Mano a Mano:Character Development

Character Development

Developing Abilities through Training and Experience

Experience points are used to improve abilities. An experience point is one percent (1% or 1/100) of a character point. Characters can gain experience points from training, as a reward for completing an adventure, or from other experiences that improve their abilities. An experience point can represent an hour of intense training with experts, or three hours of relaxed training on your own.

Experience points can be given to improve a specific ability, or characters can receive flexible experience points which their players decide how to use. Experience points applied to a specific ability are usually applied immediately and not written on the character sheet. Experience points players can use more flexibly are written on the character sheet until the player uses them to increase abilities.

A game can allow only whole ability levels, or it can allow half levels, tenths or hundredths of ability levels. Larger fractions keep the numbers simple, and smaller fractions allow for more gradual character development.

To apply the experience points increase the ability's modifier as if they increased the CP of that ability by one hundredth of the number of experience points applied. Also, increase the ability's CP by 1 for every 100 experience points applied to it. (In other words ability CP should be one half of the ability level times the ability level plus one, and it is rounded down)

• If the game allows only whole ability levels, use 100 times the next ability level in experience points to increase the ability level by one.
• If the game allows half ability levels (but not smaller fractions) use 50 times the next whole ability level in experience points to increase the ability level by one half (0.5).
• If the game allows tenths of ability levels (but not smaller fractions) use 10 times the next whole ability level in experience points to increase the ability level by one tenth (0.1).
• If the game allows hundredths of ability levels use experience points equal to the next whole ability level to increase the ability level by one hundredth (0.01).

Examples

To increase an ability from level 3 to level 4, use 400 (100 times 4) experience points and increase the ability's CP by 4.

To increase an ability level from 1.0 to 1.5, the next whole ability level is 2. Use 100 (50 times 2) experience points and increase the ability's CP by 1 (100 divided by 100).

To increase an ability level from 2.0 to 2.8, the next whole ability level is 3. Use 30 (10 times 3) experience points for each tenth of a level. The ability is being increased by 8 tenths of a level so use 240 (30 times 8) total experience points. Increase the ability's CP by 2 (240 divided by 100, rounded down.)

To increase an ability's level from 2.80 to 2.85, the next whole ability level is 3. Use 3 experience points for each hundredth of a level. The ability is being increased by 5 hundredths of a level, so use 15 (3 times 5) experience points. Because less than 100 CP was used, the ability's CP will not increase.

To increase an ability's level from 3.5 to 4.5, first increase the ability from 3.5 to 4.0 then increase the ability from 4.0 to 4.5. From 3.5 to 4.0 the next whole ability level is 4, so use 200 (50 times 4) experience points. From 4.0 to 4.5 the next whole ability level is 5, so use 250 (50 times 5) experience points. Increase the ability's CP by 2 (250 divided by 100, rounded down.)

In other words:

Ability  Experience  Character
 level     Points     Points

 1.90       280         2
 1.91       282         2
 1.92       284         2
 1.93       286         2
 1.94       288         2
 1.95       290         2
 1.96       292         2
 1.97       294         2
 1.98       296         2
 1.99       298         2
 2.00       300         3
 2.10       330         3
 2.20       360         3
 2.30       390         3
 2.40       420         4
 2.50       450         4
 2.60       480         4
 2.70       510         5
 2.80       540         5
 2.90       570         5
 3.00       600         6
 3.50       800         8
 4.00      1000        10
 4.50      1250        12
 5.00      1500        15
 5.50      1800        18
 6.00      2100        21
 6.50      2450        24
 7.00      2800        28
 7.50      3200        32
 8.00      3600        36
 8.50      4050        40
 9.00      4500        45

Changing Occupations

While a Template has to do with the origin of the character and is a static part of the character, the character's Occupation is not permanent. As a character matures, he could easily end up with in more important Occupations related to the Occupations he has had in the past. If the character is used in a multiple campaigns or adventures, he could easily end up pursuing a wide variety of occupations throughout his lifetime.

Occupations are often unintentionally gained by a character. For example if a character is captured by enemies, his Occupation could become "prisoner" in contrast to his player's intentions.

Occupations are often development goals for a character. For example a character may want to join a "town guard" to have better access to weapons for defeating a public enemy, and successfully changing his occupation to "town guard" could be a significant accomplishment for that character.

Inventory Management or Acquiring and Losing Equipment

(See also Character Equipment)

Making Equipment

Equipment CP

(See Armor and Weapon CP in the Template CP rules)

Make an Item - Equipment Generation Example

We will use our Steven character from the character creation example to make a new weapon. (See Character Creation/Make a Character.) Steven has craftsmanship ability with a modifier of 2.

1. Design the weapon

We decide Steven is making a "machete". The mass of the machete is 0.5 kilograms, worth 1 CP. The machete's 5 power is worth 50 CP. The machete's 3 heft is worth -30 CP. The total CP is 21 so far. (-30 + 60 + 1 = 31.) Having no shots feature (not requiring ammunition or reloading) is worth 20 CP. We add 20 CP for the sharp feature for a final total of 61 CP. In other words, Steven wants to make this machete:

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

2. Find the Maximum CP We start with Steven's craftsmanship modifier (2). We subtract 1 from this because Steven is only taking a few days make the machete. We add a circumstance modifier of 1 because his culture specializes in making machetes. We multiply the result by 50 CP because Steven is in a culture that has "ancient" technology. The maximum CP is 100 CP: (2 craftsmanship ability - 1 time modifier + 1 circumstance modifier) × 50 technology CP.

3. Compare Maximum CP to the CP of the Designed Weapon

Since the maximum CP (100) is equal to or greater than the Machete's CP (61), Steven is able to make it.