{"id":1085,"date":"2025-02-11T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/?p=1085"},"modified":"2025-09-11T07:09:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T12:09:19","slug":"point-buy-character-creation-for-twilight-2000-v2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/?p=1085","title":{"rendered":"Point-Buy Character Creation for Twilight: 2000 v2.2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of my long-standing headaches with Twilight: 2000<\/em> v2.2 is the life path character creation system. While it does help build the character biography, I more often find it constraining when I have a concept that doesn’t fit neatly within the limited number of boxes it offers. The random elements also tend to generate parties with widely-varying levels of competence, which means some PCs are more capable than others of making meaningful contributions to party success – both in and out of combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My solution to this, which has been kicking around my core rpol.net play-by-post group for several years now, is a point-buy system. Mathematically, this works out to roughly what you’d get out of a well-optimized four- to five-term life path PC with good rolls. This has gone through a few different iterations; this is, I think, the one with which I’m happiest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Attributes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distribute 36 points across the six attributes. Maximum value for each is 10, minimum value is 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skills<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have 160 XP with which to purchase skills. Maximum value for each skill is 10. XP cost is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skill Value<\/strong><\/td>XP Cost<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
1<\/td>1<\/td><\/tr>
2<\/td>3<\/td><\/tr>
3<\/td>6<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/td>10<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/td>15<\/td><\/tr>
6<\/td>21<\/td><\/tr>
7<\/td>28<\/td><\/tr>
8<\/td>36<\/td><\/tr>
9<\/td>45<\/td><\/tr>
10<\/td>55<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You get your native Language skill at 10 for free. You can buy a second native Language skill at 10 for a flat price of 10 XP. Non-native Language skills cost half (rounded down) if the tongue is in the same linguistic family as one of your native Languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Medical, Ground Vehicle, Pilot, and Small Arms skills are cascade skills. At character creation, your highest sub-skill in each cascade is your primary sub-skill. You get free points in each other sub-skill equal to half your primary, rounded down. For example, if you buy Small Arms (Rifle) 7, you get Small Arms (Pistol) 3 for free. You can spend additional XP to raise your secondary sub-skills above these default values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(During play, skill improvement follows the existing rules in the Big Yellow Book.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contacts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For each contact, choose a general category (your choice, but should make sense within the framework of your character history):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You get a number of contacts equal to the higher of your Charisma or Education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  •      Academic<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  •      Blue-Collar<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  •      Criminal<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  •      Entertainment<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  •      Government<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  •      Intelligence<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  •      Journalist<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  •      Law Enforcement<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  •      Military<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  •      White-Collar<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Then roll 1d10. 1-7 indicates that the contact is of the same nationality as you. 8-9 indicates an allied nationality (e.g., if you’re from a NATO nation, the contact is from any other NATO nation). 10 indicates a neutral or opposed nationality (e.g., if you’re from a NATO nation, the contact is from a non-NATO nation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    At the beginning of play, these are potential<\/em> contacts. Once per session, you can make a potential contact into an actual contact by generating a plausible reason to encounter that individual in the current scene. You then name that contact and provide a few key details on your relationship and that individual’s capabilities. For example, if you’re in a marketplace and are about to be in a confrontation with a group of Polish cavalrymen, you might activate a foreign white-collar contact. Suddenly, you recognize one of the cavalry troopers as Aleksandr Bukowski, a hard-drinking exchange student and lousy poet with whom you attended medical school in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Initiative<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Select an Initiative value appropriate to your character history. Generally, draftees and conscripts who didn’t experience personal violence before the war should be around a 2. Career support arms troops will be around a 3, with career combat arms soldiers being at a 4. Operators from elite units will likely be around 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Rads<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Roll percentile (1d100) and multiply by your Initiative. The result is your starting cumulative radiation dosage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Rank<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Assign a rank that makes sense for your character’s history. Generally speaking, this will only be important as a story element.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Equipment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This varies by campaign, but I generally hew to the Twilight: 2013<\/em> rule of starting with personal equipment of total weight equal to or less than what you can carry. This is a hard limit of ([STR + CON] x 6), but recall that if you’re carrying more than your standard load – ([STR + CON] x 3), you are burdened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Vehicles and Team Equipment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Strict referee fiat applies here. You get what the story requires.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    One of my long-standing headaches with Twilight: 2000 v2.2 is the life path character creation system. While it does help build the character biography, I more often find it constraining when I have a concept that doesn’t fit neatly within the limited number of boxes it offers. The random elements also tend to generate parties […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[12,13],"class_list":["post-1085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mechanics","tag-t2k","tag-t2k-2e"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1085"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1200,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions\/1200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}