An example of how to build a character using the ISWAT templates:
1) I'm going to build a suave swashbuckler. He's a combat character, but he'll really excel at moving around, and have good social skills. ISWAT uses him for his ability to be blunt and stir things up without revealing the secrete, and for his ability to make daring escapes afterwards. We'll call the guy Linus von Yorben.
2) TL: Age of Sail, Background: Enabled, Role: Stealth Expert
You may be wondering why on earth his role is stealth expert. The reason is that 'Stealth' covers all sorts of movement, and von Yorben's signature is the daring escape. He's enabled and not a noble because he he doesn't manage his own land -- he was born as part of a ruling class that hired others to do that for him. He is much more interested in knowing where a bottle of wine was grown than how his own vinyard is doing.
3) Major Descriptors: Weapon Master, Likeable +1
Yorben is charming, and he's a good fighter.
4) Assign everything we've built so far:
General Person:
Current Affairs IQ+2- high culture
Hobbies - Dancing DX+1
Travel - Riding DX+1
Adventurer:
Social
Fast Talk IQ+1
Sex Appeal HT (double)
Savior Faire IQ+1 (double)
Carousing HT+1
Movement:
Acrobatics DX
Climbing DX +1
Jumping DX +1
Combat:
Wrestling DX+1
Brawling DX+1
Pistol DX+1 (doubled)
Fast draw (sword) DX+1 (doubled)
Extra:
+1 to all social
Heroic (-1.5):
Charitable (-1.5)
Enabled:
Conisuer (food and drink) IQ+2
Public Speaking IQ+1
Saviore Faire (high culture) IQ+2
Decision:
Overconfident (.5)
Stealth Expert
Thief (*2)
Stealth DX+2 (*2)
Forced Entry ST+1
Shadowing IQ+1
Observation per+1
Escape DX+1
Movement(*3)
+2 to all
Acrobatics +1
Running DX+1
Swimming HT+1
Driving
Riding (horse) +2 (*2)
Driving (carriage) DX+1
Decision Making(-1.5)
Impulsive (-1)
Over confident (-.5)
Character (-.5)
Chummy (-.5)
Weapon Master
Fencing Sword DX+5 (*5)
Knife DX+1 (doubled)
Spear DX (doubled)
Likeable +1
Charisma +2 (1)
Appearance +2 (1)
5) take stock of what we have so far:
His ST is still 10, which is low for a warrior, and he's missing some of the core warrior functionality. He's got 10 points in DX skill sets. His weapon skill is currently 16, which will probably go up when the skills are collapsed. He only has 2 points in Social skills, but he also has 2 points in likeable (really 2.5 if you count the status from enabled). Acrobatics is at 14, as are most of the rest of his movement skills. Best of all, we have a solid frame to build the rest of him on-- we can now go wild on adding bonuses.
We should also note what we have spent so far: -.5 (normal) +3 (adventure) + 1 (background) -2 (tech level) + 6 (stealth man) + 4 (weapon master) + 2 (likeable + 1) = 13.5. We have 6.5 points left to enhance this character. The 13.5 can be thought of as the 'entry cost' for the character. Its as few points as you would spend for a functional version of the character -- you can of course keep adding points!
6) 6.5 points to extend Linus. We go back and look at his strengths and weaknesses.
He's literally a little weak, So we add Big and Strong +.5. There is some debate whether to add to a specific area (notably striking strength, which increases our damage) at the expense of others, but we do want him to be a little stronger than average. So we split the points:
+1 ST (1)
+1 Striking ST (.5)
He needs some beefing up on the social level if he's to be the most effective trouble maker possible. We'll spend 2 points on increasing his social abilities. He could use a little more subterfuge, so we add criminal as well as a level of social:
+ 1 to all Social Skills
Hold Out IQ+1
Intimidation will+1
Psychology(human) IQ-1 (doubled)
Smuggling IQ (doubled)
With 2 points left, its hard to know where to put things. He could place them in graceful, to boost movement and perhaps appearance (at this point, women would swoon over him -- but thats a good thing, right?) There is also a lot of room to diversify him. But we are actually lacking something: destiny! no good swashbuckler can pull off his daring feats without some luck at his back!
dare-devil (1.5)
1 destiny point (.5)
And now we remember that Oops! we need to give him more combat prowess. In particular he lacks combat reflexes, and he probably ought to have fast draw for his sword. Of course, we are out of points. We look for negative traits to add: he's already impulsive and charitable, so there isn't too much room in heroic or decision making -- perhaps a -.5. Physical weakness and socially awkward certainly don't fit the concept. Appetites -- that looks promising. We ask the GM if adding a few more negative traits is valid (he thinks its an acceptable addition). We pick up (-2) in traits and buy the battle hardened +1 descriptor.
negative traits (-2)
Lecherous (-1.5)
Sense of Duty (companions) (-.5)
Battle Hardened +1 (2)
Combat Reflexes (1.5)
+.25 speed
7) Collapse skill bonuses.
Ok, lets go back over our general skill bonuses and see what we have:
Social +2 (IQ)
Movement +2 (DX)
Nothing to collapse here (it takes two DIFFERENT bonuses). Lets count up the different skills we broke up to spend on points:
We have 10 full IQ (per and will count) skills and 3 halved IQ skills, as well as 2 full bonuses, both social. To use either of the bonuses requires us to use skills that are NOT social. Luckily, we have just enough skills to make it work. the half skills are social, so we don't really have any options on how to arrange the skills. It should be noted this 'collapse' didn't actually change any skills. What it did do was raise RAW IQ, will, and Per -- which are very useful things to have.
We have 10 full DX skills, 4 doubled DX skills, 2 skill taken twice (acrobatics, riding), one taken five times (fencing sword), and 2 DX bonuses. This brings our 'virtual total' to 24. We can raise DX 4 times. Its worth considering if we want to loose both of the talents though: movement is not a pure DX skill bonus. It may be worth keeping the talent so that our hero can make long distance escapes. We decide to not use the talents. That leaves us with 18 points, which we use to the fullest extend possible.
We have 1 HT skill and one halved HT skill -- not enough to raise anything
8) Write it all down:
Linus von Yorban
ST 11 HP 11 move 6
DX 14 will 12 speed 6
IQ 12 per 12 dodge 10
HT 10 FP 10
+2 to all movement skills
Weapon Master
+1 striking ST
+.25 Speed
Combat reflexes
Status +1
Appearance +1/+3
Charmisma +2
Lecherous
Sense of Duty (companions)
Charitable
Gluttony
Impulsive
Chummy
Acrobatics DX+2 -16
Climbing DX+2 -16
Jumping DX+2 -16
Running DX+2 -16
Swimming HT+2 -13
Riding DX+2 -16
Driving DX -14
Forced Entry ST+1 -12
Fencing Sword DX+4 -18
Spear DX-1 -13
Knife DX -14
Pistol DX -14
Brawling DX -14
Wrestiling DX -14
Fast Draw(sword) DX+1 -15
Fast Talk IQ+1 -13
Sex Appeal HT -10
Savior Faire (high culture) IQ+1 -13
Carousing HT+1 -11
Intimidation will +1 -13
Shadowing IQ -12
Observation per -12
Hold Out IQ -12
Psychology(human) IQ-2 -10
Smuggling IQ-1 -11
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