Character Generation

[AleBelly]

Yes, I was figuring at least one of his parents would be a fisherman, so he's following in their footsteps (part of the reason he has popular estrangement). So, huscarl and fisherman sounds like good parent occupations. Regarding weapon choice, I see that there are two general categories. One for determining SB and there are subweapons under that. So, when I'm picking the extra three for gladiator do I pick battleaxe or just axe? I guess I'm asking how specific that needs to be. Thanks!

Here is my psionics roll:

Psionics [1d20]=15

[Rex]

No psionics. You have a 14 Aur and it is Aur - d20 roll talent rolls, so 14-15= none.

I am fine with Fisherman and Huscarl for your parents skills (maybe your mother was a shieldmaiden) but you can only pick one to boost your skills from. Doesn't mater to me which.

For weapons the skill would be Axe and the specialty would be Battle Axe.

You already have Unarmed, Bow, Dagger, Shield, and Spear.

Need to add 3 more. Options are:
Axe, Blowgun (not very thematic), Club, Flail, Net (one of my players loves net/trident and very thematic), Polearm, Sling (same as Blowgun), Sword, and Whip

Spear covers trident, you could increase it 1 OML but I would spend an OP on that before using one of your gladiator weapon slots since they start very good.
Axe covers your Viking theme well, a good choice.

[AleBelly]

OK, I'll take the bump from the huscarl parent. To make sure I did this right I added a +1 OML bonus to Initiative/7, Foraging/4, Survival/4, Heraldry/2, Physician/3, Weaponcraft/2, Spear/6, Shield/6, Bow/5, Dagger/5, Seamanship/see Fisherman (if Huscarl parent increase Seamanship under Fisherman by 1), which adds a single multiplier to the SB if I'm reading that right. So, with a spear SB of 15, this PC gets a ML of 105...OML of 6 for being a clansman and taking the +1 bonus for the huscarl parent for 15x7 = 105. I hope I'm doing that right. If so, I'll then add the five options points and carry forward. Thanks!

I did choose axe to fit the viking background. I like the Net idea and it really fits well with his fishing background, so that will be the second. Will pick flail as the third...my understanding is gladiators needed to be flexible in types of opponents they faced. The flail will help where blunt damage is needed. Ball and chain as the specialty there.

[Marullus]

Dude, that's awesome!

[AleBelly]

Will start on contacts if that still makes sense...Aglegory Fisk (my PC name) is 29, so he has 6 contacts. I was thinking 3 came from his viking background, 2 from his gladiator days (Imperial) and 1 being feudal. I'll roll up the viking ones and hold off in case Imperial and Feudal don't make sense.

Contact 1 - Viking days
First one is unguilded. Rolled a farmer on the unguilded viking table. And I guess he's a bastard since I rolled unfriendly.

Contact 2 - Viking days
Rolled serf/slave. Vikings don't have serfs, so slave it is. And it's another farmer. Also unfriendly with this one, so Aglegory really spent some time pissing off viking farmers!

Contact 3 - Tharda days
Rolled church. Edit: To simplify I'll just edit using info below and go from there. So, this contact is a priest of Agrik. And I roll 8, enemy. Maybe that's why Aglegory left Tharda.

Contact 4 - Viking days
First cousin, aunt, or uncle. Rolled 93, close friend. Reinforces well the popular estrangement.

Contact 5 - Tharda days
Contact 5 [1d100]=91
Rolled a 91, so more work for you, Rex!
For relationship rolled a 96, so this is a close friend.

Contact 6 - Feudal
Another 91! What are the odds? Well, yes, 1 in 100.
Rolled 67 for relationship so this is an acquaintance.

[AleBelly]

Dude, that's awesome!

Yeah, I can honestly say I've never played a leper fisher/gladiator with a nasty gambling habit and questionable morals before. This should be fun!

[Marullus]

I do find that the steong randomization does push into characters you might not have imagined. Sometimes it is a bum result, of course. One friend ended up with a totally bland farmer with no reason or skill to lead to adventuring. Another friend ended up with a perfumer with no sense of smell (they stopped there and moved to another system).

For Ivinians, their culture orients around the worship of Sarajin, the Grey Slayer, the god who loves the act of battle (as opposed to the gods who love conquest or honor-combat). Who rides his sled through the winter and wields his axe and has all the legends of defeating the legendary beasts to make the world inhabitable. He has the Elkyri as his handmaidens, who have their own domains. We have an Ivinian Sarajinian priest (with divine magic) in the party, so your relation to the religion can be impactful in play.

[AleBelly]

Cool. Not familiar with the system, so this is helpful!

[Rex]

You are doing everything correctly. Nice choices. Blunt weapons rule against heavy armor but do less damage against light or no armor. The spear family is very effective so don't underestimate it.

For your church one since you were in Tharda as a gladiator at the time we will go with a priest of Agrik. Agrik is the darker god of war. Think of his mottoes as the strong rule and the weak serve or might makes right type. Throw in pillage, rape, and fire. If we were using D&D alignment the 3 gods of war would be Larani - good, Sarajin - neutral, and Agrik - evil. That said Agrik would be a lower case evil vs Morgath's upper case evil. Many lower social class individuals have turned to the Agrikan faith as they can get ahead and move up there since birth/social class is meaningless to them where Larani is the also the goddess of feudalism and nobility, so upward mobility is frowned upon as it upsets the order. Note that having a contact doesn't mean you follow the faith, only that you have know/have interacted with someone who did. They may be your friend or helped you out in the past, or maybe you helped them out. Doesn't mean you agree on everything, particularly religion.

Likely scenario is you were part of a Foulspawn (Harnic Orc) expedition. Maybe joining it finally cleared your debt. You were the muscle and are skilled with the net. I will come up with more details over the week and get you worked in very soon.

[AleBelly]

OK cool. I finished the contact rolling and edited the post above so all 6 are located in one post. Regarding option points, I used three to bump net up 2xSB and one each for weaponcraft and shield. Not sure what to do for starting equipment, and I'll pick Aglegory's bestie from aunt/uncle/cousin or the to-be-named Tharda contact later. But otherwise think I'm pretty much done. Will post the sheet when complete!

[Rex]

If you put an option point into Net it should start at SBx4. Net is 1 +2 for gladiator +1 for OP = 4 Gladiators start there 3 weapons at OML +2. I think they may be the only occupation that lists a skill that way but is what it is.

Sounds good. You can start a thread for your character or I will get to it once I have a little more time. I can do your equipment or you can have a go at it. You will start with clothing appropriate to your station. Backpack, some fishing stuff, waterskin, weeks food, fire making tools, 1 weapons for each weapon skill if you want (quiver and score arrows plus bow, not a hart bow). Nothing exceptional in your case. I will do armor and you get 120d to spend.

[AleBelly]

OK, good, I think I am doing it correctly then. Net starts at 1xSB, gladiator bonus puts it at 3xSB for ML, and using 3 option points gets me to 5xSB. I'll post in the character thread tonight with the pdf.

[Rex]

Yup, you are doing it right.

[AleBelly]

Ran into a snag. Was reading through the rules post and saw this:

Max Skill ML is 100+SB for all Skills except Combat Skills
For Combat Skills Max ML is the lower of 100+SB or Initiative+SB

So for my leper gladiator with an initiative of 88, that means combat ML tops out in the 90s depending on weapon. I had bumped shield from 98 to 112, but since the max is 88+14=102, that's a waste. So I'll reallocate it to physician.

[Rex]

Initiative is one of the most difficult skills to raise so I usually suggest when this problem comes up you put at least 1 OP into it. If you did that already then your path is probably good, otherwise you may want to do that and it will let you keep the higher weapons scores. Your call though.

[AleBelly]

Ah, it didn't register that I could use an OP for that. Would definitely make a difference. I'm going to rework and probably spread my 5 OPs across 5 different abilities (probably only use 1 OP for Net). Thanks for the input.

[Rex]

No problem. Like I said the first few times through character gen you learn something new each time.

[AleBelly]

OK, I posted the character and sheet. I will add contacts. Chose weapons and a roundshield. Will add equipment and will wait on the GM for armor. Was thinking quilt and leather but happy to go with your theme.

[AleBelly]

So I have 120d for equipment. Do I start with what was mentioned above (backpack, week's worth of food, fishing equipment) then spend 120, or does this come out of the 120d?

[Rex]

You start with what was mentioned plus the 120d.

A very quick look is good. I will do armor and his GM option contacts tonight and spend some more time going over his sheet to make sure everything looks good/makes sense.