Having a bit more time on a Saturday, I'll pull out my Apex book and see about rolling up a dinosaur rider. I am going to restrict to change some of the things so that she will fit your Saturday morning cowboy show, albeit with dinosaurs!
First, we have the traditional attribute scores of strength, intelligence, wisdom, constitution, dexterity and charisma. We roll 4d6 and take the top 3, so that we start off with a more heroic character. In general:
- 3 - 6: below average (-1 / -5% bonus for skills and checks using this attribute)
- 7-14: average
- 15-18: above average (+1 / +5% bonus for skills and checks using this attribute)
Our cowpoke starts with:
- Strength: 14. Physical power is in the average range, though at the top of that.
- Intelligence: 6 (-1) (wow, a few ones on that roll. so dumb as a post!) IQ, reasoning and the ability to solve puzzles. Let's leave him with the kid's 24-piece puzzle set instead of the 1000-piece set.
- Wisdom: 17 (+1). Insight, perception and good judgement. He is an excellent judge of character and will rarely be surprised.
- Constitution: 13. The health and endurance of a character.
- Dexterity: 14. Coordination and quickness.
- Charisma: 13. The character's leadership ability.
As I am hoping that I'll be using this character in a future Apex Cowboy game, and I am also hoping to use some shared world-building to get the players to start at level 2 or 3, we'll have a few more steps to add in traits and so on. But first, I need to determine if this cowpoke is a girl or boy: even roll, so we have a cowgirl. Using a random cowboy name generator (and yes, there are random generators for EVERYTHING!), and looking at her wisdom and her intelligence, going with Sally "the Deaf" Harris. Deaf in not that she can't hear, but that she never paid attention to the school marm and children just called her Deaf. Children can be cruel, as well as being amazingly nice. You can't tell...though Sally could always tell it seems.
Sally, at level 2, gets 2 traits. With my idea based on part of a Bonanza episode I saw the other day at the gym on the treadmill (you can only stare at the walls for so long!) she is going to be part of the pony express network. As such, and as she really loves her dinosaur, we'll go with animal affinity and explorer. With animal affinity, she gets a +2 when trying to train, placate or calm animals. Explorer grants her a boon, excuse me, advantage, for finding her way. Both useful traits for the dino-express.
At level 2:
- Hit points are constitution + 2, for 15
- Saving throw: 12
- Lore: 1
Her dinosaur will know 1 trick, and looking through those available, the "come" trick seems the best. After all, Silver always came to the Lone Ranger's aid when called. Mounts will come when a rider calls. This trick is an "urgent" come so that allows the rider to leap onto their mount without costing an action.
Her wisdom plays with the dinosaur rider class: she gets a 10% bonus on experience points. So, the rolls went mostly where I'd like them to. But, in deference to another Western game I played, she will have to act similar to Whitey (may his soul rest in peace) and not be the brightest at much of anything.
She also gets an advantage on saving rolls when she is on her mount - something I will have to remember when playing her. I tend to forget a lot of these little rules when playing. One of the reasons I want to play some games more: I do want to understand and be able to use the rules better. Not necessarily always to my advantage, but to get more into the game.
Now I need a character sheet to round up all these pieces. And she named her dinosaur Daisy.
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