Designers Blog #2: Character Creation in ERP

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Warren1965
Far-Sighted Wanderer
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 1:34 pm

Re: Designers Blog #2: Character Creation in ERP

Post by Warren1965 »

This is a long post as it is the process me and my player are going through to build his character. I am stuck on his 2 spells though. Well in truth I am stuck on the first one and haven't looked at the second one.

Spell 1 - a magic tightrope something he can create that will work just like a real tightrope without needing 2 posts to tie to. I was thinking the transport effect but am iffy on it any help would be welcome.

Spell 2 - Hyper accurate knife throw, originaly used in his stage act but I would like him to be able to use it anytime.

Below is the design chain, again any observation and /or critizism would be a help. It is confusing as it is newest on top to oldest message at end.

Player
Study and practice would probably be it. either like a flash of obscuring smoke then dissapear. or a spider climb like ability for ariel acts, or a feather fall type. slight of hand related or reflex enhancement.

Me
I changed you perform spec to Ballads from comedy. For magic you need to decide where your magic power comes from.

Study and practice

supernatural

elemental

I would have elves in genral be elemental however that doesn't strike me as very perform/circus oriented that would be the first one. You would know 2 spells which you can describe and I'll try to build.

Player
Looks good,
Riddles and jokes was more background than anything else, more specifically I would have knowledge of songs , ballads from raunchy fro performing to Ballads of historical significance, maybe now a Little history for all the regions we passed through those things I would have got form my mother, the survival and acrobats (high wire, climb,tumbling, juggling etc. was more my fathers teaching. Some arcana would suit Chance well.

Me
It is your character none of the things below are unchangeable. Most obvious to me is the Arcanum if you don't see Chance casting spells we'll change it to something else. The same is true for any of the guesses I made.

> Chance is elven

The Base Elven Abilities are

Reflexs D6
Speed D6
Willpower D6
Melee D6
Arcanum D4
Low Light Vision
costing 12 points leaving 18


>his family a troupe of thespians, magicians, acrobats and bards. My
>mothere and younger sister loved music and laughter. they practiced
>thier instruments and sang often


Unless you want Chance to be able to play an instrument or sing better than average this is just specialized knowledge you don't need to spend points on. You know a lot of songs and where they are from and can judge musical abilities of others. Good story element but not significant enough to cost you any points.

>As my father and I told riddles or jokes while practicing acrobatic
>feats.

Hmmm, there a couple of ways to approach the riddle/jokes. A descripive element again not costing anything. As a specailization off of the base abilitity Knowledge costing 2 points Knowlede D4 > Jokes and Riddles D4 which would come into play recognizing them when you run across them and knowing a appropriate one for a situation and finally as a perform spec costing 4 points Perform D4 > jokes/riddles D4 representing knowing how to use jokes and riddles to entertain and audience enough for money. From your overall story I like the Perform option. The acrobatics are a little clearer as they are a spec of Reflexes and being an elf you already start with better than average reflexes so 2 points for the spec.

Perform D4 > Comedy D4 4 points you don't get a free D4 in perform
Reflexes D6 > Acrobatics D4 2 points Reflex D6 payed for under race
12 points remain

> My mother would spend hours teaching us songs and poems of the
>regions we would travel through, and how they reflected the history
>of the area.

This again would depend on you vision of how much Chance knows, as a piece of background it would fall under the free Knowledge D4 you start with. Depending on how you focus it you could bpec in songs, poems or history for 2 points to get an additional D4.

>My father would show me some local herbs and plants and thier uses.

Depends on what you want this to represent, Knowledge > Plants; Survival > Wilderness or Healing > Herbs. You could also just have it as background which would only have a minor effect on the game. I am guessing you meant survial.

Survival D4 > Wilderness D4 2 points because you start with the D4 in the base ability.
10 Points remain

> the troupe was well known and was not restricted by borders Life
>was hard but rewarding. My family was kind, admittance was only what
>one could afford, sometimes a smile was all that was needed. life
>went on that way for many years. The troupe was not poor, sometimes
>transporting goods from place to place helped when times where
>rough. The troupe often survived on whatever we could hunt.

This would be an Advantage - Widely Known 1 CP people will recognize you on a routine basis.
9 points remain

> At age 14 Chance awoke one night from a sound sleep to discover
>his troupe being slaughtered. he barely escaped with his life thanks
>to some merchants who happened accross the carnage. They found
>Chance as the loan survivor and nursed him back to health, A sword
>wound form neck to belly button an aweful reminder of that night. My
>acrobatic skill, poems and song are the only reminder of my sweet family.
> now 16 chance has been living on hs own for 2 years. he has lived
>alone travelling and surviving from whatever cash he could make
>performing or could steal to keep himself alive.

Where as you could add specs under Perform for poems and songs I think raising the base ability Perform is a better match for what this represents doing things for an audience to make money. What you do is up to you. You are a good performer and very good with jokes. I am guessing you mean stealing a loaf of bread or chicken egg.

Perform D6 2 points.
7 remain.

Some explaining is in order there are no defined stats as most games we know define them. You describe how smart and pretty you are the physical traits are in the abilitys above Reflexes etc. A D4 is average a D6 is good with specs you roll the base ability die and the spec and add then together to beat a difficulty number a moderate task has me roll 2D4 and you roll you relavent ability chain. Combat you roll the dice for your attack to determine the potential damage that has to be offset by defenses. Magic I am still working on but you'll need to spend at least 2 more points on a spec under Arcanum to cast spells. that leaves 5 points 1 to be ambidexterous as an advantage, 2 to be D6 with ranged attacks and 2 to spec with Knives.

Chance the Elf 30 CP
Advantages
Low Light Vision
Widely Known
ambidextrous

Abilities
Willpower D6
Speed D6
Reflexes D6
> Acrobatice D4
Melee D6
Ranged D6
>Knives D4
Arcanum D4
> Mystical D4
Perform D6
> Ballads D4 (again historic would be a mastery of the ballad spec under perform)
Survival D4
> Wilderness D4
Warren1965
Far-Sighted Wanderer
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 1:34 pm

Re: Designers Blog #2: Character Creation in ERP

Post by Warren1965 »

Well I ashamed to say I figured out what my difficulty with the magic system was, It's really easy to make spells. <sigh> The tight rope spell is the transport effect it lets him move in way he couldn't without magic. There is one mechanic to cast spells so you only need to list the power source and target of a spell. For more detail you can define the Mastery school the spell is from and it's appearence but that really doesn't affect the rules. The difficulty is the same as is the cost in spell points. OMG! the spells must be dull. Not so much you get the cool factor from the description not the rules highlighting what I believe is the intent of ERP have the minimum rules to let people go nuts describing their characters.

Warren

PS That is exactly what I want
dancross
Cold-Blooded Diabolist
Posts: 530
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2007 9:32 pm

Re: Designers Blog #2: Character Creation in ERP

Post by dancross »

Warren1965 wrote:Well I ashamed to say I figured out what my difficulty with the magic system was, It's really easy to make spells. <sigh> The tight rope spell is the transport effect it lets him move in way he couldn't without magic. There is one mechanic to cast spells so you only need to list the power source and target of a spell. For more detail you can define the Mastery school the spell is from and it's appearence but that really doesn't affect the rules. The difficulty is the same as is the cost in spell points. OMG! the spells must be dull. Not so much you get the cool factor from the description not the rules highlighting what I believe is the intent of ERP have the minimum rules to let people go nuts describing their characters.

Warren

PS That is exactly what I want
Yes, the Effects are the key to the magic system. At first my system was all improv, but I had a play tester create a list of spells to help because some players did not like total free form spell casting systems.
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