BrioFRPG:Character Creation

File:Brio Logo.JPG The Character Creation rules may seem complex, however the resultant characters are designed to be both practical(quick to use) and complete.

Under Construction --Yaro 22:08, 5 Jun 2005 (PDT) Just started

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Character Construction Methodology

There are five main steps to character construction, each creates a different aspect of your character, each furthur defines the character and what they are, who they are, and what exactly they can do (and how well they can do it).

Character Points

Character Points are a tool used for balance, and since balance is a reletive term not all characters will start off with the same amount of points. However the base amount depends on a few things. Since there are two different ways to determine starting attributes this must me takin into account before the base character points are determined.

The actual power level of the campaign (series of adventures that define a characters heroic exploits or perhaps simply there life).

Power Level	Random Attributes	Purchased Attributes
Weak(Child)	30	50
Low (Youth)	50	75
Average (Adult)	75	100
Heroic*	125	150
Legendary**	200	225
Mythical***	300	325

*Heroic characters should be thought of as the type of characters that are the main protagianists in your standard western (western civiliaztion) novel.

**Legendary characters are the peak of normal human capability, they are those individuals that characters in novels tend to wish that they were like.

***Mythical characters should be thought of as characters such as those individuals that make up the heroes of greek mythology such as hercules or achillies.

I. Character Concept

The character concept could very well be either the easiest or hardest step depending upon the player. Essentially the mental picture of the character, the idea, the hook, anything and everything that goes into the characters makeup. Some essential questions are best answered before character construction even begins.

What race is your character? Elf? Dwarf? Human? Gen? something else entirely? Ask your GM if there is anything new and exciting, or maybe you might make up something yourself? Keep in mind the effect that this will have on your character beyond the stats, each race has a culture, a bearing, and basic relationship standards with other races.

What is your characters nature? Is your character a warrior through and through? are they a bookworm? powermad? psycotic? the consumate professional? a wanderer? anti-social? what makes your character tick? what is that basic personality trait that, when all else is stripped away, is central to your being?

What is your characters archetype? What is your characters base archetype? are you a warrior? a rogue? a mage? or a archon? a spiderguard? what is your background, what did you grow up as and what was the nature of the training you have recieved thus far.

What is your driving goal? What do you want to accomplish? build an empire? create a better world? kill every dwarf you see? bed every hottie you come accross? nothing at all? Is your characters life leading to something? and if so what is it?

What is methodology? How does your character tackle problems? do they kick the door in? pick the lock? are they careful? considerate? do they set traps? or do they charge the pack and hope for the best? Does your character have a way of doing things? And if so what is it?

What are your Peculiarities? Is there something that is just plain odd about your character? something that sets them apart from others? do you have grey eyes? a huge unibrow? do you have tatoos all over your body? do you have an odd skin pigment? Is there anything about you that people would remember? And if so what?

When your done your character concept you should be able to write at least a couple of paragraphs about your character, about who and what they are. Once you are finished the concept the rest of the process is simply building to that type of character.

Attributes

There are three primary attributes, Mind, Body, and Soul. There are three sub attributes for each of the primary attributes.

Attribute Values

In general attributes fall between 1 and 10, although depending on race, and other effects the attributes may go higher. An attribute value of one means that the character is virtually incappable of using those abilities, a character with a mind of one is a virtual vegetable, a character with a body of one would be virtually bed ridden, and a Soul of one would be catatonic.

Determining Attributes

There are three seperate systems used here for determining attributes, the first is a random value generator which will generally give scores between 3-7 and which should be used with the full alotment of character points because the scores generated are average, the second is a point purchase system which allows for the custom creation of any attribute set desired. The third system produces values above average for normal humans (ussually) and should be used with the reduced number of character points discussed earlier.

Average Attribute Generation

Attribute Value	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
% Roll	1%	2-10%	11-35%	36-65%	66-90%	91%-99%	100%

CP Purchase Attribute Generation

Attribute Value	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
CP Value	-10	-5	-2	0	2	5	10	20	35

Above Average Attribute Generation

Attribute Value	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
% Roll	1%	2-5%	6-15%	16-35%	36-55%	56%-75%	76-90%	91-99%	100%

Mind

Mind is the representation of the overall mental acuity of an individual, it is at its most basic the ability to observe presedence and apply it to new situations to determine the most likely outcome of any paticular application of interference.

Having a high Mind (Intelligence/Perception/Acumen) score however does not insure a correct evaluation of the situation. It is not uncommon for available evidence to suggest a wrong conclusion. History is full of examples when the obvious truth of the situation turned out to be neither obvious or true.

Intelligence

Best defined as the ability to handle complexity. Intelligence is the ability of a character to handle a multitude of variables and apply them in a consitent, reasonable, and accurate way.

Intellegence should be used for any rolls when a character is faced with a situation where they must deal with a comparitively complex situation. When a character must see "the big picture" or when a character is attempting to learn, develop new talents or skills and or remember/memorize something.

Perception

Perception is the characters natural state of awareness, their ability to gain knowledge of there surrounding within the scope of there natural observations.

Perception should be used for any rolls which determine a characters knowledge of there enviorment which is not directly concerned with there active observations. Perception should also be used when determining if a character notices anything unusual or something that the character could make an Acumen roll to determine the importance of.

Acumen

A characters ability to process intellegence and perception in a short amount of time, there mental speed and or wit.

Acumen should be used in any circumstance which will test a characters ability to respond quickly and accurately, any situation which calls for the character to make a judgement call in a very short amount of time such as a game of speed chess or during a witty conversation.

Major Choices

Race, and Archetype