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Welcome to the Express version of the DJB Character Sheet Guide! As the title implies, this guide is designed to give a streamlined, barebones look at the way the new Character Sheets work and will hopefully make you feel more comfortable in this new system.
The new Character Sheets are based on the FATE roleplaying system. While the FATE system is designed for tabletop, it focuses heavily on the act of telling a compelling story through interesting, unique characters. A lot of these elements have been taken and used in constructing an entirely new type of system, specifically designed for the Dark Jedi Brotherhood’s various writing activities.
This guide aims to help members both new and old get acquainted with this new system. So, let’s get to it!
Creating Your Character
After logging in on the main DJB site, head over to your administration panel and click on the “Character Sheet Administration” link. From here you can manage existing sheets. Since this is your first one, however, click the big green button that says “Create Character Sheet From Scratch”.
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After a few moments, a new window will open up in your current one. Welcome, to the Character Sheet Construction Tool!
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Coded from the ground up by Seneschal James Entar for use with the new Character Sheets, this tool is what you’ll use to create your first character sheet. From here, the construction tool will walk you through creating your new character sheet. The tool has several different sections, allowing you to define the following things about your character:
Personal Details
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Species
Select your species from the DB-approved list, write a physical description for your character, define their handedness, height, weight, and preferred weapons.
Each Species comes with it’s own unique perk and flaw. These perks and flaws are mostly based on each races unique anatomies and varying cultures.
Please refer to the CS System Reference Document (Currently in a spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aq-R4zFWKm1AdDZkdnUyQmVwbzl3a1B3Zi16eUZFWmc#gid=6 for approved species. The CS Team targeted the most popular races for launch, covering a broad spectrum of unique races. If you do not see the race you wish to play on the list in the Wizard, please send a proposal to the Voice staff demonstrating your understanding of the race you wish to get approved. This means giving a list of possible perks and flaws, and how they would balance out with the Character Sheets based on anatomy and culture.
Height/Weight
Members in the Brotherhood span across the globe. As such, both the metric and imperial measurement systems are used. You may use Feet or Meters for height, but should also include the conversions for better immersion with your peers.
Example:
6ft / 1.82m or 1.82m/6ft
185lbs / 83.9kg or 83.9kg / 185lbs
Handedness
Handedness is where you list which hand your character favors. Even if you choose to pursue the “Ambidextrous” skill-tree, your character will still have a chosen primary hand. This is because pure ambidexterity is granted only to the upper-ranked members.
Physical Description
DGM Raken
What does your character look like? This is the basis on which your peers will draw a visual imagine in their own heads as to what your character looks like.
Raken is fairly large and well-built. Standing just under two meters, his frame is laden with heavy musculature. His crimson skin is almost completely covered in the patch-work lattice of scars from his past trials. Raken bears these wounds with pride often forgoing clothing over his torso.
From this, we can easily tell that Raken is tall, and heavily muscled. We also know that he is red, has tattoos and does not bother to wear a shirt (Also known for choking). This translates well into a commission of the Shadow Hand himself seen on the right.
Be as detailed as possible, and focus on painting a clear picture for your character.
{Quick Interlude} Path Breakdown
With the new Character Sheet System, your Path (formerly Order) does actually affect how your skill and force power points are distributed. Initiates start with a base set of 11/11 for Skills/Force Powers. From there, each rank grants an increasing amount of points. Depending on your order, your points will gain a +3/-3 if you follow the path of Krath or Obelisk. Sith gain a passive +0/-0 to their progression. As you reach the higher ranks, the skill modifier becomes less important, and your path becomes more of a spiritual philosophy for your characters demeanor and fighting style.
Obelisk, focusing on the devotion of their martial ability and physical prowess gain +3 to skills, but -3 to Force Powers development points per rank.
Sith, focusing on deception, manipulation, and piloting are well rounded and get an even spread between Skills and Force Powers.
Krath, focusing on their study of the Dark Side, its purpose, and the lore behind it gain a -3 to Skills, but +3 to Force Power development points per rank.
With that in mind, onward we ride!
Disciplines
- Main Article: Disciplines
Select your character’s discipline; In classic RPG terms, this is where you pick something much like a class. Each discipline comes with two unique feats. One Modifies an existing Force Power, the other grants a unique Force Power to the discipline. Your discipline serves as a basis for how you will build your character’s unique personality and your Skill and Force Power sets. Disciplines, in character, relate to the training your character would receive as it advances. This is in contrast to Orders, which are meant to represent more of of the philosophical background to how your character uses and relates to the Force.
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Aspects
- Main Article: Aspects
Choose your aspects; An aspect is a word, phrase, or sentence that describes something centrally important to your character. It can be a motto your character lives by, a personality quirk, a description of a relationship you have with another character, an important possession or the history behind a bit of equipment your character has, or any other part of your character that is vitally important. Aspects allow for you to put in writing what you feel is most important about your character, so that when someone else writes about your character, they have an idea of the most important Aspects of your character.
Every character gets to choose six (6) Aspects. These six (6) Aspects are divided into three categories that get 2 Aspects each: General (2), Personality (2), and Combat (2).
Personality Aspects are the most important, as they are the heart of your character. These can range from phobias and quirks to motivations and ambitions.
Combat Aspects detail your character's fighting style and habits. This can range from ranged fighting and stealth to melee and a tendency to want to blow things up.
General Aspects can fall under either personality or combat. They can also be used to describe anything that falls in between or outside of the aforementioned categories as well.
Stock aspects are built into the Character Creation Tool, but you are welcome to create an aspect of your own.
Note: Make sure you follow the guide for writing a custom aspect as each custom aspect must be approved by the Combat Master or Voice.
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Remember: When creating a character, you want your reader to be able to empathize in some way, shape or form. Even if you are writing an evil, bunny-killing dark Jedi, giving them a balanced set of flaws and merits not only makes them realistic, but easier to relate to. If your character is relatable, your reader will have a better experience reading your work. Step 3. Profit.
Skill/Force Power Ladder System
You need to build up to the skills you want to master, and to reach a higher tier you need a set of skills filling the prior tier. The skills you use to build do not have to be related. This is not a Skill Tree like you see in TOR or RPGs. All it means is that in order to create a balanced skill-set, you can't be "amazeballs" at everything.
Instead, think of it like a pyramid: you can’t build a pyramid upside down, can you? The top layer needs to always be supported by a layer below it. An image of a proper skill pyramid can been seen below.
To set your skills and force powers, drag and drop the grey boxes into the respective sections designed by +1, +2, +3, +4 and +5.
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If you build your ladder improperly, and don’t have the proper pyramid base, you will see a red highlight appear around your skills, as seen in the image below. Your sheet will not be approved and you will not be able to move forward.
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Both Skills and Force Powers have separate ladders. The number of points you have to build your ladder is based upon your Order and your current rank.
Skills
- Main Article: Skills
Much like the real world, your character isn’t good at everything. In order to balance this, every skill placed at a higher proficiency requires at least one “support” skill in each lower proficiency. Most skills are usable at a very basic level, even untrained, but to perform meaningful tasks with those skills, your character will need to put points into skills. Skills represent actions your character could take, from firing a weapon to managing a diplomatic negotiation, and they help others to understand how your character might approach a situation. When comparing skills with an opponent, try to understand what kill or Force power might be used in response to an action to see if your skill usage is likely to succeed. It’s important to remember that circumstance is almost always more important than just who has a higher modifier in a skill or power. Many Feats modify Skills, and allow them to be used in different ways. We’ll talk about Feats below.
The most important thing to remember about skills: you can’t be good at ALL the things. Balance is a big part of what makes characters realistic and even relatable to. Even if you have no points in a given skill, say, Blasters, you can still pick one up, point it, and shoot. You just will have a hard time hitting anything. The second important thing to remember is that +3 (Proficient) makes up what skills your character is considered pretty darn good at. Just because you’re not a master in Bladed weapons doesn’t mean that you’re still not deadly with a sword. It’s all relative to the scale. Most Brotherhood members should think of the middle tier as being very good at something, far above average.
For this reason, we’ve created a progression system that helps shed light on what each skill tier enables your character to do.
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Force Powers
- Main Article: Force Powers
The entire reason you became a Dark Jedi in the first place. Here you build a ladder of Force powers that fit your characters style in combat and in everyday operation. The higher the power is on the tree, the more proficient you are with it and the greater you’ll be able to use it. When writing someone else’s character, it’s generally pretty accurate to think that they are more likely to rely on powers they have a high Level in than those they have a low Level in.
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Specializations
Here you select your primary and secondary Lightsaber Forms as well as your primary and secondary Martial Arts styles. Lightsaber Forms become available to Journeyman, but until Dark Jedi Knight, the only form a member can become proficient in is Form Zero. Form Zero introduces the basic movements and strikes that the more advanced forms build from.
Feats
- Main Article: Feats
Feats are at the heart of the new Character Sheet, and probably the most fun to take advantage of. Feats are tricks, maneuvers, or techniques your character has that change how a skill or Force Power behaves. Generally, this means you get a bonus in certain situations, but sometimes it gives you some other ability or technique. Many Feats allow you to use one skill in place of another. Remember when looking over someone else’s character sheet to check the Feats they have, as Feats directly influence Force Powers and Skills!
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The New System: How it Works
Writing With The New Character Sheets
So, you’ve created your new Character Sheet. Congratulations. Now what?
Unlike the past, the Character Sheets have been designed to be used as a basis for all of the DJB’s writing-based ventures. Your Character Sheet is not just limited to the ACC, but will be the source and reference used for your fictions, run-ons, and solo-missions.They are not designed to limit your imagination, only a means of helping to create realistic, likeable characters. The heart of the system is the focus on writing creatively. Below, we will explore a short fiction that helps demonstrate how the new Character Sheets work in helping write a compelling and creative story.
Character: Marick Arconae
Species: Hapan
Discipline: Assassin
Aspect: Duelist
Skills: Athletics, Bladed Weapons, Lightsaber Style (Ataru)
Force Powers: Force Cloak, Amplify, Precognition
Feats: Reflexive Counter, Ghosting II, Faceless II
Mission: Infiltrate Enemy Base, Assassinate leader. Do not let anyone detect you, or the mission is compromised.
Target: Janis Wyn - Human Female - Jedi; Equite 3
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Analysis
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| The complex was heavily guarded by mercenaries decked out in full-sets of armor and automatic blaster rifles. The Equite Assassin knew that he couldn’t take them all out on his own without being overwhelmed or drawing attention to his mission. |
The combination of the Assassin Discipline, and the “Duelist” Aspect help the writer show how their character handles an obstacle. The writer knows that Marick can’t take out all the guards, because his fighting style is geared towards one-on-one encounters rather than charging headlong into battle with abandon. Discretion is also a mission parameter, and an Assassin would want to utilize their skills to their advantage.
Marick can use Ghosting II which allows him to move slowly and remained cloak while using the Force Power: "Force Cloak". This is a perfect way to avoid the guard patrols.
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Closing his eyes and taking a breath, Marick wrapped the Force around him like a cloak, his figure fading away into nothingness. As he slowly started to creep forward on the balls of his feet, Marick’s body remained cloaked, the faint shimmer of movement in the air the only thing visible to the naked eye.
A security camera turned its attention on him, but he kept moving at his pace and the camera continued on its path without incident. Marick waited for one of the guards to open the door to the base, and slipped in before they could close behind them before making his way towards his target. |
Now inside the complex, there is still the task of locating the enemy leader and eliminating him. Easier said than done. However, Marick has a second unique skill as an Assassin: "Faceless II". One way of using this skill is to take out one of the guards and assume their identity.
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Keeping himself cloaked in the Force, Marick continued to move slowly down the main corridor, sticking to the shadows cast from the narrow, overhead-lighting. A guard idly checked the ammo clip of his Blaster Rifle as he turned a corner and entered an adjoining room, unaware of the transparent ripple in the air that followed close on his heels. Once the door closed, Marick’s figure shimmered back into focus. Before the guard could react, the Assassin’s knife flashed across the guards throat, a crimson line bursting to life as blood squirted free. At the same time, Marick placed a hand over the guards mouth to silence any cry, carefully guiding his now lifeless body down to the floor.
Marick studied the face of the deceased guard for a few moments. He closed his eyes and burned the image of the guards face into his mind. The Assassin exhaled as he ran his open hand slowly down his face in a ritualistic manner. When his hand finished its motion, the Hapan’s handsome face was replaced with the same crooked nose and dull brown eyes of the guard.
When he emerged from the room, Marick had traded out his dark cloak for the guard’s armor and blaster rifle. After searching the guard’s pockets, he found an access card and PDA that showed a rough map of the base for reference. The Assassin now knew exactly where to find his target. |
Now, the writer has shown ingenuity in using their character’s skill set to get around obstacles. Bladed Weapons covers the use of the knife, in this case. The "Faceless" feat allows an Assassin to alter his features to look like one of the guards, giving him much easier access to getting around the base. The job is not yet done, however.
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The main command room had been left unguarded. Janis must have been confident that no one would get by the plethora of mercenaries she had hired to guard the sole entrance. Marick held his access card up to the scanner and a trio of beeps gave way to a click as the door slid open.
“Come in,” the woman's voice said calmly. “I’m impressed you made it this far. I could sense your intent from the moment you entered.”
“You could have saved me the trouble then,” Marick replied evenly, aiming his blaster at the woman. He pulled the trigger and launched a volley of blaster bolts at his target.
Janis was ready though, her azure lightsaber springing to life to deflect each of the bolts. |
Marick doesn’t have any skill with blasters. In this system, however, that still gives him the ability to point the barrel at an enemy, pull the trigger, and hope to hit something. Just because he has no points in blasters does not mean he cannot use the weapon- he just cannot use the weapon effectively.
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| Marcik quickly discarded the rifle and called his own lightsaber to his hand, igniting the blade and launching himself through the air with a boost from the Force. Sabers sizzled as the two blades locked, but only for an instant. Marick rolled off the lock, spinning and slashing low at Janis’ ankles. The Jedi backed away from the sweep, but was not prepared for how quickly the Assassin moved. Marick threw his body into a sidelong roll, coming up nimbly in a crouch and thrusting the tip of his saber into Janis’ side. |
Here we see Marick switching to his lightsaber, his prefered weapon. He then uses the Force to Amplify his Athleticism, launching his initial attack at his opponent with augmented speed. His lightsaber form, Ataru, utilizes an offensive focus while utilizing this same speed and athleticism. This is a prime example of how Force Powers can work together with your Skills. However, Marick needs to end the fight quickly and make an escape before reinforcements arrive.
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Janis tried to keep pace with the Assassin, but he was simply moving too fast. Opening herself to the Force, she augmented her own speed to keep pace, her eyes searching for an opening in her attackers defense. She found it when Marick feinted left and then cut back to his right, crouching low and thrusting the tip of his saber at her heart for a killing blow.
Janis parried the stab by batting it aside and then stepping into her attackers guard. With a flick of her wrist, she could have cleaved his head clean off his shoulders.
Except Marick’s body was already moving. On reflex, he somehow countered the strike by ducking under it at the last second, lashing out with his own blade to cut a clean line across Janis’ stomach. The Jedi let out a shrill cry as she dropped to her knees, her saber clattering to the floor and deactivating.
Marick kneeled down and checked his target’s pulse. Dead.
By the time the guards poured into the room, weapons drawn, Marick was long gone. |
Here we see a Feat in action. Marick has the “Reflexive Counter” Feat which: Uses Precognition to counter-attack moments after an opponent initiates a lethal blow--once per combat. Where Janis would have cut off Marick’s head, his Feat kicked in, allowing him to counter the move and deliver a killing blow of his own. Combined with the “Duelist” Aspect, which grants a bonus to one-on-one combat but makes fighting multiple opponents harder, the quick exchange between combatants is realistic.
If Marick had charged in and used his Blaster to shoot her full of holes, it simply would not be accurate. If Marick had picked up an axe and started flailing around with it, swinging it like a warhammer, that would not have worked either as he lacks the “Might” skill. The focus was instead on athletics, agility, and guile in a one-on-one duel.
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