Post by TheUdjat on Mar 5, 2009 14:59:28 GMT -5
First things first
Let’s talk about die rolls. There’s only one roll you’re every going to need to make, and that’s a d20. Period. So put out of your mind things like damage rolls, HP rolls, and all that craziness—it’s all resolved with a d20 now.
The concept is easy. D20 + ability +/- modifiers vs. Difficulty. It’s the same roll one uses for attacking something in D&D, or for a skill check, or to make a save. Sometimes there might be a contested roll which is exactly the same thing, except instead of a Difficulty, the ‘defender’ makes a d20 + ability +/- modifiers roll, and that becomes the Difficulty.
So, good, you’ve got that down.
Components of a Character
In creating a character, one needs to figure out several things. A lot of these are going to feel extremely familiar (in fact, most of it will). It boils down to these things:
- Background
- Ability Scores
- Character Class
- Combat/Saves (determined by class)
- Skills
- Feats / Power
Background
To make it easy for you—‘Background’ is where someone in a D&D game would put ‘Race’, only because True20 does not inherently support a setting with multiple races, it’s called Background. This is handy since, for instance, Ars Magica does not have multiple playable races. As such, it is less an aspect of racial identity and more one of... well, background.
A character gets several things from a background: Ability score adjustments, bonus feats, bonus skills, and ‘favored feats’. Most of those are obvious, but favored feats are feats that a character can take at any time, regardless of class (some feats are restricted to particular classes—you’ll understand later).
For simplicity’s sake, and for logic, I’ve created a number of Backgrounds for Ars Magica characters. Pick one and move on.
(Backgrounds)
Noble
Bonus Feats: Wealthy (+4 to Wealth Bonus), Connected (Can call in favors from time to time)
Bonus Skills: Knowledge (Nobility/Royalty), Diplomacy
Favored Feats: Literacy, Inspire
Merchant/Trader
Bonus Feats: Contacts (Faster Gather Information checks), Skill Focus (any Craft)
Bonus Skills: Knowledge (Geography), Gather Information
Favored Feats: Well-Informed, Skill Mastery
Peasant
Bonus Feats: Low Profile, Endurance
Bonus Skills: Handle Animal, Knowledge (Local)
Favored Feats: Improvised Tools, Hide in Plain Sight
Clergy / Scholar
Bonus Feats: Literacy, Skill Focus (Any Knowledge)
Bonus Skills: Any Two Knowledges
Favored Feats: Mind over Body, Master Plan
Retainer / Man-at-Arms
Bonus Feats: Weapon Training, Armor Training
Bonus Skills: Knowledge (Tactics), Intimidate
Favored Feats: Brute Force, Impromptu Weapon Proficiency
Woodsman
Bonus Feats: Track, Trailblazer
Bonus Skills: Survival, Knowledge (Nature)
Favored Feats: Tough, Diehard
Wanderer
Bonus Feats: Choose One General Feat
Bonus Skills: Choose One
Favored Feats: Well-Informed, Jack-of-all-Trades
Ability Scores
This is going to be both weird and familiar (but not weirdly familiar). There are no ability modifiers in True20—rather, the ability score is the modifier. In True20, all abilities begin at average, which is: 0. This is just like having a 10 in a stat in D&D. Accordingly, a score of +1 is the equivalent to 12-13 in D&D, and so forth. Same idea, but without the meaningless stat scores.
So, that in mind, all abilities start at 0, but you get 6 points to spend to raise them on a point-for-point basis. Nothing can be higher than +5. You can choose to voluntarily lower some of these to gain more points, but again, nothing lower than -5 (which is like a 1 in D&D). Anything less than -2 is ill-advised. Background ability adjustments can raise a score beyond +5, but there won’t be any of those in Ars Magica, so worry not about them.
Your ability scores themselves are familiar:
Strength
Dexterity
Constitution
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma
You know the drill.
Character Class
Actually they call these ‘roles’ but the idea is analogous. True20 comes equipped with just three roles, though the rules are available to make more. I’m not going to bother for the purposes of this Short.
Roles tell you several things—a lot of the same things they do in D&D. They determine Combat progression, Saves, Skill points, and available feats. They also determine Conviction, but that’s a concept we’ll leave out for now. The roles are:
Warrior – Any and every kind of primary combat character. Soldiers, mercenaries, archers, brawlers, knights, etc. Warriors get 1-for-1 combat bonus (this applies to both attack and defense), 4+Int skills, and Favored Fortitude Save. Warrior start play with 4 feats, one of which must be Weapon Training, and may choose feats from the General or Warrior lists.
Expert – Experts are characters that are skilled, be it in diplomacy, craftsmanship, stealth, or whatever it is that requires copious skill points. Experts get a 3/4 combat progression, 8+Int Skills, and one Favored Save (your choice). Experts also get 4 feats, all of their choosing, but selectable from only the Expert and General lists.
Adept – This is the class for supernatural power. In Ars Magica, for players, this means Magi. Adepts have a poor (1/2) combat progression, Favored Will save, and 4+Int Skills. They begin with 4 feats of their choosing, which can be from the Adept or General lists. More importantly, they can exchange any of these feats for Powers. More on that later.
A note about skills – Skills, as in D&D, have ranks. It’s the same maximum—level+3, or at 1st level, 4 ranks. True20 asks you to choose a certain number of skills which will all automatically be at 4 ranks—no skill point distribution until a character levels. If there is enough clamoring for it, 1st level could easily be done by skill points as well, though I find True20’s system to be easier and faster.
Combat/Saves
Your Combat Bonus applies to both attacks and defense, though otherwise it functions much like a BAB would in D&D.
For attacks, your combat bonus is modified by Dexterity for both melee and ranged (unless a certain feat is taken to use Strength for melee, this is NOT the default).
For defense, a character has two modifiers: Dodge and Parry. Which is used depends on how the character is defending. Dodge is used in most circumstances, and is equal to a character’s Dexterity (and any applicable feats/circumstances)—it represents a character actively trying to dodge. Parry can be used in melee as long as the character has a weapon or shield in hand, and is equal to a character’s Strength (and any applicable feats, etc). One of these numbers, depending on the attack, is added to the Combat Bonus to determine a character’s defense.
It’s a lot simpler than it sounds, trust me.
Saves are calculated almost exactly as in D&D, with the core trio of Fortitude, Reflex, and Will. These are based, accordingly, on Constitution, Dexterity, and Wisdom. There is also a fourth save, the Toughness Save. Whereas Fortitude is a character’s ability to resist poison, disease, and fatigue, Toughness is purely a character’s ability to take damage.
A character’s Toughness Save is his Constitution, modified by any feats, armor, or other bonuses. It cannot be a favored save for any class, and it never goes up (except by purchasing the pertinent feats). This is, effectively, a character’s HP. Whenever a character is hit by something damaging (typically an attack), make a Toughness Save to determine how badly injured a character is.
We’re not going to worry about the details of all that for now—all will be explained at first combat. Higher is better, but in general a Toughness Save will simply be a character’s Constitution.
Skills
Nothing new here, aside from the note earlier. However, Ars Magica being in the setting it is, certain skills are obviously not relevant, and have been removed. ‘Medicine’ was renamed ‘Chirurgy’, since the former is not quite an accepted concept. Note that roles do not have ‘class skills’. You can be a Warrior and choose Stealth or Knowledge (Whatever) if you want to. As long as it is justified in the character.
Also, a note about Languages. Because this is the Middle Ages, I’m going to employ a feat called ‘Literacy’. You must purchase it to be literate in the languages you know, else you can only speak/understand them—no reading/writing. It is on the Adept list, and indeed all Magi must take this feat, and all Magi must also know Latin as one of their languages. Sorry. It’s just one of those things. (Certain backgrounds will also be able to buy Literacy as a Favored Feat, such as nobles. Scholars get it automatically).
The skills are:
- Acrobatics (Dex) – Includes what was Balance, Tumble, and Escape Artist
- Athletics (Str) – Includes what was Climb, Jump, and Swim
- Bluff (Cha)
- Concentration (Wis)
- Craft (Int) – Must specify
- Diplomacy (Cha)
- Disable Device (Int)
- Disguise (Cha)
- Gather Information (Cha)
- Handle Animal (Cha)
- Intimidate (Cha)
- Knowledge (Int) – Must Specify. The D&D list is a pretty good one to work from, with the addition of Knowledge: Tactics.
- Language (None) – Must specify. Important languages in the setting include German (the local language), French (also fairly close), Latin (the official language of the Order of Hermes and therefore of magic, and also the language of scholars), Greek (also an ‘educated’ language, with Constantinople powerful), and... yeah. I wish I had something other than modern-equivalent languages to work with, but it’ll do. As in D&D, all characters know their native language (probably German) and their intelligence score in additional languages.
- Chirurgy (Wis) – This is a conglomeration of herbalism, local lore, and what primitive medical knowledge existed. It is equivalent to the Medicine skill, but not nearly as reliable.
- Notice (Wis) – A combination of Spot/Listen, and any other senses.
- Perform (Cha) – Must specify
- Ride (Dex)
- Search (Int)
- Sense Motive (Wis)
- Stealth (Dex) – Combines Hide/Move Silently
- Survival (Wis)
Feats/Powers
Okay, True20 has a ton of feats. I’d rather not go through the trouble of producing them all for the sake of a Short. A lot of them function similarly to D&D, others are fairly new, but for the time being, do your best to create a character with an idea of what kind of feats you want, and then I can offer a more targeted list of suggestions. Sound like a plan?
For those of you playing Magi, note that feats can be exchanged for powers on a one-for-one basis. Powers are, in short, True20’s system for supernatural abilities. Powers work a little differently than, say, spells—more like special abilities. There’s no x times per day limit, no spell levels, or anything like that. Rather, there is a Power Check.
A Power Check works a lot like a Skill Check. Your character is considered to have ‘ranks’ in supernatural ability, typically equivalent to 3+Adept Level (much like skills), though this can be reduced in custom-built roles (which we don’t have). This is modified by the pertinent ability of that character’s magical ability—in the case of Magi, Int. So, a 1st level Magus with +2 Int has a Power Bonus of +6.
Some Powers allow Saves. The Difficulty is 10 + Adept level + Ability, or 13 for the above example.
Some Powers are also ‘Fatiguing’. For these powers, an Adept must make a Will save vs. 10 + Adept’s level, or 11 in the above example (ability does not factor into this roll). Every successive use of a power within an hour’s time increases the Difficulty by 1. So flinging around a lot of powers in a short period of time can render an adept exhausted, or even unconscious. (Fatigue works a lot like Toughness, albeit with a different scale).
Powers run the whole range, from self-boosting ‘buffs’ to damaging blasts of energy, healing powers, mental powers, and so forth. Again, not planning to list all of them, but if you have a concept of where you want to go with a character, I will provide a more specific list of pertinent powers.
Questions?
Let’s talk about die rolls. There’s only one roll you’re every going to need to make, and that’s a d20. Period. So put out of your mind things like damage rolls, HP rolls, and all that craziness—it’s all resolved with a d20 now.
The concept is easy. D20 + ability +/- modifiers vs. Difficulty. It’s the same roll one uses for attacking something in D&D, or for a skill check, or to make a save. Sometimes there might be a contested roll which is exactly the same thing, except instead of a Difficulty, the ‘defender’ makes a d20 + ability +/- modifiers roll, and that becomes the Difficulty.
So, good, you’ve got that down.
Components of a Character
In creating a character, one needs to figure out several things. A lot of these are going to feel extremely familiar (in fact, most of it will). It boils down to these things:
- Background
- Ability Scores
- Character Class
- Combat/Saves (determined by class)
- Skills
- Feats / Power
Background
To make it easy for you—‘Background’ is where someone in a D&D game would put ‘Race’, only because True20 does not inherently support a setting with multiple races, it’s called Background. This is handy since, for instance, Ars Magica does not have multiple playable races. As such, it is less an aspect of racial identity and more one of... well, background.
A character gets several things from a background: Ability score adjustments, bonus feats, bonus skills, and ‘favored feats’. Most of those are obvious, but favored feats are feats that a character can take at any time, regardless of class (some feats are restricted to particular classes—you’ll understand later).
For simplicity’s sake, and for logic, I’ve created a number of Backgrounds for Ars Magica characters. Pick one and move on.
(Backgrounds)
Noble
Bonus Feats: Wealthy (+4 to Wealth Bonus), Connected (Can call in favors from time to time)
Bonus Skills: Knowledge (Nobility/Royalty), Diplomacy
Favored Feats: Literacy, Inspire
Merchant/Trader
Bonus Feats: Contacts (Faster Gather Information checks), Skill Focus (any Craft)
Bonus Skills: Knowledge (Geography), Gather Information
Favored Feats: Well-Informed, Skill Mastery
Peasant
Bonus Feats: Low Profile, Endurance
Bonus Skills: Handle Animal, Knowledge (Local)
Favored Feats: Improvised Tools, Hide in Plain Sight
Clergy / Scholar
Bonus Feats: Literacy, Skill Focus (Any Knowledge)
Bonus Skills: Any Two Knowledges
Favored Feats: Mind over Body, Master Plan
Retainer / Man-at-Arms
Bonus Feats: Weapon Training, Armor Training
Bonus Skills: Knowledge (Tactics), Intimidate
Favored Feats: Brute Force, Impromptu Weapon Proficiency
Woodsman
Bonus Feats: Track, Trailblazer
Bonus Skills: Survival, Knowledge (Nature)
Favored Feats: Tough, Diehard
Wanderer
Bonus Feats: Choose One General Feat
Bonus Skills: Choose One
Favored Feats: Well-Informed, Jack-of-all-Trades
Ability Scores
This is going to be both weird and familiar (but not weirdly familiar). There are no ability modifiers in True20—rather, the ability score is the modifier. In True20, all abilities begin at average, which is: 0. This is just like having a 10 in a stat in D&D. Accordingly, a score of +1 is the equivalent to 12-13 in D&D, and so forth. Same idea, but without the meaningless stat scores.
So, that in mind, all abilities start at 0, but you get 6 points to spend to raise them on a point-for-point basis. Nothing can be higher than +5. You can choose to voluntarily lower some of these to gain more points, but again, nothing lower than -5 (which is like a 1 in D&D). Anything less than -2 is ill-advised. Background ability adjustments can raise a score beyond +5, but there won’t be any of those in Ars Magica, so worry not about them.
Your ability scores themselves are familiar:
Strength
Dexterity
Constitution
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma
You know the drill.
Character Class
Actually they call these ‘roles’ but the idea is analogous. True20 comes equipped with just three roles, though the rules are available to make more. I’m not going to bother for the purposes of this Short.
Roles tell you several things—a lot of the same things they do in D&D. They determine Combat progression, Saves, Skill points, and available feats. They also determine Conviction, but that’s a concept we’ll leave out for now. The roles are:
Warrior – Any and every kind of primary combat character. Soldiers, mercenaries, archers, brawlers, knights, etc. Warriors get 1-for-1 combat bonus (this applies to both attack and defense), 4+Int skills, and Favored Fortitude Save. Warrior start play with 4 feats, one of which must be Weapon Training, and may choose feats from the General or Warrior lists.
Expert – Experts are characters that are skilled, be it in diplomacy, craftsmanship, stealth, or whatever it is that requires copious skill points. Experts get a 3/4 combat progression, 8+Int Skills, and one Favored Save (your choice). Experts also get 4 feats, all of their choosing, but selectable from only the Expert and General lists.
Adept – This is the class for supernatural power. In Ars Magica, for players, this means Magi. Adepts have a poor (1/2) combat progression, Favored Will save, and 4+Int Skills. They begin with 4 feats of their choosing, which can be from the Adept or General lists. More importantly, they can exchange any of these feats for Powers. More on that later.
A note about skills – Skills, as in D&D, have ranks. It’s the same maximum—level+3, or at 1st level, 4 ranks. True20 asks you to choose a certain number of skills which will all automatically be at 4 ranks—no skill point distribution until a character levels. If there is enough clamoring for it, 1st level could easily be done by skill points as well, though I find True20’s system to be easier and faster.
Combat/Saves
Your Combat Bonus applies to both attacks and defense, though otherwise it functions much like a BAB would in D&D.
For attacks, your combat bonus is modified by Dexterity for both melee and ranged (unless a certain feat is taken to use Strength for melee, this is NOT the default).
For defense, a character has two modifiers: Dodge and Parry. Which is used depends on how the character is defending. Dodge is used in most circumstances, and is equal to a character’s Dexterity (and any applicable feats/circumstances)—it represents a character actively trying to dodge. Parry can be used in melee as long as the character has a weapon or shield in hand, and is equal to a character’s Strength (and any applicable feats, etc). One of these numbers, depending on the attack, is added to the Combat Bonus to determine a character’s defense.
It’s a lot simpler than it sounds, trust me.
Saves are calculated almost exactly as in D&D, with the core trio of Fortitude, Reflex, and Will. These are based, accordingly, on Constitution, Dexterity, and Wisdom. There is also a fourth save, the Toughness Save. Whereas Fortitude is a character’s ability to resist poison, disease, and fatigue, Toughness is purely a character’s ability to take damage.
A character’s Toughness Save is his Constitution, modified by any feats, armor, or other bonuses. It cannot be a favored save for any class, and it never goes up (except by purchasing the pertinent feats). This is, effectively, a character’s HP. Whenever a character is hit by something damaging (typically an attack), make a Toughness Save to determine how badly injured a character is.
We’re not going to worry about the details of all that for now—all will be explained at first combat. Higher is better, but in general a Toughness Save will simply be a character’s Constitution.
Skills
Nothing new here, aside from the note earlier. However, Ars Magica being in the setting it is, certain skills are obviously not relevant, and have been removed. ‘Medicine’ was renamed ‘Chirurgy’, since the former is not quite an accepted concept. Note that roles do not have ‘class skills’. You can be a Warrior and choose Stealth or Knowledge (Whatever) if you want to. As long as it is justified in the character.
Also, a note about Languages. Because this is the Middle Ages, I’m going to employ a feat called ‘Literacy’. You must purchase it to be literate in the languages you know, else you can only speak/understand them—no reading/writing. It is on the Adept list, and indeed all Magi must take this feat, and all Magi must also know Latin as one of their languages. Sorry. It’s just one of those things. (Certain backgrounds will also be able to buy Literacy as a Favored Feat, such as nobles. Scholars get it automatically).
The skills are:
- Acrobatics (Dex) – Includes what was Balance, Tumble, and Escape Artist
- Athletics (Str) – Includes what was Climb, Jump, and Swim
- Bluff (Cha)
- Concentration (Wis)
- Craft (Int) – Must specify
- Diplomacy (Cha)
- Disable Device (Int)
- Disguise (Cha)
- Gather Information (Cha)
- Handle Animal (Cha)
- Intimidate (Cha)
- Knowledge (Int) – Must Specify. The D&D list is a pretty good one to work from, with the addition of Knowledge: Tactics.
- Language (None) – Must specify. Important languages in the setting include German (the local language), French (also fairly close), Latin (the official language of the Order of Hermes and therefore of magic, and also the language of scholars), Greek (also an ‘educated’ language, with Constantinople powerful), and... yeah. I wish I had something other than modern-equivalent languages to work with, but it’ll do. As in D&D, all characters know their native language (probably German) and their intelligence score in additional languages.
- Chirurgy (Wis) – This is a conglomeration of herbalism, local lore, and what primitive medical knowledge existed. It is equivalent to the Medicine skill, but not nearly as reliable.
- Notice (Wis) – A combination of Spot/Listen, and any other senses.
- Perform (Cha) – Must specify
- Ride (Dex)
- Search (Int)
- Sense Motive (Wis)
- Stealth (Dex) – Combines Hide/Move Silently
- Survival (Wis)
Feats/Powers
Okay, True20 has a ton of feats. I’d rather not go through the trouble of producing them all for the sake of a Short. A lot of them function similarly to D&D, others are fairly new, but for the time being, do your best to create a character with an idea of what kind of feats you want, and then I can offer a more targeted list of suggestions. Sound like a plan?
For those of you playing Magi, note that feats can be exchanged for powers on a one-for-one basis. Powers are, in short, True20’s system for supernatural abilities. Powers work a little differently than, say, spells—more like special abilities. There’s no x times per day limit, no spell levels, or anything like that. Rather, there is a Power Check.
A Power Check works a lot like a Skill Check. Your character is considered to have ‘ranks’ in supernatural ability, typically equivalent to 3+Adept Level (much like skills), though this can be reduced in custom-built roles (which we don’t have). This is modified by the pertinent ability of that character’s magical ability—in the case of Magi, Int. So, a 1st level Magus with +2 Int has a Power Bonus of +6.
Some Powers allow Saves. The Difficulty is 10 + Adept level + Ability, or 13 for the above example.
Some Powers are also ‘Fatiguing’. For these powers, an Adept must make a Will save vs. 10 + Adept’s level, or 11 in the above example (ability does not factor into this roll). Every successive use of a power within an hour’s time increases the Difficulty by 1. So flinging around a lot of powers in a short period of time can render an adept exhausted, or even unconscious. (Fatigue works a lot like Toughness, albeit with a different scale).
Powers run the whole range, from self-boosting ‘buffs’ to damaging blasts of energy, healing powers, mental powers, and so forth. Again, not planning to list all of them, but if you have a concept of where you want to go with a character, I will provide a more specific list of pertinent powers.
Questions?
