Character Creation
The first step of any new adventure is creating your character. Your character is a combination of game mechanics and a narrative spark, and serves as the little part of the game world that you directly control as a player. The following steps will walk you through the process of creating a character, bit by bit.
It is recommended that you record character's info onto a character sheet, which is just a handy way of organizing all the information about your character. A blank character sheet is included on page XXX.
Example Character: Tulkoth the Draconian
At each step of character creation, an example of that step is given in relation to the creation of Tulkoth, a half-dragon half-human fighter.
Step 1: Describe your Character
The first step you should take before getting down to the nuts and bolts of building a character is to describe them. You can describe them to another player or the GM if you want, but really the key here is to develop what you think about them.
What's their background? How do they relate to the rest of the fictional world you'll be playing in? How did they end up in their current situation?
The species you choose for your character is limited only by what the GM will allow given the setting.
Give them a name, get an idea of their appearance, and develop how you think they act in different situations. You don't need to flesh everything out as much as possible right away, but working from a solid foundation can really help when it comes to later stages of customizing your character. If you're struggling to come up with an idea, a good place to start is just a couple of adjectives and a noun. Like brave, humble soldier or charming, pessimistic thief.
Example Character: Tulkoth the Draconian
Tulkoth is a brave, and somewhat hot-headed. He grew up in a nomadic clan where they learnt traditional survival skills, some crafting, and combat. He's fairly large compared to an average human, and is covered in salmon pink scales fromm head to foot.
No Species Benefits?
As standard, every species receives the same benefits. Instead of each species recieving unique bonuses, players are simply encouraged to make choices throughout in character creation informed by their character's species, like their feats and abilities. Most traits related to a character's species can be gained in this way.
Step 2: Determine Attributes
Your attributes describe various physical and mental aspects of your character, and are called on whenever they attempt to perform a non-trivial action.
Attributes are expressed as numbers ranging from -3 to +3 for each character, with a 0 representing the most common attribute a random human might have.
In Saturday Morning Adventure, there are 8 attributes:
- Agility (AGI): The ability to move and react with speed and precision.
- Endurance (END): Hardiness and general physical health.
- Size (SIZ): Physical bulk and weight.
- Strength (STR): The ability to exert physical force.
- Charisma (CHA): The ability to interact well with others and project your personality.
- Intelligence (INT): Mental agility and the ability to think logically.
- Perception (PER): Strength of senses and attentiveness.
- Willpower (WIL): Mental resolve and force of spirit.
Attributes are described in greater detail in chapter X.
When you advance to a level that is a multiple of 5, you gain an additional attribute point that you can apply to an attribute of your choice. This can increase an attribute up to +4, past the usual limit of +3.
As standard, attributes are generated using free-form selection, though the final decision is in the hands of the GM.
Free-Form Attribute Selection
You can choose any set of attributes you desire when creating your character, provided that none of them exceed the range of -3 to +3 and that the total of all your attribute scores added together is equal to 4. Your GM may impose further restrictions on the attribute set you choose. If you are the GM, here's two restrictions you might want to use:
- Players cannot choose more than two attrbutes to be +3.
- The sum of a character's positive attributes cannot be higher than 8.
Example Character: Tulkoth the Draconian
Tulkoth's player decides on an attribute set of 3/2/1/1/1/-1/-1/-2. He's still young and fairly well-rounded. Turkoth has always enjoyed physical activites, and he's fairly large compared to the average human, so the obvious candidates for higher stats are Strength and Size. He also has limited experience talking to strangers, and is fairly rash, so his Charisma and Willpower are probably low. Turkoth's player settles on assigning his attributes as such:AGI 1, END 1, SIZ 2, STR 3, CHA -1, INT -1, PER 1, WIL -2
Alternative Attribute Generation
A small change in any of a character's attributes can have a significant effect on their relative power in SMA, so typically randomly rolling stats isn't recommended.
If you really want to have a random element in character creation, I recommend rolling 3d3-6 eight times. The resulting set of eight numbers is your attribute set, and you can assign each to an attribute of your choice. Then give the player four attribute points they can invest as they wish.
Step 4: Derived Statistics
There are some statistics in SMA that are calculated using your attributes.
Hit Points
Your hit points (HP) are a measure of how well you can ignore pain, avoid damage and general survivability. Whenever you take damage, your hit points decrease. If your HP ever hits zero, you fall unconscious and are at risk of death. For more details see chapter X.
At level 1, your maximum hit points are given by 2x(8+END+SIZ). Every time your level increases, your maximum hit points increases by 8+END+SIZ.
If you want to calculate maximum hit points quickly at a level other than level 1, you can use the formula: (LVL+1)x(8+END+SIZ).
You also have a bloodied threshold equal to one quarter of your maximum HP. When your HP is below this number, you're in trouble. At this point, you want to focus on defence, get some healing done, or beat a hasty retreat from whatever put you in this state. When your HP is below your bloodied threshold, you gain the bloodied condition. For more details see chapter X.
Mana Points
Your mana points (MP) are a measure of your fighting energy, stamina, and supernatural power. They are expended when you use abilities or take some special actions in combat.
At level 1, your maximum mana points are given by 2x(8+END+WILL). Every time your level increases, your maximum mana points increase by 8+END+WIL.
If you want to calculate maximum mana points quickly at a level other than level 1, you can use the formula: (LVL+1)x(8+END+WILL).
Initiative Rank
Your initiative rank is a measure of how quickly you react in combat situations. It is given by AGI+INT. How initiative ranks are used is detailed in chapter X.
Skills
Your skill cap is the maximum number of skill points you can invest in a single skill at once. It is equal to 3 or 3+INT, whichever is larger.
At level 1, you gain a number of skill points equal to 2x(4+INT). Every time your level increases, your gain a number of skill points equal to by 4+INT.
Exactly what skills are and how they work is detailed in chapter X.
Defences
Whenever an opponent tries to attack you, they must overcome one of your defence scores. You have 4 defence scores, each of which protects you against a particular type of attack:
- Guard: Your defence against attacks that can be dodged, deflected, or physically resisted. Your Guard is equal to 10+AGI+STR.
- Toughness: Your defence against attacks that directly target your physical health and hardiness, like poisons and effects that drain your life force. Your Toughness is equal to 10+END+SIZ.
- Resolve: Your defence against attacks that must be resisted mentally, be they magical charms or effects that shake your emotional state. Your Resolve is equal to 10+INT+WILL.
Example Character: Tulkoth the Draconian
Turkoth's derived statistics are calculated as follows from his attributes:
- Turkoth has 2*(8+2+1) = 22 hit points.
- His bloodied threshold is 24/4 = 5.5, round down to 5.
- Turkoth has 2*(8+1-2) = 14 mana points.
- His initative rank is 1-1 = 0.
- His skill cap is 3.
- He has 6 skill points.
- His Guard is 10+1+3 = 14
- His Armour is currently equal to his Guard. This will likely change when he chooses equipment.
- His Toughness is 10+1+2 = 13.
- His Resolve is 10-1-2 = 7.
Step 5: Skills
Invest some of your skill points in skills. You can choose to put your skill points into any skills you like, but it should usually relate to your character's background. A breakdown of how skills work and how to choose your skills is given in chapter X.
Example Character: Tulkoth the Draconian
Tulkoth has 6 skill points to use at level 1. Based on his established background, Turkoth's player puts 2 skill points into Blunt Weapons, and 1 skill point each into Unarmed, Brawn, Profession (fisher), and Culture (tribal).
Step 6: Feats
At level 1, you start with 6 feat points. You can spend your feat points on feats, which are unique traits that allow you to customize your character. They usually provide some sort of passive bonus or special action that you can take. You don't have to spend all of your feat points at once, you can hold them in reserve until you want to use them. A more in-depth description of feats is given in chapter 4, and a full list of available feats is given in Appendix D: Feats.
Every time your level increases, you gain an additional 3 feat points.
Example Character: Tulkoth the Draconian
Tulkoth has 6 feat points to spend at level 1.
To be completed.
Step 7: Abilities
Abilities are special actions you can perform during combat that usually cost some stamina points to use. At level 1, your character can have up to 2 abilities, and every time your level increases your maximum number of abilities increases by 1.
Rules for creating abilities are given in chapter 5, and a selection of premade abilities are given in Appendix G: Ready-Made Resources.
Example Character: Tulkoth the Draconian
To be completed.
Character Progression
The GM decides when everyone at the table advances in level. Generally, this should happen at some sort of narrative milestone or break in the adventure.
Here's a quick checklist of what changes when you level up:
- If the level is a multiple of 5, you gain an additional attribute point that you can use to increase one attribute of your choice. This will likely have a knock-on effect on one or more of your derived statistics.
- Your maximum hit points increases by 8+END+SIZ (minimum of 1). This usually increases your bloodied threshold.
- Your maximum stamina points increase by 6+END+WIL (minimum of 1).
- You gain a number of skill points equal to 6+INT.
- You gain 3 feat points.
You may also opt to pick some new abilities when you level up, or get rid of some you don't find that much use for.
Character Ladders
Total freedom to choose whatever feats and abilities you want can be fairly overwhelming for some players. If you just want to follow a standard character archetype, you can use a character ladder instead. Character ladders have preset feats and abilities that they gain at each level, and have been created using the standard character-building rules.
You can also use a character ladder as just a starting point for your character, swapping out feats and abilities that they gain for your own choices.
A selection of character ladders are given in Appendix G: Ready-Made Resources.