Characters and NPC creation questions

[brunop]

Having tried the Chain Reaction 2018 demo rules, I had quit a lot of fun and decided to buy 5150 New Beginnings.

I am trying to learn how to play and I have many questions:


There seems to be 4 different ways to create characters and here is my understanding of the rules


1- The Characters section (page 5 to page 36):

    a. Explain everything there is to know about characters (stats, race, jobs.. Etc.

    b. Is used to manually generate important characters, like Stars and recurring NPCs.

    c. NOTE: There are 2 pages 27!!!


2- Random but detailed: Who are they section, Page 60 to 64


3- Quick and easy: Tables found in the Encounters section page 74 to 120

    a. However, there are no "Who are they" table for the Chillin' encounter. The rules tells you either use the section starting of page 60 (fine) or the lists from encounters, starting on page 75.         Am I to understand that I get to choose whatever list I want from this section? If that is the case, then it's not "Quick and Easy" since the tables are scattered throughout the book.

    b. In confrontation, there is a table to determine the Class of the NPCs encountered. But nothing else. It explains how to determine the leader on page 82, and tells you to refer to a table,         but it doesn't tell what table and on which page.


4- In the two pre-made campaigns? 152 to 182 and 182 to 217




Also:
On page 43:

When you use a Who Are They Table with 1 to 7 NPCs on it, once you know How Many Of Them? (page 60), roll 1/2d6. Go to that row. That is the NPC Leader of the group. The rest of the group are the rows below the Leader. I suppose those are the tables found in the Encounters section?




Skills:

Savvy: What is the savvy skill? What does it represent?

The only info about Savvy skill is that it is used when taking a Savvy challenge (page 38, and 239). However, on page 38 there is no mention of Savvy, and on page 239, the table does offer 2 modifiers for a savvy challenge, but the table says taken vs rep. I deduce that I could use the table against any skills, but there seems to be some missing explanations.

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

Jan 22, 2022 12:15:02 GMT brunop said:

Having tried the Chain Reaction 2018 demo rules, I had quit a lot of fun and decided to buy 5150 New Beginnings.

I am trying to learn how to play and I have many questions:


There seems to be 4 different ways to create characters and here is my understanding of the rules

Here goes.


1- The Characters section (page 5 to page 36):

    a. Explain everything there is to know about characters (stats, race, jobs.. Etc.

    b. Is used to manually generate important characters, like Stars and recurring NPCs.
Yes, for your Star or if you want to create NPCs in detail.

    c. NOTE: There are 2 pages 27!!! Yikes.


2- Random but detailed: Who are they section, Page 60 to 64


3- Quick and easy: Tables found in the Encounters section page 74 to 120

    a. However, there are no "Who are they" table for the Chillin' encounter. The rules tells you either use the section starting of page 60 (fine) or the lists from encounters, starting on page 75.         Am I to understand that I get to choose whatever list I want from this section? If that is the case, then it's not "Quick and Easy" since the tables are scattered throughout the book. As you saw the first way to create a Character is detailed. Using the lists found on pages 60 etc. is quick and easy. 

    b. In confrontation, there is a table to determine the Class of the NPCs encountered. But nothing else. It explains how to determine the leader on page 82, and tells you to refer to a table,         but it doesn't tell what table and on which page. Back to the tables on page 60. If you want pre-made NPCs then you need to play the pre-generated Encounters. Thsi seciton is for building your own.


4- In the two pre-made campaigns? 152 to 182 and 182 to 217. These are pre-made Encounters. Here's the difference. If you are building your own Encounters use the NPCs (page 60). If you are playing pre-made Encounters use the ones listed.  




Also:
On page 43:

When you use a Who Are They Table with 1 to 7 NPCs on it, once you know How Many Of Them? (page 60), roll 1/2d6. Go to that row. That is the NPC Leader of the group. The rest of the group are the rows below the Leader. I suppose those are the tables found in the Encounters section? Yes, use these when you want to build your own Encounters  



Skills:

Savvy: What is the savvy skill? What does it represent? Intelligence, used for Mental Challenges (page 41 Hacking is an example). Physical? Rep. Interacting with others? People. Mental challenge? Savvy

The only info about Savvy skill is that it is used when taking a Savvy challenge (page 38, and 239). However, on page 38 there is no mention of Savvy, and on page 239, the table does offer 2 modifiers for a savvy challenge, but the table says taken vs rep. I deduce that I could use the table against any skills, but there seems to be some missing explanations. Page 21 tells you to use Savvy for Savvy Challenges - Mental ones. Could have been clearer. Hacking shows Savvy Skill being used as well.

Hope this helps.

[brunop]

Another question: I am trying to do some encounters and here is a paragraph from the encounter section:


WHO’S THE LEADER OF THE NPCS?

Roll 1/2d6. Go to that row. That is the NPC Leader of

the group. The rest of the group are the rows below the

Leader.

According to your previous answer, we need to generate the NPC from the section starting page on page 60. But this paragraph tells you to do something that doesn't work with the tables found in that section. 

It seems to refer to tables found in pre-generated encounters. Am I right?

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

If you choose to use the tables (I do it this way), use the procedure listed. If you want to create your own NPCs use the previous on page 60. Some gamers prefer to do it that way. You have the option to do either. Hope this helps.