Backgrounds

I know True20 is only a tentative system, but I figure one of the ways we'll find out if it should stay our system is if we work with it.

Today I made Backgrounds. Backgrounds are what True20 has instead of d20 Races. Every player gets to pick a Background, which gives you two background-specific feats, two skills at 4 ranks each, and two "Favored Feats" which I will explain another time. You don't have to pick one of these Backgrounds; you can always take the "Human" Background: one feat of your choice, one skill at 4 ranks. Backgrounds give you twice as many goodies, but you have to pick from a list.

The following Backgrounds were drafted: Academic, Adventurer, Aristocrat, Barrister. Beggar, Clergyman, Constable, Consulting Detective, Cowboy, Criminal, Engineer, Entertainer, Governess, Industrialist, Journalist, Labourer, Native, New Woman, Officer, Politician, Rogue, Seaman, Servant, Soldier, Solicitor, Spiritualist, Sportsman, Spy, Suffragette, Surgeon.

This is enough for us to get started; I am confident new ones will be added as players request them but most characters should find one that fits. There are three Supernatural Backgrounds planned but not drafted: Mechanical Man, Moreau, and Reanimated Corpse. They pose special challenges.

Game Concept

Over a week ago, when we first mentioned doing a Western, I figured out an exchange rate for 1870 dollars and a way of finding Purchase DCs for 1800s era equipment in the True20/M&M system. After some more exploration, it looks like those numbers are going to work just fine for us at PDMUX, though I will also supply notes on converting $ to pounds and shillings. The economics may require a bit more testing, but it is in a workable state right now.

I intend today to sketch out a draft of the game concept: a brief essay which describes the game we are making and the sort of adventures people will have in it. Until Dee returns from his nautical excursion, this will be a draft text, and I will encourage all of you to suggest changes, additions, or removals in order to get us to a game we are all excited about. This concept essay will be our "Charter" if you will, the target to which we all are aiming.

In other to-do notes: rules for new inventions, and character packages for those who a) want to play a former animal, surgically altered into semi-human shape at the hands of Dr. Moreau (or a PC with enough skill); b) want to play a person assembled out of corpses and animated at the hands of a Frankenstein (or a PC with enough skill), or c) Mechanical Men. These packages may not work out; they may be unbalanced. But True20 is a pretty flexible system and since M&M lies underneath it there is some leeway. My intention is to make packages which are, if anything, substandard to normal human characters, thus ensuring that the monsters that result are both rare, and selected by players for their RP value rather than any min/max ability.