Character generation

[Marras]

While browsing the Riddle of Steel I noticed that it used a similar priority system for character generation as Shadowrun. So, I would like to know if you have decided if character generation in 'Bastards uses something similar, too or some sort of point buy system similar to GURPS or even somthing totally different?

[higgins]

The answer to this is two-fold:

a) we indeed have a Shadowrun-esque priority table
b) the character generation system works via point buy

The more points you spend on a column, the higher row you get access to. However, if you choose to pick one row of each column, much like in the systems you mentioned, doing so spends all your default character creation points.

So, in essence, you get the best of both worlds. Plus the point buy element means that system is easier to mod -- adding a new column no longer means that you have to recalculate all the row values as well, as you can simply add a new column and keep the number of rows/tiers the same.

True, diverging from the default table means that the "pick one of each" system no longer works, but going though the point buy is a LOT easier than recalculating the attributes, skills, etc to make sense with six rows instead of five. Trust us. We know.

[hector]

That's pretty cool. Besides, if you need to add a further column, you can also add additional points to start with (perhaps equal to the value of a D, to use the Riddle of Steel proficiencies). Then, the equivalent of ABCDDEF could still work.

[Agamemnon]

That's pretty much the idea. With TROS, the trouble was that if we added another column, we also needed to add additional rows to every column, and change the way things were distributed between them. This was a huge pain in the butt.

With the point buy system, it's built specifically so that you can just add a column, and then increase the amount of points to spend to maintain the average.

It also has a benefit wherein someone could, if they had a mind to, give players more points to spend at creation to make more advanced characters. We've been talking about the idea of keeping Karma from the previous character when creating a new one. If we wind up keeping it, then this system will make those characters much easier to generate. X points of Karma might simply be +2 character creation points, or some such.

Or, if we run a game in which all of the players are noble because of the premise, I could simply scratch that column off of the list and adjust the points everyone gets accordingly (rather than force everyone to buy the column at B or something).

It's an extremely flexible compromise.

[Daeruin]

I like it!

[Marras]

So, if you have rows A, B, C, D, E and F (for example) and each row has a certain character creation point cost. For the sake of example these could be 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively and I have 21 points to spend between them. So I can have one of each rows or I can get A, A, B, E, F and F?

Did I get it right? If so, I agree that this is far better than how Shadowrun handles it. In the only SR game I ever played we used a similar houserule (I think) and it really gave a lot more flexibility.

[higgins]

Yes, except we have five tiers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and each of them costs the number of points equal to their tier.

[Marras]

Even better