Characters

Your character is you interaction point with the world. How they are built out mechanically determines in what way and how well they can act on the world. This chapter will run through all the guidelines surrounding characters. For a streamlined character creation guide, see the Character Creation sub-chapter.

Mechanically characters are built around a number of things the player controls directly at creation:

• Race and Ethnicity
• Size
• Attributes
• Skills
• Knowledge
• Background Specializations
• Feats
• Perks
• Flaws
• Boons
• Banes
• Spells
• Gear

From these a number of derived stats are calculated.

• Vital Pools
• Resource Pools
• Size Modifier
• Carry Capacity
• Armor Cost
• Profile

All together these make up a character and determine how well characters can function in the world.

Race and Ethnicity

Anomaly is a setting agnostic system and as such the available races are determined by the creator of the setting your using. The important factors that your Race determine, as far as mechanics go, is your character's Average Size, Racial Perks, and Racial Traits. In addition, Anomaly supports Ethnicity which are variations of a race that are slightly different, usually having additional or missing Traits rather then changing the perks.

A character's race and ethnicity determines their average size. This covered in more detail later.

Racial Perks are purely positive traits, aka they have no downsides, that members of the race or ethnicity have. The bonus they provide is often applied to character stats like attributes or skills, but can also provide uncommon abilities like the natural ability to breath underwater.

Racial Traits are physical aspects of a race like wings, tails, night vision, etc. These traits tend to have positive and negative effects; like wings allowing one to fly, but increasing the characters Profile making them easier to hit. These tend to vary based on Ethnicity whereas Racial Perks tend to be the same for all members of the race.

Race is a good thing to pick first as you can then work around the benefits and detriments it provides you.

Size, Carry Capacity, Armor Cost, and Profile

Race determines a character's starting size category, however at character creation the player is free to change actual size category by one degree. For example, Humans have an average size category of Normal, but human characters can also be Small or Big. Every size has both negative and positive effects depending what action is being taken. Below is a table indicating size category's, their ranges, and the size modifiers.

Size modifiers, as discussed earlier, are applied to Rolls. It is important to point out that a negative size modifier is not always bad because of how the size modifiers are used to modify dice rolls.

• Size modifier is added to Fight, Parry, Damage, Toughness, and Intimidation rolls.
• Size modifier is subtracted from stealth, dodge, and charm rolls.

Because of this, subtracting a negative value size modifier becomes a bonus. For example, small people are better at hiding, dodging, and charming while large people are not as good at those things.

Profile

Profile is also effected by Size and is very important in combat encounters. A character's profile refers to their silhouette. The more extra body parts one has, like wings and extra arms, the easier they are to hit with ranged weapons. The reason this is not simply part of size modifier is because having wings on your back doesn't mean you have additional tissue between your vital organs and the outside world.

Profile is calculated: (Size Modifier) + (Profile Modifiers). A positive Profile makes it harder to take total cover then it normally would for your size modifier.

Positive profile also increases your armor cost by 10% per point.

Multipliers for Carry Capacity and Armor Cost

Size is also directly related to a character's Carry Capacity and the cost of their armor. Carry weight is based on Strength, but the size of your character provides a multiplier on top of that to determine actual carry weight. The armor cost is likewise a multiplier resulting from the fact that to armor a larger being takes more materials and therefore is more expensive. The adjustment is used both in crafting armor for the target and buying it from a shop.

Attributes, Skills, Knowledge, and Background Specializations

Attributes, Skills, and Knowledge are the main stats that make up the meat of a character. They are the basis for determining much of what a character can do. Almost everything else modifies these three things in some way boosting or downgrading their effectiveness.

Levels and Experience

Each level up awards 1 experience point. Each experience point provides:

• 8 attribute points (or 4 paired attribute points)
• 1 skill point
• 1 knowledge point

A level 1 character starts with 3 experience. A level 2 therefore has 4 experience, and so on.

Points and Ranks

Characters get Points in each of the three categories to spend on their character. Said points are restricted to that category, so you cannot spend Attribute points to improve a Skill. New characters get a good number of starting points. After that each level up awards a few more points in each category.

Ranks are an indicator of the diminishing return of investing into anything. Rank is directly added to most rolls as a modifier, but the cost in points to get each consecutive rank goes up. This table indicates the cost for each Rank.

Specializations and Proficiency

Skills and Knowledges both use the concept of Proficiencies so understanding what they are is important. Each skill or knowledge has 4 Specializations under it that apply to different aspects of the item. Players can gain single and double Proficiency in these Specializations. Each Proficiency add an additional dice when performing an action using the Specialization.

Proficiencies can be gained in several ways as will be described in the following sections.

you have six total background points. you can only put them into a total of five skills. a background point doesn't act like a skill point. it gives you an extra die when you use that skill. the skill you have that has two points will have two extra dice every time you use that skill. the background points apply to all roles with those skills. you never gain additional background points past character creation.

skill points add up to make skill ranks using diminishing returns. skill ranks are added to your best die value to determine its total roll vs a dc.

specializations are purchased with feats. a specialization applies to only one quarter of the proficiencies within a skill. however, they also allow the operation of any equipment that has the complex flaw related to that specialization. so for example, if you have a double background proficiency in ranged weaponry, all arranged weapons are going to have two extra dice when you use them. however, if you pick up a complicated weapon, you cannot claim any of those dice because you don't know how to use the device. it is incredibly unintuitive.

if however you have the feat for trigger ranged weapons, and it is a complex trigger platform, you cannot only use it and gain full benefit of your dice, you also have an extra die because of that feat.

Attributes and The Pools

There are 8 Attributes and 4 Attribute Pairs. Attributes are paired up as offensive and defensive sides of each aspect of the character. Players can decide which they want to track, individual Attributes or the Pairs. If you just track the 4 pairs you will be spending twice as many points for each investment, because you are keeping both attributes equal. If you track all 8 attributes, then you can fine tune your character to be more offensive or defensive.

The following is a table of the attributes and how they pair up.

New characters start with 24 attribute points to distribute among the 8 attributes, or 12 points among the 4 attribute pairs.

Attribute Points can be invested into attributes which will Rank up the attributes per the Points and Ranks table already discussed. Race and Gear is able to modify the effective points of your attributes possibly ranking up the attributes. However Rank is not everything as the points themselves are the basis for some things so adding points that don't rank up an attribute is still immediately beneficial.

One such example is the character's Resource Pools and Vitals Pools. Pools are calculated based on the points an attribute has been assigned. Pools are fully based on the Defensive attributes. Each pool's effective maximum can also be boosted or downgraded by race effects, equipment, spells, etc.

Vitals Pools

Vitals determine if your character is alive. If Vitals drop too low a character will no longer be-able to respond either because of death or unconsciousness. So if possible you really don't want these to go down. There are three Vitals Pools:

• Blood is how much blood a character has in them. Your base maximum Blood is calculated via Willpower Points + Constitution Points.
• Endurance is the physical integrity of the character's body. Your base maximum Endurance is calculated via Willpower Points + Quickness Points.
• Nerve is the mental stability of the character. Your base maximum Nerve is calculated via Willpower Points + Instinct Points.

Resource Pools

Resources are expended by your character to do stuff. Resources regenerate fairly quickly outside of combat, limiting what you can do in a short time span. There are three resource pools:

• Stamina is energy to perform physical tasks. Your base maximum stamina is calculated via Constitution Points + Quickness Points.
• Swiftness. Your base maximum swiftness is calculated via Quickness Points + Instinct Points.
• Work. Your base maximum work is calculated via Constitution Points + Instinct Points.

Offensive Attributes

While the defensive attributes determine the pools, offensive attributes determine Misc other aspects of characters.

• Carry Capacity: Strength * Size Carry Multiplier

Skills

Skills determine a character's ability to do an action well. You can attempt most actions even if you have no skill in it, but success is unlikely for hard tasks and even less so if you are in a stressful situation. Skills are divided into 3 categories, with 3 skills to each category, and 4 specializations to each skill.

New characters get 3 points to spend among the 9 Skills.

Natural Skills

TODO Explain each.

Combat Skills

TODO Explain each.

Technical Skills

TODO Explain each.

Knowledge

Knowledge indicates how much a character knows about any particular subject. If something is highly detailed or technical you will need to do a knowledge check. Knowledges are divided into 3 categories, with 3 knowledges to each category, and 4 specializations to each knowledge.

New characters get 3 points to spend among the 9 Knowledges.

Nature Knowledges

TODO Explain each.

Technology Knowledges

TODO Explain each.

Society Knowledges

TODO Explain each.

Background Specializations

Background Specializations are another way to refine your character's back story. The main difference between proficiencies gained via point buys and background specializations is that the proficiencies bought with points cannot fail you when your character panics. Background Specializations have a chance to become unavailable when the character panics.

New characters get 4 single proficiencies and 1 double proficiency to distribute among their Skill Specializations. They also get another 4 single proficiencies and 1 double proficiency to distribute among their Knowledge Specializations.

if you already have a specialization from point buys, using a background specializations can upgrade the proficiency. However, remember you can loose access to the proficiency in certain instances downgrading it back to the point bought level.

Feats

Feats help flesh out a character's style and personality. Feats are representative of special aspects or your character uncommon to others. They could be from genetics, due to an experience, etc. While not necessarily unique, most people do not have that special aspect. In essence, Feats are things you can do, not just additional numbers.

Feats can be just about anything so what feats a character has should be discussed between the GM and player. The general rule of thumb is to treat feats as things to craft along side the GM as part of your character's story rather then drawn from a set list. The GM can of course provide a list of example feats to help people begin choosing, but often players should sit down with the GM and figure out good feats to create and describe the character with. Feats shouldn't break the game, but also give you a advantage that if used tactically can make the difference in an encounter.

A good way to start approaching feat selection is to ask these questions and go from there:

• How does he fight?
• What kind of challenges can he breeze through that others find incredibly challenging? It can be mental, physical, or spiritual.

All new characters get 9 feats total, 3 of each of the 3 feat types. The same feat can be taken multiple times. This is useful since feat effects can stack linearly, just like attribute ranks on top of skill ranks. It is also useful if the feat is an expendable feat, discussed later.

Feat Types

There are 3 types of feats: Attribute, Skill, and Knowledge. The type effects what a feat can do. So a Feat related to a core aspect of your character, say increased flexibility, must be an attribute feats while something related to skills like 'quick draw' is a skill Feat.

Attribute feats include things such as 'Heavy Lifter,' which lets you carry more weight, 'Eiditic Memory,' which allows you to recall anything you've seen before, or 'Contortionist' which lets you fit into small places allowing for full cover in half cover locations.

Skill feats include things such as 'Universally Charming,' which lets you ignore any culture penalties when making social checks to come across as trustworthy, 'Quick Draw', which lets you draw an item as a free action instead of as an action, and 'Quick Aim' which lets you aim as a free action instead of it taking an action.

Knowledge feats include things such as 'Criminal Connections', expending this feat will allow you to ignore the standard 'Criminal Knowledge' penalty on a knowledge check. Another is 'Xeno Expert,' which lets you ignore cultural penalties on knowledge checks.

Feat Categories

All feats should fall under certain categories with rules associated with each category. These categories are:

• Penalty Negation
• Action Modification
• Gambling Opportunity
• Impact Ability

Penalty Negation Feats

Penalty Negation Feats negate penalties which are so severe that simply investing skill points will never reliably overcome the penalty, and may even never overcome the penalty.

For example, blind fighting. If a game emulates blind-fighting by saying 50% of all attacks will miss, and all attacks by people who can see in the dark will hit even on half of what should miss, it doesn't matter how many skill points you invest; you will never hit more often than someone who has blind-fight as a feat.

Penalty (and therefore feat target) types: Pain, Fear, Morale Injury, Restrained, Ignorance Allegiance, Berserk, Unconscious Slippery, Uphill, Rough Water, Cramped, Soft tired, fatigued, exhausted (no stamina, no endurance, no work) Improvised, Unwieldy, Complex Improficient, Reach / Range,

Action Modification Feats

Action Modification feats allow you to burn resources to reduce the amount of time a type of action would normally take. There aren't very many of these types of actions, as allowing this too freely would quickly break the game. They get the majority of their numbers from allowing combination actions.

Examples:

• Rapid-focus: Burn a swiftness. Focus as a free action.
• Quick-draw: Burn a swiftness. Draw a tool as a free action.
• Charging Strike: Burn a swiftness to make a movement and melee attack as a single action.

Gambling Opportunity Feats

Gambling opportunity feats allow you to gamble with certain odds for better or more reliable payout. For example, power-attacks, such as hay-makers, have a lower chance to hit. But if they connect, they inflict more damage. Light attacks are less likely to do damage if they hit, but are more likely to hit in the first place, which can stun a foe if done well.

Examples:

• Power Attack: Can't be used with light weapons. Subtract an amount from your attack roll before you make it. Add that much to your damage roll. Amount can't exceed strength. Can also be used when defending.
• Quick Attack: Can't be used with heavy weapons. Add an amount from your attack roll before you make it. Add that much to your damage roll. Amount can't exceed quickness. Can also be used when defending.

Impact Ability Feats

Impact Ability feats do not make you more likely to succeed, nor more likely to fail. Instead, they add an additional effect should you succeed. They also generally require the consumption of a resource.

• Mighty blows: Can't be used with light weapons. If you inflict at least 2 damage on a melee strike, you may burn a stamina and they are knocked down.
• Swift retort: Can't be used with heavy weapons. If you successfully defend yourself from a melee attack, you may burn a stamina to rattle the opponent.

Other Feat Rules

Actions into Free-Actions (Expendable Feats)

To keep things balanced, Feats that allow the conversion of actions into free actions are expended upon use, but can be recovered after taking a breather turn. All feats are recovered after a breather action so regardless if you expend 1 or 6 feats, all of them will become usable again after a breather turn.

Stat Boosting Feats

Players can use feats of each type to boost that type of stat, for example you can spend one of your skill feat slots to add a specialization to a skill. However, feats are very powerful and doing so is a bit of a waste.

Perks, Flaws, Boons, and Banes

Perks, Flaws, Boons, and Banes are still a work in progress. For now we will leave any guidelines for these to the GM's purview if they decided to use them at all.

Selecting Spells

Magic is an advanced topic and deserve an entire section just by itself. There are multiple systems of magic supported by Anomaly to help approximate just about any setting.

Please review the different systems and how they work in the (Magic)[3-0-magic.md] chapter the pick spells based on the systems you choose.

Select Starting Equipment/Gear - need to edit

Equipment is a normal staple in life and games. In Anomaly, equipment is no different and an important aspect for characters. There is a (dedicated chapter)[] on equipment which you should review when picking out your equipment.

Below we cover specifically character creation selection of equipment and mechanics that make handing equipment easier for players and the GM alike.

Undeclared Equipment

To provide a bit of a buffer and prevent micromanaging items, there are two kinds of Undeclared equipment that players can, when they need it, suddenly have without pre-planning. Though both types have guidelines to keep things balanced.

Undeclared Bulk Equipment

The character has some type of storage bin filled with random items that they have collected through their day to day life. Without spending any money or deciding ahead of time that have it, players can just pull certain items from this bin. This is the Undeclared Bulk Equipment mechanic. This is intended to help character creation flow smother, reduce micromanagement of items (like trying to decide if you want 2 or 3 mags of ammo), and to cover for any forgetfulness players may have.

However to keep things balanced, there are three rules for the equipment acquired this way:

• Quality Limit: None of the items gotten this way can be higher than quality one.
• Item Limit: The sum of items' weight pulled from your bin cannot exceed your character's initial Carry Capacity.
• No Boosting Carry Capacity: You don't expand the amount of available starting Free Bulk Equipment by having more cargo space, like via owning a backpack.

So in essence the items gotten this way are low quality, and is limited by your character's size and strength.

Undeclared Purchased Equipment

Everyone starts out with 150 credits, spend it as you realize your character needs to have already had it. The limitations is A) that you cannot spontaneously purchase more than the amount of weight you have settled on carrying at any specific time and B) these items can only be quality level 1.

Purchased Equipment

Beyond undeclared equipment, players get a budget to purchase starting equipment.

The starting amount of wealth is equal to the number of experience points you have times 50 credits. A level one character starts with three experience points so 150 cr it their budget. One credit is roughly speaking $500 USD, that sounds like a lot of money, but it isn't just a flat spending spree. You have to cover things like vehicle, shelter, food storage, medical storage, etc.

Also there is a limit on the quality of any item you can purchase out right. This is due to laws and regulations limiting certain types of things to people with certain types of licenses and licenses cost money. For example, in the united states, you cannot purchase machine guns without going through the proper background checks and licensing. Same thing for vehicles.

We don't think of high quality grooming kits requiring licenses, until it is understood that the chemicals that make them so good might make them weapons grade quality that a chemist could exploit to great effect. Just like how buying certain concentrations of fertilizer in real life requires a license.

We call it a license, but that's just a stand-in for whatever the cultural equivalent is. In Anarchic systems, you don't necessarily need to have a license, but people may avoid selling to you if you don't have a reputation. And to simplify we just say it costs credits to get whatever the cultural equivalent is.