The Player’s Manual details the Life Path method on page 31: the entirety of the instructions fits in that one page, yet their final product is a fully fleshed out character. In broader terms, you’ll have the fundamental periods of your character’s life, each spanning years, but you can enrich them with as many details as you wish, resulting from your choices, your dice rolls and your imagination.
Or, to put it more elegantly
“The life path method lets you build your character by developing their backstory in detail”
excerpt from the Player’s Manual, page 31
In this section I will generate a character for Twilight: 2000 4th Edition by Free League, following the steps of the Life Path method available on page 31 of the Player’s Manual. I think the process, as described in the Manual, is precisely explained and easy to follow, and you can also find an example of a character created through the Life Path method on page 39.
Yet I think a more comprehensive and detailed step-by-step character creation could be beneficial for both understanding the mechanics of the process and its potential. As an extra, I’ll put my own spin on it: the creation process will be accompanied by some ‘flavor text’ offering a brief summary of the character’s story as it unfolds. If you’re here just for the mechanics, feel free to skip it.
The steps leave some decisions to the player, some to a dice roll and others can be made either way depending on what the Referee decides. For this particular character, I’m going with the dice every time the rules say the Referee can let you choose. In the interest of clarity, I’ve marked all choices with the following symbols:
Finally, a few things before starting:
- The character I’m creating will be an American woman from New York
- I’m imagining her as part of a group of four, so there’s no need for her to be a jack-of-all-trade
- I’m imagining the other players have not created their characters yet, so there’s no specific missing role mine needs to fulfill and I’m free to pursue the path I see most fitting/interesting
- There’s no room on your character sheet for all the dice rolls and skill increases, so take notes on a sheet of paper as you build your alter-ego, then transfer the final information on your character sheet (below are my notes, I’ll fill in the sheet at the end of the process)
1. Start with a fresh and inexperienced young person, 18 years old and CUF D
2. Chose your nationality. Most PCs in the game will be American or locals, but you can be any nationality you like.
3. Determine your attributes. Start with a baseline of C in all four attributes. Roll 2D3 to determine how many increases you get. You can increase any attributes you want, and you can gain one extra increase by decreasing one attribute rom C to D. The maximum attribute score is A. Keep in mind that some careers have minimum requirements, so be sure to look those up now if entering one of those careers is your goal.
4. Roll a D6 on the table on the next page to determine what your childhood was like. (If the Referee allows it, you may choose instead of roll). Choose one skill at level D from the available options, and then roll another D6 to gain one specialty (or choose among the options, if the Referee allows it).
5. Choose a career for your first term, military or civilian, among the options listed on the following pages. Make sure you meet the requirements for entry. If this is a military career, note your starting rank.
6. Increase two skills one step each pr one skill two steps, choosing among the skills listed for your career term OR the generally available skills STAMINA, MOBILITY and DRIVING. If you choose a skill you didn’t have, it starts at level D. No skill can ever go above A. SPECIAL RULE: in your first term of military service, on of your skill increases must be RANGED COMBAT, no matter what skills are listed.
Make an unmodified skill roll for one of the skills you increased in step #6. You cannot push the roll. If you succeed, you’re doing well and receive a promotion – roll a D6 to see which specialty you learn. If you roll a specialty you already have, choose any specialty you want instead. If you receive a promotion a military career, also increase your military rank one step. If you receive a promotion in a military or intelligence career, also increase your CUF one step, to a maximum of A.
7. Age your character D6 years. Then roll a D8 – if the result is LOWER than the number of terms you have completed, you must reduce one attribute of your choice by one step, due to the effects of age.
You cannot go below D. Note that this means that you cannot get an attribute reduction directly after your first term.
8. Roll a D8. If the result is LOWER than the number of terms you have completed, war breaks out. Go to step #9. If not, go back to step #5 and choose a career for your next term.
9. Check the At War career (page 38) and increase any two skills of your choice by one step each (you cannot increase one skill two steps). In addition, roll a D6 to gain a final new specialty (or choose among the options). Do NOT roll for promotion or age effects after the At War term.
10. Determine your hit and stress capacities.
11. Determine your unit morale.
My character has no level in COMMAND; I’m here imagining another player to have a D skill level, and that being the highest in the group.
12. Choose your moral code.
13. Choose your big dream.
14. Choose a buddy from among the other PCs.
15. Decide how you met the other player characters.
16. Decide your appearance.
17. Choose a name, and a nickname if you like.
18. Pick your gear from the choices given by your final career term before the At War term. Choose weapons appropriate for your nationality. In addition, you get D6 rations of food, D6 rations of fresh water, and D6 rounds of ammo to use as currency.
19. Pick group gear together and possibly a vehicle, as described on page 18.
I’m creating a single character here, and picking group gear and a vehicle is a team decision, so I’ll skip it here. The process is very straightforward though, and allows your group to get some more equipment.
20. Roll a D6 to determine your starting permanent rads (page 80).
And… done. Aside from the group gear, the character of Sharon Lockhart is now fully fleshed out and I can fill its sheet to keep with me at the table. I’m fully aware that my choices in skills (and careers, mostly) were driven by narration, rather than the calculation of which skill would be most useful. It’s of course my personal view, but I find a character with a rich background easier to roleplay.
Here’s Sharon Lockhart’s character sheet:
FINAL NOTES:
- I need me some RANGED COMBAT:
Most (if not all) players are going to keep an eye on their Ranged Combat skill level, knowing that eventually they will find themselves in a firefight they cannot avoid (or don’t wat to avoid). They will therefore make sure to spend at least one term in the Military, Intelligence or Police careers, where they can increase RANGED COMBAT. Also, those careers offer generally better starting gear (or more combat-oriented gear) if are roleplaying as a native of the country your campaign starts in.
The more terms you have completed, the higher the chance of war breaking out. That can make most players pivot into one of the above-mentioned careers early on in their character creation, to make sure they at least have a D in RANGED COMBAT and acceptable gear at the start of the campaign.
Here’s a reminder: “if your final term before the war breaks out was spent as a civilian (except intelligence careers), and if your character is not a local of the country where your game is set, your At War term will be spent as a draftee or volunteer in the military. In this case, one of the two skill increases for the At War term must be RANGED COMBAT – unless you already have a level D or better in the skill – and you roll for your specialty using the Military column. Also, in this case you get starting gear as if your final pre-war term had been Combat Arms instead of your civilian career” (Player’s Manual, page 39).
So, the rules themselves already make sure you have at least D in your RANGED COMBAT skill (meaning you’re rolling two dice in a firefight). Also, if your last term is in a civilian career – and you’re not a native of where the campaign starts – as a draftee you start with military-grade equipment.
- DETAILS:
You don’t need to pick every single detail of your character’s life. Work with the Referee and decide if you can leave a modicum of fog around some aspects or periods. The Referee may find it fitting to then define them when your group finds itself in circumstances that can affect your character because of something in his/her past. It’s all in the interest of creating a better story at the table.
- A (mostly) SELF-BALANCING PROCESS:
Steps 5 through 8 are reiterated until one ends with the war breaking out, and each reiteration is called a term. Aside from the first term, in which war cannot break out and you cannot be forced to lower one attribute on account of aging, every subsequent term has an increasing chance of both those events happening.
So, on the one end of the spectrum, your character may be drafted at the end of its second term (which is the earliest), and on the opposite end your character may be drafted at the end of his 9th term (at the latest). Having 2 or 9 terms to build your character impacts greatly on both its skills and attributes (not to mention age).
So, if your character went to war after 2 terms, odds are that he/she has few skills at low level, but didn’t have to lower any attributes because of aging. If your character was shipped to war after many terms, odds are that he/she has a lot of skills with some at high levels, but probably had to lower his attributes many times in the creation process.
In the broadest of understanding (and possibly understating) as your character’s creation progresses, you roll better dice for your skills and worse dice for your attributes. It’s, in my view, a nice reflection of aging in real life.
- PUTTING THE ‘G’ in RPG:
Some players out there are sitting around the table intrigued by the dynamics of group strategizing, others are interested in the mechanics, the odds, and the careful planning that favors success, others may be itching for the thrill of a firefight, and all are there for a good time with friends.
And finally – and I realize this may be more suited for video-games, but still – some are really there for the game: the dice-rolling, skill-grinding, encumbrance-tracking challenge of leading your carefully managed alter-ego in the World War III that never was. And if you get a kick out of mastering the mechanics and turning your character into a proficient diplomat, marksmen, technician, and athlete, then go for it.
Chances are you will carefully craft your character with much more attention to anything that can impact your rolls and your overall odds in tasks and firefights. You might even go for a moral code you can leverage to get an extra xp at the end of each session, and a big dream which is not-too-hard to achieve (again, there’s more xps in there). If that’s what drew you to TW2K (or any other RPG really) then go for it, you really don’t need an intricate story to enjoy a session, just make sure you have a good time. And snacks, get snacks.
- YOU CAN’T SPELL RPG WITHOUT the RP PART:
A side note to my previous point: if you are really playing an RPG, then you are really role-playing it. You may not be interested in the politics, the factions, the people, but they’ll build the world around you, and you’ll have to navigate it. And at the end of the day, if you’re out with friends and you start reminiscing about a game session, you’ll surely remember the exceptional dice rolls that saved the day, and the catastrophic failures that almost got the party killed. But there’s a good chance you’ll make memories of that weird NPC that saved your life, the ruined town always blanketed in a thick fog, the bandit leader who only spoke in gestures, the gloomy forest with freshly dug graves and so much more that filled your mental-eye with memorable scenes.
So, however you experience an RPG, you’ll get a story out of it. Also, you may want to take notes, just in case…
Now that you have the basics of how to create a character for TW2K using the Life Path method, you can make your own alter-ego and roleplay in the the World War III that never was.
If that’s the case, you may be interested in the game’s basic dice mechanics, which you can find on the following page:
Or straight up jump to the first post of this story by pressing the button below.