Character Creation Guidelines

[X51]

Character Creation

We'll be doing character creation as prescribed by the book. For those who don't have the book, click the spoiler below to see the basics. More details will be provided once you've made your choices, of if you want to know more about the specific stats of something.

Character Basics

Step 1: Origin

Choose one of six origins for your character. Each provides an additional benefit, as noted.

Brotherhood Initiate: Additional Tag Skill chosen from Energy Weapons, Science, or Repair.

Ghoul: Immune to Radiation, and potentially healed by it.

Super Mutant: Strength and Endurance raised by 2 (and maximums raised by 2), maximum of 6 in Intelligence and Charisma, maximum skill rating of 4. Immune to Radiation and Poison.

Mr. Handy: Are a robot. Reduce difficulty of Perception rolls based on sight or smell. Carry capacity of 150 lbs. not modified by Strength or Perks. Cannot naturally heal, and must be repaired to regain HP. Gain choice of 3 arm attachments.

Arm Attachments

Attachment	Effect
10mm Auto Pistol	A 10mm pistol with an automatic receiver mod.
Buzz-saw	Can cut things, or make melee attacks. Melee attack deals 3 Combat Dice of damage and has the Piercing 1 quality.
Flamer	Can be used to set things on fire or cook food. Also acts as a short-range flamethrower weapon.
Laser Emitter	Cut things or make ranged attacks as if a laser gun.
Pincer	Can be used to pick up objects weighing up to 40 lbs., manipulate objects, or as a melee attack that deals 2 Combat Dice of damage.

Survivor: Gain either 2 Traits, or 1 Trait and 1 Perk.

Traits

Trait	Benefit	Penalty
Educated	One additional Tag Skill.	Failing a Test with a non-Tag Skill gives the GM 1 AP.
Fast Shot	Taking a 2nd Major Action costs 1 fewer AP so long as it's a ranged attack.	You cannot benefit from the Aim Minor Action.
Gifted	Gain +1 to two SPECIAL attributes.	Your maximum Luck Points equal 1 fewer than your Luck attribute.
Heavy Handed	Melee damage bonus increased by 1 Combat Die.	Melee and Unarmed attacks suffer Complications on a 19 or 20.
Small Frame	May re-roll 1d20 on all AGI tests involving balance or contortion.	Your carry weight is 150 + (5 x STR).

 

Vault Dweller: You gain 1 additional Tag Skill, and the difficulty of all END tests to resist Disease are reduced by 1.

Step 2: SPECIAL

Each character has 7 Attributes: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck.

Each Attribute begins at 5, and you gain 5 points to spend to increase them. You can choose to lower an Attribute to 4 to gain an additional point to spend elsewhere.

Minimum Attribute is 4, and maximum is 10, with exceptions based on origin and perks.

Step 3: Skills

There are a total of 17 skills: Athletics, Barter, Big Guns, Energy Weapons, Explosives, Lockpick, Medicine, Melee Weapons, Pilot, Repair, Science, Small Guns, Sneak, Speech, Survival, Throwing, and Unarmed.

Skill ratings range from 0 to 6, though no skill may be raised above rank 3 at character creation.

Choose any three as Tag Skills (origin and perks may provide more Tag Skills). Tag Skills gain 2 points.

Gain an additional 9+Int points to increase your skills.

Step 4: Perks

Your character starts with 1 perk, plus any they may gain from their origin.

Some perks have multiple ranks, and some have other prerequisites. Let me know what perks you'd like to look at and I'll give more detailed information.

Choose from:

Action Person - Suffer lighter penalty from taking multiple actions. [1 rank]

Adamantium Skeleton - It requires more damage to give you a critical hit. [3 ranks, END 7]

Adrenaline Rush - Count your STR as 10 for all STR-based skills and melee attacks, when under maximum health. [1 rank, STR 7]

Animal Friend - Chance for animals not to attack you, and you might eventually gain one as an ally. [2 ranks, CHA 6]

Aquaperson - Avoid rads from swimming, hold your breath for twice as long, and eventually be harder to spot underwater. [2 ranks, END 5]

Armorer - You can add mods to armor, making it better. [4 ranks, STR 5, INT 6]

Awareness - You can spot weak points when aiming at something. [1 rank, PER 7]

Basher - Bashing attacks with your ranged weapons are more vicious. [1 rank, STR 6]

Better Criticals - Spent a Luck point to inflict critical hits when you damage an enemy. [1 rank, LCK 9]

Big Leagues - Your two-handed melee attacks are more vicious. [1 rank, STR 8]

Black Widow/Lady Killer - You're better at influencing and also killing either masculine or feminine characters. [1 rank, CHA 6]

Blitz - Attack better immediately after moving next to a target, and eventually hit harder on that attack. [2 ranks, AGI 9]

Bloody Mess - Potentially do more than 1 injury on a critical hit. [1 rank, LCK 6]

Can Do - Find more food when scavenging. [1 rank, LCK 5]

Cap Collector - Buy for less, and sell for more. [1 rank, CHA 5]

Cautious Nature - Gain a re-roll when buying additional dice by spending AP on a skill test. [1 rank, PER 7]

Center Mass - Target torso for free, gain a re-roll on such attacks. [1 rank, AGI 7]

Chem Resistant - Less likely to get addicted to chems, and eventually immune to addiction. [2 ranks, END 7]

Chemist - Created chems last longer, and unlock some recipes. [1 rank, INT 7]

Comprehension - Potentially get more uses out of reading bonuses. [1 rank, INT 6]

Concentrated Fire - Reroll damage when you spend extra ammunition. [1 rank, PER 8, AGI 6]

Daring Nature - Gain a re-roll when buying additional dice by giving the GM AP on a skill test. [1 rank, LCK 7]

Demolition Expert - Explosive attacks are more vicious, and you learn new recipes for making explode-y bits. [1 rank, PER 6, LCK 6]

Dogmeat - Gain a potentially-reincarnating, goodest boy-or-girl companion. [1 rank, CHA 5]

Entomologist - Bypass some natural defenses of any insectoid enemies. [1 rank, INT 7]

Fast Metabolism - Gain more heals when you heal. [3 ranks, END 6, not a robot]

Faster Healing - Upgrade your self-healing for free. [1 rank, END 6, not a robot]

Finesse - Re-roll damage once per encounter for free. [1 rank, AGI 9]

Ghost - Upgrade your sneak tests for free. [1 rank, PER 5, AGI 6]

Grim Reaper's Sprint - Potentially get more AP for the group when you kill things. [1 rank, LCK 8]

Gun Fu - Shoot someone so hard you potentially hit others nearby. [3 ranks, AGI 10]

Hacker - Hack computers more easily. [1 rank, INT 8]

Healer - Like Fast Metabolism, but for when you're healing others. [3 ranks, INT 7]

Heave Ho - Spend AP to throw farther. [1 rank, STR 8]

Hunter - Attacks against mutated animals are more vicious, if they weren't already. [1 rank, END 6]

Infiltrator - Gain a re-roll when picking locks. [1 rank, PER 8]

Inspirational - Group can save more AP because of how cool you are. [1 rank, CHA 8]

Iron Fist - Unarmed attacks do more damage, and eventually are more vicious. [2 ranks, STR 6]

Junktown Jerky Vendor - Barter tests are easier. [1 rank, CHA 8]

Jury Rigging - Temporarily repair item without components. [1 rank]

Lead Belly - Gain a chance to avoid rads from eating or drinking, and eventually be immune to rads when doing so. [2 ranks, END 6]

Light Step - Spend AP to ignore complications from Agility tests, and a re-roll on tests to avoid floor-based traps and mines. [1 rank]

Master Thief - Harder to detect when picking locks or pockets. [1 rank, PER 8, AGI 9]

Medic - Gain a re-roll on First Aid tests. [1 rank, INT 8]

Meltdown - Enemies killed with energy weapons go pop, potentially hurting nearby targets. [1 rank, INT 10]

Mr. Sandman - Sneak attacks with silenced/suppressed weapons deal more damage. [1 rank, AGI 9]

Moving Target - Sprinting increases defense. [1 rank, AGI 6]

Mysterious Stranger - Spend a Luck point, get a temporary friend. [1 rank, LCK 7]

Night Person - Reduce the difficulty imposed by darkness. [1 rank, PER 7]

Ninja - Unarmed or melee sneak attacks deal more damage. [1 rank, AGI 8]

Nuclear Physicist - Radiation weapons do more damage, and fusion cores last longer. [1 rank, INT 9]

Pain Train - Charge at things and hurt them while in power armor or being a super mutant. [2 ranks, STR 9, END 7]

Paralyzing Palm - Stun things when you target body parts with unarmed strikes. [1 rank, STR 8]

Party Person - An irresponsible representation of binge drinking. [1 rank, END 6, CHA 7]

Pathfinder - Reduce travel times by finding paths. [1 rank, PER 6, END 6]

Pharma Farma - Find more medicine or chems when scavenging. [1 rank, LCK 6]

Pickpocket - Ignore complications, then get a re-roll, and then eventually pick pockets more easily. [3 ranks, PER 8, AGI 8]

Piercing Strike - Your unarmed strikes become penetrative. [1 rank, STR 7]

Quick Draw - Draw an item per round without having to spend an action. [1 rank, AGI 6]

Quick Hands - Spend AP to increase the fire rate of an attack. [1 rank, AGI 8]

Rad Resistance - Take less rad damage. [2 ranks, END 8]

Refractor - Take less energy damage. [2 ranks, PER 6, LCK 7]

Scoundrel - Ignore a complication when trying to lie. [1 rank, CHA 7]

Scrounger - Find more ammo when scavenging. [3 ranks, LCK 6]

Shotgun Surgeon - Shotgun attacks penetrate more. [1 rank, STR 5, AGI 7]

Size Matters - Do more damage with heavy ranged weapons. [3 ranks, END 7, AGI 6]

Slayer - Spend a luck point to deal a critical hit when you deal damage to a target. [1 rank, STR 8]

Smooth Talker - Gain a re-roll on opposed barter or speech tests. [1 rank, CHA 6]

Snakeater - Increase poison damage resistance. [1 rank, END 7]

Sniper - Target limbs for free when aiming with certain kinds of weapons. [1 rank, PER 8, AGI 6]

Solar Powered - Heal rads by being in the sun for a while. [1 rank, END 7]

Steady Aim - Get some re-rolls when aiming. [1 rank, STR 8, AGI 7]

Strong Back - Be the party's mule. [3 ranks, STR 5]

Toughness - Take less physical damage. [2 ranks, END 6, LCK 6]

Step 5: Derived Stats

You have a number of stats derived from the above.

Carry Weight: You can carry 150+[STRx10] lbs. [Mr. Handies have different limits]

Damage Resistance: Your Physical, Energy, Radiation, and Poison damage resistances are 0, but can be improved by armor or perks.

Defense: If AGI is 8 or less, Defense is 1. If 9 or more, Defense is 2.

Initiative: Your Initiative score is your PER+AGI.

Health Points: Your maximum HP at creation is END+LCK.

Melee Damage: You may have bonus melee damage based on your STR [+1 for 7 or 8, +2 for 9 or 10, or +3 for 11 and up].

Step 6: Starting Equipment

You get starting equipment based on your origin.

Brotherhood of Steel: Initiate [Combat] or Scribe [Nerd].

Super Mutant: Brute [Mostly Melee] or Skirmisher [Mostly Ranged].

Mr. Handy: Ms. Nanny [Speech, Survival], Mr. Farmhand [General Purpose], Mr. Gutsy [Combat], Mr. Handy [General Purpose, Purifies Water], Nurse Handy [Medic]

Vault Dweller: Resident [Some Caps], Security [Combat Gear]

Wastelander (Survivors/Ghouls): Mercenary [Combat Gear, Job Lead], Raider [Combat Gear, Chems], Settler [Basic, Caps], Trader [Armor, Caps], Wanderer [Bit of Everything]

You may also get some equipment based on your Tag Skills.

Application Guidelines

Once you've got your numbers all sorted, there's just the matter of putting the app together and posting it in its own thread in this forum. I don't have much in the way of requirements in mind, so long as the crunch is all legible. I've posted a sample character sheet template below, which you can I think quote and sorta reverse engineer it?

 

As for character details, Fallout's kind of a pulpy setting, so you don't need a ton of backstory or anything. What I'm gonna do instead is ask 6 questions that I'd like you to answer for your character.

1. What's the worst thing that's happened to your character (so far)?
2. What keeps your character going?
3. What's the least-important thing your character would kill for?
4. What's the least-important thing your character would die for?
5. What's the weirdest or creepiest thing your character has ever seen?
6. Does your character think it's possible for them to be happy?

Feel free to answer with anything between a sentence and a paragraph, and include those answers somewhere in your application thread.

Edited October 9, 2022 by X51 (see edit history)

[X51]

Sample Character:

Image Credit Name: Phillip Montaigne            Origin: Survivor HP: 11              Def: 1 Luck: 3/3 S P E C I A L 7 6 8 5 6 6 4 Skill Athletics*: Barter: Big Guns: Energy Weapons: Explosives: Lockpick: Medicine: Melee Weapons*: Rating 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3   Pilot:   Repair:   Science:   Small Guns:   Sneak:   Speech:   Survival*:   Throwing:   Unarmed: 0 3 1 3 0 0 3 3 1 Traits & Perks Gifted Benefit: Choose two SPECIAL stats and increase them by 1 each. Penalty: Maximum Luck is 1 fewer than your Luck stat. Heavy Handed Benefit: Your Melee Damage Bonus increases by 1 Combat Die. Penalty: Melee and Unarmed attacks suffer Complications on a 19 or 20. Adrenaline Rush When HP is below max, treat STR as 10 for any STR-based skill test or melee attack.   Equipment Origin Option:  Wastelander (Wanderer) Drifter Outfit (10 lbs.) DR: Ph 1/En 2/Rd 0 Location: Arm/Leg/Torso Silver Locket Personal Trinket Caps 30 (Starting) Pipe Wrench (2 lbs.) Dmg: 5 dice (Physical) Eff: - Qlts: - Pipe Gun (2 lbs.) Dmg: 3 dice (Physical) Eff: - FR: 2 Rng: Close Qlts: Close Quarters, Unreliable Shots: 12 Baseball Bat (3 lbs.) Dmg: 6 dice (Physical) Eff: - Qlts: Two-Handed Casual Clothing (2 lbs.) DR: Ph 0/En 0/Rd 0 Location: Arm/Leg/Torso 1x Buffout (<1 lbs.) Effect: Re-roll 1d20 on on all STR and END tests, +3 max HP. Duration: Lasting. Addictive 2. Addiction: Increase difficulty of STR and END tests by 1 while not under the effects of Buffout/Buffjet/Bufftats. 1x Rad Away (<1 lb.) Effect: Heals 4 Rads. Duration: Instant Note: Can be used as part of a First Aid action, healing 4 Rads in addition to the effects of the First Aid. 2x Purified Water (<1 lbs.) Effect: Heal 3 HP. Satisfies thirst. 1x Iguana on a Stick (<1 lbs.) Effect: Heal 6 HP. Satisfies hunger.

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by X51 (see edit history)