RBF: Character Generation

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Character creation is quick and fun. If you want to use a pregenerated character, click here.

Otherwise, get excited to create your very own Ranger! To begin, grab a piece of blank paper, or a spreadsheet or .txt file, and follow these steps.

1. Meet up!

Discuss the game's theme: The setting, party goal, and character limitations with your game group. Here's a summary:
- In RBF, each fresh character is a newly recruited Alliance Ranger.
  - The Alliance is a democratic federation of diverse and distant star systems in an isolated galactic sector, menaced by threats from within and without.
  - As an Alliance Ranger you'll be sent on missions to defend democracy, rescue the innocent, defeat tyrants and insurrectionists, stop criminals, and recover lost treasures.
  - Your mentors and commissioner are kind and earnest, but your department is underfunded, your squad is inexperienced, and dark forces are working to sabotage you.
- Expectations for your Character:
Therefore, good starting characters include the following:

A youngest child of a wealthy household, known for their charm and hacking skills, rebelling against their privilege by volunteering to help the oppressed.
A former corporate security guard, good with shooting and computers, who wanted to serve the cause of democracy itself rather than just defend shareholder value.
A fledgling psychic prodigy, skilled at manipulating time and thoughts, from an oppressive mining world who volunteered for the rangers because their poor family could not afford a psychic academy.
A former hive city gang member known for their artistry with a blade and their teleportation ability, who had a change of heart and wanted to do good deeds.
A former pirate crew pilot with a talent for thievery who figured working for the Alliance would give them a better shot at glory than shooting truckers and stealing fuel.
A mild-mannered Industrial Safety and Health Inspector with excellent engineering and perception skills, who was transferred here as punishment for inspecting something he should not.

2. Species

Species in the Blue Flame sector are quite diverse. Humans are sprinkled everywhere among the firey Cinterians, the ambitious Grai, the innocent Lapin, the heedless Ying, the elegant Aldar and countless other alien races without limit.
Your selection of species does not in itself grant any special powers or bonuses aside from knowledge of your culture and a certain size. It is only to orient yourself in the game's galaxy. If you are unsure, pick Human.
Races with special powers must earn those special powers by spending talents in step 5. For example:
If you want to be an aquatic, flying, digging, or machine creature, get GM approval and take the "Aquatic/Avian/Earthen/Robotic Origin" talents respectively.
Talk with the other players about how your character relates to their species, their culture, and to the others players.

3. Paths

All RBF characters have core competencies in one or more of three areas, marking you as destined for adventure. Each path can be thought of as one half of a character class.
In a standard game, you start with 2 of the below paths. This means you can take two different basic paths or the basic and advanced level of the same path.
Later on, additional paths can be purchased with the "New Path" talent for 20 XP. Alternative game modes may start players with 0, 1 or 3 paths instead of 2.

Professional heroes, whether crafty engineers, daring archaeologists, dashing rogues or dazzling performers, have broader and stronger professional skills than other adventurers, adaptable in a wide variety of situations. Advanced professionals are highly reliable with one skill and can call upon their determination and focus in any situation to ensure they get what they need, while Master professionals are adept with more skills and learn quickly.

Path skills: All Professional and Social Skills

Professional Path	Features
Core Professional	You can always choose to roll any professional skill with 4d4 + skill. Expertise: You get 1 extra Professional Talent of Expert level. Your professional expert talents only require skill 1 instead of the usual 3. Jack of all Trades: You take no penalties for being untrained in any non-arcane skill.
Advanced Professional	Choose one professional skill: You can always roll this skill with 3d6 + skill. Determination: If you roll a normal fail with any professional skill, you and your character can perceive and choose at least one other option to partially succeed at a cost or complication. Focus: Once per scene, you can roll any professional skill with +1 additional advantage die. You can activate this ability before or after the roll.
Master Professional	Choose a second professional skill, you can roll it with 3d6 + skill. Talented: Receive a 1-point discount on the cost of all talents for which you qualify. Open Mind: Each time the GM awards skill points or other advancements to the party, you get +1 extra XP.

Fighter heroes are remarkable for their confident accuracy with attacks and their ability to use creative tactics on any strike. Advanced fighters gain surpassing skill in certain weapons and can shrug off significant amounts of physical harm even outside of battle, and master fighters are able to react quickly and escape certain death.

Path skills: Combat and Defense Skills

Fighter Path	Features
Core Fighter	Dangerous: When you roll a basic miss with Melee or Brawl, you deal half damage to your enemy instead of none. Shots still miss. Warrior: Each time you hit with a combat skill, apply one feasible technique, 1-turn condition, or minor effect, at no action cost. Armsmaster: You gain the option to roll 4d4+skill for any combat or defense skill.
Advanced Fighter	Combat Focus: Choose one combat skill you posess. You can always roll 3d6+skill for this skill. Resolute Technique: Once per combat, guarantee a basic hit by you or a basic miss against you or an ally adjacent to you, before or after rolling. Veteran: +5 to your maximum health points.
Master Fighter	Nine Lives: Once per session, guarantee a critical success on a defense roll, before or after rolling. Reactive: You get +1 maximum reaction per combat round. Battle Scarred: Take an additional +5 to your maximum health points.

Having practiced strange arts under stringent masters for many long seasons, those with the gift of psychic ability gain access to powerful yet unpredictable arcane arts, and the special Energy resource to spend on them. Advanced mages know multiple schools of arcana while master mages can draw upon myriad channels of power. Unlike fighters and professionals, however, success in casting remains risky even with high skill.

Path skills: All Arcane Skills

Mage Path	Features
Core Mage	Gain access to one arcane skill you choose. You can learn and advance this one arcane skill, but not yet others. You gain current and maximum energy points equal to 5 + Meditation.
Advanced Mage	You can now learn and advance up to three different arcane skills. Add all of your Arcane skill levels to your maximum energy points.
Master Mage	You can now learn and advance up to five different arcane skills. Floor your skill at level 1 in those five skills now. You are permitted to train all arcane skills up to level 7, using otherwise normal rules. +1 to your spell critical success chance.

4. Skills and Talents

In a standard game of RBF, after taking their starting 2 Paths, your character adds 2 Talents and 8 more skills with the following levels: (3,3,2,2,1,1,1,1).

Choose eight skills and two starting Talents in any order.
Set two Skills to level 3, two to level 2 and four to learn at level 1. [3,3,2,2,1,1,1,1].
- Each of your best (level 3) starting skills must be in the categories of your Paths.
- For example, if you start with the Core Mage Path and the Core Professional path, then your level 3 skills must be one arcane and one professional skill.
- The other skills can be in any category permitted. Note that only Advanced Mages can take more than one arcane skill.
Then, take 2 talents from the Talents list for which you qualify.
- One of your 2 talents must be in the categories of your Paths.
- For example, if you start with the Core Fighter Path and Core Professional path, then one of your talents must be a combat, defensive or professional talent.

5. Health and Energy

Assign your health points [HP].

The character's health points determine how much physical abuse they can endure before being taking a serious wound.
Base HP is equal to 10 + Resilience + Athletics + Combat skills. Paths, Talents and other features may add more.
Health regenerates at a base rate of (1 + Resilience skill) per 4 hours of good comfortable rest and healthy food--but, if players are exhausted, diseased, poisoned or wounded, they must recover from that first before recovering HP.
You cannot recover any health or conditions if you are resting in poor conditions (GM's discretion).

Assign your Energy Points [EP].

Only characters with Mage paths (or the Meditation Expert talent) get energy points.
The character's maximum Energy Points are typically this is equal to 5 + Meditation Skill, plus other bonuses.
For example, an Advanced Mage with level 3 in Cryomancy and 4 in Metaphysics has 5 + (3 + 4) = 12 maximum Energy Points.
If you spend your energy points, you recharge them at a base rate of 1 + [Meditation Skill] per 4 hours of rest.

6. Movement & Inventory

Assign your Movement, equal to 3 + your single highest skill of (Melee or Brawl or Athletics). The character's movement represents how many spaces or meters you can move with one Action in combat.
If needed, your maximum inventory is 6 items + 2 * Athletics skill. It applies to all items worn, held, or carried in packs or pockets. Especially large items, such as a large vehicle power cell or a barrel of whiskey, must be held in 2 hands.

7. Items and Money

Each character starts with $300 in their bank account, no exceptions. Wealthy young people may have more in a trust account that is inaccessible but managed on their behalf.
The GM will assign your character some starting equipment, based on your background and top skills.
- A former starship engineer might start with a set of power tools and a box of spare parts.
- A safety inspector might start with tools for detecting faults, pests, radiation and gas leaks.
- A former private detective might start with a revolver, kevlar vest and forensic kit.
- A former assassin might start with a fine blade and a single-use invisibility mutagen.
- A former space marine might start with an auto-rifle and ceramic plate armor.
- A musician might start with instruments, plus portable microphone and loudspeaker.

8. The Fellowship

Agree with the other players on why your character is committing wholeheartedly to join the Alliance Rangers and entrust their life to these specific friends on an Adventure of Cosmic Peril.
That's it! At this point, you can set out to join your party for their adventure!

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Character Advancement

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After they are created, player characters (PCs) in RBF can grow in skills and talents as they gain experience, but they remain free to keep or change their motivations, flaws, goals and personality as fits the fun of the story.

When RBF characters complete one specific mission objective in the adventure, they acquire 1 experience point (XP), which can be saved or spent on skill and talent improvements, as described below.

This helps ensure that players always have a good reason to seize the moment and get into trouble in the game's story.

Examples of how to acquire experience points:

If players are an elite squad charged with rescuing hostages from terrorists over a 5-session mission, then when the action is complete, the GM might award them 1 XP for each hostage rescued.
If players are archaeologists on a mission to locate traces of ancient civilizations from uncharted space, the GM might award them 1 point for each alien artifact recovered.
If players are refugees fleeing an apocalypse, the GM might award them 1 point each time they find a new vehicle, food source, fuel cache, or ally.

Note there is no need for advancement in this game. However, if you do use advancement, keep the following in mind:

A character who maximizes their main combat & defense skill and talents will become akin to a city-level super-hero (able to fight six TN12 thugs single handed) after about 25 xp post-character creation.

How to spend experience points (XP):

Burning XP: At any time, a player may spend or "burn" 1 XP to reroll 1 skill check, or add +1 to a check. They must declare to the table when they are doing this.

Skill upgrades and new talents may be purchased with XP at any time. However:

The player must declare to the group their intent to spend XP on a skill or talent, when they intend to do so.
The player must give a reasonable an in-game explanation for the increase in the character's abilities.
If the GM asks, and the player can't coherently explain how their stone-age hunter gained computer programming skills in a steaming jungle, or how their bookish scientist learned kung-fu during a bus ride, then it cannot happen, and the player must choose another upgrade or save the points for later.
Once approved, the player must tell the group about how they advanced, and note the advancement spending on their character sheet or log.

Talent Advancement:

To acquire a talent, after meeting requirements, declaration and approval, a player simply spends 5 XP and then selects the desired talent from the talent list. Note that each talent may have its own special requirements.

For example, before taking the "Sword Elite" talent, the player must have at least the "Sword Expert" talent.

Statistic Advancement:

Health points, Energy Points and movement increase immediately after you increase the skills and talents that feed into them.
If a new feature would increases your health or energy points, increase your current and maximum points by that amount.
For example, if you have Melee skill 3 and acquired the Melee Elite talent, your current and maximum health points would increase by +3.

Skill Advancement:

You can improve skills by spending accumulated experience points. Note:

The maximum level for any skill is 6 - this is the limit of mortal ability.
In order to advance one arcane skill, the player character must take the Core Mage path. To advance two or more, the Advanced Mage path is required.

Skill advancement costs are as follows:

New Skill Level	XP Cost to Advance by 1 Level to this Level	XP Cost TOTAL for this level	Description
Untrained	0	0	Unfamiliar, you have a -2 penalty with this skill
1	1	1	Basic training. You can do the simplest type of work while calm, but mistakes are very likely when pressured, and advanced projects are out of the question.
2	2	3	Employable worker. You can perform the basic tasks with time, but advanced techniques are beyond your grasp and risky situations are dangerous.
3	3	6	Standard professional. You are usually cool under pressure for basic tasks, and can attempt advanced techniques while calm.
4	4	10	An expert that others rely upon. You usually succeed on advanced risky challenges (TN 12).
5	5	15	Elite skill. You have a slightly above-average chance on difficult challenges (TN 14) and anything below that is usually easy for you.
6	6	21	Maximum mortal potential. You have a clear advantage (67%) on difficult risks (TN 14) and can attempt great works while unbothered.