So anyway, mostly completed character generation rules. Here's the first sample character:
Gregor Spatz: Guard Veteran
Gregor Spatz was recruited on a world far away from the one he is on now. Having been caught for a minor crime, his draft notice was sealed before the trial was even over. Fortunately on campaign against the greenskins his commanding officer was illiterate, and he ended up placed in a normal line rather than being thrown into the meatgrinder that awaited the penal legionaries.
After the Imperium declared victory and withdrew he was among the lucky ones who still lived, and he had advanced to the rank of Corporal. This entitled him to being resettled with some land on the first world the ships happened to refuel at. Gregor finds that he doesn't really understand the culture on this world, and they don't especially understand him either. But mostly he finds that he is not now and never has been a farmer, so he's really not sure if he can get the whole growing plants thing to work before he dies.
From Gregor's point of view, the only thing that has kept him from being killed several times over by the incompetence of the empire is the incompetence of the empire. So it is not surprising that the message of the cult would find root in Gregor in a way that the strange blue seeds the Imperium left him with will seemingly never find root in the soil of his pension lands.
S: 4
A: 3
W: 4
D: 5
I: 3
C: 2
E: 3
Skills:
Firearms(Lasweaponry): 4 [9/11] Pilot Vehicles: 3 [8]
Stealth: 1 [6] Larceny: 2 [7]
Martial Arts: 3 [7] Athletics: 1 [5]
Endurance: 2 [6] Heavy Weapons: 2 [6]
Investigation: 1 [4] Logistics: 1 [4]
Perception: 3 [6] Tactics: 2 [5]
Technology (Plasma Physics): 2 [5/7]
Artisan: 1 [3] Medicine: 1 [3]
Command: 2 [6] Faith: 1 [5]
Survival: 2 [6] Intimidate: 1 [5]
Leadership: 1 [3] Persuasion: 1 [3]
Perks:
Evade; Calm Under Pressure; Quickdraw
Traits:
Guard Veteran; Linguist (Ork); Alien Technologies (Ork); Certainty; Ambidextrous
Pervert; Lazy; Criminal History; Day Job; Hot Blooded
Equipment:
Lasgun; Laspistol; ax; flak armor; slugga; shovel; canteen; imperial ID; tractor; farmstead; plasma engine.
And that was made from these rules. Obviously I want more Perks and Traits, but that's mostly infilling. I'm debating having a set of Knowledge Skills. I can see the argument either way. It's sort of elegant to just have characters know anything that makes sense from their backstory and adventures, and nothing else.
Character Creation and Advancement
Characters in Warp Cult are made on 300 points. This makes characters who are quite capable in several fields or severely bad ass in just a few. But they
are decidedly within human power levels. It is entirely possible to play Warp Cult with characters who are are at lower or higher point totals. An Adeptus Soritas sister of battle, for example, would be expected to come in at more like 400 points, while scavies and other individually unimpressive members of society such as hive gang juves can be made on 200 points or less. Truly powerful entities like Space Marines and Genestealers are only barely on the scale of this game, and should probably be made arbitrarily rather than worrying about point totals at all.
When characters complete adventures, they gain additional points to spend. These points can be spent on anything, whether things are currently at their starting maximum or not.
Attributes
All attributes that a character possesses start at rating 1, and they may be purchased up at the rate of 10 points per rating. In general, a character should not be allowed to spend more than half their starting points on basic attributes (Power and Edge do
not count). A character in Warp Cult cannot raise any of their attributes past 5 at character generation. To put these attributes in perspective: an average human has attributes of about 2.5, and an average trained human (such as an Imperial Guardsman) has attributes of 3 straight up.
All player characters in Warp Cult are considered to be of sufficient personal fate to have an Edge score, which means that they can purchase that up as well.
Skills
Your character Begins with all skills at
zero. Skill ratings can be purchased up at a cost of 3 points per rating. A specialization can be purchased on any skill for 2 points. When a skill is used within its specialization, the character gains a +2 dicepool modifier. When used outside the character's specialty field, only the base value is used. A Warp Cult character can't purchase their skills up past 5.
Traits
Every character in Warp Cult can do special things, and every character in Warp Cult has some ridiculously tragic story that brought them to the state where they are willing to fight or convince other people to fight in order to change things. These backgrounds act as adventure hooks that move the plot forward and also provide characters with unique advantages that can help them in their endeavors.
Positive Traits:
Positive traits are those which directly help the character in some tangible fashion. Each character should have no more than seven stars worth of positive traits.
- One Star Traits:
✦ :
✦ Hard Knocks Diploma: The character has spent a lot of time living in the harsh underbellies of this world, and knows how things really get done. They know how to butter the bread around here, and get reduced Logistics thresholds when no one is looking.
✦ Certainty: The character is rather certain about their convictions. Virtually any action the character is compelled to do is considered to be a violation of their principles.
✦ Guard Veteran: The character has survived in a campaign on behalf of the IG. As such, they are entitled to some land, some respect, and some leeway from imperial agents who have never seen a battlefield. Unfortunately, the Empire also has their serial number and can call them back up if in “great need.”
✦ Linguist: The character speaks a language other than High Gothic or the local hive speak. This trait can be taken more than once.
✦ Rich: The character's bank account or cow herd, or whatever the planet uses to measure one's wealth is actually quite substantial.
✦ Socially Connected: The character's list of friends has people that you've heard of on it.
Two Star Traits:
✦✦ Ambidextrous: The character can use either hand without difficulties.
✦✦ Blank: The character bears the Pariah Gene and not only has no contact with the warp but actively interferes with the warp by their mere presence. Everything within a number of meters of them equal to their Edge stat has its Power stat reduced by half the character's Edge. The character can never have a Power attribute nor any chaos mutations.
✦✦ Special Training: The character has already been inducted into an organization that teaches or grants advanced powers. Maybe the character received Navigator training on Terra or has already been marked by Tzeentch. Most such groups can only teach their abilities to Psykers, but there are those for whom this is not true such as Imperial or Khorne cults.
✦✦ Noble: The character comes from a high social caste that entitles them to own other people.
✦✦ Alien Technology: The character's background makes them familiar with alien technologies for whatever reason. Choose the technology base (ex.: Eldar, Tau, Ork, etc.) and the character can drive those vehicles and operate that machinery as if it was culturally appropriate.
✦✦ :
Three Star Traits:
✦✦✦ Psyker: The character is a psyker and has a Power attribute.
✦✦✦ :
✦✦✦ :
✦✦✦ :
✦✦✦ :
Negative Traits:
Let's get this out in the open: having a negative trait is not necessarily
bad. Over the course of the campaign, adventures
will happen. And while adventures are rather a bummer to actually go on, they are exciting and interesting to hear about or tell. When a character has a negative trait, there is something about them that works as the seed for adventures. This means that the
player actually
benefits because they get more screen time. It is for this reason that it is recommended that a single character has no more and no less than 7 stars worth of negative traits.
- One Star Traits:
✦ Coward: The character is a coward, avoiding scary incidents in their life and never standing up for themselves. Maybe that's why they allowed themselves into being bullied into joining a cult in the first place. Or maybe they feel that they have to do things publicly that appear dangerous in order to overcompensate. Any compulsion to make such a character respond in a fearful manner is considered natural.
✦ Addiction: In the 41st millennium, religion is no longer the opiate of the masses. The character is addicted to some actual opiate, or possibly a stimulant like spine powder. The character spends a lot of time high, and a fair chunk of their disposable income getting high.
✦ Orphan: The character never knew their parents. This makes them sad sometimes and gives them as good a reason as any to
✦ Fanatic: Every member of the cult is dedicated, but this character is just annoying about it.
✦ Embarrassing Secret: There is something about the character that would socially inconvenience them if it got out. What reduces someone's social standing on one world may be very different than what reduces one's social standing on another. For example: on Ocuron IV, left handed people are considered social pariahs, and a character who faked using their right hand for things would hold an embarrassing secret.
✦ Ugly: The character is physically unattractive, and has little luck with the opposite sex unless money is involved. Note that the standards for beauty are bizarre in the Imperium, and some places find the strangest things (un)attractive.
✦ Low Social Standing: On those worlds where heavy caste systems are in place, losing the birth lottery can have dire social consequences.
✦ Day Job: The character has genuine social responsibilities and people will actually miss them if they go off and do things on short notice.
✦ Pervert: The character likes to do something that other people don't like people doing. Sometimes this is as simple as breaking eggs on the wrong side. But it makes the character stand out.
✦ Clumsy: The character drops stuff and falls down.
✦ Lazy: The character doesn't like to work, and shirks off doing it whenever possible. This causes resentment.
✦ Stupid: The character may not be unintelligent, but the things that they do and which come out of their mouth are retarded.
✦ Distinctive Style: The character does something that is readily identifiable. This means that if they do something that they can often be described accurately later on.
✦ Silent Mutant: The character's mutations are subtle enough that they can only be detected psychically. Of course, it's still a death sentence, it just isn't likely to come up because it doesn't look like anything. The character can still purchase mutant powers though.
✦ Silver Spoon: The character has had a sheltered existence and honestly has no idea how anything works or how people actually live in the seedier realms of the planet or the empire.
Two Star Traits:
✦✦ Abhuman: The character is a human, but distinctly and definitely a member of a known and accepted abhuman group. This gives you carte blanche to have really weird attributes, but it also means that a number of human groups, including ecclesiarchy agents will dislike you.
✦✦ Mutant: The characters is a mutant and has physical deformities marking them as such. This allows you to purchase mutant powers, but it also means that you are subject to a death sentence if certain Imperial agents detect you.
✦✦ Criminal History: Somewhere the Imperium has a record on crimes the character has committed. Luckily, the Imperial Bureaucracy is legendarily ineffective, but sometimes it pulls through. And that could easily be very dangerous.
✦✦ Escaped Slave: Most Imperial worlds have slavery of one sort or another. The character was once held as a Slave.
✦✦ Arbites Contact: The character actually works for or with the Arbites. While such a position is potentially useful, it also puts them under much more intense scrutiny from both their peers and the arbites.
✦✦ Hot Blooded: The character escalates conflict readily.
✦✦ Unlikeable: Nobody likes the character because they are simply unlikeable as a human being. Don't invest in a lot of Persuasion if your character has this flaw.
✦✦ Sickly: The character spends a lot of time getting sick.
✦✦ Dumb: The character cannot speak High Gothic, or any language other than their stunted local planetary tongue. This trait needs a warning: it should not be taken if the character is from a different planet than any of the other characters. It's interesting if a character needs other characters to speak for him in Imperial circles, but it's downright aggravating if a character in the cult can't talk directly to one of the other cultists.
✦✦
Three Star Traits:
✦✦✦ Interesting to Chaos: The character is considered interesting by one or more Chaos entities. Even if such a being is nominally on your side, this is rarely good.
✦✦✦ Unhidable Mutation: While some mutations can be covered up with baggy clothes or heavy makeup, this character's cannot. The character's form does something that is really obviously non-human. Extra appendages, constant fire, whatever. This allows the character to purchase extreme mutations, but of course the character cannot participate in polite society.
✦✦✦ Malignant: The character is a first or second generation genestealer offspring. They certainly have human traits, but are instantly identifiable as non-human. Such a character can purchase any kind of genestealer abilities off of the mutation list, but if Imperial Agents find them, they are kill on sight.
✦✦✦ Draft Dodger: Once a person is marked by the Officio Munitorum they must fight or die. The character has chosen the third option where they run for the rest of their lives.
✦✦✦ Enslaved: While the character has escaped direct servitude, they are still nerve stapled. The character has command words that force obedience from them. All servitors and arcoflagellants are enslaved.
Equipment
“
This is my lasgun. It is like many other lasguns, but this one is mine.”
Characters in Warp Cult do not have to pay points for their starting equipment. Instead, they start with an amount of swag that is “reasonable” for the game they are playing in. And yes, that's totally unfair at times. The difference in power between a lasgun and an Autocannon is
intense. But while discrepancies in equipment are in many cases more important than any differences in skill between characters, equipment can also be gained or lost or
traded with shocking ease. While having an extra die on your firearms checks is probably less of a big deal than is having a rail rifle – the fact is that there is nothing intrinsic about a character that would causes them to keep a rail rifle in the future. In fact, one could guess that whoever in the Cult had the highest Firearms pool would tend to be given the best gun that the cult had anywhere in their possession.
The goal of this rules is to make sure that it is never a good idea to start a character with a lot of equipment and then immediately become an hero and have them kill themselves only to start another character who has better skills and simply inherits that equipment. This is actually a bigger problem than some characters starting with good equipment or lots of money while others start with little for role playing reasons. After all, it is highly situational how one gets new equipment. In some circumstances, a character with some decent Larceny and Stealth can walk off with a Heavy Webber, and in others a character with a lot of money or good Persuasion can do the same.
Perks
Characters can get
Perks at a cost of 5 points a piece. Some perks are available to practically anyone, and others require you to have specific traits.
Open Perks:- Parry: When armed with a melee weapon that does more than half as much damage as your opponent's weapon, you increase the threshold to strike you in close combat by 1.
- Sprint: You may double the number of hits on your Run tests for purposes of how many extra cm you can move. Increase the Endurance threshold by 1 every time you do this.
- Quick Draw: Add +2 dice on your initiative checks. In addition, you can switch between weapons more quickly than normal, and you may take advantage of two weapons in close combat even when you are armed with a two handed weapon.
- Catfall: You are skilled at rolling out of falls. The distance the character falls is counted as if it were 2 cm less for each point of Agility you have.
- Evade: You are good at avoiding fire. In turns where you moved, the threshold to hit you with a ranged attack is increased by 1.
- Calm Under Pressure: You are blasé even when your life is threatened. You may buy hits even while in combat.
- Fast: Your basic movement is increased by 20%. So your standard move is 12 cm instead of 10. Your Run checks are unaffected.
- Sudual Striking: You are trained to bring enemies back alive. If your attack would do sufficient damage to kill a target, you may choose to have it do less damage such that the target does not die.
- Gun Fu: You can use ranged weapons (except heavy weapons) as close combat weapons.
- Big Picture Thinking: You can always ignore close threats when determining where you can move and shoot.
- Purposeful: You can ready a heavy weapon while moving. This costs you 2cm of your movement.
- : By spending an Aim action, you may ignore the penalties and restrictions of firing into close combat, except with automatic or template weaponry.
- Keen Senses: The range of any weapon in your hands is increased by 10 cm. The range of a pistol is only increased by 5 cm.
- Dowsing: The thresholds for scavenging materials are reduced by 1.
- Jump Up: You can change from being Prone to Standing as a free action.
- Free Running: You can treat difficult terrain as open and impassable terrain as difficult for purposes of movement.
Mutation Perks:
Only mutants, genestealer hybrids, and abhumans can have mutations. In the case of abhumans, these mutations are considered to be “normal” among some strain of people. In the case of warp mutants, the mutations are likely unique or nearly so.
- Carapace: Your mutant structure is tougher than normal, and you roll an extra die when soaking damage. This may be taken more than once.
- Extra Arm: You have an extra arm. This may be taken more than once.
- Black Blood: You blood is a metal eating caustic substance. When you are wounded, a spray of Damage 3 ichor will spew out onto things near you, and you can eat through doors by cutting yourself.
- Natural Weaponry: You have some kind of gruesome natural weaponry, whether it be a crab claw, a scorpion tail, or a toothy maw. Practically this means that you have a +2 Damage close combat weapon that you cannot be disarmed of.
- Ghastly: Your visage is frightening and you cause fear. This isn't just a matter of being ugly or something, and indeed you may have a completely human appearance. It's just that your very presence causes terror to leak in from the imaterium into the physical world.
- Tentacles:You have tentacles. They lack the fine manipulation of hands, but they can reach out an extra meter or so. You can engage in close combat from 2 cm away.
- Tracking Senses: You have an enhanced sense. It could be a thermosense organ that allows you to “feel” the lingering heat from footsteps, feeder tentacles that let you chemically sense the passage of animals, or just a wicked good sense of smell thanks to a shout out from a sense-god. You can make Investigation checks on the move when using your special sense.
Warp Invocations: Characters who are Psykers may take Warp Invocations as Perks. An individual Psyker must choose a category of intrinsic power, and that's the category they can select from.
Daemon Favor: Characters who are Psykers may select a type of Daemon that they can Summon as a Perk.
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