Character Creation

You're a plumber, lawyer, barrista, dog walker. You thought it was odd to take the application from the ad online but you did. When you go back you can't seem to find out exactly where it is anymore. They sent you a dress shirt and suit with matching shades and shoes in your size. Every year like clockwork if it's in disrepair you get a new one, you've always wonder how they know, you don't get a new suit if you haven't pulled it out of the closet, you always frown when the new size is an exact tailored fight even when your weight goes up and down. You get a check in the mail for consulting monthly no return address. The only stipulations, you stay sharp, mentally, socially, physically, or a combination of, most important it seems you get a letter in a black envelope with an address inside you go there, you find out the problem and you solve it no questions asked by any means necessary.

I've got a couple of ideas but I'll hold fire to see if anyone else jumps aboard before I start working on a character

Yep no worries, hopefully you're not playing solo. Although it would let me test how this system does with one on one play.

Are we meant to be members of the G Foundation or the G-Men? Or are we investigating what that means?

Everyday men and women who are brought in to solve the problem, in this case it'll be find the kids. I guess if you make a male character it would be a G-Man and if you build a female character a G-Woman.

Every team needs a computer nerd, right? I can make one of those, if that sounds good.

Works for me.

What Knowledge skills do we have for this setting?

The system is pretty flexible. Much like if we were playing Dungeon World or Cypher System: "I don't know what knowledge skill or skills does your character have?"

I meant are you breaking Knowledge into multiple subskills like Knowledge (Education) and Knowledge (Local) or just one monolithic Knowledge skill. I will build my character assuming the latter.

Yeah via Realm of Terrinoth They're realizing more than one Knowledge skill makes sense. I'd keep it broad though for what you're going for probably. FYI if you have a skill I'll likely look to put it to use to push story.

Well I was thinking that I'd go with something like a private investigator, someone with a bit more emphasis on interpersonal investigative skills.

Yeah I think Knowledge is the way it is in the core book because the sub-skills within it are really only possible to define based on the setting you're running.

My computer geek is a girl who was catfished as a teen and kidnapped and now uses her computer powers to fuck up the lives of online creepers.

SpicerAck’s character is a biathlon competitor. Can you stat out a biathlon rifle (they are .22 caliber five-shot rifles with no scope, and they are manually cocked, though the hunting rifle in the book doesn’t add Prepare 1 for manual cocking)? I realize it’s going to be most of the currency allotment, but I’m hoping there’s a way to make this work.

I found us another player too. I’m helping him with character creation.

Well considering the starting cash is 500 even with a high roll for starting money the hunting range is out of their price range.

Biathlon Rifle
Damage 6
Critical 3
Range Long
Encumbrance 3
Clip Size: 5
Special: Prepare 1 must spend a maneuver to chamber next round in combat.

Lets say it's 175 since he's had it for a while.

So that means Limited Ammo 5, right? And the special line, Slow Firing weapons take time to "refresh" but don’t take any actions or maneuvers. Did you mean Prepare 1 (requires a Prepare maneuver to prepare the weapon to fire, i.e. the manual cocking)?

Limited Ammo 5 means you have fight rounds total the whole game, Clip size is the counter for when you need to reload or if the dice come up a certain way. Slow Firing now that I think about it would be every other round you fire, lets go with prepare so there's the chance to fire and if you've shot it'll take a maneuver to chamber and then shoot, reload would still be an action if you had a spare clip.

Ok cool.

Ok, I've submitted Jack Denton to the game. I've tried drawing him up as a PI type but I'm not sure how he's going to work exactly lol

I just need to sort his gear to finish him off

Is Jack a good "face" character? I am working with our other new player (and I’ll get him to officially apply) on concepts and I’m trying to sort out what types we have. Molly’s the nerd, Calvin’s muscle, is Jack the charming PI like Magnum, or the gruff and scary type?

Erm, more of a lying scumbag type lol I've shared the character so you can have a nosey here if you want

@ mcneils5 (looks mostly good so far, for career is he a scoundrel? Coercion would cost 10 if so plus don't forget to add coordination as a class skill, just need the gear and money spendature plus your DFSF.)

@ Tophu looks good, just need to pick your knowledge area.

@ SpicerAck looks good need to spend your money for equipment (I'm assuming you're getting a heavy jacket since your soak is higher and the custom weapon Tophu was asking about).

What do you mean?

Err pick...

Lets say 30 for a lock pick set in the roll up case. How nice a camera? Like $400 DSLR?

Two things:

One, I still don’t know what you mean by pick my Knowledge area. Are you having knowledge subskills after all? I asked earlier and you’d said we were keeping with a single Knowledge skill.

Two, our fourth player is still nailing down his character choices, but we pulled him in right as he was heading off to Origins, so it may be after the weekend when it’s sorted.

Did you mean this post?
I meant to pick something but don't go to specific (Kansas or Kansas City would be too specific but Geography would be broader), otherwise Knowledge without a broad subject seems a bit broken if you think about it, you'd know academy award winning death scenes in movies just as well as famous underwater basket weavers of the 1950s

I'm not in a rush to get start since I'm flipping a few games I'm running and/or starting at the same time.
If it's for fluff I'd say go with one being 1/2 priced, if it's for a kind of bonus mechanically of some sort let me know and we can check out the item creation rules. Or you can go the cell phone route and mount a lens on the camera. XD

Okay, so you want the setting to have multiple Knowledge skills, but you have not identified what they are?

So you want me to take a stab at it?

Knowledge (Law)
Knowledge (Pop Culture)
Knowledge (Science)
Knowledge (Underworld)

What else?

That's kind of the thing if I state "These are the 12 knowledge skills" that will slot you into thinking (these are the only 12 period) if there's an area you think makes sense for your PC I'd go with that. If you went with Science from your list it would come up but not so much if you or anyone didn't have it as a knowledge skill, also if you picked Science and no on else had knowledge skills I'm not likely to have a Swedish history knowledge check come up. That make sense.

Make sense 'they' can't watch you on your smart phone if you use a flip phone (it's closed most of the time and no front facing camera).

Just checking in to see how everyone is doing, haven't seen anyone new apply so I guess we're at 3?

Yeah I’m pretty much good to start if everyone else is

My friend who was off at Origins applied to join us (adaygrit).

Yep kinda figured, I'll start generating the opening post while they figure out what they'd like to build for a character.

Got another player request plus asks Adaygrit to redo their character. Hope everyone has a good 4th, my apologies for the slow start.

No problem. I think we are all pretty chill about this.

Do we want our characters to have any ties to each other ahead of this or are we going to be a group of strangers?

If you want. I'm fine either way.

No worries on my front mate.

Update, looks like we're down to 2 characters again since the others went inactive. Adaygrit never redid their character and the newest addition made a character for a different setting.

He’s changing it to be a regular psychologist and I’m working with him to get it updated.

Can he sub Alchemy out for a different skill on the career list and still use it as a modern day scientist that just has questionable ethics? That’s what he is going for.

Sorry completely new to the site didnt even know this forum was here. Anyway I was just going for some smart character with a little bit of charisma. If you think scientist is not appropriate ill look into something else

@ Tophu thanks man.

@ MUDN hmm lets go with switching out alchemy for perception and pick an area of expertise for the Knowledge skill.

Sorry, took a bit.
I've updated the skills, went with "science" for the knowledge subset let me know if you think it's still too broad and would like a more targeted discipline, i.e. "chemistry"

I'll likely won't be posting until next Monday. Operation Gen Con starts in 20 hours.

Are you going to be at Gen Con?

yep well tomorrow.

Adaygrit is at Gen Con too. He will submit his fixed character when he gets back.

I thought we were set and went to tell SpicerAck but now Calvin’s missing?

If you kicked him out for inactivity, he was only inactive because I told him I’d let him know when it started.

I’m thinking Molly could have worked with Jack, having perhaps hired him to track down creepers in real life after she’s tricked them down online.

She may know Dr. Gruidae through support groups or something.

I’m not sure of any link to Calvin or Hubert.

Anybody else have any ideas of links to each other?

To recap, we have:

Jack, surly PI
Molly, computer geek
Calvin, discraced olympian
Hubert, morally questionable scientist
Franklin Gruidae, psychiatrist (psychologist?)

Nope, Adaygrit still needs to make a character using the Gensys system that makes sense, unsure if they have the books. Myuniquedisplayname needs to use their starting money for gear still.

I've mostly been waiting for people to finish making characters before I start but it's taking a minute I guess. Calvin would have to be resubmitted since SA was removed from the group, the easy way to know if there's an update is to subscribe to a game/thread.

Also it's fine if everyone doesn't know everyone or anyone in truth.

Are we assumed to have smartphones or should that come out of starting money?
Also thinking one of these, https://www.amazon.com/FLIR-ONE-Thermal-Imaging-Camera/dp/B071Z63RSL?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ftas-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B071Z63RSL not sure why just always thought they were neat and a scientist might have one.

Depends on the mechanical benefits you're looking to try and get out of either. Depending on that I'm probably okay with both.

Molly would like a tablet with a custom OS she designed to help her hack into stuff. (Boost on Computers check?)

For RP purposes I don't mind the tablet. Boost die off of gear though will be veto'd.

Cool. How much is my no mechanical benefit tablet?

Tablets mid range are around 200 so we'll go with that.

Well looks like we'll just be doing this with four people. I'll put something up tonight or in the morning to start of the adventure. Hopefully it breezes by much quicker than character creation.

Sorry. Chaz (adaygrit) has been really slammed. I was trying to work with him to straighten out his character. He just started some new additional work. He thought he’d have time to do this, but learning a new system was too much on top of his new workload.

I do have another friend who is well versed in the system who’d be happy to join us and could do it very quickly.

Works for me, have them apply. Since we're starting they can still be worked in easily.

Links up btw. Link to game start

Remnant, are we limited to the careers from the core rulebook? Are you open to custom careers? I'm cool either way, but it will determine the kind of character concept I end up going for.

And a question for the group: I've had a look at the other characters and their areas of expertise. I've narrowed my choices down a bit, but I'm curious which of these would best fit into the game:

1) An ex-con turned boxing coach. Focus on Brawn and Cunning, basically a close-quarters fighter with some street cred. Really only useful if this game features combat at least sometimes.

2) A medic of some sort. Focus on Medicine, perhaps some Knowledge. Similar to the ex-con, only useful if there's combat that makes our PCs take Wounds and Criticals. Perhaps a bit more versatile in that Medicine and Knowledge are investigative abilities.

3) A TV news anchor. Face skills primarily. Will complement the PI without overlapping too much. I'm thinking this person is probably foreign and newly arrived in the U.S. and that's why they aren't well known despite being a TV personality in their home TV market. Least useful in combat, but perhaps most useful in investigation.

Those are all interesting, though the last seems the most intriguing to me. Based on how we have handled things so far, I’d say our group is not eager for a firefight. That’s not to say we won’t end up there, but lethal combat is certainly a last resort.

So, I've got her statted out (Carmen de la Cruz). It doesn't look like there's been any earned XP in this game yet, so she's pretty much a starting character (no extra skills or talents as of yet). I just need to spend her starting cash, and she's good to go, pending GM approval.

Carmen's ready for GM review. The bear spray isn't in the core books, so I can replace with a stun gun if necessary. The stats I used are based on some back and forth on the FFG forums about what pepper spray might do in game terms; the one Carmen has is a fancier model that has a colored spray (so it's easier to aim) and shoots a bit farther. Again, let me know and I'll replace it with a stun gun. :)

I've read through the IC thread, so I'm up to speed on what's going on. Perhaps Carmen is hanging with the Roma for some reason?

Here's her pocket money:

Was the spray a custom weapon trying to figure out the math on it for costs? Other than that everything looks okay and no questions... I could put you with the Roma if you want but you'd likely be in a cage or rope netting of some sort being captured. Which I'm totally okay with.

I just priced it from Amazon! Not sure how much pepper spray would cost in Genesys's crunchier weapon-creation system. :)

I'm cool with Carmen being found inside the encampment somehow (caged or not — so long as nothing too terrible has happened to her). Perhaps she was sent by the agency on a related case, got to the bottom of it, and is now just trying to get free to get back and report. She would naturally want to team up with fellow "employees" of the same group and help them on their investigation.

Also, please let me know if it makes more sense for Carmen to have obtained her refugee status in a European country, since we seem to be east of the Atlantic at the moment.

Ah that's why I was confused since 35 is cheap for that many attributes.

Custom Weapon 4-5 Damage (100)
Short Range (0)
Accurate 1 (+50)
Burn 3 (200X3 +600)
Disorient 3 (50X3 +150)
Limited Ammo 1 (-100 I figure vs 75)
Stun Quality (+50)

Which is pricey, normal stun gun is 100 (states are on p. 166)

Those rules don't seem very balanced with the real-life costs of a single-use, mass-market item like pepper spray—no one would pay $450 for even the most effective kind! So, yeah, we can drop it if you want to stick with those rules.

Another option is to treat it as a "stun gun" with Limited Ammo 1 that can be used at short range with Ranged skill instead of Melee.

Finally, I can just drop it for a stun gun if you prefer. I just felt pepper-spray-in-the-purse was much more thematic to a put-together TV personality. Totally your call, Remnant.

Yeah I'd go with the normal stun guy since it's cheaper and makes more sense rulewise.

Crunch versus theme:

Mechanically you can shot someone once and the weapons done, they'll keep take the three burn (If you spend to advantage) for three rounds and disorient 3 (again if you spend the advantage). If you don't get 2 advantage you can't use either quality and it's spent. So it can do some damage 'maybe' if you roll good. But if you're in the right situation for $35 its kind of a lucky roll at a cheap version of other more expensive weapons that do damage similar but more static damage.

Thematically I can see this more as Bear Spray versus Pepper Spray. Since it's got an option to do a 'chemical burn' plus the burning (more like Mace I guess then pepper).

Would you be cool with pepper spray if it were built using the equipment-build rules? I'm just thinking the stun gun will be almost useless with Brawn 1. Maybe pepper spray is Damage 4 (100), Crit – (-75 or 0), Short Range (0), Stun Quality (50), Disorient 1 (50), Accurate 1 (50), Limited Ammo 1 (-100) for a total of $75 or $150 (depending on how much no Crit is worth)? If no, I'll just give her a stun gun. It's just for self-defense anyway, since she's not a fighter.

Forgot to ask I think what you're subject area of knowledge is.

Do you have set ones we can choose from? Or would you prefer I make one that corresponds to Carment's expertise?

Currently someone has knowledge underworld so besides that as a baseline for scope let me know what you think would be in her area of expertise.

Probably Knowledge (Current Events) or Knowledge (Society) or something like that for a newscaster.

I agree with Tophu. Let's say Knowledge (Current Events).