Character Creation

= Character Creation =

Physical and mental attributes
Players have to have a way to describe their basic physical and mental abilities. In Twilight Paradox, players are assigned 7 attributes ranging in score from 0-100 (0 being nonexistent and 100 being super-human).

Strength (STR): Raw physical strength. The average human can dead lift about 85% of their weight. So we’ll go with a 165-pound person in earth gravity that can lift 140 pounds has a strength score of 50.

Intelligence (INT): This is the ability to learn and solve problems. A person with high intelligence, can, given enough time, figure out difficult puzzles or learn a foreign language fairly easy.

Will (WIL): This is a measure of how strong a person’s mind and is the mental equivalent of constitution; For example, will is used to determine resistance to mind control.

Agility (AGI): This is the physical equivalent of wit; how fast a person can react ''physically ''to incoming stimuli, as well as stealth. The more in tune with your body you are, the higher your score.

Constitution (CON): is a basic measurement of how hardy a person is. This is used to determine their hit points as well as resistance to disease, effects of gravity and time travel

Charisma (CHA): Hey, not everyone is born good looking or with the gift of gab! This is a measure of how a player is perceived by one of their own species and comes into play when negotiating with others and their initial reaction to you.

Perception (PER): This is a measure of how “aware” someone is of their surroundings. For example, a person with a high perception might notice the guy in the hat in the corner of the restaurant as out of place, while someone with a low PER might not even notice a fly on their nose.

Luck (LUC): The universal un-equalizer. This plays a subtle role in most situations.

Table 1: Physical and mental equivalencies

Both:

Charisma – Physical attractiveness and the ability to convince others

Neither:

Luck – you have it or you don’t.

=== Allocation of attribute points === Each player, upon creation begins at 50 points for each attribute, then and has 20 additional points to place where they wish. They may also remove a TOTAL of 10 points from other attributes and place these in the desired attributes. This does not mean taking 10 points from strength and 10 points from charisma and giving 20 to intelligence, making a computer programmer ;-). It means taking 5 from intelligence and 5 from will and adding 10 to charisma to make a model.

A player gains a new attribute point each level to place where they wish.

Other stats
Hit points: This keeps track of how much life you have to lose. Hit zero and you die. Each person starts out with 20, but these are altered by certain things: You get an average of 3 1d10 rolls of HP per level. What that means is that you roll a 1d10 3 times and average the 3 scores out. This is then added to your current score after CON adjustments.

Table 2: CON to HP modifiers

Table 3: WIL to HP modifiers

=== Armor Rating: === Characters start with an armor rating of 70. A PC or NPC has a base armor rating (AR) derived from their AGI. This represents their ability to ‘get out of the way’. This number can be modified by use of armor, the better the armor, the more damage it can absorb (durability is not a mechanic unless noted, as in power armor). You can think of it this way, a person that is completely naked and immobilized has an AR of 99, since there is very little likelihood that a sword or gun will not penetrate their skin causing damage of some sort. This may seem confusing. But think of it as a percentage roll on a d100. If a character has a lower AR, they have a lower percentage change to be hit. If they have a higher AR, they have a higher chance of being hit.

'''The better the armor the lower the score.'''

Hit
The opposite of AR is the ability to hit someone (or ‘To Hit’). This is also based on AGI. Melee weapons also take STR into account, and ranged weapons utilize AGI more, and negate STR entirely. Your ‘To Hit’ number is the number you need to roll in order to hit someone of an AR of 70 (No armor, no bonuses). A character starts out with a melee and ranged hit rating of 70%.

Table 4: AGI and Melee (Hit)

Table 5: STR and Melee (Hit)

Table 6: AGI and Ranged (Hit)

Table 7: AGI Armor modifiers

== Role Playing and RP Points == Role playing is central to Twilight Paradox, and a system has been developed to encourage players to ‘Stay in character’. The unit of measurement is the Role Playing Point (RP).

These are awarded by either player consensus or by the GM when a player holds true to their character’s personality. The more fleshed out the personality, the more opportunities for RP.

For example, if you are trying to play a no-good rogue who inn it just for the money, and the groups Arcanist happens to leave one of his expensive training manuals lying around, you may have your thief hold true to their personalities and steal the book to sell later, damn the party! The game master may wish to award you an RP for this. Conversely, let’s say you have this same personality and someone leaves out a huge jewel worth millions, and you walk by, not even tempted, because you just want to further the adventure, it is up to the GM to DOCK you and RP. Your character is (according to your personality) a low down scumbag…. why wouldn’t they steal that? If you’re acting out of character, then you should be penalized.

So, what good are Roleplaying points? Remember, everything is under GM approval, but you may choose to spend them on changing part of the gameplay, like spending 20 RP’s to bring someone back to life. Maybe you use it to choose an adventure, or alter its course slightly by making a failing roll succeed. The cost of these things is up to the GM, since they have responsibility for the flow of the game.

Regardless, every 100 RP’s that a character earns will allow them to increase 1 attribute by 1 point, or give them 2 skill points to spend.

A character starts out with 0 RP’s, even if they’re your girlfriend/boyfriend.

Era’s and Epochs
Earth creation = 4.6 billion years before 2500 AD

Ga = one billion years Ma = one million years

4.6 Ga – 4Ga – Pre-Life 4 Ga -1Ga – Sea life 1Ga-85 Ma – Dinosaurs

Categories are simplified into tool, weapon and civilization style for game purposes. There are 10 main eras (numbered). These are subdivided into 3 epochs Pre-History, Modern, Future. There is a special epoch, D, where inter-dimensional travel is possible, but not wholly predictable.

'''A. Pre History'''

I.      Primitive

''II. Metal working. Swords. Crossbows. Sea Travel''

''III. Medieval. Exploring own planet. Sea travel''

'''B. Modern'''

''IV. Industrialized. Gunpowder, manufacturing. flight''

''V. Nuclear. Very near space exploration''

''VI. Digital – Space Exploration. Computers, electronics''

'''C. Future'''

''VII. Robotic. Star travel. Colonization to other planets. Faster than Light/fusion''

''VIII. Time Travel''

''IX. Travel through all time and all universe''

'''D. X. '''Inter-dimensional Navigation/Twilight Paradox

Players can choose to base their characters from any time they wish, though they suffer a usage penalty when using items from an era they are not experienced with.

Explorers have noted a breakdown in effectiveness when an inorganic object is not within its place in the time vortex. Items from the future epochs seem to suffer more of a penalty to performance than those, simpler objects from the past. Research has been underway for centuries to find a way past this barrier, but as of yet, the College of Arcane Studies does not have a viable solution.

Table 8: Tech usage Penalty

''Meaning, if you create a character in the modern epoch (B/V), they will incur a 10% penalty for using a sword in the middle ages (A/II) and a 25% penalty when using a Quantum computer from the digital Era (VI)''

It is HIGHLY recommended that the first characters you make are all made in period 8, where Time-Travel is possible and devices can be purchased. If your dying to make an old west cowboy, be warned, it might be difficult to work in for an inexperienced game master