From: Ghost Dancer (SPB1@vms.bton.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 08 Feb 1993 - 16:41:00 EET
I have recently been putting a few ideas together for a new character
generation system, although it is not anywhere near complete I thought
it might be of interest to some people to see a rough of the system I
am working on. As always any thoughts or suggestions are most welcome.
At the start of character generation roll to determine the characters parental social standing, this is a reflection of the parents level of importance within the local community. Parental social standing is determined by rolling D100+40. The parents social class can then be found by looking at the following table:
01-60 Low
61-120 Middle
121+ High
Next determine the parental occupation, this will be the player characters initial occupation during character generation. Occupation is determined by rolling D100 + Social Standing, and refering to the occupation table for the relevant culture:
Example:
Primitive
01-100 Low Class Occupations (i.e. Herder) 101-200 Middle Class Occupations (i.e. Hunter, Warrior) 201-300 High Class Occupations (i.e.Noble, Shaman)
As can be seen from this table it is possible for a middle class character to have either a low or high class occupation, this reflects the fact that people can be either climbing or descending the social ladder.
The character starts with the same occupation as their parent, skills appropriate to the occupation are expressed as the percentage chance that a skill increase roll can be taken for each year.
Example:
Hunter skills (per year) : Sneak (55%); Listen (60%); Track (45%)
a primitive hunter has a 55% chance of receiving a skill increase chance each year, if the character rolled 42% then they could then proceed to make a skill increase roll for Sneak and if successful gain the normal gain.
Also at the end of each year of training the character must roll on the social change table below:
Social Changes table
(D100)
01-10 -1D10SS 11-90 No change 91-00 +1D10SS
The modifiers apply immediately to the characters Social Standing and reflect changes in peoples attitudes to the character based on good or bad deeds done during the last year. If the change in SS causes the character to move into a new social band then the character must immediately reroll for their occupation and continue character generation with the new occupation. This forced change in occupation reflects a character being offered different jobs as peoples attitude towards them changes.
Example:
Hroth the primitive hunter has a SS of 65, during his third year as a hunter he fell into a hole whilst not looking where he was going and frightened off the herd of bison that the hunting party had been stalking for two hours (the player rolled SS-7, so new SS = 58). After this the other hunters refused to go hunting with such a clumsy oaf again so the tribal elders decided that perhaps Hroth would be better looking after the Goats (Reroll occupation and came out as a Herder [D100 = 25+58 = 83]). During the next year Hroth fights off a group of wolves that were menacing the flock and is proclaimed a hero (SS+9, so new ss = 67), Hroth once again is welcomed by the hunters (Reroll occupation and came out at 55+67 = 122 "Hunter").
The advantages of this system for character generation is that two characters with identical stats in identical occupations for an identical number of years will still end up with a different set of skills.
The benefits of having a Social Standing characteristic for players
and NPC's is that it provides a good indicator of Player/NPC reactions
(Would the Yelmalio Rune Lord really talk to a Primitive Goat
Herder?). Also the players Social Standing would make a good
additional test for players trying to become Priests etc.. Bonuses or
penalties to a players SS could be awarded by the GM dependant on
deeds done and playing in character.
._
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