Character Conversion

I've already made my first character using SWADE, for the game Unchained Reaction: Magical Misfits, who was originally a Shadowrun character, Lindsey [redacted] (only because I think she had a lame last name like "Black" or something, I honestly don't remember it was so long ago...). Obviously, some things have changed for this character:

1. She's a Magical Girl in this game, she was simply a Cover Ops, Heavy Weapons Specialist with a side of Demolitions in the original Shadowrun game.
2. She's a catgirl in this game, because, I love catgirls, and it's an option here.

Other than that, I easily transferred the Uncouth and other Negative Qualities to SWADE fairly easily. But this post isn't about Lindsey, it's about another character for a different game: The Color of Freedom, and I'm going to attempt to see if SWADE can handle my pure imagination without looking through a Core Rulebook for ideas first. May I introduce you to AKIKO Takahashi.

To spare you from reading the actual character file for AKIKO, I'll simply summarize her concept here. She's a clone, animal-hybrid, and was designed as "the ultimate combat weapon". The game takes place in the far future (like 3200 AD or something), and rather than building Akiko with a static base of magical powers, I wanted something with a little more chaos involved. Her magical abilities are powered by the foods she eats! Based upon the taste sensations of spicy, sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and that strange one, Umami, she can manifest different abilities. I have a whole chart drafted in her Character File in case you're interested. Anyway, let's get into building Akiko with SWADE, shall we?

The first thing I need to look at is her physical build. SWADE conveniently begins Character Creation with selecting your Ancestry (or species/race). This is because there's a lot of information crammed into the species of a character. Anyway, it's a decent place to start. So, I know the following about Akiko:

• She's a clone.
• She's a cat-girl.
• She's been genetically modified.

Well, the cat part is easy. She's a Rakashan (page 16, Core). The fact that she's a genetically modified clone, that can all be just narrative points. I did look through the other two expansion books I own (Super Powers and Science Fiction Companion), and didn't find anything that would mechanically be useful.

So just with this one option selected, I now know that she's got an Agility enhancement of +1 magnitude (I'm not sure what SWADE calls these, Levels, Tiers, Steps; but I'm calling them Magnitudes). Basically, it's shifting the starting Die from a d4 to a d6. Moving along, I also know that Akiko has a Natural Weapon of Bite/Claws with a damage of Strength +d4. She's Bloodthirsty. This also aligns nicely with the fact that Akiko was designed to be a killing warrior. Rakashans Can't Swim-- that's just the name of the Hindrance (flaw). This species most certainly can swim, but actively avoid the activity, This creates a Movement Penalty (Pace in Water = 3 inches) as well as an Ability Penalty (Athletics: Swimming -2) Just like regular cats in the real world, Rakashans also have Low Light Vision. Akiko gets to ignore penalties for Dim and Dark Illumination. Finally, Akiko gains an Ancestral Enemy. I'll come back to that later as I build the world. For now, just know that she has a Persuasion -2 when interacting with whatever Species I determine later.

Next up, we define what her Hindrances are. These are her flaws, and I think it's interesting that the crew over at Pinnacle decided to put flaws as the second step during Character Creation, because as a Role Player, I get the most enjoyment from role playing my character's flaws. For this stage of the translation, I'm free and clear, because character flaws is something that I didn't originally create for Akiko when I designed her. So, let's have a looksy...

I'm definitely going to give Akiko Curious (Major), because, she is after all a cat! And the entire premise of the story I wanted to tell is about her being curious-- well, that and not loosing her memories, but we'll get to that in a bit, I'm sure. I'm also going to take this opportunity to define which level of Hindrances the Rakashan Ancestry gives, because it wasn't specified above. Since there's only a single option for both of these Hindrances, that was easy! Being that Akiko has military training (as a weapon), it would make sense that she has a Code of Honor that she follows. I'm also going to give her Driven, because the entire start of the story is her doing anything she can not to surrender to the Final Examination (which means complete memory loss), and I'll define this a Major Hindrance for now, because the way I see it, if this was only a Minor Hindrance, would she literally risk her life to steal a starcraft to run away? Probably not. Finally, I'll give her Young, as a Minor Hindrance. She's about 14 years old, and she's been fairly sheltered with most of her life being artificially progressed as she aged.

I do want to point out that in SWADE, you only get four points worth of Benefits (to be determined in a little bit). But I really like character flaws, so Akiko has some additional Hindrances that won't afford her any mechanical benefit. Oh well. I can live with that. Anyway, I can trade in two points for an Attribute +1 boost, or I can get an Edge, which I'll work on shortly. For one point, I can bump up a Skill, or I can dump that into my Starting Funds, which doubles my amount (I believe every character starts out with $500, unless stated differently by an Edge (Like Rich for example.)

Next up, we determine Attributes and Skills. For Attributes, normally, you get five (5) Attribute upgrades during Character Creation. But because I've got the Young Hindrance (Minor), I only get four (4). Let's assign those quickly. She's designed as a warrior, a super soldier. So she's going to need a really good Agility, and probably Strength. I'll put a point into each of those. And I already determined that she's sheltered, so while she's had some training, she's not all that educated. I'll keep her Smarts to a minimum at d4, and because she's so inexperienced at life, I'll also keep her Spirit at a minimum (d4). That leaves two points I can spend. She's a soldier. That means that her combat skills are going to mostly need Agility. I'll put another point into Agility, and the final point, I'll toss into Vigor, because she's been engineered biologically to withstand fatigue and illnesses.

I need to point out something about how SWADE works mechanically. When performing Tasks, you roll two dice. Your Skills die and something called a Wild Die, which is a d6. What the Attributes rating does is it reduces the cost of acquiring Skills. For example, Athletics uses Agility. Each point of Athletics that I want only costs one point up to the rating of the linked Attribute. Beyond that, the cost doubles to two points. So for Akiko, if I were to get Athletics, the d4, d6, d8, and d10 ratings each cost one point. If I wanted to go up to d12, that rating would cost two points, for a total of six (6) points-- of course, I picked a skill that is a universally known one, so the d4 was a freebie. The actual cost is five (5), because I didn't have to pay for the d4 rating. This is important, because you only have 12 points to spend on Skills-- and Akiko only has 10 points, because she's got the Young (Minor) Hindrance.

Let's pick out some Skills! First, we should put down the five Skills that we automatically get a rating in of d4: Athletics, Common Knowledge, Notice, Persuasion, and Stealth. These are marked with a red star in the Core book (and you can also find a quick list on page 30).

Being that this story takes place in the far future, Electronics is recommended so that Akiko can operate all the different control interfaces she'll be exposed to. Fighting is an obvious chose. She's a warrior. She'll have to know a little something about Piloting as well, because, she did steal a starcraft! I'll give her Research, because that's how she figured out what the Final Examination was all about. She'll also need Shooting (plasma rifles are like second nature to her), and because she's running away from her Home, she'll NEED Survival. So that's six skills that she'll need, and I've got 10 points to allocate. I'll begin by assigning a d4 to each of these, and then I'll bump the critical skills up until I run out of Points. If you're familiar with SWADE you'll notice that there's a very important skill that's missing: Spellcasting! I'll explain why it's missing in a moment. But first let's assign Akiko's Edges.

For Edges, I'm going to skip around a bit, and introduce a supplement book for SWADE. I'm doing this because part of Akiko's definition in her Character Concept is that she's a Magical Girl, and to represent this, we need the Super Powers expansion book. Furthermore, this book changes a couple of the mechanics, specifically related to Edges. The first thing I'm going to do is implement the Campaign Power Levels option. I want to see what this system is capable of, and because Akiko can basically switch between magic subsets, I'm going to want a lot of Power Points to design with. Note that Akiko can't access all of her magical abilities at the same time. I'm going to figure out a mechanical way to represent this, rather than just using a narrative ruling of "because I said so". Anyway, the maximum Campaign Level is Cosmic, and that gives Characters 75 Power Points to build with. The Super Powers expansion decrees that Characters receive all of their Powers upon Creation, meaning that they don't discover new abilities as the story unfolds via Advancement. The second most important thing the Super Powers expansion gives us is the Arcane Background (Super Powers) Edge, which replaces the default Edge found in the Core book. The nice thing about this Edge is that it doesn't require a skill, unlike the Arcane Edge requires. Bonus, this is a free Edge, and we like free stuff!

Now with that out of the way, let's look at how Edges work in the default SWADE. Akiko is not Human, so she doesn't get any free Edges, which means that she has to purchase any Edges she needs. Hindrances give up to four points that may be spent, and one of those methods includes buying Edges. Each Edge costs two points. So Akiko can have up to two Edges starting out. I've looked through the list, and there's a lot of tempting ones, but the Soldier Edge is screaming at me. One thing to keep in mind about Edges, is that your Character must satisfy all the requirements. One of those requirements is the Rank of the Character. Those being Novice, Seasoned, Veteran, Heroic, and Legendary. Most character will begin at Novice, and that makes sense for Akiko as well.

So, I've spent two of the four points I've been awarded from Akiko's Hindrances. That means I have a choice to make. I can either bump up a Skill or two, or I can bump up an Attribute by one. Alternatively, I can bump up one Skill, and double my Starting Wealth. But I'm not going this route because that doesn't make sense for Akiko in this story. Firstly, she's living in a post-Capitalistic world. She doesn't need funds, secondly, she's a runaway. She'll just steal what she needs. Therefore, what Akiko will do is bump up one Attribute score. And to make the best decision, I'll quickly glance at her Skills, most of which use Smarts.

Now let's take a further look into the Super Powers expansion book, where we can actually define Akiko's magical abilities. Note, that there are Powers already listed in the Core book. For example, Bolt can be dressed up to mean something like a Lightning Bolt, or a even a crude fireball (without a blast effect) It costs one (1) Power Point to use. However, in Super Powers, there's another Power, called Attack: Ranged, which costs two (2) Points per Level. In the default, using Bolt, you'll get a standard 2d6 damage, unless you manage to roll a Raise. Then you'll manage 3d6 damage. However, with the Attack: Ranged Power, you do 2d6 (+ 1 per LEVEL). to a maximum of 6d6. There's other effects that can be added, such as an Area of Effect.

SWADE offers two ways to use Powers. The default method is just consuming Power Points. Bolt, uses one (1) Power Point. Attack: Ranged at level three (3) uses six (6) Power Points. Because we've been given 75 Power Points, every time Akiko uses her Level 3 Attack: Ranged Power, she'll subtract six points from her 75 Point Pool. Then she'll have to Rest or Recover those Points. The second option is to use the No Power Points rule found on page 140 in the Core book. Instead of deducting from your Power Point pool, you calculate a negative modifier, by adding up the total Power Point cost, dividing by two, and then rounding up any fractions. Easy. So Akiko's Attack: Ranged Power at Level 6 would add a -3 to her Attack roll. Note that she needs a four (4) or higher to succeed, which means she needs a seven (7) on her Shooting Skill (which for Akiko is a d8), and she gets a Wild Die (of d6). If Akiko scores a 7 or higher, the Attack: Ranged executes. Despite this situation being seen as an opposition, this is not an Opposed roll. Melee attacks have an Opposed roll, but Ranged attacks do not. I just need to get over my 4+ Result (remember, that's a seven or higher) after any modifiers to hit and deal damage. Now, there are ways to increase the Target Number needed for successful hit done on the part of the Defender. Things like finding Cover will increase the Target Number needed against the Attacker! Pretty elegant, huh?

So, let's define Akiko's Powers...
So, based on the chart I've made up, Akiko has access to Fire, Acids (including Water), Earth and Plants, Wind and Lightning, Darkness and Gravity, and finally Light and Electricity. Yes, I know that there appears to be some duplicates, but the Lighting and Electricity are separated as Lightning is raw, whereas Electricity means like circuitry and power supplies. So, I need to find Powers that I can use that are dynamic enough to encompass all of these. Luckily, this is already built into the Super Powers expansion.

The first thing Akiko needs is the basic Attack: Ranged power. This one power will allow Akiko to fire off all the fire, lightning, and acid splashes she desires. Bonus, we don't need to spend Power Points for each one of these effects separately. Conveniently, there's the Switchable Generic Modifier that can be applied for a +2 for each Switch. Let's build the basic Attack. Akiko was built as a Soldier, the Ultimate Warrior. So I'll want her basic attack to pack a punch. I'll define the Level to be set at four (4). Not uber powerful, but still gives me a little playing room. Note that I'm not going to specifically name each of these, because they are Switchable, so long as the Attacks don't use over the amount of Power Points, I'm covered. This allows me to create something dynamic in nature. One other thing to consider with this build method is that no Power can be over one-third of the total Power Point Pool. So that means that Akiko can have no power greater than 25 points. There's only one Power that could cause me trouble, and that's the Elemental Blast, so I'll have to keep her list of Elements short. The good news is that each Element only costs an additional two (2) points, and that's not calculated into the negative modifier used to cast it.

Because Akiko is a Magical Girl, she's going to have the ability of Flight, and she's going to need to have the ability to protect herself, so I'll give her Force Control. This will allow her to create a Force Field around herself. I've given her Interface as well, to simulate her ability to control electronic devices via magic manipulation. Also, she's got Matter Control for her ability to manipulate organic/plant life, because the book referred me to Matter Control under Plant Control. Bonus, I can also make barriers with Matter Control, so that's a keeper-- assuming she has the Magic effect activated based on her diet!

Finally, let's talk about gear. I'm going to crack open the Science Fiction Companion for her stuff. Everything she's got, she's stolen. To start with, I'll give her a basic side arm (laser pistol), and because she stole a starcraft, it'll have a small cache of weapons, like a blaster rifle, a box of grenades, a first aid kit, and probably a VAC suit.

---

Name: Akiko Takahashi
Ancestry: Rakashan
Gender: Female
Age: 40 months (about 14 human years)
Height: 5' 0"
Weight: 85 pounds

Attributes​

Agility: d10
Smarts: d6
Spirit: d4
Strength: d6
Vigor: d6

Pace: 6
Parry: 5
Toughness: 5

Hindrances​

• Bloodthristy (Major)
• Can't Swim (Minor)
• Code of Honor (Major)
• Curious (Major)
• Driven (Major)
• Young (Minor)

Edges​

• Arcane Background (Super Powers)
• Soldier

Skills​

Athletics (Agility): d4
Common Knowledge (Smarts): d4
Electronics (Smarts): d4
Fighting (Agility): d6
Notice (Smarts): d4
Persuasion (Spirit): d4
Piloting (Agility): d4
Research (Smarts): d6
Shooting (Agility): d8
Stealth (Agility): d4
Survival (Smarts): d4

Powers:
[-2] Elemental Blast (4) (Damage: 5d6) (Forms: Fire, Lightning, Acid, Dirt, Wind)
[-5] Energy Control (Master)
[-2] Flight (4, Speed: 2x Pace ~12 , Attack Modifier = -0)
[-5] Force Control (3) (Force Field, Toughness +3)
[-1] Interface (2)
[-1] Matter Control (1)

Weapons:​

Laser Pistol (15/30/60, Damage: 2d6, AP: 2, ROF: 1, Ammo: 50 Weight: 2, $250
Laser Rifle (30/60/120, Damage: 3d6, AP:2, ROF: 3, Ammo: 30, Weight: 8, $700)
Natural Weapons (Bite / Claws): Strength + d4