Character Creation follows the following steps:
Pick a character concept and Yogang
Assign Stat Points
Assign Skill Points
Choose some flaws, family background, description and siblings.
Pick your starting equipment
Select your preferred evolution.
Get a rough idea of what you want to play, and use that to select a Yogang, juves in Cybergeneration hang out together in yogangs; there is a huge list of different ones ranging from “the after school club” (Rads, Beavers, Streetfighters) to the “way of life” (Squats, Glitterkids, Goldenkids).
Have a look and pick one that best fits the personality you want to play, other than being a generalisation of outlook, each yogang has it’s own unique skill and determines your starting equipment.
Pick your age from between 8 and 16 please but remember you are expected to act it! Characters under under 12 are at a large handicap to any form of driving task – it’s almost like your feet don’t reach the pedals.
You have 45 points to distribute between your 8 stats.
All stats must be between 2 and 8.
This is raw problem solving, smarts, memory. Chances are anything involving knowledge and not directly interacting with technology will be based of INT.
Your Dexterity, reaction speed, coordination. This is the key stat is determining initiative and all ranged combat. It can also determine attack rolls for melee combat.
Reflex saves would be to dodge falling materials, natural accidents, or generally perform some task not covered by skills that requires speed or hand-eye coordination
Will, presence, resistance to stress. This is the key stat in staredowns, intimidating people, and resisting such attempts.
Cool saves are made to avoid freaking out, and to resist your aspects.
Ability to repair machines, anything that involves interacting with technology. Crucially this is also the key stat for administering first aid.
Your Karma, used for luck saves. You can “spend” luck points to add to your dice rolls, lowering your luck for that session. If you give into character aspects you regain a point of luck.
Luck resets each session.
Luck saves are occasionally made to see if you “get lucky”
How many metres you can run in 1 combat round.
Your people skills, general attractiveness, charisma, ability to relate to people. This is the key skill any time you are trying to interact with someone in any way other than intimidation or “read” how someone is interacting with you.
How physically big you are, Strength, endurance and constitution. You can carry (over a short distance) 10*BODY in KG, dead lift 25*BODY in KG. BOD determines what bonus you get to melee damage rolls (if any).
Your number of wounds is equal to your BOD score.
Stun/Shock saves are made against your BOD (or wounds if you have been wounded) to determine if you stay concious after being hurt.
You have 1 special ability based on your yogang and 10 shared skills. You have 40 points to spend and totals can be anywhere between 1 and 8. Try to get a good balance that compliment your character (e.g MegaViolents usually find it hard to act innocent but your years of beating the crap out of each other will leave you will great skill at JockStuff. While a BeaverBrat will need that Littl’ angel for when their pranks go bad.)
Yogangs don’t have the variety or quality of skills that adult edgerunners do, after all they didn’t spent 5 years in SouthAm learning how to kill people with their bare hands, Electronic Security isn’t taught at Beaver high and nobody in their right mind is going to teach heavy weapons to a 12 year old…
Therefore some skills – particularly streetfighting, only work at half value if in an opposed roll with an adult.
Each skill has a key stat associated with it. In some cases several and one will be chosen depending on the situation.
Generic fighting/brawling skill at the short street level. It combines bits of the edgerunner skills ranged weapons, melee and brawling. You use this skill whenever you’re hitting someone with a weapon or your fist, dodging being hit or trying to shoot someone.
Ranged weapons always uses REF, melee can use REF or BOD – you are either a lithe agile fighter or a bruser. (It always uses BOD for determining extra damage though).
This skill will be halved in opposed checks with an adult.
It’s your Juve B&E ability. The skill in picking locks, pickpockets, and breaking into places without high tech security.
The skills of throwing, climbing, balancing, swimming etc…. combines stuff from any athletics program. A necessity if you plan to get physical.
This skill will be halved in opposed checks with an adult.
How on the ball you are, do you notice your surroundings? Are you generally clueless or do you know what’s happening all the time.
Straight perception is INT, reading people is EMP.
Ever notice how you and your goboys can just blend into the walls when there is trouble? You just step back into the shadows and think “not there Mr CSWAT psycho” and they look right over you. The ability to blend into the terrain and remain unnoticed or move silently through the shadows. Adults never really notice kids unless they want to…… This can be used with other stats dependant on situation, for example to blend in with a crowd at the shopping mall whilst Corpsec is searching for you may require COOL or INT, blending with another yogang may want COOL and EMP. Straight “hide behind a trash can” is based on REF.
Since it is explicitly hiding from adults, this skill is very rarely halved in opposed rolls with an adult.
You know the street, but only at the Juve level. You don’t run with the runners and you would be lost in a meeting of the local mob heavies but you do know how to find out who owns what square and where the boundaries are as well as what areas of the town are best to keep out of unless you want to be megaviolent prey or a Goth sacrifice. You know what to say to cryo a guardian ganger and how to find and address the local fixer.
This skill rates how far you have moved up in your own Yogang. It’s also a measure of how well you lead people in your group. With this skill you can convince others to follow your plans and do dumb stuff because you said it would work. It also covers how you react to stressful or scary situations.
How much education you’ve had, formal or otherwise. Can you read and write? How about Math? Did you go to school, have access to study chips and V Sims? You’re not going to be a rocket scientist yet but with this skill you have a bit of history, English, computer skills and maths etc….
Attempting to give first aid treatment is based on TECH.
The ability to drive vehicles like bikes, cyber bikes, cats trucks etc… In normal driving conditions like fast turns and controlled skids etc… Chances are you haven’t had any formal training, ISA aren’t keen to let Juves get drivers licences. You sure as hell don’t know how to pilot an AV, which takes a lot of intensive training and practice.
Possibly the biggest advantage comes from the fact that most adults have a hard time believing that a 10 year old could be leading a black op. Little angel is your ability to pull a con on an adult and act innocent, passing off incriminating situations as just “kids messing around” With this you can pull sympathy ploys, blame things on imaginary friends (if you’re young enough) or convince the security team that your little bit of sabotage was just “an initiation into a club”.
Since it is explicitly hiding from adults, this skill is very rarely halved in opposed rolls with an adult. It might get halved if you pull it against juves though – they know how dodgy you are.
Aspects I have shamelessly ripped from Fate as I think they are excellent. An aspect is a piece of your personality that ideally will have a positive and negative side. If your character is in a position where their aspect will effect them, they must make a cool save to resist it. If they choose to give in to it (aka choose not to make the save), they regain a point of luck. If the aspect would benefit the situation, they get +2 to skill rolls. E.g. a character with the aspect “kleptomaniac” must make cool checks whenever they are shopping to avoid trying to steal something small and worthless, just because, but they do get +2 to their thiefstuff rolls to shoplift.
Pick 2-4 aspects that you think will suit your character.
Pick your family rank (comparable modern day position)
Corp Exec (senior management, salaries of > £60k)
Corp manager (lower – middle management £40-70k)
Corp Technician (Skilled worker £20k – 50k)
Corp Labourer (Unskilled worker < 20k)
Outside Poor
Outside Technician
Outside Gang Family
Outside Homeless
Military/Corpsec Family
Obviously there are a few trends: goldenkids will have corp exec parents and most squats will come from outside homeless etc…
“Corp” means your family works for one of the major megacorporations and so your childhood is based in the relatively safe corpszones. Outside means any non corpzone area, ranging from shabby to outright nasty and the lower end of that pay spectrum.
Pick yourself some siblings and give them names, ages and sexes as well as how they feel towards you and how you feel about them. If you are feeling lucky the system comes with a “annoying sibling generator”. Siblings don’t have to be biological, other juves you have grown up with an are in effect your family are more than fine.
Put down a few sentences about your childhood and your relationship with your parents and siblings – do you get on, not see eye to eye, or barely talk anymore?
Come up with your characters appearance and description. I have some BMI documents for kids somewhere that can give you a rough idea about height and weight from last time I ran one of these.
You start with 4 things from a list included with your yogang, pick them now.
Balance note: some of them have things that have been removed or rebalanced (Streetfighters with monokatanas, Goldenkids with invisible AR5 armour). If it seems too good to be true is probably is and will get substituted.
You will start un-evolved, but evolution will happen rapidly in game. Give me some preferences.