CHARACTERISTICS

Each character generates his or her own character. The players have a degree of choice over some aspects of there character. These details make the characters different from each other, so that some are faster, others stronger, tougher, more intelligent and so on. Before creating your character read through the descriptions of the different 'characteristics' given below. All creatures are described with the same characteristics, which will allow comparisons to be made later on. Each characteristic defines some aspect of the creature or character - and, taken together, the characteristics will help to decide what they are good at, and what they are not so good at. Characteristics are divided into two categories Physical and Mental.

- Physical Group -

Strength - STR: Your muscle mass and how effective it is for exerting force. The higher your strength the more you can lift, drag, etc., and the more powerful the blows from your melee weapons, fists, and other body parts.

Dexterity - DEX: Your overall physical competence, as pertains to balancing, leaping, jumping, combat and other athletic activities. A gymnast would have a high Dexterity.

Reactions - REA: Your response time and coordination, as used in aiming, throwing, juggling. A stage magician, for example would have a high Reaction Characteristic.

Constitution - CON: How healthy you are. How resistant to shock effects, poisons and disease. You can be a really big, tough, strong guy and still get floored by a head cold.

Endurance - END: Your size, toughness, and ability to stay alive and conscious due to physical mass, sheer bloody-mindedness and structure or other qualities. How much damage you can take is derived from this Characteristic.

Comliness - COM: Your physical beauty, and looks.

A noble seraph, the epitome of physical and mental perfection.

- Mental Group -

Intelligence - INT: How generally bright you are. As a rule, this is more than sheer intelligence, but also cleverness, awareness, perception, and ability to learn.

Memory - MEM: Your ability to remember events, names, and other details.

Wisdom - WIS: One's ability to think carefully and speak with words that carry truth and reason.

Willpower - WIL: Your determination and ability to face danger and/or stress. This Characteristic represents your courage and cool.

Charisma - CHA: Your ability to impress and influence people through your character and charisma; how well you get along with others; how you interact in social situations.

Buying Characteristics

The power to buy Primary Characteristics comes from a pool of points call Characteristic Points (CP), given to you when you first create a character. You have 375 Characteristic Points. The points cost for beginning attributes is given in the table below. Note that a score of 50 in any Characteristic is free, since 50 is "average." Scores below 50 have a negative cost - for instance, if you take a Dexterity of 40, the cost is +10. By making your character somewhat clumsy, you have "earned" an extra 10 points that can be applied elsewhere.

The scores below range from 35 to 110. 35 is the lowest score permitted for a human. For each Characteristic, a score of 50 represents the human average; anything from 50-70 is in the range considered "normal." Scores above 80 are definitely unusual; scores above 100 are superhuman!

How Many Points Per Characteristic?

Characteristic values vary by a great degree. Normal people often have values of 50 to 70, for instance. Usually anything over 80 is where the real world stops and where fiction begins to take over. Note also that many characters will have Characteristics and Skills in a wide range of values. Even a legend may have most Characteristics in the Competent or Heroic. Most characters have some abilities they perform better than others; it's rare to have someone with the same Characteristic values across the board.

What are Derived Characteristics?

Derived Characteristics are characteristics that are created by performing some kind of simple mathematical operation on the character's already existing Primary Characteristics. The following are the most common Derived Characteristics.

Hit Points (HP): How much damage you can take before you are dying.

Magic Points (MP): Your innate ability to convert the latent magical energy surrounding you into the power necessary to cast spells before becoming fatigued.

Fatigue Points (FP): How long a character can expend energy, whether in physical endurance or in the use of special abilities. When it runes out, you are exhausted and cannon do anything more except rest and recover.

Less then 50 Challenged: This value is most often found in young children, elderly people, or those weakened by illness of infirmity. Everyday tasks at this level are difficult.

50-60 Everyday: This is reality on the mundane side. People here are generally out of shape, unremarkable, and not super bright, but they get along in everyday life just fine. Many ordinary people around the world are likely to have some Characteristics at this value. It's enough to get by on and to do most things (though not very unusual or stressful tasks.) At this level, adventure is something that happens to others; your idea of action is visiting Slims at midnight.

61-70 Competent: This is reality many of us live in; the closest thing to a hero is a good watchman, coachman, soldier, or other dedicated citizen. Most healthy adults have some Characteristics that fall into this range.

71-80 Heroic: This is the reality only a few of us live in - mercenary captains, specialist mages, and spies. At this range characters are much better than ordinary; better looking and more competent.

81-90 Incredible: Save for the feats of Akkad Gladiators, gorgeous belly dancers, kings, and master mages. You have now left reality altogether, and are among the very best in the world at what you do. This is also the realm of fantasy, where characters battle ork hordes and evil wizards.

91-100 Legendary: This is the realm of high-fantasy, of Arch-mages, geniuses, warrior-kings, and the like. This is a level that only a few ever reach; it's simply the best a human can possibly be and you probably won't ever find "real people" at this level.

More than 100: At this point, you have crossed into the realm of the superhuman. Your capability in this area is unbelievable to normal humans. This is the reality level of most mythology. Superhuman feats are common, and adventurers regularly save entire civilizations and thwart elder dragons.