Clockwork & Chivalry takes place in a fantasy English Civil War with not only magic but also advanced clockwork technology. It runs on Renaissance, an open-source version of Chaosium’s Basic Role Playing (BRP) engine, which underlies their classic games Runequest and Call of Cthulhu. Having played a ton of the latter over the years, I’ve got a lot of experience with the system and will be interested to find out what the designers changed to adapt it to their 17th-century setting.
We begin by generating Characteristics via die roll. There are seven of these: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Size, Intelligence, Power, and Charisma. Intelligence and Size are rolled with 2d6+6; the others are all generated on 3d6. You can assign a die roll to any characteristic that is generated on the same formula.
So already I have to ask myself what kind of character I want to make. Should I prioritize physical abilities, or mental ones? Power is usually the key stat for working magic; will I want to play a witch or warlock? I’m leaning toward the physical type—a soldier or a woodsman or something along those lines.
My 3d6 die rolls come out thus: 3d6: 12, 12, 8, 8, 16. Interesting spread, that.
Now for the 2d6+6: 12, 14. Let’s assign them.
I’ll get the easy ones out of the way first, putting the 14 in Size and the 12 in Intelligence to start. Now, where to put those eights? Power and Charisma are for leaders and magickers, not simple old me. Do I want to be stronger, hardier, or quicker? Let’s take strength for that 16. That gives me the following stat line:
STR: 16 CON: 12 DEX: 12 SIZ: 14 INT: 12 POW: 8 CHA: 8
Next we determine Attributes, statistics some of which are derived from Characteristics and others of which are, well, not. Damage Modifier depends on Strength and Size, and my total of 30 gives me a damage bonus of 1d4 with hand weapons. Hit Points is the average of Size and Constitution, so I’m well set up there with 13. My Major Wound Level, the amount of punishment in one blow that will seriously harm me, is half of that rounded up, or 7. My Movement Rate is 15 meters per five-second combat round, the same as other human beings. My Magic rating is probably irrelevant, but it’s calculated as INT + POW, which is 20 if I ever need it.
Now comes our first exposure to Skills. Skills work on a percentage basis in BRP games, so if your rating is 50% you will succeed at a task if you roll between 01 and 50 on a set of percentile dice. All characters have nonzero starting values in a set of common skills based on various Characteristics or Attributes. These are mine:
Athletics: DEX + STR = 28
Close Combat: INT + STR = 28
Culture (own): INT x 2 = 24
Dance: DEX + CHA = 20
Dodge: DEX x 2 = 24
Drive: DEX + INT = 24
Evaluate: INT + CHA = 20
First Aid: DEX + INT = 24
Gun Combat: INT + DEX = 24
Influence: CHA x 2 = 16
Insight: INT + POW = 20
Lore (regional): INT x 2 = 24
Perception: INT + POW = 20
Persistence: POW x 2 = 16
Ranged Combat: INT + DEX = 24
Resilience: CON x 2 = 24
Ride: DEX + POW = 20
Sing: POW + CHA = 16
Sleight: DEX + CHA = 20
Stealth: DEX + INT = 24
Unarmed Combat: STR + DEX = 28
That's a lot of skills, and we haven't even got to the ones that require training yet.
Next we tackle Social Class. There are five (Peasant, Townsman, Middle Class, Gentry, Nobility) and each comes with its own set of skill bonuses, acceptable jobs, and other perquisites. The woodsman idea continues to appeal, and that seems to be only on the Peasant list, so I’ll choose Peasant.
My social class gives me a set of bonuses to various common skills, training in some advanced skills, and some starting money. The boosted common skills are Athletics, Culture (own), Drive, Evaluate, First Aid, Influence, Lore (regional), Perception, Ranged Combat, Resilience, Sing, and Unarmed Combat. (I'll save the numbers for the end and just give you the totals.) In addition, I get a base rating of 50 in my native language (it'll be English) as well as training in another type of Lore (I'll choose "animals") and Survival (POW + CON=20). On top of that, I get to choose three other advanced skills from a short list: I select Lore (plants), Ranged Combat (bows) (DEX + INT = 24), and Craft (Fletcher) (also DEX + INT, so 24). (Ordinary Ranged Combat covers thrown weapons and crossbows, but by the 17th century the long- and shortbow are uncommon skills, so they're separated out.)
As a peasant, I don't start with much money, just 1d6x10 shillings. I roll a 4, and my worldly wealth is forty shillings, out of which I'll probably have to buy some gear.
Next I choose a Profession. There’s a pretty wide variety available to peasants, but I’ve already got my heart set on Woodsman, so let’s find out what that gives us.
Mostly it gives us more skill bonuses. I'll get to improve the common skills Athletics, Close Combat, Lore (regional), Resiliance, and either Close or Ranged Combat. I'll double up on Close combat to put that size and strength to work. For advanced skills I automatically get Lore (forest), Ranged Combat (bows), and Survival. As a Peasant I've already been trained on the latter two, so I can just add +10 to each rating.
This character is taking shape as some sort of game warden or forester, minding the baron's woods to keep poachers away (or at least make them work for it).
Next I’m supposed to pick a Faction. This part of the rules is peculiar to Clockwork & Chivalry, so it's new to me. I am but a simple forester, what care I for Factions? Well, this is the English Civil War, buddy, and even sitting on the sidelines is taking a side. Fortunately, there are many, many more options than just the Cavaliers and the Roundheads. There are 24 different factions spread across five loose alliances: Parliament, Royalist, Neutral, Satanist, and Variable. Surely there’s something for a simple forester. And there is: Self-Interest (under Variable), sub-type Protection of Lands. My job is to protect this forest, and war or no war I'm gonna do just that.
My Faction loyalty is rated by something called Righteousness Points, calculated as the sum of POW, CHA, and a third, randomly generated factor called Zeal. Zeal is 15+4d6, and I roll pretty low to get a total of 26. Add 16 for the Characteristics, and that's 42 Righteouness Points. Over the course of the game events such as physical or philosophical confrontation can affect my Righteousness score, so that if I lose enough points I will be ripe for conversion to another Faction, and if my score gets too high (over 90) the character might become such an obnoxious jerk that I'll have to retire him from the game.
In addition, as a member of the Faction of Me, I get to add 15 to my Persistence rating and choose a second faction to which I give lip service, earning me a 10-point knowledge rating in their belief system. I choose the Clubmen, that loose alliance of people so fed up with the war that they’re willing to take up arms to end it.
OK, that was kind of weird. But now I get 250 more skill points to spend on almost anything I want to, with a few restrictions. First, I can't spend more than 30 points on any skill. Second, training a new Advanced skill costs 10 points, so you can't boost it by any more than 20 after that. I'm kind of surprised I don't have Track yet, so I'll buy that (INT + CON = 24) and boost it as far as I can. That leaves me 220 points to boost skills I already have. After all that spending and my class and profession bonuses, here's my final skill list:
Athletics: 48
Beliefs (Clubmen): 10
Close Combat: 68
Craft (fletcher): 24
Culture (Own): 54
Dance: 20
Dodge: 34
Drive: 34
Evaluate: 50
First Aid: 44
Gun Combat: 34
Influence: 46
Insight: 20
Language (English): 50
Lore (animals): 34
Lore (forest): 54
Lore (plants): 34
Lore (regional): 59
Perception: 30
Persistence: 31
Ranged Combat: 44
Ranged Combat (bows): 64
Resilience: 49
Ride: 20
Sing: 26
Sleight (of hand): 20
Stealth: 54
Survival: 50
Track: 44
Unarmed Combat: 48
Long skill lists are a BRP speciality.
The next step is to establish background connections with the other PCs. I shall posit three (unnamed and undescribed) and roll twice on the table to establish connections with two of them (as per the book’s recommendation).
01 – a secret benefactor has been aiding both of us, but neither of us knows who this patron is.
26 – I am in the employ of the other person. Perhaps its the lord of the manor? Or another person for whom I'm doing some sort of side gig?
That brings us to finishing touches. I need a name, and that name will be Tom. Tom Hayward. Tom, as we know, is a big fellow, kind of ugly and not well-spoken. I get a small bundle of gear: rugged clothes, a longbow, a quiver of arrows, the minimum tools of my trade (flint & steel, a hunting knife, a hatchet, probably some rope), and a few personal effects such as a pendant or a Bible. We'll give Tom a carving of a fox that he made out of a deer antler and a horn pendant carved by his father.
Also I get 2 Hero Points. Hero Points can be used to avoid death or serious wounds that the luck of the dice might wish upon you, or to take a mulligan on a particularly important die roll that you fail. The gamemaster can grant more Hero Points at the end of an adventure, but until and unless that happens two are all I've got, so I should use them sparingly.
All right, now all that remains is to sum it up in a stat block:
Tom Hayward, Woodsman
STR: 16 CON: 12 DEX: 12 SIZ: 14 INT: 12 POW: 8 CHA: 8
HP: 13 Major Wound: 7 Damage Bonus: +1d4 Magic: 20 Move: 15 meters Hero Points: 2
Possessions: rugged clothes, longbow, quiver of arrows, flint & steel, hunting knife, hatchet, 50' of rope, carving of a fox made from antler, pendant carved from horn and strung on a leather thong.
Skills: Athletics 48, Beliefs (Clubmen) 10, Close Combat 68, Craft (fletcher) 24, Culture (rural England) 54, Dance 20, Dodge 34, Drive 34, Evaluate 50, First Aid 44, Gun Combat 34, Influence 46, Insight 20, Language (English) 50, Lore (animals) 34, Lore (forest) 54, Lore (plants) 34, Lore (regional) 59, Perception 30, Persistence: 31, Ranged Combat 44, Ranged Combat (bows) 64, Resilience 49, Ride 20, Sing 26, Sleight 20, Stealth 54, Survival 50, Track 44, Unarmed Combat 48
In retrospect, I might have done better to create a character that engaged either the magic rules or the clockwork rules. The pace of this project creates an incentive for simple character concepts, and I think I shouldn't have followed it this time. Oh, well, call it a learning experience.
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