Character Creation/Rules

[Mr. Handy]

The following rules are for character creation for new characters from 1940 (use the Modern 6th edition Call of Cthulhu character sheet, modified as detailed below):

• Roll 3d6 each for STR, CON, POW, DEX, and APP.
• Roll 2d6+6 each for SIZ and INT.
• Roll 3d6+3 for EDU.
• Roll 1d10 for personal wealth, using the 1920s wealth chart for 6th edition.

You can use the board's built-in dice roller (the instructions are here), or a different online dice roller such as orokos.com to make your rolls, both for character creation and in the game.

Those are the only rolls you need to make for character creation. You are free to distribute the 3d6 rolls among the five stats that are rolled on 3d6, as well as to choose which 2d6+6 roll goes to SIZ and which to INT. EDU can be raised by making your character older. If you're still not satisfied with your rolls, let me know and we'll work something out. If your rolls are abnormally low, I may permit a reroll of the entire set.

You'll also need to decide on your character's age. The minimum age allowed is EDU+6, but you can always choose to make your character older. For every 10 full years above the minimum, you get +1 to your EDU (which also gets you an extra 20 occupational skill points). However, for every full 10 years above 40 (i.e., starting at age 50), you must reduce one of the following stats by 1: STR, CON, DEX, or APP.

Your character has the following derived stats:
Idea: INT x 5
Luck: POW x 5
Know: EDU x 5 (maximum of 99)
Damage Bonus: Calculate STR+SIZ and consult the following table

• 12 or less: -1d6
• 13-16: -1d4
• 17-24: +0
• 25-32: +1d4
• 33 or more: +1d6

Maximum Hit Points: (CON+SIZ)/2 (round fractions up)
Maximum Magic Points: POW
Starting Sanity: POW x 5

You get 20 x EDU occupational skill points that can only be used to increase skills for your chosen profession. You also get 10 x INT hobby skill points that can be spent to increase any skills (even the ones for your occupation if you really want). The only skill that cannot be raised is Cthulhu Mythos, which always starts at 0%. The other skills have base levels of 1% or higher, and the points you spend add to those base levels. To see the list of skills and their starting levels, see Elizabeth Young's character sheet in the Character Sheets thread (it's not currently up in this game, but you can find it in The Brotherhood of Death here). It is identical to the standard Modern Era character sheet (6th edition), minus the new special skills for this era. Here are some additions to the character sheet, which are taken from Laraqua's Home Front monograph draft:

• Anti-Aircraft Gun (01%): This skill is used for firing an anti-aircraft gun.
• War Prestige (01%): This skill measures your reputation specifically related to work you've done for the war effort. The higher this skill, the more people have heard of what you've done. This does not necessarily correspond with your actual contribution. Codebreakers, for example, aided the war effort tremendously, yet because of the highly secret nature of their work, nobody should have heard about what they've done. This can be possibly increased during the adventure if you do something important to aid the war effort about which people learn.

Check the "Doing Your Bit" thread (when I post it) for possible character concepts (including ones specific to wartime London) and lists of occupational skills, as well as how to incorporate your wartime work into character creation. If you have something else in mind, let me know your character concept and I can give you a suitable list of occupational skills. The occupational skills for many professions are also listed in the 6th edition Call of Cthulhu rulebook, if you have it. Some of these lists allow you to choose one or more of your occupational skills. Just make sure it's within reason for your chosen occupation.

I won't be imposing a cap for starting skills, but you should justify any exceptionally high skills you have in your character background. 75% in a skill means that you're an expert. 90% means that you're one of the best in the world. Spend all your skill points during character creation, as they're of no use once the game is underway.

[andyw666]

Hi Mr Handy,

I was thinking I would retire Decius with honour (assuming he lives that long) at the end of The Brotherhood. I have a hankering to play a Naval Chaplain, do you think such a character could be squeezed into this scenario? I'm thinking he could be temporarily assigned between ships to a "stone frigate" naval base or a hospital in London / wherever we are.

Cheers,

Andy

[Mr. Handy]

A Naval Chaplain would be excellent! You should use the Clergyman occupational skill list (Accounting, History, Library Use, Listen, Other Language, Persuade, Psychology, and one other skill as a personal or era specialty). You can use your chosen specialty skill and your hobby skill points to reflect your Royal Navy training if you've only joined since the war began. If you're playing a career military chaplain, you may use either the Clergyman or the Military Officer occupational skill list (Accounting, Bargain, Credit Rating, Law, Navigate, Persuade, Psychology, and one other skill as a personal or era specialty). Your rank would most likely be Lieutenant or Lieutenant Commander. Note that British military chaplains in World War Two were unarmed, though that's not to say you can't have skills in firearms. However, they will not be standard issue or part of your military training.

There are military hospitals in and around London where you could work. One that I know of is Orpington, to the southeast of London (though not that long a commute by train or bus if you live in London). It is part of Greater London since it was incorporated in 1965, but in 1940 it was part of County Kent. Those injured at Dunkirk were treated there. One hospital that is closer to the action is St. Bartholomew's in the City of London, but that is a civilian hospital.

The scenario begins on the evening of Saturday, September 7, 1940, the first day of the Blitz. The first wave began in late afternoon, and all of the characters from 1940 will be in an air raid shelter at the outset located in the East End near the edge of the City. Characters don't need to reside in the East End or the City, but they do need to have been in that area on that afternoon, whether to work nearby, to eat a meal, to visit a tourist attraction (the Tower of London and Tower Bridge are nearby), or for some other reason. Characters don't need to be from London, or even from Britain at all. In addition to being from other parts of the Empire or the Commonwealth (Canada, India, South Africa, Australia, and elsewhere), there were plenty of foreign visitors to London even during (or because of) the war, including a number of Americans. Reporters would not be unusual at all. Some people were in Britain at the outbreak of war and did want to risk ocean travel with U-Boats on the prowl. There are also plenty of refugees who have fled from Nazi-occupied Europe. Enemy aliens (from Italy or the Greater German Reich) would have generally been interned, however.

[andyw666]

Brilliant! As a lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan, I am of course immediately drawn to the idea of my PC working, even temporarily assigned, at St Bart's!! Perhaps he's there for all the men and women in uniform being treated at the hospital (I assume they were being treated in every hospital to some extent?). Otherwise, assign him to the one you suggested in Orpington and he could just have been visiting someone in St Bart's, it's all good.

I shall start creating him in earnest on Thursday as I have the day off and will be able to think straight.

[Mr. Handy]

Great! St. Bart's will work well. A wing of it was set aside to treat wounded troops in the First World War, so the same was most likely done the second time around. It will also treat victims of the Blitz now that that is starting.

[andyw666]

[dice]0[/dice]
[dice]1[/dice]
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[dice]4[/dice]
[dice]5[/dice] + 6 = 8
[dice]6[/dice] + 6 = 18
[dice]7[/dice] + 3 = 16
[dice]8[/dice]

[Mr. Handy]

Nice rolling, except for the 4 and the 8! Still, you've got a 15, a 16 in EDU (which can be raised further by aging your character), and two 18s, and your stats overall are above average. Your income is $7500 per year, which is about 1500 pounds (one pound being worth approximately five dollars). You have assets worth five times that much, or 7500 pounds. That includes 750 pounds available in cash, 750 pounds in assets easily convertible to cash, and the rest in other assets - primarily your home, most likely. It could also easily include a car, though petrol is rationed. You're fairly well off, so you might even have two homes, one in London and one in the country.

[andyw666]

Amusing set of rolls indeed! Kind of min/max-ing. I have a mental image of him already, based on those rolls. The chaplain is definitely going to be a non-combatant type, which is a good change after Decius. (I don't want to get type-cast.)

[Mr. Handy]

With those stats, you could even have a -1D6 damage bonus if you put the 4 in STR and the 8 in SIZ. I've never seen that happen before, though -1D4 isn't unheard of for me. Decius is awesome and kicked a lot of butt, but his best move was convincing the guards to switch sides, so you can do plenty even without combat skills. Of course, even a character with no combat skills can be effective in a fight. My character Liz Penhaligon in Watch the World Burn had no points in combat skills initially, but she turned out to be deadlier than the rest of the party combined, thanks to a shotgun and a healthy supply of good luck.

[Mister Ginge]

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The character I have in mind is an Air Raid Precautions (ARP) Warden. They started enforcing the "Blackout" from September 1939.

[Mister Ginge]

Well those are some interesting dice rolls. I made the mistake initially of copy & pasting the BBcodes. May have been a different story.

[Mister Ginge]

Whoops. Need an extra 3d6.

[dice]0[/dice]

[Mr. Handy]

An ARP warden would be a perfect fit! You should use the following occupational skill list (also based on Laraqua's Home Front monograph draft): Fast Talk, First Aid, Law, Listen, Navigate, Persuade, Spot Hidden, and any one other skill as a personal or era specialty.

Your character won't start in the air raid shelter. You'll be out looking for people who haven't managed to get to shelters so that you can guide them to the nearest one, as well as searching for people injured or trapped by the air raid and making sure the blackout regulations are enforced.

[aureliusnoble]

Hi,

I used a different dice roller (https://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm), but I rolled:

6,4,3 = 13
5,2,2 = 9
1,4,4 = 9
5,2,5 = 12
3,6,3 =12

2,2+6 = 10
1,5+6 = 12

6,1,6+3 = 16

I was wondering whether I could be a Civil Servant (Foreign Office) and if so what occupational skills I should use? I was thinking of mostly going for Appearance/Intelligence.

[Mr. Handy]

A Civil Servant in the Foreign Office would be great! You should use the following occupational skill list: Bargain, Credit Rating, Fast Talk, Own Language, Other Language, Persuade, Psychology, and one other skill as a personal or era specialty. You may put occupational skill points into multiple Other Languages. I'll still need a 1d10 roll for personal wealth.

Mister Ginge, Your annual income is the equivalent of $4500, or 900 pounds. You have assets worth 4500 pounds, including 900 pounds in cash and 900 pounds in assets easily convertible to cash, with the rest in other assets.

[andyw666]

...Decius is awesome and kicked a lot of butt, but his best move was convincing the guards to switch sides, so you can do plenty even without combat skills...

Thank you kindly and I couldn't agree more (and Decius is as surprised as anyone that he is still alive). That was the part I was definitely most happy about.

Will get back to creating new PC tomorrow, had a long few days at work!

[aureliusnoble]

Ok great, thanks!

I'll try and post a full character this evening. I rolled a 10 for wealth, must have just forgotten to include it, sorry.

[Mr. Handy]

You're welcome! Your character's annual income is $20,000, or 4,000 pounds. Total assets equal 20,000 pounds, including 2,000 pounds in cash and 2,000 in easily convertible assets. Your character is very wealthy, so money will be no object for you. You can easily have multiple homes and a full staff of servants (some of which could even be PCs). Credit Rating will determine your social standing, which is often independent of wealth, though they can certainly go together. This is even more likely in your case, since Credit Rating is an occupational skill and you have a high EDU. It wouldn't surprise me if you've got at least a knighthood, if not a higher title of nobility.

[Mr. Handy]

Aurelius, I received your character sheet in the PM. You can actually just post sheets here in this thread, and when they're completed I'll put them in the Character Sheets thread.

Your character is great! The sheet just needs a few corrections, which you can post here rather than having to redo the entire character sheet. Your stats are slightly off from what you rolled. Your STR stat is 8, but the lowest of your 3d6 rolls is 9, so that's what it should be, as all of the other rolls are accounted for already. Also, your 2d6+6 rolls were 10 and 12, but you have a 12 listed in both SIZ and INT. One of those needs to be a 10 instead. This should probably be SIZ, as you said you wanted your intelligence higher. That will reduce your maximum HP from 12 to 11. HP is the average of CON and SIZ, rounded up, but you appear to have substituted STR for CON, so this still leaves you with more HP than you had thought. Maximum Sanity is 99 - Cthulhu Mythos. Since Cthulhu Mythos is 0 for new characters, this is simply 99.

You've underspent on your occupational skill points. You have a total of 340 available (EDU x 20), but you've only spent 289. This leaves you an additional 51 skill points to distribute among your occupational skills. Note that you get all skills at the level in parentheses for free, and skill points add to that level. That may be the reason the numbers don't add up correctly. Likewise, you've only spent 74 our of your 120 hobby skill points, which leaves you an additional 46 skill points that may be added to any skills. Also, you'll need to specify what type of aircraft (or boat) in which you have points for your Pilot skill. Each type counts as a separate skill. The possibilities are Balloon/Dirigible, Boat, Civil Prop, and Fighter Prop. The last one would apply if you've had RAF training, and I would allow Civil Prop and Fighter Prop to be used interchangeably with a modest penalty. If you are in the RAF, your character can still be on the ground, as there simply aren't enough planes to go around at the moment. You're wealthy enough to have your own private civilian plane.

The skill for Mace won't be included on your final sheet, as sprays like that don't exist in 1940. Elizabeth has it listed because she had something similar during a visit to the future in an earlier adventure.

Go ahead and post any modifications to your character sheet in this thread, and I'll post the completed sheet once those are done.

[aureliusnoble]

Oh ok, sorry, that's weird - I must have edited a draft I'd saved earlier weirdly. I'll make the corrections now. I didn't realise that the starting skills could be subtracted (is that the same in 7th edition?), so that's probably why nothing adds up, I'll add those now. Let me know if I've made any mistakes

Player: aureliusnoble
Name: Lord Rufus Colville (Viscount Beaumont)
Age: 33
Sex: Male
Occupation: Civil Servant (Foreign Office)
Current Residence: 61 Victoria Rd, Kensington, London
Colleges, Degrees: MSt(Hons) Modern Languages, University of Oxford
Birthplace: Westminster, London
Home Era: 1930s



Characteristics:
STR: 12
CON: 9
SIZ: 10
DEX: 12
APP: 13
INT: 12 (Idea - 60)
POW: 9 (Luck - 45)
EDU: 17 (Know - 85)

Sanity: 45
Phobias/Mental Disorders: None
Maximum Sanity: 99
Hit Points: 10
Magic Points: 9
Damage Bonus: +0
Wealth: £4,000 p/a

Background: Rufus Colville was born into an overwhelmingly aristocratic family. His father, Lord John Furlow was a senior official working for the India office and as a child Rufus rarely saw him. When Rufus was aged 14, he father went on a trip to India where he contracted a mysterious illness, dying a few short weeks later. Rufus attended boarding school at Charterhouse, Surrey from the age of 13, and then went on to study his BA and MSt at Oxford. He took a keen interest in history and languages, and entered the Foreign Office almost immediately after graduation, becoming singularly devoted to his job. He was even involved in the drafting of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement at the young age of 28. With increasing pressures and stresses at work in the past few years, and without many friends or any family of his own, this has been a dark and depressing period of his life. Rufus often spends his evenings alone in his library, reading a book, wondering where all the certainties of his younger years had gone.

Skills: (Non-default skills BOLD, Professional Skills ITALICS, Hobbies preceded by a DOT. Checked skills followed by a *)
Accounting (10%):
Anthropology (01%):
Archaeology (01%):
Art (05%):
Astronomy (01%):
Bargain (05%): 20%
Biology (01%):
Chemistry (01%):
Climb (40%):
Computer Use (01%):
Conceal (15%):
Craft (05%):
Credit Rating (15%): 80%
Cthulhu Mythos (00%):
Disguise (01%):
Dodge (DEX x 2):
Drive Auto (20%):
Electrical Repair (10%):
Electronics (01%):
Fast Talk (05%): 61%
First Aid (30%):
Geology (01%):
Hide (10%):
.History (20%): 30%
Jump (25%):
Law (05%): 30%
Library Use (25%):
Listen (25%):
Locksmith (01%):
Martial Arts (01%):
Mechanical Repair (20%):
Medicine (05%):
Natural History (10%):
Navigate (10%):
Occult (05%):
Operate Heavy Machine (01%):
Other Language: German (01%): 70%
Own Language: English (EDU x 5%): 85%
Persuade (15%): 70%
Pharmacy (01%):
Photography (10%):
Physics (01%):
.Pilot: Civil (01%): 50%
Psychoanalysis (01%):
Psychology (05%): 60%
Ride (05%):
Sneak (10%):
.Spot Hidden (25%): 61%
Swim (25%):
Throw (25%):
Track (10%):

Hand-to-Hand:
Fist/Punch (50%):
Grapple (25%):
Head Butt (10%):
Kick (25%):
Knife (25%):

Firearms:
Handgun (20%):
Machine Gun (15%):
.Rifle (25%): 50%
Shotgun (30%):
SMG (15%):

Equipment:
Father's Pocketwatch