[The Basics](The%20Basics.md) | [ToC](FluxRPG.md) | [Races](Races.md) ## Summary 1. Character Concept and GM Discussion 2. Race 3. Ability Scores 4. Skills 5. Attributes, Powers, Talents, and Abilities 6. Equipment ## Character Concept and GM Discussion The first step is the least formalized, but most important. This is where you learn what the requirements and expectations are for the game and begin crafting your character. The GM should provide information to the players to set their expectations and help them to understand what he expects from them. - What is the world setting? - What traits are required or forbidden for the PCs? - What house rules will the GM be using? The players should discuss with the GM what sort of character they wish to play and begin fleshing out the basic details. This part may be as formal or informal as the GM and players want. Some groups will do this individually, while others will have a massive planning session where everyone tosses around ideas. Other groups may mostly dispense with this step altogether. Every group has their own play style, and if you game long enough, with any system, you will see all these variants and more. Pretty much every system says that this is the most important step, but it is ultimately up to the group to decide if that is actually the case. ## Race Every character has a race. Racial templates are presented in section 4, Races, and represent a set of attributes that are common to a given race. You are free to select one of these templates, or work with the GM to design your own. I have attempted to make these races relatively balanced against each other, but some changes may still be in order. Each template represents the average member of that particular race. Feel free to adjust ability scores, as long as you do not take them below a value of three, or higher than five over the default. You should discuss with your GM before removing other attributes associated with the template (such as merits, flaws, or racial abilities). In most cases, the GM should be relatively flexible, but may have story reasons not to be. ## Racial Templates Your character's race provides them with a default set of ability scores and attributes. Each template is divided into four main parts. First, you will be given a list of default ability scores that can be adjusted as discussed below. Second, a default list of attributes for that race. Third, how many Character Points your character has left to spend on Attributes and Skills after the template is applied. Fourth, a bit of fluff and description of the race as well as descriptions of special abilities specific to that racial template. ## Ability Scores Your base ability scores will be set by your race. You may move these points around freely to adjust the feel of your character from the default, but do not lower any ability score below 3, or raise any score by more than five. Both of these guidelines may be waived at the GM discretion, but a score lower than 3 is still a bad idea unless there are specific special circumstances. Section 2, The Basics, goes into details on the Ability Scores and what they represent. How you set your scores will depend on your character concept. For instance, a fighter may have a higher Strength and Constitution, while a Rogue will have a higher Agility. A wizard may have high Power and Gnosis scores, while Strength might not be as important to them. Be careful how you craft your character at this point, as choosing a "Dump Stat" may not be as easy as one might expect in other systems. All the Ability Scores will have an impact on your character. During character creation, additional Ability Score ranks may be purchased, or ranks may be sacrificed at a rate of 5 CP per rank. ## Skills Skills represent your trained ability to complete various tasks. Section 6, Skills, goes into more detail on various skills, as well as how to acquire and improve skills once gameplay has started. Skills are purchased from your pool of character points (CP), that are included as part of your racial template. The GM should let you know if any skills are forbidden or required. Just remember that skills and other Attributes are purchased from the same pool of points. Skills are purchased, during character creation, according to the following guidelines. - Skills are purchased at a rate of 1 CP per rank. - A skill is considered untrained if you have not purchased at least one rank in that skill. - You may not use CP to purchase skills ranks higher than the associated ability score. - Some attributes may provide abilities with associated skills. These guidelines allow for some flexibility, while maintaining something resembling balance. While it is quite likely that most skills purchased at creation will be in the two to five rank range, this still allows for a player to take a few skills at a relatively high level if they wish, while still having some initial limitation, and room for growth. ## Attributes Broadly speaking, Attributes are everything that you record on your character sheet other than Equipment. We handle Ability Scores and Skills in their own section to acknowledge their importance in gameplay, and to ensure that they don’t get forgotten or treated as second-hand concepts during character creation. The attributes covered in this section can be thought of as a mix of merits, flaws, abilities, and powers. What sort of things can your character do that make them unique, or at least different from your average NPC character? Chapter 5, Attributes and Flaws, goes into detail on each attribute, as well as telling you how much they cost to purchase. At character creation, this number represents CP. Once gameplay has started, this number represents a cost in Experience Points (EXP). ## Summary of Attribute Costs | Attribute | Cost | |-------------------------|----------| | Ability Scores Per Rank | 5CP | | Skills Per Rank | 1 CP | | Others | Variable | ## Equipment This is the stage where you decide what your character has. Depending on the GM, you may be - Given a list of starting equipment - Told to pick what seems appropriate for your character - Given a starting allotment of money, to purchase equipment Or the GM may decide to go another route that I haven't thought of. Section 8, Equipment, will go into more detail on specific equipment including weapons, armor, food, and other tools and equipment. ## Finishing Touches If you haven’t already, finish solidifying your character's basic concept, background, and biographical information. While I realize that is an implied part of step one, sometimes we get sidetracked playing with the numbers and picking gear. >Playtest Note: I am considering revamping character creation to use in game EXP costs rather than the simplified character creation that is currently in place. This would make character creation more complex, but would provide more parity in point cost between characters. For instance, when you purchase ability scores using Exp, the cost for a rank is (10 * Rank), so raising an ability score from 10 to 11 would cost 110 points, but lowering a score from 10 to 9 would only give you back 100 points. Basic and Difficult skills would be affected similarly. Feel free to provide feedback on this. It may also be work considering that eventually, once the system settles a bit, I plan to create character creation software to help automate the process. ----- [The Basics](The%20Basics.md) | [ToC](FluxRPG.md) | [Races](Races.md)