RPM:Rules/Character Creation and Advancement

WIP

Aspects

From Fate Accelerated, Aspects & Fate Points:

An aspect is a word or phrase that describes something special about a person, place, thing, situation, or group. Almost anything you can think of can have aspects. A person might be the Greatest Swordswoman on the Cloud Sea. A room might be On Fire after you knock over an oil lamp. After a time-travel encounter with a dinosaur, you might be Terrified. Aspects let you change the story in ways that go along with your character’s tendencies, skills, or problems.

Each character will have five aspects that describe them. We'll be writing a bunch of possibilities but if you don't like enough of them, you can start with just a high concept and a trouble aspect.

High Concept

This aspect is the main concept of the character, e.g. Playboy Paladin, Punk Rock Ninja, Self-made Alchemist Wizard Apprentice.

Trouble

This aspect is something that causes you problems. It can be internal or external, e.g. Lovesick Alcoholic or Disregarded and Ignored

Three more

These three aspects will be picked from the list of other aspects we'll be writing. This list of other aspects will include relationship aspects with some of the other characters as well as rolls on some random tables that have quirks, secrets, professions, etc.

... based on your relationship to each of the other PCs

... based on your relationship to the Sorcier

... based on some random tables that will be provided.

Skills

A note about skills and conflict resolution—don't pour everything into attacking skills. We will be focusing on action and thought instead of violence, so have a balanced mix. Take inspiration from Indiana Jones or The Mummy. A good rule of thumb is if you have more than one attack skill in your top three ranked skills you may want to move some of them around.

1. Each character has a +4, +3, +3, +2, +2, +2, +1, , +1, +1, , +1 for skills.

Skill List

• Athletics
• Burglary
• Contacts
• Deceive
• Empathy
• Fight
• Lore, Arts & Sciences
• Lore, Mythology
• Physique
• Provoke
• Rapport
• Resources
• Shoot
• Stealth
• Survival
• Will
• Weapons

Omitted Skills

The keen-eyed may see that skills such as Ride and Notice are not on the list. The Notice skill was removed as perception-type skills are too much of a catch-all for throwing information at the players and a short cut around good roleplaying. E.g. "I enter the waiting room and make a Notice roll to learn more about the Count," versus "I enter the room and examine the bookcase to see if I can figure out more about our host by their taste in books, so I'm going to roll Lore".

Adding New Skills

Perhaps there is a skill that isn't on the list that is important to your character concept. A mounted knight should have a Ride skill to demonstrate their skill with a lance and horse husbandry. For concepts like these, we can create custom skills.

Stunts

1. Read this primer on stunts, ignoring the fact that it talks about approaches and not skills.
2. [Optional] More reading about stunts. Fate Core talks about Stunts, Advanced rubrics for stunts.
3. Each player gets 3 free stunts
4. Each player get 3 points of Refresh. In the game, Refresh is the number of Fate points you start a session with. You may spend up to 2 points of Refresh on stunts (cost of 1 point per stunt). If you are new to Fate, it is recommended that you not spend Refresh. (You'll be able to purchase new stunts with refresh between every session.)
5. At the end your character will have between 3-5 stunts, with most characters having 3.

What are stunts?

Stunts are analogous to Feats in d20 games. They are a circumstantial boon for your character. Unlike Feats in other systems, Stunts are completely custom written by the player for their character.

How do I write a stunt?

Here is a great breakdown of what stunts can do. Don't worry if you aren't comfortable writing up your own stunts. It takes a little experience to get them just right. Randy will help you out.

Adding a little Magic to your character with a Stunt

You may spend a single stunt to gain a magical ability from this list of powers. You may only gain one such ability and only its basic form, nothing else. None of your other stunts may affect or be useable with your magical ability. (Your power can grow as the campaign goes on.)

Stress, Consequences, and Conditions

Stress and Consequences

Each PC will have two stress tracks to absorb stress—Physical and Mental. Each track has three boxes that can absorb one point of stress each. When absorbing stress you may mark off any number of these boxes.

Each PC will have three consequences—Mild, Moderate, and Severe. These consequences may absorb any kind of stress. A mild consequence absorbs 2 stress, a moderate one 4, and a severe one 6.

Condition track: Wealth and Favors

Each PC will have a Wealth and Favors condition track with one box. If the character's high concept is tied to money or influence, then add another box. This box may be checked off to give a +2 bonus or a reroll to a roll so long as it makes narrative sense. This track may also absorb stress, again if it makes narrative sense. Some extraordinary Resources rolls may require the use of this box.

To reset a checked box the PC will either have to return a favor or find additional wealth. This could be an Overcome roll of +4 for each box (rolled separately), finding treasure in a monster's lair, or a plot point in the narrative.