[Taking Up the Fight] Creating a Hero

[Marcus Bone]

The following details the process of creating a Hero in Future Dawns. Although not system specific information is include, this process quickly details the steps that a player will undertake to create a detailed and interesting character, ready to met the threats facing humanity.

CREATING YOUR HERO
Characters in Future Dawns are created by completing the following steps. As noted earlier, the characters are the Heroes of the story and as such are highly competent individuals. This means that they, in most cases are more skilled and able than NPC.

STEP ONE – ASSIGN ATTRIBUTE POINTS
Attributes are used to define a character’s physical and mental strengths and weaknesses. It represents both their natural abilities as well as the improvements they have gone through as they have matured.

You should consider what sort of character you will be playing and reflect this in their attributes. For example a soldier is likely to be stronger and faster than someone who has spent their lives as a scholar, while a Drifter might be tougher and more observant than someone working as a government bureaucrat.

- Fortitude represents the toughness and constitution of the character. It is used when undertaking long and laborious tasks, resisting poison or disease, and to calculate a character’s Health statistic.

- Resolve represents the willpower and mental fortitude of the character. It is used when resisting the influences of the supernatural and also helps with determining the character’s Health statistic.

- Education represents the intelligence and learning of the character. It is used when determining what knowledge the character has, and general IQ.

- Empathy represents the charisma and compassion of the character. It is used when relating to others, showing leadership qualities and reflects in one’s body language and use of speech.

- Dexterity represents the agility and manual deftness of the character. It is used when attempting and reacting to physical actions.

- Observation represents the awareness and senses of the character. It is used when attempting to sounds, taste or touch to detect something, and when scrutinizing a scene for further information.

- Might represents the strength and power of a character. It is used when determining how much they can carry, increase damage of melee attacks and also helps with determining the character’s Health statistic.

STEP TWO – DERIVE STATISTICS
Characters have four statistics derived from their Attributes. These statistics control various aspects of a character and are used to represent mental and physical wounds, determination and the ongoing effects of the supernatural upon them.

- Health represents how much physical damage they can take before being seriously wounded

- Will represents how much mental stress they can take before submitting to madness

- Focus represents luck, skill and general determination that a character can use to get themselves out of a scrap

- Corruption represents how much contact the character has had with weird and otherworldly before succumbing to its influence.

STEP THREE – SELECT & NOTE UPBRINGING
All characters have an Upbringing, a childhood that guided their natural talents and learning. The opportunities open to most characters during this step are based on the social and economic background they had.
For example, characters from upper class families have better opportunities acquire educational skills, while those growing up in a rural setting learn more about nature and the environment.

STEP FOUR - SELECT & NOTE OCCUPATION
All characters have an Occupation; a career or vocation that has taught them a range of useful skills. In addition to skills, occupations also provide income and specific trappings that are related to that profession.

STEP FIVE – SELECT & NOTE FREE SKILLS
While most of a character’s skill comes from their Upbringing and Occupation, they also receive a number of default skills. These represent both skills that everyone has at least some rudimentary proficiency in, and abilities they have pick up via personal interests and hobbies.

[tadkelson]

I like what I am reading so far

I would love more concrete details on system items, etc....Get a feel for it this might work wonders for me and what I am searching for for a go to system for all sorts of oddities

[Marcus Bone]

I like what I am reading so far

I would love more concrete details on system items, etc....Get a feel for it this might work wonders for me and what I am searching for for a go to system for all sorts of oddities

Hey Tad,

I'm currently taking to an existing publisher about using their system. Once I've go the go ahead, I'll post more details!

Marcus