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Character Generation

Page history last edited by Bruce Mason 13 years, 11 months ago


Summary

 

Standard Character Generation process

  1. Choose a species to play and a starting level of experience for the character. The default is a human 'novice.'
  2. Generate characteristics. Use either the random method from the MRQ rulebook, the points-based system from the GM's Handbook or the points-based system below.
  3. Choose a cultural background and gain skills listed.
  4. Choose a profession.
  5. Add Free skill points (usually 100 for 'novice' characters).
  6. Join organisations.
  7. Buy spells and equipment.
  8. Note general information (e.g. name, age, starting hero points and so on.)

 

Quick Character Generation process

  1. Choose a species to play and a starting 'level' for the character. The defaults are human and 'novice.'.
  2. Generate characteristics. Use any method from the RQII rulebook or the points-based system below.
  3. Use the "quick experience" table to add skills.
  4. Join organisations
  5. Receive equipment and starting finances.
  6. Note general information (e.g. name, age, starting hero points and so on.)

Starting Level

Most characters start play as novices as the default. Such characters are young adults who have been working at a profession for a few years before they find themselves involved in adventures. Sometimes however, you may wish to generate characters which start play with more experience; possibly because the campaign starts at a more advanced level or has been on the go for a while and a new character wishes to start play and not be overwhelmed.

Points-based characteristic generation (HR)

In addition to the standard RQ means of character generation, the following points-based system can be used.

  1. Each character has a starting value in each characteristic based on its species.
  2. The player can then distribute a number of points based on the character's species to add to these values.

The following examples show how to do this for a range of possible player character species. These are repeated on the appropriate pages.

Duck characters

Ducks start with the following characteristic scores and players can distribute 24 points among them. Species maxima cannot be exceeded.

STR 7 CON 10 DEX 10 SIZ 8 INT 10 POW 6 CHA 4

Dwarf characters

Dwarfs start with the following characteristic scores and players can distribute 27 points among them. Species maxima cannot be exceeded.

STR 8 CON 16 DEX 4 SIZ 8 INT 10 POW 6 CHA 6

Elf characters

Elfs start with the following characteristic scores and players can distribute 28 points among them. Species maxima cannot be exceeded.

STR 7 CON 6 DEX 12 SIZ 7 INT 12 POW 10 CHA 6

Human characters

Humans start with the following characteristic scores and players can distribute 30 points among them. Species maxima cannot be exceeded.

STR 6 CON 6 DEX 6 SIZ 10 INT 10 POW 6 CHA 6

Dark Troll characters

Dark trolls start with the following characteristic scores and players can distribute 30 points among them. Species maxima cannot be exceeded.

STR 12 CON 6 DEX 6 SIZ 14 INT 10 POW 6 CHA 6

Example

Ian is creating a duck warrior. He starts with the usual characteristics and can spend up to 24 points increasing them:

STR 7 CON 10 DEX 10 SIZ 8 INT 10 POW 6 CHA 4

Ian decides that he wants to play a wiley thief type who lives by his wits. This means he is going to focus on DEX, INT and CHA. He starts by putting 8 points in DEX, leaving 16 to spend. He can afford another 6 each on INT & CHA leaving 4 to spend. His CHA is still pretty miserable and he's also worried about his POW being so low. Also, being quite small means that his Hit Points will be quite low. In the end he decides to put another 2 points into CHA and 2 into POW and vows to make sure he gets lots of Dodge skill later in order to avoid taking damage in the first place. His final characteristics are:

STR 7 CON 10 DEX 18 SIZ 8 INT 16 POW 8 CHA 12

 

"Buying Down" characteristics

Some players may wish to reduce one or more starting characteristics in order to increase others. This is not recommended; the minimum scores are already very low. If the player has a reasonable justification for it then it is possible to reduce one or more characteristics by a number of points in order to increase one other characteristic by the same number of points minus one. E.g. In the example above, Ian wants reduce his duck's starting SIZ by 2 points in order to add 1 points to its DEX. He rationalises this by saying that the duck was the runt of its nest and had to move fast in order to survive. The GM reminds Ian that a duck's species minimum for SIZ is 7 so he can't go lower than that. Ian's determined to do this however so he decides to reduce its SIZ by 1 and STR by 1 in order to have 1 point he can add to the duck's DEX. The GM thinks this is a bit weak but allows it and looks forward to having NPCs poke fun at the feathered runt.

 

Advanced characters

The number of points that can be spent adding to characteristics can be increased when starting with higher-level characters. As a rule of thumb, an additional 2 points can be spent for each 'level.'

 

Formula

To use this method for creating characters of other species use the following formula:

  1. The minimum for each characteristic is the same as if each die rolled a "2."
  2. The amount that can be added is equal to one point for each die normally rolled plus 10.
  3. Add up the total number of all characteristics plus the additional points and compare them to the total of the species's average. If the total is less than the average, increase the additional points until the total is at least one whole point more than the average.

Example: creating a trollkin character.

A trollkin's normal characteristics are:

STR 2D6 (7)

CON 3D6 (10)

DEX 3D6+3 (13)

SIZ 1D6+6 (9)

INT 1D6+6 (9)

POW 3D6 (10)

CHA 2D6 (7)

Thus the minimum scores would be:

STR 4 CON 6 DEX 9 SIZ 8 INT 8 POW 6 CHA 7 (total = 48)

The number of additional points is equal to the total number of dice normally rolled plus 10 which adds up to 15+10 = 25.

To check that this is not out of line - the normal average trollkin's characteristics add up to: 7+10.5+13.5+9.5+9.5+10.5+7 = 67.5

The trollkin's minimum score (48) plus additional points (25) add up to 73. This is easily above its average scores so a character created this way would be quite superior to the run-of-the-mill trollkin.

 

Note

This system will work for species up to the SIZ of a dark troll. Bigger creatures that have more than 20 dice in total in their characteristics are slightly disadvantaged.

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