Here are the skill packages used in the Character Generator. Suggest more in the comments, and I'll update this post, adding them in and crediting you. Then I'll update the Generator to include them.
The Generator uses already-existing skills from the Mothership player's
survival guide. If you make up your own skill, I won't be able to use it
in the Generator (though it could still be a great suggestion).
Takeaways from this experiment:
-Creating backgrounds has shown us that it is not so difficult to build a skill package that well-represents a certain concept, but it is much more difficult to decide which class that skill package belongs to, and sometimes, to get that skill package to be compatible with any class at all.
-It is difficult to create skill packages for Androids.
TEAMSTER
-Junker: (Zero-G, Mechanical Repair, Heavy Machinery, Scavenging, Jury-Rigging, 1 SP banked)
-Scoundrel: (Zero-G, Mechanical Repair, Piloting, Athletics, Rimwise, Firearms)
-Space-Force Cadet: (Zero-G, Mechanical Repair, Piloting, Military Training, Athletics, Astrogation)
-Vehicle Engineer: (Zero-G, Mechanical Repair, Heavy Machinery, Engineering, Vehicle Specialization)
ANDROID
-Engineer: (Computers, Mathematics, Linguistics, Engineering)
-Hacker: (Computers, Mathematics, Linguistics, Hacking)
-Translator: (Computers, Mathematics, Linguistics, 2 banked SP saving for Sophontology)
-Specialist (by Sean McCoy): (Choose 2 master skills, other skills cost twice as much)
SCIENTIST
-Archaeologist: (Biology, Archaeology, Theology, Art, Linguistics)
-Biologist: (Biology, Chemistry, Genetics, First Aid)
-Botanist: (Biology, Hydroponics, Botany, Geology)
-Physicist: (Mathematics, Computers, Physics, 1 SP banked)
-Psychologist: (Biology, Chemistry, Psychology, Linguistics)
-Roboticist: (Computers, Mathematics, Engineering, 1 SP banked for Robotics, AI, or Cybernetics)
-Virologist: (Biology, Chemistry, First Aid, Pathology)
-Hidden Cultist (by Kyana): (Biology, Chemistry, Art, Mysticism) Fear effects as Android once discovered.
-Savant (by Sean McCoy): (Choose 2 master skills, other skills cost twice as much)
MARINE
-Grunt: (Military Training, Firearms, Athletics)
-Gunner: (Military Training, Gunnery, Mechanical Repair)
-Paramedic: (Military Training, First Aid, Zero-G, Athletics)
-Officer: (Military Training, Tactics, Athletics)
-Thug: (Military Training, Rimwise, Close-Quarters Combat)
-Chaplain (by Kyana): (Military Training, Theology, Mysticism)
-Spy (by Sean McCoy):
(Rimwise, Linguistics, Military Training)
Saturday, January 26, 2019
Monday, January 21, 2019
SCI-FI-DIE-TRY
This is a reverse engineer of Spwack's DIE TRYING character generator set in my Blasted Lands pseudo-setting and using an Into-the-Odd style ruleset. Find the original version on the sidebar of his blog!
HP are your hit points. Treat them more like "don't get hit points"; these represent your ability to avoid taking actual damage. When you take damage, subtract it from your HP. If you have no HP left, the damage spills over to one of your stats.
You regain your HP after a few minutes of rest. You heal 1d6 damage from each of your stats after a long rest (night of sleep).
ED stands for Energy Dice. You can use as many ED as you want when you use a power. For each one, roll a d6. Powers' effects scale off of the total you roll.
Energy Dice do not replenish on their own. You have to find them out in the world. Some example ways to gain Energy Dice:
-Absorbing it from a thaumic battery.
-Getting struck by lightning or heavily irradiated.
-Getting fucked up by an enemy Power.
-Eating the brain of an energy-dense creature/wizard.
Character progression is made by marking an X next to an element of your character sheet.
You can mark an X:
-at the end of a session (anywhere)
-being considered the MVP at the end of a session (anywhere)
-for having the most dramatic moment at the end of a session (anywhere)
-almost dying (next to the relevant stat)
-for recieving max damage from an attack (next to HP)
-for crit failing and suggestiong a worse outcome than the one the DM gives you (anywhere)
-for failing a roll by 1 (next to the relevant section)
-for killing a notable creature with a weapon (next to the weapon)
-using an item in a clever way (next to the item)
-using a character flaw to your advantage (next to the flaw)
-doing something historically noteworthy, or that might be the subject of legend (next to your name)
When you have 3 Xs next to (something), you can spend them to:
-(stat) Roll 3d6, if the result is higher than your stat, increase it by 1.
-(HP) Roll 3d6, if the result is higher than your HP, increase it by 1.
-(weapon) Upgrade the weapon with available materials, or add a word to the weapon's name (when the name is complete, the weapon gets magic powers and/or sentience).
-(item) Either upgrade the item with available materials, or disassemble the item and memorize the schematic of how to craft it.
-(a power, trait, or drawback) Can change it a little bit, or add an additional benefit (in this way, drawbacks could eventually adapt into beneficial powers).
-(your name) Add a word to your name (increases fame/renown).
Ways to gain new powers:
-Making a deal with a powerful entity.
-Making a revolutionary discovery.
-Stumbling on an ancient/forbidden secret.
-Being taught by a wise/powerful mentor.
You regain your HP after a few minutes of rest. You heal 1d6 damage from each of your stats after a long rest (night of sleep).
ED stands for Energy Dice. You can use as many ED as you want when you use a power. For each one, roll a d6. Powers' effects scale off of the total you roll.
Energy Dice do not replenish on their own. You have to find them out in the world. Some example ways to gain Energy Dice:
-Absorbing it from a thaumic battery.
-Getting struck by lightning or heavily irradiated.
-Getting fucked up by an enemy Power.
-Eating the brain of an energy-dense creature/wizard.
Character progression is made by marking an X next to an element of your character sheet.
You can mark an X:
-at the end of a session (anywhere)
-being considered the MVP at the end of a session (anywhere)
-for having the most dramatic moment at the end of a session (anywhere)
-almost dying (next to the relevant stat)
-for recieving max damage from an attack (next to HP)
-for crit failing and suggestiong a worse outcome than the one the DM gives you (anywhere)
-for failing a roll by 1 (next to the relevant section)
-for killing a notable creature with a weapon (next to the weapon)
-using an item in a clever way (next to the item)
-using a character flaw to your advantage (next to the flaw)
-doing something historically noteworthy, or that might be the subject of legend (next to your name)
When you have 3 Xs next to (something), you can spend them to:
-(stat) Roll 3d6, if the result is higher than your stat, increase it by 1.
-(HP) Roll 3d6, if the result is higher than your HP, increase it by 1.
-(weapon) Upgrade the weapon with available materials, or add a word to the weapon's name (when the name is complete, the weapon gets magic powers and/or sentience).
-(item) Either upgrade the item with available materials, or disassemble the item and memorize the schematic of how to craft it.
-(a power, trait, or drawback) Can change it a little bit, or add an additional benefit (in this way, drawbacks could eventually adapt into beneficial powers).
-(your name) Add a word to your name (increases fame/renown).
Ways to gain new powers:
-Making a deal with a powerful entity.
-Making a revolutionary discovery.
-Stumbling on an ancient/forbidden secret.
-Being taught by a wise/powerful mentor.
Monday, January 14, 2019
Various Name Generators
So I built a collection of name generators from the current chargen project, and I couldn't wait to share them, so here they are in their own post. This collection uses the same Android name schema I created for the Mothership chargen. The Trilobite name schema is inspired from the example names provided by the Trilobite Knight entry in Veins of the Earth. Some of the other ones are built upon the foundations from the History Gen. (Silics are a crystalloid race like those from Endless Legend)
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Sunday, January 6, 2019
Auto-Convoluted Bureaucracies
One of my favorite things I've seen recently in the OSR-scape is Kyana's Convoluted Bureaucracies minigame, which uses the english language impressively to showcase how amusing and frustrating bureaucracies can be when applied in games.
This is the autogenerator for it! (All content within belongs to Kyana!)
BONUS
Here's an exercise that could help practice making logical sense out of the absurd: generate the name of a department, and then try to visualize how that department would function. Something like "The Measuring Empowering Council of Flexible Encouragement, Senior Maintenance, and Medical Community" is clearly an organization that organizes medical professionals to develop units of measure for the upkeep and care of the city's elderly citizens, focusing specifically on joint health.
One person plays The System.
Another person plays The Visitor. It is always one Visitor against The System. Running through bureaucratic maze is a very solitary experience where each on their own.
The purpose of the Visitor is to make the System validate, approve, sign, confirm or otherwise process some important request on their behalf. The purpose of The System is to wear down and evict The Visitor without letting them complete their goal by any passive-aggressive/bureaucratic means possible.
Sometimes The System acts through the single person in a room who puts the signature in place (‘person-signature’), sometimes through the whole collective; The System player effectively controls everybody who is not The Visitor.
For resolution of risk during the Process itself one 1d6 die would be enough.
How to do The Process:
1. One of the players generates the name of the organization where The Visitor will be travelling. Use random generator for names above. The name should be no less than five words and can be as long as fifteen, although on average it is six to eight words.
2. Each word means one step of approval in the process of final approval The Visitor must successfully obtain before getting the whole Process done. “Department of Oceanic Cooperation and Family Synergy would have 5-step approval process, while “ Registry of Spiritual Multi-Technology and Support in Domestic Affairs” would have 7-steps approval. The Visitor needs to collect the amount of approvals equal to the # of words in the name of the organization. Mark each achieved approval with a checkbox of some kind.
3. Each word in the name of the organization means new room of importance in said department that The Visitor must go through to get one approval. Generate each room through [What is going on] and [How this places looks like] tables. The System player describes the situation to Visitor, using as much imagination as they deem to be fun.
4. With a rare exception of when it is obvious from the text of “What is going on” table (such as #10), no approval otherwise can be obtained from a room unless The Visitor takes a point of Exhaustion. Visitor can only take three points of Exhaustion before they suffer insurmountable mental and physical fatigue and have to leave The System.
5. If by taking the final point of Exhaustion or going through the last room The Visitor doesn't have all necessary approvals, The Visitor is defeated. If by taking the third point of Exhaustion The Visitor achieved a final approval, they barely succeeded. If the all approvals are collected without hitting three points of Exhaustion or there are still a number of unvisited rooms by the time the final approval is achieved, The Visitor obtains a significant victory and can [optionally] start with a [Class] next time.
6. In addition to their common human stamina, each Visitor has additional parameter for backlash. At the beginning of each Process, The Visitor selects either Nerves or Anger and can chose a different one (Anger or Nerves) for a different Process. The difference between these two is mostly cosmetic and mostly defines the way how The Visitor is lashing out onto The System and what the end failure state of this backlash is going to be. Some places also more or less affected by one type of backlash over another, at discretion of The System.
7. Instead of taking a point of Exhaustion The Visitor can instead take a point to their backlash (i.e. a point to Nerves if Nerves were selected). The Visitor can only take three points of backlash – if the forth one has to be marked, The Visitor has either complete nervous breakdown (Nerves) or full on assault (Anger) on a clerks in current room. Either way, The Visitor is removed from The Process and The System celebrates flawless victory.
8. After the initial interaction with the room (i.e. getting a point of Exhaustion or point of backlash) The Visitor can directly invoke their backlash in order to speed up the Process. They note the sum of current Exhaustion + backlash stat and make 1d6 roll. - If the roll is under or equal Exhaustion, nothing happens: The Visitor is too tired to force outburst. - If the roll is higher than Exhaustion but less or equal to Exhaustion + Backlash, the outburst is a success. The Visitor marks additional approval and moves on to the next room. - If the roll is higher than Exhaustion + backlash it is a failure. 6 is always a failure. In a failure, The Visitor couldn't handle their own outburst and went too far. Remove one previously earned approval.
The purpose of the Visitor is to make the System validate, approve, sign, confirm or otherwise process some important request on their behalf. The purpose of The System is to wear down and evict The Visitor without letting them complete their goal by any passive-aggressive/bureaucratic means possible.
Sometimes The System acts through the single person in a room who puts the signature in place (‘person-signature’), sometimes through the whole collective; The System player effectively controls everybody who is not The Visitor.
For resolution of risk during the Process itself one 1d6 die would be enough.
How to do The Process:
1. One of the players generates the name of the organization where The Visitor will be travelling. Use random generator for names above. The name should be no less than five words and can be as long as fifteen, although on average it is six to eight words.
2. Each word means one step of approval in the process of final approval The Visitor must successfully obtain before getting the whole Process done. “Department of Oceanic Cooperation and Family Synergy would have 5-step approval process, while “ Registry of Spiritual Multi-Technology and Support in Domestic Affairs” would have 7-steps approval. The Visitor needs to collect the amount of approvals equal to the # of words in the name of the organization. Mark each achieved approval with a checkbox of some kind.
3. Each word in the name of the organization means new room of importance in said department that The Visitor must go through to get one approval. Generate each room through [What is going on] and [How this places looks like] tables. The System player describes the situation to Visitor, using as much imagination as they deem to be fun.
4. With a rare exception of when it is obvious from the text of “What is going on” table (such as #10), no approval otherwise can be obtained from a room unless The Visitor takes a point of Exhaustion. Visitor can only take three points of Exhaustion before they suffer insurmountable mental and physical fatigue and have to leave The System.
5. If by taking the final point of Exhaustion or going through the last room The Visitor doesn't have all necessary approvals, The Visitor is defeated. If by taking the third point of Exhaustion The Visitor achieved a final approval, they barely succeeded. If the all approvals are collected without hitting three points of Exhaustion or there are still a number of unvisited rooms by the time the final approval is achieved, The Visitor obtains a significant victory and can [optionally] start with a [Class] next time.
6. In addition to their common human stamina, each Visitor has additional parameter for backlash. At the beginning of each Process, The Visitor selects either Nerves or Anger and can chose a different one (Anger or Nerves) for a different Process. The difference between these two is mostly cosmetic and mostly defines the way how The Visitor is lashing out onto The System and what the end failure state of this backlash is going to be. Some places also more or less affected by one type of backlash over another, at discretion of The System.
7. Instead of taking a point of Exhaustion The Visitor can instead take a point to their backlash (i.e. a point to Nerves if Nerves were selected). The Visitor can only take three points of backlash – if the forth one has to be marked, The Visitor has either complete nervous breakdown (Nerves) or full on assault (Anger) on a clerks in current room. Either way, The Visitor is removed from The Process and The System celebrates flawless victory.
8. After the initial interaction with the room (i.e. getting a point of Exhaustion or point of backlash) The Visitor can directly invoke their backlash in order to speed up the Process. They note the sum of current Exhaustion + backlash stat and make 1d6 roll. - If the roll is under or equal Exhaustion, nothing happens: The Visitor is too tired to force outburst. - If the roll is higher than Exhaustion but less or equal to Exhaustion + Backlash, the outburst is a success. The Visitor marks additional approval and moves on to the next room. - If the roll is higher than Exhaustion + backlash it is a failure. 6 is always a failure. In a failure, The Visitor couldn't handle their own outburst and went too far. Remove one previously earned approval.
BONUS
Here's an exercise that could help practice making logical sense out of the absurd: generate the name of a department, and then try to visualize how that department would function. Something like "The Measuring Empowering Council of Flexible Encouragement, Senior Maintenance, and Medical Community" is clearly an organization that organizes medical professionals to develop units of measure for the upkeep and care of the city's elderly citizens, focusing specifically on joint health.
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