Critical!:* Go Westerly The Creative Commons Version *Because. Punctuation is Still Funny. Geoff Bottone and Jonathan Lavallee Critical!:* Go Westerly The Creative Commons Version All the words in this document are CC-BY-SA Written by!: Geoff Bottone and Jonathan Lavallee Edited by!: Amber Hines Layout by!: Jonathan Lavallee Fonts!: * Kingthings Foundation by Kevin King http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Kingthings-Foundation- * Caudex by Hjort Nidudsson http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/caudex http://caudex.sourceforge.net/ Playtesting and Special Thanks to!: Amber, Brennan, Curt, Kathryn, Heather, Eric, Avie, Kate, Vinny, Dave, Yvonne, Joe, Mary, Carmine, Catherine, Monkey, Rowan, Daegan, Matt, Sam, Jeff and Cliff. And Romper Room, because that’s what plays in my head each time I do any sort of Credits thing. 2 :: Character Creation Critical!: Go Westerly Character Creation 4 wherein we meet our adventurers and a bad idea What Makes Up a Character? 5 Stats 5 Skills 7 Habits 9 Items 10 Potions 11 Paying for Items, Potions and Increases 13 Well, That’s It! 14 WAIT! Aren’t there Elves and Dwarves in your world? 14 Elves 14 Dwarves 14 Character Creation Summary 16 The Interactions 17 where we discover how things are done ... badly The First (and Only) Rule You Need 17 For the Bartender: Calculating Be Hit 18 For the Player: Calculating To Hit 18 Rolling the Dice 20 Lending a Helping Hand 20 Bribing Your Way To Success 21 Critical! 22 When the Bartender Rolls Dice 23 Combat 24 Combat Rounds 24 Damage 25 Area Effect Damage 25 Taking Damage Like a Main Character 26 Total Party Wipe 27 Healing 28 Interactions Summary 29 Character Creation :: 3 Geoff Bottone and Jonathan Lavallee Character Creation wherein we meet our adventurers and a bad idea The first thing you’re going to want to do is figure out what sort of person you’ll play in the Kingdom of Westerly. Will you be a dashing warrior/chef, with a sword in one hand and a spatula in the other? An intrepid pig farmer looking to make a name for themselves as an adventurer? An aspiring musician seeking vengeance for their sabotaged performances? A retired Quillsman looking for a less dangerous line of work? An out of work chef who is wandering the world looking to hone her skills? Whatever you decide you want to be, you will build your character with the rules below. If you’d rather jump right to the action, we’ve got some characters all ready for you in the back of this section. We’ve done the “hard work” of building their stats and creating their backgrounds, and all you need to do is take them out on wild adventures. You should still take a glance at this section before you head out, just so you have an idea what the numbers on your character sheet mean. 4 :: Character Creation Critical!: Go Westerly What Makes Up a Character? A character is a collection of four categories: Stats, Skills, Habits, and Items. Each of these defines your character in a different way. We’ll describe each of these categories in turn and we’ll tell you how many points you have to assign to your characters. Stats Characters are made up of four primary stats. These stats are bought with points. There are also three fixed stats which start at the same level for each character. Finally, there is an AC stat, which probably doesn’t mean what you think it means. Primary Stats The four primary stats are the basis for your character and will be used whenever you make dice rolls to attempt a task. These stats are: Strength: This represents your character’s physical strength, stamina and overall health. Characters with a high Strength can lift great weights, bend iron bars, hold you back by putting their hand on your head, pose particularly well, drink like a fish, and easily shrug off the effects of poisons, infections and traps. Their physiques decorate all the inspirational posters, urging everyone else to work harder and to lift heavier things. Characters with low Strength can get knocked over by a stiff wind, are the ones being held back by a hand on their heads, have a hard time lifting that second tankard of ale, and generally are the average everyday people who don’t get noticed for their physique. Smarts: This stat represents your character’s intelligence, problem- solving ability, and perception. Characters with high Smarts can negotiate the weird puzzles and traps that always seem to crop up in dungeons, translate ancient runes, play mind games, enjoy a good poem, and notice when monsters are sneaking up on them. They are the ones who write all sorts of books, from non-fiction treatises to the epic tales of heroes that live on for generations. People with low Smarts will have a narrower approach to problem-solving, usually involving smashing things to bits. They also don’t notice ambushes until the arrows are lodged in their chests, and spend their time writing things like role playing games. Sneak: This stat is your character’s general stealthiness and agility. Characters with high Sneak are quite adept at climbing sheer surfaces, balancing on precarious ledges, stealing gold from other players, stealing gold from the Bartender, tying other people’s shoelaces together when they’re not looking, and slipping past monstrous guardians without arousing suspicion. Those who aren’t as blessed in the Sneak department are the type of people who walk down the middle of the Character Creation :: 5 Geoff Bottone and Jonathan Lavallee road, wearing lots of clanking armor and holding a bright lantern, all the while shouting, “Adventurer coming through! Bring out your Monsters!” Smile: Everyone loves a good smile, it can ease tense situations and bring sunshine to an overcast day. Smile is your character’s personality and charm. Those that have a high Smile can win over a crowd just by winking at them, or blowing a kiss. They always have their hair in place, their clothes are impeccable and they are never at a loss for words, wishing they had said something clever. Characters with low Smile often sit in the dark corners of taverns and brood menacingly. They learn to enjoy the taste of their toes, since they frequently put their feet in their mouths. All primary stats are measured on a scale from 1 to 6 with 6 representing the best anyone could ever be and 1 meaning the worst that is possible with anything regarding this Stat. The average for any Stat is 3, which puts you very firmly in the Grade C camp. Primary stats come into play whenever you want to roll some dice to see if your character does something amazing, which they should be doing on a regular basis. Secondary Stats These are the other stats. You’ll never use them to modify a dice roll and they tend to have very little in the way of variation, but your character just wouldn’t be an adventurer without them. Damage: This stat represents how much damage you can do with your standard, everyday gear. Even if you’ve had your equipment stolen by thieves, we can assume that as a seasoned adventurer, you can always pick up a stick and poke a monster in an ideal place to cause harm. Every character starts with a Damage of 2. Fortitude: Fortitude is the measure of your mettle and represents how much you can take before being knocked unconscious. When you get hit in combat, blasted by magic, stuck in a trap, get your finger caught in a door, fall off of something high or accidentally drink poison, your Fortitude will decrease. You want to make sure that this stat stays as high as you can. Every character starts with a Fortitude of 20. Now we’ll let you in on a secret. You don’t have to worry about dying in this game. I know for some people the gut wrenching terror of potential death is the only thing that keeps them in line, but bear with us. No matter how much damage you take, the worst thing that will happen to you is that you will pass out for a while. Hopefully you’ll wake up before the rest of your party gets knocked out or there might be some bigger repercussions, but that’s covered in Combat on Page 100. 6 :: Character Creation Critical!: Go Westerly AC: Adventuring is thirsty business. With that in mind, we’ve created the AC stat, short for Alcohol Content, which tracks just how drunk your character has become. Some might scoff and say that this is irrelevant, but when you figure that your adventures will pretty much always start in a tavern, it only makes sense that the AC stat exists. The higher your AC, the faster you’ll pass out. If at any time your Fortitude is lower than your AC, you’ll pass out as if you were stone cold sober and had dropped to 0 or less. Gold: Gold! Those pretty, round pieces of metal with the faces of various rulers stamped on them. It’s how you’ll afford powerful items, weapons, and armor. Gold will allow you to enjoy the sweet comfort of the White Griffon Tavern. It will buy you some drinks, and then it will buy you some more drinks. Most importantly, it’s the way you and your fellow adventurers keep score. Nothing is more satisfying than leaving a dungeon with more gold than your bosom companions. Gold has some special rules that are covered in the Gold Section on page XX. Stat Points When you build your character, you get 12 points to spend on your Primary Stats. As a reminder, the maximum at each skill is 6 and the minimum is 1 which makes the average 3. Skills While stats are the innate qualities of your character, skills are things that your character has become good at through training. Your character will have obtained their skills through long hours of study, cultural immersion, out of sheer necessity during their previous adventures, and possibly through a correspondence class or two. Skills can expand your horizons in amazing and unexpected ways, mostly because you can have just about any skill that you want. It’s true! If you want a skill called, “Fantastical Scum Sucker” then you have it. If you think, “Best Sword Fighter in the World!” would be a handy skill to have, then you can take that, too. They key thing with skills is this: You can always try to convince the Bartender that you can use a skill, no matter how ridiculous the application it is, provided it makes at least some vague kind of sense for the situation at hand. So, if you think your sword fighting skill will help you julienne a salad, make your case. The Bartender, of course, has final say. If she says, “no!” emphatically while slamming her fist down, you’re going to have to back down and accept her judgement. Character Creation :: 7 Geoff Bottone and Jonathan Lavallee That’s why you’re not going to get a laundry list of skills from us. We’d much rather have you use your imagination. Be creative, be fun, but if you end up with a skill you can’t use because your character hasn’t come across any Scum to Suck, don’t come crying to us. Skills fall into one of four categories, which are as follows: Help You: A Help You skill does exactly what it sounds like. It benefits your character and no one else. Many of the standard adventuring skills, like Jumping, Climbing, Dodging, Swimming, Picking Locks, and Hiding are Help You skills. Help Others: Not all skills are incredibly selfish. Some of them can actually help others. You use these skills to do something for another person, or a group of people. Any skill that keeps other people safe or supports them in some way is a good Help Others skill. Hurt Others: These are the skills that you use to hurt monsters and, sometimes, other people. You can hurt them immediately, by attacking them; a short time in the future, by making and setting traps; or even emotionally, by using hurtful words and gestures. Anything that you can think of that will give the bad guys big boo-boos falls into this category. Cheating: Cheating skills allow you to bend the rules of any game, even the rules of the game you’re currently playing, Critical!: Go Westerly. If you can cook up a really good reason why a Cheating Skill will work in a given situation, go for it. You might amuse your Bartender enough so that she’ll let you do what you want to do, because a happy Bartender is a benevolent Bartender. Skills are rated from 1 to 3. This value represents the bonus you get when using a Skill. For Example: Urist Axebeard has a Hurt Others skill called You Never Met an Axe You Couldn’t Use to Kill Something (3). A huge door blocks Urist’s progress through the dungeon, so he decides to chop it to pieces. Urist wants to use his You Never Met an Axe You Couldn’t Use to Kill Something skill to increase his damage, because he’s not worried about the door trying to dodge his attacks. The Bartender agrees and Urist’s damage is now 5 instead of the base of 3. Later on, a Little, Agile Monster annoys Urist. This time, Urist wants to use his You Never Met an Axe You Couldn’t Use to Kill Something skill to add to his chance to chop up the Little, Agile Monster. This would add to his Strength of 5, giving him a total of 8. The Bartender agrees and sighs, knowing that things are going to go badly for her little creature. 8 :: Character Creation Critical!: Go Westerly When you make your character, you get 6 points for your skills. No skill can have a value higher than 3. Habits Everyone has habits. They are the little things you do, without thinking, in your everyday life. Characters in Critical!: Go Westerly also have habits. They are quick and easy guidelines on how to act in certain situations, which gives you an opportunity to role-play your character more effectively. Like Skills, Habits have a number associated with them. This number represents how ingrained this habit is, and how much it’s going to affect your character. If you feel that a Habit will help you out in a certain situation then you can try to convince the Bartender that you can use the Habit. If she agrees it will give you a bonus but you can only use the Habit once per encounter. However, Habits have a drawback. Because they are ingrained in your character, they can surface at inopportune times to cause problems. If you are in a situation where one of your Habits would cause a problem, the Bartender can use your Habit as a penalty. You can try to argue all you want, but usually it’s pretty futile as the Bartender takes great pleasure in making sure that the things you think will make your character better will actually make them worse. For Example: Angelique Doto has the habit Adrenaline Junkie (2). This Habit will be of great benefit anytime Angelique would like to leap into action or do something dangerous. Whenever this happens, she gets a +2 bonus. However, if Angelique and her companions are parlaying with a powerful Lich, Angelique will have a really hard time just talking when she knows she could be doing something awesome. Her player may want to reason with the Lich for a variety of reasons, but the Bartender will gently remind her that “you know what? You really just want to leap into action!” and then will bestow a -2 penalty when she tries to negotiate with the Lich. That situation will probably end up with Angelique whooping in excitement as she vaults over a Fireball. Your character always starts with the Habit, Gotta Get the Gold (3). You get 3 points to spend on additional Habits. Like Skills, Habits have a maximum value of 3. Character Creation :: 9 Geoff Bottone and Jonathan Lavallee Items Items are specialized adventuring tools, weapons, and other gear. Items will either give fixed bonuses to any of your stats, or will give you a skill in which the value can only be used to increase the likelihood that you will succeed on certain types of rolls. Items can give you more Fortitude, they can allow you to deal more damage, they can give you greater Strength, Smarts, Sneak, or Smile, but that’s all they get to do. The benefit is that the Bartender doesn’t really have to be convinced too often when you want to use an Item. If you have a Magic Sword that gives you a +2 to damage, you’ll easily get a +2 to damage when you use that sword to make with the stabbing. However, you can never use your sword’s bonus in any other way. It won’t make your attacks more likely to land. It won’t heal you. It won’t light a campfire. It doesn’t hand out candy to small children. It only gives you +2 to damage. One thing that you need to be aware of concerning items is that they can be lost, broken, stolen, outdated, obsolete, ineffective, illusory, or anything else that might prevent you from using them. Monsters, as a general rule, will covet your items, and will happily use them against you if they can get their grubby paws on them. You’ll need to spend gold to purchase items. The bigger the item’s modifier, the more it costs. It costs 2 gold per +1 modifier, but you have to buy each level every time you want to raise that modifier. For instance, you can buy a coat which adds a +1 to your This Coat Makes Me Look More Important Than I Am skill for 2 gold. If you want to buy the same Coat but have it add a +2 to your skill, you would have to spend 6 gold: That’s 2 gold to make it +1 and an additional 4 gold to make it +2. That’s complicated, so we made a little chart that will help you figure out costs. Modifier Breakdown of Cost Cost +1 2 2 Gold +2 2+4 6 Gold +3 2+4+6 12 Gold +4 2+4+6+8 20 Gold +5 2+4+6+8+10 30 Gold The pattern should be easy to follow after that. Keep in mind that items probably shouldn’t go beyond +5 total modifier unless they’re legendary items of awesome power. 10 :: Character Creation