Sample file FULL CONTROL The True20 sourcebook for character creation control Authors: John Fraser Editing:Sample Andreas Rönnqvistfile Design / Layout: Andreas Rönnqvist Cover Design: Andreas Rönnqvist Cover Illustration: Emi Lee Interior Artists: Agito666, Hummybuged, Yerom True20 Adventure Roleplaying and its associated logo are Trademarks of Green Ronin Publishing and are used under the provisions of the True20 Adventure Roleplaying Trademark License (see www.true20.com for details). Full Control is © 2009 Dreamscarred Press. Some rights reserved. Reference to other copyrighted material in no way constitutes a challenge to the respective copyright holders of that material. The following parts of this book are designated as Product Identity, in accordance with Section 1(e) of the Open Game License, Version 1.0a: all artwork and images. All other text is Open Gaming Content, except for material previously declared Product Identity. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. This document is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely coincidental. FULL CONTROL The True20 sourcebook for character creation control Preface characters without depending on role Game systems are largely just complex advancement. This new mechanic takes on the mathematical puzzles with a bit of random die- title of build points. rolling thrown into the mix. Complete Control A build point (BP) does exactly what it demonstrated this principle first by breaking says. These are points that Narrators hand out at down an experience point system so that players their discretion to allow players to advance their can design their characters the way that they characters. Build points can be handed out want rather than depending on classes. This individually to specific characters or as a group work began to sprout interest in converting other reward to the adventuring party. Build points gaming systems using similar game principles can be a reward for good role-playing, for a and design mechanics, but knowledge of battle won, or some other reasonable turn of Complete Control is by no means required or events within an adventure. The following table expected for this work. gives a guideline for Narrators to allocate build points to their players as well as approximating True20, published by Green Ronin their level. This table can also be used when Publishing, is the system to be tackled in this converting characters in a standard game to a work. True20 is a different sort of work in that character in this game. the mechanics of True20 are not driven by experience point gathering. Instead, characters level when the Narrator determines that it is an appropriate time for them to increase their level. This has had an incredible impact upon the game in that it has a much more streamlined focus. Full Control will try to adhere to that same aspect of streamlining. Full Control is a system that takes True20 and eliminates the need for both roles and levels within those roles. A character’s abilities need not be selected according to their role; rather, they can be selected according to the actual character development within the game. A character’s level need not impact the game in any waySample file unless the Narrator desires to use it as a guide to gauge the party’s overall power. In Full Control, the game becomes restriction free, allowing the characters to develop along the path that makes the most sense for the character and to the player. Build Points As the preface states, True20 is a system that does not use experience to determine when characters advance. Players advance their characters when their Narrator determines that they have done enough adventuring to justify increasing their level. As well as that system might work for the way that True20 was designed, it does mean that an additional mechanic needs to be introduced into Full Control in order for players to advance their 3 FULL CONTROL The True20 sourcebook for character creation control Using the table, it can be seen that a beginning the average advancement column is rated for character receives 140 BPs points at their about 13 challenges per level, and the fast creation. When the Narrator has decided to give column is rated for about 10 challenges per level. out 115 more build points per character, from a Narrators can use the table as a guide, handing power perspective the character could be out whatever BPs they feel is reasonable. considered to be a 2nd level character with a The entries below assume that each total of 255 BPs. This process continues until a encounter is a challenge for a party of characters character has 5,745 BPs at which point they have of a particular level. For example, take a party reached the pinnacle of their development. Of whose Narrator is using the average course, Narrators can easily extrapolate the advancement column. If the party encounters a patterns and continue development beyond 20th challenge that is appropriate for characters of level at their discretion. Such efforts will not be 5th level, each character should receive 15 BPs supported within this work. for the challenge. If the next challenge that they Players can spend BPs on their characters encounter is an easier challenge than at the discretion of the Narrator. Some Narrators appropriate for characters of 3rd level, then the will not mind characters who improve as they characters should receive 12 BPs for the gain BPs. Other Narrators will prefer to have encounter. If the party then overcomes a tough their players spend BPs between sessions or challenge appropriate for characters of 7th level, during downtime only. Either model works with then each character should receive 18 BPs for the Full Control. challenge. Of course, Narrators can decide for themselves how many BPs they should hand out at any given time. As an aid to this process, the following table is given. Within the table, three rates of improvement are given. The slow advancement column is rated for about 15 challenges per level, Sample file Of course, this table is merely a guideline. Narrators should feel free to adjust the amount of BPs handed out according to their own sense of the game. Likewise, the determination for what constitutes a challenge also rests in the hands of the Narrator. Any obstacle, fight, 4 FULL CONTROL The True20 sourcebook for character creation control checkpoint in the plot, or like point in the game Skills can constitute a reason for handing out BPs. Skill rank prices in Full Control are completely governed by a character’s intelligence score. A Combat Bonus player buys ranks for each skill. The price of the Combat Bonuses are very easy to determine skill ranks is either reduced or increased within Full Control. A character buys an increase according to the character’s current intelligence to their Combat Bonus whenever they have the score. Thus, characters no longer receive free BPs to spend and permission from their Narrator ranks at each level. To find the cost for a skill to spend them. A character can increase their rank, a player simply needs to find their Combat Bonus as high as they desire, although character’s intelligence score on the table and Narrators just beginning to learn this system may find the appropriate BP price for the rank that want to institute a cap where a character’s they wish to purchase. As with other aspects of Combat Bonus can only be 2 higher than their character building, new Narrators may wish to character level. A character can buy multiple set limits as to how many ranks a character may increases to Combat Bonus at a single time so have. A traditional limit would be character long as they pay for all of the desired increases. level +3, while a limit in line with other Full The cost for purchasing a Combat Bonus Control advice would be character level +5. For is always equal to 9 times the desired Combat example, a character with 10 ranks in 4 skills and Bonus. For example, a player can spend 9 BPs on who also has an intelligence ability of +3 would their beginning character and start the game have paid a total of 140 BPs for all of those ranks. with a Combat Bonus of +1. That same player Each skill would cost 35 BPs could spend an additional 18 BPs and increase (1+1+2+3+3+4+4+5+6+6), so four skills of equal their Combat Bonus from +1 to +2. A player level would cost a cumulative 140 BPs. As a could spend 90 BPs on a character with a Combat different example, take the same number of skills Bonus of +9 to increase the Combat Bonus to +10. and ranks for a character with an intelligence of Altogether, the player would have spent a total of +0. This character would cost 55 BPs (1 +2 +3 +4 495 BPs to reach a level of Combat Bonus equal to +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10) on each skill for a cumulative +10. total of 220 BPs. Sample file 5.