| APAGear II Archives | Volume 1, Number 3 | February, 1999 |
Although DP9 has provided us with the flexible system to merry around, its flexibility at times creates problems, especially if one wishes to create new characters--usually NPCs--out of scratch. Even more experienced players and game masters alike can have serious block in their imagination. Thus somewhat randomized yet logical help might be in help to provide NPC with detailed (and rich in action) background to go around.
These rules are geared towards rapid creation of background for NPCs from Earth that characters might meet. More detailed set of character creation rules should provided to those players wishing for more background detail. This usually happens when it is necessary to create complete life story for NPC holding important role in game.
Inspiration and influence towards this character creation system comes from numerous RPG products that have sported various character creation systems.
(Note: For most of Janne's alternative character creation rules, you'll be rolling dice in the classic manner, and not in the Silhouette style. This manner requires that you add the dice results. So, for example, if you roll 3 dice and get a 6, a 5, and a 6, the result is 6 + 5 + 6 = 17; per Silhouette rules, the ressult of the same roll would be 7. --Ed.)
Character family background should be first thought up. It is important in sense that it gives plenty of description how characters childhood and chances in life will shape up. Roll 3D6:
Table A-1: Family Background - General
| 3D6 | Living Area | Family Living Location |
| 3 | Low Gravity | Planetary Arcology |
| 4-17 | Normal | (Roll Family Living Location Table.) |
| 18 | Zero Gee | Orbital Arcology. |
|
Normal defines areas where gravity is normal. This means that family is living on Earth. Low Gravity means both space stations and colonies built on planetary bodies where gravity is either normally or artificially set lower than 1.0G. Their FES Modifier is +2. Zero Gee means areas with zero gravity. These are usually space stations orbiting Earth and/or other planetary bodies. People living in zero gravity have usually weak muscle structure but are well versed to survive in space setting. Their FES Modifier is +3. | ||
People living in normal area (Earth) should consult following table to determine the living style of their family in Earth. Roll 3D6:
Table A-2: Family Living Location
| 3D6 | Family Living Location | FES Modifier |
| 3 | Wilderness | +3 |
| 4 | Primary Production Area | -1 |
| 5-6 | Refugee | -5 |
| 7-8 | Satellite City | 0 |
| 9-12 | Rangstadt | 0 |
| 13-14 | City State | 0 |
| 15-16 | Refugee | -5 |
| 17 | Arcology | +1 |
| 18 | Wasteland | -5 |
|
Wilderness areas are few remaining areas where nature still thrives. Only few yet relatively wealthy people live in those areas enjoying the little that is left of once teeming Earth flora and fauna. Primary Production Area is usually devoid of people but filled with machinery producing raw materials and food for billions of humans living in cities. Work is usually concentrated into small communities working around single occupation like mining or cattle production. Refugee means that family is living either on the run or they are staying on one of huge refugee camps that have been erected for those made homeless by war or natural catastrophe. Arcology is completely self-contained and mostly self-sufficient community where population varies from few thousands to few tens of thousands. Arcologies usually center on some production or function they intend to fulfill. Original arcologies were build to protect people from Ice Age and enable them work on hostile locations like underwater. Satellite City is one of the many relatively small towns that surround largest City State. There is usually large amounts of traffic between Satellite Cities and City State they support. Population in a typical Satellite City varies from few tens of thousands to few hundred thousands. City State is large independent city that controls large number of Satellite Cities. Population varies from few millions to several tens of millions and city could fill tens of square kilometers of urban area. Rangstadt is largest city on world and it fills completely the Mediterranian Basin. Billions of people live there and it is the center of political, cultural and military endeavors of Earth. Wasteland depicts land that has been permanently poisoned or destroyed over last few thousands of years due wars, pollution or plain malice. Only few people live in these areas and their communities have usually few tens of people. Life tends to be highly dangerous due dangers of nature and lack of law enforcement. | ||
Following determination of family's living location their relative wealth should be determined by rolling 2D6:
Table A-3: Family Economic Status
| 2D6 | Family Economic Status |
| 2-5 | Poor |
| 6-7 | Low Income |
| 8-9 | Middle Class |
| 10-11 | High Income |
| 12 | Rich |
Next the status of family should be determined by rolling 2D6:
Table A-4: Family Status
| Parental Status | Family Economic Status | ||||
| Poor | Low | Middle | High | Rich | |
| 2D6 | |||||
| Unknown | 2-5 | 2-4 | 2-3 | 2 | 2 |
| Dead | 6-7 | 5-6 | 4-5 | 3-4 | 3 |
| Separate | 8-10 | 7 | 6 | 5-6 | 4-5 |
| Family | 11-12 | 8-12 | 7-12 | 7-12 | 6-12 |
|
Roll for both mother and father separately. Unknown means that character does not know of either/both of her parents. Dead means that character's parent(s) have died at early age and she is likely to have only faint memory of them. This could mean accident, war, murder or anything else between heaven and earth. Separate means that character lives with parent in question but knows her/him. This often means divorce but could also means lifestyle where both parents work in separate locations, such as space exploration. Family means that parent(s) lives with character. | |||||
Next one rolls for 2D6 for number of brothers and sisters character has:
Table A-5: Sibling Table
| Sisters | Sisters Table (2D6) | ||||
| Poor | Low | Middle | High | Rich | |
| None | 2 | 2 | 2-4 | 2-5 | 2-6 |
| 1 | 3-4 | 3-4 | 5 | 6-7 | 7-8 |
| 2 | 5-6 | 5-6 | 6-8 | 8-9 | 9 |
| 1D6 | 7-8 | 7-8 | 9 | 10 | 0 |
| 1D6+2 | 9-10 | 9-10 | 10 | 11 | 11 |
| 2D6+4 | 11-12 | 11-12 | 11-12 | 12 | 12 |
|
Result is number of sisters character has. None means that character is only child. Number of sisters does not necessary mean biological sisters but could also mean those taken into custody by parents. | |||||
Extended family describes how well her line has fared in the world. These persons are uncles and aunts and cousins and such. Roll 2D6:
Table A-6: Extended Family
| Family | Extended Family Table (2D6) | ||||
| Poor | Low | Middle | High | Rich | |
| None | 2-3 | 2-4 | 2-5 | 2-4 | 2-3 |
| 1D6 | 4-6 | 5-6 | 5 | 5-6 | 4-6 |
| 1D6+2 | 7 | 7 | 6-7 | 7 | 7 |
| 2D6+5 | 8 | 8-9 | 8-9 | 8-9 | 8 |
| 4D6+7 | 9 | 10-11 | 10 | 10-11 | 9 |
| 6D6+10 | 10-12 | 11-12 | 12 | 11-12 | 10-12 |
|
Result is number of other family members that character has. Each extended family member should have specific relationship (cousin, grandparent, aunt/uncle, nice/nephew etc.) to character. | |||||
You now have your family background ready.
First roll 1D6 to determine characters sex:
Table B-1: Character's Sex
| 1D6 | Sex |
| 1-3 | Man |
| 4-6 | Woman |
Next one should roll for quality of initial education. This does not necessarily mean years spent in schooling but rather the quality of personal life and nurturing gotten in first formative years of life. Roll according to family economic status. Average score describes 'typical' score when determining quickly initial education for large number of people.
Table B-2: Initial Education
| Wealth | Initial education | "average" |
| Poor | 1D6 | 3 |
| Low | 1D6+1 | 4 |
| Middle | (2D6)/2 | 4 |
| High | ((2D6)/2)+1 | 5 |
| Rich | ((2D6)/2)+2 | 6 |
|
Initial education is used when determining the Character points. | ||
Further education brings a bit more variation for educational levels achieved and describes more quality of formal education received in educational curriculum. Roll according to family economic status. Average score describes 'typical' score when determining quickly further education for large number of people.
Table B-3:Further education
| 2D6 | +1 | +2 | +3 | "average" |
| Poor | 2-7 | 8-11 | 12 | 5 |
| Low | 2-6 | 7-11 | 12 | 6 |
| Middle | 2-5 | 6-10 | 11-12 | 6 |
| High | 2-4 | 5-10 | 11-12 | 7 |
| Rich | 2 | 3-9 | 10-12 | 8 |
|
Further education is used when determining the Skill points. | ||||
Following table should be consulted for determining character points and skill points that could be spent in normal character creation process.
Table B-4: Initial Character (CP) and Skill (SP) points
| score | CP | SP |
| 1 | 1 | -- |
| 2 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | 6 | 6 |
| 4 | 10 | 10 |
| 5 | 15 | 15 |
| 6 | 21 | 21 |
| 7 | 28 | 28 |
| 8 | 36 | 36 |
| 9 | -- | 45 |
| 10 | -- | 55 |
| 11 | -- | 66 |
Character may now select herself 10 attributes (AGL, APP, BLD, CRE, FIT, INF, KNO, PER, PSY and WIL). These attributes cost Character Points and process should follow procedures set in rule books.
Cost of attributes is following:
Table B-5: Attribute Costs
| Attribute rating | CP cost |
| +5 | 36 |
| +4 | 25 |
| +3 | 16 |
| +2 | 9 |
| +1 | 4 |
| 0 | 1 |
| -1 | 0 |
| -2 | -1 |
| -3 | -4 |
| -4 | -9 |
| -5 | -25 |
Furthermore following attribute maximums and minimums must be followed depending on characters family background:
Table B-6: Attribute Minimums and Maximums
| Background | AGL | APP | BLD | CRE | FIT | INF | KNO | PER | PSY | WIL | |
| ZeroGee | Max: | +5 | +4 | +2 | +4 | +3 | +4 | +4 | +5 | +4 | +4 |
| Min: | -3 | -4 | -5 | -4 | -5 | -4 | -4 | -3 | -4 | -4 | |
| Low-G | Max: | +5 | +4 | +3 | +4 | +3 | +4 | +4 | +4 | +4 | +4 |
| Min: | -3 | -4 | -5 | -4 | -5 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | |
| Normal | Max: | +4 | +4 | +4 | +4 | +4 | +4 | +4 | +4 | +4 | +4 |
| Min: | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | |
Characters also receive following skills for free that describe things they have done and have been exposed or familiar in their childhood and youth:
Table B-7: Free Skills
| Background | Skills |
| Zerogee | Survival(Space) 1 Zero-G Movement 1 |
| Low Gravity | Survival(Space) 1 |
| Wilderness | Survival(A) 1 Riding (specific animal) 1 |
| Primary Prod Area | Mechanics(C) 1 or Animal Handling(herding) 1 |
| Refugee | Survival(D) 1 or Streetwise(E) 1 |
| Satellite City | Computer 1 |
| Rangstadt | Computer 1 |
| City State | Computer 1 |
| Arcology | Computer 1 |
| Wasteland | Survival(wasteland) 1 |
|
A Jungle, Desert, Winter, Foraging, or Sea | |
After this character can get skills bought with her skill points. The procedure follows the rule book.
Table B-8: Skill Costs
| Skill Level | Simple Skill Cost | Complex Skill cost | Minimum Attribute Requirement |
| 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 |
| 2 | 4 | 8 | 0 |
| 3 | 9 | 8 | +1 |
| 4 | 16 | 32 | +2 |
| 5 | 25 | 50 | +3 |
| 6 | 36 | 72 | +4 |
| 7 | 49 | 98 | +5 |
| special | +5 | +5 | -- |
If character wishes to increase skill that she already has gotten (because of her background), the cost of new skill level is skill cost of level to be obtained minus skill cost of level already obtained.
For example: Josephine has Computer 1, She wants to have Computer 2. The cost of having computer 2 is 6 (8-2).
The attributes bought describe the adult characteristics. Characters who are less than 17 years of age have maximum BLD and KNO of 0. They receive full characteristics when they are 17 years old.
You're character is now ready.
Welcome to the future.
[Note: This version of Janne's article features some additional formatting around the tables. The original version can be found here. -Ed.]
| APAGear II Archives | Volume 1, Number 3 | February, 1999 |
Heavy Gear is © 1999, Dream Pod 9, Inc. All rights reserved. APAGear is not affiliated with Dream Pod 9 in any way. Submitted material remains the property of the creator.