Mano a Mano:Character Creation

Character Creation

To create PCs the game will provide the players with a list of templates that players can use to create their characters, occupations which are open to beginning characters, abilities and qualities the character can develop and the maximum total CP of the new character, usually 300 CP. A GM or game designer may follow similar rules when creating NPCs, but the limitations may be less strict. (See Game Design and Gameplay.) A finished character will have:

• the character's name, age, sex, template, occupation and CP value.
• agility, strength, toughness, stamina, running and possibly swimming and airspeed.
• abilities and qualities
• equipment including natural weapons and armor
• grapple attack, grapple defense, missile defense and melee defense
• best absorption, total cover, stun and damage.

Description

Choose a name, age, sex, template and occupation for the character. You may also invent a more detailed description and background for your character, appropriate to the game being played. Characters can be male or female unless the template lists different options for sex. Age can be described in years, but more often as a category such as child, youth, adult, old, or ancient.

Occupations give the character advantages, disadvantages, duties or privileges. A character may have any occupations as long as they meet the requirements for those occupations. A character can have more than one occupation if the character can meet the requirements for each occupation at the same time, or no occupation at all. (See Game Design/Occupations.)

Build

A character may be able to have more or less speed, agility, toughness, strength, running, swimming, airspeed, mass and length than his template. Youth, adults and older characters are usually within the template's normal variability. To make a small child character without changing the template, you can reduce the mass, length, toughness, strength and running to less than the template's variability normally allows. After finding the character's total toughness, find the character's stamina which is 2 times the character's total toughness.

Relatively big characters should have more toughness, strength, mass and length, while relatively smaller characters should have less toughness, strength, mass and length. The following table is a guideline for characters with typical mass, length, toughness and strength relationships, but characters are not required to fit these categories. Template variability limits relative size options. High variability is required for tiny and huge characters, low variability requires normal size, and no variability requires exactly average mass, length, toughness and strength.

Size		Toughness, Strength and Mass		Length
tiny		less than half average		over 20% less than average
very small		between 1/3 and 2/3 average		between 10% and 30% less than average
small		between half average and average		between 20% less than average and average
normal		between 2/3 average and 50% more than average		between 10% less and 10% more than average
big		between average and twice average		between average and 30% more than average
very big		between 50% more than average and three times average		between 10% and 50% more than average
huge		more than twice average		over 30% more than average

more speed (20 CP)

A character can have more speed if his template has medium or high variability. If the template's speed is ¼ or ½ the character's total speed will be twice the template's speed. Otherwise the character's total speed will be the template's speed plus 1. More speed is worth 20 CP.

less speed (-20 CP)

A character can have less speed if his template has medium or high variability and the template's speed is greater than ¼. If the template's speed is 1 or ½ the character's total speed will be half of the template's speed. Otherwise the character's total speed will be the template's speed minus 1. Less speed is worth -20 CP.

more or less agility (10 CP per level)

A character can have more or less agility than his template depending on the template's variability: 0 points more or less if the template has low variability, 1 point more or less if the template has medium variability, or 2 points more or less if the template has high variability. Each point of agility is worth 10 CP. For example, if a character's total agility is 2 levels less than his template's agility, then his reduced agility is worth -20 CP.

more or less toughness (3 CP per level)

A character can have total toughness up to 50% more than his template toughness with low variability, twice his template toughness with medium variability and 3 times his template toughness with high variability. A character can have less total toughness than his template toughness but never less than 0 toughness. Even a very fragile character usually has total toughness which is at least half of his template toughness. Each point of toughness is worth 3 CP. For example, -3 toughness is worth -9 CP.

more or less strength (5 CP per level)

A character can have total strength up to 50% more than his template strength with low variability, twice his template strength with medium variability and 3 times his template strength with high variability. A character can have less total strength than his template strength, but never less than 0 strength. Even a very weak character usually has total strength which is at least half of his template strength. Each point of strength is worth 5 CP. For example, -2 strength is worth -10 CP.

more or less mass

A character can have from 30% less to 50% more than his template's average mass with low variability, half to double his template's average mass with medium variability and one-third to 3 times his template's average mass with high variability.

more or less length

A character can have from 10% less to 10% more than his template's average length with low variability, 20% less to 30% more than his template's average length with medium variability and 30% less to 50% more than his template's average length with high variability.

more or less running (5 CP per level)

A character can have up to 50% more than his template's running with low variability, twice his template running with medium variability and three times his template running with high variability. A lame character can have less running than his template, but never less than 0 running.

more or less swimming (5 CP per level)

A character can have up 1 point more swimming than his template swimming with low variability, 3 points more than his template swimming with medium variability and 5 points more than his template swimming with high variability. A disabled character can have less swimming than his template, but never less than 0 swimming.

more or less airspeed (5 CP per level)

A character can have up to 50% more than his template airspeed with low variability, twice his template airspeed with medium variability and three times his template airspeed with high variability. A crippled character can have less airspeed than his template, but never less than 0 airspeed.

Abilities and Qualities

You may give the character new abilities or extra ability levels beyond template abilities, reflecting the character's individual talent, skill and experience. Each ability level is worth 5 CP. Normally new characters can have no more than 4 levels of each new ability or 4 extra levels in each template ability. A character's total ability modifier is his template ability modifier plus his extra ability modifier. (See Game Design/Abilities.) You may also be allowed to give the character weaknesses such as negative qualities (qualities with negative CP) and missing or disabled limbs. Players need the game or GM's permission to create characters with negative qualities that are different from their template. A player also needs the game or GM's permission to make a character with missing or disabled limbs. Characters should not have more than two negative qualities and may be allowed only one or none. The consequences of negative qualities should not be easily avoided. If the character's qualities or natural weapons are different from the character's template, recalculate the character's template CP. (See Game Design/Templates.)

extra modifier 1-2 student 3-5 expert 6-7 master 8-9 legend

Equipment and Natural Defenses

Natural weapons and armor do not have mass or heft. (These natural defenses are included in the character's mass.) The power of a natural weapon is the character's total strength plus the weapon's leverage if it has the leverage feature. The attack modifier of a natural weapon is the character's total agility, plus total natural weapon ability, plus the weapon's offense if it has the offense feature. The defense of a natural weapon is 10 plus the character's total agility plus total natural weapons ability. Natural armor does not need power, attack modifiers or defense. (See Game Design/Abilities/Combat Abilities.)

The character usually begins with the basic equipment required by his occupation. The game may give the character additional equipment or money to buy equipment. A character's modifiers when using an item are listed in the equipment section of the character sheet. These are determined by comparing the character's modifiers to the item's modifiers, and may be different from the values listed on the equipment list for that item. (See Game Design/Equipment and Character Development/Inventory Management.)

Grapple Attack

A character's grapple attack is his grapple ability, plus his agility, plus his strength. For example, if a character's grapple ability is 1, his strength is 1, and his agility is 1, then his grapple attack is 3 (1 + 1 + 1 = 3.)

Grapple Defense

A character's grapple defense is his grapple attack plus 10.

Melee Defense

Melee defense is the best defense of the weapons the character is currently using. This is the difficulty of successfully striking or grappling this character.

Missile Defense

Missile defense is 10 plus the character's agility. This is the difficulty of successfully shooting the character or hitting the character with a thrown weapon.

Best Absorption

Record the highest absorption of any armor the character is currently wearing here. This is the amount of attack power which will be absorbed by an attack which does not specifically try to avoid that armor.

Total Cover

Add up the cover of all the armor the character is wearing and subtract overlapping areas. If the total is 10 or more, or if any of the armor the character is wearing has complete cover, then the total cover is complete. This is the difficulty modifier for attacks that try to hit the character in an unarmored area.

The best absorption can be the total absorption of overlapping armor, and subtracting overlapping areas avoids counting the same covered area twice. For example consider a character wearing a bulletproof ballistic vest (3 cover, 3 absorption) with a rifle plate (an optional solid insert which adds extra protection for the heart) with 1 cover and 5 absorption. This character's best absorption will be found where the area covered by the rifle plate (5 absorption) is also backed by the ballistic vest (3 absorption). This absorption is 8 (5 + 3 = 8). The overlapping area is the area covered by the rifle plate (1 cover) which is also completely covered by the ballistic vest, so the total cover is 3 (3 + 1 - 1.) (See Action/Damage/Armor.)

Stun and Damage

New characters have no stun or damage.

Make a Character - Character Generation Example

This example explains how to make a playable character. Consult the game-specific rules or the Game Master (GM) to find out what Templates and how many Character Points (CP) you can use to make characters. (See Character Creation.) The player starts generating the character with a "template" for the kind of character he is making.

1. Choose the Type of Character You Want to Make

Here we'll assume that we are allowed to use 201 total CP to make a single character whose template is "human." After subtracting the CP value of the template (155 CP) we still have 46 CP to customize the character. (See Game Design/Make a Template.)

human, 75 kg, 1.7 m height, medium variability, 155 CP
1 speed, 0 agility, 3 strength, 5 toughness, 5 running
2 hands (hand)
2 feet

2. Choose the Character's Build

Now we look at Steven's Template to see how it affects his dimensions and modifiers. Steven is a Human, so his height will be between 1.4 m and 2.0 m (within 20% of 1.7m), and his weight should be between 38 kg and 150 kg (50% to 200% of 75 kg.) We decide to make Steven a short-and-stocky tough guy: 1.6 m tall and 95 kg. We give him 2 extra points of toughness, which uses up 6 CP. Steven's agility (0), speed (1), strength (3) and running (5) will remain unchanged from the Human template. Steven's stamina is 14 (two times his toughness.)

3. Use the Remaining CP to Customize the Character Now we will make Steven more competent and interesting by distributing the rest of his CP. After spending 6 CP to give Steven extra toughness, we have 40 CP remaining for enhancements. We decide that Steven does not have any disabilities or missing limbs, so we'll just distribute the rest of the CP among Steven's abilities. We give him a new one-handed weapons ability with a modifier of 4 (20 CP.) We use 10 CP to give Steven an extra craftsmanship ability modifier of 2. We use the remaining 10 CP to give Steven an extra natural weapons ability modifier of 2. The Human template does not have a one-handed weapons, craftsmanship or natural weapons modifier, so we write a 0 in the right side of the Modifier column for each ability.

6 extra toughness (+2) 20 one-handed weapons (+4) 10 craftsmanship (+2) 10 natural weapons (+2) + 155 template CP 201 total CP value

4. Occupation and Equipment

Steven meets the minimum qualifications to be a Robber. We decide this suits the personality we envision for Steven, so we make his occupation "Robber". This occupation does not give Steven any equipment, but he has made a "machete". (See Game Design/Occupations/Occupation Examples and Character Development/Making Equipment/Equipment Generation Example.)

machete (81 CP, 0.5 kg, 3 heft, 5 power, sharp)

Steven only has one machete, so we list the item's name as "1 machete". We copy the item's features (just "sharp"), mass (0.5 kg), and heft (3) to Steven's character sheet. Steven's machete has an attack modifier of 4: Steven's agility (0) plus Steven's one-handed weapons ability (2). Steven's machete has a defense of 14: Steven's agility (0) plus Steven's one-handed weapons ability (2) plus 10. The machete's power is 5 and Steven's total strength is 3. Steven's machete power is the highest of these two values (5).

We also fill in the power, attack and defense of Steven's natural weapons. The power of his hands and feet is Steven's total strength, which is 4.. Steven's hands and feet have an attack modifier of 2: his agility plus his natural weapons ability (2). Steven's hands and feet have a defense of 12: his agility (0) plus his natural weapons ability (2) plus 10.

5. Grapple, Defense, Armor

Steven's grapple attack is his 0 agility plus his 0 grappling ability plus his 3 strength, for a total of 3 grapple attack Steven's grapple defense is his 3 grapple attack plus 10, for a total of 13 grapple defense. Steven's melee defense is the best defense of all his natural weapons and hand weapons. His machete has 14 defense, while his hands and feet have only 12 defense, so his melee defense is 14. Steven's missile defense is his agility (0) plus 10, which is 10 (10 + 0 = 10). Steven has no armor so his best absorption and total cover are 0.

Steven, adult male human robber, 95 kg, 1.6 m height, 201 CP
1 speed, 0 agility, 3 strength, 7 toughness, 14 stamina, 5 running
2 unarmed combat, 4 one-handed weapons, 2 craftsmanship
2 hands (hand, 3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense)
2 feet (3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense)
1 machete (sharp, 0.5 kg, 3 heft, 5 power, 4 attack, 14 defense)
14 melee defense, 10 missile defense, 13 grapple defense, 3 grapple attack
0 best absorption, 0 total cover, ____ stun, ____ damage