SENTINEL COMICS RPG CHARACTER CREATION HOME-BREW teekismcgeekis NOT AFFILIATED WITH GREATER THAN GAMES Note: I cannot wait until the RPG Core Rulebook Comes out! The information here was compiled and put together using information from The Twitch Session 0 run by Christopher, The Letters Page podcast with Adam and Christopher, and the Sentinel Comics RPG: Starter Kit.
Page 1 SENTINEL COMICS RPG Character Creation Cheat Sheet So like me you are excited to create your very own super hero and start playing the Sentinel Comics RPG! Great, well you have come to the right place. To date we have the basic rules of play, some pre-made adventure, and some pre-gen characters. So what do we really need to get started?! Character Creation Rules. I have taken it upon myself to deduce and fill in the blanks here. I will include a good ( ** ) after anything that I just fudged or made up. I got some of this info from the Twitch Session 0 that Christopher and the crew conducted and some from looking at the character sheets. Since this is a rules light system there is a lot of room here for GM s and players to work together to create interesting, dynamic, fun, and balanced heroes. More on this later when we get to powers. So let s start from the beginning! In Sentinel Comics RPG it seems there will be two types of character creation; Guided and Unguided(?). Essentially guided will be entirely done by rolling on big long charts with lots of interesting character concepts, flaws, perks, and quirks. This guide will allow you to randomly roll your BACKGROUND and POWERSOURCE but everything else is going to either be predetermined or up to you to craft on your own. With that being said this process will rely on you the player/gm to fill in the blanks. CHARACTER CONCEPT This is important when using this document for character creation as you will not be enticed by a candy shop of options. Really just imagine what you might want your hero to be and then get started. It s very likely to change as you go.
Page 2 BACKGROUND: The background of your character is essentially what they are/were outside of hero life. That can be a social class, an occupation, a life-style, or anything that you can imagine. If you have something clear in your mind that you would definitely like to use then go ahead and use that for your background. If you need a little inspiration or you want to roll some dice right now go ahead and grab 2d10 s and roll them. You can choose the value shown on Dice A, the value shown on Dice B, or the sum of Values A + B. Look at what those values correspond to on the following chart of Backgrounds: 1 Upper Class 2 Dynasty 3 Lower Class ** 4 Adventurer 5 Unremarkable * 6 Law Enforcement 7 Academic 8 Tragic 9 Performer 10 Military 11 Criminal ** 12 Student ** 13 Medical 14 Anachronistic 15 Exile 16 Royalty ** 17 Interstellar 18 Divine ** 19 Otherworldly 20 Singular Entity ** * = From Character Sheet not in Session 0 ** = I made them up Remember some of these are broad and you can elaborate. Or you can just make up your own. This chart is for inspiration.
Page 3 POWER SOURCE: Your character s power source is how they became able to do the things that they do. These again are broad and can be elaborated on as your character starts to form. But think about what was it that changed their lives from ordinary to extraordinary. Just like with backgrounds, you can take 2d10 s and roll them. You can choose the value shown on Dice A, the value shown on Dice B, or the sum of Values A + B. Look at what those values correspond to on the following chart of Power Sources: 1 Accident 2 Training 3 Experimentation 4 Nature 5 Relics 6 Powered-Suit 7 Radiation 8 Tech-Upgrades 9 Supernatural 10 Artificial Being 11 Cursed 12 Alien 13 Genetics 14 Genius 15 Cosmic 16 Extra Dimensional 17 Unknown 18 Higher Power 19 Multiverse 20 Mystic * All Power Sources in the RPG were listed in an episode of Letter s Page. I put the one s mentioned in the Session 0 with their corresponding value mentioned. The rest are just filled in. The Background and Power Source should be starting to give you an idea of what your character might be like. If you already know what you want them to be like them just right in whatever makes the most sense for you.
Page 4 PERSONALITY + ARCHETYPE: These two parts of your character are for you to fill out when you realize what the personality of your hero is and what type of hero they are categorically speaking. Personality is the general demeanor of your character. For role-playing purposes this can be a helpful reference to remind you of how your character might truly react to something. Archetypes could be something like Detective, Vigilante, Speedster, Blaster, Tank, Manipulator, Mind Controller, etc. Any word or phrase that summarizes the powers and abilities of your hero. Personality and Archetype together Background and Power Source should help you develop an interesting character for you to play in the RPG. You can always elaborate on their back story or just leave their past a mystery. But either way it s time to move on to POWERS. POWERS: Time to imagine some really epic powers for your character. You are going to think of 4-5 powers that your character has. You can draw inspiration from other heroes or create your own unique powers. These powers need to only be imagined and named as long as you can clearly describe how the power interacts with the world. QUALITIES: Time to really think about what makes your character unique besides their powers. Are they a strong leader? Are they sarcastic? Are they tech savvy? Are they talkative? You need to think of 4-5 qualities that make your character who they are. As long as each quality helps describe your character and who they are.
Page 5 ASSIGNING DICE TO POWERS AND QUALITIES: Now if you are reading this you must be familiar with the Sentinel Comics RPG basic rules. Essentially when you do something that has an uncertain outcome you are going to roll dice to determine success or failure. Generally for most dice rolls in the game you are going to roll 3 dice. One from your Powers, one from your Qualities, and one depending on your Status (HP). To balance the assignment of Dice to Powers and Qualities here is a little Point Buy system for assigning dice: All Power and Qualities start as d6 s (the lowest they can be) and you will spend points to upgrade to the next dice. D6 to D8 = 1 Point D6 to D10 = 2 Points D6 to D12 = 4 Points Now you have 11 points to spend upgrading your dice. When you use 11 points it is called a 11 point buy. You or your GM will determine if the point buy is higher, lower, or if they just want to give you a pre-determined array. HP + ZONE DICE ASSIGNMENT: Every hero takes damage a big part of Sentinel Comics RPG is the GYRO system. GYRO stands for GREEN YELLOW RED OUT. A progression from undamaged to defeated. As you descend in HP and the situation becomes more dangerous the GYRO system will tell you what your third dice to roll is. But first let s begin with determining your MAXIMUM HP. To do this you are going to roll 4d4 and drop the lowest number and then add 20. MAX HP = (Drop Lowest (4d4)) + 20
Page 6 Now from your MAX HP is the top of your GREEN ZONE Now -7 to find the top of your YELLOW ZONE Now -10 to find the top of your RED ZONE And 0 Will obviously be OUT Example: 4d4 = ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ( 3 ) ( 1 <- Dropping this because it is lowest) = 8 MAX HP = 8 + 20 = 28 GREEN 28-22 YELLOW 21-12 (28-7) RED 11-0 (21-10) OUT 0 These Ranges will determine which ZONE you are in when building your dice pool. Finally choose between the following arrays and assign each die to a ZONE of your choice. Each array has three dice and you will assign each given die in the array to each ZONE that is not OUT. Array 1 D8 D8 D8 Array 2 D6 D8 D10 Array 3 D6 D6 D12
Page 7 ABILITIES: By far the most creative, time consuming, and difficult part of the process. For this I recommend a 50 point buy system. Each player must create 9 Abilities with these 50 points, 3 for each ZONE (G-Y-R). Start by thinking about what the Ability looks like and behaves like then go through the following to buy the ability: ACTION: Attack 2 Defend 1 Boost 1 Hinder 1 Overcome 2 Recover 2 Other 2 TYPE: Action 0 Reaction 0 Inherent 0 POWER OR QUALITY: Choose a power or quality that most relates to the ability that must be used. NAME: Name the ability and describe it. TARGETS: 1 Ally 1 All Allies 2 1 Target 1 2 Targets 2 Multiple Targets 3 All Targets 4 Self 1 Self + Allies 2 EFFECT: Min Die 1 Mid Die 2 Max Die 3 Min + Mid 3 Min + Max 4 Mid + Max 4 Min + Mid + Max 5 Reduce Damage X X Add/Remove Effect 2 Other (Specified) 2 Other effect to be approved by GM
Page 8 Use the above charts and instructions to create 9 unique abilities that your hero can perform in the game. Keeping in mind that the more potent and powerful abilities should be placed in the RED and YELLOW ZONES. Now create an OUT ability. Some out abilities could be passive effects that your Hero contributes to the fight even while downed. If the OUT ability is any sort of action you are going to just roll 1 dice instead of creating a pool of dice. Make them reasonable and have them approved by your GM. PRINCIPLES: Finally every hero has principles on which his life is built. Principles are something that your character; can always do, is always thinking about, is always aware of, is always true of them, or always affects them. Principles are used for story and Minor/Major twists will spawn from them. You will create 2 PRINCIPLES and maybe some ideas or questions that you can note that might be used for creating twists later in game play. If your PRINCIPLE is that you are always looking out for weak maybe ask While protecting innocent lives what catastrophic development was I unable to prevent? These PRINCIPLES will mainly be for creating twists and role-playing. However you will gain 2 GREEN ZONE abilities, one for each Principle. This ability will read: Perform an Overcome Check related to your principle. Use your MAX dice. You and each of your allies gain a hero point. FINISHING UP: Make sure you recorded all of the information from above on an easy to read character sheet. Maybe write your Abilities on Index Cards. It s up to you. Just go out there and save the world!