CHARACTER CREATION FOR OBJECTS IN SPACE

 

• Stats (this page)
• Skills
• Edges & Hindrances
• The Dreaded Character Quiz
• Chinese Zodiac

 

 

 

STATS

 

Everyone in the 'Verse has Stats, from the pasty-faced postmaster on the space station, to the hard, whipcord-lean subsistence farmer on Whitefall. Granted, most folks won't have as much oomph backing them as your Spacer, but then people who live in the Black are often a breed apart.

 

 

 

The average person has a 10 or less in most stats, with maybe one or two Stats set higher. If your character has more than that, she's well beyond most (please note that I say most) generic NPCs. Bad Guys, Leaders and other Professionals will be tricked out as per the needs of the game.

 

You can buy down your character's stats to -5 as well, but just be clear that such a move will hurt her over a long amount of time. Someone with a -5 in Strength won't be able to carry her own backpack, let alone handle any heavy machinery or the recoil from a firearm. Someone with a negative in Agility will be tripping, dropping those fragile items, and couldn't dodge a blow if her life depended on it -- and it might. With advancement, you might be able to bring that negative back up to a zilch, but do you want her to have that much of a long-term issue?

 

Stats are the raw bench mark of how much oomph your character has in various aspects of her life. A Skill will indicate if she has the know-how to try that hare-brained scheme, but it's the Stat which delivers how much pizzazz the outcome will have.

 

 

Anything in double digits is ahead of the curve. Once you hit the mid to high twenties though, there's a sense of diminishing returns ... mostly because it's a refining of something that's already superlative. It's easy to move from gross to refined, and harder to go from refined to pure ... so to speak.

 

If we get stats in the 30s, we should probably talk about how that came to be. It's doable ... it's just extraordinary.

 

A good example of someone with a skill in the 30s would be Olympic athletes. Still within what is obtainable by the human body, but so well honed that it goes far beyond what most people can even dream of doing.

 

Example: Mac and Serene, crew members of Perseus, have just engaged themselves in a bar room brawl. Serene has the Brawling skill, making her a natural to go toe-to-toe against The Drunk who started it all, and she has the Strength and Agility to back up her punches. The Drunk's Stats are much lower, even though he also has the Brawling skill, making Serene the ultimate victor should she continue to punch his lights out. Mac's Strength is in the low single digits, but his Agility and Smarts are both high. He has no Brawling or Martial Arts skills, but he does have Dodging. The other fighters can't lay a finger on him and, depending on how it plays out, he could draw his opponents into situations where they are in the way of bar stools sent flying by other hands. If Mac didn't have a decent bunt in that combo to support his Skill, he'd most likely get the tzao gao beat out of him.

 

Example 2: Cameron, the pilot for Perseus, is doing some tricky flying through a series of switchback canyons in the hopes of shaking off pursuers. He knows how to Pilot this boat, but it's a very difficult maneuver. If his Smarts and Agility were low, he'd likely clip an engine or bank into a outcropping. With a solid number in both to support his Piloting skill, such flying is child's play.

 

 

 

• Agility: is your hero's nimbleness, quickness and dexterity.

 

 

• Strength: is raw physical power and general fitness. Strength also is a measure of how much hurt your character can dish out in hand-to-hand combat.

 

 

• Smarts: is a measure of how well your character knows her world and culture, how well she thinks on her feet and her mental agility.

 

 

• Spirit: is the spiritual side of your hero, reflecting his inner wisdom and willpower. Spirit is very important as it helps your character recover from being rattled when injured, or when she's trying to make that leap of faith.

 

 

• Vigor: represents endurance, resistance to disease, poison or toxins and how much pain and physical damage she can shake off.

 

 

• Charisma: is a measure of your hero's appearance, manner, general likability, and sometimes even rep. A positive Charisma opens doors, greases wheels and also makes him memorable. A negative Charisma (up to -5) means his rep is proportionally bad or he's one powerful ugly person.

 

 

• Perception: this is how well you notice the odd bits around you, or how loud the little voice inside your head can get when it prompts you to pay attention. It won't help you figure out what to do with the things you notice (that's what Spirit and Smarts are for), but at least you'll be more aware of the Tell when you're playing cards. Edges and Hindrances can modify this Stat.

 

 

• Luck: Good or bad or middlin'. This is what will give you more than a snowball's chance in Hell, or let you fry. Take up to a maximum of 5 on either side, or make your own luck. I'll use Bad Luck ruthlessly, so unless you really want it for character reasons don't take it. Here's how it works: Luck is bankable. If faced by a challenge you're not sure your character is up to, you may burn a Good Luck point to give the outcome a little boost. If you have Bad Luck, I'll remove one point for every really rotten thing that happens to you, at my discretion. At advancement time you may restock or pay off your Luck. Luck isn't transferable from character to character, though often the effects ripple outward regardless.