Magnus' new Skillsheet 2.9a is pretty straightforward but I felt it would be good to provide an example of how to build your character. I'll go through it step-by-step using my character for this campaign as our example. You can download the Skillsheet and Skills & Abilities Guide here - remember that the newest version 2.9a is what you're looking for. I'll start with the name and basic background. I want my character to be an ex-soldier from the Free Worlds League, discharged after the SLDF was formed and the House militaries were greatly downsized. He found his way to the OAM once he heard about their buildup following Proclamation 21 in hopes of joining up and getting back to business. You don't have to go into the kind of detail unless you want to, it won't have any bearing on your actual skills and abilities. Name: Bartameus Nobblestaff Nationality: FWL Primary Skills are the basic skills that are used in actual MegaMek games - your piloting and gunnery. Everybody starts out at Level 3, which will make you a 4/5 pilot. As you gain XP throughout the course of the campaign you'll be able to improve those skills by spending XP. Since we are all going to be in mechs I'll take the appropriate skills. Piloting/Mech: Level 3 Gunnery/Mech: Level 3 The Secondary Skills are where things get really interesting. These will mostly be used outside of the actual MegaMek games but could have very significant impacts both in-game and out. You can download the Events Spreadsheet here to see what use these secondary skills can be. I will go ahead and note that it is HIGHLY recommended that each lance have 1 member with the following: Leadership, Admin, Negotiation, Scrounge. All characters automatically get Small Arms at level 3, which can be helpful if you are forced to eject and captured or if you get ambushed outside of the battlefield. From there you can choose one more skill at Level 3 and one skill at Level 2. Just like the primary skills, these can be upgraded later on for the XP costs listed. Another note: the Tactics skill will directly impact the order you go in MegaMek and it is HIGHLY recommended that you take Tactics as one of your secondaries. It can be learned later on but you may struggle early if you don't take it on creation. Bartameus has had some mech training so he is familiar with battlefield tactics. He was a lance XO in the FWLM and has earned a leadership spot in the OAM so his leadership skill will also come in handy. Small Arms: Level 3 Tactics: Level 3 Leadership: Level 2 Once your Primary and Secondary skills are chosen, you will have 25 XP to spend on anything. You can try to learn another skill, upgrade skills already chosen for the price listed at the next level, or you can choose to add an Ability. Abilities directly affect your pilot's performance in MegaMek and the effects of those abilities are listed on the Skills & Abilities Guide 2.8. Note that you can only choose ONE ability at creation and that later abilities take 6 months in MekHQ time before you can learn another. Bartameus has worked with his new unit and learned how to lead more effectively, increasing his Leadership skill by 1. Leadership: Level 3 25XP-13XP = 12XP remaining. Bartameus has also spent a lot of time training in his mech, an Icarus II, and become very familiar with aiming and utilizing the arm-mounted AC/10. Weapon specialization can be limiting in a character if your equipment changes down the road so if you take this skill be sure to plan ahead - there will be opportunities to upgrade your mech as time progresses. Ability: Weapon Specialist - AC/10 12XP-12XP = 0XP remaining. So let's tally all that up together now. Name: Bartameus Nobblestaff Nationality: FWL Piloting/Mech: Level 3 Gunnery/Mech: Level 3 Small Arms: Level 3 Tactics: Level 3 Leadership: Level 3 Ability: Weapon Specialist - AC/10 XP: 0 So there's a complete character! Hopefully this walkthrough will get you started on your own character. If you have any questions feel free to post them here, or you can PM me or Magnus or even try to catch us on TS3. Since character creation can be tied very closely to your unit choice be sure to check the Equipment availability post for an explanation of how to choose your starting mech. Once you've got the character and mech finished be sure to post them in the info and sign-up post so we can get our lances organized.
HOLD UP WAIT A MINUTE ( Magnus Edit: ) [video=youtube_share;g_0mb21fimc]http://youtu.be/g_0mb21fimc[/video] Changes are forthcoming. Check back tomorrow or Monday for updated Skillsheet and Character Creation costs. It will not be a big change but we have some issues to address.
Alright, new Skillsheet is complete and the example post has been updated to reflect the new changes. Same basic principles as before. What's different? Well, the prices have changed for the skill levels and the overall number of levels has been reduced along with the target roll numbers. This means that while there are fewer levels to gain and each level is a bit more expensive, each skill level gained also has a greater impact and greater chance of success. We also changed the free XP from 20 to 25 to help offset the cost increase at character creation. If you've already made a character you shouldn't have to change a whole lot, otherwise you can just follow the example to get started.
