SHADOWS ANGELUS III

Starting Points

Player characters are built with 100 points. You may gain an additional 100 points by taking disadvantages. No more than 50 points of disadvantages may come from any one category. Each character will have up to 50 points of disadvantages due to the effects of the XSWAT package deal, more on this later. You are always allowed to take more than 100 total points of Disadvantages but you only get points for the first 100 points. You can add a custom adder (in this case a negative value) to bring down the normal value of a particular Disadvantage if you need to.

Character’s who enter the game later in the campaign will get bonus building points equal the average EP of all existing characters divided by two or equal to lowest EP total minus 5, whichever is less.

Starting Character Ability Limits

The Normal Characteristic Maxima disadvantage is applicable to this game and it is worth 20 points. Aside from Cyborgs and Clades most characters can probably use this as a convenient way to gain disadvantage points. Of course you are not required to take it and may have ideas for disadvantages that better fit your character concept. If you choose to play a non-Clave or non-Cyborg and decide to get your disadvantage points elsewhere; it is probably be a good idea to voluntarily follow the Normal Characteristic Maxima.

Below are listed a set of maximas that all starting player-characters must follow. However please note that it is possible to be granted certain exceptions to the limits below if it is deemed appropriate and within character rational by the GM. You must have express GM permission to exceed any of the following limits.

OCV: No starting character can generate an OCV of greater than 9. This includes the bonuses generated by skill levels but not combat maneuvers. This does not include equipment bonuses.

DCV: A starting character’s maximum DCV cannot exceed 11. This includes the bonuses generated by skill levels, but not those generated by combat maneuvers or equipment bonuses. (Equipment that grants bonuses to DCV is rare).

Characteristics: Character can start the game with no more than 75 points spend on their characteristics. Although Cyborg characters have a way around this since they can buy increased attributes as powers. In addition a clade character can spend up to 85 points on starting characteristics to reflect the effects of genetic engineering. It may be possible to buy up characteristics with XP later, subject to GM approval. Points spent on the COM characteristic do not count toward this limit.

The Dexterity Rebate: In an effort to discourage people from going Dexterity crazy at the onset of the game and to encourage those whose strengths ought to lie elsewhere I present the Dexterity rebate. It works like this: for each point below 20 your character’s starting Dexterity score is you gain some bonus XP which can be used to improve the other abilities of your character. See the chart below to see how this works.

There is no rebate for having a starting Dexterity score of 20 or more and no added benefit for having a dexterity score below 14. (It is not very likely that someone who completes XSWAT academy would be below dexterity 14 anyway.) Note, that the concept for this house rule was originally put forth by Randy Madden.

Damage Classes for Attacks: No starting character can generate more than 10 DCs with an attack. The 10 DC can be exceeded in melee by using the move through maneuver and any attack can exceed 10 DC through pushing.

Active Point Limits: No power can exceed 75 Active Points. This does mean that a 10 DC attack can have up to a +½ Advantage applied to it as long as the attack does not exceed 10 DC. See page 404 of the HERO System 5^th Edition Revised to how advantages can count as increasing the DC of an attack. To make this concept more clear the list on the following page indicates which advantages increase the effective DC and attack and which do not in this campaign. Since starting characters will be in the 200 to 210 point range I will be very surprised if many players try to afford an attack this expensive. I look upon it as something to strive for with XP.

Defenses: Standard defenses are allowed to be up to 20 PD & 20 ED, thought unless you are a wizard with a defensive spell, an Esper with a telekinetic force wall, a cyborg with dermal armor, or some other exotic excuse it may be difficult to rationalize such a high defense. Expect the GM to very interested in the how’s and why’s of your characters defenses. Combat Luck can be bought at the normal 3PD/3ED level. Your issued XSWAT armored uniform is pretty substantial.

Equipment Allowance: In keeping with the nature of this game we will not be using Resource Pools, instead as XSWAT personnel the characters will have access to a wide variety of XSWAT issued equipment. There will be a standard load out of gear issued to officers for use during their patrols and missions and additional equipment may be requested. Requests for non-standard gear will be handles in-game through role-play and the will of the GM.

Everyman Skills

XSWAT Package Deal

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