Difference between revisions of "MGR Characters"

Revision as of 02:00, 22 July 2017

CHARACTER GENERATION GUIDELINES

OVERVIEW

Player characters will start as tenderpaws: apprentices in the Guard, probably age 16 or 17. They may choose whatever fur color they want (brown, blonde, gray, black or red; brown most common, followed by blonde and gray; black uncommon, red the rarest.)

INITIAL DECISIONS

Answer the following questions.

MOUSE NATURE

• Do you save for winter even if it means going without something now? Or do you use what you have when you need it?
• When confronted, do you stand your ground and fight or do you run and hide?
• Do you fear owls, weasels and wolves? (Remember how small mice are!)

GUARD CIRCLES

• Is your mouse gregarious? Does s/he have lots of friends? Does s/he make friends easily?
• Does s/he have strong ties to the Guard, perhaps a family tradition or allies within the Guard?
• Has your character accomplished some great task in the Guard? Does s/he already have a reputation?
• Does your character have powerful enemies in the Guard?
• Has your character been convicted of a crime?
• Is your character a loner, tough and cool?

It is recommended that the answer to these questions should be “no”.

STARTING PROFESSIONS

Here are some possible starting professions of characters' parents, which correspond to basic skills that a character would have. The choice of skill will help determine origin.

• Armorer
• Baker
• Boatcrafter
• Carpenter
• Glazier
• Haggler
• Harvester
• Loremouse
• Mason
• Metalsmith
• Miller
• Potter
• Scientist
• Weather Watcher
• Weaver

STARTING ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

These are advantages and disadvantages. This will also help determine origin. Players should choose a first, second and third choice for their character.

These advantages and disadvantages provide a bonus or penalty to starting skill point total, and also should be employed by the player or GM to guide interactions.

• Alert. -2
  • Characters with this attribute often earn their keep as harvesters, remaining capable of noticing things. Whenever a Perception check is called for but the character would not consciously notice, one can be made.
• Bigpaw.
  • These characters have big paws. They are good at physical tasks requiring sturdy, broad paws like Stonemason, Carpenter or Laborer. They are a bit clumsy with tasks requiring fine or delicate work. When performing a check using a STR-based skill, roll one extra die; when performing a check for a skill requiring fine dexterity, count one fewer success.
• Bodyguard
  • A bodyguard is trained to protect his charge from harm, danger and exposure. Bodyguards are often a valuable asset, but they can become overprotective and hinder or impede the one they are to protect.
• Bold
  • The bold rush into action without a thought for their own safety. Daring stratagems and reckless abandon are hallmarks of the bold. Forethought and caution are not for these mice.
• Brave
  • The brave never hesitate to step into the unknown. They are susceptible to wild tales of far-off places and dangerous adventures. Brave mice almost universally detest being called cowards. It's the surest way to earn their ire. When using a WIL-based skill concerning fear, roll one extra die.
• Calm
  • Calm mice are difficult to anger and are adept at shrugging off any emotion that does manage to burden their heart. However, they risk becoming too sedate and perhaps missing a threat.
• Clever
  • Characters with this attribute are useful in all fields. They are adept in figuring answers to pernicious problems. However, the Territories are rife with tales of clever mice who were too smart for their own good.
• Compassionate
  • Compassionate mice are able to see and understand a problem from their opponent's viewpoint. This is a great benefit in many situations, but it makes duty difficult when ruthless action is called for.
• Cunning
  • Characters with this attribute are adept at deceit and plotting traps. They are often either arrogant or, if caught at their games, considered dishonest.
• Curious
  • Curious mice are always eager to learn and on the lookout for new aspects of life in the Territories. But there's a cautionary saying in Lockhaven that should be kept in mind: Curiosity killed the mouse first.
• Deep Ear
  • Mice with the Deep Ear trait have keen hearing, but it does make them susceptible to loud noises and the general dun of the big cities. In normal situations, PER skill checks involving hearing roll one extra die; however, if there is a lot of noise, such skill checks can only permit one success (all others are ignored).
• Defender
  • These mice are civilians who defended their homes against invaders and attackers in recent wars, though they lacked training, support or proper equipment. They know the value and cost of defending one's home.
• Determined, -1; Driven, +2
  • Determined mice focus their energies on accomplishing their goals. While this is a useful characteristic, it can turn from determination to tunnel vision. Driven mice follow their beliefs no matter the consequence; this can prove to cost them dearly.
• Early Riser
  • Early risers are up first in the morning, awake before the sun, and clear-headed and sharp first thing in the morning while everyone else is bleary-eyed and sleepy. Of course, they tend to want to be early to bed to be so early to rise.
• Extrovert
• Fat
• Fearful
• Fearless
• Fiery
• Generous.
• Graceful
• Guard’s Honor
• Hard Worker
• Independent
• Innocent
• Inquisitive
• Jaded
• Leader
• Longtail
• Lost
• Natural Bearings
• Nimble
• Noctural
• Oldfur
• Open-Minded
• Quick-Witted
• Quiet
• Rational
• Scarred
• Sharp-Eyed
• Sharptooth
• Short
• Skeptical
• Skinny
• Steady Paw
• Stoic
• Stubborn
• Suspicious
• Tall
• Thoughtful
• Tough
• Weather Sense
• Wolf's Snout
• Young

Characters should have a friend and an enemy. Friends can be from childhood, from the Guard, or someone met while in service. Enemies can be from the same sources. Both friends and enemies will be played by the GM.

Characters should have a belief, an “overarching ethical or moral stance” that describes how s/he views his/her place in the Guard.

Characters should have an instinct, which indicates how the mouse has been trained to act. This defines how the player sees the character’s general behavior.

STARTING ATTRIBUTES

• Agility (AGI) is the ability to move with style and grace, to control one’s physical actions. It is used when making movements that are complex and coordinated. It also is used when dodging or reacting.
• Intelligence (INT) is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and to process information, solve problems and think clearly as well as to study and learn.
• Perception (PER) indicates the character’s ability to perceive the world around him/her using the five senses. It is the Trait that establishes clarity of vision, hearing and touch as opposed to intuition or “sixth sense” feelings.
• Stamina (STA) is an indication of the character’s “wind” – a character with a high STA could be a long-distance runner or swimmer. It indicates the extent to which a character can push him/herself to the limit and is the basis for calculating wound levels.
• Strength (STR) is the character’s ability to lift, carry, push and hold fast. It is also a description of raw physical power. This Trait is used to help determine the amount of damage done in physical combat.
• Willpower (WIL) is an indication of the character’s ability to say “No.”WIL is the mental counterpart to STA: it is the ability to resist non-physical distractions.

Characters may initially assign 3 to three characteristics and 2 to three characteristics.

SKILLS

There are 34 skills – 6 Agility, 7 Intelligence, 7 Perception, 3 Stamina, 6 Strength and 4 Willpower. Each skill when obtained is at the rank of the corresponding trait, and can be increased through use and the assignment of skill points gained through play.

When rolling a skill, use the number of dice corresponding to the skill rank. If the character does not have the skill, and the skill is not starred (★), s/he can use the number of dice corresponding to the attribute.

• Administrator (INT) – A manager of towns, cities and groups. Writes laws, allocates money for budgets, files reports, distributes resources.
• Apiarist (PER) ★ – A specialist who raises bees and harvests their honey and wax.
• Archivist (INT) – A mouse who specializes in writing accounts of events for historical records. Also adept at plumbing the depths of archives and libraries for information.
• Armorer (STR) – A forger of armor and weapons for the Guard and town militias.
• Baker (PER) – A maker of bread, both savory and sweet, pastries and cakes.
• Boatcrafter (AGI) – A builder of boats, from leaf boats to wooden plank boats. Also, a mouse knowledgeable in the navigation of waterways.
• Brewer (STA) ★ – A maker of beer. Sometimes the town will not have potable water, so the brewmouse is most important. A brewer can also use ground grain from millers and honey from apiarists to brew.
• Carpenter (STR) – A maker of useful wood itesm, such as furniture and tools, as well as house fittings.
• Cartographer (INT) ★ – A maker and interpreter of maps.
• Cook (PER) – A mouse who cooks! Every patrol can use one. Cooks can alleviate hungry conditions.
• Deceiver (WIL) – A mouse who uses lies, half-truths, ugly truth, soothing platitudes and intimidation to get what s/he wants.
• Fighter (AGI) – A skill that overcomes a mouses natural inhibitions to fight, in order to capture, disable or even kill an opponent. All weapon skills are cascaded from this skill.
• Glazier (AGI) ★ – A maker of glass vessels and other items, as well as windows and lenses.
• Haggler (WIL) – A skill for bargaining over prices of goods and services. It can also be used to increase the price of something being sold, or convince another that a service is worth paying for.
• Harvester (STR) – A skill for gathering and storing necessary raw materials from the wild, including seeds, grains, roots, herbs and other items.
• Healer (INT) – A healer keeps other mice whole and healthy, both in direct care and with the creation of herbs and medicines.
• Hunter (STA) – A mouse who journeys into the wild and confronts animals – grazers, scavengers and even predators. The skill is used to stalk, trap, drive off or kill the quarry.
• Insectrist (PER) ★ – A mouse who uses insects – beetles, caterpillars, worms, etc., training them to act as labor, such as spinning silk, aerating soil, watching weather and transporting items.
• Instructor (INT) – A mouse who teaches skills to others.
• Laborer (STR) – The skill for general work, such as wood gathering, stone hewing, metal scavenging, ditch digging, and other such tasks.
• Loremouse (INT) ★ – A valuable skill used to study the ways and habits of animals. It is used for communication with other races and to discern an animal’s Nature.
• Militarist (WIL) ★ – A skill for organizing, supply, and command of mice for battle. This is a fairly rare skill, since mouse nature tends to militate against gathering in force and fighting in ordered fashion.
• Miller (STR) – A mouse who grinds substances into powders using a millstone, for use in cooking, brewing and industry.
• Orator (WIL) – A mouse who makes speeches to sway crowds. This is for moving a group to action, to compete with others to attract attention, and to fire up a crowd.
• Pathfinder (PER) ★ – To make and mark paths between settlements, and to various resources such as water sources or fields. This is an important skill for Guardmice.
• Persuader (WIL) – A skill for convincing another mouse to do something in a friendly manner, to show him/her that it’s in his/her best interest to help out. This is not for speechmaking, but rather for conversations.
• Potter (AGI) – A skill for making ceramics or other vessels for drinking, cooking and food storage.
• Scientist (INT) ★ – Learning, combining astronomy, biology, chemistry, natural sciences and physics. This skill allows the mouse to draw upon archives or to study substances, or to make medicines.
• Scout (PER) – A skill for spotting predators on the prowl, sneaking, trailing targets and finding hidden things.
• Smith (AGI) ★ – A skill for tool making – as opposed to weapons. It generally requires fine control, rather than brute force. It can also be used to make large structures such as fences or a portcullis.
• Stonemason (STR) – A skill for working with stone to make bridges, walls and buildings.
• Survivalist (STA) – A skill for building fires, finding water, making shelters and jury-rigging tools.
• Weather Watcher (PER) ★ – A skill for spotting clouds, noting wind direction and detecting moisture, as well as more groundbased phenomena like soil and flora. The weather-watcher can predict the weather to some extent.
• Weaver (AGI) ★ – A skill for making fabric and clothes from fabric. Can work with fur, fiber, silk, and dyes.

STARTING SKILLS

Characters receive the primary skill of their parents, as well as a skill usually associated with their town of origin.

In addition, they can allocate 20 points to other skills, plus or minus the values of any.

• To choose a skill for a characteristic of value 2 costs 2 points.
• To choose a skill for a characteristic of value 3 costs 3 points.
• To increase a skill from 2 to 3 costs 3 points; from 3 to 4 costs 4 points; and so on.

RESULTS

When rolling a skill, characters want to achieve successes.

• Snake: Failure
• Swords: Success
• Axe: Success, and reroll this die.

When rolling a skill that the character possesses, all successes are counted.

When rolling a skill that the character does not possess (and does not have a star (★), only one success is counted.

Remember that characters cannot roll for starred skills.

If no successes are rolled, the result should be considered some sort of catastrophic failure, with the consequences being determined by the objective of the attempt.

WISES

A wise is a specific area of knowledge, which can be tested when a character needs to know something about a specific topic. The topic is limited by the name of the wise, and is different from a skill test.

To test a wise, roll a single die; axes are rerolled as usual. Failures give no information; one or more successes yields information.