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In order to facilitate the use of SinaiMUCK character creation rules with the Mutant Chronicles world setting, I am implementing several rules changes deviating from how things have been run in the Sinai world setting. As of this writing, this is still in the planning stages, so this may be changed. Some of the numbers I've chosen (such as the ratio of "1 experience point = 10 hero points") are totally arbitrary, and I may learn that the numbers have to be changed even once we've begun playing. Consider yourself warned, but I'll do my best not to make too many jarring changes in the middle of play.
Character Creation Points As of this writing (6 Mar 2000), I am planning on giving the PCs 24 points to use for building characters, plus up to 6 points in Disadvantages. Please don't strain to max out on your Disadvantages. If there's something you really need for your initial character concept, please check with me, and perhaps we can work something out. PCs will not be getting "Rephidim Standard + 1 Native Language" for free. You will get 2 points in English for free. It's recommended that you pick up at least one other language, fluent or not. See below for more rules on how languages are being handled. You do not need to be spending points on starting character equipment. Police officer PCs will have some standard issue equipment that's one of the perks of having a regular job.
Hero Points and Experience Points Experience points will not be awarded in the old way with a single point per month of participation, regardless of what you do or how many logs you show up in during that month. I am going to try a new, experimental approach that will require more bookkeeping, but which I believe will be worth it, though a bit of tweaking may be required once we begin playing. First off, PCs will receive Hero Points for participation, role-playing, and experience. Hero Points may be spent to ignore Bonks (my measurement for wound levels), to have the GM reroll unfavorable dice, or to purchase Experience Points. It takes 10 Hero Points to purchase 1 Experience Point, which can be used in much the same way as with Sinai role-play. Rerolling dice will be a bit tricky. Sometimes, I do not rely on the Dice o' Doom to determine a result. For instance, if you wish to try to jump the Grand Canyon of Mars ... I'm not going to roll for it. Unless you've got a Martian Banshee rocket pack strapped to your back (and know how to use it, and remembered to fuel it), no amount of Hero Points is going to save you from a messy death at the bottom. This will mostly happen in combat, but your best bet is, if you're about to do something important that you'd like to reserve the right to spend a Hero Point on, you might want to let me know in advance. Ignoring Bonks basically means that this is a way that your hero can stay alive longer because he's one of the heroes of the story. Fate intervenes to keep him alive so we don't have an anti-climactic story where the hero makes a dramatic speech ... then gets plugged in the head with a Punisher handgun by the villain. If you spend a Hero Point to avoid a Bonk, then fate intervenes in some way to spare you from the wound. It might be that the villain happens to miss. Or maybe it's only a flesh wound, and your hero is merely unconscious, not dead. This can still be bad, of course, and just because you have lots of Hero Points stored up doesn't mean that you can charge into a firefight with impunity. And don't expect to throw yourself in the way of a speeding bullet to protect a comrade ... then spend a Hero Point to not be wounded. Hero Points, of course, will come and go. I plan on taking the Shekels.muf program and modifying it to serve as a tally for Hero Points. I also plan on taking the Notes program and modifying it for an "Inventory" listing.
Magic In the Mutant Chronicles universe, there are no Spheres of Magic. There are, however, Aspects of the Art, powers of the Dark Symmetry, and various other supernaturally strange powers. Rules for these are covered under the information for the respective organizations that employ them.
Choosing Disadvantages To repeat, please don't go stretching things by picking a bunch of disadvantages that either you can't role-play ... or which nobody else is going to be able to stand. Disadvantages do not have to be (and should not be) crippling to your PC. I'm treating them a bit differently than with Sinai. My interest here is to have plot hooks - I want to know that if I, the GM, do (A), then the PC will do (B) ... or at least is quite likely to struggle with whether to do (B) or not. "Disadvantages" can consist of goals or aspirations that your PC will pursue if given a chance, or perhaps a need to try outperform the other PCs, or perhaps a secret past you feel a need to hide (and one which should be sufficiently juicy enough that you really do have a reason to hide it). Being hunted by enemies is the sort of thing that generally falls into the GM's hands to take care of, but you can see that reflected in role-play, too. For instance, perhaps your PC, being hunted by enemies, will avoid media attention at all costs. ("Oh, how did we defeat the terrorists and save Luna City? I dunno, uhm, here. He's the brains behind the operation! (push) Bye!") If it's a disadvantage that will just make things tedious or annoying, please don't pick it. For instance, if your PC is blind, that may be worth a lot of points, but it's going to be disruptive if your PC basically just spends most of the time standing around being oblivious to what's going on. (Not to mention how hard it'd be to explain how your PC might be a police officer...) Being an anthropomorphic creature does not get you points, per se, for any sort of prejudice you might suffer. In my campaign, yes, you may run into humans who dislike "fuzzies" ... or cats who hate dogs ... or Capitolians who hate Mishimans ... and so on and so forth. The people of the future aren't one big happy family ... but there are enough divisions that it's not worth Disadvantage points to be a member of one of those divisions. Here are some sample Disadvantages that may apply to the setting:
Risk Factor This campaign setting is highly risky. There are bullets flying around. Your PC may die. The roll of a die may determine the fate of your character in a firefight. You may define a heroic character, develop his personality through several sessions, and then your PC dies because he charged into battle to save a comrade ... or because one of your fellow PCs did something phenomenally stupid ... or maybe because you got into danger, and your "partner" left you behind. Bad things can happen in this universe even without a PC being given a fair chance to stop it. Bullets can actually kill heroes - even well-developed ones that the GM happens to like. And PCs can take stupid actions that can actually get not only themselves but those around them in trouble. The GM is not out to rack up a big body count. Despite the lists and lists of weapons, the GM is not intending to use each and every one of them during the course of the campaign and have a firefight every session. However, firefights can and will happen, and PCs, if they don't get killed outright, may end up badly wounded or maimed. If you want your PC to stay alive, you exercise discretion and caution. If you can't handle the possibility that your character might die, then please don't ask to play in this campaign. No, really. I'm not going to reward players who throw a fit when their PCs die by making them immortal, and I'm not going to punish players who "can take it" by making their PCs be the ones who die. You have been warned. |