Building Your Characters

Character Levels

We are starting this campaign at level 1. We will be tracking experience to go up levels. Experience will be awarded at the end of every game session. Leveling your character needs to happen between sessions.

Character Notes

It is expected that you will build your characters in a clear manner. You should have notes that indicate where ability score increases are coming from, which abilities you are choosing etc. Anyone looking at your character sheet should be able to see where all your numbers came from.

Character Sheets

We will be using Kiln for the character sheets. You can use this template to get your character started. You may modify this character sheet to suit your needs and orgnizational preferences. However, the items on the template need to be on your character sheet somewhere. Once you have created your character in Kiln, you will need to share it with me so that I can see your character sheet. Every time you level up your character sheet, I will need you to reshare the link for it.

Hero Forge

Please go to Hero Forge and create your character. Once you have created your character, you will need to share it with me. This will be used to create your character's page on World Anvil and tokens for Roll20.

Standard Array Ability Scores

16,15,14,13,12,11,10,8

This is to ensure that everyone has a balanced character while allowing you to choose where those numbers fall. The ability scores that will be used during this campaign are as follows: Streangth, Dexterity, Constitution, Vigor, Intelligence, Wisdom, Sanity and Charisma.

Sanity Saving Throw

You may choose to replace having a proficiency in the sanity saving throw with one of your other saving throws.

Age

You must play an adult character. This means that your character needs to be 18 or older. There are no exceptions to this rule. This campaign will have horror themes and as such becomes much more complex to run if the characters within that game are also children. At its core, I do not want to add the element of children into a horror setting.

Races

You can choose any of the races in the Ultra Modern 5 book other then the aliens which do not exist in this world setting. Be sure to read the related article to each race so that you are aware of how they fit into the world setting.

Altered

We are starting a level 1, thus you will not be able to take a level adjustment to gain additional mutations. However, if your character dies during the campaign and you choose this race for your next character, this would be an option.

Animyst

We are starting at level 1, thus you will not be able to take a level adjustment to become a large creature. However, if your character dies during the campaign and you choose this race for your next character, this would be an option.

Automaton

We are starting at level 1, thus you will not be able to take a level adjustment to become a large creature. However, if your character dies during the campaign and you choose this race for your next character, this would be an option.

Human

You can only select one short coming and thus can only have a maxium of three genetic bonuses. Both the shortcoming and the benefits can be chosen.

Morpher

We are starting at level 1, thus you will not be able to take a level adjustment to become a large creature or to gain additional transformations. However, if your character dies during the campaign and you choose this race for your next character, this would be an option.

Origin

These items can be rolled for or chosen. Any applicable NPCs can be cooperatively created between the player and myself.

Life Events

You will get 5 Life Episodes. You must select or roll for one of each category. You can decide what order these events happen in your character's backstory. Any applicable NPCs can be cooperatively created between the player and myself.

Bonds

Each player character is required to have a connection to at least one other player character in the group that would explain why the two of you know each other and would be working together. Your characters can be bonded to as many other player characters as you like, but you must have at least one bond. These bonds can be part of your Life Events. Meaning that you can use another player character to fulfill a Life Event rather then generating an NPC if another character is required for that Life Event. That being said, player characters cannot be enemies.

Backgrounds

All the Backgrounds in the Ultra Mondern 5 book are available choices. This includes those listed under the Magic section of the book. Additionally, depending on the backstory of your character, you may choose the background within a faction. Your character must meet the criteria for that background in order to select it. Such requirements might be that your character was born within the camp that faction functions within.

Ladders

All the Ladders in the Ultra Mondern 5 book are available choices. This includes those listed under the Magic section of the book. Remember that even if you do not take your Ladder benefits while leveling your character because you choose a feat instead, you need to select a Ladder as every character gains Ladder benefits at level 1.

Feats

All the feats in the Ultra Modern 5 book are available to choose from. Those within the core D&D 5e rule set are limited. You cannot select any that have a racial requirement as those races do not exist in this setting. Any feat that gives you the ability to select additional spells cannot be selected as we are not using the magic system that those feats are based upon. Any feat that has a Prerequisite that has been banned is also banned. If you are selecting a D&D 5e rule set feat you will need to have it approved by me before adding it to your character. If I get ambitious I will create a list of the approved Feats, but that's a lower priority item on the "to do" list.

Classes

All the Classes in the Ultra Modern 5 book are available choices. This includes those listed under the Magic section of the book.

Archetypes

All the Archetypes in the Ultra Modern 5 book are available choices. This includes those listed under the Magic section of the book.

Gear

Tech Level 5

Does not exist in this world and is not available to you. During the campaign you will be able to make these items as magic items, but they are not available for character creation.

Tech Level 4

In general, Tech Level 4 gear is not available to you at character creation as these are harder to come by items. Exceptions can be made for some Life Events and will be dealt with on a case by case basis during character creation.

Tech Level 3

These items are harder to come by, but not as rare as tech level 4 items. Each player character can start with one TL3 item of any category. Additional tech level 3 gear can be gained through some Life Events and will be dealt with on a case by case basis during character creation.

Tech Level 0-2

These items are fairly common and are available to you at character creation.

Mecha

They do not exist in this world and are not available.

Tools

In addition to any tools that you receive from your background, you may choose one of the tools, gaming sets or instruments from the Player's Handbook.

Alignment

You can assign your character an alignment if that helps you roleplay them. However, it is not a mechanic that will be used as a rule set in this game. Instead, the expectation is that you are roleplaying your character based upon what you have in your character's history and that your remain consistent with that.

Languages

You can select any real world language for your character languages. The "common" of this world is English.

Credits

The currency in this setting will be called credits. When looking at money and pricing a credit is equal to the dollar which is equal to a gold.