Create an Avatar : Step by Step
- Consult with the AI and select a Package. This will give you a framework and some direction when creating the rest of your avatar. Then decide gender and pick a name for your avatar and record 3 save points. Also figure out an approximate age, 20 to 60 is a good span when deciding age for these space travelling daredevils. This is of course real age, not counting time spent in stasis. Under “Avatar” you fill in the name you have chosen.
- Spend 12 points on your Aptitudes, some might be more important than others depending on the package. The cost is a one for one basis. Buying from 4 to 5 costs 2 points though. Fill in your movement. Run 10 + Quickness, Sprint 20 + Quickness. Fill out your Credibility (Clout x 3). Carrying Capacity equals Brawn x 5 kg and use the Defence table to calculate your Defence.
- Fill in the health marker dots according to your Brawn. If you have 3 in Brawn, fill in 3 of the dots and so forth.
- Spend 22 point on your Abilities. The package stipulates that 4 points has to be spent on core Abilities. You have to buy these to a rank predetermined by the particular package as these are pivotal. This means that you have 4 core Ability points and 18 free Ability points. Buying Abilities are done at a one for one basis, but buying from rank 3 to 4 (and 4 to 5) costs 2. Also, choose two specialities, prerequisite rank 2 in the Abilities in question.
- Spend 7 resource points. Resources available to your avatar are Access, Allies, Contacts, COG, Economy, Gear, ID, Sway, Team and Linguistics and you can also use these points to get higher scores in Aptitudes and Abilities. Record start-up gear (which you buy for Spending Credits) and calculate Start-Up Credits.
Example of Avatar Creation
- Tess sits down with the AI and is about to create an avatar. The AI tells her that he has planned a campaign which will make use of the Dead in the Dark setting with a lot of conspiracy elements. Tess scrolls through the Packages and Operative catches her eye. She asks if it would be okay if she played a Rogue Operative. The AI happily allows it. What Tess doesn’t know is that a NPA named Eric Starkwood, a GIC True Believer Operative, will become their unwilling allied and the operative connection can be used to further develop the story. Tess prints out an interface and starts building her avatar. Last time she played her avatar was a guy, so she decides to play a woman this time. The C&D universe is extremely ethnically mixed and she wants to take advantage of this to create an interesting avatar. She decides that her mother was half Spanish and half Russian, while her father was half African and half Japanese. She settles on the name Anya Mikado Cervantes. Well, at least it displays her ethnic mix to a certain degree. For a second language she chooses Japanese (all avatars gets the language Intra plus a family related language). So she speaks Intra and Japanese fluently. Anya is 29 years old.
- She then has 12 points to spend on her Aptitudes (all are at rank 1 from the start). The operative package states that Attention, Cool and Quickness might come in handy. So she starts with them. Quickness really appeals to her as she already has envisioned Anya as a very dexterous avatar with a passion for martial arts. She spends 3 points and gets a rank of 4 in Quickness. She then spends 2 points on Attention and 2 points on Cool, giving her a rank of 3 in both of these Aptitudes. Now she only has 5 points left to spend. She spends one on every remaining Aptitude and ends up with rank 2 in them. Anya is now extremely quick and nimble, her level 3 in Cool makes her very stable and jaded and with a level 3 in Attention she is very perceptive and has a natural knack for firearms. She has average stats in Brains, Brawn, Reaction, Gut Feeling and Clout with rank 2 in all of them. Tess would like her avatar to have a little more Brains since she wants to be a first class hacker and she says she will spend 3 of her Resource Points right away to increase her rank in Brains with 1. The AI lets her and she now has rank 3 in Brains. Anya is turning out to be quite the elite specimen.
- She then records her carrying capacity (Brawn x 5 kg), Movement (Run 10 + Quickness, Sprint 20 + Quickness) and her credibility (Clout x 3) and Defence (Quickness + Reaction compared on the defence table). She records that she has 3 save points like every avatar has when starting out. Now she fills in her health. She has 4 + Brawn amount of hit points in the Scratched and Bruised wound levels, which gives her 6. Tess marks it so she can track it during play. Tess now sits down with the Abilities. She has 22 points to spend, but 4 of these are devoted to core Abilities. Her package dictates that she has to spend 1 on Computers, 2 on Security and 1 on Stealth. These are Abilities that lies at the core of the operative package. Tess fills in the dots and then ponders how she will spend her remaining 18 points. She starts out by spending 2 points on Computers and 1 on Security. She then moves on and spends 1 on Stealth and 2 on Athletics. She now has 12 points left. She spends 2 on Search, 2 on Close Combat and 2 on Shooting. Now she’s down to only 6 points and slows down and starts to think harder about her decisions. She thinks about what kind of operative Anya is. Which kind of clients does she take on and what kind of jobs does she do? Tess decides that Anya in most cases finds out what is of value, goes in on her own (if not in need of funding in which case she offers her service to a client, usually non-politically involved criminals) and sells the information to the highest bidder. Tess spends 3 points on Fringewise as knowing what’s what is her bread and butter. She also spends 2 points on Interrogation as she deals in information a lot and finally she spends 1 on Piloting. With her high score in Attention and Quickness she makes for an okay Pilot and as she often works alone it is vital for her to be able to boost and pilot a ship in order to escape. She would have liked to invest some points in Know-How as this would have given her more insight into GIC operative procedure but she can still make rolls using the associated Aptitude and she has 3 in Brains and will rely on this in the meanwhile. Tess then records her package bonuses (Infiltration Training: +1 to all Stealth rolls and she can’t botch these, Security Expert: +1 to all Security rolls and she can’t botch these, Perfect Bypass: reduction time for Security rolls are counted as double.)
- After this she can choose two specialties, provided that she has a rank of 2 in the Ability she wants to specialize in. She chooses Bypass Electronic Circuitry (using the Ability list rolls as a mould for specialties) as a Security speciality. Being extra good at disconnecting and bypassing alarms and cameras could come quite in handy. She then chooses Hack Security Barrier as a speciality under the Ability Computer. She documents the specialties on the interface. Tess looks over her avatar and is quite satisfied so far. Anya is a smart, fast and deadly security specialist and high level hacker. Pretty good operative material. She can gather information, knows her way around the criminal element and can pilot a ship in a pinch.
- It’s now time for her to spend her resource points. A player gets 7 points, Tess has however already spent 3 of her points to get an extra boost to Brains. So she has 4 left. She definitely wants a COG. Being an operative she decides to buy an Adaptable Encounter Skin (AES COG). She spends 1 point and for this she gets the COG but nothing else. Tess will upgrade it during play, at least she has the basic suit. She then spends 1 on Contacts. Together with the AI she decides that her contact is a high level Deltronix employee for whom she often has done some industrial espionage for. She then spends 1 point on Team. Her sidekick is a medical technician. She saved his life on a mission and since then they have worked together, he receives 20 percent of her earnings and patches her up when she needs it. Quite a useful guy to have around in the aftermath. She uses her last point to buy Identity. Her id is that of Taki Hitomi, a low level GIC computer technician. This will give her a reason to show up in different facilities under the guise of doing a routine (provided she manages to wrestle up the paperwork that is) system checkup and enables her to keep a low profile in general if she wants to. Tess also has 3200 cr to spend according to her package and uses it to buy some basic equipment (silenced pistol, ammo, wakisashi, lock picks, computer, bypass kit and so forth) when she’s done she calculates her starting credits (which only can be spent after the game session has started) which is 1500 1D x 300. She ends up with 2700 credits in her pocket. Together with the AI Tess fills in the fleshing out list. After this Anya Mikado Cervantes is ready to be plunged into to the Cold & Dark universe and face the vastness...
Package: Your class, in D&D terms.
Aptitudes: Biological attributes, like Brawn or Quickness, and innate aspects, like Brain and Attention.
Abilities: Learned skills and knowledge.
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Operative: A 'secret service/spy' type of Package.
Aptitudes: Biological attributes, like Brawn or Quickness, and innate aspects, like Brain and Attention.
Abilities: Learned skills and knowledge.
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Operative: A 'secret service/spy' type of Package.
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