Ignore it if you're not making a character for that game.
-If you don't have it, download the Marvel player's handbook here. This character gen system is totally different than what's in the book.
-Think up a concept, if you don't have any ideas you can start here, just ignore all the stuff about points.
-You start with 70 points to put into the basic 7 stats:
Fighting
Agility
Strength
Endurance
Reason
Intuition
Psyche
-...and 50 points to put into powers and talents.
-You may also just think of it as having 120 points total, if you want. I figured the less crunch-oriented among you would appreciate me breaking it down a little further though. An easy way to start is to put 10 in each stat and 50 in some power and then adjust from there.
-That's not a lot. If you want more points you've go to take some Disadvantages, see below.
-Popularity starts at 0, Resources start at Poor (4).
-You can pick any powers you want that fit your concept but because ranges are fucked in the original game and everything is fucked in the Ultimate Powers Book so I may alter the precise parameters of a power before play. If you need ideas, the power list is on p 72.
-Powers cost their rank--so Laser Beam: 30 costs 30. The ranks go 2, 4, 6, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 75, 100, so you can't buy like 86 of something. 6 is average, 100 is like the Hulk's strength.
-Talents (p 89) have no rank and cost 5 each. There are some other talents I've added below.
-Any extra points left over go into Karma.
-Roll your home randomly on a d6
1 Queens--Gain a language.
2 Outer Brooklyn--Gain Drive.
3 Hipster Brooklyn--Gain Trivia (subject of choice).
4 Staten Island--Gain a martial art of your choice.
5 Manhattan--Gain Heir To Fortune or a local hook-up (roll below).
6 Bronx--+1 Endurance rank.
Contacts for Manhattanites (roll d6)
1 Upper East Side/Upper West Side or North Tip
2 The General's Labyrinth (formerly Harlem/Spanish Harlem)
3 Little Italy (bigger now, encompassing Bowery and Soho as well)
4 Azocial Zone (formerly East Village/Lower East Side/West Village/Alphabet City)
5 Neo-Tokyo (formerly Chinatown, Tribeca and Lower Manhattan)
6 Joy Division (formerly Chelsea/Midtown/Hell's Kitchen)
-I'm trying this new thing where instead of rolling d100 and looking at the chart, you roll 3d20 and try to hit a target number as many times as possible. So 0 successes=White, 1=Green, 2=Yellow, 3=Red, so write all these target numbers next to the ranks each time they appear:
Shift 0: Target 20
Feeble 2: Target 19
Pr 4: Target 18
Typical 6: Target 17
Good 10: Target 16
Excellent 20: Target 15
Remarkable 30: Target 14
Incredible 40: Target 13
Amazing 50: Target 12
Monstrous 75: Target 11
Unearthly 100: Target 10
Shift X 150: Target 9
Shift Y 250: Target 8
Shift Z 500: Target 7
Familiarity (specific area)--This means you know your way around some geographical region. The game starts in New York, now known as Vornheim, so that's a good bet of a place to start. You get a +1 to checks involving finding stuff in the Familiarity place you pick.
Well-travelled--You have been around--you know many places. This works like familiarity only, for the cost of 20 karma (during the game), you can say you're familiar with any one specific normal, populated place on Earth. Like you show up in Boca Raton and spend 20 karma and go "Oh yeah, Boca, I hate this place".
Crime/Insurgency--This is just a catch-all term for a variety of skills like stealing cars and fencing stuff and picking locks and all that. You get a +1 to checks involving these kinds of things when they come up.
Credentials--You still have some official job with the Stadt and, as of the beginning of play, haven't lost it yet.
Drive--You don't need this to just drive unless you're underage but if you've got some Fury Road shit planned, it gives you a +1 to driving stuff.
Pilot mech--You can pilot one of the Automacht's robot war machines. Without this skill you're just pressing buttons and praying.
Disadvantages--You gain points for taking disadvantages
5 pts-- Recognizable: Though not necessarily in trouble yet, you have a distinctive appearance. Any witness would be able to describe you easily. Superceded by Notorious, Visibly Low-Caste, Inhuman-looking, Visibly stigmatized, etc. --don't take those, too, you have to pick one or the other.
5 pts--No papers: You don't have any more major thing that would immediately identify you as an enemy of the Stadt, but if they ask for your papers you don't have them or even a decent forgery. Superceded by Notorious, Inhuman-looking, Visibly stigmatized, etc. --don't take those, too, you have to pick one or the other.
5 Minor Disability--This is a disability serious enough that it might affect some checks. Like missing a finger, bad hearing, blind in one eye, etc.
5 Invisible Stigma -Nobody could tell to look at you, but you fit some category the Stadt considers unfit to live--you're Jewish or gay etc etc. If someone runs your fingerprints, you're immediately caught. Superceded by Notorious, Inhuman-looking, Visibly stigmatized, etc. --don't take those, too, you have to pick one or the other.
5 per thing--Stuff-Based Powers. If you have a power that is based on a piece of equipment extrinsic to you, then you get 5 per each power (or heightened ability) that fits this description. So like if you're ability to see in the dark comes from goggles, well then take 5 points.
Half-price--Pathetic Power. ....and also take half the price off the cost of seeing in the dark, since that's a pretty wimp power. Also fitting this description: water-breathing, don't need to eat, etc. Things that don't really help immediately except in very specific situations.
10, 20, or 30 "Kryptonite"--Your powers are cancelled out by (10) or you start to die if exposed to (20) some substance. If the substance is common, take 10 more. Like Green Lantern would take 20 because his powers are cancelled by yellow and yellow's everywhere. Mon-El would take 30 because he's allergic to lead.
10 Underage. You aren't old enough to go into like bars and if people see you out during school that's like probable cause right there. Can't legally drive.
10 Monolingual. Most people in the Stadt can speak German and English. If you can only speak one of those, take 10.
10 Visibly Low-Caste. You don't look full-on stigmatized, but you look visibly less than the creepy Aryan ideal, meaning Stadt officials will be real dicks to you. Severe acne or just being really short is enough. Superceded by Notorious, Inhuman-looking, Visibly stigmatized, etc. --don't take those, too, you have to pick one or the other.
10 Illiterate. Can't read.
These blue ones overlap, you can't have two of them
15 No Chill. You are extremely traumatized or angry or cowardly or something and so your role-playing awards will tend to be for behaviors that probably are pretty counterproductive, larger-saving-the-world-mission-wise.
15 Zealot. You have a genuine moral or political code you have to live up to ferociously, so your role-playing awards will tend to be for being zealous--perhaps overzealous. Perhaps to the detriment of other priorities.
20 Psychotic. You can't be counted on to make decisions and believe things that make no sense at all.
20 Serious physical disability. Like one arm, in a wheelchair, etc.
20 Visibly Stigmatized--It's obvious on sight you belong to a category of human the Stadt has declared unfit to live. Many people with serious physical disability also have this.
20/30 Notorious-You are a wanted criminal. If the Stadt only knows what you look like in-costume or out of costume that's 20 if they know either way or you wear no regular disguise that's 30.
30 Inhuman-looking. Like The Thing. Any civilian would freak out if they saw you.
40 Catastrophic disability--You're blind, paralyzed, etc.
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As an example I'll use the PC Mandy's playing, a psychic girl...
Fighting: Poor (4)
Agility: Feeble (2)
Strength: Poor (4)
Endurance: Poor (4)
Reason: Excellent (20)
Intuition: Remarkable (30)
Psyche: Incredible (40)
(So that's 104 so far)
Health: (Fighting+Agility+Strength+Endurance=) 14
Karma: (Reason+Intuition+Psyche=) 90 *
Popularity: 0 (You all start at 0)
Resources: RM 30 (Free because Bianca is from the Upper East Side and is an heir)
Powers
Mind reading: Good (10)
Telepathy: Excellent (20)
Mind Control: Remarkable (30)
(So 104+10+20+30=164)
Talents
First Aid (5)
(164+5=169 which means we're 49 pts over the limit)
Heir to Fortune (this one's free because she's from the Upper East Side)
Disadvantages
Underage (12 yrs old) (+10)
Serious physical disability (wheelchair) (+20)
Visibly stigmatized (+20)
(That adds 50 pts which leaves us with 1 extra point left over which goes back into karma, making her new karma score 91.)
(Then we add target numbers, making the final sheet...)
Bianca the Psychic Girl
lives on the Upper East Side
F: Pr (4) Target 18
A: Fe (2) Target 19
S: Pr (4) Target 18
E: Pr (4) Target 18
R: Ex (20) Target 15
I: Rm (30) Target 14
P: In (40) Target 13
Health: 14
Karma: 91
Popularity: 0
Resources: Rm 30 Target 14
Powers
Mind reading: Gd (10) Target 16
Telepathy: Ex (20) Target 15
Mind Control: Rm (30) Target 14
Talents
First Aid
Heir To Fortune
Disadvantages
Underage (12 yrs old)
Serious physical disability (wheelchair)
Visibly stigmatized
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How would you deal with introducing absolutely new players to character creation? This looks simpler than most point buy systems I've seen, but I'm afraid it would still result in one or two hours of a new player reading through the powers list and figuring what means what.
ReplyDeleteI just ask people what they want their gal to be able to do and then we figure it out after.
DeleteZak - on kryptonite, yu list 10/20/30/40, but only give us 10/20 base for toxicity, and +0/+10 for frequency - how do you get the +40?
ReplyDelete@aramis i think you found a typo! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI hope your comment means you're getting something out of this! have fun!