Modern AGE is almost the same process as found in the Fantasy AGE game, but there are some differences. For one there's no classes and for the other there is no races. There is also suggestion of using races from Fantasy AGE to achieve a sort of urban fantasy style game. It changes the process a little bit, either replacing or adding a step, but I could also do this as a sort of epitaph sort of thing. That said, I've only done epitaphs in settings where gorgons make no narrative sense and Modern AGE is a flexible enough system that that lack of narrative justification isn't present. I think I will go ahead and use the races. The normal suggestion in this case is to have the races replace the background, but I'm going to add the race in instead because removing backgrounds feels like it removes a lot of character development. This will mean the character, and any training companions I make for her, will come out a bit stronger than the average starting character, but not too much. To further confirm, any humans I create will get the Fantasy AGE human package as well.
Another change we're going to do from the Fantasy AGE analysis is to use the point buy method which is to have 12 points to distribute between the stats. None can go over 3 with these points and none can go below 0.
As a result of this, the steps for character creation in this case are as follows:
- Concept
- Abilities
- Race - This is an additional step not normally taken for Modern AGE
- Background
- Profession
- Drive
- Resources and Equipment
- Health, Defense, Toughness, and Speed
- Goals, Ties, and Relationships
- Name and Description
For genre and setting, we're going to do a gothic horror thing along the lines of the Touch of Evil board game or the Sleepy Hollow movie from back when nobody knew anything horrible about certain actors. So vaguely creepy rural community on the edge of civilization. I'll be doing three companions again and doing random races:
- 3 - Demon Blooded (using the Blooded and the Demon Soldier)
- 4-5 - Fae (using the core Elf race)
- 6-8 - Beastfolk (using the optional race played as sort-of werecreatures)
- 9-11 - Human
- 12-14 - Dhampir (created using Blooded and Master Vampire)
- 15-17 - Goblin (created using Blooded and Goblin)
- 18 - Angel Blooded (created using Blooded and Divine Warrior)
As normal, the character concept is a gorgon archer. I'm imagining a woman escaping the crowded lands of her homelands where people know of her kind and disappearing into a distant colony on the edge of the wilds.
For Abilities, we have 12 points. I'm going to start with giving my major targets 2 each. There are no classes so we don't have to worry about primary or secondary abilities at all, not that that had too much of an impact in Fantasy AGE, but still we're even more open here. Accuracy 2, Dexterity 2, and Perception 2, for the three majors. Then I'm going to give Constitution 1, Intelligence 1, and Willpower 1. That's a total of 9 points spent and we have 3 points left. I think I will be placing these last bits into Accuracy, Willpower, and Constitution.
Race is next, we'll use the same thing we did for the Fantasy AGE. +1 to Constitution, I will choose the Dexterity (Stealth) ability focus this time. Speed is the same, characters can speak whatever languages you want up to a max of three starting with others earned by the Linguistics talent. Then we have to roll on the Blooded chart again. And I got the exact same result as last time, a 6 and a 7. So +1 Accuracy and Weapon Group Bows again which automatically becomes a Focus in this system sense there's no Class and everybody has all the weapon groups at least somewhat. Which means this character will have +2 to stats and two focuses more than the normal Modern AGE character. The companions will be similarly up-powered. Fortunately, this system handles that very easily.
Next we get back to the normal process for Modern AGE, background. We roll 1d6 twice, first to determine social class and then specific background. And I ended up rolling what makes the most sense, Outsider class and Outcast background. I was tempted to just take that anyway. The background comes with several different benefits; as Background, Profession, and Drive basically replace and overlap the Backgrounds and Races of Fantasy AGE. Outcast comes with +1 Willpower, a choice between Communication(Deception) or Dexterity(Stealth), and a choice between two talents: Living on the Fringe or Misdirection. We're going to take Communication(Deception), because we already have Dexterity(Stealth), and Novice Living on the Fringe. We also get a roll on a chart like we would see in the Fantasy AGE races. The result of the roll is Dexterity(Forgery) which must be how she got passage to the New World.
The next step is Profession and our social class sets what profession chart we roll on. If we had a higher social class we'd have the option of choosing lower class occupations. Oddly, Military is a Lower Class background but Soldier is a Middle Class occupation, making it impossible to get that combination by rolling, which feels like a mistake. Though the option to just choose a profession exists which would presumably allow you to get a higher class profession than your background, probably representing moving up in the world. I am going to go ahead and choose one from the Outsider social class, Survivalist. This gives us a choice between Accuracy (Bows or Pistols) and Perception (Tracking). We already have the Accuracy Focus we want, so we'll go with Perception (Tracking) for now to add to that living on the wild vibe more. As a further note, the Profession provides a starting Resources score and a choice between two Talents. We already have one so we could choose to move Living on the Fringe up to Expert from level 1. The other option is Tactical Awareness. I think I will boost Living on the Fringe to Expert. Our starting Resources is 0 and the last thing this does is decide our starting Health which is 20 + Con.
From here we go to Drive. These are our character's primary motives for the way she lives. It provides a Talent and an improvement to some other trait like Resources, Reputation, or the like. I am going to roll for it, 1-3 on Column 1, 4-6 on Column 2. The option rolled is a Drive of Rebel, where she has become hostile to established authority, which makes sense both for her background and for a person living in a Colonial/American Revolution era style settlement. This provides us the option of Expertise or Improvisation for Talents so I'm going to go ahead with Improvisation to be able to adapt to a large variety of situations rather than be even more specialized. We also get a choice of improving our Reputation, Relationships, or Resources. As a woman living on the edge of society who has a reputation for being a bit harsh, I think Reputation is the way to go here. And I'm going to give her a Reputation of "Scaled Witch" as Reputations are short titles and honorifics that describe the reputation while providing bonuses in certain situations.
The next step is starting resources and equipment. We have Resources 0 and so just the basic starting gear of clothing, tools for profession and one weapon for which we have a focus. We don't have a focus for knives, but a knife would fit into the tools of a survivalist, so we'll give that to her.
Now we go to derived stats. Health is based on Profession and received no other improvement so that is 20+Con which is a total of 3. Defense is 10 + Dexterity, which is a total of 12. Toughness comes based on Constitution. Toughness reduces damage and functions differently depending on whether the game is played in Gritty, Pulpy, or Cinematic mode. That has more impact on gameplay and advancement and you can choose different aspects to be at different levels for a more varied experience if you want, so I'm not going to worry about it. Regardless of which mode this game is in the Toughness level is still 3. Speed is 10 + Dexterity yards, which comes again to 12 just like Defense. There is also an optional stat called Conviction which starts at 3 points at 1st level if your campaign uses it, so we'll note that down. Characters start with a minimum of 1 Relationship.
The next two steps are Goals, Ties, Name, and Description, so I'm going to note those down below in the collected stats after I create her traveling companions.
Phaedra Hollyoak
Gorgon Outcast Survivalist, Rebel
Accuracy 4 (Bows)
Communication 0 (Deception)
Constitution 3
Dexterity 2 (Stealth, Forgery)
Fighting 0
Intelligence 1
Perception 2 (Tracking)
Strength 0
Willpower 3
Health 23
Defense 12
Toughness 3
Speed 12
Resources 0
Defense 12
Toughness 3
Speed 12
Resources 0
Conviction 3
Relationships 1 (Dame Eillen D'Garosh)
Reputation: Scaled Witch (1)
Expert Living on the Fringe
Novice Improvisation
Light Leather (Warm furs)
Longbow
Longbow
Quiver of 20 Arrows
Dagger
Traps
Backpack
Camping Gear
Camping Gear
Dame Eillen sympathizes with Phaedra due to their shared non-human heritage.
Oskar Lintalos actually taught her some things about the origins of gorgons.
Geida Klaus has stood with her in battle.
Oskar Lintalos actually taught her some things about the origins of gorgons.
Geida Klaus has stood with her in battle.
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