Creating a character for an m20 game is a simple step-by-step process. Most of these steps apply to any character, although steps involving magic only involve characters who are capable of using magic, naturally. You might want to refer to the character sheet at the end of this document as you read this so you can follow along with the various elements of an m20 character as I describe them.
Header
First off, spell out some of the very basic details of your character at the top of the sheet. What’s his name? What does he look like? How old is he? At this early stage of character creation, you probably also want to think about the concept of who your character is, much as an author coming up with a quick and dirty profile of a character he will use in a novel or screenplay. You don’t have to come up with a long or detailed back story (I certainly don’t necessarily encourage it, although if you like to do that kind of thing, you certainly can) but these kinds of early thoughts should also lead you towards what the race and class choices you will make are likely to be, as well as getting you to think about how you will assign your stats.
Generate Stats
“Stats” is a short-hand term for three scores that your character will have. These basic scores give a quick, simple and abstract number that quantifies some of your innate traits and capabilities. The three stats are Strength (abbreviated STR), Dexterity (DEX) and Mind (MND.) Your STR score describes how tough and strong you are physically, while your DEX score describes your reflexes, hand-eye coordination, agility and speed. Your MND score speaks to your intelligence, wisdom, personal magnetism, and other traits that have less to do with your physical body and more to do with your presence or wits.
Stats are, by design, quite generic and abstract, and describe innate traits. Skills, on the other hand, while also fairly generic and abstract, will describe abilities that you have learned, practiced and developed. If the GM decides that there is some inherent risk in a task you have elected to do, he will have you make a “check” to see if you are successful. Most of the time, these checks will consist of rolling a d20, taking the result of that roll, adding to it one of your Stat bonuses and one of your Skill bonuses, and comparing the result to a target number, which by tradition is called a Difficulty Class (DC.) There will be a few exceptions, but that is basically the significance of stats in the game as you play it. The Stat and Skill bonus that applies will usually be pretty obvious, but in case it's not, your GM will tell you which ones apply after you describe what it is that you want to do.
Generating the score of a stat is a little bit convoluted, but the process (and range of numbers) is traditional, and I have elected not to buck tradition here. Roll a d6 four times (4d6) or better yet, roll four of them at once if you have them. Ignore the lowest roll on the four dice. Take the remaining three scores and add them together. This will give you a number from 3 to 18. Write this number down on a piece of scrap paper. Do this again two more times. You will have three scores between 3 and 18, and the average score should be around 10-11. If your average is quite a bit lower than that (lower than about 7 or so), talk to your GM. If you’re not whiny about it, he may elect to allow you to reroll them and try for a better score. Some GMs, on the other hand, feel that playing with the hand the dice deal you is part of the fun.
For these scores, higher is better. Assign the scores to your stats as you see fit, to best fit the concept of your character (for example, if you envision your character as a scholarly or quick-witted fellow, put your highest score in MND—if you picture instead a big, athletic bruiser, you probably want to put your highest score in STR.) Next to the box where you put the score is a box for your modifier, or mod. The mod associated with each score is determined by taking your score minus 10, and then dividing the result by 2 and dropping the half (if any.) This means that you should be able to convert your scores, which range from 3 to 18, to mods which range from -4 to +4. The mod is the number that you actually use to make a check, as described above, not the score. The score itself is mostly superfluous, but as I said, it’s traditional.
In some cases, your stats can take damage from certain attacks or conditions (such as poison, disease, or certain attacks.) If this happens, your stat score is reduced by the amount of the attack, and your stat modifier is updated to reflect the new score. Stat damage will heal and return to normal at a rate of 2 points of damage removed for every overnight rest taken. If, for example, a character takes 3 points of STR damage after being slipped a poison, one night of overnight rest will restore 2 points to his score, and his modifier will be updated as such. He will have to operate the entirety of the next day with a lingering -1 penalty to his score, but a second night of rest will restore the last point of damage and his STR score will be back to normal on the second day.
If your STR score ever falls to 0, your character dies. If your DEX score ever falls to 0, your character is completely immobile and cannot move at all. If your MND score ever falls to 0, then your character also dies.
Pick Race
Pick a race for your character. The setting of Cult of Undeath has a fairly standard array of fantasy races, as you are probably used to seeing in many other fantasy products.
Pick Class
There are four classes available to choose from.. Classes represent a character’s profession, if you will. They are adventuring archetypes that are iconic, yet flexible enough to enable a wide variety of interpretations. In some games, you can “multi-class”—that is, take abilities from more than one class per character. In m20, on the other hand, the class benefits are not so great that that is necessary, and any character can be competent across multiple activities, making the need for multi-classing obsolete. Class benefits are relatively modest, and apply immediately at character creation, but do not lock your character into an archetypal strait-jacket from which they cannot evolve or develop as the game unfolds. The four classes are Fighter, Rogue, Outdoorsman and Sorcerer.
Note that there is no requirement that all characters be from different classes, or that the group of characters overall form a “balanced party” with at least one of each type of character. It is the GM’s responsibility to provide a game that is appropriate for the characters he gets, not one that passive-aggressively penalizes the players for using their inviolable right to control their own characters, or define them (within the constraints of the setting and theme of the game) as they wish.
Calculate Hit Points
Your maximum hit point score for all characters, regardless of class, is generated by using the STR score (not modifier) plus 2 for every level (excluding first.) Hit points indicate how much damage a character can take before being too injured to continue. Your maximum hit points, when uninjured, can never be surpassed, except possibly under the influence of a magical effect (which will usually be temporary.) However, when injured, you will lose hit points. If, for example, your character is hit by a duelist against whom he is fighting and takes 7 points of damage, your current hit points will be reduced to 7 below maximum.
Characters who, for whatever reason, reach 0 hit points or lower, collapse into unconsciousness and shock, and are at risk of dying. Every round, the character must succeed on a check of his STR + character level, DC 20 every round or die. Naturally, it behooves the rest of the group to “stabilize” the character before he is at risk of dying, while he is still unconscious and in shock. Another character can attempt to administer quick and dirty first aid by taking a round, while adjacent to wounded character, and making a MND + Knowledge check, DC 15. This represents very minimal bandaging or other first aid, and the character will be stabilized, and will no longer be at risk of near-term death (unless, of course, he takes more damage while unconscious and starts the process over again) but the character will not at this point regain any lost hit points, and he remains unconscious.
When not in combat or other stressful environment, a character can attempt more deliberate medical treatment, or surgical treatment. The character attempting to heal another one makes a MND + Knowledge check (DC 15) and if successful, heals 1d6 + 5 hit points instantly. NOTE: This can only be done once. You can’t perform back to back surgeries and expect to be restored to full hit points instantly. It can be done again if the character takes new damage, but otherwise, any remaining missing hit points must be recovered naturally. Natural healing is accomplished by bed rest. While undergoing a full night’s rest, characters recover hit points at a rate of their level x 2 every night. If they cannot take the time to completely heal naturally, they can still regain hit points every night, but must operate at less than full hit points during the day until they are able to recover all of their hit points via multiple nights’ rest.
In reality, nobody likes to sit around recovering from an injury in what is supposed to be an action-packed and exciting game (my biggest pet peeve with the novel and movie of Ivanhoe is that he’s lying around hurt for at least half the book, maybe more), so borrowing a convention from action movies everywhere, characters heal much more quickly and thoroughly than in real life, so as to avoid excessive down time.
Skills
Skills are trained or learned specialties, less broad than stats, but still fairly generic. As stated earlier, most tasks that a character will undertake are done by combining the stat bonus that is most applicable and the skill bonus that is most applicable, adding that total to the result of a d20 roll, and comparing it to a target difficulty class (DC). If you match or beat the DC, you are successful, if you do not, you fail the check and the results are determined by the GM. A standard difficulty task has a target of 15, while a more difficult task can be 20, 25 or even higher. There is no “system” for determining DCs, the GM makes one up that he feels is appropriate for the task at hand, accounting for any conditions or factors that might make it easier or more difficult (for example, poor visibility, poor footing, etc.)
In some situations, rather than applying a skill, a level check might be made. In this case, the bonus that you apply is simply the character level. This is done in somewhat unusual situations in which none of the five skills really apply, but generic experience should provide some kind of bonus (a good example is resisting the effects of a magic spell, which is usually a MND + level check.)
Which skill applies in all given situations is impossible to determine in so brief a rulebook (nor is it desirable to do so), so GM interpretation will feature heavily. The five skills are as follows:
The character's skill bonus for every skill is equal to his character level + any skill bonus granted by class or race. For example, a 4th level Human fighter would have an Athletics skill of 4 (because he's 4th level) + 1 to all skills as a human racial trait, and +3 as a Fighter class trait, for a +8 total.
Sanity
Sanity is a special application of the MND stat that comes into play because the purpose of the rules is to emulate as much a horror setting as an adventuring fantasy setting. Sanity checks come into play when your characters are faced by intrusions into your mind or particularly horrible sights or revelations. Sanity also comes into effect when casting spells, since doing so is a perversion of natural law, and the human mind is ill-equipped to use magic.
If your GM requests a Sanity check, roll 1d20. If the result is greater than or equal to your current MND score, you take 1d4 points of damage to your MND score, and roll a d4 plus the amount of MND damage you took, and consult the following table:
The main reason that a character would make a Sanity check involves the use of magic, although some extremely unearthly monsters or other unusual circumstances can spark a Sanity check as well.
Equipment
Adventurers live and die by their equipment. Equipment comes in three categories: weapons, armor and other. Weapons and armor have specific qualities that impact the character’s performance in combat. Other equipment can be used mostly in ways that are self-explanatory.
All equipment has a cost. The basic unit of currency is the gold piece (or gp.) Some of the equipment on the Other section is really cheap; in those cases you can use silver pieces (sp) or even copper pieces (cp). Each gold piece is worth ten silver pieces, and each silver piece is worth 10 copper pieces. In terms of current US currency, that makes copper pieces equivalent to pennies, silver pieces equivalent to dimes, and gold pieces equivalent to dollars.
Weapons also have a damage type, which indicates which dice you would roll when determining damage if you hit an opponent with that weapon. Armor has a bonus to Armor Class that it confers. Other equipment has only a cost and occasionally any specific comments on its use that may be necessary to clarify how it works.
Both weapons and armor are simplified into categories, and all armor of a given category behaves identically in terms of game rules. This may be more streamlined that you are used to in other games, but I don’t see the value of bogging down what is meant to be a brief document with simple rules with long equipment lists. Some examples of typical varieties of armor or weapons in each category is given, but by and large, you can use any type of weapon you can imagine, and with the buy-in of your GM, you can categorize it as you see fit. All of the game information related to it (cost, damage, etc.) will be unchanged. Some few weapons (such as daggers) can be light weapons or thrown weapons, but the cost and damage should be the same. Any thrown weapons can no longer be used in any given combat unless the character has a chance to retrieve it.
Ranged weapons also have a range listed in their description. Any distance beyond this range is considered long range, and any To Hit rolls will be assessed with a penalty of at least -2 by your GM, depending on how far away it is. Some targets are simply too far away for there to be any chance at hitting them, in which case, all attempts to attack automatically fail.
Although characters may find equipment, or be given equipment by patrons or friends, throughout the course of the game, mostly they have to buy what they want. Most of the items listed here are reasonably common and can be assumed that any type of town or city larger than a small farming or fishing hamlet will accommodate the entire list of equipment in some shop or specialist vendor’s stall somewhere (although it may be "on back order" for smaller towns whose dry goods stores don't necessarily keep everything in stock all of the time.) As always, the GM may rule otherwise as he interprets the setting of your game.
In addition to whatever money a character finds throughout his career as an adventurer, all characters start with 120 + (3d6 x 5) gp with which to equip the character before the game begins. Take a moment as part of creating your character to equip him with whatever gear you feel you need to start.
Some games also feature weight and encumbrance rules. I’ve elected to ignore that, and assume that you are able to utilize some common sense in terms of what you are able to carry on your person at any given time. There are also no wealth per level guidelines, or anything else like that. It is not a feature of any game that I'll ever run that the acquisition of vast amounts of wealth is likely to be a major goal or activity anyway.
Weapon Type
• Unarmed - cost is free, damage is 1d4
• Light (daggers, rapiers, etc.) - cost is 5 gp, damage is 1d6
• Medium (swords, axes, etc.) - cost is 15 gp, damage is 1d8
• Heavy (two-handed swords, two-handed ax, etc.) - cost is 20 gp, damage is 1d10. Cannot use shields with this size weapon, as they typically take both hands to use properly.
• Thrown (daggers, tomahawks, etc.) - cost is 5 gp, damage is 1d6. Range is 50 feet (no increments; it's either in range or not.)
• Ranged (Bow and arrows, crossbow, etc.) - cost is 40 gp, damage is 1d8. Range is 500 ft. Assume unlimited ammunition (as per most action movies!) It won't break the game because combats never last more than a few rounds anyway.
Armor Type
• Light (padded cloth, leather, etc.) - cost is 10 gp, Armor bonus to AC is +2.
• Medium (chainmail or breastplate) - cost is 50 gp, Armor bonus to AC is +4
• Heavy (full suit of plate armor) - cost is 250 gp, Armor bonus to AC is +6
• Light shield (buckler or wooden shield) - cost is 10 gp, Armor bonus to AC is +1
• Heavy shield (kite shield or fully metal shield) - cost is 15 gp, Armor bonus to AC is +2
Other
• Backpack—2 gp
• Basket—4 sp
• Barrel—2 gp
• Bedroll—1 sp
• Bell—1 gp
• Winter blanket—5 sp
• Block and tackle—5 gp
• Glass bottle—2 gp
• Bucket—5 gp
• Caltrops—1 gp
• Candle—1 cp
• Canvas (per square yard)—1 sp
• Chain (10 ft.)—30 gp
• Chalk—1 cp
• Chest—2 gp
• Clothing, artisans—1 gp
• Clothing, priest’s vestments—5 gp
• Clothing, cold weather outfit—8 gp
• Clothing, courtier’s outfit—30 gp
• Clothing, entertainer’s outfit—3 gp
• Clothing, explorer’s outfit—10 gp
• Clothing, noble’s outfit—75 gp
• Clothing, peasant’s outfit—1 sp
• Clothing, royal outfit—200 gp
• Clothing, scholar’s outfit—5 gp
• Clothing, traveler’s outfit—1 gp
• Crowbar—2 gp
• Fishhook—1 sp
• Fishing net, 25 square feet—4 gp
• Flask—3 cp
• Flint and steel—1 gp
• Grappling hook—1 gp
• Hammer—5 sp
• Ink (1 ounce vial)—8 gp
• Inkpen—1 sp
• Ladder, 10 foot—5 cp
• Lamp—1 sp
• Hooded lantern—12 gp
• Lock—40 gp
• Manacles—15 gp
• Mirror, steel hand-held—10 gp
• Parchment (sheet)—2 sp
• Miner’s pick—3 gp
• Pole, 10-foot—2 sp
• Iron pot—5 sp
• Rope, 50-foot—10 gp
• Sealing wax—1 gp
• Signet ring—5 gp
• Spade or shovel—2 gp
• Spyglass—100 gp
• Tent—5 gp
• Torch—1 cp
• Waterskin—1 gp
Characters may also buy other goods and services, such as mounts, animals, hirelings, meals, stays at inns, etc. In general, these costs are either relatively ephemeral transactions (drinks, meals, stays at inns) in which case they should be fairly cheap—very rarely even as much as a single gp—or they are unusual and unique (a horse to ride, legal services, a porter to carry your stuff, etc.) in which case they should be “quoted” to you uniquely by the GM rather than spelled out here.
Heroism Points
Heroism points represent a character’s determination and their importance to the plans of the gods or the forces of fate (i.e., the game and the GM.) A character gets three heroism points per session to start with. Heroism points can be used to add a +10 to any d20 roll that the character makes. It can also be used as a “healing surge;” to instantly heal 2d6+2 hit points as needed.
When your Heroism points are completely spent, they are gone for the rest of game session. A character’s Heroism points are restored to their starting amount at the beginning of a game session. However, the GM may (and should!) decide to give extra “reward” Heroism points to characters who do something particular exciting, interesting, harrowing, or entertaining. These points can be saved to be used later during the session, or spent immediately. Heroism points do not carry over from session to session; they must be used in the session in which they are granted, or they are lost (although the next session will give you a new evening’s worth of Heroism points to spend again.)
Heroism points can be noted any way that works for you, but my preference is with counters that are returned to the GM when spent. Any type of counter will work—small paper chits, poker chips, potato chips, pennies, etc. My favorite are plastic pirate coins which I bought at a party favor store for a buck or two. They’re cheap, utilitarian and yet evocative at the same time.