[PnP] noob questions part IV - Bride of Noob Questions

[Paul L. Ming]

Hiya.

> 1) Do any of you use variations of character generation?
   Yup. I let players roll 10 stats, as normal, but they can place them 
anywhere they want. Also, they have the choice of rerolling any two 
stats; but they have to keep the new rolls, even if they are lower than 
the once they wanted to reroll. So if a player rolls an 8 and gets 
greedy, he can reroll that 8...but whatever he gets stands, be it 
another 8 or even lower.

> 2) When creating magic users, as they buy their initial spells, do
> they buy that at the "instructed" rate or the "alone" rate? Oddly, the
> book does not specify.
   I give the player a choice. If he goes the "alone" path, then he has 
studied on his own, or maybe had some kind of intuitive feeling for 
magic, or was around a lot of spell casters when he was a child so he 
had a head start on it. If he goes the "instructed" rate, then he has a 
master/mentor from which he learned everything.
   The difference: "alone" sets the character on his own. He has no 
master to worry about, obey, or otherwise 'have to deal with'. So he 
won't be summoned by his master to go on deadly quests, or on completely 
boring and mundane ones. Additionally, he can choose any spell to learn 
from his Path regardless of it's BMC (see below). If he chose 
"instructed" then he has a master whom he still owes 'fealty' to. His 
master will request certain tasks, items, etc. from the character, and 
the character's reputation and his masters are linked; if his master 
goes nutty and wipes out a town, he will likely become an outlaw as well 
(or at least a highly suspected individual). Also, an instructed caster 
has more limited choices in spells; he can only learn those that his 
master has. I generally keep it simple, and say a master only allows his 
apprentice to learn spells that have a BMC of no more than 1.5 (ru) 
times the characters starting MEL. This includes the specific spells of 
a 'group' spell (like Fire Powers, for example). So a MEL 3 character 
could learn spells from his master that have a BMC of no higher than 5. 
He could learn Travel Powers, but he wouldn't have the spell Interworld 
Travel yet as it is BMC 10. Once he attained MEL 7, he would then be 
able to add Interworld Travel to his list.


Paul L. Ming