Rule Suggestions: Character Creation

[vadersson]

Hey gang,

In an effort to start some discussions about the 3rd rules, I wanted to propose some things and get some feedback.

What do people thing of using a variable length for career terms during character creation? For example, most people that go to college take 4 years, but others take 5 (like me) or 3 (like some of my brainiac friends.) Yes, some other people take more, but we need to draw a line somewhere. I therefore suggest a variable length for terms. Each career term would have a length added to it as a feature (just like contacts or requirements.) So for Undergrad, the term length would be 3 to 5 with some dice rolls or maybe a test vs EDU to set the length. Similarily with other jobs. This would give more variety in character starting ages.

Anyhow, please let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Duncan

[Jeff]

I did something similar for a Traveller d20 game I ran a while back. A few things you'd have to consider-The military apparently has variable lentght terms now ( you can enlist for a two, three, or four year first hitch) or so I was told by an acquaintence. Also, the starting money generated would have to be adjusted for the actual length of the term. And some 'careers' (like Prisoner or Psychic Test Subject) could have terms of less than a year to decades in length.

[vadersson]

Jeff,

Good suggestions. I had not heard that the military was more flexible now. I always assumed the first enlistment was 4 years.

As for the money, that is really not quite what I was aiming for. The idea behind the variable lengths was mostly cosmetic. In my games I generally limit all the characters to the same number of terms (generally 4.) This prevents anyone from having a super character that dominates the party. The idea I was shooting for was to have a system that give a starting party more range of ages, rather than 33 for everyone. (Which ironically I am this year.) Therefore I did not intend to modify the money generated or the skills learned, which following the logic for prorating the money should also be prorated. Does that explain what I am thinking better?

I also suggest that most careers be reasonable in length. No 10 year or less than a year terms. In most cases I see the average career term still being around 4 years. I would shoot for a range of 2 to 6 years in most cases.

What do you think? Anyone else have comments?

Thanks,
Duncan

[Antenna]

I have done the following in regard of years in terms. If the charecter has done say like 4 terms, those 4 terms took at least 3 years to complete. In the pool of "extra years" that is rolled with 4d3's for 4 terms, you have the extra time you need to complete a term. that means that even if you say that you done a term 3 year flat you also have terms that you need more time to complete to get the char done right according to my version of variable terms.

Example: Jane Doe, 3 terms, tech school, nurse, trauma team, 3d3 = 4

Tech School : Medical as "major", done in 3 years (3+0)
Nurse : 6 years (3+3)
Trauma team : 4 years (3+1)

In the case of money the char don't earn more money due to lenght of a career, becouse the most people try to settle down after a while and buy stuff to their homes if they can afford it. So even if Jane Doe would have been doing time of terms like 3 + 7 + 3 years they would be counted as 3 normal terms in regard of money saved.

Antenna

[anthraxus]

I was thinking of implementing a single d4 roll for each term, with 1 and 2 adding 1 or 2 years to the length of the term, and 3 and 4 subtracting 1 or 2 years, respectively, from the length of the term. This adjustment only impacts final age, and can prevent the application of aging penalties during normal term progression.

Example: John Doe, 3 terms: Undergrad, Law School, Lawyer

First term is 4 +1 years, second term is 4-2 years, final term is 4+2 years. At the end of character generation John is 30, instead of 29. Not a significant difference I know, but it adds just enough variation to keep everyone from being the same age.

[Zvezda]

With a bit of research something like 'duration' can be added to each term. I think that would be cool so some terms could have a random length while others have a fixed one.
An other problem is that the whole system of terms only works in the US. In Israel for example one term of military service is compulsory (two years for women, three years for men) it is similar in Russia or elsewhere.
Maybe someone can work on a Eurosourcebook one day or the other. Anyways I totally love the character-generation and there are enough websites to enable you to design cool non-US citizens.

[anthraxus]

I just realized that the variation I mentioned above lacks the ability to have a standard term. So as an addendum: Each term one d4 roll would be made. 3,4 indicates a term variation. Then roll a d4 to determine the variation.

In the character generator I was working on at one point I introduced a duration field for every job. My plans were to make it so you could either specify a fixed number or a formula to randomly determine the duration.

[Zvezda]

Since we used to keep out characters rather long the GM decidet at will how long a specific term was. This does not work for a rule book however. Ohh some where in the web there was a page where you got rules for civilian promotion. I also incorporated these. I think if the new DC goes to the market, civilians also should be allowed to be promoted.

[Lusus Naturae]

I think having variable length careers would be a good idea. I was never that keen on the idea that everything you did was 4 years.

I would, however, like to see the player being able to choose the length they stay in any job. With different lengths of service in those positions attributing to an increase in skills as the years go up.

Then certain jobs could have a prerequisete (sp?) of service length as well, so if you need to have been enlisted man for 4 years before being an officer and only did 2 years you wouldn't be able to do that.

Hope that makes sense.

Neal.

[Zvezda]

To make DC even darker characters could be foreced into unempolyment or criminality by a random roll after each career. If the role is failed (or successful) the PC loses the job and has either to engage in criminal activity or become a prole or similar. This would take too much freedom from the PC generation for me but it would be interesting... I once had decided to allow semi-terms to the players. They could engage in a two year term and they got halve the developlent points.
This should also be taken into consideration. When terms are shorter players should not get the same amount of points as in a shoter term. I think there are a lot of arguments against this...anyways. For balance's sake. Ohh I loved the balance of the careers. Besides the military (we still use t2k) there was no job wich was too powerful. Well martial artist may be, still not even the power gamers took it too often. I would like to see some harsher prerequisites for some of the jobs. Like 'no prison record' for almost all jobs and things like that. A stronger focus on the social class. I liked the optional rule form...I think it was the PC booster kit. The one where you could hardly get any job after prison.

[Marcus Bone]

Hi All,


I've been testing the character creation rules in the past few days, and I can make the following statements on how the 3rd edition system will work.

• All career terms will be three years (rather than the existing 4). The only exception is the character's final term before 'mustering out' or 'Having the Veil Lifted', which will be randomly determined. This decision was made to ensure some simplicity in character generation; especially as a number of the changes we are looking at makes the process a like more complicated.
  
  As part of our rewritten background to the setting, there is now a real and logical reason for characters to have some military background and training with various weapons.
  
  Characters will, in general, receive more skill points for each career than the earlier editions (as the result of the new STEP system for task resolution) and, more importantly, will be granted additional points for each successive term one spends in the same career. This represents expertise in one or more specialised subjects and, I feel, better reflects the way in which careers in the real world really work.
  
  Certain careers will give player’s access to 'Abilities' which will enhance a character outside the normal skill system. You can think of these much in the same way as multiple terms in a military career currently grants a +1 Initiative. This will allow characters to display their knowledge or talents in a certain career in a much more universal manner.
  
  A number of 'special' careers will no longer be available to the players as 'free' choices. These include things like Cyborg Escapee and Renegade ET. Instead, these careers will appear in the Referee's Section of the game, and it now be up to the person running the game to allow the access to this type of character.

Well that pretty much covers the main conceptual changes to the Careers and Terms system as I see it.

Until next time,

Marcus

[Lusus Naturae]

I like the idea of shorting the terms to 3 years, not sure why I just do.

Glad that you'll be able to get extra skills by doing longer terms, sounds like a nice compromise, rather than being able to take a shorter term.

I'm so looking forward to this. I only played DC a few times, and this was about 13 years ago but they were some excellent sessions and it was a game that always intrigued me. Plus, my rulebook is all busted now, I think the spine broke the first time I read it.