Lisa is making a character for Tentacular Hack. She gets the character generation rules and 2d10 and a character sheet, as well as the templates, and gets started.
1. Roll Attributes.
She rolls 2d10 6 times, getting: 5, 15, 14, 8, 12, 12. Looking at the bonus and penalty chart, her rolls look like this. 5 (-2), 15 (+2), 14 (+2), 8 (-1), 12 (+1), 12 (+1).
She is going to have a total of +3, adding together all the bonuses and penalties for stats; a very good character. That 5 is worrisome, so she must identify what she wants to be very effective, and what her biggest weakness is.
She looks over the attribute descriptions, and their extra usefulness, and decides she wants an investigator based on “Murder She Wrote” mixed with “X-Files” for fun. Investigation is likely to be more useful than swordplay in this game, and she’s less concerned about carrying objects than she is about charming people and noticing clues.
Brawn: 5 (-2). Cunning: 12 (+1). Daring: 8 (-1). Commitment: 12 (+1). Charm: 14 (+2). Awareness: 15 (+2).
She notes the Daring penalty to defense class at the bottom of the sheet. She notes she gets a starting morale point because of her Commitment bonus. Her Awareness bonus of 2 gives her 2 extra staring languages; she chooses Latin and French. She also notes she gets 3 background points, by adding her Cunning and Charm bonuses together. She’ll spend those later.
2. Choose a Class.
She chooses Investigator (though she could have randomized), writing the class on the sheet, and adds a concept of “Consulting detective.” She notes down the inherent ability. She rolls 1d10 to get a random goal. She wants a Pulitzer Prize for breaking the story on the Mi Go! Since she is not a reporter, Lisa adjusts the goal, so she wants to expose the Mi Go to the authorities.
3. Choose a Talent.
Looking at the list, Lisa decides her character will be prim and bossy, but charming enough to get away with it. She chooses “Organize Investigation” thinking that can help the group of characters work together right away, and prove her value even if she’s not a gun-toting muscled clothes horse.
4. Starting Backgrounds.
She has 3 background points, determined in step 1. While she thinks it would be cool to take “The Good Life” and she has the points for it, she decides to randomize instead. She rolls an 8 (/2 is 4) and gets “Traveled.” She rolls again, a 9 (/2 is 5) and gets “Broader Horizons.” She is +1 on Commitment tests to handle mental stress.
She rolls a 4 for the next point (/2 is 2), so she has contacts. She rolls again, a 7; she has contacts among the wealthy.
She rolls a 10 (/2 is 5) for the last point, Reputation. She rolls again, a 4 (/2 is 2) for Consultant. She’s trusted and has access to more resources because she works with an organization. In this case, Lisa decides she wants her character to work with the FBI on weird cases.
5. Back Story.
She has the time, so Lisa does a quick fill-in of the suggested back story.
My birthday is August 4, 1951. My family is from Manchester, New Hampshire. My parents were professionals; my mother a cellist with the orchestra, and my father a mystery writer. I have 2 siblings, and I am the last in order. I was inspired to start my professional career by my father’s mystery novels and I started working as an intern with the local police, doing profiling. I first encountered evidence of the supernatural on a camping trip to the Appalachians when my sister was abducted by Mi Go. I never really got over that emotional loss. My best friend is Dexter, a police profiler in New Hampshire who taught me the ropes. My favorite sport/team is the New England Patriots. The best thing about my childhood was refined upbringing and a sense of adventure. The best part of my education was proving I was just as smart as the veteran cops.
To name her character, she takes “Angela” from one inspiration, and “Fox” from another.
Here is her finished sheet. OSH.TH Fox
