CHARACTER GENERATION

The first thing you do in SSKiller is Character generation, One rule that is Fixed in stone (modifiable by GM’s consent (see told you so)) is that all characters be generated in front of the GM !

Step 1: Choose a Race.
Choose a race. This may seem an unusual stage but in my experience this step is the one that takes the most time. It’s usually best for the players to talk and decide amongst themselves, taking into consideration that most of the races whether they be Pixies of 1 foot tall up to Rock Trolls of about 9 feet tall all use the same stat ratings, this may seem unreal, but who cares, the game world couldn’t really be called realistic anyway.

Step 2: Choose a Class.
Choose a class. This is usually combined with step 1 above as in an Elven Woodcutter, a Pixie Barbarian. Etc.

The game can be made all the more interesting by a few silly character types, and in some cases as in the above Elven Woodcutter gives GM game or character background Ideas, as Elves love trees so a woodcutter is probably the last class you be likely to see. Thrown out by the other Elves, chased by angry Elven mobs etc.

At this point the GM assigns three Hero skills, this may be done with or without the players input, the GM should think of both the characters Race and Class when assigning these skills, the player then writes these skills on his character sheet.
Eg. The Elven woodcutter as above is assigned the following hero skills by the GM:-

At this time the GM may want to write down these skills under the heading Race Class for further use by similar characters in the future. Or if like me you can’t be bothered and would rather assign different Hero Skills each time anyway, don’t.

Step 3: Rolls.
Rolling the Stats. Roll the stats in front of the DM, from STR to POW one after the other, writing them down on a piece of jot paper, no rolling multiple set and choosing the best set, just accept the luck or not of the die and smile, you can always improve your skills in the next step anyway.
Eg: our Elf (Treebow) rolls these statistics.

Step 4: Re Rolls.
Re rolls, at this step the player decides what is more important to him being an accomplished practitioner of his class or having good statistics. All players have one free re roll, if a stat is re rolled the result must be taken you can always re roll a re roll, Treebow looks at his stats and decides to re roll his Strength. Rolling 3D he gets a 5. Better than it used to be but still not very good.

Players may purchase more re rolls at a cost of there passed chance. (What?) Ok sorry all players start with a chance to be passed at a given profession of 14 so if you just skip to step 5 and read that then jump back you’ll have a greater understanding. Initially you have spent no PP’s (passed points). You may spend up to 14 passed points if you so wish, for each passed point you spend you may make a re roll on your stats.
Eg. Treebow decides to re roll his STR again spending one passed point he re rolls his STR getting a 4. Curses his STR is now 4 he can’t keep the 5 from before, he spends another passed point (2PP’s) this time his re roll gains him a 13. Looking at his other stats there not bad apart from his CON deciding he doesn't mind if he’s failed he spends another PP (3PP’s) and re rolls his CON for 9, hem not much better, try again (4PP’s) re rolling a 13. OK that will do. Treebow spent 4PP’s giving him a Passed chance of 10 (14 - 4PP’s).

Step 5: Passed or Failed.
Having used as many passed points as desired you now make your passed roll. This is done by rolling 3D and comparing it to your passed number (14 - PP’s (passed points spent)) if the roll is equal to or lower than this number you have passed in your profession and may write PASSED on your character sheet next to your class else you are a Failure and should write FAILED there instead.
Eg. Treebow in the example above has spent 4PP’s his passed chance is 14 - 4PP’s or 10. He rolls 3D getting an 11, Failing so he writes FAILED on his character sheet, if only he’d spent one less PP.

Passed and Failed initially has this effect a passed character has 30 points to spend in character generation whilst a failed character only has 25 points to spend, also although passed and failed do not alter the game mechanics they should alter the descriptions a GM uses.
Eg. A passed character say a Fighter with a successful attack, the GM might describe as thus :- With a skillful lunge you catch the monster a mighty blow.
And a failed Fighter :-
Barely missing your friend you hit the monster who looks even more shocked you hit than you do.
A failed wizard brings whole new and amusing meanings to spells such as the legendry Fire Ball spell!!


Step 6: Skill Bases.
Now its time to work out your skill bases, using your Stats cross reference on table 1.0 Skill bases. As below

Eg. Treebow’s skill bases are as follows :-

All of a characters skills are matched to one of your skill bases, as you can see by looking at the character sheet, they are all grouped by skill bases, fill in your skill bases on your character sheet.

Step 7: Skills.
Now you have your skill bases its time to start filling in your skills. A PASSED character has 30 points to spend in initial character improvement, a FAILED character has 25, you may spend these points on any skill but you can not take a single skill above 10 with initial improvement, except Hero Skills they may be improved to 20 with initial improvement. Note that initial character improvement is different from spending experience points and the two should not be mixed up!

Initial character improvement is performed by taking the skills base and adding a number of improvement points up to a maximum of 10 in the skill.
Eg. Treebow wants to take a skill in Hafted as he is a woodcutter and wants to be able to use an axe. His skill base is 5 (STR), he spends 5 of his 25 improvement points, giving him a skill in Hafted of 10. He has 20 points left to spend in other skills. He then spends the remaining skills on a variety of further skills to best help his character survive as follows:-

Step 8: Odds and Ends.
Now the remaining areas on your character sheet are filled out such as if you have not named your character yet it should be done now. You should also mark 6 under Ring Lives as all characters start with there Ring of Nine Lives charged up to 6 lives.

At this time you do not know your Panic Animal and so should leave this blank.

Step 9: Your Characters Background and Equipment
This is the point the GM may ask the other characters to leave the room whilst he tells you your character background, and assigns you your equipment.

The background should be based around his Hero's skills.
Eg. Mark the Troll Barbarian, being not the most favored of his fathers sons has an unusual history, his father upon passing cliffs with his son saying “This is for your own good!” Threw mark over the cliffs edge, mark miraculously survived each incident and loves his father for his caring nature showing him how best to survive a fall (Falling Hero Skill,) also upon passing bodies of water, he used to tie a rock to his leg and throw him into the water (thus gaining the Hold Breath Hero Skill.) Mark once while he was a child, somehow on a hunting trip with his father, found his way into a cave and was attacked by a Grizzly his father didn’t know lived there. (What a loving father!) Mark defeated the bear (Gaining Creature Bane Bear Hero Skill) but was also seriously injured because of it, upon his father discovering him, Marks father left him in the cave to get help. (Funny thing that mark could never find his way back to his fathers camp even though he was sure it had only been in the next valley!

The equipment should be based around both his history and his skills.
Eg. Treebow has spent a lot of his improvement points on Axe based things (Hafted and Axeman) so the GM steers clear of giving him anything so useful and decides to give him the shaft from his last axe (the head is still stuck in the Great Elven Oak in the middle of the Elf city he was born in, and subsequently had to run away from.) This may be used as a Club. A lovely Yellow Suit (In the latest Elven Fashion complete with its little acorn designer symbol) and 4 Gold pieces.

Note. Starting equipment rarely ever adds up to more than ten gold pieces as this precludes the player getting any equipment that’s of use except by swapping it between them to start of with, most of them have spent there last gold buying there Ring of Nine Lives as these cost a tidy sum.

That’s all there is to character generation. So go get some characters generated and have fun..