Character Creation Challenge, Day 31: Universe

 The science fiction RPG Universe was the fourth and last attempt by board-wargame mainstay SPI to crack the RPG market, after the modern-combat Commando, fantasy Dragonquest and ahead-of-its-time Dallas.* The game was pretty well-regarded in 1981, but to my hindsight-wizened eyes it looks more like an elaborate Traveller heartbreaker. In particular Universe features a more complex version of the lifepath character generation system pioneered by Traveller, and we’re going to travel that path in this post.

Part One: Heritage

 

The first batch of steps is called Heritage, and here we determine the characters’ starting characteristics, home planet, early upbringing—everything they’ll carry with them into their post-elementary education and pre-adventuring working life. 

 

We start by rolling to determine the character’s Potentials in four areas: physique, coordination, intellect, and social background. For each I roll a D10 and consult the Character Heritage table, which will give me a Multiplier for that characteristic:

 

Physique: roll 1, multiplier ½ (poor)

Coordination: roll 3, multiplier 1 (below average)

Intellect: roll 9, multiplier 3 (above average)

Social: roll 7, multiplier 3 (above average)

 

I add together these multipliers and consult the table again to determine the number of Study Points I’ll have to pursue various fields of improvement. These are in inverse proportion to the sum of multipliers, so my below-average 6.5 will give me an above-average 5 Study Points for use later in the process.

 

Next, I determine my native Habitat, or the prevailing conditions on the planet where I was born and/or raised. I’ll roll two D10 on the Habitat Table—one for the column, another for the particular entry in that column, but I’ll modify the second roll by adding my Physique multiplier and subtracting my Coordination multiplier, dropping fractions before calculation. So my first roll is 8, and my second is 10, adding 0 for physique and subtracting 1 for Coordination for a result of 9. This provides the cryptic result “4:MN-JU EX-NL/1” According to the legend at the bottom of the table, the 4 represents my base Environ Skill Level, MN is Contour (Mountains), JU is Feature (Jungle), so my home terrain is mountainous and characterized by rain forests. EX indicates extreme gravity (2-2.5G), and NL indicates a Normal temperature range of 25-100 F°. The 1 denotes my starting Urban Skill Level. 

 

Now that I know where my environmental comfort zone is, I need to see how it transfers to other types of environment. There’s a chart that cross-references Contours and Features; I’ll put my base rating of 4 in the box where Mountains meets Jungle. From there, each square out (orthogonally) means a drop of 1 point in rating. In a separate box I enter my Urban Skill Level, and I put an X in the temperature range box corresponding to my native habitat. I also put a 1 in the box corresponding to my normal gravity level (Extreme) and subtract 2 for each level away from that. Now, I can raise that by lowering my environmental skill level (which seems like it might be a good idea, since I’ll be at -5 in near-weightless conditions and extreme gravity is probably fairly rare), but for simplicity’s sake I’m going to play this ball where it lies. 

 

 

The following step determines my starting Social Standing. I roll a D10 and consult the table after adding my Urban Skill Level and twice my Social Background Multiplier, then (for reasons not revealed here) subtracting my initial Home Environ Skill Level. Roll 4, +1 for Urban, +6 for Multiplier, -4 for Home Environ equals 7, which according to the table puts me in the Lower Middle Class. This beginning confers no change in Skill Points, and a starting wealth multiplier of 100 Mils (which is about the price of a flashlight) times 1D10. I roll a 2 and will move into my student years with the equivalent of two flashlights in my bank account. My initial Skill Points will be an unmodified D10 result: 10, fortunately.

 

Part Two: Development

 

The second part of character generation is called Development, and this is where we spend Study Points and initial Skill Points, as well as determining Characteristics from potentials and the training undergone in this section.

 

We start by applying Study Points to determine the shape of our education. There are seven fields of study to choose from: theoretical science, applied science (or engineering), business, the humanities, the mind (aka psionics), the body (physical education, basically), and the military.  It costs one point to enter, and two to receive a concentration in, any field except the mind, which costs double. There is also an eighth field for general skills; all characters receive free entry and cannot take a concentration. I have 5 Study Points to spend, as well as a poor aptitude for physical pursuits and a lower-middle class background, though my choice of fields may help overcome some of those limitations. I should probably take a look at career options before I commit to anything. Applied sciences feature in several of these (and sometimes a concentration is required), theoretical sciences are less common. Business shows up surprisingly often. Two doses of applied science and one each of business and theoretical science should keep a lot of doors open for me, and a course of body should bring my physical qualities up to the minimum for some of the more active careers.

 

Next, I can spend my ten Initial Skill Points to reach entry-level competence in skills that were part of my fields of study (including general), that is, I can buy ten skills off these lists at Level 1 each. I’ll take vehicle tech, suit tech and electro tech off the Applied Science list, EVA and gravity (extreme) off the Body list, programming off the Business list, biology, physics and chemistry off the Theoretical Sciences list, and streetwise off the General list.

 

To complete the Development section, we take our Potential multipliers, combine them with the results of our Fields of Study, and then roll a D100 on a chart to determine nine Characteristics: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, Mental Power, Leadership, Empathy, and Aggresion. For each you add the modifiers earned in your field of study (twice if you took a concentration), multiply by the appropriate multipliers, add the result of a D100 roll, and consult the chart to find the score corresponding to your total. Are you ready? Here we go.

 

For Strength I earn a modifier of 8 from my study of phys ed, plus 1 for the general field, multiplied by my factors for Physique (0.5) and Coordination (1). That’s a 4.5, drop the fraction for a 4, plus the die roll of 07 totals 11. That gives me a score of 3, which is near the bottom of the curve.

 

For Endurance I get a 4 from Body and a 1 from General, multiplied by ½ for Physique to get a rounded-down 2. The die roll is 93, however, and that total of 95 corresponds to a respectable score of 7.

 

Dexterity gets bonuses from General (+1), Body (+4) and Applied Science (also +4), and its multipliers are Coordination (1) and Intellect (3). That’s a very nice 27, which can still be brought way down by a poor die roll. But I roll a 59 for a total of 86 and a score of 7.

 

Agility is improved by General (+1) and Body (+4), but its multipliers are Physique (0.5) and Coordination (1), so I’m adding 2 to the die roll again. 34 + 2 = 36, for a score of 5, which is actually the minimum for starting characters, so I probably shouldn’t get too physical.

 

Intelligence gets a +8 boost from Theoretical Science and a +16 from the concentration in Applied Science, plus the ubiquitous +1 for General totals 25. Also, the multiplier is Intellect (3), which means I start with a 75 before I even touch the dice. The roll is 98 (!) for a grand total of 173, which breaks the curve and gives me a 12—the highest possible score.

 

Well, it’s all going to be downhill from there. My Mental Power bonuses come from Theoretical Science (+2) and General (+1), multiplied by Intellect (3) for a modifier of 9. The die roll is 75, for a total of 84, which corresponds to a 7, except Mental power ratings are divided by 2 so that becomes a 3.

 

Leadership is modified by Business (+2) and General (+1), with Intellect (3) and Social Background (3) as its multipliers. 3 x 9 = 27, plus 03 on the D100 comes to 30, and a score of 4.

 

Empathy gets a +4 from Business and the usual +1 from General, and it’s multiplied by Intellect (3). 5 x 3 = 15, plus 62 on the D100 for 77, corresponding to a score of 6.

 

Finally, Aggression is modified only by fields of study, so the multiplier is automatically 1. General experience doesn’t add anything, but study of the Body adds 15 (Humanities and the Mind have negative modifiers, but I didn’t study either of those). Add 15 to a die roll of 64, and that 79 corresponds to a score of 6.

 

 

Part Three: Profession

 

The next segment of character generation involves experience in a Profession. First, we’ve got to see what our training and characteristics qualify us for. Anyone can be a planetary Colonist, but I’ve got enough training and ability to shoot for something that pays better. I can also be a Doctor, an Explorer, a Handyman, a Scientist, a Scout, or a Space Technician. Of those, the best balance of possible benefits seems to come from Scientist, which is kind of where I figured I was going anyhow.

 

So in order to determine what I get out of this career, I need to find out how long I spend doing it. Terms are four years long, and you can try to serve as many as five of them. However, it is possible to be downsized ahead of your intended schedule, and you will also be subject to negative effects of aging if you serve 8 years or more in your profession. (You are presumed to begin working at the age of 20.) I’m planning to spend 16 years in the field, ideally retiring at 36 without any significant loss of capability. I then roll on the Employment Table to determine how long I last before I’m let go; I’m guaranteed at least 12 years of service, but if I roll less than a 9 I’ll be let go after that and spend the last four years unemployed. I roll a 2 and will get 12 years of employment and another 4 on the dole, earning neither further benefits nor further skills.

 

Before I determine the benefits I get out of my 12 years in Big Science, I’ll see what the wear of sixteen years does to my abilities. I roll a D10, add my final Age of 36, and consult the Effects of Age table to see how many points I have to take off my physical characteristics. I roll a 7, which added to 36 makes 43, corresponding to 5 points lost. Lost points must be spread evenly as possible and removed in the order Endurance, Agility, Strength, Dexterity, which means 2 points off Endurance and 1 each off the rest. That’s gonna hurt: Endurance drops from 7 to 5, Agility from 5 to 4, Strength from 3 to 2, and Dexterity from 7 to 6. 

 

Now that we’ve had the bad news, let’s see what I’ve gained for it. First, more Skill Points. Scientist has a skill point modifier of 9, added to my Intelligence of 12 makes 21, plus a d10 roll of 2 equals 23. Checking the Skill Point Table, that means I get 10 skill points to apply to skills listed for the profession or my Fields of Study. My 12 years of experience mean that no skill can be raised above Level 4. The cost is one-for-one, so at least that’s easy to calculate. I’ll spend one level each on Biology, Programming, and Robot Tech;two each on Physics and Planetology; and three on Chemistry to make it my primary field. Some of these I had already bought at entry level with my initial study points; I’ll provide the totals when I do the statblock.

 

Then I find out what material benefits my severance package includes. I roll 1D10 (6), add the number of years actually worked (12), and check that number on the Benefit Table. An 18 gets me to benefit level C, which comprises a cash payment of 500 Mils x my Intelligence rating (6000 Mils, or 6 Trans) and a chemical synthesizer machine of tech level 6 (which I could conceivably use to generate further income). 

 

Now I’ll consider investing in further gear. Not knowing what sort of jobs I’ll be taking on, I’ll look for general-purpose personal equipment that doesn’t cost too much. Prices are supposed to be affected by local conditions, but for purposes of simplicity I’ll assume we’ll do our shopping somewhere that book prices apply. The first thing I realize is that six trans won’t get me very far at all; you can’t even buy a car with it. I’ll buy a basic repair kit for 1 Tran, a Headset Radio for 100 Mils, and save the rest until I find out what I need for my next freelance job.

 

And that gets us everything we need for a stat block except a name. I don’t have a clear visual for this character yet, and gender doesn’t matter for game purposes. In the SF tradition of mixing ethnic markers to imply a post-racial intergalactic society, I’ll call this spacer Haruko Kenyatta. So here’s the summing-up, including as many fields from the official character sheet as I can make myself type out. (I’m not sure why a lot of these things need to be recorded after character generation is complete, but there’s spaces for them.)

 

Name: Haruko Kenyatta

Age: 36

Gender: F

Potentials: Physique ½; Coordination 1; Intellect 3; Social 3

Study Points: 5

Social Standing: Lower Middle (7)

Initial Skill Points: 10

Fields of Study: Applied Science x2; Body 1; Business 1; Theoretical Science 1

Characteristics: Strength 2; Endurance 5; Dexterity 6; Agility 4; Intelligence 12; Mental Power 3; Leadership 4; Empathy 6; Aggression 6

Profession: Scientist (Chemist)

Skill Points: 10

Benefit Level: C

Money: 4 Tran 900 Mil

Possessions: Chemical Synthesizer (L6), Radio Headset, Basic Repair Kit

 

Trained Skills: 

Scientific: Biology L2, Chemistry L4, Physics L3, Planetology L2, Programming L2

Technical: Compu/Robot Tech L1, Electro Tech L1, Suit Tech L1, Vehicle Tech L1

Interpersonal: Streetwise L1

Environmental: Gravity (extreme) L1, Urban L1

 

 

 

 

*The company went heavily into debt and was eaten by TSR in 1982.

Character Creation Challenge, Day 30: My Life with Master

 

My Life with Master is the result of experimenting with a basic structural issue in role-playing games, which is about the role of plot and story. Instead of an open-ended campaign of exploration, or a story arc which is supposed to depend on player choice but often ends up yanked back on course by a gamemaster’s heavy hand, My Life with Master explores the impact of small choices within a predetermined plot arc—in particular, the classic Gothic-horror story of hubris and fall. In order to make this work, players take the roles not of the story’s primary character, but of the minions who serve this master, and who, through the effect of their small kindnesses and acts of resistance, might be able to redeem themselves even as their master tumbles to destruction.

 

So to begin we need a Master, who will be played by the GM. The taxonomy of Masters is not particularly complex, although the designer warns us strenuously that it is a guideline rather than a straitjacket. A Master may be a Beast, motivated and influenced by more physical and primal stimuli and attempting to affect others in the same way; or a Brain, whose primary medium of influence in either direction is conversation and the exchange of ideas. They are further categorized by the way in which they threaten their neighboring community: the Feeder relies upon them for sustenance; the Breeder’s creations threaten them either physically or psychologically (whether that fear is justified or not); the Collector seeks to assemble something very particular, whether it’s a menagerie of special people or the parts to reinvent themselves as someone else; and the Teacher seeks to imprint their twisted worldview upon others.

 

In addition, we must determine more specifically what the Master needs from the Townspeople, as well as what the Master wants from the Outsiders whose approval/support/interest they crave. One of the classic examples is Victor Frankenstein, who wants the respect of the scientific community and needs to rob his neighbors’ graveyards for the experiments he believes will earn that respect (and the result of which will frighten and eventually physically harm said neighbors).

 

According to the rulebook, a well-designed Master has “good grounds for insecurity, a passion to transcend it, and a certain amount of egomania.” That doesn’t sound like too difficult a mark to hit. I like the idea of a musical aspect to the Master’s madness; let’s say he wants to recreate the sound of the angels’ choir by stealing the voices of children and transferring them to some sort of Device that will convert their innocent music to a simulation of the divine. That’s blasphemously ambitious and likely to have gotten him rejected by a relevant group of Outsiders. In the taxonomy that would make him, I think, a Collector; though I am not sure whether his musical obsession makes him more Beast or more Brain. This question matters, because it’s going to color how our Master interacts with his Minions. Let’s try to spin this out further and perhaps telling the story will resolve the question.

 

After decades of obsession with seeking the Voice of the Divine, Charles Emmanuel Phillips has finally built the Ourania Chorodia. The device will vindicate his theories that the choir of Heaven can be recreated by the ingenuity of Man and shame all those stodges who called his obsession mad, even blasphemous—especially the rectors at the University of Leipzig who revoked his degrees and blacklisted him in the musical community. Unfortunately, in order to activate it he needs the voices of children, and once taken those voices (as far as he has been able to determine) do not return. And yet it is worth the cost, for what price could one place on the ability to bring the celestial symphony to Earth?

 

I’m still torn on the Brain/Beast divide. Stealing voices is pretty physical and sensory, and music certainly affects people at a level deeper than conscious thought. Perhaps he fancies himself an intellectual, but his attempts to function at the level of words and ideas are too frequently overridden by his fundamental sensuality—for him music is all about the feels, whatever words he uses to rationalize that visceral response. A Beast who tells himself he’s a Brain.

 

All right, then. We need to assign values to two attributes that are linked to the Master but more properly belong to the setting: Fear and Reason. The former quantifies the strength of the Master’s presence; it empowers him and his minions, and it also works to control those minions. The latter represents the influence of the Town’s residents over the environment. The higher the Fear value is relative to the Reason value, the harder it will be for Minions to develop connections to the townspeople and resist the Master’s control. Charles’ plan is pretty awful, but I don’t want him to be too overbearing; this is our first game, after all. I’ll set Fear at 3 (two points below what the book recommends for truly horrifying Masters) and Reason at 4.

 

Now we can turn our attention to a player character, i.e. a Minion. The Master needs Minions to interact with the Town on his behalf, and since his needs pose some kind of threat to the Town, the Minions embody that threat. But the Minions are human; they need love, and they suffer under the Master’s demands (and his wrath when those demands are not met). A Minion has three statistics in My Life with Master. Self-Loathing measures the degree to which the Minion sees themselves as a monster, willing to commit harm in service to the Master. It empowers the Minion to do violence and hinders making connections with Townspeople. Weariness measures the Minion’s fading inner strength; it makes resisting the Master more difficult, but it also makes the Minion more vulnerable to harm when carrying out the Master’s commands. Most importantly, it does not hinder making connections with Townspeople. The final statistic, Love, measures the strength of the connections the Minion has made with various Townspeople. In a standard game, the player divides three points between Self-Loathing and Weariness, and Love begins at 0. I’m going to start Self-Loathing at 1 and Weariness at 2 for a more sympathetic Minion. All three of these values will change over the course of play.

 

Although a Minion is fundamentally human, they also have qualities that separate them from the rest of humanity. Each minion has a quality that makes them More than Human and another that makes them Less than Human. Both qualities are hedged with closely specified exceptions. The Less than Human quality is a crippling limitation that affects the character in all circumstances except those defined in the exception; the More than Human quality is a surreal and extraordinary ability that is likewise limited by a very specific condition. Given the nature of our Master, it makes sense for both of these qualities to have some kind of relationship to sound, if not specifically music. 

This character is starting to come into focus now: a young woman, an orphan, one of Charles’ first experiments, whom he raised to adulthood out of some sense of responsibility for stealing her voice (and of course because he wanted a Minion). The experiment was not entirely successful: Maria can sing when provided with instrumental accompaniment, though otherwise she is incapable of speech. That’s her Less than Human quality, and Charles absolutely exploits it. Her More than Human quality is that she can whistle beautiful and intricate tunes, loudly enough to fill a room—except in the presence of dogs.

 

The final step before play is to create two Connections among the Townspeople for Maria, people with whom she will seek to build positive relationships represented in the game as Love point. The first is a kindly old man named Janos who plays dance tunes on the recorder at his table outside the café for the children playing nearby. The second is a little girl named Sophie, who reminds Maria of herself as a child (though Sophie is not an orphan).

 

Not much to put in a statblock here, but let’s set out what we have:

 

Maria, Minion of Charles Emmanuel Phillips, inventor of the Ourania Chorodia and thief of children’s voices

Beginning stats:

Self-Loathing: 1

Weariness: 2

Love: 0

 

Less than Human: Is incapable of speech, except when singing to someone else’s accompaniment.

More than Human: Can whistle beautiful and intricate tunes loudly enough to fill a room, except in the presence of dogs.

 

Connections: 

Old Janos is so kind, and he plays such sprightly tunes on his recorder for the children!

Little Sophie reminds me of myself before Master Phillips adopted me, though her life is happier.

 

Fear: 3

Reason: 4

 

Character Creation Challenge, Day 29: Barbarians of Lemuria

 Barbarians of Lemuria is a rules-light sword and sorcery game, inspired primarily but not exclusively by Lin Carter’s “Thongor of Lemuria” stories. (Lemuria itself was the invention of 19^th-century European scientists trying to explain species distribution before they figured out continental drift, so it’s not protected material.) Characters seek riches and glory (or maybe just survival) in a pulp-Iron Age world of strange magic, fell beasts, mighty thews, and the occasional metal bikini.

The first formal step in character creation is to determine the character’s attributes. There are four: Strength, Agility, Mind, and Appeal. A score of 0 represents the human average, and you have four points to distribute. Before I commit, though, I think I’ll take a look at the options for careers and backgrounds. I note that I can have more than one Career, and also that it’s a pretty wide spread of types ranging from barbarian to magician to merchant to waitress (ok, fine, “serving wench”).* 

Anyhow, the upshot for scoring attributes is that I can build a viable character on any of them. They’ll be used as modifiers on thing-doing rolls, which for success require a modified 9 on a 2D6 roll. So with a +2 I’ll succeed a little more than half the time on doing whatever sort of things that attribute enables, but I’ll also be able to add my levels in careers and combat abilities to appropriate rolls so I don’t have to rely entirely on my natural abilities.

 

So, back to the core question: what sort of character am I trying to build here? I like the idea of combining Dancer with something more martial such as Soldier or Mercenary. This spread should get us there: 

 

Strength 1, Agility 2, Mind 0, Appeal 1. 

 

My starting Hit Points are 10 plus my Strength score, which totals 11.

 

Next I assign points to Combat Abilities. Same model here: four areas of expertise, 4 points to distribute, values of 0 to 4. There are four combat abilities: Brawl (unarmed and improvised-weapon combat), Melee (hand weapons), Ranged (bows, slings, thrown weapons), and Defence (dodging and parrying). I’m going to spread these evenly and put a point in each:

 

Brawl 1, Melee 1, Ranged 1, Defence 1

 

Now for Careers. I get four careers and four points to assign to them, and I am allowed to repeat selections as well as assigning a value of 0 to any of the four. We’ve already committed a slot to Dancer and should give it at least 1 point. OK, so let’s say our dancer kills someone (in self-defense, out of revenge, accidentally in a brawl, who knows) and has to flee justice. She stows away on a ship and joins its crew to become a Pirate.  Some way or another she ends up back on land with some polish to her fighting skills and signs on somewhere as a Mercenary. For the fourth career we go back to her past, say she’s a farm girl who ran away from an unhappy home to the city, so Farmer. Now to distribute points:

 

Farmer 0, Dancer 1, Pirate 2, Mercenary 1

 

I’ll also start the game with five Hero Points, which can be spent at moments of crisis to change a failure to a success, add extra damage to a successful attack, or be knocked unconscious when you would otherwise have died. I’ll earn both Hero Points and advancement points (for attributes, careers, or combat abilities) as I play.

 

For gear, I basically get whatever seems appropriate for my career(s) within the limits of what I can carry without excessive burden. It’s pretty loose. Since my most recent Career is mercenary, I’ll need some basic weapons and armor. One sword, one dagger, and one bow should cover my hurting-people needs pretty well. I’m going to forego the chainmail bikini for a a pair of boots (1 protection), a pair of bracers (1), a skullcap helm (1) and a loose, flowy pirate shirt (0 protection, and not actually on the list), giving me a total of 3 points of protection with little sacrifice of comfort. On the downside, the other heroes in their skin-showing battle harnesses and chain bikinis will all make fun of me. I don’t care, I’m not working the pole anymore and I’ll cover what I want to cover.

 

We still need a name to go with this statblock and background, though. I figure this gal’s on her third or fourth name, since her changes of career tend to be marked by leaving a past life behind, often in a hurry. Currently she goes by Zara the Cutlass, after her favored weapon.

So, we're ready for a statblock:

Zara the Cutlass

Leaving her parents’ farm for the city, the girl now known as Zara became a dancer at a posh inn. After killing a wealthy patron in self-defence, she fled to sea and joined a pirate crew. When her ship was sunk by pirate hunters, she made it to shore and joined a mercenary company.

 

Attributes: 

Strength: 1      Agility: 2          Mind: 0           Appeal: 1

Combat Abilities:

Brawl: 1          Melee: 1          Ranged: 1      Defence: 1 

Careers:

Farmer: 0       Dancer: 1        Pirate: 2          Mercenary: 1

Hit Points: 11              Hero Points: 5

Armor: 3 (bracers, boots, helm)

Weapons: Bow d6+1, Sword d6+1, Dagger d4

*I also note that (like the source material) the career list is pretty sexist and implicitly heteronormative, and one wishes the designer had put a little more thought into how the tropes of the genre work and which ones might not be worth carrying forward.

 

Character Creation Challenge, Day 28: Teens in Space

 

Teens in Space combines science fiction adventure with adolescent angst. It runs on the same engine as its somewhat better-known predecessor Kids on Bikes, which was designed primarily to tell stories in the mode of Stranger Things. Here the emphasis is on not-quite-mature characters trying to handle adult responsibilities…IN SPAACE!

 

The game has one of those character creation processes designed for a group, in which a lot of the campaign’s premises are established by answering questions. I’m going to hypothesize that there are two other players whose characters will be part of the same ship’s crew as mine. Together we’ll design a spaceship as well as establish some facts about our characters and their relationships.

 

Our first task is to decide what kind of ship, and therefore what kind of crew, we will be operating. I opt for a Science Vessel: basically peaceful in intent, but liable to run into various kinds of trouble. Each player gets to add one minor Improvement to a basic configuration that includes basic self-defense weapons and shields, sublight and light-speed propulsion systems, a mid-range set of scanners, and a Heat Meter (sort-of the ship’s hit points) of 5. Choosing for the whole group, I select Enhanced Scanners, an EVA craft for work outside the ship, and a Greenhouse for growing food.

 

Now we turn attention to the crew members. The first step is to pick a species; the game provides 28 options and encourages players to devise their own, ‘cause it’s a big universe out there. For my main character I choose the Quillarians, adorable 9-inch-tall hedgehog people with pacifist convictions and a gift for organic engineering.  For the other crew members I choose a Human and an Abyssean, an aquatic biped who gets around in a water-filled exoskeleton. 

 

With my choice comes a question to answer about my character: what would drive you to harm another living being? That’s a tough one, and I’ll say the desperate defense of a person or thing that matters deeply to me.

 

Next, we give our crew members Tropes, many of which are jobs but more generally describe our characters’ narrative roles. The Human will be our pilot—the Trope is called Flyboy—and the Abyssean our leader and main scientist (under the Scholar trope). My little Quillarian could be the dewy-eared Newbie, but instead I’ll make them the Engineer. The book isn’t super helpful about names (except to note that Quillarians don’t have family names because they consider everybody family), so I’ll string some syllables together in the grand tradition of not-so-serious science fiction: Veebolitt, known to their friends as Big Vee or just Vee. (our human pilot’s name is Jennifer Jett; the Abyssean scientist’s is Daras Cleetu)

 

Your Trope determines your basic abilities, which are expressed as dice of differing sizes from d4 to d20; your strongest ability is rated d20, whereas your weakest only a d4. The profile for Engineer leads with Brains (d20) and ends with Charm (d4). In between are Grit (d12), Brawn (d10), Flight (d8), and Fight (d6). 

 

In addition, at this point you have three questions to answer about your character, each requiring a creative answer:

1)    What’s the craziest fix you ever pulled off?  Well, when I was finishing a bioengineering class project at the Academy—this was like my second year—I was trying to develop a superconductor out of bioluminescent plankton, and the ionically charged algal substitute I was feeding them turned out to refract their high-energy emissions, which shouldn’t have been a problem except that the containment field somehow converted it to gamma radiation and suddenly my little plankton tank is basically a nuclear reactor with inadequate shielding. Anyhow, after briefly panicking I realize that all I need to do is polarize the emissions crossways and so I grab some highlighter ink and paint a double-sized magnifier sheet green, then I climb into a rad suit and slip that in around the perimeter as a filter. Looked stupid as fuck, but it worked.

2)    How would you describe your connection to the ship? I’m a little uncomfortable having it in my care, since it’s not organic tech. But I’ll give it my best shot!

3)    What piece of advice did a parent or mentor give you before you left? “Always…” no, wait, “Never… Never reject a side effect out of hand; life’s greatest gifts are usually the unexpected ones.”

 

 

The next step is to define your character’s Fatal Flaw, ideally a virtue pushed too far, or a trait that has served the character well in circumstances that differ greatly from their life now.  Quillarians are known for optimism as well as pacifism, which suggests a trusting nature. 

 

Returning to the group, we have five more questions, this time about the ship and the crew as a group:

1)    How did the crew meet? We were assigned our positions on this ship through the Academy as a senior internship for our courses of study.

2)    Describe two moments of tension within the crew. When we left the docks for the first time our pilot darted through the ship traffic with high-speed high-gee maneuvers—scared the poopout of the rest of the crew. But I have to admit she pulled it off.

The second one that comes to mind is in Hollix spaceport before our departure, when I got our replacement flux conduits stolen by those two guys who said they needed to borrow them for a quick test on a repair job they were doing. Boy, everybody was mad at me for days.

3)    What was a moment that you felt truly bonded with the crew? When we broke warp and came into orbit around that moon and realized we weren’t in class anymore, we were working on a real survey as actual Fleet crew. Well, OK, interns. But we still felt like we’d made it.

4)    What rumor did you hear the last time you were in a spaceport? This really nice Mystarian I met in Hollix told me that she’d foreseen a great cluster of ships fleeing a catastrophe. It was kinda scary, actually.

5)    What job is the crew in the middle of right now? Right now we’re assisting a major survey of the fourth moon of Tirmotal IV, charting masses of plantlife from orbit in support of the planetside crews who are cataloguing samples. Pretty routine so far, seems like typical internship work as far as I can tell.

 

Next, I get 10 more improvement points to spend on my character’s abilities or save for additional ship features. I want to save at least a couple for the ship so I spend eight points on self-improvement:

 

Escape Artist (1 point): +3 on checks to find escape routes or hiding places

Goody Two-Shoes (1 point): at the cost of an Adversity Token I can find and receive help from a law enforcement agency on whatever inhabited planet I happen to be on. (I get Adversity Tokens when I fail skill checks.)

Heightened Charm (1 point): I get +1 on Charm rolls, which should help some since it’s my weakest ability.

Intuitive (1 point): Spending an Adversity Token allows me to ask the GM one question (and get an honest, straight answer) about my surroundings or an NPC or anything else I might notice something inobvious about. 

Lucky (2 points): I can spend an Adversity Token to reroll a check.

Skilled at Engine Repair (1 point): I can assume success in relevant checks of difficulty 9 or less, and I’ll get +3 to rolls on relevant checks of higher difficulty.

Spirited Motivator: I can give a crewmate a bonus of +2 on a check per Adversity Token spent, so long as I describe the pep talk I gave them beforehand.

 

Now all three of us can spend any unused Improvement Points on ship upgrades. I’ll assume the others each have 2 left as well, so we can spend 6. We’ll spend 1 on two EVA suits to complement the craft we bought earlier. Two more points will buy us a Medical Bay. Two Escape Pods will hold four crew members and cost 2 points, and we’ll spend the final point to upgrade the Greenhouse so it can feed all of us.

 

OK, so we have two statblocks to show: one for Big Vee, and another for the ship, which we’ll name Bioscope 1.

 

Veebolitt (Big Vee), Quillarian Engineer

Fatal Flaw: Too Trusting

Species Drawback: Pacifist; -2 on Fight checks

Stat Dice:

Brains d20

Grit d12

Brawn d10

Flight d8

Fight d6

Charm d4 +1

 

Improvements: Escape Artist, Goody Two-Shoes, Heightened Charm, Intuitive, Lucky, Skilled at Engine Repair, Spirited Motivator

 

Bioscope-1, Science Vessel

Core Systems:

Thrusters d4, Shields d4, Turrets d4

Heat Rating: 5

 

Support Systems:

Enhanced Scanners

EVA Craft x1

Escape Pod x2

EVA suit x2

 

Facilities: 

Medical Bay, Standard

Greenhouse x2

 

Crew:

Daras Cleetu, Science Officer and Captain

Jennifer Jett, Pilot

Veebolitt, Engineer

 

 

Character Creation Challenge, Day 27: Colonial Gothic, 3rd Edition

 

Colonial Gothic is a supernatural horror game (though adjustable for straightforward action-adventure) set primarily in those British colonies of North America that eventually became the United States, as well as the neighboring as-yet-unconquered Native territories. These horrors threaten both Native peoples and colonists, setting up ground for alliances across gulfs of material and cultural interests that might otherwise be unbridgeable.

 

Player characters can come from nearly any walk of society that 18^th-century North America offered (including freedmen, though for good reason excluding enslaved persons). For this character I’d like to create someone scholarly, perhaps an academic or a physician. That should make him either an Urban Colonist or an Immigrant. There was a Jewish community in Manhattan that had begun under Dutch occupation, apparently went into decline after the English took New Netherland, and then was reinvigorated by Ashkenazi immigrants from the German Empire in the 18^th century. An Urban Colonist doctor of Dutch-Sephardic background wouldn’t be much of a stretch, if any. So, let’s create Benjamin da Silva, physician, natural philosopher, and perhaps also student of forbidden lore. Gender male, age 43.

 

I’ll have 45 points to divide among five Ability scores: Might, Nimble*, Vigor, Reason, and Resolution. Reason and Resolution seem like the most important abilities for a doctor/scholar, and my signature skills will rely mostly on them. Might seems like the least important, and Nimble and Vigor can be average. Here are the scores, with the modifiers they apply to skill rolls in parentheses.

 

Might 5 (-2)

Nimble 7 (0)

Vigor 7 (0)

Reason 15 (+3)

Resolution 11 (+1)

 

There are a few derived characteristics based on Abilities. Vitality is basically hit points; the starting value is the average of Might and Vigor, multiplied by 5; in Benjamin’s case 30 points. Sanity tracks psychological endurance in the face of supernaturally horrific events, and starts at five times Resolution, or 55 for Benjamin. His middling Nimble score will give him two Actions per round (Nimble/3, drop fraction), but averaging it with his higher Reason will give him a solid Initiative Rating of 11.

 

And then we can purchase Skills. Characters receive 40 points to purchase skills; buying a skill at the entry level of 1 Rank costs 4 points, and further ranks will cost 2 each. (I’ll add my Ranks to the appropriate Ability Bonus as a modifier to die rolls for various thing-doings or Skill Tests.) The list is kind of long given these prices, but there’s no small amount of overlap; for instance Heal, Physick, and Profession (Doctor) all over basically the same ground. (On the other hand, each language beyond one’s native tongue counts as a separate skill, which seems unduly expensive in this system.) I’ll be able to afford 8 or 9 skills at rank 1 and still boost a couple to rank 2.

 

For medical stuff I’ll take two ranks in Profession (doctor). Languages are going to be an issue; I’m not sure whether the Jewish community in Manhattan spoke English among themselves in this era, but the character will still need English to function in the game, and Latin and Hebrew to sustain any pretense at scholarship. (He could conceivably also have Dutch and/or Yiddish and/or maybe even Ladino, but I want other skills too. Oddly, Dutch doesn’t appear on the list of available languages despite the Hudson Valley’s sizable Dutch-speaking population.) So a rank each of Latin and Hebrew as well as native fluency in English and we’ll just try to live with that. For social skills I’ll take a rank each of Diplomacy and Empathy (both Resolution-based). I’ll add Investigation and two ranks of Observe to provide some detective skills. And for scholarship we’ll take a rank of Study in natural philosophy and a rank of Lore to get our foot in the door of the supernatural stuff the game will be dealing with. (Magical powers are available as well, but they also have to be bought as skills and require an intensity of investment similar to learning multiple languages, so I decided against it.)

 

Diplomacy (Resolution) 1 

Empathy (Resolution) 1

Investigation (Reason) 1

Language (Latin) (Reason)1 

Language (Hebrew) (Reason) 1 

Lore (Reason) 1 

Observe (Reason) 2

Profession (doctor) (Reason) 2

Study (natural philosophy) (Reason) 1

 

The next, and most challenging, step of character creation is giving our good Doctor da Silva five Hooks. A Hook is a statement about the character that can be leveraged in-game to provide a bonus. Three of these should come from the character’s background; one from their life before they got involved with the occult; and one more should reflect the character’s personality. Activating Hooks costs Action Points, of which each character gets 5 to begin every session. I’m going to try these on for size, though some of them may be a little abstract:

 

Background hook 1: My love of learning is a gift from my parents and my rabbi.

Background hook 2: The city of my birth is a world unto itself, containing all things.

Background hook 3: Oh, the things medical school prepares a man for.

Life Before Occult hook: I remember witnessing an experiment that might apply to this.

Personality hook:  There must surely be a natural explanation for this.

 

Gear selection is not treated as part of character generation, though it’s not clear why. Still, we can’t send Benjamin into the world like Adam expelled from the garden, so let’s set him up with some tools and supplies. He starts with two sets of clothes, a pair of shoes, (because he’s an urban colonist) a powdered wig, and £20 with which to buy other goods.

I’m going to stay off the weapons lists because he’s not at all a man of violence, but let’s see if we can get him the tools of his trade. Surgeon’s instruments cost £19, which doesn’t leave much left for anything else. A mortar and pestle cost 2 shillings sixpence, so we can still afford that. But I think that’s where we’ll have to stop, with the basic tools of our trade and 17 shillings and sixpence left in our pockets for an emergency.

 

And that should complete our good doctor. Here’s the statblock:

 

Benjamin da Silva, Physician and Natural Philosopher

Might 5 (-2)

Nimble 7 (0)

Vigor 7 (0)

Reason 15 (+3)

Resolution 11 (+1)

Actions 2         Initiative Rating 11

Vitality 30        Sanity 55

Skill Ranks: Diplomacy 1, Empathy 1, Investigation 1, Language (Latin) 1, Language (Hebrew) 1, Lore 1, Observe 2, Profession (Doctor) 2, Study (Natural Philosophy) 1

 

Money: 17s 6d

Belongings: 2 sets of clothes, 1 pair of shoes, 1 powdered wig, 1 set surgeon’s instruments, 1 mortar & pestle.

 

Background hook 1: My love of learning is a gift from my parents and my rabbi.

Background hook 2: The city of my birth is a world unto itself, containing all things.

Background hook 3: Oh, the things medical school prepares a man for.

Life Before Occult hook: I remember witnessing an experiment that might apply to this.

Personality hook:  There must surely be a natural explanation for this.

 

 

 

*I don’t know why this is the only adjective among four nouns, but it’s annoying. Was “nimble” a noun in the 18^th century?

Character Creation Challenge, Day 26: Legends of the Wulin

 

Legends of the Wulin emulates the wuxia genre of Chinese popular entertainment, in which wandering heroes of extraordinary martial skill and cultivation wander through period settings, pursuing a variety of goals including but not limited to renown, revenge, great challenges, spiritual perfection through the martial arts, fighting tyranny, fighting lawlessness, protecting the innocent, and/or retrieving powerful relics. The game is set in a mythic version of ancient China called Shen Zhou, under the reign of a fictional dynasty called the Jin. 

Player characters are members of the Wulin, the loose society of kung fu practitioners that includes the aforementioned wandering heroes. (Confession: I am not particularly familiar with the source material here.)  These can be courtiers or peasants, warriors or scholars, drawn from any part of society so long as they travel the path of kung fu.

Legends of the Wulin is one of those games where it's a very good idea to peruse the available options before even starting to make a character. I only skimmed them, and it created some avoidable challenges down the line. Character creation is mostly point-buy, using a currency called Destiny Points (which are also one of the forms in which experience is rewarded). In addition to the step-by-step choices you make to give your character a profession, a skill set, styles of martial arts, etc., you'll also get 20 Destiny points to spend on whatever goodies you want to give your character. It's valuable to keep those resources in mind as you go through the earlier steps of character-building so that a) you don't overcommit your point budget and b) you can take advantage of synergies among your various character assets for extra competence as well as enhanced coherence.

That said, the first step in character creation is a concept. What sort of hero do you want to play? When I first selected this game for the Challenge, I had thought I would make a rakish scholar-detective in the mold of Barry Hughart's Master Li. But by the time it came to pull out the book and get to work on this one, I decided that I hadn't created enough bricks yet. What I wanted was a big, strong, amiable, not-too-bright guy with a heart as big as his muscles.* So, that's my concept: Amiable Lunkhead with a Heart as Big as His Muscles. And his name is Big Lu.

Now, how do we get there? The second step is to choose an Archetype, which is for our purposes basically a character class. Most of these--courtiers, doctors, scholars, priests--are known for wit or wisdom. That leaves the Warrior, and that's fine by me. A Warrior gets access to a particular set of Secret Arts (which will come into play later in the process), and uses the skill Hardiness to replenish their Chi (which will also come into play later in the process).

Next we get 20 Destiny points to spend on Skills. Skills cost 2 points for every +5 increment, and you can buy specialties within skills for 1 point each. As a starting character, you may not raise a skill beyond +10. Now, my vision for Big Lu includes a modest background and no formal military experience, so certain skills are probably going to be too technical or too highfalutin for him. I know I'll want Hardiness for Chi, and Might is exactly the center of his wheelhouse, so those each get the full +10. Craft seems like something he ought to have, as does Survival; I'll bring each of those to +5. Awareness is also a good one, though maybe not a great fit for "lunkhead." Still, I'll give it a +5. Tactics is important for warriors, but I'm not sure it fits him all that well so for now I'll bypass it. 

That's 14 points, leaving 6 for specialties. I'll go back to Hardiness and Might, where I want to invest the most. I emphasize Focus Breath (again for the chi) and Recover from Wounds in Hardiness, and choose three more from Might: Breaking, Lifting, and Throwing. Then I pick a Craft specialty (Carpentry) and that takes care of my skill budget.

The next step is to determine which Virtues matter most to Lu. There are five Chivalrous and five Selfish Virtues, each beginning at a score of 1. You have 15 further points to divide among them (with a maximum rating of 5), and most heroes will have a mix of Chivalrous and Selfish to help generate drama when their motivations clash. The Chivalrous Virtues are Benevolence, Force (which here includes self-control), Honor, Loyalty,  and Righteousness. The Selfish ones are Ferocity, Individualism,  Obsession, Revenge, and Ruthlessness. I foresee a heavy investment in Chivalrous.

Lu's main personality trait is his big heart, so Benevolence is going to get the 4 points that max it out to 5. I'll do the same for Righteousness, since he really doesn't like bullies or unfairness. After that it gets more complicated. Honor and Loyalty are tough, because in this game they both depend on unequal power relations. But Honor favors speaking truth even when it's disadvantageous as well as sticking to social proprieties, so that gets an edge. I'll raise it to 3 and Loyalty to 2. Force is about one's power and skills, including self-mastery; that can also get a 3 while still making sense.

The only Selfish virtue I can see making any sense for Lu is Individualism--in his case following his own heart or sense of rightness even when everyone else thinks he's wrong. We'll raise it to 3, thereby using the last of our 15 points.

Next I have the opportunity to choose some Disadvantages, which will earn Lu Destiny points if they hinder him in the course of his adventures. I thought about taking one for his relative lack of perspicacity, but the book strongly prefers physical and social disadvantages over psychological ones, so I decided to leave it out.

All right, now it's time to choose some Kung Fu! Lu will begin with one External style (his standard repertoire of fighting techniques) and one Internal style (which uses Chi to create extra effects, mostly in combat). For an External Kung Fu style I look for something straightforward that will let him use his bulk and strength-and possibly a big hammer--and the best match is Blossom Harvest, which has all of those things (including the big hammer). Blossom Harvest is most effective against intricate styles that have a lot of flourishes, and least effective against styles that react to an opponent's moves. 

By spending more Destiny I can master extra Blossom Harvest techniques, and I pencil in three strong possibilities for when I spend my upcoming free Destiny: Nine Mountains Great Strength, which costs 5 and gives me more powerful strikes; Iron Skin, which also costs 5 and helps me resist damage; and No Vermin in the World, which costs 2 and lets me sweep minions aside in groups rather than one at a time. That's 12 points in all, so I may have to prioritize later.

Now, for my Internal style I look for something that also goes well with strength and forthrightness. The best match is Iron Body Skill, which is all about toughening your body to hit harder and withstand more punishment. Iron Body is an elemental style of the metal type; cultivating it can earn me special elemental Chi that will more effectively power the techniques of this style. The entry-level technique is called Iron Power, and for the price of one Chi point I can use it to boost the damage of an attack. 

Further techniques will cost more Destiny. These are divided into Levels by cost, and I can only learn one technique of each Level (well, for now, anyway). I pencil in the Level 2 Grand Horse Tramples Rice (which has either a movement or a knockback bonus, depending on how I use it) and the Level 3 Swaying Branches Surround Willow (which enhances my ability to block attacks). So that's five more points of Destiny earmarked for later use, 17 altogether.

The next step involves settling some details that aren't covered under the above headings. I can start with a weapon that has one keyword-tag, and I can add a second for the price of 3 Destiny. Blossom Harvest style supports massive weapons (such as axes and hammers), staves, and unarmed combat. I would like a hammer with enough handle to use as a staff,** so that will cost another 3 Destiny and use up my pool of 20. Pencil it in; we'll balance it all later.

In addition to the weapon, my basic clothes count as light armor, which will help protect me against physical damage by boosting my Chi Threshold by 5. Chi Threshold is the amount of damage that marks the difference between a trivial wound and a minor one, or a minor and a major; its base number is my total number of Chi points of all types.

My Chi Pool starts at 10; however, my elemental Internal style provides another potential source of Chi, which can be used either to boost my general pool to 11 or to start an Elemental (metal) pool of 2. These are Cultivation Points, which are acquired (among other means) by learning new Kung Fu techniques. Acquiring an Internal Style earned Lu 10 Cultivation. The cost of raising your general Chi pool is the size of your current Chi pool, so going from 10 to 11 costs 10 Cultivation. Starting an Elemental pool costs 5 Cultivation points of the appropriate type, and raising it costs five times your current pool in that type, so 10 Metal Cultivation will buy an initial point of Metal Chi for 5 and a second one for 5 more. I opt for the Metal Chi, so now I have 10 General Chi and 2 Metal Chi. My threshold is the sum of all my Chi, which is 12, raised by my armor to 17 for the purposes of resisting physical attacks.

Two other Chi concepts worth mentioning here are Replenishment, which is the amount of Chi you regain when you use your Focus Breathing skill; and Chi Aura, which represents the use of Chi to defend against attacks. For a beginning character both values are 2.

Now, I've already pencilled in 20 Destiny Points worth of improvements, so I could conceivably stop here. But there are two other categories of improvements I haven't addressed yet: Lore and Secret Arts.

Lore is a big deal in this game and one of its harder concepts to grok. Investing Destiny points in Lore ties you into the setting by building connections with regions, organizations, and even individuals who will play major roles in the game. These connections can also give the character special access to information, skills, and kung fu techniques. At the entry level, however, you just know about the subject of the lore sheet either by reputation or by some direct interaction short of membership.

 

Some lore sheets have a free entry cost, and we’ll start by hooking Lu up with all the ones that make sense for him: Jiang Hu, the demimonde in which the Wulin travel; the society of the Wulin itself; familiarity with the various factions of the Wulin; a basic knowledge of the Power Relationships of Shen Zhou; and enough about Corrupt Chi to know he wants nothing to do with it. I could definitely see him having significant ties to normie society, so Forests & Mountains goes on the list too.

 

The two factions that makes any sense for a guy as basic as Big Lu would be the Buddhist Little Forest Sect and the Beggar Fraternity, who are both like Lu heavily invested in Benevolence. I'm not sure I want to make him a monk, but the Little Forest is into Iron Body and he’d be able to learn all the techniques by joining. Also, there's a Disadvantage called Buddhist Heretic that lets you be a bad monk while still being a good guy. That Loresheet would cost 3 Destiny, though, so we'll need to go back and look at our Destiny budget.

And that's before we look at the Secret Arts of the Warrior. Some of this material comes without a Destiny cost (something called The Secret Art of Battle), and some of it would be free if we had a +5 in Tactics (Combat Conditions and Extraordinary Warrior Techniques). Individual Techniques cost further Destiny, but it might be nice to have the door open now before Lu starts play.

So let's go back and look at our Destiny budget:

External Kung Fu Techniques: Nine Mountain (5), Iron Skin (5), No Vermin (2) = 12

Internal Kung Fu Techniques: Grand Horse (2), Swaying Branches (3) = 5

Weapon Improvement: 3

If I forego one of the 5-point Blossom Harvest techniques I can afford the 3-point Little Forest loresheet and buy a +5 in Tactics to get my foot in the door on Combat Conditions and Extraordinary Warrior Techniques. So let's leave Iron Skin for a later day. 

Note that the 7 points of Blossom Harvest techniques and the 5 points of Iron Body Skill techniques I've purchased also count as Cultivation toward future Chi increases.

Now, before I proceed to the statblock there are a couple of other concepts I should get down. The Lake is my base die pool for doing things; the River is a reserve I can divert rolls to for future use. Rank is the strength of the character's reputation among the Wulin; there are five ranks, but player characters by default begin at rank 4, one up from the bottom. Destiny and Entanglement are usually developed in the course of play and represent your involvement in various stories, organizations, or other relationships. Joss are luck points that can be used to boost yourself (Chivalrous) or hinder others (Malicious); you get 3 point to start a game session and divide them between the two.

OK, now I'm ready to show you the statblock.

Big Lu, Amiable Lunkhead with a Big Heart

Archetype: Warrior

Rank 4

Lake: 7

River: 2

Destiny 0/0

Entanglement 0

 

General Chi Points: 10 (7 cultivation)

Metal Chi Points: 2 (5 cultivation)

Chi Threshold: 12, with armor 17 (trivial), 24/34 (minor), 36/51 (major)

Chi Replenishment: 2

Max Chi Aura: 2

 

Joss: 2 Chivalrous, 1 Malicious

 

Chivalrous Virtues: Benevolence 5, Righteousness 5, Honor 4, Force 2, Loyalty 2

Selfish Virtues: Individualism 3

 

Skills: 

Awareness +5, Crafting +5 (carpentry), Hardiness +10 (recovery from wounds, focus breathing), Might +10 (breaking, lifting, throwing), Survival +5, Tactics +5

 

External Kung Fu: Blossom Harvest

Weapon of Choice: Maul (Massive, Staff)

Techniques: Nine Mountains Great Strengths, No Vermin in the World

Combat Stats:

Speed +5, Footwork +0, Strike +10, Block +5, Damage +10, Toughness +10

 

Internal Kung Fu: Iron Body Skill

Techniques: Iron Power (1), Grand Horse Tramples Rice (2), Swaying Branches Surround Willow (3)

 

Loresheets: 

Jiang Hu (0), Wulin (0), factions of tbe Wulin (0), Power Relationships of Shen Zhou (0), Forests & Mountains (0), Corrupt Chi (0), Little Forest Sect (3)

 

Secrets & Techniques (Warrior): Combat Conditions, Secret Art of Battle, Extraordinary Warrior Techniques (but no individual Techniques yet)

*OK, his other muscles. 

**I know, weight distribution would ordinarily make the two incompatible, but kung fu bridges impossible gaps.