Palladium RPG Attribute Point Buy System“As you get deeper into the dark alley, a dozen leather-clad young men leap from the shadows! Judging from their thick-lensed glasses, pocket protectors, and asthma inhalers, you realize that these thugs are from the notorious street gang known as the Heebie Dweebies. Without warning, they begin to pelt your characters with twelve-sided dice, Japanese cartoon cards, and tiny plastic replicas of spaceships, all while screaming shrill war cries in languages taken from popular fantasy and science fiction movies! What do you do?”
Do your dice specialize in heartbreak? Do you (or your players) ever roll horribly bad character attributes, leaving you (or them) to agonize in “character envy” of the one person in the group who seems to have magic dice? Have you ever been a Game Master needing to generate non-player characters in a hurry, but the dice kept giving the street thugs I.Q.s of 17 and P.S.s of 4?
Cringe no more! Palladium RPG has an alternate system to generate character attributes: the
point buy system.
The
attribute point buy system allows players to determine their characters’ statistics, ensuring the generation of optimally playable characters. It also allows GMs to generate non-player characters – villains, allies, victims, and passers-by – quickly and easily.
The first step is to determine the number of points a particular character has to buy attributes. Players have 40 points, which means an average attribute of 12. Game Masters determine the power level of the non-player character they are creating: each of whom has between 16 to 40 points, for an average attribute score of between 9 and 12. Note that the S.D.C. column is only used for those Palladium games that allocate S.D.C. to characters; if the character is for a Palladium game that does not allocate S.D.C. to characters, simply ignore the S.D.C. column.
Attribute Score| Point Cost | Notes
______18______|____16____| Exceptional attribute. Roll a bonus die (1D6) and add the result to the attribute. For every “6” rolled, another bonus die (1D6) is gained.
______17______|____14____| Exceptional attribute. Roll a bonus die (1D6) and add the result to the attribute. For every “6” rolled, another bonus die (1D6) is gained.
______16______|____12____| Exceptional attribute. Roll a bonus die (1D6) and add the result to the attribute. For every “6” rolled, another bonus die (1D6) is gained.
______15______|____10____| Exceptional attribute. Roll a bonus die (1D6) and add the result to the attribute. For every “6” rolled, another bonus die (1D6) is gained.
______14______|_____7____|
______13______|_____6____|
______12______|_____5____|
______11______|_____4____|
______10______|_____3____|
_______9______|_____2____|
_______8______|_____1____|
_______7______|_____0____|
____6 or less___|____N/A___| Player characters are not allowed to have an attribute this low.
The second step is to use the character’s points to “buy” attributes as shown on the above chart. An initial attribute score of 15, 16, 17, or 18 is considered exceptional, just as if that attribute score had been rolled. An exceptional attribute gains a bonus 1D6 added to it; for every “6” rolled, another bonus die (1D6) is gained.
The third step is to continue character generation as normal.
Example of character point buy: Jenny is creating a player character in
Heroes Unlimited™. As a super-heroine, she has 40 points to buy her attributes. Jenny wants to have a character who is both super-smart and super-sexy, figuring that she can build up her physical traits by choosing the appropriate skills later. She chooses an I.Q. of 16 (12 points), an M.E. of 10 (3 points), an M.A. of 12 (5 points), a P.S. of 7 (0 points), a P.P. of 10 (3 points), a P.E. of 12 (5 points), a P.B. of 16 (12 points), and a Spd of 7 (0 points). Jenny’s character’s scores of 16 in both I.Q. and P.B. gain bonus dice. Jenny rolls a “6” for her I.Q., raising it to 22 and gaining another bonus die. Jenny rolls again, getting a “4”, yielding a final I.Q. of 26! Jenny rolls the bonus die for her P.B. and gets a “1”. Her final P.B. is 17. Jenny determines her character class and writes down the base S.D.C., fully intending to improve her physique and S.D.C. total with Boxing, Gymnastics, and Wrestling.
Example of character point buy: The Game Master is creating a gang of New York street thugs in
Heroes Unlimited™. He checks the Attribute Points per Character chart and decides that these thugs are Low power: each has 22 points with which to buy attributes. The GM allocates the points as follows: I.Q. 9 (2 points), M.E. 7 (0 points), M.A. 7 (0 points), P.S. 12 (5 points), P.P. 10 (3 points), P.E. 11 (4 points), P.B. 8 (1 point), and Spd 12 (5 points). Each of the thugs starts out with 5 S.D.C. Their physical attributes and S.D.C. will increase with secondary physical skills such as Athletics (General), Running, and Weightlifting/Body Building.
Attribute Points Per CharacterPower Level_|_Attribute Points_|_Base S.D.C.
__Miserable__|_______16_______|_Equal to one-quarter the character’s Size Level, fractions rounded down (2 for human-sized characters)
Description: Victim/addict. Extreme poverty, absence of education, squalid living standards, and near-famine conditions prevented this person from reaching his or her full potential. Alternatively, the person grew up better off, but due to long-term adversity, has physically and mentally deteriorated to this level.Typical of Third World refugees and developed nations’ long-term drug addicts and Skid Row winos.
__Low______|________22_______|_Equal to one half the character’s Size Level, fractions rounded down (5 for human-sized characters)
Description: Disadvantaged/unmotivated. Poverty, minimal education, poor living standards, and poor nutrition prevented this person from reaching his or her full potential. Alternatively, the person grew up better off, but wandered through life without goals or responsibilities – just partying, watching T.V., and surfing the Internet. Typical of poor people and spoiled adult children worldwide. The average gang member, Third World gunman, couch potato, pot-head, slum dweller, playboy, party girl, and adult son in Mom’s basement would be in this category.
__Medium___|________28_______|_Equal to the character’s Size Level (10 for human-sized characters)
Description: Normal person. Steady and stable family income guaranteed access to primary and secondary education, decent living conditions, and adequate food, allowing this person to develop to normal human potential.
Typical of average people in developed countries, or upper-middle class people in poor countries. The average white-collar criminal, mafia thug, military member, and police officer would be in this category.
__High______|________34_______|_Equal to 1.5 times the character’s Size Level, fractions rounded up (15 for human-sized characters)
Description: Advantaged/motivated. Above-average family income or unusual parental dedication secured access to better schools, a higher standard of living, and optimal nutrition. Additionally, this person’s family and/or social environment motivated him or her to excel. Typical of highly ambitious people and those whose parents have strong family values and work ethic, especially in societies where upward social mobility is possible. Most entrepreneurs, sports stars, career members of top-notch military and police units, leading members of revolutionary movements and governments, and highly-driven career-minded people would be in this category.
__Heroic____|________40_______|_Super-hero/super-villain: As per character class. Other NPC: Equal to twice the character’s Size Level (20 for human-sized characters)
Description: Elite. A mutagenic agent, an alien ancestry, or a lifetime of unusual circumstances allowed (or perhaps drove) this person to develop, physically and mentally, far above the human norm. This represents the top 0.1% of people in modern, wealthy societies and the top 0.01% of people in developing nations. Typical of people who spent ten or more years in a highly-demanding training and education program, such as long-service members of world-class special police or military units or martial artists who were raised from infancy by Shaolin monks. Super-heroes and super-villains are in this category, as are Olympic athletes, Spartan warriors, heads of state (usually), renowned subject matter experts, Special Forces senior NCOs and field-grade officers, etc.