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In TheoPunk, you play a human who died and was reborn into the body of someone else in a dark future. Your character has both sets of memories and does not know which one 'they' really are.

Your character does not need to be human. The multiverse is as diverse as it is unwelcoming, and the forgotten races of dead gods carve out their enclaves still.

Your character does not need to be an optimized combat machine, at least for most of the game. If anything, the game will best reward well-rounded characters who are particularly good at a handful of related disciplines - someone with first-aid training, decent with a pistol, and able to talk their way past suspicious locals will get a lot further than Rambo in a world where the "cops" can teleport on location, slow local time, and then disintegrate anyone without citizenship before asking questions of the dead later.

TheoPunk is based on the Hunter: the Reckoning 5th Ed system, which uses a D10 dice pool number-of-successes system determined by a combination of attributes, skills, and background traits.

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This message was last edited by the GM at 01:16, Sat 28 Jan 2023.

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Before we get to mechanics, the most important thing to know about creating your character is hitting the right vibe. The game aims for 'theopunk' - evil has won, the world hates you, and the only way to fight the darkness is a particular kind of religious conviction - your Drive - which involves developing your relationship your Virtue, a kind of higher self, in order to cast down the supernatural beasts that call themselves mankind's Gods. If you are familiar with the cartoon Samurai Jack, the webcomic Kill 6 Billion Demons, or the roleplaying games Cyberpunk 2077 or Shadowrun, you are pretty close to the money.

You have both a primary consciousness (either a human consciousness from our own time, or the consciousness of a long-dead god) and the secondary consciousness, the poor schmuck who woke up with your memories in their head. Essentially, you are going to have to write two characters, then smash them together and tell me how it works out.

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Your Creed, or Virtue, is the soul of your character and defines both how and why they cannot accept the status quo and must do everything they can to change it, not at some point, but NOW - TODAY - THIS VERY NIGHT. It drives them to risk everything, for the sake of everyone. It is a cataclysmic drive, enough to give you a supernatural Edge - a unique ability that lets you tip the tables.

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Godhunting is serious business, and you are just getting started. Get money and put it where it will do the most hurt to the bad guys while bailing out their victims. The bottom line is, you can't do anything going around like a hobo with a shotgun busting into houses to blow away the ghoulies. That's exactly how you end up a statistic on the balance sheet of a megacorp that posts record profits anyway.

There's no time, though. You can't play it safe. You need as much as you can get, as fast as you can get it. People are dying now. Letting some die today so you can save more tomorrow - that would make it so easy to settle for making the shit in your backyard smell a little better and call it a day. No, you bet double or nothing every single day. Doing less would be betraying those already lost to you.

You are a problem-solver.

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This message was last edited by the GM at 01:33, Sat 28 Jan 2023.

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For a given challenge, you will need a certain number of successes to pass its difficulty. A success is rolling 6 or higher on a ten-sided die. How many dice you get to roll is determined by the combination of a physical, social or mental Attribute in combination with a related physical, social, or mental skill.  Physical attributes marry up with physical skills, and so on and so forth, but depending on what you are doing the applicable attribute can vary for the skill you are using. Sometimes getting out of the way of an attack (Dodging) can mean quick footwork (Dexterity) but sometimes in can mean knocking over a bookcase into the path of the monster chasing you as you're running (Strength).

The difficulty of a task is affected by your circumstances and advantages afforded by your character's Advantages - being Sexy and Stylish makes it a lot easier to convince a bouncer to let you into an exclusive club without being on the list, being a Natural Runner makes it a lot easier to make it around the corner before you're seen, having Laid-Back Friends helps you deal with the stress of confronting a demon, etc.

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Attributes are your general mental, physical and social skills. Attributes can range from 0-5. Having 0 in an attribute indicates a disability. 2 is an average level of ability. 3-4 indicate exceptional human ability, and 5 is peak human ability.

You start with one Attribute at 4, three Attributes at 3, four attributes at 2, and one attribute at 1. You may voluntarily knock your attribute that starts at 1 down to 0 if you would like your character to begin with a disability for roleplaying purposes.

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The spread is [4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1]

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Strength: Your muscle power.
Dexterity: Hand-eye coordination, agility.
Stamina: How munch punishment your body can handle.

Charisma: Your personal magnetism.
Manipulation: Your innate understanding of others, empathy.
Composure: Your self-control, gravitas.

Intelligence: Abstract thinking, reasoning.
Wits: Getting it right by feeling, knowing something just isn't right.
Resolve: Attention span, emotional resilience.

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Some stats are impermanent, speaking to transient states. Their maximum values are determined by Attributes.

Health: Your physical vitality. Your character's maximum Health value is equal to Stamina + 3. Don't get shot. Sometimes you can spend a Health point to succeed even when the dice say you failed (pushing yourself to extremes).

Willpower: Mental well-being. The maximum value is equal to Resolve + Composure. You can spend willpower to reroll failed checks, resist corruption, or force your character to do something they would not usually do (resist unwanted impulses).

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Skills are things you are good at. Even having 1 point in a Skill means you have some training or experience in it; pretty much anyone born since the 90s is going to have one point in Computers, for example, and that's enough to get you an office job. 2 points is the level of a hobbyist or professional, like an avid hiker or a veterinary assistant. Three points is an exceptional level of ability - a military officer who can lead men to hold the line in the face of certain death, or a successful investment banker who consistently beats the market by two percentage points year after year.  Four points in awareness is Sherlockian. At five points in Occult, ghosts and the Gods themselves literally come to you seeking lore.

For one skill, you have a Speciality - the thing your character is especially good at, their main schtick. For a Firearms expert, this could be your training in the use of field artillery, or a Science guy could be a nuclear physicist. You are considered to have one additional point in this Skill when your specialty applies. No two players can have the same Speciality in character creation.

You may choose one of three possible stat distributions.

✦ Jack of All Trades: Take any one skill at 3, eight skills at 2, and ten skills at 1.

✦ Balanced: Take three skills at 3, five skills at 2, and seven skills at 1.

✦ Specialist: You start with one skill at 4, three skills at 3, three skills at 2, and three skills at 1.

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Examples of Skills

Physical Skills | Athletics, Brawl, Craft, Driving, Firearms, Larceny, Melee, Stealth, Survival

Social Skills | Animal Ken, Etiquette, Insight, Intimidation, Leadership, Performance, Persuasion, Streetwise, Subterfuge

Mental Skills | Academics, Awareness, Finance, Investigation, Medicine, Occult, Politics, Science, Technology

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Beyond your attributes and skills - how good you are at things - there are also beneficial circumstances your character enjoys, such as possessing Citizenship (and thus the right to peaceful conduct) or having an emotionally supportive best friend (even if that friend is a dog.)

Advantages are discrete traits, not progressive. After character creation, they are fixed facts about your character's life and cannot be changed or added to by expanding experience points. You decide the Advantages your character has, and then the GM assigns equal (but not opposite) Flaws that complicate your character's life. Feel free to provide suggestions for these flaws!

For example: your character is fluent in three languages (a two-point Advantage) but is also on a terrorist watch list (a two-point Flaw). Or, your character is a stunning beauty, gaining an additional two dice on social rolls when applicable (a four-point Advantage) but has a severe addiction to cocaine (a two-point flaw) and a monstrous aura (a two-point flaw). Throw out the custom Advantages you want your character to have, and the GM will determine their value and the proposed flaws. The flaws are always part of the secondary consciousness's shitty life that you woke up into, so they don't necessarily reflect anything to do with your primary consciousness's nature unless you want them to.

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You can also select advantages and flaws from either or both of two lists:

✦ Pared-Down List: https://www.sccs.swarthmore.ed...erits_and_flaws.html

✦ Full 4th ED List: link to a message in another game

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This message was last edited by the GM at 05:03, Sat 28 Jan 2023.

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Allies, Contacts, Fame, Influence, a mask, a mentor, financial resources, retainers and other sidekicks, a safe house, social status, etc. - these shape the fabric of your character's life and constitute their ability to exist in society. Unlike Advantages and Flaws, these are not reciprocal or freeform and CAN be increased later by spending Experience.

Your background relates to the set of advantages that your new 'mortal shell' has.

Given the Cyberpunk nature of the game, you don't start with a lot inherently, but fate has conspired to link you with a 'cell' of other Hunters. Your main contact is given to you via a voicemail from "E.R.I." (Emergent Resonant Intelligence), aka Erika Horvath, aka the only goddamn Holy Guardian Angel that is so low on the totem pole they can take an active hand in helping out without being called to task by the "Higher-Ups". Whatever you call her, she left you a voicemail that directed you to a darksite on the elderweb called //WEAVENET// where you can communicate with other Virtuous / Godhunters / Reborn suckers.

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You begin with 11 points to distribute across all categories, and you cannot by default take any track beyond 2 points. After assigning your points, you can pitch one connection to each other player which would explain increasing any track by +1 dot. Connections are mutual history, acquaintances, or circumstances. These connections are assumed to have formed AFTER you were reborn / became a Virtuous, and will define where the game begins.

After that is settled, players will get the chance to create a secondary Antagonist character if they fancy being the bad guy. Note that your character can be an awful person without being an Antagonist and Antagonists don't have to evil bastards - an Antagonist just specifically has it out for the PCs at the game start. If your character has an Antagonist specifically gunning for them, they can get up to three additional background Dots built from previous run-ins with that Antagonist - this will determine how determined and hostile the Antagonist will be.

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ALLIES are people who are the for you in a pinch - friends, teammates, family. These are specialist contacts, these are the people who care for you personally and probably don't know you're a hyperterrorist. ALLIES have two tracks - EFFECTIVENESS and RELIABILITY.

EFFECTIVENESS

✦ 1pt: A weak buddy, useless in a fight but good for moral support.

✦ 2pt: An average guy on your side, or a tight-knit group of weak individuals such as fellow worshippers at the local dovecote.

✦ 3pt: A gifted and resourceful individual - your Bluebird best friend - or a dangerous group of Average folks, such as your Olympian sorority sisters or other 'mercs you've done a dozen gigs with.

✦ 4pt: A  single goddamn Canary or another supernaturally or cybernetically enhanced badass, or something like a mortal strike team or a shadow court.

RELIABILITY

✦ 1pt: 50-50 odds they come when called, possibly the next day but no sooner.

✦ 2pt: They come when called . . within 1-10 hours (die roll).

✦ 3pt: When you call, they drop everything and rush your way within 10 minutes to an hour.

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CONTACTS are your network, people who aren't your friends but trust you enough to do business with you, feed you intel, and trade favors.

✦ 1pt: You know a guy who has an eye on the local scene but doesn't have a particularly useful service to offer (a street shaman, card hustler, supermarket cashier).

✦ 2pt: You know a guy who can you in the door at the club when you're not on the list, or who can set you up with a ghost-gun, clean gravbike, common spell-stencils, etc.

✦ 3pt: You have a leak in law enforcement, a middle-management corpo, a retired special operative, a scholar of the Dreaming-Dark, or someone else with unusual resources who will deal with you in good faith.

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FAME is more than just viewership, it's the power of your Name itself and has direct implications for arcane work, for good and for ill. Fame can be involuntary. Fame can toss you up and crush you down. More than anything else though - Fame puts you in the big game for real.

✦ 1pt: A select subculture knows who you are online.

✦ 2pt: You're the talk of your neighborhood and people recognize you on the street in your district.

✦ 3pt: Most people in "Techi" know your face and your name - you made it on the news.

✦ 4pt: You're a Public Enemy, the face of a Corp, people know your height, weight, and whether or not you have a boyfriend. You're in the tabloids. Someone wrote a fanfic about you that launched their own career.

✦ 5pt: Your name has become a Sigil, carved into the rock of social consciousness beside the other 'Idols'.

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Being famous doesn't mean you have power. INFLUENCE is your social cachet, your authority, your supernatural grip on the people around you. INFLUENCE specifically applies to one group or region, and defines the size and depth of your divine Realm within the shadow.

✦ 1pt: Well-Connected. You have your foot in the door everywhere in your neighborhood, and your home is a Demesene - a sacred space that demons cannot enter without invitation.

✦ 2pt: Influential. People around you actively want to be in your good graces and do you favors. Your home expands into a Manse, with protected grounds and loyal spirits that hear your call. The dead laid to rest on your Manse cannot be disturbed by necromancers.

✦ 3pt: Entrenched. Mortal power brokers and factions hesitate to openly oppose you. Your Manse digs its roots into the Realm of Rivers, separating from the mortal realm and giving you influence over natural law and the epigenetics of your people - who come to take on your best traits.

✦ 4pt: Powerful: Without a very good reason to do otherwise, officials and foot soldiers obey you. A silent pulse emanates from your Manse in time with the beating of two hearts, dampening the magic of your foes and enhancing your own. The Manse has become your Domain, and space and time become warped within. The uninvited disappear.

✦ 5pt: Dominant: Lesser figures try to figure out what you want and do it before you can direct attention your way. The Domain ascends, metaphysically separating from the city and becoming a pocket-dimension; the locals become a distinct humanoid species, only appearing human to the ignorant; and strange otherworldly Provinces spring up in the four directions as roots become branches and grasp the Dream.

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Virtous are a species of metacognitive. Specifically, they are third-degree metacognitives - the universe itself being a first-order metacongitive (a being that thought itself into existence), second-order metacognitives being the primordials (beings that thought themselves into existence, but are constrained into subordinate avatars within this universe) and third-degree metacogntives being any other entity with a fourth soul capable of traversing the Elevenfold Path. In truth, a third-degree metacognitive is a 'miniverse', an internally consistent framework of reality. Their supernatural abilities arise from their ability to impinge on the greater universe through the mortals they have 'inspired'; giving rise to the common name tsiskika kochistli - 'seizing-dream'.

By consuming other tsiskika kochistli, metacognitives can force their dreams to become subordinate to their own, increasing their ability to impinge upon this reality - enhancing their literally supernatural power.

As the least powerful form of tsiskika kochistli, Virtuous and Godhunters must hide at all times when not carefully prepared for direct combat - they are ambush predators. To do this, they must have a Mask, which is at once a false identity and an actual physical object that hides the face.

✦ 1pt: You have a good fake identity, including a credit card, bank account, credit history, birth certificate, etc, and affidavit of citizenship, etc, all in your Mask's name. You can pass a state or prefectural-level background check, but a megacorp could sniff you out if your draw too much attention.

✦ 2pt: Your Mask can pass a background check spearheaded by the Rooks, the black-robed secret police. If you have a military or intelligence record, it has been classified.

If you invest two points in your mask, you may also purchase one of the two special advantages below at an additional cost:

✦ 1pt: THE FOOL - Someone in high places have purged your real records. You officially don't exist.

✦ 1pt: THE STAR - You can make or source Masks. Making a Mask for someone takes three days per dot invested, but costs something in return - exactly what depends on your level, margin on a Social test, or whatever else the Star decides.

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A Mentor - possibly also called a Holy Guardian Angel, or Aegis - is usually the geist of a fallen Godhunter or Virtous that is able to draw out your strength and reinforce your inner reality but can also be any other supernatural being that is intimately connected with your character's spirituality. They can greatly accelerate your growth, but if they are harmed, your growth may be permanently stunted and your innate Drive twisted.

✦ 1pt: The Mentor is a rookie, just like you - but they've managed to bring down one monster.

✦ 2pt: The Mentor has gone toe-to-toe with three horrors and won each time, more than most manage to do. They are blooded and can help you avoid a nasty end.

✦ 3pt: An Experienced Godhunter who has slain no fewer than five devils or other greater sacred beasts.

✦ 4pt: A veteran of nine hunts, arrayed in trophies, soaked in many bloods, a spear at his right hand, a firearm at his left hand, a cup at his feet, a crown at his brow, a mantle over his shoulders.

✦ 5pt: A Godslayer, seizing the Second Door, a veteran of the Eleventh Hunt, made again in her own name, more dream than flesh, stronger than truth, stranger than fiction.

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Violence, favors, and secrets are the three great currencies - money a distant fourth. Your Resources reflect your ability to trade in these things to get what you need, when you need it. Killing Gods does not pay well, and you must have some kind of side hustle or enterprise to get tools, information, and people, and manipulate circumstances to your benefit.

✦ 1pt: Portfolio Proletariat - You live paycheck to paycheck: you have eight hours in a pod, a rail pass, and a backpack that holds all your worldly belongings.

✦ 2pt: Middle Class - You have your own pod, affording a safe place to stash things without keeping them on your person. You have a premium transit pass, allowing you to use rapid rail, hail taxis, and be protected by a Bluebird while doing so - or ride dark on the old bus network.

✦ 3pt: Rich - You have your own micro-studio, with a kitchenette, bed, main room, closet, free wi-fi, and a bio-locked door. You lease your very own hoverbike and can afford other specialty equipment.

✦ 4pt: Wealthy - You have a full-size condo with modern appliances - sonic shower, induction cooktop, the works. You have relative privacy and security, and can charter a secure hovercraft to pick you up from your front door.

✦ 5pt: Ultra Rich - A penthouse apartment with private helipad, sunlight, a greenhouse, managed by an AI and secured by automated turrets, security cameras, and deathtraps - completely soundproofed, bug-scanning at random intervals, the works. You live the corpo dream and have anything money can buy.

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Heroes in the old parlance - the chosen mortals that serve at a God's side. These are people that you have brought into the fold, who know the score and share your goals and your consuming drive. You usually roleplay these characters if you wish.

✦ 1pt: An underwhelming retainer. A child, criminal lowlife, or horror nerd follows you around and tries to help.

✦ 2pt: A valet, family servant, lover, or 'sidekick'. Average mortal ability.

✦ 3pt: A gifted mortal or bound lesser daemon that acts as your left-hand woman, able to act independently.

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Aside from your own home, you need a spot for your less-than-legal activities, and somewhere you can meet in relative privacy without letting possible enemies scope out your home base. That is a safe house.

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✦ 1pt: Small safe house, but more secure and private than the standard abandoned hotel or crumbling warehouse. A basement apartment in the old city, a record shop backroom with a trusted lookout, a locked storeroom in a secure warehouse.

✦ 2pt: Good size, security, or privacy; a foreclosed micro-studio, and converted storefront, an sewer access tunnel converted in an underground bunker.

✦ 3pt: Very large, secure, or private. A compound in the under-city banlands, a bank building, or a decommissioned subway station.

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Each of these are add-ons that cost one point. IMPORTANT: you can share a safe house with other players, so multiple players can contribute dots to a single base.

✦ 1pt: Hidden Armory - You have a long gun, handgun, and tech melee weapon hidden away. Can be bought multiple times.

✦ 1pt: Security System - Your safehouse is up-to-date physically and digitally, with an intact firewall and perimeter alarms. For each dot in this Merit, add one die to your dice pool to become alerted and resist unauthorized entry.

✦ 1pt: Panic Room - A special, secure cell within the larger base; hard to find, hard to breach. Each dot provides room and resources for two people.

✦ 1pt: Watchmen - Eyes on the outside. Each dot adds four Average guards and one Gifted captain.

✦ 1pt: Postern - You have a plan B if things go south - a rear exit, secret tunnel, sewer access, or another getaway. For each dot in this Merit, add one die to your dice pool to evade or escape surveillance when leaving your safe house.

✦ 1pt: Medbay - Your safehouse has one room dedicated to medical treatment, such as field surgery. Add two dice to your pool for such tests performed in the safe house. Not available in small safe houses.

✦ 1pt: Laboritory - Dedicated industrial sink, a gas jet, a reinforced floor, etc. Each Dot adds one extra die to your pool for Science or Technology rolls. Not available in Small safehouses.

✦ 1pt: Library - You have accumulated a store of supernatural knowledge, research, and history. Add two dice to Occult checks to uncover lore or perform rituals within the safe house. Not available in Small safehouses.

✦ 1pt: Luxury - High definition holos, real cotton or leather seating, memorable decor, etc - your base makes an impression that adds two dice to social tests dealing with guests to the safe house. Unless you have at least three resource dots, it's all totally stolen.

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This message was last edited by the GM at 07:47, Fri 03 Feb 2023.

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Username: Your hunting alias. Think old messageboards or AIM.
Legal Name: Used as little as possible.
True Name: The name you had before you . . . died.
Gender: Male, Female, Non-Binary, etc. (Pronouns You'd Like Used)
Virtue: Your Creed, or Virtue, is the soul of your character, and defines both how and why they cannot accept the status quo.
XP: Keep track of your experience points.

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Write out your character's application essay to the Metacognitive Institute of Lost Vegas - lay out everything good they have going for them (however little that might be) and the challenges they have overcome to get to where they are today, and what they could offer the Institute. More is more, less is less.

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¹ Attributes picked out like footnotes. The point value is the superscript.
² Attribute Name - Short description.

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¹ Flaws added by GM. Assigned based on Attribute value.
² Attribute Name - Short description.

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¹ List of background contacts, allies, est. Point value of the connection is the superscript. Cannot exceed 11 points. Cannot exceed 2pt tier before backgrounds with other players are established. Each player connection is worth +1 to the background of your choice.

² Type Background Name - Description of relationship if needed.

Example:

² Fame David Bowie - Makes a man take things over, lets him loose, hard to swallow...

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SYMBOL CODES

✦ - ✦
✧ - ✧
◆ - ◆
◇ - ◇

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This message was last edited by the GM at 06:09, Mon 27 Feb 2023.

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This message was last edited by the GM at 05:55, Mon 27 Feb 2023.