Starcraft
D6

Table of 
Contents

Basics

Characters

Attributes
& Skills

Psionics

Actions &
Combat

Space Travel

Allies &
Enemies
  Terrans
   Protoss
   Zerg

Resources

Equipment

Cybernetics

Gamemaster's
Section

Links

Email

Guestbook
 

II.  CHARACTERS

In this chapter:

Templates
Attributes
Details
Choosing Skills
Chi
Character Advancement


TEMPLATES

In order to play Starcraft D6, you'll need a character.  The list below is really only illustrative.  There are folks from every walk of life, profession, and background in the Starcraft galaxy.  Even those in the same profession specialize in different areas.  You can select one from the list below or create your own. 
 

TERRANS PROTOSS ZERG
Bureaucrat Administrator Cerebral Lobe
Cop Judicon Hound
Criminal Heretic Abberation
Ghost  Intelligence Agent Stalker
Marine Zealot Hydralisk Alpha
Medic Healer Generative
Militia Soldier Templar Acolyte Zergling Alpha
Pilot Flyer Parasitic Scout
Explorer Scout Longprobe
Technician Engineer Splicer
Syscomm Cyborg  Operations Telepath Linkling
Tank Jockey Scientist Free Thinker
Psionic Fugitive Dark Acolyte Mutant Strain
Field Scientist Industrialist
Merchant

Copy the structure from one of the Character Templates above onto a piece of paper to create your very own character sheet.  I will try to make and post one when I get time, but don't hold your breath!

ATTRIBUTES
All characters receive 18 dice to separate among the 6 attributes.  Dice may be broken up into 3 "pips", or "+1's", per die (See example below).  The Attributes are:

Strength: a measure of the character's muscle power. 
Dexterityindicates the character's flexibility, grace and hand-eye coordination.
Constitutionrepresents the character's hardiness, such as resistance to disease, exhaustion and pain.
Knowledgeserves to show how broad and deep a character's general understanding of the world, from streetsmarts to scholarship.  Includes technical and mechanical skills.
Instinctsmake up one's perceptive abilities--his awareness to his environment as well as behavioral cues from other people.
Presencerepresents the character's force of personality, ability to perform, orate and convince other people.  Generally, his "people skills."
Psi:  all Protoss and only certain rare Terrans have the genetic potential to tap into their mental energies and manifest them as awesome powers.  The Zerg thirst for this Psionic potential, to add it to its genetic perfection.
Example:  Dan is making a character named Coburn, a Terran Explorer. He decides to create his own template rather than use the one provided.  He comes up with the following Attributes:
    Strength:  3D
    Dexterity:  3D
    Constitution:  3D
    Knowledge:  3D
    Instincts:  3D+2
    Presence:  2D+1
    Psi: 0D.

Note:  Once an Attribute is raised beyond XD+2, it moves to the next dice level (If Dan had assigned the "pip" in Presence to his Instincts instead, it would be 4D, not 3D+3).


DETAILS
This is your opportunity to round out the character and provide a description, background, personality quirks, goals, etc.

Speed
Normal characters can move 10 meters per round while walking.  With successful Running rolls, they can increase this value.

Hit Points (sometimes referred to as Body Points in the game)
These represent the physical toughness of your character.  To get starting Hit Points, roll a number of dice equal to the character's Constitution and add 20.  If a character increases his Constitution attribute in the future, he may roll another die.  Furthermore, certain cybernetic enhancements may increase this number.

Description
    Describe your character:  How tall is he?  What kind of clothes does he wear?  Does he have any noticeable marks such as tattoos or scars?  Does he have cybernetic implants?  Blue hair?  Bug-like antennae? Just what kind of freak are you creating, man?

Background
    Every individual has some kind of history, be it mundane, romantic or criminal.  What brought the character up to the point where the game's campaign begins?  Are there ghosts that may haunt his future?  Old rivals, lost loved ones, foregone opportunities?

Personality
    Is your character a grouch?  Is she impulsive, always itching for a fight, or is she more thoughtful and cautious?

Objectives
    Everyone has a goal in life, even if is only to crush other species for the glory of the Overmind.  Why does your character act, and what does she hope to achieve?  How far will she go to get it?

Connection to other Characters
    Most of the characters will just be meeting one another as the game campaign starts.  They may be assigned to the same police squad or live in the same building.  Some may have known others for longer periods.  They may be related, or lovers, or even enemies.
 

CHOOSING SKILLS

Starting skills
Each character starts with 7D to divide among Skills at Character Creation.  Furthermore, each character can list 3 additional skills that they take a "0D" under each Attribute.  The character may still perform any other skills under that attribute, but at a -1D difficulty.  There'are two exceptions to this rule:

  • GM's may (and should) excercise discretion in assigning higher difficulty levels to "unlearned" skills.  Certain characters may not have the background necessary to attempt certain skills.  For example, a Zerg character will have absolute no idea how to fix a powersuit ("Um, ok, I sniff it, walk around it a couple of times, then I bite the leg.  Did that work?") 
  • Advanced skills represent much more complex areas of study.  As such, a character cannot attempt an Advanced skill without having assigned at least 1 die to it.
Specializations:
    Many skills have specializations which allow the character to focus on a certain aspect of the skill.  If a specialization is taken, a character may advance in that specialized aspect of the skill at half the normal cost of advancement.  However, uses of the skill not covered in the Specialization remain at the base skill level.
Example: Coburn has Firearms at 4D.  He decides to take the specialization Firearms:  Assault Rifles to advance to 5D at a cost of 6 CP rather than 12 CP.  Anytime he fires a submachine gun, he gets to roll 5D, but all other firearms are used at 4D.
    Specializations may be selected at Character Creation.  If so, the character receives 2 dice for every 1 spent.  Thus, a  player decides to Specialize in Submachine guns, he can gets +2D to all rolls with that kind of weapon.  Alternately, the player may put 1 die into Submachine gun and put another in some other Specialization (such as Driving:  Motorcyle, etc.).  Note:  Characters may not start with general skills greater than 6D or Specializations greater than 7D!

    Specializations are independent of the skill from which they are derived.  If the player later increases the skill, the Specialization does not increase.  If the Specialization increases, there is no change in the base skill.

Advanced skills:
    Some particularly complicated skills require two times the normal amount of Character Points to allow for Advancement.  They also typically require some other prerequisite skill.

CHI
Chi symbolizes the inner strength and resources of a character.  It is usually a manifestation of their heroic qualities.  However, ethics and morals in the world of Starcraft are often murky and highly subjective.  Usually, characters may only gain additional Chi points by spending the ones they have.  This is a bit of a gamble, since they will not always regain spent points.  At the end of each game session, the GM decides whether the characters regain spent points and if they are granted additional Chi.

In other D6 games, characters gain Chi/Force/Hero points when they use existing points to preform heroic actions.  In Starcraft D6, heroism is often in the eye of the beholder.  So, in deciding whether the character regains the spent Chi point, or is granted an additional one, the GM should first decide whether the character acted "heroically" within the character's own personality or code of ethics.  At it's most basic level, good guys should act like good guys and villains should perform villainy.  Note that there is no equivalent to Skeptic or Dark Force points in this game.  Bad guys just act like bad guys, and the players want to play a jerk, you should let them (though you can certainly make life more difficult for them in other ways!)

Generally, you may follow the guidelines below:

  • If the character spends the Chi point to perform a heroic act, usually to save someone's life, stop a bad guy, or attempt an action that risk his own life, then he should receive the point back and gain another.
  • If the character uses the Chi point to perform a difficult task, but that is either not very dramatic or heroic, then he should get the point back but not gain another.
  • If the character spends the Chi point to accomplish a relatively normal feat or to just save his own sorry hide, he does not get the point back.
A character may spend up to 2 Chi per round, each doubling the dice pools of 1 action(See Using Chi). 

Finally, if a character has no Chi points, the GM may decide to grant one after a particularly heroic or risky act (or an act that furthers the character's strong motivation).

ADVANCEMENT
At the end of each adventure, players will usually be rewarded Character Points at the end of an adventure by the Gamemaster.  They may keep these CP's for later use or spend them on learning skills.

Increasing skill levels
     For normal skills, it costs a number of Character Points equal to the current dice value of the Skill  to increase by one pip.  Thus to advance from 4D to 4D+1, the player must spend 4 CP's.  Specializations cost the current dice value divided in half , rounding up (i.e., moving from 4D to 4D+1 would cost 2 CP's).  Advanced skills cost the current dice value x 2.  If the character has the skill at "0D," meaning equal to his controlling attribute, he is considered to "know" the skill and advances in this manner.

Example: Coburn has Firearms at 6D and wants to increase it to 7D.  To do so, he must spend 18 CP (6 for 6D+1, 6 more for 6D+2, and 6 more to go from 6D+2 to 7D).  He decides that's too expensive, so he Specializes in Handguns and takes Firearms:  Handguns at 7D, costing him a total of 12 CP instead.
Learning new skills
    To learn a new skill, the character must spend a number of CP's equal to the controlling attribute. If the character does not "know" the skill (i.e., he suffers a penalty when using the skill because he did not choose it at "0D"), the skill starts at a level equal to the controlling attribute.
Example:  Coburn wants to learn the Piloting skill.  He has a Dexterity of 3D.  Thus, he spends 3 CP's and  and gets Piloting at 3D.  To increase to 4D, he would have to spend another 9 CP's (see above).
Learning Advanced Skills
     Some skills represent very complex sets of abilities.  These skills, referred to as "Advanced Skills" usually have prerequisite skills that the character must first gain proficiency in before the Advanced skill may be chosen.
Example:  Coburn suddenly decides he wants to be physician.  He must first meet the prerequisites for Medicine, which are First Aid at 5D, Life Sciences at 4D, and Education at 4D.  Assume that he taken those skills at "0D."  He has a Knowledge attribute of 3D, so he must pay 3x3=9CPs to get First Aid at 4D, then another 12 to get it to 5D.  Next, he'll have to spend 9CP's get Life Sciences at 4D, and another 9 to get Education at 4D.  Finally, he'll be able to start learning Medicine.  He must then pay 3x4=12CP's to get Medicine at 3D.  That's 51CP's!  He'd better start saving those CP's now... 


A Note on Eggheads:  A Proposed Scholarship Program
I've often noticed that players avoid having a "scholarly" character in many games. Many systems make it easier to be a battle-ready thug than a learned physician.  This is probably somewhat close to reality, but it makes for unbalanced games--and punishes those who want to do more than hack and slash.  Often specialists, such as physicians, end up helping other characters more than they themselves gain from their own skills.

So I recommend that GM's consider a "scholarship" program for players who want to start out as physicians or some other expensive specialist.  Perhaps give them some extra dice at character creation to put into these specialized skills.  If it seems that you are imbalancing the game, you can saddle them with deep debts or other problems as a result of their "higher" education.

Improving attributes
   To improve an attribute, a character must spend 10x their current skill value to increase by 1 pip.

RETURN TO MAIN PAGE.