*Lunar: A Story Forgotten* Character Generation Rules Based on a system by Timothy J. Lanza (timothy@lanza.tiac.net) Original Game & Draft by Brian Peterson, aka Hahn Modified by "Dragonmaster" Lou Arruda (Dragonmaster@Brown.edu) Section 1: The All-Important Concept The first step in creating a character is to develop a strong, original concept. Are you going to play a noble, just warrior, a crafty treasure hunter, or an intelligent, studious wizard? You need to think about this for a while if you want a good playing experience later. Try to come up with something interesting, unique, and non-stereotypical. Respond with a complete description to these five aspects of your character. Think about these well, don't just search for a quick answer. The more this character reflects your personal thought, the more fun you will have when playing. 1 Occupation/Profession 2 Appearance/Mannerisms 3 Personality/Demeanor 4 Motivations/Goals 5 Background/Hometown Once you have that written down in words, think it over, and think you could confidently play this person and *enjoy* it, you can move down to the second section. Notes: In choosing your occupation, remember this is in a world with both high-technology and magic to choose from. In other words, a mechanic or gunslinger would fit in just as well as a wizard or swordsman. However, some things, such as archers, don't fit in (as in my rpg bows have been replaced with guns). Some suggestions are swordsman, adventurer, ninja, samurai, gunslinger, mercenary, wizard, etc... Basically, if you have an idea for a character, no matter how off the wall, I'll see what I can do. Section 2: Stats, Skills, 'n Stuff Flame me if you will, but I'm gonna stress this again: Don't do this part until you've done Section 1 completely and thoroughly. Doing Section 2 will be a lot easier and more enjoyable if you have a strong concept for these stats to reflect. First, allocate your six attributes. This is very important, as it will decide your starting statistics, and how quickly your statistics increase as your character achieves experience levels. There are six attributes to think about: Muscle - Your character's physical strength and muscle mass. A character with Muscle 1 has trouble walking when there's a light breeze and a character with Muscle 30 bench presses cattle and eats gravel for breakfast. It affects the statistics Attack Power and HP. Basically, your ability to hurt people and break things. Stamina - Your character's health, fortitude, endurance, and vigor. Characters with Stamina 1 faint at the mention of discomfort and someone who has Stamina 30's response to having a beluga whale dropped on him is to get up, dust himself off, and try not to be late to wherever he was going. Basically, one's ability to take a licking and keep on ticking. Affects Defense Power and HP. Intelligence - Your character's intellect, perceptiveness, and capacity to learn new things. Someone with Intelligence 1 never got the hang of the whole 'ability to suckle' thing and someone with Intelligence 30 tries to master at least 2 new foreign languages on his lunch hour. Intelligence affects how fast your character achieves experience and skill levels. Talent - A character's affinity for special skills and abilities. Someone with Talent 1 is capable of walking forward, stopping, and breathing. A character with Talent 30 can juggle flaming pumas while clog dancing and reciting all the episode titles from Star Trek (in chronological order, of course). It affects MP, Wisdom, and Magic Endurance. Higher Talent basically makes your special skills and magic more effective. Dexterity - Your character's hand-eye coordination, and ability to do crafty, applied tasks with his hands. Someone with Dexterity 1 should not operate chain-saws and may have trouble patting his head and rubbing his belly in the same day. A person with Dexterity 30 can repair a watch with his right hand while writing in Greek with his left hand, blindfolded. It affects your Hit Rate, making your attacks hit more often and increasing the chance of the treasured Critical Hit. Agility - Your character's wits, reactions, and reflexes. Someone with Agility 1 will hide under a table 3 hours after someone yells 'Duck!' while someone with Agility 30 sidesteps attacks before the assailant even knew he wanted to make them. It affects your Dodge Rate and Reaction, making your battle actions quicker and enemy attacks less accurate. You have 90 points to distribute between these six attributes. You must spend at least 1 point on each attribute, and cannot have an attribute over 30. So, if you wanted all attributes to be equal, they would each be 15. Try it if you want. It worked for me well enough in Middleground. :) After deciding your attributes' values, you must decide the orientation of your character between combat, skilled, and rounded. Choose one from the table below: Combat Oriented Character (ie Hiro) Base # of attacks: 2 Weapons/Armor: Best (based on your concept) No. of Skill Groups: 2 Rounded Character (ie Ronfar) Base # of attacks: 1 Weapons/Armor: Good (again, depends on your concept) No. of Skill Groups: 3 Skill Oriented Character (ie Lemina) Base # of attacks: 1 Weapons/Armor: Poor (wands, butter knives, bathrobes, etc.) No. of Skill Groups: 4 Please Note: I'll need at least 1 or 2 (depending on total number of players I get for this thing) Combat Oriented Characters that will use swords of some sort (katanas are OK if you want to do the Samurai or Ninja thing) that also have a decent amount of MP for the plot of this game. If you're willing to play that role even if it's not your first choice, let me know. If it is your first choice, so much the better... Section 3: Magic and Mayhem Once you have attributes AND your character orientation, you must choose some skill groups that reflect your character's special abilities, talents, or training. You may choose as many as your character orientation allows. Below is a list of skill groups that are most common in my version of Lunar and that I have devised a system for. If you have an idea for a skill group that you want your character to have, by all means, submit it with your character and I'll do my best to use it. Elemental Magics These are you general face-stomping combat spells, like Lemina's Ice and Fire. Gravity Magic is unique in that it is a "neutral" elemental as none of the other elementals have either critcal strength or weakness to gravity. However, certain enemies in the game will have critcal weakness to gravity, for reasons that I will not reveal here... Thunder Magic Water Magic Fire Magic Air Magic Earth Magic Light Magic Darkness Magic Plant Magic Ice Magic Gravity Magic Litanies: These magics affect the characteristics, status, and hit points of characters. Health Litanies Assist Litanies (Helps characters in combat) Blight Litanies (Makes status attacks, like Mute, Blind, Stone, etc.) Soul Litanies (Cures status attacks, like Mute, Blind, Stone, etc.) Weapon Magics: Spells associated with a certain weapon or group of weapons, like Hiro's Blade magic. Like the other characters, you do NOT need to have a Weapon Magic to use a weapon. These are just magics centered around a weapon. If you have another idea, tell me and I will see what I can do. Marksmanship (Cool stuff you can do with guns.) Blade (Swords only, and sorry, no Poe Sword (I couldn't get it, why should you? :) ). Claw (Deals with melee weapons that are strapped to the arms like claws and such.) Karate (Unarmed combat maneuvers, like Jean, but different) Mace (Big, heavy, sharp crushing weapons) Throwing Weapons (Deals with ranged weapons that are powered by the user like boomerangs) Whip (Deals with whips and other entangling weapons.) Mallet (Blunt smashing weapons. A personal favorite. Great for bashing people!) Uncommon Magics: These spells are ones that are not very common. They can be taken freely, and have no special requirements. Song (Combat magic based on sound.) Spellcraft (Spells that enhance other magics.) Trickery (Tricky, dextrous battle manuvers.) Chaos (Unpredictable forces, kinda like Ronfar's chance.) Rare and "Exotic" Magics: These types of spells are only found in the hands of great wizards and generals. They may only be taken with a good background reason as to why. Chronology (Manipulates the flow of time in combat.) Mind (Centers on controlling and manipulating the enemies.) Leadership (Inspiring and bolstering comrades combat abilities.) Tactic (Battle strategy and combat placement.) This list is short and by no means should be a restriction. You may browse it over when deciding your character's skills, but don't hesitate to send me ideas for new skills that would work better with your character than these. Once you've decided skills, you should be done! Email me a neat, tidy reply and I'll get back to you with a final draft character info sheet and instructions on when we'll play, etc. Dragonmaster Lou