Embers Character Creation
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Keleres Characters
A character in Embers of the Imperium is made up of the following things. Note that Embers uses "attribute" as a catch-all for Characteristics, Skills, Talents, and values derived from those things.
- Species: Your Species will determine your initial (free) Characteristics and Skills, your Wound and Strain Thresholds, any special racial skills and abilities, and how much XP you have to build your Keleres agent. See pp. 22-37 of Embers of the Imperium or these summaries:
- Creuss, perceptive aliens who can temporarily leave their suits to become ethereal.
- Druaa, mind-reading snake folk.
- Gashlai, brawny fire elementals who can temporarily leave their suits to burn everything around them.
- Hacan, lion-like negotiators.
- Human, skilled versatile endurance-predators.
- Hylar, aquatic geniuses who may require a suit to breathe air (player's choice).
- Letnev, arrogant blue-skinned humanoid warriors.
- N'orr, tough regenerating insectoids.
- Naaz-Rokha, "dual character" best for experienced players
- Saar, furry adaptable humanoids.
- Shikrai, agile wingless-bird warriors.
- Titan, 10' tall living metal powerhouses.
- Winnu, righteous humanoid leaders.
- Xxcha, tough defensive "turtles".
- Yssaril, small stealthy goblinoids.
- Career: Choosing a Career tags eight specific skills as "Career Skills". You get a free Rank in four of these and they are also cheaper to improve with XP.
- Options are Captain, Covert Infiltrator, Field Scholar, Keleres Investigator, Keleres Liaison, Orbital Drop Soldier, Shepherd, Trail Stalker, and Wayfarer. See pp. 38-47 of Embers of the Imperium. With GM permission these can be customized and new ones can be created.
- Characteristics: Your hero's intrinsic abilities — how strong, smart, etc. they are. You'll spend most of your starting XP raising these, as you cannot spend XP to improve these after character creation (though you can later take a Tier 5 Talent to do so.)
- These are Agility, Brawn, Cunning, Intellect, Presence, and Willpower. See pp. 14-15 of the Genesys Core Rulebook.
- Skills: Fields of knowledge, training, and other things your agent knows how to do. Along with your Characteristics, these form your dice pool to take most actions.
- Talents: Specific techniques or abilities that your hero has mastered. These usually let you do something especially potent with a Skill, though some affect your derived attributes or (at the highest Tier) Characteristics.
- Derived Attributes: Using your Species and Characteristics, we'll determine your Wound Threshold (hit points), Strain Threshold (fatigue/stress points), Defense (being hard to hit, usually 0), Soak (natural toughness, equals Brawn), and Encumbrance Limit (5 + Brawn).
- Background and Personality: In this RPG, character motivation matters just as much as your stats, so there are some specific things you must consider. These facilitate roleplaying and there are game-mechanical effects to them in certain situations. For examples, see the page references (E = Embers of the Imperium, G = Genesys Core Rules). Be sure to also read "More on Backgrounds" below.
- Background: How did you end up in the Keleres? (p. E17)
- Allegiance: What Great Civilization do you belong to? (p. E65)
- Desire: What do you most want out of life? (p. G47)
- Fear: What do you dread or are most insecure about? (p. G48)
- Strength: What's your best personality trait? (p. G48)
- Flaw: What's your worst personality trait? (p. G49)
- Agenda: What specific personal goal are you trying to achieve in this campaign? (p. E62)
- Starting Gear: Every Career comes with a suggested list of starting equipment and aurei (money). Alternatively, see the rules on p. 16 of Embers of the Imperium to choose your gear. The actual equipment is in Chapter 2.
- If playing a Creuss, Gashlai, or water-breathing Hylar, see Embers: Species-Specific Gear.
Character Creation
Character creation simply follows the above steps in order: Pick a Species and Career, then spend XP* on Characteristics, then spend leftover XP* on Skills and Talents, write down derived attributes, and buy gear. Background and personality can fit into at any step of this process, but most players seem to prefer doing it at the point shown above.
House Rule: Creating a character portrait — which can be done via Hero Forge (please color it), AI, DeviantArt apps, etc. — grants you an extra 5 XP at character creation. Be sure to also read the "Number of Benchmarks in an Agenda" section on p. E64, which can grant additional starting XP or gear.
More on Backgrounds
The Keleres is staffed by folks from member worlds of the Galactic Council. For military personnel, transfer to the Keleres is often an unofficial punishment, a way to prevent further rank advancement via assignment to this "dead end" job. Some folks join voluntarily as a way to leave their old lives behind (think of the French Foreign Legion). And a very few are here because they're true believers in the mission statement.
People think of themselves as citizens of a particular planet (or nation on that planet) first, citizens of their faction a close second, and citizens of the galaxy (under the Galactic Council) a distant third. Keleres are no different, and would describe themselves as (e.g.) "an Argent Flight officer within the Keleres" instead of just "a Keleres officer". This is why noting Allegiance matters. It may lead to occasional interparty conflicts of interest when your group has to resolve a situation that must favor a particular faction over another.
In addition to Allegiance, Agendas add spice to interparty dynamics. The GM will work with you to set up Benchmarks, things you can do to progress your Agenda, and once you've done enough of them you can reap a significant reward. Benchmarks usually won't directly conflict with a mission, but they'll often require going out of your way or making things a bit harder.
Ideally, the disparate Allegiances and Agendas within a Keleres party will keep things interesting and promote fun roleplaying. It should never devolve into actual PVP or backstabbing.
Skill List
These start at rank 0 for anyone untrained in them. During character creation, Skill ranks cannot exceed 2; once the game begins, they can be raised as high as 5.
Each skill lists the Characteristic it is linked to by default, though there may be situations that call for a different pairing; e.g., Melee (Intellect) to represent weapon knowledge. In general, the GM can do this whenever it makes sense, while a player can suggest such a mix-up but it requires GM approval and (usually) a Story Point.
Page references are to the Genesys Core Rulebook, except for the Knowledge skills which are from Embers of the Imperium.
Skill | Linked to | Description | Page |
---|---|---|---|
Athletics | Brawn | General fitness and ability to jump, swim, run, climb, etc. | 58 |
Astrocartography | Intellect | Plotting interstellar courses and identifying stellar phenomena. | 57 |
Brawl | Brawn | Unarmed combat. Damage equals Brawn. | 67 |
Charm | Presence | Persuasion, flattery, (sincere) seduction, and pleasantries. | 54 |
Coercion | Willpower | Threats, intimidation, interrogation, and demands. | 55 |
Computers | Intellect | Reprogramming, searching, and hacking computers, including security systems. | 58 |
Cool | Presence | Appear calm (externally), resist Charm, recover Strain*, and Initiative in expected fights. | 59 |
Coordination | Agility | Flexibility, balance, escaping restraints, surviving falls. | 59 |
Deception | Cunning | Lies, misleading, impersonation, etc. | 56 |
Discipline | Willpower | Remain composed (internally), ignore fear, resist Coercion, and recover Strain*. | 60 |
Driving | Agility | Operating any sort of ground or water vehicle, including hovercraft. | 60 |
Gunnery | Agility | Firing mounted or vehicular heavy weapons. | 69 |
Knowledge (Culture) | Intellect | Demonstrate knowledge of societies, species, systems, and civilizations. | E48 |
Knowledge (Lore) | Intellect | Demonstrate knowledge of history, myths and legends, and similar esoterica. | E48 |
Knowledge (Science) | Intellect | Demonstrate knowledge of physics, chemistry, biology, and so on. | E48 |
Leadership | Presence | Giving orders, asserting authority, commanding loyalty. | 56 |
Mechanics | Intellect | Repairing, disassembling, and constructing vehicles and gadgets. | 60 |
Medicine | Intellect | Healing Wounds, treating poison, diagnosing illness. | 61 |
Melee | Brawn | Attacking with melee weapons. Damage per weapon; if "+X" it adds to Brawn. | 67 |
Negotiation | Presence | Barter, sell, craft deals, and resist Negotiation. | 56 |
Operating | Intellect | Controlling massive, slow vehicles, including large starships. | 62 |
Perception | Cunning | Using your senses to observe surroundings or study a person. | 62 |
Piloting | Agility | Flying fast airborne vehicles, including aircraft and small starships. | 62 |
Ranged (Heavy) | Agility | Firing two-handed rifles, railguns, etc. | 69 |
Ranged (Light) | Agility | Firing one-handed pistols and throwing grenades, knives, etc. | 68 |
Resilience | Brawn | Physical endurance, used to resist sleep, poison, environmental hazards, etc. | 63 |
Skulduggery | Cunning | Picking pockets and locks, burglary, setting or disarming traps, etc. | 64 |
Stealth | Agility | Avoid detection via sneaking or camouflage. | 64 |
Streetwise | Cunning | Navigating a city or its underworld, finding someone in a city, dealing with criminals, etc. | 65 |
Survival | Cunning | Navigating the wilderness, tracking someone outdoors, riding/handling animals. | 65 |
Vigilance | Willpower | Notice something unexpected, resist Deception, and Initiative in unexpected fights. | 65 |
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