I had a brief brainstorm (no doubt helped by my indulgence in cold medicines) last night before bed as to a possible methodology for character creation in Illegal Gods. I can already see some holes in it, but I'll write it down anyway so that I have something to use as a basis.
I'm thinking of something both point and dice-size based. A character would be designed with points, but points would relate to dice size. Now, my original thought had been 5 points for a d20, 4 for d12, 3 for d10, 2 for d8, and 1 for d4, but then I thought, what about reversing that for better odds? I haven't looked it up, but presuming we're going with percentages, a d4 gives you 25 percent jumps, and then d8 is 12.5% (a number I learned working at a welding supply), d10 is, of course, 10%, d12 is, um, 8 1/3rd %, and d20 would be 5% segments.
Which means?
Nothing, absolutely nothing. Yet.
So, say I'm building a character. I want a giant hairy beast, kind of wookiesque. (There's a word that tied my spellchecker in knots...) Heavy with magic and mental capabilities, ala the Mook in Wizardry. The guy I have in mind is a bounty hunter who owes Artemis a "little favour."
I don't have any attributes, because if I'm building a strong character, I want to buy levels of strength, not necessarily base it against some scale. I want to buy strong psychic sense, mostly defensive and hunting. I'm big and furry, so I want to have resistance to cold, but probably a negative against heat. (No vacation trips to Tatooine!) I want some contacts in the field (to give him jobs) and a connection to Artemis, maybe some other in the same pantheon. He needs some job skills, probably a facility with some kinds of weapons, and maybe a hobby he can talk intelligently about, that would have practical colour purpose. He should have some negotiation skills, but maybe not the best, or would he owe Artemis?
So, let's look at this on a slightly more set level?
Strength: 3 points for d10
Psychic sense: 2 points for d12 for defense, 3 points for d10 for life sense.
Cold Resistance: 1 point for d20
Sensitive to Heat: -1 point for d20
Contacts: 3 points for d10
Faith: 3 points (would have been 5, but -2 for being on the "owing side.") for d4 interest of deity (Artemis)
Faith: 2 points (Apollo) for d12 interest
Bounty Hunter: 5 points for d4 job
Blasters: 3 points for d10
Laser Scythe: 4 points for d8
Negotiation: 2 points for d12 (-1 point for a d20 in being bad when it comes to women)
Which makes him a ... 30 point character.
I see these traits as being more a matter of relationships to use against a target number, but I'll keep thinking of ideas to bash this into shape.
Comments (1)
The die size use is a mechanic that seems to be more popular lately.
Posted by Paul | February 6, 2007 1:56 PM
Posted on February 6, 2007 13:56