Mano a Mano:Character Creation

Character Creation

To create PCs the game will provide the players with choices and limitations. A GM or game designer may follow similar rules when creating NPCs, but the limitations may be less strict. (See Gameplay/Players and Characters and Game Design/Adventures/Limitations.)

• A list of templates that players can use to create their characters. (See Game Design/Templates.)
• A list of occupations which are open to beginning characters. (See Game Design/Occupations.)
• A list of abilities and qualities a character can develop. (See Game Design/Abilities.)
• Maximum total CP of the new character, usually 300 CP. (See Gameplay/Character Points.)

whether you are a player, GM or game designer, you will need a pencil and a copy of a template. You may also need scratch paper to keep track of the character's CP value. When the new character is complete, record the character's total CP in the left half of the CP Value space.

Description

Choose a name, sex, age, template and occupation for the character. Get a copy of the template and record these choices. You may also invent a more detailed description and background for your character, appropriate to the game being played. The empty upper-right area of the character sheet can be used for a picture of the character or descriptive text. 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. You may have the option of not giving the character an occupation, or the option to choose more than one occupation. 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. (See Game Design/Occupations.)

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. 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. Write the total modifier in the left half of the Modifier column next to the ability name in the Abilities & Qualities column on the character sheet. (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

Build

A character may be able to have more or less speed, agility, toughness, power, mass and length than his template. Record the total value of each of these numbers in the left half of the appropriate space. After finding the character's total toughness, find the character's stamina which is 2 times the character's total toughness, and record it in the Stamina space (at the bottom of the character sheet, near Stun and Damage.)

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 and power to less than the template's variability normally allows.

Relatively big characters should have more toughness, power, mass and length, while relatively smaller characters should have less toughness, power, mass and length. The following table is a guideline for characters with typical mass, length, toughness and power 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 power.

Size		Extra Toughness, Power 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 power (5 CP per level)

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

Equipment and Natural Defenses

Natural Weapons

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 power 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.)

Other Equipment

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.)

Encumbrance

Carrying Capacity

Carrying capacity is the amount of equipment a character can carry without encumbrance. Carrying capacity is determined by the character's power.

	Power	CC		Power	CC		Power	CC
	0	0 kg		17	120 kg		34	4000 kg
	1	0.5 kg		18	150 kg		35	5000 kg
	2	1 kg		19	200 kg		36	6000 kg
	3	2 kg		20	250 kg		37	7000 kg
	4	3 kg		21	300 kg		38	8000 kg
	5	5 kg		22	400 kg		39	9000 kg
	6	7 kg		23	500 kg		40	10,000 kg
	7	10 kg		24	600 kg		41	12,000 kg
	8	15 kg		25	700 kg		42	14,000 kg
	9	20 kg		26	800 kg		43	16,000 kg
	10	25 kg		27	1000 kg		44	18,000 kg
	11	30 kg		28	1200 kg		45	20,000 kg
	12	40 kg		29	1500 kg		46	22,000 kg
	13	50 kg		30	2000 kg		47	24,000 kg
	14	60 kg		31	2500 kg		48	26,000 kg
	15	80 kg		32	3000 kg		49	28,000 kg
	16	100 kg		33	3500 kg		50	30,000 kg

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 carrying capacity and rounded down. If a character's carrying capacity 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 affects a character's movement. (See Action/Movement.)

Attack and Defense

Grapple Attack

A character's grapple attack is his grapple ability, plus his agility, plus his power. For example, if a character's grapple ability is 1, his power 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. 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.)

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