Making a Character - The Free Form Game

Now that you have a very quick idea of the kind of situation the galaxy in question is in, here's a fast guide to making your character.

• Make what you think will be fun.
  
• Be inventive.
  
• Make your own race - and homeworld, if you want.

• Pick your poison ...
  Pick what basic character concent and what species you want your PC to be. Sample species can be found here or you can make your own up and it will be added. Then decide what to do for a living and think of a racial/personal history.
  
• Mix and match it
  The character sheet is quick, and to the point and a sample one is in below. You can also check out the ones in the players section.
  
  1. You begin with 120 points. These points are placed into the 4 stats, Strength, Speed, I.Q. and Appearance. Generally, 25 in a stat is the average among species and the maxiumum is 100. Add your Strength and Speed, and you have your overall Toughness.
     Strength: how much you can lift and carry. Also how bulky you are and how much damage you can do.
     Speed: How fast you move. Is used to draw and aim weapons as well as dodge attacks.
     I.Q.: You're IQ.How fast do you learn? How smart do you think you are?
     Appearance: Physical beauty. It can also apply to ones charisma but doesn't have to.
     Toughness: S.E. (Add Str and Spd, if you didn't see that above)
  2. Racial Abilities: This comes next and consists of any racial advantages or disadvantages your race has. Be creative, but reasonable. Psi is almost always an advantage.
  3. Skills: These are based on your I.Q. and consist of what you know how to do. Basically, you can use D&d 3e idea for skills for basic ones and make the rest up as you go along. Most Confederation education is very specific . . people pick thier path in life and learn the skills for it early on. Thus a PC would have a concentration of skills around their profession and other general ones learned from others and during childhood.
     As a rough guide, 1-7 points in a skill is learninig, 8-20 is medium proficiency in it and 21-40 is very good and 41+ means you're top notch at it.
  4. Quirks are anything else not a skill or covered in racial abilities. The amount of points you can spend on Quirks is based on Appearance and follows the same points level as skills.
  5. Weapons and Armour: Basic ideas for these can be found in the technology section. Run other ideas past the GM.
  6. Description: This should be racial and personal, as well as character history.
• Shaken or Stirred?
  Now that your PC and history is done, send him to the GM to be tossed on the web page and you're in! Games are currently scheduled at 9 pm EST in #Game1, but see the channel message board for any recent news.
• Drink up!
  Finally, keep in mind the points are just there as guidelines, NOT as the be all and end all. Don't agonize too much over them, since they're just in the game to prevent PCs (and NPCs) from going out and doing anything at all they wish to.

Sample Character Sheet:
Player Name:

PC Name:

Strength:
Speed:
I.Q.:
Appearance:

Toughness:

Racial Abilities:


Skills and Quirks:


Weapons and Armour:


Description:

Now ... wasn't that easy? Good. It better have been. Finally, for those stuck on character and racial history ideas, here's a quick list of basic questions to get you going ...

Why are you here? For PC, why at Outpost 1? For race, why do they travel, what impels them to leave their homeworld? Or home? Or why don't they?
What do you do for a living? For pc: Why'd you pick this for your life goal? For race: What is their species purpose?
What do you believe in? For pc and race: religious beliefs, superatitions, ideas they might have ..
How tolerant are you to your race? other races? Those born deformed? Cyborgs? Rock music?
How does family influence your life?
Do you have hobbies?
Do you or have you had relationships with others? Friends? Sexually? Do you have taboos about that?
What kind of social life do you have?
How educated are youi? What areas does that cover?
What makes you happy? Sad? Stresses you out?
What do you live for? Would kill for? Die for?
What are your goals for the future?
What kind of stereotypes exist about your race?
What ones do you believe in about other races?
What kind of overall reputation does your pc have? Your race have?

The Adventure

The PCs begin the campaign on the artificial world/station/who knows what commonly known as Outpost 1, which is roughly the size of earths moon and houses over 4 billion people on 1 half of it. Its the only artifical world built from scratch at the edge of the Confederation. Originally intended as a diplomatic neutral zone, as the Conferation fell apart it turned into a Declaration of War zone, Free Fire zone and Hospital in chronological order. Only half of it was techologized before the Confederation ceased work on it. People from remote places still arrive at it, expecting the gloss and glamour it began with and finding mostly an old and decaying artifical world. Many poets have used it as a perfect metaphor for the Confederation.

Outpost 1 Some Basic Info

Outpost 1 (better explained at that link) is run by SEOC (Security Enforcement Officers of the Confederation) instead of a traditional civillian goverment common on most worlds. While this has kept the world stable for a long time, as the Confederation has fallen apart, less and less recruits have arrived at the Outpost and their authority has gradually decreased mostly to superiour weapons, training and a better knowledge of the worlds secrets, technology and layout. Thats all.

SEOC is structured as 1 commander general, 20 generals, 1000 commanders, 5000 sergeant commanders, a lot of sergants, then assorted corporals and the normal rank and file. other ranks are added as needed -- msotly to diffrentiate between those of the same rank for authority purposes than anything else.

Outpost one has roughly 10 million SEOC soldiers in total as well as various other offices of the Confederation -- Intelligence, Transport, Internal Affairs and such euqalling about 300 million Confrederation officials on the Outpost in total. Other people on the Outpost, from residents to merchants, traders, diplomats, transients and everyone else total over 4 billion people. Most of those are permanent residents or merchants. To put it bluntly, SEOC is treading water and thinks its on thin ice.

Character Advancement

Since seeing ones character grow and change is one of the reasons people play RPGs, CoW is no exception to the rule. Generally speaking, characters gain 1 - 5 exp per session. These points are given based on:
1. Showing up on time (Basic 1 point)
2. Good role play (1 to 2 points generally)
3. Some brilliant idea, plan or anything else covers the last 2.

Spending points can be done as soon as they are gained, or saved for future times. To increase a skill or stat, the PC must have used that ability very recently and/or learned something new dealing with it to justify the skill increase. To gain a new skill one must be taught it soehow and spend 2 points for each of the initial 5 points in the skill.