Character Creation
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Character Creation
A basic premise of the game is that for sentient beings memory fades with time: 100 years ago is a long time, 200 is a very long time, and 1000 years is so far back that mostly you remember once remembering things about it.
Another is that of “power level”. Power level is the cap of the amount of karma that you can easily gain. After you meet this cap, in order to gain stuff you have to loose stuff. i.e. in the 15th century you were probably a dab hand bladed combat. Today you have forgotten those skills, but learnt Electronics.
Tier 1 creatures: The great immortals (Harlequin, Ehran, Queen Alachia) have more karma than can be reasonably counted.
Tier 2 creatures: Their paladins, a few nobles from the elven courts, lesser dragons, greater drakes have 2000-5000 karma
Tier 3 creatures: You. Have settled at around 2000 karma and have been at this very respectable level for around 10,000 years.
Fortunately there are two ways for you to recall long ago times: you can write things down (I suspect most of you will be avid diary keepers) or you relive the memories using a magical ritual where you literally re-live the experience: you (with companions) project into the past and re-enact the events. You remember you are from the “future”, but you also remember things from that time. Mostly the re-enactments follow the same line as they did originally. You can get hurt there, and if you die in the past, it is very bad for you in the present.
When you flashback into the past, you can shuffle some of your skills around (swapping one skill for a different skill at the same level – to keep karma levels the same), and modify your attributes a bit (this is more complicated so we’ll review at the time). In the past there will usually be a different base mana level… Cyberware will probably not be there (you almost certainly were not cybered when you were there, in ED it will be replaced by ‘magic’ equivalents)… ED magic will probably stay the same for the sake of sanity (although ED era magic could arguably be higher I’m not sure I want to go there), fifth world will be vastly reduced, hopefully offset by having no ‘ware either…
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The rules for character creation have a few modifiers, given the nature of the game, this set is designed for the ‘present’ and we may need to modify things a tad for journeys in to the past/future
You all start with 2000 karma for karmagen/point buy
Races: it is assumed most of you will be elves or drakes (usual costs), obviously drakes won’t be new so you can spend karma on their optional powers if you want to. You can be one of the elf metavariants if you really want to… infected are a possibility. Other metahumans will need an explanation for their longevity…magical artefacts, strange rituals… in Al’s case I am considering allowing resurrection as a possibility, his soul reborn through the ages in different forms (we’d probably need a 2000karma version of Al from the past and use your current stats for the ‘present’). This could perhaps be extended to Isaint/Fate Breaker but I think I’d rather we had new PCs…!?
Qualities: pretty much anything goes, although there will have to be a compelling reason for Surge!
Free Knowledge skills: are equal to 10 times (logic + intuition)
History is a very broad and useful skill. All of you have your general history at a level equal to your logic. You can also buy specific histories. The following may be useful: Earthdawn history, Egyptian history, Roman history, The dark ages, The Reformation, Modern History. The Earthdawn time is so long ago, that you can remember little about it, so it is capped at 1.
Magical qualities: Adept, Mystic Adept and Magician are available, and recommended (will probably house rule Quickening so it takes karma = to the force of the spell rather than 1!)
Technomancer is available if you really want it: you will be gimped in most memory sequences, so we may need to come up with some alternatives there…Resources: It is conceivable that you will be able to lay your hands on any mundane piece of equipment you desire, which should typically be fine but cyber and decks may need to be treated differently to avoid screwing with balance entirely…so you can buy those with resources as normal. Let’s avoid combat drones for balance purposes too…for cyber you can buy up to deltaware (if you can afford it). Magical items (foci) need to also be bought (and bound) from the initial karma.
This is the most precarious part of chargen so if you have any comments please shout!
Free contact points: are equal to Charisma*50, obviously you don’t need to assign these all at once as it would take forever, but you have a large and expansive network that comes from being alive a verrry long time! As ever, each write-up of a contact on OP is the equivalent of an IC post for karma rewards.
Minions: you won’t necessarily do all the heavy lifting yourselves (although you might) so you can each have Charisma*1 pawns that work for you…these could be your PCs from other 2075 games or newly created characters. I don’t expect stats for them immediately but you can if you want to…a brief contact style description would do for now.
Relationships:
You have Charisma*2 points of relationship to spread amongst the following factions (yes I know the elven ones have multiple sub factions but I didn’t feel like listing them all…this isn’t an exhaustive list if you have other ideas!):Dunkelzahn (yes I know he’s dead in the present, but it extends to the Draco Foundation), Hestaby, Celedyr, one of the other Greats, Tir na nOg, Tir Tairngire, the Seelie Court (metaplane), the UnSeelie Court, Harlequin… etc… could also go for other long standing organisations eg. The Black Lodge…
Rating 0: They don’t like you, and will occasionally go out of their way to cause unpleasantness Rating 1: Neutral-mild dislike Rating 2: Neutral Rating 3: Neutral-mild like Rating 4: Mild friendship Rating 5: Mild friendship + respect Rating 6: You can knock on their door, and if they are in a good mood and not busy, they will invite you in for a chat.
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A brief history
All of you were alive during the peak of the last mana surge. You need to decide how you survived the horrors:
– In a kaer (underground massive cave systems warded by magic)
– In the elven wooden kaers, which became the blood woods. This means you lived around 500 years in agony
– In a secret dragon lair as a dragon servitor (need relationship 4+ with that dragon)
– Some other way that you think is credibleJust before magic left the world, you all took part in a ritual of hiding. You vaguely remember something went wrong with the ritual, but it was so long ago, you cannot quite remember what. Elves and drakes morph into human appearance (duration: until magic returns).
Although magic mostly left the world during the 5th age, there were places in the world where magic did not totally leave. In game mechanic terms, the 5th age varied between -10 and -5 mana. Some places are +/- around 3 on this scale. Most of the remnants of the 4th age naturally gravitated to the most mana rich places (or more specifically the least mana poor places).
During the period -5000 to -2000, magic decayed from -5 to -10 average it was highest in some parts of Egypt, but even there it was was pretty low.
From -500 to 500 magic was strongest in Greece and Italy. There was a temporary 100 year blip in mana around -400 AD, taking magic levels to average -5, and in parts of the Greek islands, -2.
From 500 to 1500 magic was strongest in South and Central America. The average level was -10.
During 1500-2000, magic was highest in Germany and the UK. The magic level started climbing in 1900. By world war 2, it reached -6, and stabilised there until the dawn of the 6th age. World War II was a particularly disturbing time. The Nazi party came out of nowhere (to Elven eyes), and Hitler was a being of vast magical, charismatic and technological might. The Nazi search for occult treasures was real, and scary. Many of the greatest magical treasures were stolen by the Nazi’s and have not been recovered. Many people feel that Hitler was a rogue elf or drake. A few claim it is Queen Alachia, but she refutes this, and no proof has ever been recovered.
From the point of view of the remnants of the 4th age, the years up to 1500 were mostly the same. It was something of a surprise to them, that from 1500 onwards, change started and kept happening faster and faster. The two important themes during this time were the movement of power from monarchs to the masses, and the rise of technology. Some of the elves (led by the queen) generally opposed these trends. Although their magical powers were dramatically reduced, most of the remnants maintained a very small amount of magic which gave them an advantage over mortals. In addition they had a very high level of skill compared to most mortals. Technology basically reduces the advantage they have over normal mortals, and the movement of power from Monarchs (themselves) to the masses was not very palatable. Others (a minority) elves saw the rise of technology as a way to eventually destroy the horrors. Despite everything the Elves could do, tech kept getting more powerful. By the end of the Victorian age even the Queen felt that it wasn’t really possible to put the genie back in the bottle. With the atomic bomb and the promise of powerful augmentation for the masses, the dream of killing the horrors seems plausible. Other elves remember the dreams that the wooden kaers would hold out against the horrors, and think that this tech is just another craziness like that.
You are all aware that the Horrors may be returning early. Harlequin has placed the voice of Theyla to stop the enemy, but Theyla has failed before, and may fail again. Dunkelzahn has done something clever to stop them, but even so the horrors may be back soon. It is not clear that the kaers will work this time. Technology is good at finding things and at breaking through magical wards. Even the dragons may not survive, as technology is capable of finding their lairs
Choices I would like you to make:
How did you survive the last horrors?
What role did you take in the Egyptian period?
What role did you take in the Greek period?
What role did you take in the Mayan/Aztec period?
What role did you take during the Renaissance
What role did you take during the Reformation, and the growth of technology?
Where were you during World War II
What is your view on technology?
What is your view on Monarchy vs rule of the masses in a world where the monarch is immortalAn observation on xp
Mostly as immortals you have reached your peak power level. Occasionally you learn new skills (mostly knowledge skills), but mostly you forget them as well. Some individuals have a higher natural level of skills. You have been at about the same power level for centuries. The main message here is that the immortals are not gaining xp linearly at 100/year for the last 10,000 years.How many remnants from the 4th age are there?
A few hundred. The skill 4th age remnant is useful if you want to identify some of them. The problem with memory again 🙂Killing immortals
No one wants a blood bath. Kill one immortal (which is often harder than it looks), and they have friends who will take revenge. Anyway it’s much more satisfying to embarrass and fool. -
30 Replies
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Play
Although you will be playing considerably more powerful entities by the standards of typical SR, bear in mind that you are still at the bottom of the rungs of the Immortal ladder and you will definitely be working for your respective masters, much like your average runner but with very different rewards.
There is very little chance that you have survived this long without coming to the attention of one of the other immortals and being brought in to the fold. Who you serve is down to you in principal but I may need to nudge you towards or away from certain patrons so that there is at least some chance of you working together towards a common goal.
Character Gen Additions
2000 karmagen or Sum10+1100 karma (subject to review)
Mysads can only buy 6 adept power points at 5 karma per point, after that you need to initiate as normal to gain further powers.
Starting Additional Karma
OP Input + 1
Character Sketch + 1
Character Description + 1
Character Background + 2 per era written up (max +10)Location or Contact write-ups on OP count as 1 IC post for in-game rewards
Minions can be treated as separate PC characters and have their own builds, karma rewards etc.
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Ugh, I just read the no combat drones part. What do you mean by that? Are we just talking about the actual drones for combat or any drone that could be used in combat? If so I will need to radically alter my character. I was kind of going for the whole construct idea. I have a good idea of what I will do if you really mean no drones in combat at all.
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Aria, do you have a list of which major players we shouldn’t use as patrons, or should we just go ahead and make our proposals and you’ll let us know if you see a problem?
For that matter, any other players have major powers that they have big problems with, that they’d prefer other’s aren’t working for?
(I hadn’t really thought about the patron angle before reading your latest update, but I was really glad you brought it up
— it actually solves a story point I was having trouble with. Conveniently, at this stage of story development, it doesn’t matter in the least who that patron actually is, just that a patron happened. So before I somewhat randomly choose one, thought I’d check if there are any I take off the list of possibles) -
@Ennui: I’m a little cautious about a more or less unlimited supply of funds and the dangers of a drone army, particularly with the rather broken swarm rules taken in to account. Not only does that make encounters a little harder to challenge you on (and that will be hard enough!) but makes the conversion to the past a little trickier. I’m not saying don’t do it, just be aware of the pitfalls please!
@Beta: It might make for some interesting confrontations if one of you has Lofwyr as a patron and another Hestaby! But conflict between immortals isn’t usually a slug fest and you are just as likely to work with a foe as a friend if it serves one of your long term goals…taking the long view is definitely in order.
I’m vaguely planning for you to initially be ‘on a mission’ for one of the Choir’s goals (See MirrorDance over on SG for the reference) rather than a patron…they are foes of the Seers Guild, but you could even have them as a patron provided you are keen on a bit of machination 😀
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As far as I’m concerned, I’m gravitating towards the Living Weapon concept and therefore will have Lofwyr as my patron – but I certainly don’t intend to do more than utter snide remarks about the others ^^
Yet, there is still so much to write and decide (Hopefully the long weekend will allow me to make some headway)
@Ennui
Sorry, I might have spoiled that option a while back when I introduced flying Ruger Super Warhawks… -
I wasn’t doing anything like that I was just going to use Rigged in Anthro drones
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Can cope with that, probably, they can always be Gollums in the 4th Age… not sure what they’d be in Nazi Germany mind but we’ll cross that bridge…
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Quick question about the mechanics of magic loss due to essence loss in point buy character creation.
As I understand it, in priority or sum-to-ten you could, for example, get magic=4 due to your priority in magic, spend your resources on 2 essence worth of ‘ware, dropping your magic to 2, then use your free karma to buy your magic back up to 4 for (3+4)*5=35 karma.
In point buy I think that instead, if you wanted four magic and two lost essence, you’d just have to buy your magic up to six, then lose those two points of magic ‘off the top’. The effective cost being (5+6)*5=55 karma.
(Obviously in this game a useful magic rating would be higher than four, but I was using that for purposes of illustration.) Do I have that right that if I want ‘ware in my character, I have to lose the magic points off the top of what he’s purchased (potentially quite costly if trying to get to, say, magic 8 with a couple of essence of ‘ware, that is 95 karma of lost magic … I had a story worked out that was pushing me in that direction, but the cost is making me think twice).
On a totally different topic — anyone making a pure mage (i.e. can astrally project)? I’m still trying to decide on magic variant. With this many points to work with, mysad is tempting, but having at least one astral projector would be nice too.
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That’s the price of diluting your soul with ware!
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What I had mapped out was that in an early encounter with firearms he had a limb largely blown off. Even with magic so low he probably could have healed it eventually, but the surgeons of the day did the one thing they could do, and amputated. So he’d gone a few centuries short-handed, so to speak. When ‘ware finally came around he jumped at the opportunity to get a replacement limb, and to add titanium lining to his bones so that such damage could not easily happen again. (I could potentially go to a partial limb replacement or aluminum bone lining, and get the cost down to 1 essence lost).
Yes, in certain periods of the past he’d be wearing a hook (or peg leg? probably a hook though). I figure I could deal with that.
Just to check with others, how big are your dice pools in your main areas? I’m guessing truly core areas at 20+ dice and major supports at 15+? ( I’ve not started doing math yet to figure out how hard hitting those numbers is, but I’m guessing for magic something like multiple initiations, buy magic to 8, buy key skills to 8 or 9, have a power focus rating 4 or something, throw spells at 20+ dice before considering spirit support). But maybe people are focusing harder than that, or maybe not even as much?
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Let’s see:
Unarmed:
AGI 7 (+2 with drugs) + Skill 12 (+2 Specialty) +1 Quality=22(24)
That’s my highest ability.
Everything else is between 7 and 16 -
With Mazzika in meat she’s not so impressive, jumped in though she can get up to 25 dice with drugs. Hacking skills are in mid to high teens with drugs
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Drugs??!!, you want to spend eternity addicted to something for a small ability boost? That will really fuck you up! You probably need to stop thinking like short term shadowrunners for this one 😀
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Eh, tell that the draconic overlord creating their soldiers to be able to use drugs to devastating effectiveness – being afraid of drugs is a relatively recent development 😉
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Hey I can stop any time I want =P
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I posted Mazzika on OP if you would like to check her over for perusal Aria. I will wait for the approval before adding her bio and such in case something needs to be retooled. I went ahead and went with elf after all just to make it easier on you.
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Vindariel is up on OP, history, etc. will follow soon. He is fully Karma generated. If anyone is interested I can send out the excel document I used to create him.
https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.com/characters/sop-vindariel
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I used chummer though part of it was in career mode to bypass the creation limits and awarded myself left over karma.
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Added History to my chara and spent the bonus karma.
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