The Quickening
Character Creation Outline
Step One: Character Concept
Who are you?
Choose Age
Step Two: Select Attributes
What are your basic capabilities?
Prioritize your three Categories; Physical, Social & Mental
Step Three: Select Abilities
What do you know?
Prioritize your three Categories; Talents, Skills & Knowledge
Step Four: Select Advantages
In what ways are you unique?
Choose Backgrounds
Choose Influences
Step Five: Last Touches
Filling in the all-important details
Record Accumulated Experience
Record Base Willpower
Spend your Freebie points to raise any Trait
Create your Enemies
Step One: Character Concept
Before you start to think of numbers, you need to develop a
concept for your character. This concept does not need to be
detailed. You only need a general idea to start with. This
concept will probably change during the character creation
process, but at least it is something to start with. The concept
could be something like; "I'm an English knight who fought the
Crusades. I'm proud, chivalric and strong in the faith, but
seclusive since immortality doesn't spread to one's friends." The
concept needs to be unique and should be approved by the
Storyteller. The concept usually gives one thing away; the
character's Age. The Age is important, since it is from this Age
you draw your experience. The older you are, the more
experienced you get. On the other hand, the longer you live, the
more enemies you make. There are five choices of Age; Modern,
Renaissance, Medieval, Dark Ages and Primeval times. A Modern
Immortal has not lived very long; a century or two at the most.
Thus, they have not had the time to make enemies with other
Immortals. A Renaissance Immortal are more experienced, but has
had the time to gather an enemy. Medieval Immortals have even
more experience, but do not only have two enemies but also have
difficulties to learn modern sciences. Dark Age Immortals have
three Immortal enemies, and Primeval Immortals have four enemies
of the Immortal kind.
Step Two: Choosing Attributes
This is done in the same way as in any other part of the
Storyteller-system. The Immortal may place points like any other
mortal. Attributes: 6/4/3
Step Three: Choosing Abilities
The amount of dots you have depends on your age. The older you
are, the more experience you gather. However, there is a
limitation to this. If you are of another age than the present
one, you may have difficulties in 'keeping up' with the present.
This is called a 'Limitation'. If you wish to have an ability
and you are of an age that makes that ability limited, you may
not have more than three dots in it, from the beginning, not even
with Freebie-points. The Limitations are listed with the age,
along with the number of dots you get to place on abilities.
This is worked out just like in any other part of the
Storyteller-system.
Abilities: varies with age
Age Dots Limitations (cumulative)
Modern 11/7/4 None
Renaissance 12/8/5 Streetwise, Repair, Security, Computer,
Politics, Science
Middle Ages 13/9/7 Bureaucracy, Subterfuge, Medicine
Dark Ages 15/10/8 Firearms, Drive, Finance, Law
Primeval 17/11/9 Etiquette
Example: If you are an Immortal born during the Middle Ages, you
get to spend 13/9/7 points on abilities, but may not start the
game with more than three dots in any ability listed as Limited
for the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, or the Modern Age. (If you
were born during the Primeval times, the Dawn of Time, you would
get 17/11/9 dots to place, but with even more limitations.)
Step Four: Advantages
Backgrounds: 5
Influences: 3
Backgrounds
This is the history of the character. The Backgrounds may be
taken from the other Storyteller-systems, or you may choose one
or more from the ones below. Some Background-traits from some of
the other parts of the systems may not work for an Immortal, like
the Generation-, or Status-trait of the vampires, for example.
Lineage
There are different Lineages among Immortals, different ways of
approaching the Game, the Gathering, and the Immortal life. A
character may spend Background-, or Freebie-points on his or her
Lineage. The lineage tells you how much is known about the
characters Lineage, and how it is viewed by other Immortals. The
Lineage depends on your Mentor, and his or her Mentor, and the
one before that, and so on, in addition to what they, you, and
others of this Lineage have done, or haven't done.
- Unknown.
· Few but solid facts. Your lineage is almost unheard of.
·· Somewhat known -- other Immortals sometimes mention your
lineage.
··· Known -- most Immortals know about your lineage.
···· Wellknown -- your lineage is respected among the Immortals.
····· Famous -- no facts are known about your lineage, only
rumors. However, other Immortals parts to let you
pass.
Mentor
You can also spend some of your Background-, and/or
Freebie-points on your Mentor, the one who taught you about the
Immortal life, the Game, and the Gathering. If you spend points
on this, you get a Mentor that might be known to other Immortals,
and perhaps even feared. If you do not spend any time at all,
you have still had a Mentor, but he or she is insignificant in
the Game.
· MacLeod 1537
·· Fasil
··· Raměrez
···· Kurgan
····· MacLeod 1984
Wisdom
As many abilities as you have dots in this trait are excepted
from the Limitations of Age. This could be useful if you want to
create, for example, a civilized Roman Immortal with sense of law
and bureaucracy. If you do not spend anything on Wisdom as
Background, you are at the mercy of the Limitations of Age.
Influences
The Influences are the supernatural powers that comes with an
Immortal life. They are very similar to the Disciplines that the
Vampires learn, and they work according to the same system. A
Immortal get to spend three dots on Influences, and may spend
Freebie-points on Influences as well, seven points per dot.
Unworldly Senses
This is the ability certain Immortals may develop to sense the
world around them, all other Immortals, other supernatural (or
over-natural) beings like vampires and werewolves. One can never
get more than four dots in this Influence, the fifth dot is
awarded the Last Immortal, the one to survive the Gathering. The
effective range of this Influence is Perception multiplied with
the amount of dots you have in this Influence.
· Sense Immortal being
·· Sense Supernatural being
··· Sense Mortal Presence
···· Sense Danger
····· (Know Everything) -- only available for the Last Immortal
Quickness
This works just like the vampires Celerity, giving you an extra
action in a turn per dot in this trait.
ESP
Extra-Sensory Perception gives the character abilities beyond the
human senses, power to read minds, move objects by thought alone,
and seeing auras. For ever dot the character possesses in this
Influence, the more powers he or she can use. These are listed
below.
· Tele-empathy
The character can read the mind of another from a distance in
order to feel his or her emotions. This may be very painful for
the ESP'er if the subject being read is under emotional stress or
being harmed in some way.
System: The character rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty
6) in order sense the emotions of a specified target within
visual range.
·· Pyrokinesis
This power gives the character the ability to set fire to an
object within sight. Flames burst out of the object and, if it
is naturally flammable, it catches fire. Otherwise, the fire
trickles away. One can set fire to a person, but this is very
hard.
System: If the character wishes to set fire to an
inanimate object, then roll Manipulation + Occult against a
difficulty of 7. At least two successes must be obtained in
order to set the object on fire. If you wish to but fire to a
being, natural or otherwise, the difficulty is 9 and you must
obtain more successes than the targets current Willpower.
··· Aura-reading
With the use of this power, the character may see the aura of
power that every thing, living or dead, creates. The color
indicates what the being is, its mood, and its identity. There
are many color an aura can have, and they tell you a lot about
the being around you. For example; a person in love will have
blue aura, an angry person a read aura, and an angry vampire a
pale, red aura. If you do not have a list of the different
colors, it won't matter, the mere fact that the character can see
the aura will tell him or her a great deal about the person, just
male up a color.
System: The player rolls Perception + Empathy against a
difficulty of 7. The number of successes indicates how much of
the aura can be seen. 1 success Can only distinguish between
pale or bright. 2 successes Can also distinguish color 3
successes Patterns can be seen (identity of subject) 4 successes
Subtle shifts in color or patterns can be seen (detailed
information) 5 successes Can identify mixtures between colors and
patterns (near-complete information)
···· Telekinesis
With this power the Immortal may attempt to move object by sheer
thought. The stronger your will, the heavier and bigger the
objects you can move. The movement may be straight or curved,
fast or slow, all according to the user's wishes.
System: Roll Manipulation + Occult. For each success beyond
the first one, the speed may be increased by one hundred percent.
The base-speed is ten meters per turn. The object must be within
visual range. The characters current Willpower determines the
weight of objects movable. Willpower:
· one pound
·· 10 pounds
··· 20 pounds
···· 100 pounds
····· 200 pounds
······ 350 pounds
······· 500 pounds
········ 1/2 ton
········· 1 ton
·········· 10 tons
····· Telepathy
The power grants the character the possibility to read another's
mind, and communicate with beings by thought. Messages may be
thoughts, emotions or images. Only willing targets can normally
be affected.
System: The player rolls Charisma + Empathy against the
difficulty of four for a willing target. The difficulty for a
unwilling target is his or her current Willpower. The range is
virtually unlimited, only the Storyteller's restriction. A mind
can be scanned for information, poked in for details, or
communicated with.
Step Five: Last Touches
Virtues: 7
Freebie Points: 21
Calculate Accumulated Experience
Attributes: Only the sum of all used experience and/or freebie
points.
Abilities: If a ability has one dot it is worth 3 points
two dots 5 points
three 9 points
four 15 points
five 23 points
Influences: If an Influence has one dot it is worth 7 points
two dots 10 points
three 16 points
four 27 points
five 39 points
Willpower, Humanity, Virtues and True Faith:
One dot is worth 1 point
Two dots are 3 points
Three 5 points
Four 8 points
Five 12 points
Six 17 points
Seven 23 points
Eight 30 points
Nine 38 points
Ten 47 points
Enemies:
While being alive, you make others your enemies. If these are
mortals, you can just avoid them and they will die of old age.
If the enemy is another Immortal or another supernatural being,
you might not be able to get rid of him or her as easily.
Depending on what age you were born in, the amount of time you
have been alive that is, you get a number of Immortal enemies.
These should be outlined with a brief history and their
strengths, working with the Storyteller. Below is the list of
the number of enemies. This table is not cumulative (thank God
for that one, those of the Dark Ages or the Dawn of time!).
Age Enemies
Modern 0
Renaissance 1
Medieval 2
Dark Ages 3
Primeval 4