Mano a Mano:Character Creation

Character Creation

To create a character, you need a pencil and a copy of a template. Typically one player - the GM (Game Master) will give the other players a list of templates and a CP allowance to create their characters. Customize the character by choosing a name, age, sex, build, abilities, occupation and equipment. (You may also be able to give the character weaknesses, such as missing limbs or disabilities.) (See Gameplay/Players and Characters and Game Design/Templates.)

Extra CP

Total CP

A character's total CP value is the sum of the character's template CP and extra CP. Total CP must not be greater than your Character Point allowance. (See Game Design/Templates/Template CP.)

Extra CP

Extra CP is the sum of the character's extra ability, qualities, toughness, power, agility and speed CP.

Maimed Characters

A character who has lost (or never had) the use of a limb may have the lame quality, missing natural weapons or reduced natural weapon quantity. Typically, players need the GM's permission to create characters with missing or disabled limbs. If the character's natural weapons are different from their template, recalculate their template CP. (See Game Design/Players and Characters, Game Design/Abilities/Disabilities and Game Design/Templates/Template CP.)

Extra Ability CP

Ability CP is ability level times ten. An extra ability modifier of 1 (student) is worth 10 CP, 2 (expert) is worth 20 CP, 3 (master) is worth 30 CP and 4 (legend) is worth 40 CP.

Extra Quality CP

If a character has extra qualities beyond what his template defaults to, use the CP normally used for template qualities.

Extra Toughness CP

Each point of extra toughness is worth 3 CP. Extra toughness can be positive or negative. For example -3 extra toughness is worth -9 CP.

Extra Power CP

Each point of extra power is worth 5 CP. Extra power can be positive or negative. For example -2 extra power is worth -10 CP.

Extra Agility CP

The CP value of 1 extra agility is 20 CP. The CP value of -1 extra agility is -20 CP.

Extra Speed CP

If speed is 1/4, 1/2, or 1, doubling speed is worth 20 CP. If speed is 1/2 or 1, halving speed is worth -20 CP. If speed is more than 1, one additional speed is worth 20 CP.

Description

Make up a name for your character. If the template name includes sex' or age category copy these as age and sex on the character sheet; Otherwise, choose the age of the character and a sex appropriate to the template, usually "male" or "female". Age can be described in years or as a category such as "child", "youth", "adult", "old", or "ancient". You may also invent a more detailed description and background for your character, appropriate to the game being played.

Build

Characters have 7 size options: tiny, very small, small, average, big, very big and huge. Size determines length and reach by adding or subtracting a percentage from the template's average length and reach. Size also affects mass, agility, health and power.

		variance		length		reach		agility		mass		health		power
tiny		high		-30%		-30%		+2		-60%		-3		-6
very small		medium		-20%		-20%		+1		-40%		-2		-4
small		low		-10%		-10%		0		-20%		-1		-2
average		none		±0%		±0%		0		±0%		0		0
big		low		+10%		+10%		0		+30%		+1		+2
very big		medium		+20%		+20%		-1		+60%		+2		+4
huge		high		+30%		+30%		-2		+100%		+3		+6

Characters with low, medium or high variance also have the following options:

slow		Subtract 1 from the character's agility and increase their mass by 50%.
fast		Add 1 to the character's agility and decrease their mass by 20%.
fragile		Subtract 1 from the character's health.
tough		Add 1 to the character's health.
weak		Subtract 1 from the character's power.
powerful		Add 1 to the character's power.

Reach CP

Each natural weapon longer or shorter than the template reach has a character reach and character reach CP. Every meter of reach is worth 200 CP, every tenth of a meter of reach is worth 20 CP, and every centimeter of reach is worth 2 CP. For example, if the template reach of a weapon is 1.5 m then the character reach of that weapon for a very big character would be 1.8 m (+20% of 1.5 m is 0.3 m longer) with a character reach CP of 60.

Agility CP

Character agility CP is based on the character's agility modifier.

Agility	-3	-2	-1	0	+1	+2	+3
CP	-1200	-600	-200	0	200	600	1200

Health CP

Each point of health is worth 200 CP. For example a tiny, feeble character has a -7 character health modifier and -1400 character health CP.

Power CP

Character power CP is based on the character's power modifier.

Power	-4	-3	-2	-1	0	+1	+2	+3	+4
CP	-2000	-1200	-600	-200	0	200	600	1200	2000

Character Abilities

Abilities

You may give the character new abilities from the list of abilities the game or template allows you to develop.

Disabilities

You may choose as many disabilities as the game allows.

Ability Levels

A character's ability modifiers are their template's ability modifiers plus their ability levels. Or in other words, a character's ability level is the difference between their personal ability modifiers and their template's ability modifiers. A template may impose a limit on how many ability levels a character can develop.

Ability CP A character's ability level has the same CP value as a template's ability modifier. The template's ability modifiers are already included in the template CP, so a character's ability CP is based on the character's ability levels, and not on the character's ability modifiers. For example, if a Character has a +6 modifier in Stealth ability and his Template has +4 Stealth, then he has 2 levels of Stealth, which is worth 300 CP. If a character has a -3 Nearsighted modifier and their template does not have this disability, then he has 3 levels of Nearsighted, which is worth -600 CP.	CP		Disability
	-1000		-4
	-600		-3
	-300		-2
	-100		-1
	CP		Ability
	100		1
	300		2
	600		3
	1000		4
	1500		5
	2100		6
	2800		7
	3600		8

Health

A character's health is the sum of the character's two highest athletic ability modifiers plus one. (See Action/Damage.)

Health/2

A character's health/2 is half of the character's health, rounded down. (See Action/Damage.)

Grip Grip is a character's power plus their strength ability modifier. Grip is the heft of the biggest weapons the character can wield easily. Any weapons larger than this are unwieldy. Unwieldy weapons may only be used to do one quick action per turn (and no powerful actions.) A heavy weapon may increase a character's encumbrance penalty too, reducing speed and movement. CC (Carrying Capacity) CC is the amount of equipment a character can carry without encumbrance. CC is determined by the character's grip.	Grip	CC		Grip	CC
	0	0 g		13	500 kg
	1	500 g		14	1 tonne
	2	1 kg		15	2 tonnes
	3	2 kg		16	3 tonnes
	4	3 kg		17	5 tonnes
	5	5 kg		18	10 tonnes
	6	10 kg		19	20 tonnes
	7	20 kg		20	30 tonnes
	8	30 kg		21	50 tonnes
	9	50 kg		22	100 tonnes
	10	100 kg		23	200 tonnes
	11	200 kg		24	300 tonnes
	12	300 kg		25	500 tonnes

Choosing Occupations

You may be able - or required - to give your character one or more occupations. 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. The game may impose additional limitations, like a minimum or maximum number of occupations. (See Game Design/Occupations.)

Character Equipment

The power of a natural weapon is the character's total power. The combat modifier (Cmb) of a natural weapon is the character's total agility modifier plus total unarmed combat ability modifier. (See Game Design/Abilities/Other Abilities.)

The character usually begins with the basic equipment required by his occupation. The game or GM 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.)

Encumbrance and Movement

Equip. Mass (equipment mass)

Add up the mass of all of the character's equipment and write the total here.

Encumbrance

Encumbrance is the character's equipment mass divided by the character's CC and rounded down. If the character's CC is 10 and his total equipment mass is 29 then his encumbrance is 2. (29 divided by 10 is 2.9, and 2.9 rounded down is 2.) Encumbrance reduces a character's movement.

Spd-Enc (speed minus encumbrance)

Speed minus encumbrance, along with stride and movement abilities, determines a character's ground, water, air and climbing movement.

Stride

Stride is one plus the character's running ability modifier minus their lame disability modifier. This is used to determine a character's ground movement.

Ground

If a character's stride is greater than zero, their ground movement is their stride multiplied by their Spd-Enc. If the character's stride is 0, their ground movement is 1. If the character's stride is less than 0, their ground movement is 0. (See Action/Movement.)

Water

Water movement is Spd-Enc multiplied by swimming ability modifier. (See Action/Movement.)

Air

Only characters who can fly have air movement. Air movement is either Spd-Enc multiplied by flight ability modifier or ground movement, whichever is greater. (See Action/Movement.)

Climbing

While climbing, movement is Spd-Enc multiplied by the longest reach of the character's hands or 0.5 m whichever is longer. (See Game Design/Templates/Natural Weapons and Action/Movement.)

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

Compact Character

The compact character sheet is for characters who will not change, but need combat stats and a few other abilities and some description. Do not list abilities whose only purpose is contributing to combat bonuses on the equipment list. Mass and heft have been removed from the equipment list. If a weapon is unwieldy, put "unwieldy" in the special column.

NAME _________________________  ______ kg ______ m
AGE _______ SEX ______ TEMPLATE __________________
OCCUPATION(s) ____________________________________
ABILITIES ________________________________________
          ________________________________________
Agi Spd Hlth Pwr   ground  water    air   climbing
___ ___ ____ ___   _____ m _____ m _____ m _____ m
EQUIPMENT      special Qty Cmb Rch Cvr Abs Pwr Shp
______________ _______ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
______________ _______ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
______________ _______ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
______________ _______ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
______________ _______ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
          Stun          |         Damage

For example, a compact character sheet for Modre would look like this:

NAME Modre                          60 kg    1.0 m
AGE _______ SEX male   TEMPLATE Sabretooth Penguin
OCCUPATION(S) Robber
ABILITIES 5 swimming, 3 one-handed weapons,
          1 fishing, 2 craftsmanship
Agi Spd Hlth Pwr   ground  water    air   climbing
 4   2   5    4        2 m   10 m       m      1 m
EQUIPMENT      special Qty Cmb Rch Cvr Abs Pwr Shp
claws & teeth   0 Dex   3   4  0.5          4   3
Ice Blade               1   7  1.5          6   2
______________ _______ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
______________ _______ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
______________ _______ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
          Stun          |         Damage

A minimum character sheet has information all on one line, separated by commas with unnecessary labels and blank space removed:

Modre, 60 kg, 1.0 m, male Sabretooth Penguin Robber, 5 swimming, 3 one-handed weapons, 1 fishing, 2 craftsmanship, 4 Agi, 2 Spd, 5 Health, 2-4 Pwr, 2 m ground, 10 m water, 1 m climb, 3 claws and teeth (0.5 m, 4 Cmb, 2-4 Pwr, 3 Shp, 0 Dex), Ice Blade (1.5 m, 7 Cmb, 3-6 Pwr, 2 Shp)