Advanced Fighting Fantasy

Character Generation Guide

Creating a Hero - Introduction

The single most important component of any Dungeoneer adventure is the Hero. Without a Hero to do all that daring stuff with his sword and his other skills, the princess would never get rescued, the evil necromancer would never be dispatched, the country would never be saved for good and loyal citizens everywhere!

Every Hero is defined in terms of two things. First, there are his characteristics; these are SKILL, STAMINA, STRENGTH, DEXTERITY, APTITUDE, PRESENCE and WILL. We shall always write them like that so that you will know we are referring to them. These characteristics are each assigned a numerical value which reveals – when we use the game rules – just how adept or not our Hero is at something – rather like knowing one’s IQ score, for example.

Secondly, there are the special skills and spells a Hero has. Just like anyone in the real world, each Hero is very experienced and practiced at doing certain things, while he knows nothing at all about other things. These special skills are based on a combination of Initial characteristics of a Hero together with any learning he may have received.

Character Creation Basics

Follow these simple thirteen steps to create a beginning character of (SS) one. You will need a photocopy of the , a pencil, some scrap paper, and some six-sided dice.

STEP 1: CHECK WITH YOUR GAMES MASTERS STEP 2: CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER ARCHETYPE STEP 3: ROLL CHARACTERISTICS SCORES STEP 4: CHOOSE YOUR CLASS AND RACE STEP 5: ASSIGN AND ADJUST CHARACTERISTIC SCORES STEP 6: REVIEW THE STARTING PACKAGE STEP 7: SELECT AND ASSIGN SPECIAL SKILLS STEP 8: SELECT SPELLS (for Wizards and Priests Only) STEP 9: GENERATE A BASE INITIATIVE VALUE (BIV) STEP 10: NOTE DOWN YOUR SOCIAL SCALE AND RANK STEP 11: SELECT YOUR STARTING AGE AND SIZE STEP 12: SELECT EQUIPMENT STEP 13: INVENT YOUR CHARACTERS BACKGROUND

STEP 1: CHECK WITH YOUR GAMES MASTERS

Your Games Masters (GM) may have house rules or campaign standards that vary from the standard rules presented here. You might also want to know what

2 character types the other players are playing so that you can create a character that fits well with the group.

STEP 2: CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER ARCHETYPE

All character race / class combinations (more on this later) fall into two major archetypes, melee and magic. The Melee archetype encompasses all race / class combinations who wish to hit things with sticks, swords, daggers or otherwise carry out general carnage with the use of weapons or their bare hands! The Magic archetype on the other hand encompasses all race / class combinations who wish to channel the complex weavings of mana required to perform all types spell casting from bringing back mortally wounded comrades from the brink of death with divine healing to blasting enemies out of their way with powerful lightning blasts.

STEP 3: ROLL CHARACTERISTICS SCORES

If you have gone for the Melee archetype then you now need to roll 10d6. Disregard the three lowest rolls and record the remaining seven results on scrap paper.

If you have gone for the Magic archetype then you now need to roll 10d6. Disregard the lowest roll and record the remaining nine results on scrap paper.

STEP 4: CHOOSE YOUR CLASS AND RACE

You want to choose your character’s class and race at the same time because some races are better suited to some classes, indeed some races are prohibited from taking certain classes. The description of each class and race can be found in the section on . You can look there to see what class and race combinations are most common (Table 4: Race/Class Restrictions table). Write the character’s class and race on the character sheet.

Take some time to think about what sort of person your character is going to be. You don’t have to develop his or her whole personality at this point, but now’s a good time to start thinking about it.

The available classes are Warrior, Barbarian, Wizard, Priest, Rogue, and Archer. The available races are Human, Dwarf, Elf, Centaur, Goblin, Orc, and Troll.

STEP 5: ASSIGN AND ADJUST CHARACTERISTIC SCORES

Now that you know your character’s class and race, assign the scores you rolled in step 3 to your character’s characteristics as follows.

3 Melee archetype: STAMINA: 12 + two of your rolled scores SKILL, STRENGTH, DEXTERITY, APTITUDE, PRESENCE: 6 + one of your rolled scores

Magic archetype: STAMINA, WILL: 12 + two of your rolled scores SKILL, STRENGTH, DEXTERITY, APTITUDE, PRESENCE: 6 + one of your rolled scores

Adjust these characteristics scores up and down according to his or her race, as indicated on Table 3: Racial Characteristics Adjustments from the section.

Put high scores in characteristics that work for your character’s class. Each class description includes an entry called “Characteristics” that points to the important abilities for that class. You’ll also want to assign characteristics according to your concept of what sort of person the character is, and his is her strengths and weaknesses.

STEP 6: REVIEW THE STARTING PACKAGE

Look at the class’s starting package at the end of each class description in the section. It offers a fast way to complete the next several steps of character design. If you like the special skills, spells and equipment listed there for a character of the class you’ve chosen, then you can record this information on your character sheet. You can also use it as a guideline for making your own decisions from scratch.

STEP 7: SELECT AND ASSIGN SPECIAL SKILLS

To determine how many points a character has to spend in his various , average out all their stats except for STAMINA and WILL, rounding all fractions down. Someone with SKILL10, STRENGTH 8, DEXTERITY 12, APTITUDE 9 and PRESENCE 8 would have 9 points to spend on .

All relate to one of the five primary characteristics. So, if a hero were to put two points into their Sword special skill, which is based off SKILL, they would have a Sword skill of 12, with seven points left to spend (you add your two points spent to your base SKILL score of 10). If he had put a further two more points into the Climb skill, which is based off DEXTERITY, you would have a Climb skill of 14 with five points left to spare.

For a full list of and which ones relate to which characteristic refer to the section.

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You may assign a maximum of four points into any one as a part of character creation.

Certain races are forced to take certain , for example all Elves have to spend at least 1 point in Wood Lore, Bow and Magic , see the section on for these details.

If a player has chosen one of the two magic archetype classes (Wizard or Priest) then the Hero must assign at least 1 point to the Magic . Studying magic and the supernatural requires a very intensive effort, which is made partly at the cost of his melee style abilities. For every point put into Magic skill, a Hero must reduce his SKILL score by a similar 1 point. This does not affect how a Hero calculates his initial amount of points he has to spend on (it’s still the average of their five main characteristics rounded down), but it does affect his SKILL and SKILL related scores and dice-rolls from now on. This new, reduced SKILL score is now counted as his Initial score, where necessary, and his SKILL may not be raised above it. So, all points are spent on a range of , and a Hero’s SKILL is then reduced by the number of points put into his Magic .

Example: Two sample characters

Our first sample Hero has 9 points to spend and STRENGTH 8, DEXTERITY 12, SKILL 10, APTITUDE 9, and PRESENCE 8, as well as STAMINA 21.

Having put two points into Sword, and two into Climb, he elects to put two more into Plains Lore, and the final three into Bow. Thus, the Hero’s stats are as follows;

STRENGTH 8 DEXTERITY 12 SKILL 10 APTITUDE 9 PRESENCE 8 STAMINA 21 : Sword (12), Climb (14), Bow (13), Plains Lore (11).

And now, we’ll create a wizard character for those magic-users out there. Note that only the SKILL characteristic and related skills are reduced in this case, and the SKILL score before reduction is used to determine how many points the character has to spend.

Our second sample Hero also has 9 points to spend and STRENGTH 7, DEXTERITY 10, SKILL 8, APTITUDE 12, and PRESENCE 9, as well as STAMINA 17 and WILL 20

The wizard decides to put three points into the Magic skill, one point into Ride Horse, 3 points into Dodge, and one more point into Sword. But the above

5 characteristics are for before the character reduces his SKILL score and related special skills due to spending 3 points in Magic. Thus, the Hero’s stats are as follows;

STRENGTH 7 DEXTERITY 10 APTITUDE 12 SKILL 5 PRESENCE 9 STAMINA 17 WILL 20 : Magic (15), Ride Horse (11), Dodge (13), Sword (6) : Stamina (1), Fire Bolt (1), Starry Orb (1), Illusion (2), Fly (4)

STEP 8: SELECT SPELLS

Every magic spell requires a great deal of energy to be channeled and costs a certain number of WILL points to cast. As a result of this, all spells are defined by how many WILL points they cost to cast; this is their Will Cost. For every point you initially put into your Magic skill, a Hero may choose to learn spells worth a total Will Cost of 3 points.

Novice Heroes may choose only those spells which have a Will Cost of 1,2 or 4 points. Spells costing 6 of more points to cast may not yet be learnt.

Certain spells are restricted to either the Wizard or Priest class.

For a full of spells and which ones are available to each type of caster refer to the section on .

STEP 9: GENERATE A BASE INITIATIVE VALUE (BIV)

Base Initiative Value is a mark of how quickly you respond in any given combat situation. You will learn a lot more about this later on in the section, for now simply roll 1d8 and record your BIV in the space provided on your .

STEP 10: NOTE DOWN YOUR SOCIAL SCALE AND RANK

Every adventuring Hero in Titan starts off with a Social Scale (SS) of 1 and an equivalent Social Rank (SR), these can be looked up in the section. This scale determines the characters notoriety, reputation and general level of fame. As you adventure in the world of TITAN completing epics quests, vanquishing evils foes and generally saving the world from the grip of chaos stories of your deeds will spread and so your will rise! Don’t worry little rogue, your Social Rank might be “Gutter Trash” now, but one day you could be “King of the Thieves”.

6 STEP 11: SELECT YOUR STARTING AGE AND SIZE

Roll 1d6 and refer to the size table below and look up your size under the appropriate race column. Record this onto your .

Table 1: Size (m) Centaur Dwarf Elf Goblin Human Orc Troll Tiny 0.30 1 Extremely Small 0.50 2, 3 Very small 1.00 1, 2 4, 5 1, 2 Small 1.25 3, 4 6 1, 2 3, 4 Medium 1.50 5, 6 1 3, 4 5, 6 Large 2.00 1, 2 2, 3, 4 5, 6 1, 2, 3 Very Large 2.50 3, 4 5, 6 4, 5, 6 Extra Large 3.00 5, 6 Huge 4.00 Gargantuan 5.00

Decide whether your want your character to be classified as “Child, Young, Middle, Mature, Old or Very Old” (noting any sensible restrictions imposed by your GM) then refer to the age table below and look up your age under the appropriate race column. Record this onto your .

Table 2: Age Centaur Dwarf Elf Goblin Human Orc Troll Child < 25 < 10 < 50 < 10 < 10 < 10 < 200 Young 25 -> 50 10 -> 30 50 -> 100 10 -> 15 10 -> 20 10 -> 20 200 -> 400 Middle 50 -> 100 30 -> 100 100 -> 200 15 -> 20 20 -> 30 20 -> 30 400 -> 600 Mature 100 -> 200 100 -> 150 200 -> 400 20 -> 30 30 -> 40 30 -> 40 600 -> 800 Old 200 -> 300 150 -> 220 400 -> 800 30-> 50 40 -> 80 40 -> 100 800 -> 1000 Very Old 300 + 220+ 800+ 50+ 80+ 100+ 1000+

STEP 12: SELECT EQUIPMENT

If you didn’t use the equipment in the starting package for your character’s class, you randomly determine the value of his or her starting equipment by rolling 5xd4 * 10 and then select it piece by piece. Even if you pick your equipment, you still might want to use the equipment listed for the starting package as a guide. For a complete list of what equipment is available in the world of TITAN refer to the section.

STEP 13: INVENT YOUR CHARACTERS BACKGROUND

Finally it is time to flesh out your character, details galore! You can put as much or as little effort into this as you like. You can even leave it out entirely and develop your character on the fly as your adventures unfold. However this is first

7 and foremost a role playing game. Try to come up with some back story for your Hero, how did he come to be where he is today, what is his past life up to this point, his profession and trade, does he have any famous quotes or anecdotes to tell. Often this can be the most important step in really defining who your Hero is and how you end up playing him, go nuts!

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