BattleTech 3025 - Recruitment - A Time of War and Total Warfare

[JFD99]

Say hypothetically that you pick all the life modules you want and all together they end up costing 3000 xp. So your initial 5000, minus the cost of 3000, you have 2000 left. You can now spend those last 2000 points on any attribute, trait, or skill you want (with a 1 xp spent to 1 xp gained ratio). At that point, you're basically in "points-only character creation".

So with whatever points you end up with, you probably want to make sure you put at least some into your language(s) of choice.

The only thing life modules really do is help you come up with ideas for the life your character has lived. Life modules also give you some bonus xp (a module's cost is usually less than the sum of its rewards), at the cost of "forcing" you to buy into some fluffier skills; like Interest/Something, instead of dumping all your points into Piloting/'Mechs.

Flexible xp, as well as the xp left over once you're done with life modules, as stated above.

I think an aerospace pilot would be cool, but it's a little bit more rules to learn for when combat starts.

You can totally be the dropship pilot. And there are rules for dropships partaking in 'Mech combat if you ever really want to.


A note about what skills to get:

Language proficiency in A Time of War

"the character is generally considered to be automatically successful at understanding any language for which he has a Skill Level of 0 (though he will speak it with a pronounced local accent), and with basic reading comprehension possible at Level 1 (unless the character has the Illiterate Trait; see p. 119). At Level 2, the character attains enough ability in the language that he can be understood by another character who has only recently learned the words himself (effectively eradicating the worst of his accent), while a character at Level 3 is considered fluent. At a Skill Level of 4 or higher, the character’s command of the language is considered excellent, with an expanded vocabulary and clear enough enunciation to be easily understood anywhere the language is spoken."

You probably want to have at least skill level 3 in your primary language.

You also probably want a decent skill level in Pilot/yourVehicle and Gunnery/yourVehicle. I'd recommend at least 4 for each.

Excellent, that answers my question, thank you :) I wasn't sure if you could mix Life Modules and Points-only methods. I'll have a character up tonight if all goes well ^^

[Stendarr]

Excellent, that answers my question, thank you :) I wasn't sure if you could mix Life Modules and Points-only methods. I'll have a character up to tonight if all goes well ^^

I'm excited to see it!

That's a bit weird, given a lot of the example characters only have a skill level of one in their nativelanguage, that said I'll take another pass at sorting my sheet. I am more than happy to adjust her to being a mechwarrior if that's easier. I would actually sort of prefer assigned mechs, having to make do- (I have my favourite lights but I do love the underdog value of being given a less good one)

I will definitely assign 'Mechs to all those who don't have a real preference (or would prefer not to stick with their favorites).

About the language thing, you're totally right. I had never noticed that before. It is very weird. But I think there's plenty of xp going around that you can afford to drop 50 into your mother tongue.

I should also mention a couple of other important skills: Perception and sensor operation. As with most RPGs being perceptive is good, and sensor operation is basically perception while in your vehicle. I will try and not make those checks too abundant, but you might enjoy having them.

[Stendarr]

Character Sheet

Name: Noele Tata
Age: 19
Sex: Female
Height: 5'3
Physical Description: (Will be coming with some messing with a character editor)
Personality Description: Noele is that rare oxymoron, a loyal mercenary, the company took her from a meagre existance and gave her a life that many could only dream of and she darn well knows it. She is revolted at the idea of collatoral damage, taking the view that war should be as clean and military as possible, she'll be the boring one to bring up the Ares Conventions at the drop of a hat. That said, outside of military enguagements she's a happy and friendly face always keen to get to know people and perpetually shy around anything more than that after flirting with mecenaries who had little time for a growing girl.

Background: Noele has not had the easiest life in the world her parents taken from her at an early age and years spent trying to survive on the streets before a mercenary looked at the pitiable child and decided to take her under their wing, her family name lost to the ruins of her hometown, she was given the surname for unidentified bodies Tata. Growing into puberty among the mercenaries she grew to think of them as a family (Though her crushes on different adult members of this family were highly awkward for all involved.) Expressing enthusiasm for aeronautics and helping around the dropship for repairs a bargain was struck with the growing girl, she would learn to pilot the craft that captured the imaginations of so many in the outworlds alliance in exchange, she would work damnably hard and they would have her services with only the minimum of actual pay till the debt was cleared. Realising a lack of oppertunity should she reject the offer, she accepted and threw herself into her learning.  She began running actual operations at the somewhat tender age of 15 and has been flying her beloved <foo> ever since. Her debt now clear as a new contract begins, the now young woman is downright thirsty for a real payday.
Sexual Tendencies and Preferences: (Sexuality, Fetishes, whatever you want)
Player Ons and Offs:

Attributes:
STR: 3 (-1)
DEX: 4 (0)
BOD: 4 (0)
RFL: 5 (0)
INT: 4 (0)
WIL: 3 (-1)
CHA: 3 (-1)
EDG: 4 (0)

Traits:
Connections (1) - Mercenary Community
Tech Empath (3)
G-tolerance (1)
Toughness (3)
Sixth Sense (4)
Enemy (-1)
Equipped (-1)
Wealth (-1)
Compulsion/Traumatic Memories (-1)
Reputation (-1)

Skills:
Career Soldier (4)
Driving Ground Vee (0)
Interest Holo-games (3)
Streetwise/Outworlds (2)
Survival/Urban (1)
Language/ French (1)
Language/ English (0)
Leadership (0)
Martial Arts (2)
Medtech (2)
Navigation space (2)
Negotiation (3)
Perception (2)
Protocol Mercenary (2)
Tactics Space (1)
Technician Areonautics (2)
Pilot/Aerospace (5)
Gunner/Aerospace (4)
Sensor Ops (2)     

Equipment:
Heh, yeah not from this background

C-Bills:100

I like her quite a bit. She seems a little light on xp though, but I haven't tried breaking all the numbers down yet.

Tell me a little bit about her Reputation and Enemy traits. Who/why/where is she not liked? You should also tell me about what might trigger her compulsion trait.

Also, you should try and keep your xp in your attributes, traits, and skills displayed because during gameplay you're going to receive xp that might not constitute an entire level up.

I like the reference to the Ares Conventions. Getting me hyped for some BattleTech. My friends in real life aren't very interested.

Overall good job, she seems like a cutie.

Character Sheet

Name: Commander Anastasia "Cool Callsign" Hawkwood
Age: Late 20s
Sex: Female
Height: 1m73
Physical Description: Sleight of build and fine-boned, she's clearly built for speed rather than power. Whilst petite, she's not particularly graceful; there's more of a strut and swagger than glide to her movements. She keeps her hair cut helmet-compliant short and is always well turned out but very rarely made up.
Personality Description: Anastasia liked the aviator-cool of being a navy pilot; for all their posturing and cockiness, even the Atlas-drivers still need to be picked up and dropped off. And that was her - cool, collected, and effortlessly confident. Friendly and always eager to swap stories, she's equally at home in a bar as in a flight-seat. She does her best to hide the more refined aspects of her childhood, but will happily babble about flower-gardens, and formal balls and cotillions when drunk.
Background: Whilst others may look at the Magistracy's armed forces and laugh, those that serve in them - generation after generation - have a quiet pride in what they've accomplished. One such family are the Hawkwoods. Generation after generation, they've sent their children off to keep the peace in the Magistracy. And so it was only natural that young Anastasia would leave to join the MAF. Shorter and a little frailer than average, she struggled through her military education. Things came to a head in her final year of the military school she attended when her parents both died mysteriously in an accident. Rather than inherit her mother's title, her 'kindly' aunt Tabitha stepped in to take care of things and let the young Anna "focus on her education." Even when her majority came, Tabitha wouldn't fully relinquish Anastasia's birthright, instead - and only grudgingly - ceding control to a tiny fraction of the Hawkwood estate. Initially, this didn't bother Anastasia particular; she had more important things to worry about - learning to fly the various military spacecraft within the MAF. Having done her duty, and ready to return home to consider her options, Anastasia was met with an attempt on her life. Putting the pieces together, she realised that Tabitha wanted to make her claim on the Hawkwood title complete and total! Fearing for her life, retired MAF pilot fled into the black, looking for work as a mercenary pilot. She tries to avoid talking about her home, and certainly won't mention her title (or claim thereto).
Sexual Tendencies and Preferences: (Sexuality, Fetishes, whatever you want)
Player Ons and Offs:

Attributes:
STR: 3 (-1)
DEX: 4 (0)
BOD: 4 (0)
RFL: 5 (0)
INT: 4 (0)
WIL: 3 (-1)
CHA: 4 (0)
EDG: 4 (0)

Traits:
Equipped (1) C/B/C
Gregarious (1)
Title (4) Baronet  (Heir)
Property (1): A chunk of undeveloped mountain. Gee thanks, Aunt Tabitha...
Rank (2): Commander MAF
Fast Learner (3)

Enemy (-2): Aunt Tabitha Hawkwood
Glass Jaw (-1): Cannot take a punch
Compulsion (-1): Blend in / Hide her noble past / speak like a commoner
Wealth (-1) Broke AF

Skills:
Streetwise / Mag - 16 (0)
MedTech / General - 64 (3)

Art / Dance - 16 (0)
Interest / Botany - 24 (1)
Interest / Military History - 40 (2)
Language: English - 96 (4)
Protocol / Mag - 64 (3)
Negotiation - 24 (1)
Perception - 16 (0)

Pilot: DropShip - 96 (4)
Computers - 40 (2)

Martial Arts - 64 (3)
Melee Weapons - 16 (0)
Small Arms - 40 (2)

Running - 16 (0)
Swimming - 24 (1)

Training - 24 (1)
Strategy - 16 (0)

Career / DS Pilot - 64 (3)
Comms / Conventional - 24 (1)
Nav / Space - 64 (3)
Sensor Ops - 24 (1)
Zero-G Ops - 64 (3)
Gunnery: Spacecraft - 64 (3)

Equipment:
(Some really cool stuff, because my lifepath REALLY wanted me to be Equipped :( )

C-Bills:
100

I like the vibe she's got going on.

You called her short a few times in the description, but 173cm is 5' 8" by my calculations.

It seems like you went with "Optimising Leftover Points", which means the Glass Jaw trait needs to be -3. Meaning you either need to go with -3 on Glass Jaw, which would give you 200 xp, or you need to pay 100 xp to have it removed.

In A Time of War, "the Rank Trait reflects the character’s present active-duty rank. If the character later leaves the organization or moves to a different one that does not acknowledge the rank structure the character’s Rank Trait (and all authority and pay that go with it) may be forfeit, reducing this Trait to a value of 0 TPs."

Seeing as Anastasia is retired her pervious military rank wouldn't apply currently. Since from it she would garner no benefits or hold any responsibilities.

I'd like to ask what sort of benefits you imagine from her heirship? 400 xp is quite a bit to put into a trait, and I'd like to provide you with benefits for it.

I would also like to know what kind of things would trigger her compulsion trait.

Besides those nitpicks she's looking good. I'm going to try my best to have Aunt Tabitha be relevant at some point.

[JFD99]

Last question before I go to bed:

When I take life modules, am I supposed to count the XP cost of all skills, traits and attributes it gives off my 5,000 XP pool in addition to the module itself?

Because when I add it all up I'm WAY overdraft and I haven't even picked attributes and extra traits/skills yet. 😱

I'm obviously doing something wrong.

[TFcommando]

I was wondering about Reputation and Enemy myself.  Since we're way on the fringe of inhabited space, having them relating to Inner Sphere powers, while it makes sense character-wise, isn't too likely to be an actual disadvantage.  A lot of the Compulsion/dislike/fear/hate ones too.  The most important rule of disadvantages is that they have to be a disadvantage or they're not worth any points. 

Edit: Sexy aspect to the Kurita character... the Combine's noble society that she's from is pretty repressed and uptight, and wives have to be particularly proper when running a household.  Now that all that's behind her, she's been exploring and discovering a lot of new sexual interests. 

And a bit more, she went through military school and was an excellent Mechwarrior herself, but there was a need for an arranged marriage between the families of her and her Mechwarrior husband, so she was the one who had to settle down and be domestic.

[Hawkwood]

My initial plan was to use the Classic Battletech: Companion lifepath and then covert to ATOW but I ended up:

Losing a leg
Pregnant
Fighting in various wars...

So yeah. I rolled back to the ATOW one, even though it's much less "fun"

I'll adapt / update to your suggestions.

Rank: The lifepath was very insistent that I have some rank! If we're mercs up around the periphery, is there any point in keeping it?

Heir: I needed at least 5 points in Heir / Property / Wealth in order to qualify for nobility. I don't particularly want any in-game benefits. It just struck me as a very fun / funny character concept / idea. In terms of compulsion, she'll do her best to pretend to just be an "ordinary working class" person. Being an exiled noble heir seemed a little too extreme for "Dark Secret"

If we're going to end up as a ship full of women, I'll go and make an alternative dropship pilot - a Concordat bloke. Hell. I may well make both because I'd forgotten how wonderfully silly this system was

[Hawkwood]

The language thing really bugged me - because yes, all the sample characters are basically illiterate or can only communicate in grunts. It seems an unnecessary sink for already-scarce character points. Hell, as someone from the Magistracy I had to buy of illiterate, too - the only reason I have Language 4.

[Stendarr]

Last question before I go to bed:

When I take life modules, am I supposed to count the XP cost of all skills, traits and attributes it gives off my 5,000 XP pool in addition to the module itself?

Because when I add it all up I'm WAY overdraft and I haven't even picked attributes and extra traits/skills yet. 😱

I'm obviously doing something wrong.

Each module has a cost. That's all you pay for, but you get all the rewards mentioned. The life modules end up giving you more xp than you spend on them.

The language thing really bugged me - because yes, all the sample characters are basically illiterate or can only communicate in grunts. It seems an unnecessary sink for already-scarce character points. Hell, as someone from the Magistracy I had to buy of illiterate, too - the only reason I have Language 4.

I'm not really feeling that character points are scarce, but I guess that depends on your expectations. Level 4 Language and Illiterate comes out to only 20 xp though (which doesn't really make sense but whatever). Among 5000+ xp I don't think that's very much.

[Hawkwood]

I think I'm doing my maths wrong then

The only way I can buy off illiterate is to buy a language skill to +4 which means 120xp / 96xp with fast learner.

And I cannot simply buy off the illiterate I get from a periphery background with XP - I must necessarily buy the language up to 4: have I misread or misunderstood something here?

Looking at the samples:

Mechwarrior: English +1 / French +0
Tanker: English +1 / Romanian +1
Aerospace Pilot: English +1 / Japanese +0
Elemental: English +3
Faceman: English +3 / German +2

[Tavarokk]

What's the deadline for finished characters, by the way?

[Voidknight]

Oh... Nuts. I'm going to need to do a more extensive character rework than I thought, I bought off illiterate by paying off the 20xp it slapped me with in the lifepath with variable xp. Didn't realise until until now I needed to get the language skill to 4. Which of course means that I need to character optimise illiterate down to where I get the trait- which means I'd be breaking the 500 xp cap on penalties. Or does that not apply where it's bought off?

Thanks for the comments Stendarr, I'll work a little more on the areas I've neglected over the next few days.  My negative (And positive) traits were largely handed to me by the lifepath and character optimisation but I can work those out. I think the reason she looks light is that the lifepath handed her a couple of xp in some really expensive positive traits like tech empath, toughness and sixth sense.

[Stendarr]

I think I'm doing my maths wrong then

The only way I can buy off illiterate is to buy a language skill to +4 which means 120xp / 96xp with fast learner.

And I cannot simply buy off the illiterate I get from a periphery background with XP - I must necessarily buy the language up to 4: have I misread or misunderstood something here?

Looking at the samples:

Mechwarrior: English +1 / French +0
Tanker: English +1 / Romanian +1
Aerospace Pilot: English +1 / Japanese +0
Elemental: English +3
Faceman: English +3 / German +2

No, you're correct it's 120 xp, but if you consider the fact that you're canceling out a -100 xp trait then really it's only 20 xp invested. In fact, with fast learner you actually gain 4 xp if you take illiterate and language level 4.

If it's a life-module giving you illiterate you have to consider that they're giving you something else to offset it there.

But you can buy it off with xp as you can do with any other negative trait. The only special thing is that it has no opposite trait. It is instead opposed by a skill, level 4 language, and unlike with opposed traits, you don't lose the xp in language when it cancels out illiterate.

Oh... Nuts. I'm going to need to do a more extensive character rework than I thought, I bought off illiterate by paying off the 20xp it slapped me with in the lifepath with variable xp. Didn't realise until until now I needed to get the language skill to 4. Which of course means that I need to character optimise illiterate down to where I get the trait- which means I'd be breaking the 500 xp cap on penalties. Or does that not apply where it's bought off?

Thanks for the comments Stendarr, I'll work a little more on the areas I've neglected over the next few days.  My negative (And positive) traits were largely handed to me by the lifepath and character optimisation but I can work those out. I think the reason she looks light is that the lifepath handed her a couple of xp in some really expensive positive traits like tech empath, toughness and sixth sense.

The 500 extra xp from taking more negatives comes into play only after optimizing xp.

What's the deadline for finished characters, by the way?

You've got some time. I don't want to rush anyone. I'll probably decide on a deadline once a couple more characters come in. You have at least a couple of days still.

[Stendarr]

Rank: The lifepath was very insistent that I have some rank! If we're mercs up around the periphery, is there any point in keeping it?

Heir: I needed at least 5 points in Heir / Property / Wealth in order to qualify for nobility. I don't particularly want any in-game benefits. It just struck me as a very fun / funny character concept / idea. In terms of compulsion, she'll do her best to pretend to just be an "ordinary working class" person. Being an exiled noble heir seemed a little too extreme for "Dark Secret"

I'm giving you GM permission to take your 200 xp back from Rank and reinvest it however you'd like. You can still keep her backstory of having had a rank while she was in the military.

I was just asking about heir because 400 xp is a good bit to invest for not much benefit. I'll think about ways I can get you some bonuses out of it. Maybe we'll treat it like a Connections trait of sorts.

As far as the compulsion is concerned, she needs something that triggers it. Compulsion/smoking, for example, would be triggered if you went too long without smoking and would give you a penalty to rolls until you could get a smoke again.

You either need to find something that triggers your compulsion, like maybe if you go too long without indulging in something posh, or we can treat it like a Dark Secret. I think the name "Dark Secret" is a little dramatic on purpose. A level 1 Dark Secret is described as something "like lying about one’s political views or academic credentials on an application," which isn't really that big of a deal.

[Hawkwood]

I very much like the idea that the two pilots are illiterate.

"What does that button do?"
"I dunno"
"Let's find out!"

[Stendarr]

"Are you really sure you can fly a new ship without reading the manual?"
"Pfft, manual ain't never did anyone any good. Besides, the yellow one is always the landing gear."
"Always?"
"Basically,"

[Voidknight]

"You know, except when it's the ejection"

[Hawkwood]

"I told you I was red-yellow colourblind, right?"

The last words of the cockpit voice record before the Leopard class dropship disappeared from radar...

[Voidknight]

Much relief, the way this all works out when I run the numbers I actually have slightly _more_ xp when I gain my literacy the way I am supposed to!
As for Enemy, reputation and Compulsion, they are tricky ones- my knee-jerk would be thinking rival mercs for the enemies, mercenary captain is a suggested enemy type, maybe she spoke out about a Merc company doing something nasty, smeared their name with their current employer at the time? Not concrete thoughts, just musing.
Reputation- Maybe sort of low key disdain, an idea that she hasn't earned her place in the company is just there because <foo> is a soft touch?
As for the compulsion I was thinking maybe something along the lines of to do with collatoral damage? Not sure if that's either too specific or too vague. Parents were slain when a stray missile hit an office block or shopping centre of the like?

Going to do another pass on negative traits and then get the revised sheet up, apologies about not tracking the xp, removed the records during the optimisation process when it all rounded off neatly.

[JFD99]

Am I allowed to take "negative" versions of positive traits I got from life modules (effectively reducing them) in order to get some extra XP to spend?

Like Wealth and reputation that I got from my background.

[TFcommando]

I'm close to finished and I think my first attempt failed.  I was barely able to get two stats to 1 after going through all the modules, but I stopped short of the optimization process.  I also had 470 points in Rank, which isn't really relevant to this game, since it's Kurita military rank and she's burned her bridges but good there.  I'm going to try a straight 5000 point build based on what the modules had and see if that goes better.  Are XP penalties to the attributes bought off normally, unlike the traits cancelling each other out?.  So if you start with 100 points in Body, then have -75 XP to Body from a module, you've got to put 75 points in just to be alive and back up to a score of 1, then you start buying it up to desired levels from there?

850 universal xp
150 Kurita Benjamin
215 Nobility
500 military school
830 military academy
150 basic training
150 MechWarrior training
550 +150 OCS
800 Tour of Duty


I've seen some Shadowrun writers talking about templates on RPG.net and they remarked that the templates are often wrong because they were done with an earlier version of the rules than the final one, in part because they need to be in layout early on.  That would explain the lack of languages the ones in ATOW demonstrate.

[Hawkwood]

In case we end up with FemForce-Lady Squad, I herewith present my Plan B. He is DEFINITELY NOT A SPY. He'd still be the pilot, but granted - not as good at it as Anastasia.

Name: Ulysses Forbes / Artur Manning
Age: Mid-30s
Sex: Male
Height: 1m90
Physical Description: He has the thin frame of a spacer; tall and almost gaunt. He keeps his hair cropped short, because zero-G and long hair really don't mix. On the bright side, being a mercenary pilot means that his particular brand of scars, trauma, and tattoos fits right in.
Personality Description: Ulysses has had enough of the lying and the killing that come with a certain kind of 'government work'. He's therefore quite happy cruising the spacelanes trying to reconnect with a more balanced and humane life. He's even started to go back to church! He doesn't have anything to prove, nor does he have any strong motivation to try and excel.
Background: Forbes first experience of natural gravity was when he was 7. He spent much of his life in the strange community of interstellar nomads that keep trade and communications alive. He would quite happily have continued in the relatively carefree life of a merchant had it not been for a chance encounter with the Department of Military Intelligence of the Federated Suns. It had seemed so simple at first; deliver this package to their without raising questions, but then things started to snowball. He went from a passive asset to an active double-agent, and ultimately was recruited by the DMI. After several gruelling years at the Albion Military Academy, he was deployed along the eastern fringe of FedSun space, primarily on anti-pirate operations. Having spent his adult life up to the age of 32 travelling the stars, going to interesting places, and then doing unspeakable things to the locals, he decided that it was time to try something else. With all the naivete of Jarnfolk spacer arriving on Solaris, he resigned and took to the life of being a wanderer, ending up on the far side of the galaxy, working small piloting gigs in the Hanseatic League.  But can one ever really resign from the DMI?

Sexual Tendencies and Preferences: (Sexuality, Fetishes, whatever you want)
Player Ons and Offs:

Attributes:
STR: 3 (-1)
DEX: 4 (0)
BOD: 3 (-1)
RFL: 4 (0)
INT: 4 (0)
WIL: 4 (0)
CHA: 4 (0)
EDG: 2

Traits:
Connections (3)
Equipped (2)
Wealth (2)
G-Tolerance (1)
Alternate ID (2)
Rank (5) / Retired
Faster Learner (3)

In For Life (-4)
Enemy (-1)*

Skills:
Acrobatics / Freefall - 40 (2)
Acting - 64 (3)
Admin - 24 (1)
Art / Painting - 16 (0)
Career / Pilot - 64 (3)
Climbing - 24 (1)
Comms / Conventional - 24 (1)
Computers - 64 (3)
Crypto - 24 (1)
Demolitions - 24 (1)
Driving / SOMETHING - 24 (1)
Gunnery / Spacecraft - 16 (0)
Interest / FedCom History - 16 (0)
Interest / Space Pirates - 16 (0)
Interest / Holodramas - 16 (0)
Interrogation - 24 (1)
Investigation - 64 (3)
Language / German - 24 (1)
Language / English - 64 (3)
Leadership - 40 (2)
Martial Arts - 40 (2)
MedTech / General - 40 (2)
Melee - 24 (1)
Navigation / Space - 40 (2)
Perception - 96 (4)
Pilot / Spacecraft - 64 (3)
Protocol / FedSuns 64 (3)
Protocol / Hansa 24 (1)
Sensor Ops - 40 (2)
Small Arms - 64 (3)
Stealth - 24 (1)
Streetwise / FedSuns - 24 (1)
Streetwise / Hansa - 24 (1)
Support Weapons - 24 (1)
Survival / TYPE - 40 (2)
Tactics / Space - 24 (1)
Technician / Aero - 24 (1)
Technician / Electronic 24 (1)
Tracking / TYPE 40 (2)
Training - 40 (2)
Zero-G Ops - 40 (2)


Equipment:
ITEM - MASS - COST
ITEM - MASS - COST
ITEM - MASS - COST

C-Bills:AMOUNT

[Stendarr]

Am I allowed to take "negative" versions of positive traits I got from life modules (effectively reducing them) in order to get some extra XP to spend?

Like Wealth and reputation that I got from my background.

After the optimizing process (if you chose to do it) when you go into the "spend the rest of your xp" part you can gain up to 500 xp by taking negative traits, which would include reducing wealth from +1 to -1 or whatever (that example would give you 200 xp, meaning you could still gain up to 300 xp more from other negative traits).

I'm close to finished and I think my first attempt failed.  I was barely able to get two stats to 1 after going through all the modules, but I stopped short of the optimization process.  I also had 470 points in Rank, which isn't really relevant to this game, since it's Kurita military rank and she's burned her bridges but good there.  I'm going to try a straight 5000 point build based on what the modules had and see if that goes better.  Are XP penalties to the attributes bought off normally, unlike the traits cancelling each other out?.  So if you start with 100 points in Body, then have -75 XP to Body from a module, you've got to put 75 points in just to be alive and back up to a score of 1, then you start buying it up to desired levels from there?

850 universal xp
150 Kurita Benjamin
215 Nobility
500 military school
830 military academy
150 basic training
150 MechWarrior training
550 +150 OCS
800 Tour of Duty

Yup about the attributes.

It's fine if you treat your Rank trait as flexible xp in the case that your Rank trait is obsolete now.

Also, don't forget to spend flexible xp, it can go into anything you'd like (unless the particular module says otherwise).

In case we end up with FemForce-Lady Squad, I herewith present my Plan B. He is DEFINITELY NOT A SPY. He'd still be the pilot, but granted - not as good at it as Anastasia.

Character Sheet

Name: Ulysses Forbes / Artur Manning
Age: Mid-30s
Sex: Male
Height: 1m90
Physical Description: He has the thin frame of a spacer; tall and almost gaunt. He keeps his hair cropped short, because zero-G and long hair really don't mix. On the bright side, being a mercenary pilot means that his particular brand of scars, trauma, and tattoos fits right in.
Personality Description: Ulysses has had enough of the lying and the killing that come with a certain kind of 'government work'. He's therefore quite happy cruising the spacelanes trying to reconnect with a more balanced and humane life. He's even started to go back to church! He doesn't have anything to prove, nor does he have any strong motivation to try and excel.
Background: Forbes first experience of natural gravity was when he was 7. He spent much of his life in the strange community of interstellar nomads that keep trade and communications alive. He would quite happily have continued in the relatively carefree life of a merchant had it not been for a chance encounter with the Department of Military Intelligence of the Federated Suns. It had seemed so simple at first; deliver this package to their without raising questions, but then things started to snowball. He went from a passive asset to an active double-agent, and ultimately was recruited by the DMI. After several gruelling years at the Albion Military Academy, he was deployed along the eastern fringe of FedSun space, primarily on anti-pirate operations. Having spent his adult life up to the age of 32 travelling the stars, going to interesting places, and then doing unspeakable things to the locals, he decided that it was time to try something else. With all the naivete of Jarnfolk spacer arriving on Solaris, he resigned and took to the life of being a wanderer, ending up on the far side of the galaxy, working small piloting gigs in the Hanseatic League.  But can one ever really resign from the DMI?

Sexual Tendencies and Preferences: (Sexuality, Fetishes, whatever you want)
Player Ons and Offs:

Attributes:
STR: 3 (-1)
DEX: 4 (0)
BOD: 3 (-1)
RFL: 4 (0)
INT: 4 (0)
WIL: 4 (0)
CHA: 4 (0)
EDG: 2

Traits:
Connections (3)
Equipped (2)
Wealth (2)
G-Tolerance (1)
Alternate ID (2)
Rank (5) / Retired
Faster Learner (3)

In For Life (-4)
Enemy (-1)*

Skills:
Acrobatics / Freefall - 40 (2)
Acting - 64 (3)
Admin - 24 (1)
Art / Painting - 16 (0)
Career / Pilot - 64 (3)
Climbing - 24 (1)
Comms / Conventional - 24 (1)
Computers - 64 (3)
Crypto - 24 (1)
Demolitions - 24 (1)
Driving / SOMETHING - 24 (1)
Gunnery / Spacecraft - 16 (0)
Interest / FedCom History - 16 (0)
Interest / Space Pirates - 16 (0)
Interest / Holodramas - 16 (0)
Interrogation - 24 (1)
Investigation - 64 (3)
Language / German - 24 (1)
Language / English - 64 (3)
Leadership - 40 (2)
Martial Arts - 40 (2)
MedTech / General - 40 (2)
Melee - 24 (1)
Navigation / Space - 40 (2)
Perception - 96 (4)
Pilot / Spacecraft - 64 (3)
Protocol / FedSuns 64 (3)
Protocol / Hansa 24 (1)
Sensor Ops - 40 (2)
Small Arms - 64 (3)
Stealth - 24 (1)
Streetwise / FedSuns - 24 (1)
Streetwise / Hansa - 24 (1)
Support Weapons - 24 (1)
Survival / TYPE - 40 (2)
Tactics / Space - 24 (1)
Technician / Aero - 24 (1)
Technician / Electronic 24 (1)
Tracking / TYPE 40 (2)
Training - 40 (2)
Zero-G Ops - 40 (2)


Equipment:
ITEM - MASS - COST
ITEM - MASS - COST
ITEM - MASS - COST

C-Bills:AMOUNT

He's pretty good too, but I hope Anastasia gets to join us.

You can treat your Rank trait as flexible xp if it won't be of any practical use to him during the campaign.

[TFcommando]

After the optimizing process (if you chose to do it) when you go into the "spend the rest of your xp" part you can gain up to 500 xp by taking negative traits, which would include reducing wealth from +1 to -1 or whatever (that example would give you 200 xp, meaning you could still gain up to 300 xp more from other negative traits).

Yup about the attributes.

It's fine if you treat your Rank trait as flexible xp in the case that your Rank trait is obsolete now.

Also, don't forget to spend flexible xp, it can go into anything you'd like (unless the particular module says otherwise).

I saved it, then spent it all on attributes... the second attempt might go better for being more familiar now.

Had a new spin on the character I'll try out too.  Not a samurai wife, but a beloved young geisha/concubine to the goodly local lord.  (Not so goodly he wasn't fucking her though).  He granted her her wish for mech warrior training on the sly, the Family Training module instead of military academy.  The lord was still betrayed or forced to commit seppuku, and she avenged him and then had to flee the combine to keep her head on her shoulders.

Also, her mech should be that perennial Kurita favorite, the Panther!

[Stendarr]

I saved it, then spent it all on attributes... the second attempt might go better for being more familiar now.

Had a new spin on the character I'll try out too.  Not a samurai wife, but a beloved young geisha/concubine to the goodly local lord.  (Not so goodly he wasn't fucking her though).  He granted her her wish for mech warrior training on the sly, the Family Training module instead of military academy.  The lord was still betrayed or forced to commit seppuku, and she avenged him and then had to flee the combine to keep her head on her shoulders.

Also, her mech should be that perennial Kurita favorite, the Panther!

Nice, sounds good. The PPC on the Panther is scary for other lights. The character sounds like fun.


I'd like if everyone could get first drafts for their characters in by Friday, but I'm not gonna be too stingy about it yet. I would just like to try and gauge what kind of group we're gonna have.

[JFD99]

I'm in the last stages of formatting mine to post but I ran out of time last night. I'll post it later tonight when I get home. Background is written down and everything, so it shouldn't take long.

I made a Roman pretty boi xD