2023-06-29

Making a Character with Lifepaths

Basic Assumptions

This is a more involved way of making a character. I do find this method generally more enjoyable if the point is to not make disposable characters.

Your character begins at 18 years of age, untrained and inexperienced. By the end of character creation, you’re assumed to have either retired from your career in pursuit of other goals or began traveling while still practicing your preferred profession.

Each Skill adds a +2 or +4 to a 1d20 roll. You only roll a 1d20 when doing something risky like shooting a foe in a firefight or trying to pick a lock under duress. The number you need to beat is often between 10 and 15. It’s a 16+ when in a Firefight and a contested roll during melee.

At times you roll with Edge or Slack which is rolling two d20s and taking the highest or lowest, respectively.

Apply multiple Skills to a single roll if applicable.

Roll 2d6 to determine your starting Social Status. Record the number and starting statement.

2d6	Social Status
2–7	Never invited to dinner parties. Your family falls under any of these types: (A) those who have never had wealth, (B) those who’ve lost wealth, and (C) exempt from the state. The game is rigged and you were not permitted to rise above your station.
8–10	Enforcers of the illusion. Your family was either luckily chosen to become of means or they’ve had a history of sustaining the status quo. Traditionally Petit Bourgeois educated enough to think they should lead the boat-rocking.
11–12	Disturbingly rich. An inherited silver spoon since generations prior and henceforth—effectively entrenched landlords.

Fluent Languages

Your starting social status determines the dice you roll for number of known languages. If you lack the native tongue of the starting region, presume you at least know the language functionally enough to survive.

Social Standing	Starting Language(s)
2–7	1d2
8–10	1d6
11–12	2d4

Roll or choose from below.

1d8	Languages
1	Bisaya
2	Ilonggo
3	Waray
4	Tagalog
5	English (British or American)
6	Cantonese
7	French
8	Spanish

Choose a Service

To gain skills and acquire resources before adventuring, you must enroll in a Service. There are five to choose from:

Drifter—amoral vagabonds with a mercenary outlook on life.
Outlaw—unfortunate souls who have the law on their scent.
Soldier—professional fighters for and rigid enforcers of the state.
Tradesman—individuals specialized in a craft or expertise (e.g. doctors, engineers, architects, artisans, craftsmen, etc.)
Scion—lucky ones who were born into wealth.
Merchant—rigorous acquirer of riches through travel.

You can enroll in a Service multiple times. Each enrollment advancing your age by 4 years. Each term of Service permits you to roll on the Skills Table. Each result is a rank in a Skill. You may only enroll 8 times before you must retire.

Enrolling into a different Service after each term is possible, but requires a different target result to be accepted. Always roll for the Service Change enrollment target even if the Service was taken at an earlier term.

Enrollment

Roll 2d6 to determine whether you succeed enrolling into your Service of choice. Roll +1 if you’re social standing is 11+. Failing the enrollment subsequently forces you to roll for your Draft, where the Service chooses you. Roll 1d6 and the result is your service for the term.

On the enrollment roll, you must also meet the minimum amount required to survive. Lower than the target means death—generate a new character.

Rolling high enough on enrollment also means you’ve served with Distinction and receive additional benefits. However, a roll of 12+ mandates an immediate second term in that same Service.

	Drifter	Merchant	Outlaw	Scion	Soldier	Tradesman
Enrollment	4+	4+	3+	10+	6+	5+
Draft	1	2	3	4	5	6
Survival	4+	4+	5+	3+	7+	3+
Distinction	6+	7+	7+	11+	8+	6+
Service Change	5+	3+	4+	12+	4+	4+

Any time you finish your term of service, you may Muster Out and choose a benefit.

Mustering Out

Whenever you end a term, Muster Out and roll once on either the Benefits Table or the Cash Table. Serving with Distinction grants an additional roll on either table.

Benefits Table

1d6	Drifter	Merchant	Outlaw	Scion	Soldier	Tradesman
1	2 Skills Table rolls	1d6 pack horse(s) and 1d4 cart(s)	1d6 pack horse(s)	2 Cash Table rolls	+1 to next enrollment rolls	2 Skills Table rolls
2	learn 1d4 language(s)	2 Skills Table rolls	+1 to next enrollment rolls	learn 1d4 languages	+1d6 Luck	1d4 pack horses and 1 wagon
3	+1 to next enrollment rolls	land and homestead	war horse	fine fighting cock	land and homestead	owned storefront
4	1d4 race horse(s)	learn 1d4 language(s)	2 Skills Table rolls	1d4 race horses	2 Skill Table rolls	1d4 loyal apprentices
5	1d4 loyal companions	2 Cash Table rolls	1d6 devoted followers	land and homestead	1 war horse	2 Cash Table rolls
6	2 Cash Table rolls	1d8 imported cattle	land and home	1d4 bodyguards	2 Cash Table Rolls	+1 to next enrollment rolls

Cash Table

At the end of character creation, 1000 is the maximum that can be carried on hand. The rest is deposited to a bank or hidden somewhere safe.

1d6	Drifter	Merchant	Outlaw	Scion	Soldier	Tradesman
1	50	100	25	500	250	100
2	75	300	50	750	400	250
3	150	500	75	1250	500	500
4	350	700	300	1750	750	700
5	750	950	750	2000	900	850
6	900	1500	2000	3500	1250	975

Skills

Whenever you roll on the Skills Table, roll only on the Service of your current term.

Criteria	Permissible number of Skills Table rolls
Initial term of service	2
Subsequent terms	1
Distinction	2
Mustering Out†	2

†Applies only if the benefit is rolled.

All Skills on the table can only be acquired twice. The second time raises the Skill’s modifier to +4. Re-roll freely should you roll the same Skill more than twice.

1d10	Drifter	Merchant	Outlaw	Scion	Soldier	Tradesman
1	Throwing	Diplomacy and Law	Riding	Etiquette	First Aid	Medicine
2	Gambling	Navigation	Shooting	Sciences	Filibusterism	Metallurgy
3	Folk Medicine	Etiquette	Throwing	Rhetoric and Poetry	Demolitions	Mechanics
4	Athletics	Gambling	Iron Liver	Performance	Gunnery	Carpentry and Masonry
5	Survival	Iron Liver	Knife Fighting	Diplomacy and Law	Athletics	Architecture
6	Fisticuffs	Performance	Survival	Horsemanship	Gambling	Animal Medicine
7	Quick Draw	Seafaring	Athletics	Shooting	Weapon Fighting	Navigation
8	Shooting	Intuition	Sleight of Hand	Athletics	Survival	Sailing
9	Riding	Forgery	Fisticuffs	Fencing	Fisticuffs	Sleight of Hand
10	Iron Liver	Rhetoric and Poetry	Performance	Medicine	Shooting	Sciences

Starting Inventory

When you finish character creation, you begin adventuring. Purchase your starting equipment. Prices are listed in the Gear section.

You have 12 Inventory slots. First 6 are quick slots, anything you can pull out at a moment’s notice. These could be things in your pockets, belt, bandolier, coat, or hung on your back. The next 6 require 8 seconds or more to pull out from your caryall.

Luck

Spend Luck points to add to 1d20 rolls. You may also spend Luck to have things go your way, if possible.

Roll 1d6 at the start of every session. You start with that many Luck points.

Aging

As you age, both during character creation and after, your potential Luck reduces.

A negative modifier to your starting Luck rolls is applied at age 38 and periodically increases following the rubric below.

Age	Total Luck Modifier
38	-1
50	-2
58	-4
70	-6

Last Steps

Don’t forget to name them.