The Character

The Character

To describe a character, we use attributes and skills. Attributes are the innate abilities of the character. It’s the basic building blocks: Size, Strength, Endurance, Coordination, Learning, Awareness and Magical Aptitude. Skills are the abilities attained through training, such as swimming, climbing and fighting skills. They are all based on the attributes. The skills are divided into three categories: Physical, Mental and Perception. The physical skills are based on coordination. The mental skills are based on learning. The perception skills are based on awareness.

The Attributes

Size: the size of the character’s body. A character with a large size can take more damage but is easier to hit with a missile weapon than a smaller character. The size is determined from the weight of the character.
Strength: the physical strength of the character. With zero in this attribute you are paralyzed.
Endurance: the physical and mental endurance of the character. With zero in this attribute you are dead.
Coordination: the character’s dexterity and agility. With zero in this attribute you are paralyzed.
Learning: the character’s ability to assimilate new knowledge and know how to use it. Learning has little to do with the character’s IQ, since this is roleplayed by the player. With zero in this attribute you are dead.
Awareness: the character’s perception and reaction speed. With zero in this attribute you are dead.
Magical Aptitude: the character’s ability to perceive and manipulate mana. Most people have 0 in this attribute. With less than zero in this attribute you are dead.

Numbers

The general description of the character such as appearance, weight and height is determined freely by the player. The GM may wish to exclude extremes.

The attributes and skills of a character is rated by a number. Human attributes vary from 0 to 9. The size of an adult human is from 2 to 5. The human potential in strength, endurance, coordination, learning, awareness and magical aptitude is 9 (7 in strength for women). This can not be exceeded without very special magic. Other creatures have different potentials in the various attributes. See the Creatures booklet for these.

The mean human value of the attributes is 3 between ages 15 to 30. The size is based directly on the weight of the character and is found using the table below

Size

Size	Kgs
½	<10
1	<20
2	<50
3	<100
4	<150
5	<225
6	<300
7	<400
8	<500
9	<600
10	<725
11	<850
12	<1000
13	<1150
14	<1300
15	<1450
16	<1600
+1	+200

The average value in the skills will vary a great deal more than the attributes. This is because skills have much to do with specialization. While a farmer and a fisherman may have the same attribute values, the fisherman may have 3 in swim and the farmer 0.

To get an idea of the various skill ratings, take a look at the table below.

Skill Ratings

Skill	Description
0	Basket case
1	Green
2	Trained some
4	Trained
5	Well trained
7	Very good
10	Mastery
15	Top notch

Making a Character

To record a character use a character sheet.

Distribute 60 points among the attributes strength, endurance, coordination, learning, awareness and magical aptitude according to the following system: to go from 0 to 1 costs 1, from 1 to 2 costs 2, from 2 to 3 costs 3, etc. (see the table below). The first point of magical aptitude costs 10 points extra. Size is determined from the weight of the character and has no “cost.” It is usually 3.

Distribute 60 points among the skills after the same system.

Attribute and Skill “Cost”

Value	Cost
1	1
2	3
3	6
4	10
5	15
6	21
7	28
8	36
9	45

All characters start with 5 in their spoken language unless more points are added to it. This basic in their native language is free.

Remember to set the values according to your character’s background. If he is a hunter, coordination and awareness should be a priority. Likewise the skills of hide, move quietly and bow.

Only in very special cases should a character be allowed to begin play with any magic spells.

The table below gives an indication of how powerful a character is based on allocated points for attributes and skills.

Starting Points

Description	Attributes	Skills
Beginner	45	45
Adventurer	60	60
Tough adventurer	75	75
Master	100	100
Hero	150	150

Damage Bonus

The damage bonus applies to combat as explained in the next chapter.

It is: 1 per full 3 in the character’s size+strength.

Body Points

The body points apply to combat as explained in the next chapter.

It is: 2 x size + 1 per full 3 in endurance.

Rolling the Dice

Whenever a character attempts to do anything that involves a skill, a dice is rolled.

This is called a skill roll. Add the result on the dice to the attribute + skill in question. The exception is knowledge skills where you only add the skill to the dice, not the attribute. The total is matched against a difficulty rating (DR) to see if it is successful. If it is equal to or higher than the DR, the character succeeds. Example: A character attempts to climb a wall with a coordination of 3 and a climb skill of 3. A 5 is rolled on the dice giving a total of 11. The GM has already determined the difficulty rating to be 11, so the character just manages to climb the wall successfully.

For difficulty ratings see under the specific skills later in this chapter, and also in the chapters on combat and magick. For other DRs the GM should use the table below as a guideline.

Difficulty Ratings

DR	Description
0	Very easy
1	Easy
3	Likely if not trained
5	Possible if not trained
7	Very tough if not trained
9	Hard
12	Very hard
15	Extremely hard
18	Foolhardy
20–25	Guinnes book of records

Open Ended Rolls

Unless otherwise indicated, all dice rolls are so called “open ended.” It works like this: if a 6 is rolled on the dice, roll the dice again. If 4–6 is rolled, add 1 to the roll and roll the dice again, etc. If a 1 is rolled on the dice, roll the dice again. If 1–3 is rolled, subtract 1 from the roll and roll the dice again, etc.

There is no limit to the result you can get with an open ended dice roll, including negative results such as -5.

Increasing Attributes & Skills

Training will increase attributes and skills.

Experience will also increase the skills.

A teacher must have 3 more in the attribute or skill he trains another in. This figure is reduced by 1 per full 2 of the teacher’s teaching skill. You may train on your own without a teacher.

You need 20 “experience marks” to get a chance to increase an attribute or skill. For attributes you start counting from your potential – current + 1 per full 2 in learning. For skills you start counting from (your current in the attribute the skill is based on – current in the skill) x 2 + 1 per full 2 in learning.

A week of training with a teacher gives you 2 experience marks.

A week of training without a teacher gives you 1 experience mark in physical attributes and skills. Two weeks of training without a teacher give you 1 experience mark in mental or perception attributes and skills.

You may not teach yourself spells unless you have a skill of at least 1 in that spell. To get a skill of 1 in a spell takes 4 weeks with a teacher or 8 weeks with a magic spell book. Increasing your skill in a spell once you have at a skill of at least 1 is as for other knowledge skills. To teach someone a spell your skill in the spell must be at least equal to the DR of the spell. This is in addition to the normal requirement of having a skill 5 above the skill of the pupil.

You may not train if you are heavily wounded (1/4 of total BP left). If you are wounded (1/2 of total BP left) you may only train mental attributes or skills.

Experience may also increase attributes and skills. You get an experience mark each time you use a skill in a critical situation. It is generally not a critical situation when the DR is less than your modified skill. Whether a combat is critical or not is up to the GM.

When one consecutive “action” consists of several skill rolls, you only get one experience mark for the whole “action.”

When you have accumulated 20 experience marks in an attribute or skill, you roll a dice and erase your experience marks. If you roll a 1 you do not increase your current, if you roll anything else you increase your current in the skill or attribute by 1.

Skills

Here follows a list of all the skills used. If the GM feels a need for other skills as well, he may invent them on his own, using these as a guideline. Feel free to ask for an account at this site to pitch in and add more skills to the Amar RPG rules.

Lock Picking

The skill of lock picking is not included. The reason is that all normal medieval locks are dead simple to pick. A person with a crash course in this would pick a lock in 10 to 60 seconds with the right equipment. For very difficult locks, the GM must determine a difficulty rating and the character makes a sleight roll.

Physical Skills

All physical skills have a minimum value of 1 per full 3 in coordination. The exception is skills you have never practiced, in which case you have a skill of 0. A week of training will take you from 0 to 1 per full 3 in coordination.

A character has one skill for every weapon he wishes to use. See the chapter on combat for more details.

Climb

Dodge

Hide

Move Quitetly

Ride

Sleight

Swim

Tumble

Mental Skills

Alchemy Lore

Languages

Literacy

Medical Lore

Path Lore

Ritual Magick Lore

Spell Lore

Survival Lore

Teaching

Perception Skills

All perception skills have a minimum value of 1 per full 3 in awareness.

Locate traps

Track

Carrying the weight

Carrying the Weight

As a character gets loaded with items his abilities are hindered.

Normal clothes do not count as encumbrance.

You get the following adjustments to all physical skills and actions:

Encumbrance Penalties

Weight carried	Modifier
Up to 2 x strength	0
Up to 5 x strength	-1
Up to 10 x strength	-3
Up to 20 x strength	-5

Particularly unwieldy or bulky items should count as more than their actual weight. Try climbing a tree carrying a ladder. The GM should use his discretion for this.

Above 20x strength, the GM must use his discretion, as we are now talking kilograms with a capital K. No penalties are given to mental or perception attribute or skill rolls. All weight is multiplied by 5 for the purpose of encumbrance penalties when swimming.

Damage

If your condition is helpless or worse, you roll a dice every 5 minutes. A 1 means you loose 1 BP from bleeding, while a 6 means you have stabilized and don’t have to make any further rolls. A successful medical lore roll will also stabilize your condition.

An unconscious person will awaken in d hours. Even though he is now conscious, he will still have all his damage to recover from.

Falling

When you fall it acts as a “hit” doing a damage of d-4 +meters fallen (1 per 2 meters in water) +surface modifier -1 per full 3 in tumbling.

Falling Modifiers

Surface	Modifier
Stone surface	+1
Hard soil	0
Grass	-1
Water	-2

Body Points

Body points (BP) describe how much damage a character or creature can withstand. It is 2 x size + 1 per full 5 in endurance. If you are wounded (half or less of your total BP left) you get a -2 penalty on all rolls. If you are heavily wounded (quarter or less of your total BP left) you get a -4 penalty on all rolls. At 0 BP you are helpless (conscious but unable to do anything). At negative BP you are unconscious. At minus your total BP you are dead (i.e. if you have 6 BP you die at 6 BP).

Fear

Now and then the characters will encounter situations where they would be thoroughly scared, sometimes to death. It is very difficult to roleplay a character correctly when he or she meets the first zombie or werewolf. In addition to this, the fear might result in physical reactions beyond any roleplaying skill. To handle this, the character should make an endurance roll with adjustments according to the Fear Adjustments table. The result is checked on the Fear table to find the effects the fear has had on the character in question. Status will not affect this roll.

Characters with a weak heart could get a heart attack at a higher result than usual (in addition to fainting or falling into a coma).

Fear Adjustments

DR	Creature
-9	Awful demon
+3	Werewolf
+3	Giant spider
+6	Fresh zombie
+9	Giant
	Familiarity
0	Never seen before
+3	Seen a few times
+6	Seen many times
+9	Commonly seen

Fear

DR	Effect
15+	No effect.
13–14	-1 in status for 30 seconds.
12	-3 in status for 30 seconds.
10–11	-3 in status for 1 minute.
9	Victim attacks opponent in a rage trying to grapple it with the result of loosing 10 in defense value.
7–8	Victim flees as far as possible from the source of the fear for 5 minutes.
6	Victim stands immobilized as long as the source of the fear is active unless snapped out of it or attacked. If this is the case, apply the result from 7–8.
4–5	Victim becomes hysterical and will stay in place as long as the source of the fear is active unless snapped out of it.
3	Victim faints and remains unconcious for 10 to 30 minutes unless actively awakened.
2	As above and the hair of the victim turns white.
1	Victim falls unconcious (coma) for 1 to 4 days and will need an additional week of rest.
0	Victim suffers a heart attack and urgently needs medical attention. A medical lore roll of 6 or above is needed within one minute for the victim to survive. If the victim survives, he or she will need medical care for an additional one month, and will suffer a permanent loss of 1 in potential and current in strength, endurance and coordination.

Next: Combat