2. Character Creation

The universe of Ex Dynamis Chaos is filled to the very brim with a vast slew of the craziest characters you will ever meet, even if you never leave planet Earth. Be it sheer freaks of nature like The Metal and friends, heroes like Valor or Maximus, angels, djinn, rockstars, mercenaries, aliens, witches, demons, valkyries, or even catgirls, you can find just about anything if you know which rock to look under. The goal of this ruleset is to let you make a character that you can really feel lives in our setting. Not just those with unbelievable powers, but supporting characters as well. First, you just need a goal.

Background

To begin, it is best to paint a mental picture of the sort of character you want to play. Boiling it down to a single sentence or phrase can help a lot. Would you like to be  “a daring adventurer who uses their tools and cunning”,  “a deceitful illusionist who preys on their enemies’ confusion”, or “a street musician who only ever stops playing their guitar when people yell at them”? Whatever your fancy, start with that and begin picking it apart until the picture becomes clearer. Answer some basic questions.

Name: We don’t believe in nominative determinism here, but all the same, a Name can be the strongest factor in determining that starting point of your character. You may choose to have a common Name, a single word, an alias where only you and the GM know your real Name, or a bunch of syllables slapped together. Obviously, your Name should reflect other aspects of your character’s background, but with characters like Sentri Sable, Duggernaut, The Kidd, and Purrcy Nekomimi running around, basically anything is on the table, and you barely need a reason.

Sex: Before you ask: yes, your character’s Sex matters. We really don’t care how your character wants to express themselves, that’s on you, but it is important to establish the biological Sex of your character at the start of the campaign. As far as Humans go, you have the option of Male or Female, but some foreign Races may have more or fewer options. Depending on the campaign you are running, there may be many effects that correlate to this aspect of your character.

Age: While it may be the least impactful part of your character from a mechanics perspective, it can definitely impact a lot of how you choose to build your character. How long have they been doing what they do? How much general experience do they have before the campaign begins? Does their age bring any downsides, like a bad hip? You will be able to pick up some disadvantages related to these ideas later on to make your gameplay more interesting. 

Race: There are a lot of role-playing interactions dependent on your Race, but most Races also have unique features, such as starting Stat modifiers, Heritage, Talents, or Abilities. In some cases, they may even be restricted from some default stuff from this manual. Since this manual presumes you are playing a character from Earth, we are only covering Humans, who are the baseline with no positive or negative Stat modifiers and have access to everything you see here. More races can be found in additional settings materials and scattered across our website.

Appearance: Getting down what your character looks like can also help you decide what path your character will take. The character sheet will have spaces with specific details to help, but think of things like skin tone, hair color and style, eye color, height, weight, physique, clothing, and any unique traits that make them stand out, like tattoos or scars.

Hometown: This can also influence a lot about your character. Different locations may have a strong enough culture that it could affect how your character speaks, dresses, acts, or whatever. It may also affect how other characters see yours if your Hometown has a certain reputation. The main setting is Earth, so you can choose any real-world location relevant to the time the campaign takes place, or any of the special locations found on the site. If your character is also from one of the various other settings, that can also greatly impact how you create them. As always, also talk to your GM, so you don’t conflict with their plans for your party.

Origin: Another good thing to consider is how your character came to be who they are. It doesn’t matter if you have special powers, use unique technology, or just work for a newspaper and end up in the wrong place all the time; this can all influence what traits you pick up and how you choose to progress. Are your Abilities inherent to your biology? Did you study for years to be as skilled as you are? Did you have some kind of procedure to become what you are? If you don’t have a clue, ask your GM for help and they may have an idea that ties into their campaign.

Motivation: Why is your character doing what they do? Did they lose a loved one? Was it recent or years ago? Do they have a mission from their god to act? Do they have a childhood dream they want to fulfill? Maybe they just need the money. This will be the driving factor in how you play your character. If you don’t know what your motivation should be, this is the thing above all else you should ask your GM, because they could give you something really fun that works with that specific campaign.

Personality: After everything above is considered, flesh out the rest of their personality. We don’t do traditional alignments around these parts, so make sure you give just enough information that your GM can understand how your character works. Keep in mind that for any game to run well, your GM has to understand your character enough to operate them without you. Not to say they should do that, but they also need to be able to judge if you are playing your character correctly, according to what you all agreed upon. Think of things like how agreeable they are, how trusting they are of other people, what their moral philosophy is, what their personal prejudices are, or anything else that defines how your character acts.

Vocation

Unless your GM declares otherwise, like they are doing something with a campaign where you only have access to the General Abilities until a certain part in the narrative, your starting Vocation will limit which Abilities you can begin with. In some rare cases, your GM may allow you to pick starting abilities from multiple Vocations, or one other than the one you start with, because it makes sense for your character background. In general, it is best not to.

As a refresher, the starting Vocations available in this manual are the Hoplite, the Wǔshù jiā, the Scout, the Guerilla, the Witch, the Shaman, the Swindler, and the Hitman. More information on each will be available in the Vocations section of the manual.

Attributes

The part you’ve been waiting for: you finally start building your character. You can allocate your Attributes pretty freely, with only one or two constraints unless your GM says otherwise. At Level 1, all characters start with 30 Attribute Points to spend as they please between the six Attributes: MIT, VIG, ALC, INT, MRL, and LCK. The default constraints are that you must allocate at least 1 Attribute Point to each field, and you may not allocate more than 10 to any field. You are not required to spend all your starting Attribute Points if you wish to start with an overall weaker character, but all unspent points are lost once you start the campaign. 

For those struggling, an easy way to start building a character is to give 5 Attribute Points to each Attribute, and then move them from one field to another. If you want a fast character but not a smart one, you can subtract one or two points from INT and move them to ALC. If you are still having trouble deciding, please revisit the Stats section in the Basics chapter, or glance at the formulas in the Stats section after this one to refresh what aspects of your character these Attributes reflect.

Stats

Time for some light math! We are going to take the points you allocated to each Attribute and plug them into the formulas for the Stats below into the forms that will be applicable to most of the game. You’ll find several Stats have multiple formulas the give you both the standard scaling number (Rating) and measurable units. As always, if you end up with a non-whole number for the Rating, round down to the nearest whole number.

Health Points (HP): All Races have a designated Hit Die to determine how much HP they gain at the start and on gaining a Level. Humans have a d8 Hit Die. Other Races in additional materials or on the website will have their Hit Die with the rest of their information, but if you want to play something not detailed by us yet, ask you GM for an appropriate guess using the d8 as the average. 

Rating = (2 x VIG x MRL) + (Hit die x (LCK / 2))  

Technique Points (TP): All Races have a designated Tech Die to determine how much HP they gain at the start and on gaining a Level. Humans have a d10 Tech Die. Other Races in additional materials or on the website will have their Tech Die with the rest of their information, but if you want to play something not detailed by us yet, ask you GM for an appropriate guess using the d8 as the average. 

Rating = (((MIT + VIG) / 2) x INT) + (Tech Die x MRL)

Spirit Points (SP): All Races have a designated Spirit Die to determine how much HP they gain at the start and on gaining a Level. Humans have a d6 Spirit Die. Other Races in additional materials or on the website will have their Spirit Die with the rest of their information, but if you want to play something not detailed by us yet, ask your GM for an appropriate guess using the d8 as the average. 

Rating = (INT x MRL) + (Spirit Die x MRL)

Lifting Power (LFT): Rating = MIT + (VIG x 2)

Kilograms = Rating x 9.5

Striking Power (STR): Rating = (MIT / 2) + (ALC x 2) + (MRL / 2)

Joules = Rating x 30

Physical Defense (PHD): Rating = (MIT x 2) + VIG

Joules = Rating x 15

Magical Defense (MD): Rating = INT + (MRL x 2)

Jumping Height (JMP): Rating = (MIT x 2) + ALC

Meters = Rating x 0.05

Running Speed (SPD): Rating = MIT + (ALC x 2)

Meters per Second [MPS] = Rating x 0.3

Dodge Reflex (DOG): Rating = (ALC / 2) + (INT / 2) + (LCK x 2)

Attention (ATN): Rating = VIG + INT + (LCK / 2)

Discovery (DIS): Rating = (INT / 2) + (MRL / 2) + (LCK x 2)

Status Resistance (RES): Rating = (VIG / 2) + (MRL / 2) + (LCK x 2)

Willpower (WIL): Rating = Level + ((MIT + VIG + INT) / 3) + MRL

Charisma (CHM): Rating = Level + (MIT / 2) + (MRL x 2) + (LCK / 2)

Faith (FTH): Rating = Level + (MRL x 4)

A multitude of ways you can use these Stats will be laid out later on in the Adventuring and Combat sections.

Trade-offs

You know what’s more fun than playing an overpowered character with no consequences? A character with a bunch of drawbacks that make you and your party have to plan around them! Trade-offs allow you to pick special perks to gameplay that you will only find here, but at the cost of taking crippling effects to balance; at a two-to-one ratio at that. That’s right! While we limit the maximum Advantages you can give a character to a grand total of 5, you also have to take 2 Disadvantages for every Advantage you pick up! We don’t limit how many Disadvantages you take, though. You don’t even need to pick up a single Advantage if you just want to play a flawed character.

Advantages

A Big Frickin’ Mech

Not a transformation. Not a power armor. An actual, pilotable robot. It can be as small as 5 meters tall or as large as 18 meters tall, but consider that your character can only call and pilot it in spaces it can fit in. Mech pilots displace all Abilities that modify Stats onto their Mechs. All Channel and Command Abilities must be cast through the Mech as weaponry. Aside from Abilities, the Mech also multiplies your Stats by 10 when it uses it. Your Mech has three defaults weaponry that can only be upgraded to your GM’s discretion at an enormous price. This cannot be selected with another Advantage that displaces Stat-modifying Abilities away from your base character.

Melee Weapon: Level x STR + LCK d20

Cannon: LeveL x WIL + LCK d20

Rifle: Level x (ATN + WIL) + LCK d10

Ambidextrous

Your character is equally talented with both hands, in a good way. They no longer have the -25% penalty to anything done with their Off Hand. This Advantage cannot be selected alongside the Disadvantage Ambisinestrous.

Cyborg

Due to either a tragic past or maybe your character was just crazy enough to get an “upgrade”, this character is no longer completely human, but part machine. Their current HP can never exceed half their maximum, but their TP counts as an overshield that must be depleted first before their HP can be touched. The regenerate all their TP for free when out of an Event for more than an hour and regenerate their DIS / 3 worth of TP at the beginning of their turn. They can also repair Level x DIS worth of TP for a Full Action, keeping the excess over their maximum TP as part of the overshield until their next turn or it gets destroyed. All other Stats are replaced with DIS for the sake of all formulas. If they wish for body modifications like weapons and gadgets, that is up to the GM and charged a large monetary cost. This cannot be selected with another Advantage that displaces Stat-modifying Abilities away from your base character.

Deft

Built for agility and not for strength! Aside from LFT, anytime MIT shows up in a Stat formula, they will use ALC instead. This applies even if ALC already appears elsewhere in the formula. This Advantage cannot be selected alongside any other one that replaces one Attribute with another.

Directed Interest

This character has dedicated a lot of time to studying a particular aspect of life. You can pick one Genre to specialize in, and for every Talent in that Genre, you gain 2 rating for every 1 point spent. The same applies to any Ability in that Genre that costs more than 1 AP or allows more than 1 AP to be invested into it, but they do not return change (if you spend 3 AP to purchase something worth 5 AP, you do not get 1 AP back because you didn’t actually spend 6 AP). The selected Genre cannot be the same as the one selected in Apathetic Disinterest if both are chosen.

Elementally Attuned

Be it by birth, a blessing, an experiment, an accident, or whatever, this character is attuned to a specific Element. Choose between Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, or Electricity to resonate with. All of their Barehand Attacks and non-elemental damaging Abilities apply their Elemental damage, scaling off either their WIL, CHM, or FTH (locked in when they select this Advantage) instead of the Stat used in the formula (for example, Barehand Attacks replace STR). They also gain a 50% resistant to their selected Element. This Advantage cannot be selected alongside Elemental Allergy for the same Element.

Familiar: Creature

It’s not just a bet, it’s a companion. It could be a local animal, an alien, a walking plant, some strange science experiment, or magically conjured. What it isn’t is larger than the player, unless they want to spend another Advantage slot here for Familiar: Creature – Mounted, then it can be up to 3 meters tall. Familiar: Creature has its own mini Character Sheet (similar to NPCs) separate from your own and can only learn General Abilities at the cost of your own AP. It doesn’t require EXP and Levels when you do. Familiar: Creature has a Melee Attack provided below and can attempt Task Checks using its own Stats reasonably under your command. The GM can refuse the Task Check if they deem it unreasonable for the sort of creature it is. You may take Familiar: Creature as many times as you have remaining Advantage slots.

Melee Attack: (Level / 2) x STR + (LCK / 2) d12

Familiar: Machine

It doesn’t matter if you built it, somebody else did, or it somehow evolved into being on some strange world, but you have a little mechanical friend that follows you around and that you at least know how to maintain. It can range between something that can fit in your pocket to about 1 meter tall, unless you use an additional Advantage slot here for Familiar: Machine – Mounted so it can be up to 3 meters tall. Familiar: Machine has their own mini Character Sheet (similar to NPCs) separate from your own with all off its own Attributes and Stats, except that their HP and TP are fixed to half your maximum TP, and SP equally to 0. It doesn’t require EXP and Levels when you do. It can only learn General Abilities at the cost of your own AP, but nothing that consumes SP since it has none. It naturally regenerates 25% of your DIS as HP every turn, but you can use a Full Action to restore your DIS x 2 HP to it. Familiar: Machine can also interface directly with other technology and perform reasonable Task Checks related to that using their DIS, as well as perform other standard Task Checks with their Stats to the GM’s discretion. Unlike other Familiars, this one can have Equipment as upgrades. It can hold 1 Weapon and 3 pieces of Armor or Accessories as substitute values for its hardware (the starting equipment must be within 500 of the local currency). Unlike a PC, it can only swap these out when you have the opportunity to take a Rest.

Familiar: Spirit

This entity is a conjuration of spirit. It could be a ghost, an illusion, a tulpa, or something magically whipped up just for you. The important part is that while it is tied to you, it is not a part of you like an Incarnation is. They must be tangible to do damage or interact with the world. It takes a Full Action to switch between Corporeal and Ethereal. Familiar: Spirit has their own mini Character Sheet (similar to NPCs) separate from your own, but all their Attributes are equal to half of your own, their HP and SP are fixed to half your maximum SP, and TP equally to 0. It doesn’t require EXP and Levels when you do. They also have access to all of your Abilities, but obviously can’t use any that require TP. Familiar: Spirit has a close-range (considered Melee) Attack as described below. If a Familiar: Spirit is killed, it can respawn during the Initiative Phase if you pass a roll to resist Death. This can be performed every round, otherwise they respawn next time you have the opportunity to take a Rest. They can attempt Task Checks using its own Stats reasonably under your command. The GM can refuse the Task Check if they deem it unreasonable for the sort of creature it is. You may take Familiar: Spirit as many times as you have remaining Advantage slots.

Attack: (Level / 2) x FTH + LCK d8 

Henshin!

Even greater power, but first you need to transform. Characters with Henshin! get a +50% Final Stat modifier after all formulas and Abilities, but with the trade-off that no Abilities that affect your Stats work outside of your transformed state. If you lose all your HP in your transformed state, you are reduced back to your normal form with 50% of your normal HP and you can’t use Henshin! again until you’ve taken at least a short Rest. This cannot be selected with another Advantage that displaces Stat-modifying Abilities away from your base character.

Incarnation

Different from a Familiar, your Incarnation is you. It’s just a part of you that separates and fights on your behalf. It can be intelligent with its own separate personality based on a subconscious part of you, it can be a silent extension of you, or it can be an unintelligible beast that acts on its own accord for what it perceives is your benefit. Incarnations can greatly vary in form. What they all have in common is that they primarily do the work for you.

Any Character with Incarnation still has use of their base Stats and Talents, but all Abilities, including those that modify Stats, can only be used by the Incarnation. Unless your GM applies special house rules, your Incarnation and you share your HP, TP, and SP pools, and if one of you dies, both of you do. However, you do get a +50% modifier on fighting Death if it is because the Incarnation is the one killed. The Incarnation doesn’t necessarily have to be out all the time (unless narrative reasons) and can be summoned within your Zone of Attention or withdrawn from anywhere as an Empty Action. Outside of Abilities, it is between you and the GM what kind of Attack your Incarnation does, whether it is Barehanded, based on a weapon formula, or entirely made-up. This cannot be selected with another Advantage that displaces Stat-modifying Abilities away from your base character.

Inheritance

From a loved one who recently passed, you have received a boon. Either an item of value or money worth half the maximum value. The item can be one from the Equipment section of the manual, or any other one that your GM agrees upon. The item’s value can be up to (Level x 250) + (LCK x 50). If they choose the item over the monetary boon, they may not discard or sell the item unless the narrative forces them to for some reason, because it is precious to them.

Lady Luck

Even in a game about rolling dice, you take leaving everything up to luck to the extreme. Your character ignores all other Attributes and replaces them with LCK. In all Stat formulas, when another Attribute appears, use your LCK instead. You no longer have any CoS formulas and instead perform a coin toss for everything except Player-vs-Player Task Checks (treat 50% of their threshold as the Crit/Miracle line in those cases).  Characters with Lady Luck cannot Botch (unless paired with the Disadvantage Humanoid Typhoon). All failed flips are considered a standard Failure, and all successful flips are considered a Critical Success. This Advantage cannot be taken alongside any other one that substitutes one Attribute with another.

Living Weapon

This weapon is alive in some way. It could be a living organism, a magic construct, or a fraction of your own soul; it doesn’t matter. What matters is that this thing gets stronger and will ride with you for the rest of your life. Define the weapon to your GM and use the guide below to pick the one you want. You can not abandon this weapon for any reason.

One-handed Melee: (Level / 2) x STR + LCK d6

Two Handed Melee: Level x STR + LCK d12

Ranged: (Level / 2) x ATN + LCK d4

Casting: Level x FTH + LCK d6

Manabound

Due to some circumstance, but they were brought back from the beyond, or maybe they were made this way, this character is not bound to the mortal coil in traditional ways. They are functionally a corporeal walking spirit. They don’t have to eat, breathe, or anything else the living require and only need mana to restore themself. They can still be killed, however, if their mana completely disappears. This character has 0 HP and instead adds the HP they would have had to their SP. They have more SP, but it is both their health and their casting resource to manage. Anything that would lower or raise HP can now do so for their SP.

My Lucky Day!

Once per session, you can force a Failed roll to be a Critical Success. You can take this Advantage up to 5 times for an additional use for each.

Passive Income

None of your party members asks why; it’s none of their business. But for some reason, you always have more money in your bank account. It could be because you published a book or recorded an album, and your royalties come in. Maybe your family leases mineral rights to their property. Maybe you are a federal plant, and your allowance comes in. It really doesn’t matter. Every time a day passes in-game, your character gains their LCK rating amount of the local currency in their bank account. This is equalized to the rate of a “dollar”, or 100 of the most base part of their currency. So if local currency is like the Yen, where it is the most base and/or only part of its system, you get your LCK x 100. You can take this Advantage as many times as you have Advantage slots still available (maximum of 5 times), and for each time you take it, you increase your daily income by an order of magnitude. For example, if you took this all five times and had a luck of 39, you would gain 390,000 of the local currency a day (or equivalently 39,000,000 in cases like mentioned before)

Relentless

Some people just won’t go down. If this character drops to 0 HP, instead of attempting to resist Death, once time they come back with 25% HP, reduce all incoming damage by 50%, and increase all outgoing damage by 150%. This lasts until the character either dies or they have the opportunity to take a Rest. This can only activate once per Rest.

Salvation by Faith

Aside from HP, TP, and SP, ignore all other Stats and replace them with your FTH, including the ratios for the Stats, like how many kilograms you can lift, for example. This also means it is affected by any positive or negative modifiers to FTH, as well as becoming useless if FTH gets blocked. This Advantage cannot be selected alongside any other one that replaces one Stat with another.

Sidekick!

Your child, your ward, your apprentice, or maybe just your best friend. Your Sidekick! is your most valuable asset out in the field. They have their own full Character Sheet separate from yours and gain resources at 75% the rate your character does (with all your Advantages and Disadvantages applied), with the exception that they cannot gain AP. You must spend the AP your character earns if you wish to teach them Abilities. They can, however, have a separate Vocation equipped than you, if it makes narrative sense. If your character passes away or their Sidekick! passes away, the Sidekick! can replace your character or you can recruit a new Sidekick! respectively, see the Legacy chapter of the manual to see how that works. They cannot have their own Advantages and Disadvantages unless they replace your character. This Advantage cannot be taken multiple times by a singular character.

Signature Spell

As a natural prodigy in the art of spellcraft, this character has developed their own personal magic they use all the time. This spell costs (SP / 5) – (FTH / 5) and can be one of three kinds. If you choose a damaging spell, you can apply one additional trait, like an element or status effect, and it does Level x WIL + LCK d10 of its damage type. If you choose a healing spell, you can choose to either remove a debuff or apply a specific buff, and it will restore Level x FTH + LCK d8 in HP divided by the number of targets you select. If you choose a non-combat spell, it can do anything within reason, according to your GM, that does not directly harm your enemies or aid your allies in combat. It could be creating water or food, restoring inorganic objects like buildings or clothing, or even creating an illusion. Just make sure it is something impactful to non-combat gameplay if you are going to waste an Advantage slot and that much SP on it. What the spell is must be locked in and named before the character is playable and cannot be altered after. You may take this Advantage as many times as you have space.

Vengeance

This character has a grudge against either a specific kind of enemy or a particular Faction, and has dedicated their life to learning their ways to wipe them out. As such, they are both 50% more likely to land Attacks on these targets and less likely to be hit by them. They also do 100% more damage when they land an Attack on the target. They even get a 50% rating bonus to any Task Check against the target or related to the knowledge about them. They must be specific about the category they have Vengeance toward, and the GM may deny or modify their choice if the campaign demands the character couldn’t have knowledge on a particular (though we encourage the GM to work your character into the secrets of the story and only reveal information as necessary for a better narrative experience). This Advantage cannot be paired alongside the same selection as My One Weakness!

Where there’s a Will, There’s a Way

Aside from HP, TP, and SP, ignore all other Stats and replace them with your WIL, including the ratios for the Stats, like how many kilograms you can lift, for example. This also means it is affected by any positive or negative modifiers to WIL, as well as becoming useless if WIL gets blocked. This Advantage cannot be selected alongside any other one that replaces one Stat with another.

Disadvantages

Achoo!

This character either has a curse, some biological defect, or two spirits living in the same body, but for some reason they swap between two personalities at very inconvenient times. If you pick this Disadvantage, a common trigger for the change will be agreed upon between you and your GM. It can be a sneeze, like the name suggests, a sound or trigger word, seeing a particular object or color, the temperature of the water, it doesn’t matter. You and the GM will also decide on a crippling personality that offsets your main one. Maybe they are a pacifist, they are clumsy, they get distracted easily, or they become a ditz who isn’t any good at the stuff the main personality is good at. The important part is that either they have no control of the trigger or they don’t know what the trigger is to be able to relay it to the party without them discovering it themselves. In Combat, however, they must do a roll every turn, before they use any Movement of Action, with a fixed 20% chance of swapping personalities. This can count as 2 Disadvantages if paired with Henshin!, making this the transformation trigger and all Stat-modifying Abilities only applying to the main personality.   

Addict

This character is addicted to some substance or activity. If they don’t partake in their addiction frequently, they will first become irritable and eventually become useless until the problem is resolved. The frequency and resulting behavior is up to you and your GM, but it must be significant to gameplay. For example, if your character goes a week or more without their addiction they might either be unable to do any Task Checks or Combat, or they may go completely berserk in Combat and only perform Attacks indiscriminately, regardless of whether they are friend or foe. 

Ambisinestrous

Your character is equally talented with both hands, in a bad way. They now also have the -25% penalty to anything they do with their Main Hand, just like their Off Hand. The Disadvantage cannot be selected alongside the Advantage Ambidextrous.

Apathetic Disinterest

No matter how hard they try, this character just can’t care about a certain subject. Select a Genre, and for every Talent rating or Ability Point cost in it, you must spend twice as many points. Just like with your character’s interest in this Genre, you would only pick something up from here if you absolutely had to. The Genre selected may not be the same one from Directed Interest if both are chosen.

Blind

This character cannot see. They struggle to navigate the world. If they try to Sprint (use Additional Movement) they have to pass a DIS – SPD roll or else they trip after traveling their normal maximum distance. Their accuracy for any Attack is also reduced by 75% – LCK. They also can’t do any Task Checks or other out-of-combat activities that require sight, such as reading street signs. 

Brittle

This character is more fragile for some reason and thus takes 25% more damage from all sources, no matter how tough they ever get.

Dense as a Bag of Rice

For some reason, this character refuses to learn to Dodge, no matter how often they are yelled at. Their DOG rating is also set to 0 no matter how high the Attributes involved gets.

Disarmed

The designated arm may or may not still be attached, but it is functionally useless for all things necessary during gameplay, outside maybe some roleplay situations. The character can’t grip anything in that hand. This Disadvantage can cover up to 3 slots of your Advantage debt: 1 if you pick it up for your Off Hand, 2 if you pick it up for your Main Hand, or 3 if you pick it up for both hands. If a Race with more than two arms is introduced later, this will be brought up on their page. Mechanical characters cannot pick up this Disadvantage.

Elemental Allergy

This character, for some inexplicable reason, has a physical aversion to a particular Element. Choose between Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, or Electricity to be weak against and take 50% more damage from it. Task Checks related to the Element are also 50% more difficult. This Disadvantage can be picked up for each Element separately. It cannot be selected alongside Elementally Attuned for the same Element.

Hobbled

This character is at least partially crippled. One or more of their legs is lame and reduces how fast they can move. Their SPD and DOG rating are cut in half for each lame leg (-50%/-75%). This Disadvantage can be selected up to 2 times, once for each leg.

Humanoid Typhoon

You are a walking disaster. Everywhere you visit is a nightmare for insurance companies. When things go wrong for you, things go very, very wrong. Any time your character fails a Task Check or Attack roll, instead of a standard Failure, you can only Botch. Your GM should treat this as the extreme end of Murphy’s Law and give you the worst practical result that could come from the situation.

Inaudible

This character is either deaf and/or mute. This doesn’t affect Combat too much, unless the source attacking them is outside of their line of sight for the deaf. If that is the case, it is up to your GM if they want to impose a 50% penalty to their DOG Stat on a case by case basis. What it does affect is their ability to communicate. Deaf characters have to roll to see how well they understand other characters unless things are written down for them to read and mute characters have to roll to see how well other characters understand them, unless in the same situation as before. This does not however prevent them from casting spells, as there are many ways the channel magic than just through speech. This Disadvantage can be taken each time for both being deaf and mute for up to 2 slots.

Inept

This character lacks the capability to use Abilities either using TP and/or SP. It could be due to some deficiency on their part or something, but they just can’t. They can’t even learn them. This Disadvantage can be taken up to 2 times, once for each TP and SP. It cannot be paired with an Advantage of Disadvantage that already negates the chosen Stat or drops it to 0.

Learning Disability

This character struggles to pick things up as fast as other characters, and as such they either require twice as many points invested to grow Talents or to purchase Abilities (2 to 1 ratio). This Disadvantage may be taken separately for both Talents and Abilities. This can be paired with either Directed Interest, cancelling each other out for the selected Genre, or Apathetic Disinterest, doubling the necessary investment of the selected Genre (4 to 1 ratio).

Mana Sickness

You have unstable mana levels for some reason and bleed it out constantly. This isn’t the end of the world, unless you happen to be a Manabound entity, but it is annoying and gets in the way of life like any other illness. Every Task Check and Full Action you take that doesn’t already consume SP, consumes 10% – MRL of your SP. Successful Task Checks refund 10% of your SP (double for a Critical Success), as well as any turn in Combat that passes without taking a Full Action. If your SP goes over your maximum for any reason, you lose HP equal to the excess – MRL (unless you are Manabound, then the excess just disappears).

Melancholy

This character sometimes just doesn’t feel up to it. Before any Full Action or Task Check, you must roll against a 20% fixed chance that they just might not do it and skip their turn. Oh well, bummer.

My One Weakness!

This character has a history with a specific type of Enemy or Faction that makes them more vulnerable to them. Any time they are Attacked by the Enemy or Faction, they take 100% more damage and are 50% more likely to get hit. They also have 50% more difficulty with Task Checks against this Enemy or Faction. This Disadvantage cannot be paired alongside the same selection as Vengeance.

Perpetual Debt

It doesn’t make sense how one person can be in so much debt, but alas, you are. Your debt collectors aren’t evil, but they are persistent. Whenever you make money, you end up handing off 18% – LCK over to your collectors. This doesn’t matter if it is cash handed to you in person or money deposited directly into your account. If the amount earned is less than your LCK, then you get to keep all of it. This Disadvantage can be taken up to 5 times, but your LCK is only ever subtracted once, for a maximum of 90% – LCK loss of any source of income.

Shadow Play

If this character drops to 25% HP or below, they enter a rage state for their own survival and can only make Attack Actions until they return above 25% HP. During this time, the character deals 25% more damage and takes 25% less damage. They also cannot exit Combat on their own and must continue to act until it resolves naturally. This Disadvantage cannot be paired with others that trigger at or below the 25% HP threshold.

YellowbellyThis character has no spine and will run if they feel like they are going to die. If this character drops to 25% HP or below, they will immediately Flee from Combat if it is possible, without the player rolling for it or the rest of the party joining them. If it is not physically possible for them to Flee, they will continuously attempt to hide for safety until either the Combat resolves, they die, or they are healed above 25% again by an external source. This Disadvantage cannot be paired with others that trigger at or below the 25% HP threshold.

Equipment

At the start of the game, unless they have more or less for any prior reasons, every character starts with 2000 of the local currency (20,000 if the local currency doesn’t break down into a 1/100th smaller currency in the way Dollars can be broken down into Pennies). This can be used on any Weapons, Armor, Consumables, or other items available to your character at the start. Any unspent money can be saved by the character, but from that point on, it counts as income and is susceptible to Advantages and Disadvantages, like Perpetual Debt.

Talents

Talents are your character’s applicable life skills. The vast majority of your Task Checks will be done using your Talent ratings. Each Talent has two categories it falls into: a Genre and a related Stat. The Genre is there not just for traits like Advantages and Disadvantages, but also to help you understand if your character would invest in that part of life. The related Stat tells you what to roll if your character hasn’t invested time in that Talent (at 25% your Stat rating).

When making a new character, you get 200 points to spend mostly as you please. The restrictions are that you may never learn a new ability at less than 10 points, and you may not exceed 50 times your starting Level. After the game begins, there are no upper bounds on how many future points you can allocate to a Talent.  Any unspent points after Character Creation are lost.

Equipment Talents

There are no set Talents for Weapons and other Equipment in this game, but you still need them nonetheless. At the start, you gain 10 points in whatever Equipment type you have assigned to your hands (if your Weapons say Swords, get 10 points in Swords). Any Equipment you gain during the campaign for the first time, treat it as if you have a rating of 0.

Additional Talents

There are a lot of possible Talents your characters may need or want. These will vary from character to character and will rely on your GM to help assign you what makes sense to both your character’s history and the setting or campaign itself. Your character should at least know the common tongue of the land you are currently in, but they may also need to know other languages, studies on particular subjects, crafts, or hobbies, based on their background. These don’t require any points, so the rating of each should be assigned under your GM’s discretion. More of these types of Talents cannot be gained after Character Creation unless the character spends time learning them, so be sure you start with everything you need.

Abilities

The majority of the things that make your character who they are from a game mechanics perspective will be the Abilities they pick up over time. Earlier, we made you declare your starting Vocation, and now it is time to put it to use. At Level 1, all characters start with 25 AP to spend as you please between your Vocation’s Ability list or that of the General Ability list. There is no order that you must purchase most Abilities unless they specifically mention a Prerequisite Ability.

Unlike the earlier Talent points, AP is a long-term character currency that does not expire if you fail to use it all here. We will mention this again later so you don’t forget, but while it can only convert in one direction, 1 AP can be transformed into 10 Talent points. So, if you have already locked in your Talents first, you may not use any excess AP to raise the rating of your Talents as long as they are not used to gain new Talents, as you will have to actively Learn those later.

Advancing

As you make your way through the world, your character will advance in two significant ways: gaining EXP and gaining AP. Both will be awarded as your GM sees fit, typically through completing Events and Quests.

You can use AP to purchase Abilities often throughout the game, but using EXP to purchase Levels is more restricted and can only be done when your character is able to take a Rest. When you do take a Rest, all the EXP you’ve banked to this point can be converted into Levels to your discretion. The EXP needed to get to the next Level will always be ((Current Level – 1) x (Current Level x 35)) + 100. The easiest way to keep track of this is to subtract what you currently have from the next Level EXP requirement, and keep the leftover as your starting point for the next Level. We’ve done the hard work of calculating the EXP needed for each Level and the total EXP you should have for each up to Level 100. You can also find the total EXP for any Level by taking the previous Level and the equation: (Level x ((35 x Level²) 265)) / 3.

LevelEXP NeededTotal EXPLevelEXP NeededTotal EXPLevelEXP NeededTotal EXP
21001003539,370461,55068154,8703,514,820
31702703641,750503,30069159,5603,674,380
43105803744,200547,50070164,3203,838,700
55201,1003846,720594,22071169,1504,007,850
68001,9003949,310643,53072174,0504,181,900
71,1503,0504051,970695,50073179,0204,360,920
81,5704,6204154,700750,20074184,0604,544,980
92,0606,6804257,500807,70075189,1704,734,150
102,6209,3004360,370868,07076194,3504,928,500
113,25012,5004463,310931,38077199,6005,128,500
123,95016,5004566,320997,70078204,9205,333,020
134,72021,2204669,4001,067,10079210,3105,543,330
145,56026,7804772,5501,139,65080215,7705,759,100
156,47033,2504875,7701,215,42081221,3005,980,400
167,45040,7004979,0601,294,48082226,9006,207,300
178,50049,2005082,4201,376,90083232,5706,439,870
189,62058,8205185,8501,462,75084238,3106,678,180
1910,81069,6305289,3501,552,10085244,1206,922,300
2012,07081,7005392,9201,645,02086250,0007,172,300
2113,40095,1005496,5601,745,58087255,9507,428,250
2214,800109,90055100,2701,841,85088261,9707,690,220
2316,270126,17056104,0501,945,90089268,0607,958,280
2417,810143,98057107,9002,053,80090274,2208,232,500
2519,420163,40058111,8202,165,62091280,4508,512,950
2621,100184,50059115,8102,281,43092286,7508,799,700
2722,850207,35060119,8702,401,30093293,1209,092,820
2824,670232,02061124,0002,525,30094299,5609,392,380
2926,560258,58062128,2002,653,50095306,0709,694,450
3028,580287,10063132,4702,785,97096312,30010,011,100
3130,550317,65064136,8102,922,78097319,30010,330,400
3232,650350,30065141,7003,064,00098326,02010,656,420
3334,820385,12066145,7003,209,70099332,81010,989,230
3437,060422,18067150,2503,359,950100339,67011,328,900

Every time you gain a Level in standard play, you gain 1 Attribute point and 1 AP. If you are trying to speed up progression for a shorter campaign, your GM can choose to give up to 2 Attribute points and 5 AP per Level. If you are intentionally playing a more normal character, you may choose to exchange your gained Attribute point for another AP, only in that direction. As well, you may convert your AP into Talent points at a 1 to 10 ratio, also only in that direction. You may store AP indefinitely, but Attribute and Talent points must be used when gained or they disappear forever.

Increasing Resource Points

When you go up a Level, you also increase your maximum HP, TP, and SP, though you could choose not to if you are trying to play a more normal character. The equation for finding each increase is basically the same, but with their respective Attributes. Just fill out your current Attributes and add to your previous maximum.

HP: ((VIG + MRL) / 2) + (LCK / 2) Hit die 

TP: ((MIT + VIG) / 2) + Tech die 

SP: ((INT + MRL) / 2) + Spirit die

Experienced Characters

Some campaigns don’t start at Level 1. Sometimes, a character dies or retires and you need to reenter as a new, at Party Level, character. Sometimes you just join a game later than everyone else. Either way, you need to be able to roll a new character quickly. You could just build a Level 1 character and then manually Level them up, rolling each Level of HP, TP, SP, and everything else until you reach your desired Level, but even at lower Levels that could take forever. Then consider you want to do that for a Level 529 character and give up before you start. Don’t worry, we have a faster method.

Attributes

As a higher Level character, you start with 30 + (Level – 1) Attribute points. You must spend your first 30 points in the same way as a Level 1 character (no less than 1 per Attribute, no more than 10) until they are gone, then you may spend the rest how you wish. If you roll a Level 50 character and want to convert all 49 of your remaining Attribute points into AP or Talent points, that is up to you.

Resources

Here we will help you figure out your HP, TP, and SP, as well as how much additional AP, money, or Equipment you should have. The first three are easy, because we can just combine the formulas for Level 1 creation and Advancing together, using the average number of your respective die. The average will be half the die as follows: d4 = 2, d6 = 3, d8 = 4, d10 = 5, d12 = 6, and d20 = 10. They are a bit wordy, but collapse pretty quickly once you plug all the numbers in.

HP:  (2 x VIG x MRL) + (Hit die x (LCK / 2)) + ((Level – 1 (VIG + MRL)) / 2) + ((Level – 1) LCK / 2) Hit die) 

TP: (((MIT + VIG) / 2) x INT) + (Tech Die x MRL) + ((Level – 1 (MIT + VIG)) / 2) + (Level – 1) Tech die 

SP: (INT x MRL) + (Spirit Die x MRL) + ((Level – 1 (INT + MRL)) / 2) + (Level – 1) Spirit die

As for AP, money, and Equipment, much of that will be on your GM and their plans for the campaign. Since you get no less than 1 AP every Level, go ahead and add Level – 1 AP, but a good rule of thumb is also to add 50% to help catch up to some of the AP possibly awarded along the way outside Levels, for a total of 1.5 (Level – 1) AP.

Money and Equipment are functionally the same category, as if given enough money a character can just purchase anything they need at that Level. At the very least, they should have 2000 + ((Level – 1) x 500). The GM may give you more or less depending on your background or other factors. And like before, anything unspent on Equipment is counted as income for the sake of Advantages and Disadvantages. You can also request specific items from your GM that it would just make sense for your character to have that may not have a monetary value, though they can also choose to subtract an amount they deem necessary for that Equipment.

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