.
You have 4 normal points you can use to buy group skill ranks in the following skill groups.
Misc Mental - Mental skills which do not fall into any other category.
Misc Physical - Physical skills which do not fall into any other category.

Example: Bill decides to put 3 points into Misc Mental, and 1 point into Misc Physical. The character will be good (but not great) at performing miscellaneous mental tasks, and okay at performing miscellaneous physical tasks.

Step 6: Choose your basic sciences.
Each rank you have in a skill group lets you choose one basic science that corresponds to that skill group. So, if you have 3 ranks in combat, you may choose 3 basic combat sciences (normal group ranks and master group ranks both count.) You also gain a number of bonus basic sciences equal to half of your intelligence attribute ranks (round up.) Bonus sciences may be from any basic science group (and do not have to all be from the same group.)
Each science can only be chosen once.
You may create your own visual descriptions for your sciences. The descriptions don't even have to match the names of the sciences.

Example: Since Bill put all 6 ranks into Psi Energy, he gets to choose 6 Basic Psi Energy Sciences. He starts by choosing Regeneration I (a good healing force,) Kinetic Shield I (a good defensive force,) and Energy Blast I (a good offensive force.) Since the character is a medic, Bill also chooses Regeneration II, Purge Poison I, and Psi Energy Focus A (the sub-category of the science does not matter. Psi Energy Forces and Psi Energy Psionic Disciplines both count as psi energy sciences.) He chooses 'healing' as the keyterm to go with Psi Energy Focus A. Thus, he will get a +2 bonus when using Psi Energy forces that have the healing keyterm. Since the character also has 2 ranks in negotiating, Bill also gets to choose 2 Basic Negotiating Sciences. He chooses Inspire Survival I and Draw Forth Inner Will I. Since Bill's character has an intelligence of 5, he will get 3 bonus sciences. The bonus sciences can be from any category (but still have to be basic sciences.) Bill has already decided that his medic will be able to heal people emotionally as well as physically, so he chooses the Basic Psi Atom Science of Empathy. He also chooses the Basic Psi Energy Science of Multi Blast I to boost the character's rather lacking combat capabilities. Finally, he chooses Cure Disease I to make his character a more complete medic.

Step 7: Fill in additional information.
Your hit points (HP) are equal to 20 plus your resilience. For example: A character with a resilience of 4 would begin with 24 hit points.
To get your Psi Atom Force Points, add your ranks in the Psi Atom skill group to either your intelligence or willpower (whichever is higher,) then multiply the result by 4. So, a character with an intelligence of 5, a willpower of 4, and 4 ranks in Psi Atom would begin with 36 PA FP (note that the willpower attribute was not used since intelligence is higher in this case.)
To get your Psi Energy Force Points, add your ranks in the Psi Energy skill group to either your intelligence or willpower (whichever is higher,) then multiply the result by 4. So, a character with an intelligence of 3, a willpower of 6, and 5 ranks in Psi Energy would begin with 44 PE FP (note that the intelligence attribute was not used since willpower is higher in this case.)
Your General ISPs (Inner Strength Points) are equal to your willpower.
Your Misc Mental ISPs are equal to 2 times your ranks in Misc Mental.
Your Misc Physical ISPs are equal to 2 times your ranks in Misc Physical.
Your Combat ISPs are equal to 2 times your ranks in Combat.
Your Psi Energy ISPs are equal to 2 times your ranks in Psi Energy.
Your Psi Atom ISPs are equal to twice your ranks in Psi Atom.
Your Negotiating ISPs are equal to 2 times your ranks in Negotiating.
You might also gain bonuses to any of the above from certain sciences.

Example: Bill's character has an HP of 23. (20 + 3 resilience) The character's PA FP is 28. (7 willpower * 4) The character's PE FP is 52 [(7 willpower + 6 ranks in Psi Energy) * 4] The character's General ISPs are equal to 7. (7 willpower) His Psi Energy ISPs are equal to 12. (2 * 6 ranks in Psi Energy) His Misc Physical ISPs are equal to 2. (2 * 1 rank in Misc Physical) His Misc Mental ISPs equal 6. (2 * 3 ranks in Misc Mental) All of the character's other ISPs equal 0.

Step 8: Round out the character.
Fill in your character's real name, code name, personality, age, gender, height, weight, and any other story information you see fit. You should include a description of your character's weapons and other basic equipment.

Example: Bill decides that his character's real name will be Michael Stockton. His code name will be Gentlepaw. He has a personality of caring and kind-hearted, an age of 25, a gender of male, a height of 6' 1", and a weight of 180 pounds.
He writes a backstory for the character which says that he used to be very close with his little brother. However, it turned out that Michael had 2 of the rare recessive gene which makes it possible to survive the transformation into a psi morph, and his brother did not. The poor younger brother is jealous, which causes Gentlepaw lots of grief. Bill hopes that this backstory will result in some good roleplaying at some point, with the GM playing the part of the younger brother as an NPC while Bill plays Gentlepaw and they interact.
Bill notes that Gentlepaw's weapon is a techpaw which fires a blast of electricity. The techpaw can also be used as a defribilator in an emergency, and various other tools needed by a medic can also be stored inside it. Many of the tools shrink as they enter the techpaw, and grow back to normal as they exit.
Bill now has a complete character sheet for Gentlepaw.

If you are confused by any part of the character creation process, it might help to look at the other sample characters.

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