Mano a Mano:Character Points

Many things described in the Mano a Mano Role-Playing System - including characters, equipment, templates and abilities - are worth Character Points (CP). CP is a rough estimate of how valuable that thing is.

This value can be used in various ways. For example, players could design characters within a CP limit, or the strength of opposing teams could be compared by the CP of their characters and equipment. Typically an "average beginning character" is worth about 25 CP, not including equipment.

Template CP

Natural Abilities

A character's Template may give him abilities and ability levels. The CP of these natural abilities and levels are part of the Template's CP, but any ability or skill development beyond that adds to the character's total CP.

Add the CP of the Template's natural Abilities: Ability CP

            Disability      General Ability or Skill

Modifier    4  3  2  1     1  2  3   4   5   6   7   8
CP        -10 -6 -3 -1     1  3  6  10  15  21  28  36

Special CP - Some exceptional abilities (like flight) have Special CP - Character Points (CP) just for having the ability at ability level 0. This does not include the CP of any ability levels. The Special CP of a natural ability is part of the Template's CP, so it is not added again to the character's CP. For example, just to have ability level 0 flight requires 5 CP. Ability level 3 flight costs 11 CP: Ability level 3 (6 CP) plus the Special CP for flight (5).

Flight (5 CP) - Flight ability has a Special CP of 5. Flight level 0 means a character can barely fly horizontally at the same speed they were going when they took off.

Natural Weapons and Armor

The CP of a template's natural weapons and armor is what it would be if the weapons and armor were not part of the template. For example, if a template's natural claws had a normal weapon CP of 5, as natural weapons these same claws would have a CP of 5, and would add 5 CP to the template's total.

A natural weapon can be single or multiple. If the natural weapon is single, then it can only be used on one of the template's limbs. If the natural weapon is multiple, it can be used on all of the template's limbs. Having a natural weapon be multiple instead of single is worth 1 CP. (See Character Points/Equipment CP.)

Limbs

Each Template gets one Primary Limb, one Secondary Limb and three Other Limbs for no CP. If the template does not have one or more of these limbs, the CP of the missing limbs is subtracted from the template's CP total.

• 3 CP for a Primary Limb
• 2 CP for a Secondary Limb
• 1 CP for an Other Limb

For Example, a Snake has a head and a tail (two "Other Limbs",) but does not have a third Other Limb (1 CP), a Secondary Limb (2 CP), or a Primary Limb (3 CP), so the Snake's Limb CP is negative six (-1 + -2 + -3 = -6.)

Reach, Stride, Agility, Power and Absorption

Add the CP for the Template's Reach, Stride and Mass from these tables. Give the template the Agility, Power and Absorption modifiers from the Size Table. Toughness, agility and strength are all related to a template's size. The following examples should help guide template creation, but some creatures will be stronger or weaker, quicker or clumsier than their mass would suggest.

Example	mouse	rat	cat	human	horse	elephant	whale
mass (kg)	0.02	0.3	5	80	500	8000	50,000
Agility	5	3	2	0	-2	-4	-5
agility CP	75	45	30	0	-30	-60	-75
Speed	1	1	1	1	1	½	½
speed CP	30	30	30	30	30	0	0
Toughness	0	1	2	5	12	40	100
toughness CP	0	5	10	25	60	200	500
Strength	0	1	2	3	8	25	50
strength CP	0	10	20	30	80	250	500
Cover	0	0	0	0	0	10	10
Absorption	0	0	0	0	0	1	2
armor CP	0	0	0	0	0	50	100
Total CP	105	90	90	85	140	440	1025

Stride Table: CP, Stride, Meters Moved per Hit Point

  Stride (m)  Meters   CP   

 0.01 - 0.09  1/20 HP  -10
 0.10 - 0.19  1/6 HP   -5
 0.20 - 0.29  1/4 HP   -4 
 0.30 - 0.39  1/3 HP   -3 
 0.40 - 0.74  1/2 HP   -2 
 0.75 - 1.49    1       0 
 1.50 - 2.49    2       1
 2.50 - 3.49    3       2  
 3.50 - 4.49    4       3 
 4.50 - 5.49    5       4 
 5.50 - 6.49    6       5

Reach Table:

Reach: 0  0.5  1.0  1.5  2.0  2.5  3.0
CP:    0   1    2    3    4    5    6

Character CP

Template

Add the CP of the character's Template to the character's total CP.

Abilities

Add the CP of extra Ability levels (General Abilities, Skills and Disabilities) beyond what the Character's Template provides. If a Character has 6 levels of Stealth ability and his Template has 4 Stealth, then he has 2 extra levels of Stealth, which is worth 3 CP. If a character has 3 levels of Nearsighted and their template does not have this disability, then he has 3 extra levels of Nearsighted, which is worth -6 CP. Ability CP

            Disability      General Ability or Skill

Modifier    4  3  2  1     1  2  3   4   5   6   7   8
CP        -10 -6 -3 -1     1  3  6  10  15  21  28  36

Body

The character may vary from his template, by having a special "build" according to the following table (these modifiers are applied to the character's Natural Weapon and Armor and Naked modifiers on his character sheet):

CP  Pow Abs Agi Small Builds        Mass

-1  -1  -1  +1  small               less than template range
+1   0  -1  +1  small and powerful  less than template range
+2  -1   0  +1  small and tough     less than template range

CP  Pow Abs Agi Weaker Builds       Mass

-9  -1  -1  -1  feeble              less than template range
-5  -1  -1   0  puny                less than template range
-3   0  -1   0  delicate            within template range
-2  -1   0   0  wimpy               within template range

CP  Pow Abs Agi Typical Builds      Mass

+4   0   0  +1  fast (light)        within template range (less than average)
 0   0   0   0  normal              within template range
-4   0   0  -1  slow (heavy)        within template range (more than average)

CP  Pow Abs Agi Athletic Builds     Mass

+7   0  +1  +1  fast and tough      within template range
+6  +1   0  +1  fast and powerful   within template range
+3   0  +1   0  tough               within template range
+2  +1   0   0  powerful            within template range

CP  Pow Abs Agi Large Builds        Mass

+1  +1  +1  -1  big                 more than template range
+5  +1  +1   0  big and fast        more than template range
+9  +1  +1  +1  big and very fast   more than template range

Missing Limbs

If the character is missing any of the limbs described in their Template, subtract the CP of the missing limbs.

• 3 CP for a Primary Limb
• 2 CP for a Secondary Limb
• 1 CP for an Other Limb

(For example, if a Sword fighter looses his primary limb in a fight, his loss subtracts 3 CP from his Total CP. If he still has enough of a stub left to attack with, then his maimed primary limb may still be counted as an "Other Limb", and would only be a loss of 2 CP.)

Equipment CP

Modifiers

The Character Points (CP) amounts of most weapon modifiers is similar to the ability CP scale. The Default CP scale is used for Cover (Cvr), Absorption (Abs), Concealment (Con) and Toughness (Tgh). The Double CP Parry (Par), and Grapple (Grp). The Triple CP scale is used for Power (Pwr) and Attack (Atk).

Modifier      -6  -5  -4  -3  -2  -1   0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8
Default CP   -21 -15 -10  -6  -3  -1   0   1   3   6  10  15  21  28  36
Double CP    -42 -30 -20 -12  -6  -2   0   2   6  12  20  30  42  56  72
Triple CP    -63 -45 -30 -18  -9  -3   0   3   9  18  30  45  63  84 108

Sharpness

Sharpness  -4  -3  -2  -1   0   1   2   3   4 
CP          0   1   3   6  10  15  21  28  36