Character Creation

Character Concept

The first step of character creation in Highwinds is to come up with a character concept. Your character is a space opera hero, capable of great deeds, and about to go on great adventures. And that last part is important - make sure your character has some reason to get along with the characters of other players, and some reason to travel with and go on adventures with them.

For ideas, a list of example characters are provided in this chapter. These characters are examples of archetypes you could use for ideas, or ready made characters you can just immediately grab and play.

Base Stats

Each character has a number of Base Stats, that tie into basic combat functions. PCs start with base stats that are higher than most other characters in the world. The base stats, and their starting values are.

Skills

Skills are things your character has the experience, knowledge, or physical fitness to do. They are measured by Skill Bonuses, which reflect how much training they have in the skill. At character creation, choose 1 skill to be an expert in; you have a +10 bonus to this skill. Then choose 4 skills to be trained in; you have a +7 bonus to these skills. Then choose 4 skills to be familiar with; you have a +4 bonus to these skills.

The Skills are as follows:

Talents

Talents are a character's combat training, and come in three categories. Martial talents represent a character's skill with swords, guns, and other physical weapons. Magical talents represent a character's magical training and knowledge. Psionic talents represent a character's psionic skill. Each type of talent is described in its own chapter.

A starting character gains five talents of their choice from any of the categories. Talents also give a character Power Stats and Equipment Points, as described below.

Power Stats

When selecting Talents, a character might gain different stats based off of their talent selection. Known as Power Stats, these are used to activate the powers that a character can get from talents. Characters start with 0 in all of these stats, and only gain them if their talents say to.

Energy is granted by Magical Talents, and determines a character's magical power. The most powerful spells drain a character's energy, and when that is spent, begin to injure the character. Energy is recovered to full when the character enjoys a full night's rest.

Focus is granted by some Martial Talents, determining a character's fighting spirit. Focus is used to power special attacks using swords, guns, and other weapons which have a listed Focus cost. A character's Focus is restored every round, whenever initiative is rolled.

Willpower is granted by Psionics Talents, and determines a character's psionic power. Willpower is used to help resist the stress and strain of using psychic, and does not decrease and is not spent.

Equipment Points

Weapons and other equipment cost equipment points to purchase - any items bought with equipment points are things the character is assumed to always have on-hand (or easily on-hand, tucked away on their ship or at home), and can easily replace through spares, buying extra, having the right contacts, or making their own. Items purchased with equipment points are never lost permanently. Characters begin with three equipment points but can gain additional points through talent choices.