5: Design the Game Mechanics More Skills & Sample Characters
General Common Skills
Athletics: The
character's ability to run, climb, jump, catch, throw, and do other basic
physical action. It alternates with Broomstick
when playing Quidditch, but can be replaced by Muggle Sports for
specific acts related to "football" or "cricket".
Brawl: The
character's general ability to fight, bare-handed or with small weapons. This
is a distinctly non-optimal means of
combat unless she has a high Size (or her opponent is equally small).
Deceive: The
ability to convincingly lie. It is also the character's ability to disguise
herself without resorting to magic.
Gossip: The
character's ability to both cull through rumors to find the truth, question
people without them realizing they are being questioned and to create rumors to
change public perception.
Influence: The
character's ability to be likeable and, as important, to convince people to do
what she wants. For older characters, this includes Seduction.
Intimidate: The
character's ability to scare people into doing what she wants. This skill
covers both raw threats and subtle pressures.
Mischief: The
character's ability sneak about, filch small items and otherwise do things she
oughtn't and not get caught. This does not include picking magical locks (which
requires magic) or defeating muggle security (which is Muggle Mischief or,
well, magic) .
Notice: The
character's ability to correctly interpret things he sees, hears, smells, etc.
This is not just sensory acuity, but the ability to separate out what matters
from what doesn't.
Research: The
character's ability to find and pull together various pieces of information
into an accurate whole. This is the skill of "Hitting the Books"
rather than spur of the moment deduction (which is left as an exercise to the
player).
Common Wild Card: The
character has some other muggle skill, defined by the player with support from
the GM.
Character Creation Example 1
Jasmine Fontaine (rolled, 16 points)
For the first sample character I'll use the random roll
system. My six rolls are 12, 9, 8, 7, 5 & 5. Looking at the PC column on
the chart of page 2 we find stats of 5, 4, 3, 3, 2 & 2. Those are some
impressive stats, but the player isn’t sure she wants to be quite that
noticeable. Let's build a ravenclaw and have her be just a little quirky to offset
that. I'll set the stats as follows: Ambition 3, Bravery 4, Fortitude 2,
Intellect 5, Agility 3, Size 2
Looking over the Advantages and Disadvantages list I quickly
add Over-Focused (Fortitude). That drops her Fortitude to a 1 and we now have a
genius who has real problems staying focused or on task. Her genius makes her
stand out but no one is grooming her for great things; they’re more exasperated
by her, which is what the player wants. She uses this disadvantage to pick up a
Familiar, which she defines as a ‘ghostling ferret’, a ferret that can turn
intangible for brief spurts, so she has
a pet that mirrors her personality.
I want to add another advantage because I have the idea that
Jasmine is the daughter of travelling theater types and has been all around the
world. I create the new advantage of Well-Travelled which gives her +3 on
Wizard Culture and Muggle Studies. To offset this I flip through the
disadvantage list and add Magically Inept on Divination – the idea is that
Jasmine has picked up bits and pieces of divination (such as rune casting,
auspex, dream interpretation and so on) all over the world and they’re all
jumbled together in her head. She constantly tries to read people’s futures but
ends up just making stuff up.
Now her skills: As a half breed world traveler of theater
blood she can spend 3 points in Muggle Skills so she takes 2 points in Muggle
Mischief and 1 in Muggle Technology; having helped with her father’s escapology
she can pick a lock or two. (This is in addition to her 3 point Muggle Studies
bonus for being well travelled). Being well travelled she’s probably flown a
broomstick a bit and picked up a little more Defense Against the Dark Arts than
your average first year, so we’ll toss a point into each of those. The remaining
10 points get split between Athletics, Mischief, Deceive and the Wild Card
skill of Theater to cover her background of being on the stage.
Stats: Ambition 3, Bravery 4, Fortitude 1, Intellect 5,
Agility 3, Size 2
Advantages: Well-Travelled (+3 Wizard Culture, Muggle
Studes), Familiar (Ghostling Ferret, Willow)
Disadvantages: Overly Focused (-1 Fortitude), Magically
Inept (-3 Divination)
Skills: Muggle Mischief +2, Muggle Studies +3, Muggle
Technology +1,Broomstick +1, DADA +1, Athletics +2, Mischief +3, Deceive +3 and
Theater +2
Character Creation Example 2
Sky Walker (built, 10 points)
Despite the teasing Sky gets over his name, he is too old to
have been named after the young Jedi - instead his shady parents named him
after Sky Masterson from Guys & Dolls. Sky grew up amongst the rougher
sorts and always planned that football would be his way out. Little did he know
that his ticket out had been written on the day of his birth at in the Hogwarts
Book! Once he gets to the school and learns that football is passe, Sky will
stick to the plan in a modified form - expect to see him with a borrowed
broomstick on the Quidditch pitch practicing day and night. He'll get on the
house team as a second year or die trying!
Sky is both physically sound and never gives up. With 10
points to spend I'll give him an Agility of 4 (costing 4 points, he has 6
left), a Fortitude of 3 (costing 2 points, he has 4 left), a Bravery of 3
(costing 2 points, he has 2 left) , along with 2 Ambition and Intellect (each
costing 1 point for a total of 10). As a point build character I can set his
size anywhere from 1 to 3, and I give him the max of 3 - he's big for his age,
but not huge. With Fortitude as his highest quality Sky is sorted into
Hufflepuff.
When it comes to Advantages, Athletic Aptitude is the
obvious choice for Sky. His disadvantage is that he's Poor - his parents barely
have Muggle funds, never mind wizarding ones, and much as it chafes him to be
on the Hogwarts dole that's where he stands.
As a Muggle-Born Sky can take up to 6 points in Muggle
skills. 3 go into Muggle Sports, 2 into Muggle Studies, and 1 into Muggle
technology - Sky knows how to ride a motorcycle. That leaves 9 points for
Common skills. He takes 4 points in Athletics, 2 points in Mischief, 1 into Brawl
and 2 into Intimidate. He's not much of a talker, but he has an impressive
glower & some early skill at fighting picked up in a rough childhood.
I see Sky as alternating between a bit of comic relief and
stalwart ally if the characters are in physical danger. He is very much a fish
out of water, but is determined to learn to swim, or at least fly.
Stats: Ambition 2, Bravery 3, Fortitude 3, Intellect 2,
Agility 4, Size 3
Advantages: Athletic Aptitude
Disadvantages: Poor
Skills: Muggle Sports +3, Muggle Studies +2, Muggle Tech +1
(Motorcycle), Athletics +4, Brawl +1, Intimidate +2, Mischief +2
Textual First Years at arrival
Harry Potter (rolled, 15 pts)
Stats: Ambition 4, Bravery 5, Fortitude 3, Intellect 2,
Agility 3, Size 2.
Advantages: Famous ("boy who lived"), Magical
Aptitude (Broomstick +6), Perfect Wand, Teacher's Pet (Albus Dumbledore),
Magical Widget (invisibility cloak) Player Generated Advantage - Parselmouth.
Disadvantages: Orphan, Famous, Professor Enmity (Snape),
Enemy x3 (Draco Malfoy, Lord Voldemort).
Skills (raised by Muggles): Muggle Studies +2, Muggle Sports
+1, Broomstick +6, Athletics +3, Mischief +4, Deceive +3, Notice +2.
Hermione Granger (built, 10 points)
Stats: Ambition 2, Bravery 3, Fortitude 2, Intellect 5,
Agility 2, Size 2
Advantages: Mis-sorted (Gryffindor, +1 Bravery), Magical
Aptitude (Magic History +6).
Disadvantages: Artless (Ambition counts as 0), Unflattering
Feature (Teeth).
Skills (Muggle born): Muggle Studies +3, Potions +1, Magic
History +6, Herbology +1, DADA +1, Research +6, Notice +3
Ron Weasley (built, 10 points)
Stats: Ambition 3, Bravery 4, Fortitude 2, Intellect 2,
Agility 3, Size 3
Advantages: Large Family
Disadvantages: Poor
Skills (Pureblood): Broomstick +2, Wizard Culture +2,
Athletics +2, Mischief +2, Deceive +2, Brawl +1, Common Wild Card - Chess +4
Neville Longbottom (rolled, 9 points)
Stats: Ambition 2, Bravery 3, Fortitude 3, Intellect 3,
Agility 2, Size 2
Advantages: Magical Aptitude (Herbology +6)
Disadvantages: Insecurity (Bravery is a 1).
Skills (Pureblood): DADA +1, Magic History +3 Herbology +8,
Perceive +3, Research +3, Wizard Culture +3
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