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As usual, I'll create a sample character to start play to illustrate how the system works.
So, starting off
1 - Male
2 - Female
Rolled 1d2 : 2, total 2
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Affiliation
1 - Suns
2 - Drac
3 - Lyran
4 - FRR
5 - FWL
6 - CapCon
7 - St Ives
8 - MoC
9 - Taurian
10 - Outworlds
11 - Bandit
12 - Minor/Independent World
Rolled 1d12 : 5, total 5
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As before, all Thresholds are set to 6, except for Edge which is set to 9. All Attribute Minimums are set to 2.
STR: 2/6
BOD: 2/6
DEX: 2/6
RFL: 2/6
INT: 2/6
WIL: 2/6
CHA: 2/6
EDG: 2/8
SOC: 2/6
Stage 1 Lifepath (cannot take Clan War Orphan or Trueborn) As a reminder you do not have to roll randomly for what lifepath you're taking
1 - Back Woods
2 - Blue Collar
3 - Farm
4 - Fugitives
5 - Nobility
6 - Street
7 - White Collar
Rolled 1d7 : 4, total 4
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Stage 1: Fugitives
Rolled 2d6 : 6, 6, total 12
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Rolling Twice
Rolled 2d6 : 6, 4, total 10
Rolled 2d6 : 6, 3, total 9
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OK, so the event roll and Stage 1 have given me the following:
STR: 2/6
BOD: 2/5
DEX: 2/6
RFL: 2/6
INT: 2/6
WIL: 2/7
CHA: 2/6
EDG: 2/9
SOC: 2/5
Skills
+6 Languages, +2 Perception (all Stage 1 lifepaths grant this)
+1 Streetwise/FWL
+1 Language
+1 Zero G Ops
+1 Interest/Any
Traits
Poverty 1
G-tolerance
...in addition, I can head to Military School in Stage 2, without having to buy my way in with Edge, so I can be more aggressive about using Edge later on.
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Stage 2: Military School
Rolled 2d6 : 2, 2, total 4
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And we'll spend that point of Edge Threshold right away for a reroll. Remember, in character creation, you can Edge multiple times on the same item.
Rolled 2d6 : 6, 6, total 12
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Well allright.
Rolled 2d6 : 4, 2, total 6
Rolled 2d6 : 4, 6, total 10
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I think that making friends with the Commandant is more apropos to someone who qualified for accelerated training in the Military Science field, rather than blowing up school property and having to pay for it. Spending 1 Edge to increase the 6 result to a 7. That's 2 points of Edge spent during this stage.
This stage adjusts my character record to the following:
STR: 2/6
BOD: 2/5
DEX: 2/6
RFL: 2/6
INT: 2/6
WIL: 3/7
CHA: 2/5
EDG: 2/7
SOC: 2/6
Skills
+6 Languages, +2 Perception (all Stage 1 lifepaths grant this)
+1 Streetwise/FWL
+1 Language
+1 Zero G Ops
+1 Interest/Any
+5 Academic/milHist
+4 Computers
+2 Leadership
+1 Rifles
+1 Martial Arts/Mil
+3 Career
+3 Cryptography
+3 Strategy
+3 Tactics
Traits
Poverty 1
G-tolerance
Promotion (if Stage 3 is a military academy or enlistment)
Contact (commandant)
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OK, moving to Stage 3. Here's where a rules change happens. As an FWL affiliated character, for each 2d6-based Stage 3 or 4 path I roll on, I gain +3 Free Points at the END of skill reduction. That is, after I reduce my leftover points, I get to add +3 points *back in* to my skills allowance for every one of those 2d6-based lifepaths. That's the equivalent of *9 automatic skill points* from the lifepath itself, which should go a long way to making up for the frankly overpowered lifepath results that Davion, Lyran, and CapCon characters get. Lots of affiliation qualify for the Free Point bonus, so check out page 3 of the Version 5 PDF to see who gets them.
Anyway, we're headed to a FWL Military Academy. I kind of feel that Fugitives should be able to qualify for foreign academies, but ah well.
Rolled 2d6 : 4, 6, total 10
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And we'll throw a point of Edge to bump that 10 to an 11.
You're goddamn right I'm at the top of my class. I'm motivated to go fight those damn Free Worlds Leaguers, in the name of the Free Worlds League.
Character record gets adjusted with the lifepath results, and then applies the MechWarrior AIT bonuses, the Special Training bonuses as optional for MechWarriors, and then applies OCS bonuses due to the lifepath result this stage. In total, it looks like this:
Age: 20 (16 start + 1 year Academy + 2 years AIT + 1 year OCS)
STR: 2/6
BOD: 2/6
DEX: 3/6
RFL: 4/7
INT: 5/6
WIL: 3/8
CHA: 2/6
EDG: 2/7
SOC: 3/7
Skills
+6 Languages, +2 Perception (all Stage 1 lifepaths grant this)
+1 Streetwise/FWL
+1 Language
+1 Zero G Ops
+1 Interest/Any
+7 Academic/milHist
+4 Computers
+8 Leadership
+6 Rifles
+4 Martial Arts/Mil
+8 Career
+3 Cryptography
+3 Strategy
+11 Tactics/Mech
+1 Protocol/FWL
+2 Swimming
+5 1st Aid
+3 Nav/Ground
+4 Gunnery/Ball
+4 Gunnery/Las
+3 Gunnery/Miss
+4 Pilot/Mech
+3 Sensor Ops
+3 Admin
+3 Bureac/FWL
+3 Pistols
+3 Training
Traits
Poverty 1
G-tolerance
Promotion 5 (1 from Stage 2, 1 from stage 3, 1 from AIT, 1 from Lifepath, 1 from Special Training)
Commission 1 (overrides all promotions to this point)
Contact (commandant)
Well-equipped 2
Custom Vehicle
Vehicle 4
Wealth 1
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So I'm up to Stage 4, and I'm going to jump in to Paramilitary Service, as allowed by virtue of having selected the MechWarrior AIT field, and which feels about right for a fugitive looking to get back at the people who kicked her off her family's planet.
This is a 2d10 field, so I do NOT get the bonus free points at the end for this roll.
Paramilitary Service
Rolled 2d10 : 9, 9, total 18
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What the hell, I've got edge to burn. Blowing a point of edge to up that to a 19, and rolling twice.
Rolled 2d10 : 9, 8, total 17
Rolled 2d10 : 3, 4, total 7
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OK, so I'm spending another edge to bump that 17 to an 18, because even thought I like all the skill points that 17 gives, the +2 years of time is rough. The 7 result is funny and can stick around, since it'll provide good backstory, and doesn't hurt me that bad.
Character record is now as follows:
Age: 22 (16 start + 1 year Academy + 2 years AIT + 1 year OCS + 2 years paras)
STR: 2/6
BOD: 2/6
DEX: 3/6
RFL: 4/7
INT: 5/6
WIL: 3/7
CHA: 2/6
EDG: 2/5
SOC: 3/7
Skills
+6 Languages, +2 Perception (all Stage 1 lifepaths grant this)
+1 Streetwise/FWL
+1 Language
+1 Zero G Ops
+1 Interest/Any
+7 Academic/milHist
+4 Computers
+11 Leadership
+10 Rifles
+8 Martial Arts/Mil
+12 Career
+3 Cryptography
+3 Strategy
+11 Tactics/Mech
+1 Protocol/FWL
+2 Swimming
+9 1st Aid
+7 Nav/Ground
+4 Gunnery/Ball
+4 Gunnery/Las
+3 Gunnery/Miss
+4 Pilot/Mech
+3 Sensor Ops
+3 Admin
+3 Bureac/FWL
+3 Pistols
+3 Training
+2 Running
+4 Seduction
Traits
Poverty 1
G-tolerance
Promotion 5 (1 from Stage 2, 1 from stage 3, 1 from AIT, 1 from Lifepath, 1 from Special Training)
Commission 1 (overrides all promotions to this point)
Contact (commandant)
Well-equipped 6
Custom Vehicle
Vehicle 4
Wealth 1
Dependent
Fast Learner
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Paramilitary training allows for any followup Stage 4 path which you otherwise qualify for, so let's go completely off the wall here.
Brotherhood of Randis.
Time taken: 1d6 years
Rolled 1d6 : 5, total 5
Event roll:
Rolled 2d10 : 8, 9, total 17
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Hell with it. One more point of Edge to take that to an 18.
Age: 27 (16 start + 1 year Academy + 2 years AIT + 1 year OCS + 2 years paras + 5 years Randis)
STR: 2/6
BOD: 2/6
DEX: 3/6
RFL: 4/7
INT: 5/6
WIL: 5/7
CHA: 2/6
EDG: 2/5
SOC: 3/7
Skills
+6 Languages, +2 Perception (all Stage 1 lifepaths grant this)
+1 Streetwise/FWL
+1 Language
+1 Zero G Ops
+1 Interest/Any
+7 Academic/milHist
+4 Computers
+17 Leadership
+14 Rifles
+8 Martial Arts/Mil
+12 Career
+3 Cryptography
+7 Strategy
+11 Tactics/Mech
+1 Protocol/FWL
+2 Swimming
+9 1st Aid
+7 Nav/Ground
+11 Gunnery/Ball
+4 Gunnery/Las
+3 Gunnery/Miss
+11 Pilot/Mech
+3 Sensor Ops
+7 Admin
+3 Bureac/FWL
+3 Pistols
+3 Training
+2 Running
+4 Seduction
+12 Academic/Theology
+6 Interest/Meditation
Traits
Poverty 1
G-tolerance
Promotion 5 (1 from Stage 2, 1 from stage 3, 1 from AIT, 1 from Lifepath, 1 from Special Training)
Commission 1 (overrides all promotions to this point)
Contact (commandant)
Well-equipped 6
Custom Vehicle
Vehicle 4
Wealth 1
Dependent
Fast Learner
Quirk/Honorable
In for Life
Title 5 (Knight of Randis)
Brave
Good Rep 3
6th Sense
Title +2
Enemy (2)
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And that ends generation. Normally I'd be compelled to take Tour of Duty: Randis, after that training, but I'm 27 years old and therefore past the starting age limit, so I have to start play at this point. That is NOT where I thought this would go when I started.
Attributes:
STR: 2/6
BOD: 2/6
DEX: 3/6
RFL: 4/7
INT: 5/6
WIL: 5/7
CHA: 2/6
EDG: 2/5
SOC: 3/7
I have 50 points to spend, and I have to set all of the attributes to their listed minimums. I'll spend 46 points (2 points for the 7th point of CHA since it's past my threshold value).
STR: 5
BOD: 5
DEX: 6
RFL: 5
INT: 5
WIL: 5
CHA: 7
EDG: 4
SOC: 3
My Traits look like this.
Poverty 1 - canceled by Wealth 1
G-tolerance
Commission 1
Contact (commandant)
Well-equipped 6
Custom Vehicle
Vehicle 4
Wealth 1 - canceled by Povery
Dependent
Fast Learner
Quirk/Honorable
In for Life
Title 5 (Knight of Randis)
Title +2
Brave
Good Rep 3
6th Sense
Enemy (2)
Poverty cancels out 1 (my only) level of Wealth. I will choose to sell back some of my scaled traits: Well-equipped 6 drops to a 2, and Title 7 drops to Title 5. I'll also drop 2 points of of Good Reputation. This gives me 8 extra Trait points.
Poverty 1 - canceled by Wealth 1
G-tolerance
Commission 1
Contact (commandant)
Well-equipped 4
Custom Vehicle
Vehicle 4
Wealth 1 - canceled by Povery
Dependent
Fast Learner
Quirk/Honorable
In for Life
Title 5 (Knight of Randis) (includes 1 free level of Wealth)
Title +2
Brave
Good Rep 3
6th Sense
Enemy (2)
With those 7 extra Trait Points, I'll hold 2 points in reserve to ensure I have 6 Trait Points available to purchase SPAs. I'll bring my Edge up to the maximum value of 5 as per the Threshold value. I'll spend 2 of my 5 remaining points on Vehicle, bringing it to Vehicle 6 (heavy Mech). I'll spend 2 points to purchase 2 additional levels of Wealth, bringing the functional total to 3 (after the +1 virtual wealth level granted by Title, see v5 ruleset page 6). The final point I'll spend on being Attractive, because why wouldn't you (and all the rest of the stuff I'd like to buy costs 2 TP or more)? So now my character record looks like this, before doing skills.
Attributes
STR: 5
BOD: 5
DEX: 6
RFL: 5
INT: 5
WIL: 5
CHA: 7
EDG: 4
SOC: 3
SPAs: 6 TP
Traits
6th Sense
Brave
Commission 1
Contact (commandant)
Custom Vehicle
Fast Learner
G-tolerance
Good Rep 3
Title 5 (Knight of Randis)
Vehicle 6
Well-equipped 4
Quirk/Honorable
In for Life
Enemy (2)
Dependent
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Skills look like it'll take a long time, but it's not as bad as all that. My current skill list is as follows:
+6 Languages, +2 Perception (all Stage 1 lifepaths grant this)
+1 Streetwise/FWL
+1 Language
+1 Zero G Ops
+1 Interest/Any
+7 Academic/milHist
+4 Computers
+17 Leadership
+14 Rifles
+8 Martial Arts/Mil
+12 Career
+3 Cryptography
+7 Strategy
+11 Tactics/Mech
+1 Protocol/FWL
+2 Swimming
+9 1st Aid
+7 Nav/Ground
+11 Gunnery/Ball
+4 Gunnery/Las
+3 Gunnery/Miss
+11 Pilot/Mech
+3 Sensor Ops
+7 Admin
+3 Bureac/FWL
+3 Pistols
+3 Training
+2 Running
+4 Seduction
+12 Academic/Theology
+6 Interest/Meditation
Of those, I separate out our campaign-tracked skills:
+7 Admin
+3 Bureac/FWL
+12 Career
+9 1st Aid
+11 Gunnery/Ball
+17 Leadership
+11 Pilot/Mech
+14 Rifles
+11 Tactics/Mech
+7 Strategy
Using the chart on page 4 of the v5 ruleset, these values convert to the following skill bonuses (with the remainder shown in parenthesis).
+2 Admin (1)
+1 Bureac/FWL (0)
+3 Career (0)
+2 1st Aid (3)
+2 Gunnery/Ball (5)
+3 Leadership (5)
+2 Pilot/Mech (5)
+3 Rifles (2)
+2 Tactics/Mech (5)
+2 Strategy (1)
27 points left over.
I take the remaining 27 points, and I that number to the sum of all the remaining unused skills left over (as per v5 rules pg 3, the Pistols skill is lost; there are 81 unused skill points), creating a pool of 101 unused points. I get to keep every 3rd point, so 108/3 = 36 free points. Additionally, because I'm an FWL character and I rolled at least one 2d6 event path, I get a bonus of +3 free points which are not reduced by a divisor of 3, making my final free point total 39 points.
I must first attempt to set my Gunnery and Piloting skills to +5 and +4, respectively. The difference between a +2 bonus and a +5 bonus is 22 points when using Fast Learner My Piloting is a +2 as well, and the difference between +2 and +4 is 13 points. With my final four free points, I buy a +1 skill rank in of Scrounge, and a +0 in Negotiation, so I can at least attempt to roll the skills.
My final skill block looks like this:
+2 Admin
+1 Bureaucracy
+3 Career
+2 1st Aid
+5 Gunnery
+3 Leadership
+0 Negotiation
+4 Pilot/Mech
+3 Rifles
+1 Scrounge
+2 Strategy
+2 Tactics/Mech
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Character Sheet (I'm heading to bed, but will update the sheet with Mech rolls and SPAs at a later point).
Attributes
STR: 5
BOD: 5
DEX: 6
RFL: 5
INT: 5
WIL: 5
CHA: 7
EDG: 5 (character has 3 Edge in-game; in-game Edge is half the edge score, rounded up)
SOC: 3
SPAs:
Jumping Jack (6 TP)
Traits
6th Sense
Brave
Commission 1
Contact (commandant Vincent Hawk, Allison MechWarrior Institute, Planet New Olympia)
Custom Vehicle
Fast Learner
G-tolerance
Good Rep 1 (Randis)
Title 5 (Knight of Randis)
Vehicle 6
Wealth 3 (+60,000 CB/month)
Well-equipped 2
Quirk/Honorable
In for Life
Enemy (2; Michael Iverson, Fuchida's Fusiliers, Planet Cascade)
Dependent - $2500/CB month support cost
Skills
+2 Admin
+1 Bureaucracy
+3 Career
+2 1st Aid
+5 Gunnery
+3 Leadership
+0 Negotiation
+4 Pilot/Mech
+3 Small Arms
+1 Scrounge
+2 Strategy
+2 Tactics/Mech
*1 reroll on Mech RATs from Title Trait
BattleMech: FLC-8R Falconer
(https://i.imgur.com/6YzHeL8.png)
Wingman 1: LT JG Leigh Montgomery
BattleMech: Thunderbolt (custom)
Wingman 2: SGT Ella Mars
BattleMech: WHM-7M Warhammer
Wingman 3: SGT Irene Thomas
BattleMech: TR1 Wraith
Techs
Natalie Watson, Veteran, 25 years old
Angela Constantino, Regular, 37 years old
Doctors
Francisca Beer, Elite, 25 years old
Starting Warehouse: 225 tons
Starting money: $845,000 CB (500k base + 6 months x 57,500 CB
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Rob, looking through your example, you forgot to apply your affiliation bonuses: Language +2, Art/Any +1. Trait effect only kicks in if you had prosthetics.
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Rob, looking through your example, you forgot to apply your affiliation bonuses: Language +2, Art/Any +1. Trait effect only kicks in if you had prosthetics.
I forgot about it, so they're lost. No worries.
OK, so my personnel transfers were Leigh Montgomery (and her Thud), Veteran Tech Natalie Watson, Regular Tech Angela Constantino, and Doctor Francisca Beer.
That means that Leigh Montgomery is my first Wingman automatically. I have two more to roll up. So I kindly ask the GM to roll me up two wingmen. "Sure", says the long-suffering GM. "What are your Wingmen's weight classes?"
In this case, I'll grab a Medium-class MechWarrior, and a Heavy-classed MechWarrior. Medium pilots are 3/3, while heavies start at 3/4. Note that the XP costs for increasing G/P scores are changed and higher, making your starting wingmen actually matter more. Likewise, we're allowing AtB to generate their starting SPAs, if any, which makes it more likely they'll have something useful than our previous system, which rewarded you for dumping your starting wingmen ASAP in favor of AtB-generated pilots.
Medium MechWarrior
(https://i.imgur.com/JxXZRmV.png)
Heavy MechWarrior
(https://i.imgur.com/JQoJrs2.png)
I'll drop the Doctor skill on Irene to give her a single point of Edge. As Ella already has one, I cannot do something similar for her.
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Next, I generate my wingmen's Mechs using the Appendix 2 Tables in the back of the book. Both wingmen are FWL, so rolling on the FWL tables.
Medium
'd1000' is not a valid dice string!
Heavy
'd1000' is not a valid dice string!
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Next, I generate my wingmen's Mechs using the Appendix 2 Tables in the back of the book. Both wingmen are FWL, so rolling on the FWL tables.
Medium
Rolled 1d1000 : 614, total 614
Heavy
Rolled 1d1000 : 787, total 787
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Right, so remember that you have to type in the NUMBER of dice in front of the dice type. "1"d1000, not just d1000. That was dumb. Apologies for the large number of deleted posts.
Anyway, so that looks like I have a TR1 Wraith for my medium Mech, and a WHM-7M Warhammer for the heavy.
Normally I could roll on the Heavy chart for my PC's Mech, because I have Vehicle 6. However, I ended up with Custom Vehicle, which I'm going to use to start play with that reposed Falconer mini I put so much time and effort into making.
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OK, character sheet and lance info above are finalized, so people can look over it.