Character Creation and House Rules.

This thread is used for character creation, attributes generation, to do level ups and take care of purchase rolls (PRs), and to list the house rules I'll be using for my campaign.

House Rules
I'm not a super huge fan of the "you go, I go" system for initiative, so instead of using that, we'll be using the Awareness score to determine initiative order (from highest to lowest). Ties will be broken with a simple Opposed Awareness Check. Seeing how opponents are built, this change should still advantage player characters...

For those wishing to make their own character sheets (I'll make one myself, but I can't make heads or tails of this new programming mumbo jumbo so you'll probably make a better one...), I've found a few Aliens & Asteroids logos online.

New Character Options
Several new character options have been made available in other supplements. I'll list them here so they'll be easily available to you (the humans ones at least, I don't want to make a non-human party in that first campaign). If you have any question about them, do not hesitate to contact me so I can give you more information.

New Backgrounds


Dominion Defense Service (DDS) Professions (put there for the purpose of using along the Former DDS Position background, players will not make DDS characters)


New Traits


Psionic Abilities

Let's start with some simple rolls.

Point of Origins:
1: Earth
2: Luna
3: Mars
4: Asteroid Fields
5: The Colonies
6: The Space Between

Stats:

Accuracy - 12
Athletics - 10
Awareness - 12 13
Education - 12
Morale - 10
Presence - 13
Toughness - 10

Origin: The Space Between (+1 to Awareness)

Background: Psychically gifted
---Trait: Psionics (Presence)
-----Abilities: Pyrokinesis, Mind Shield

Profession: Medical
---Trait: Psychology

Going to try some rolls here...

I bought the book, so I'm going to use the backgrounds there for my PC. Still rolling it randomly instead of choosing.

Result: 12.

Biohacker. You served jail time for illegal genetic modifications made without a license. Biology, Chemistry, Medicine.

Medicine: Specialized knowledge and skills in the field of medicine. Must specialize in terrestrial (Biology) or extra-terrestrial (Xenobiology) and can take multiple times, once per alien species

Career Path: Scientist. (From previous post)

Scientists in the Dominion have their rubber-gloved mitts into everything from biology and chemistry to geology, physics, and theories of space/ time that may make your head explode. You want these eggheads in your corner when the aliens come knocking.

Though some of them may not be great in a fight, scientists can be extremely useful in the field for collecting and evaluating evidence, concocting wild ideas, and helping a team think their way out of a problem rather than shoot their way out.

Trait options: Behavior Prediction, Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Necropsy, Observant Xenobiology. Slight edit: Medicine trait requires biology as a prerequisite, so I'm forced to take it here.

Athena Jackson "AJ"

Accuracy: 12
Athletics: 12

Awareness: 11
Education: 11
Morale: 11+1
Presence: 14
Toughness: 11

Point of Origin - Earth (+1 Morale)

Career Path - Commander
Trait: Leadership - Presence - Inspiring team members to greatness, granting them Advantage on their next round

Background - Former DDS Position (Tactical)
Trait: Observant Guns

Richter aka Paladin

The Space Between

Not Entirely Human

Tactical Education Administration, Armor, Climbing, Guns, Hand-to-Hand, Law, Melee, Observant, Psychology, Sleuth, Stealth, Surveillance

Trait
Genetic Enhancement
Psionic Ray

Genetic Enhancement 2
Tough Bastard Double Base HP

It'll be more like private Richter.

@kalajel,

When you take the Psionics trait, how many Psionic Abilities do you choose?

Oh he will actually know his ass from a hole in the ground!

It's a promotion!

Anyone know what "The Space Between" is? In regards to Point of Origin.

The book doesn't actually talk about it at all, as far as a keyword search goes.

I'm going through this, and it looks like we forgot to put in a place for Background.

Attributes (rolled):

Accuracy: 12+1
Athletics: 12

Awareness: 13
Education: 13
Morale: 11
Presence: 12
Toughness: 14

Point of Origin: Luna (+1 Accuracy)

Background: Dominion Citizen
Trait: Guns

Career Path: Space Marine
Trait: Explosives OR Guns specialisation OR Piloting

Rolling for attributes

Accuracy: 10
Athletics: 14
Awareness: 12
Education: 13
Morale: 12
Presence: 10
Toughness: 14

There's a bit on the different origins in the Core book starting on page 11. I only know this by reading the preview pages on RPGNet.

Thanks! I bought the book, and that's the only one that doesn't have any additional information.

I ended up asking Gallant Knight Games about it, and they said it means you grew up on a spaceship flying between the other locations. :)

@ JamaisVu: Might as well post in the psionic rules form The Grey Men Alien Resource Guide...

Focusing The Mind
Psionic abilities rely on the power of will and an intense focus to manifest. [Greys] harness their own inner strength by spending points from their Presence attribute directly, or gather power through time spent on focused meditation. This gathers points of energy they can use for their different abilities.
- Outside of combat, they gather 1d6 points of energy for every 15 minutes of focused meditation.
- In combat, they can spend an action to gather 1 point or spend a full turn (two actions) to gain 2 points.
- In either case, they can attempt to "rush" the process with a Presence roll. If they succeed, they gather twice the rolled number. IF they fail, they lose a point of Presence.

Note: Any points of presence lost will affect any Presence-based rolls until healed. Healing during downtime heals 1d6 HP or 1d6 points of Presence after 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Psionic Abilities
A psionic practitioner has many different abilities they can learn to harness. They may be learnt through practice and the use of a Purchase Roll.
When using a Psionic ability, the player makes a Presence roll at No Advantage and declares how many points of energy they are using for the spell (ability perhaps? maybe a copy/paste type from Tattered Magicks?). For instance [a Grey Leader] might declare they are using Mind Pierce on an enemy [space marine] with 2 points. It works like this:
- With a critical success, the ability occurs as described and any effects or damage are doubled.
- With a normal success, the ability occurs as described.
- With a normal failure, they lose 1 point of those declared for the action and the rest go back to the pool.
- With a critical failure, all declared points are lost and the character loses 1 point of Presence (which is why I guess the Grey Mind background allows for the debilitating headache instead, because otherwise it would be 2 bad results simutaneously...).

A few things to note:
- A character can only spend 1 point of energy per action and you can only use a psionic ability once per turn. That equates to 2 points of energy for a single ability for a single ability in a single turn or one action on a 1 point ability and one action doing something else like moving.
- If the character wants to push their ability, they can "rush" using a particular ability and double the number of points used to 2 per action or 4 per turn. This means the Presence roll is at a Disadvantage.
- If the character wants to use more than one turn to "charge" an ability with more points, they can do so over connected turns. For instance, putting 4 points into an ability over two turns, or rushing an 8 point ability over two turns. If they do this and get attacked, they must roll Save vs. Presence to not lose focus.

Losing Focus
If interrupted while charging an ability, they must roll Save vs. Presence to not lose focus:
- If they succeed, they can continue to charge their ability.
- If they fail, they lose 1 point and whatever points they have charged so far will roll back into their pool.
- If they critically fail, they lose all points charged up to that point along with 1 point of Presence (again, my interpretation of the Grey Mind background is an alternative to that result...).@ Bookrat: Good catch. I based my sheet off the official sheet in the rulebook and they don't even have a space for Backgrounds on their own official sheets! Preposterous! I'll fix this post-haste! Heck, there isn't even a space for Energy and Psychic abilities...
As for the "space between", as far as I can tell, those would be the various mining operations, minor colonies, and scientific outposts in other areas of the solar system which are not Earth, Luna, Mars, and The Field. Heck, I guess even the station DV-3a orbiting Venus to keep an eye out on the Skaali would count...

In the full Core book, does any of the Professions have meditation as a profession trait?

I am envisioning my character as a sort of PsiCorp Op. If meditation isn't available to start as a Profession trait, I guess I will go MedCorp and take Psychology.

Hmm, sadly no. You might have to wait until level 2 to get Meditation. Which, luckily for you, will be right after that first adventure.

I've submitted a character. Still need to do some work on the background but stats, traits and items should be there.

Technician Archer Veillon from the Scientific Colonies beyond the Asteroid Field. Growing up in the very unusual environment of scientist and technician working under extreme conditions have made him quite the problem solver, discovering things that could go wrong before they do.
Traits: Diagnostics and Sleuth

I found it a bit odd that you picked up two traits before choosing a background, but there are plenty of backgrounds that do grant access to Sleuth, so it shouldn't be much of a problem...

I'm using the Quick Start Rules. It just says to pick a starting trait from among the listed.
There are no backgrounds listed but I had a feeling something was missing.

Edit:
I checked it again. It is just the basic background of a Dominion Citizen.

Yeah. This was discussed in the Discord. I put up a list of actual backgrounds from the rulebook (the new ones are i this thread) up on the Discord, you can look them up there. If you have any questions about any of the basic backgrounds, do not hesitate to ask.

My character sheet is complete I believe. Hopefully I haven’t missed anything.

Looks very good.

How's everyone's character coming along?

Mine is done (I think)

Looks good. Maybe only note that your pistol's effective range is 1-10m.

Oooo.. what kind of alien traits are available?

I went with tough bastard, which doubles base HP.

I figure rule of unintended consequences, for some reason Grey Man DNA in a human when accepted makes the host lifeform tougher, contrary to expectations

How many traits does the Grey Mind background give a 1st level character?

Psionics (and Genetic Enhancement)?

And @kalajel said only one psionics ability is granted with the starting psionics trait.

Nice! Going with the Haunted by Change background? I'm super curious how that one adds to the RP!

Might just pick up that book just so I can read more.

Genetic Enhancement II is not part of the Grey Mind background. And it's not part of any Career Paths.

It does come with Not Entirely Human and Haunted by Change backgrounds however.

Not Entirely Human
You spent some time as a patient of "Dr. Parasol" and now you have some alien DNA mixed in with your own. Negotiate with your referee as to how this DNA appears in your mental or physical make-up.

Haunted by Change
You visited the Roaming Moon long ago, on one of your wanders you'd just as soon forget. But Moreau has a way of reminding you of the horrors you encountered there. And there's even a chance you became one.

Ooh instructions unclear. I just chose a trait because it told me to.

Looks like Not-Entirely Human can give psychic powers Via the Psionic Species abilities I'll go with that.

Hmm, well yes, technically Psionics is a Grey Men Trait so that would be a round about way of becoming a psychic... No wonder Dr. Parasol got busted by the DDS! She could've managed to have outdone Divison 7! Well marine, better make damn sure to keep those psychic powers hidden, lest the Dominion decide to vivisect you to figure out how Dr. Parasol did it...

What psychic powers? It's my naturally intimidating prowess.

[table=center zebra grid][b]Character Name[/b] | [b]Player Name[/b] | [b]Background[/b]
 | | 
[b]Career Path[/b] | [b]Origin[/b] | [b]Level[/b]
 | | [/table]

[linebreak]

[b]Attributes[/b] (8+2d3)
[table=hl grid compact]Accuracy | 10
Athletics | 10
Awareness | 10
Education | 10
Morale | 10
Presence | 10
Toughness | 10[/table]

[linebreak]

[table=center grid ht][b]Speed[/b] | [b]HP[/b] (=Toughness) | [b]Morale[/b] (=Morale) | [b]Initiative[/b] (=Awareness) | [url=https://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/28287/?p=1348117#p1348117][b]Energy[/b][/url] | [b]Armor Worn[/b] | [b]AP[/b] | [b]AR[/b] | [b]RR[/b]
10m | 10/10 | 10/10 | 10 | 00 | | 00 | 00 | 00[/table]
[table=center grid ht][b]Trait[/b] | [b]Items[/b]
 | [/table]

[linebreak]

[b]Purchase Rolls[/b] (roll Presence)[b]:[/b] [u]0[/u]

[linebreak]

[table=center grid ht][b]Melee Weapons[/b] | [b]Ranged Weapons[/b] | [b]Effective Range[/b] | [b]Clips[/b] | [b]Clip Size[/b] | [b]RS[/b]
 | | 0000m | 0 | 000/000 | 0
 | | 0000m | 0 | 000/000 | 0[/table]

[linebreak]

[b]Personal History:[/b] [u]Placeholder[/u]
[b]Team Notes:[/b] [u]Placeholder[/u]

@Jomsviking: Tactical is not a DSF career path. You must choose between Commander, Medic, Scientist, Space Marine, or Technician.

Also, you have taken two Genetic Enhancement (and not Genetic Enhancement II). You get 1 Trait from your career path and 1 from your background, so you cannot take Genetic Enhancement twice.

I've re-updated my character sheet as it seems there were some confusion as to where to enter information in the first section. Hopes this clears things up.

Okay, I've got Hell Night a few days ago, and being done reading it, it gave me an idea on how to handle initiative for future combats (we'll finish this one how we started it). So instead of using the combatant's straight Awareness attribute like I've done, the opponents are always considered to act first, however each rounds the players will make an Awareness check to see if they get to act before the monsters. I'm thinking this might produce rounds where the players are either really lucky or unlucky on this check and would justify the whole "hop initiative" option of Glory/Dread Points.