Character Generation Rules
In this thread I shall cover the rules for character generation. Just like the campaign combat rules thread, only I will post here. If anyone has questions, comments or suggestions post them in the OOC thread.
With some exceptions one may pick any RCC/OCC/PCC that one can expect to find in the Lazlo area that are available to player characters. The exceptions include Wanderers, Travelers and Shifters. The reason those three have been exempted is that I have certain events planed for this campaign that those three character types could interfere with. I’ll allow one hatchling dragon in the party ((Taken.)) and one Heroes Unlimited type character into the party. I have most of the Rifts world books and “The Rifters.” Therefore there is a wider selection of possible RCCs, OCCs, PCCs, skills, gear, etc to select. I’ll allow human and human mutant characters to roll on the human mutant table from the Lone Star table. For those not familiar with the table, basically one rolls percentile dice to determine the number of special traits one’s character gets. Then one can either roll again to determine which traits one’s character gets, or one can just select. I’ll let one select one’s character’s trait(s) if one wants to. So we’re clear, the types of characters that can roll on this table are humans, Psi-Stalkers, True Atlanteans, Psi-X Aliens, human Demigods and Neo-Humans. I consider psychics, Heroes Unlimited type human characters, Psi-Stalkers, Psi-X Aliens, human Demigods and Neo-Humans to be mutants. This is important to note because Normals can have 0-2 traits from the table while mutants can have 1-3 traits.
When creating one’s character I ask that everyone take into account that this is going to be a military campaign and roll up a character that can handle combat. That doesn’t mean one has to select a “Man-at-Arm” type of character, but when creating one’s character keep in mind one is going to want a character than can hold his/her own in combat. One doesn’t have to be Rambo, but don’t be useless in combat either. We’re going to spend more time in combat than anything else, so if anyone has a problem with that then you’re in the wrong campaign.
Everyone who joins the campaign will either be a member of the Lazlo militia or mercenaries hired by the Lazlo militia. I’ll leave it up to the players to decide if their characters are militia or mercenaries, but there are going to be certain issues to consider. Firstly, Lazlo has standards. This isn’t Tolkeen, who was happy to hire demons and monsters to fight for them so long as they did more damage to the CS than anybody else. Lazlo has standards of conduct it expects out of its militia and to a lesser degree from its mercenaries. I’m not saying you have to be saints, but there is a line. Don’t cross it. As a mercenary one can get away with a little more than a militiaman could and one can play a character that is more of a free spirit than as a militiaman. However, there are advantages to selecting militia over mercenary. One would be rank. Because this is going to be a military campaign everyone’s character will be given a rank. I’ll discuss the method of selection below. Another advantage is gear. A mercenary character is basically going to have his/her starting gear plus a few items that I’m issuing to everyone. A militia character will have his/her starting gear plus a few items I’m passing out to everyone plus near complete access to Lazlo’s armory. I say near because there will be some items I won’t let you take. Most armors and firearms will be acceptable, but if one asks for too much or for anything too outlandish one will have one’s request denied. I also ask that when listing one’s equipment on one’s character sheet to denote which is one’s character’s starting gear versus the gear issued by Lazlo. I don’t care if one puts a mark next to the gear or lists the issued gear separately from one’s starting equipment just so long as it’s clear what belongs to the character and what belongs to the Lazlo Militia.
Another issue to selecting one’s character and starting gear is what your mission is going to be. Your squad will be a sort of advanced-armored recon squad. The basic idea is you’ll be issued an APC to act as a mobile base with an NPC crew. The APC will be sent ahead and at a certain point hold its position. Then faster and more maneuverable scout vehicles will be sent out from there to collect the intelligence. Once the intelligence is collected the scouts return to the APC and move on to the next site. Later you will all get to enjoy the hive missions. The APC will be crewed by NPCs so that the players will be free to participate in the missions. Without them one or more of the players would have to stay with the APC and that would be boring. The specs on the APC and the crew will be given to you on the first mission briefing. Because of the nature of your missions Glitter-Boy Pilot would not be an acceptable OOC selection. Robot Pilot, however, would still work, as there are several different power armors that would be appropriate for the campaign scenarios.
The first couple of missions will be for breaking-in purposes. This is for a few different reasons. The first being so that everyone can get used to my rules. The second is so that we can all get used to one another and our styles of plays. The third reason is so players can evaluate their characters. One may design a character and then after a run or two decide that his/her character is not quite as good as expected. During this break-in period I’ll allow the players to make some minor modifications to their characters and even allow them to create entirely new characters. After this break-in period is concluded everyone is stuck with his/her choices. The fourth reason is how everyone conducts themselves will determine what rank you’ll be given. Everyone, militia and mercenaries, alike will start out as a private. After an undetermined number of break-in missions I’ll assign the characters their rank. I will listen to what any of the players have to say about the selection. If there is one player in particular anyone thinks would make a good squad leader, or if there is someone the players are dead set against becoming squad leader, I’ll take that into consideration. The reason we’ll be going through this routine is that I have run a couple of other military campaigns and when it came time to assign rank I did so blindly and often times I gave the higher positions to players who couldn’t lead a horse to water and gave more deserving players positions beneath their capabilities. This way I’ll be better able to evaluate the players and give them a position more deserving of their abilities. As I said earlier, whether one decides to be a militiaman or mercenary would also be taken into consideration when determining one’s rank.
For starting gear one may select most items found in North America. The exceptions will be those items from the Coalition War Campaign and Free Quebec books. Those items are too new to have made their way to the Black Market. The only way one can have those items is if one is playing a character that deserted from the CS or FQ armed forces. Or, if one is bringing an old character, captured it from CS/FQ forces during a fight. Similarly speaking, Tolkeen’s gear from the Siege on Tolkeen series isn’t available. It’ll still be another year before the CS and Tolkeen go to war and the gear described in those books won’t be revealed until the war starts. So there’s no way anyone could have any of that gear. Don’t even ask. Naruni Enterprises gear is available on a limited basis as starting gear but won’t be available in the Lazlo armory. According to the Rifts timeline, the CS recently destroyed all of the Naruni Enterprises distribution offices in North America. So there is currently a limit on what NE gear is available and it’ll only be decreasing as time goes on.
When rolling up one’s character I go by the roll one extra die and drop the lowest method. This applies to the standard attributes. I.e. IQ, ME, MA, PS, PP, PE, PB and Spd only. HP, SDC, MDC, ISP, etc will be straight dice rolls. I’ll allow everyone to min/max the results within certain limitations. One may only min/max with attributes of the same dice value. With human characters that’s not an issue since all the attributes are 3d6. If one is playing, say an elf, one cannot roll for PB (5d6) and then place the results in MA (2d6). I’ll only allow one to move around dice results between attributes that one must roll the same number and type of dice for. Another issue when min/maxing is that some races may have attribute bonuses. For example, elves are 3d6 +1 for their IQ attribute. When min/maxing dice results that +1 would stay with IQ.
To determine when one may roll bonus di(c)e take number of sides the di(c)e has/have, subtract 1 from that number and then multiply the difference by the number of di(c)e rolled, then add 1 to the product. That’s the number one needs to meet or beat to roll one or more bonus dice. E.g. 3d6: 6-1=5. 5*3=15. 15+1=16. 2d4: 4-1=3. 3*2=6. 6+1=7. This covers dice rolls themselves. One does not include any possible attribute bonuses into the equation. If one rolls the bonus die and rolls the maximum value one may roll an addition bonus die. The maximum number of bonus dice one may roll for an attribute is equal to the number of dice one rolls to determine the attribute. E.g. On a 3d6 one may roll an additional bonus die if one rolled a six on the previous bonus die roll. The maximum number of bonus dice that may be rolled is 3, even if one rolls a 6 on the third bonus die. On a 2d4 one may roll an additional bonus die on a 4 with the maximum number of bonus dice possible being 2.
Something to remember with various skills, spells and powers is that most of them have a range, percentage, damage, etc, listed as x +y/level. The FAQ at Palladium’s web site states that at first level the y/level isn’t added in until second level. Along those lines, there are a few abilities that do not increase with levels. For example, a Psi-Ghost can phase himself plus 20 pound worth of weight and that’s it. In that case I ruled that Psi-Ghosts could phase an addition 5 lb/level. There will be a few powers I’ll adjust that way. I’m not going to list them here, but I plan to review everyone’s character sheets when they apply. If there are any such powers I’ll let one know and let tell one what changes I’ll enact.
I’ll let players select a broader range of Hand-to-Hand combat skills. One may select such skills as boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, etc. I’ll even let one select kung fu, karate or judo. However unless the character’s background include a stint in Rifts Japan the character would have a somewhat Westernized version. By that I mean the Mystical Martial Arts Skills one usually gets to select are not available. To select one of these Hand-to-Hand skills one must pay one primary skill higher than the cost for Martial Arts/Assassin. One may only select one Hand-to-Hand skill. Some of Palladium’s games allow one to select more than one Hand-to-Hand skill, but I’m not going to allow it in my Rifts campaign. One Hand-to-Hand skill and that’s it. I would allow one to upgrade their Hand-to-Hand skill. In a situation such as that the old Hand-to-Hand skill remains frozen at whatever level it was at and the new Hand-to-Hand skill takes over at level one.
I know some players have old characters from a previous campaign sitting in a binder somewhere not being used. Some of you may be thinking of bringing them into this campaign. Generally speaking I’ll allow one to bring in an old character. However, they would have to conform to the character creation rules as a new character would. Which probably means one may have to revise the character a bit here and there. I have no problem with that so long as one does not completely reroll the character’s attributes. If one decides to completely reroll the character then I would consider that character to be new and must start back at level one. Another consideration is the type and level of the character. If I feel the character is too powerful or simply doesn’t fit into the campaign for some other reason then I won’t allow it.
Another possible character set up is partnerships. I’ve had one campaign where one player was playing two characters that were partnered with each other. I have also played such characters. If one wishes to play such a set up I will consider the request. I will not say I will accept it right off the bat. Like everything else one’s plans would be reviewed first and if I approve I’ll allow a player to control such a partnership. I may also allow players to play more than one character that are not already teamed up. Everything is subject to review before I give the ya or nay.
While I’m at it, if someone wants to do something a little different and off script, so to speak, I’ll consider the idea. For example, I had a player once who wanted her character to have a tarot card skill. There is no tarot card skill in Rifts, but there is an astrology skill and since the two are similar in concept if not in method we used the astrology skill to create a tarot cards skills. So if anyone wants to do something along those lines feel free to ask and we’ll see what we can come up with.
And for a little more off the script ideas, in some cases I’ll allow one to select a skill for one’s character that is normally off limits. There are a few considerations. Firstly, while normally off-limits, it has to be a skill that would make sense for the character to select anyway. No one is going to have a Vagabond with the MD skill. Don’t even think of asking. Perhaps it’s something in the character’s background or maybe it’s because of the campaign it would make sense for said character to take this normally off-limits skill. Like everything else, it’s up to my approval. Assuming I allow one to take the skill it’ll cost two primary skills to take the off-limits skill. If anyone doesn’t care for the cost, then don’t take any off-limit skills.
Normally skills can only be taken once, with the exception of Domestic skills. There is one non-domestic skill I’ll allow one to take more than once. Body Building. It makes sense that one can take that skill more than once. After taking the skill once take it again with more weights. However, the cost of taking the skill doubles each time one takes it. So it counts as one skill the first time, two skills the second time, four skills the third time, eight skills the fourth time, etc. The cost doesn’t have to be paid in Primary Skills. One could pay it off as Secondary Skills, or split it between Primary Skills and Secondary Skills.
If I may make a suggestion, everyone here should consider taking the Spelunking Skill. When exploring or traveling through the hives the skill will be very useful to prevent one from getting lost. I would also allow the skill to be used navigating extremely large structures, like the Fortress City of Chi-Town for example.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:29, Thu 02 Nov 2006.