Creating Characters for Broken Contract

Current incarnation of the Character Stat Card by Sam Alcarez.

With the Kickstarter demonstrating that we need to start smaller, we're working towards getting the rule book together to fund separately. If you've downloaded the Alpha Rules then you know that it currently stands at about 27 pages. That means we still have 5 pages to play with if we want to release it as a 32 page book. Some of that space will be given over to diagrams, but rather than filling it with a bunch of pre-generated Characters, I figure most people would like the option to create their own to get up and playing. With that in mind, I unearthed an old rough draft of some Character Creation rules I had written earlier in the year and started fleshing it out to work with the current character card prototype. This is the current rough draft. I understand that the Skills aren't explained yet, but let me know if this seems pretty clear. It wouldn't take much to have Sam create a blank character card to include at the end of the rules.

Creating Your Own Characters

Every Broken Contract Supplement is going to come with Characters to play with, but you might want to create your own story lines, scenarios, and Characters. Creating your own Characters can be very rewarding and is very easy in Broken Contract. Every Character starts with these Average Human Stats:

Core: Actions: 3 Move:  3 Wounds: 3
Combat: Shoot: 5 Melee: 5 Strength: 5 Agility: 5
Brain: Intellect: 5 Perceive: 5 Psyche: 5 Medic: 5
Social: Lead: 6 Dealing: 6
Intangible: Recovery: 6 Faith: 6

You can make two upgrades to your Character. One or both upgrades can be to improve any Combat, Brain, Social, or Intangible Stat by 1 point. You cannot improve any Stat by more than 1 point and you may not improve Core Stats other than through Skills and Special Rules. Here is the complete list of Stats that you can improve:

1. Shoot
2. Melee
3. Strength
4. Agility
5. Intellect
6. Perceive
7. Psyche
8. Medic
9. Lead
10. Dealing
11. Recovery
12. Faith

You also can upgrade your Character by taking one or both upgrades as Skills and Special Rules from the following list. This will allow you to tweak your Character and make them more how you envision them. These are the available Skills and Special Rules:

13. Authoritative
14. Charmer
15. Determined
16. Heavy Lifter
17. Inspirational Leader
18. Intimidating Presence
19. Massive
20. Mechanical Aptitude
21. Nimble
22. Progen
23. True Grit
24. Who Dares Wins

Weapons and Equipment

Breakers can choose one item from this list: Big Wrench, Knife, Mining Drill, Pick Axe, Shovel, Sledgehammer.

Breakers may then choose one item of Equipment from this list: Breather, Rock.

Prods can choose any two Weapons from this list: Arc Pistol, Baton, Crowd Control Repeater, Riot Shield, Shock Baton.

Prods can choose one piece of Equipment from this list: Arc Pistol Battery, Breather, Key Card, Rubber Bullets

Every Prod comes with: Restraints.

Creating a Gen-Mod

If you wish to create a Gen-Mod you may take up to three upgrades, but you must also take the Dependent Special Rule to balance out the additional upgrade. For balance reasons, crews of eight Breakers or less should only have one Gen-Mod and Prods shouldn’t have more than one.

Gen-Mods may pick one Weapon from the following list: Mining Drill, Pick Axe, Rock Saw, Shovel, Sledgehammer.

Gen-Mods must choose: Gen-Mod Apparatus as an additional piece of Equipment.

If you wish you may create your Character randomly by shuffling the entire Initiative Deck (which should be 26 cards: 24 numbered cards and 2 re-roll cards) and draw two cards (three for a Gen-Mod). You will notice the upgrades above are numbered. Those numbers correspond to the 24 cards in the Initiative Deck and indicate what upgrades your Character has received. If you draw a Re-Roll, hold onto it and draw an additional card. If you have the Re-Roll and you don’t like one of the cards you drew you may use the Re-Roll to discard a card and draw again. You must keep the new card.

Weapons and Equipment work in the same way. Take all of the Weapon Cards in the Weapon Card deck that correspond to your available list of weapons including doubles. Shuffle them up and draw a card. If you didn’t use your Re-Roll you may use it to redraw. Repeat this process with the relevant Equipment Cards to finish your Character.

Thanks for reading. Your feedback is welcome, so let us know what you think.

-Nick