RPM:Rules/Character Creation and Advancement

WIP

Epilogue Session: Defining the World

To start the campaign we'll be doing some world-building by playing the game Microscope

Session 0: Building your Characters

Building characters is play as we define how they know each other and interact with the world.

• Aspects
• Skills
• Stunts

Aspects

Each player will be writing up a list of possible aspects. Will be using the Non-Player Cards to seed aspects. From that list we'll trim it down to five.

• High concept (required)
• Trouble (required)
• Profession
• Trait
• Quirk
• Secret
• One for each mode
• A relationship aspect with each other character

Skills

1. Choose three skill modes, assigning +3, +2, and +1 to each. This is the base rank for each skill in that mode.
2. If a skill appears in two of your modes, give a +1 to it at the highest ranked mode to focus it. If it is in all three of your modes, give it a +2 at the highest ranked mode to specialize it.
3. You have 7 points to spend on improving skills.
   • 1 point — Upgrade a trained skill (a skill whose ranking matches the mode it is in) to focused, which adds +1 to the skill rank.
   • 2 points — Specialize a focused skill (a focused skill is one that was upgraded from trained already)
   • 3 points — Specialize a trained skill
4. Choose a mode special ability from the modes you've chosen.

Modes

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Skill List

Here are links to read more about each skill. Athletics, Burglary, Contacts, Deceive, Empathy, Fight, Lore, Mythology, Physique, Provoke, Rapport, Shoot, Stealth, Survival (see PDF), Will

Omitted Skills

The keen-eyed may see that skills such as Ride and Notice are not on the list. Notice 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 and Modes

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 modes for your character that have the new skills. I have a strong preference to not do this for everyone (it is a lot of work).

Mode Special Abilities

Combat

Wounded (lasting): Combatants have an extra lasting condition that they can use to absorb four shifts of physical injury. When you’re Wounded, death is on the table when you’re taken out. To begin recovery, another character who is capable of seeing to your injury must overcome an obstacle of Great (+4) or higher, in quiet and ideal conditions (as in, not in the field). You recover fully at the end of the next session.

Intrigue

Wanted (sticky): The Wanted track has five check boxes. When you are Wanted, you’re in some amount of trouble with the law. People know who you are. They might even be a little afraid of you. You can use that to your advantage. When you trade on your reputation to convince someone to do something for you, you may check off boxes of Heat for a bonus on the roll, +1 per box checked.

The more boxes you have checked off, the more trouble you’re in; if you only have one or two checked off, you might get hauled in for questioning if you get taken out of a scene. With four or five checked, you might be imprisoned instead. In addition, any law enforcement agents looking for you get +1 to their rolls for each box of Wanted checked.

Every scene you spend not getting in trouble with the law (and not generating more heat) allows you to clear one check box.

Banter

Center of Attention: When you check this box, you are the star of the show. You gain a situationally appropriate aspect to reflect this in the scene for free. When you do this you gain a boost that you may give to another character, provided it fits in the narrative.

Talk Our Way Out of It: When you are the Center of Attention, you may use Rapport to defend from physical attacks as you attempt to confuse or negotiate your way out of the situation.

Aristocrat

Favors (sticky): The Favor track has three boxes. You may check a box to call in favors at any time, gaining +2 for each favor on any roll which would narratively apply. (Yes, they may all be stacked on a single roll.)

As you trade more and more favors you are drawn into the web of your connections and this will complicate your life. The only way to uncheck a favor box is to do a favor in return. Sometimes these favors are simple and only require an Overcome roll (+2, +4, or +6) to repay but from time to time there may be in-game ramifications to repay the favors.

Naturalist

Quarry: When you check this box, write down the target of your quarry. You need to have time to examine or consider your quarry, usually a few minutes or more. This may be a single creature or a small band of creatures. Until you declare a new quarry you gain +2 on Overcome and Create Advantage rolls to find or set a trap for them and Weapon:2 when attacking them.

At Home in Nature: You can survive only in nature for any length of time comfortably.

Trackless Step: You are skilled at traversing the environment and leave only a trail that the most skilled may follow. As a result, you may only be tracked by someone with a Survival skill equal to or higher than your own or someone who has an aspect related to skilled tracking.

Sage

Preparedness is Key: Any time that you create an aspect by researching a solution, gain an extra free invoke on that aspect.

Obsessed: Check this box to gain a +4 to any research roll while also gaining an aspect that represents what you gave up to get that knowledge, e.g. Up All Night, Owe a Favor to a Minor Devil. Uncheck this box when this aspect has been resolved.

Acolyte

Grace: The Grace track has three stress boxes. When you check off a box of Grace, choose from the following:

• You gain Armor:2 from opponents of your faith for the scene.
• You gain Weapon:2 against opponents of your faith for the scene.
• You gain a +4 to an Overcome roll to aid another in removing a condition or aspect.

To uncheck a Grace check box, you must accept a compel that serves your faith or beliefs.

Commoner

Better Teamwork: When you work together with another character, instead of giving a +1 bonus you give a +2 bonus to the roll as long as you aren't the one making the roll.

Overlooked: When you check this condition, you are no one of consequence for the current scene and you gain a narratively fitting aspect until you take an action of consequence.

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?

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 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.