Character Creation

Star Wars: Abyss works off of a modified version of the old classic
d6 system, written by West End Games. As such, it works on a
system of six main attributes, which are supplemented by the various
skills. The following section is meant to help players get a character
made up as quickly and painlessly as possible.

First off, it bears mentioning that for most characters, slapping in
stats and submitting them for approval is optional. Only Force-Users
or other specialized characters, such as droids or Mandalorians who
might still have access to the ubiquitous technology, need go through
these steps. For the average ruck and run of the galaxy, this section
is merely for those who want to dive headfirst into the action.

There will also be a test-play period extended towards those with
characters that will require approval. For the moment, this period is
One week.

Those who are for whatever reason without a sheet are assumed to
be average members of their species, with no extra points in Skills
for the purposes of any die rolls they may need to make.

Those who wish to go through the whole process, please continue reading.

1) Define Type.
This covers the basic concept of your character. This can be as
simple as a line of description, such as “kid” or “failed Jedi” or
“scruffy looking nerfherder”. The concept can be as revealing or as
cloudy as you like, as it’s really there to help you get a grasp on
their character as you’re building it. Also in this category, you should
determine whether your character is somehow involved with the Republic's
investigation of the Abyss, or whether he or she is in fact one of the
space station's prisoners.

2) Define Species.
Different species sometimes have different special abilities. For a list
of these, please refer to the Species list. Unlike in the standard WEG,
all species receive the same amount of dice for their attributes, though
the listed minimums and maximums must still be observed.

Various species are detailed on the Setting page.

3) Appearance, Personality, and either History or Flashbacks.
These make up what your character looks and acts like.

The History aspect is for those involved with the New Hope, and its
investigation of the Abyss.

The Flashbacks part of this is for prisoners of the Abyss, and determines
how many clear memories the character can muster after he awakens in
the darkness. The character has a number of memory triggers equal to
or less than however many dice he has in the Knowledge Attribute.
These triggers basically determine what kind of things will kick some of
the amnesiac character's brain cells to start working again, such as an
Abyss-born Jedi remembering things when he sees a lightsaber fired up.

4) Define Attributes.
All characters receive 18 dice to distribute into the following six Attributes:

Dexterity is a measure of your character’s hand-eye coordination, and
balance. Characters with a high Dexterity are good shots, can dodge
blaster bolts, can walk balance beams, and even make good pickpockets.
Characters with low Dexterity are clumsy.
Knowledge is a measure of your character’s “common sense” and
academic knowledge. Characters with a high Knowledge have a good
memory for details, and may have learned a lot about different aliens
and planets. They often have a flair for languages and know how to
get things done in bureaucracies.
Mechanical stands for “mechanical aptitude” and measures how well a
character can pilot vehicles, and operate the various systems on board.
It also covers how well the character handles live beasts. Characters
with a low Mechanical attribute have a lot of minor accidents.
Perception is the character’s ability to notice things about his surroundings
and other characters. Those with a high Perception are quick to spot
hidden objects or people behind a corner. They’re also good at
convincing others to do favors for them, tricking or conning others, and
bargaining to get a good price on goods and services. Characters with
a low Perception tend to get lost a lot.
Strength represents a character’s physical strength, endurance and health.
Characters with a high Strength can lift heavy objects, push themselves
for days without rest and are good at resisting fatigue and disease.
Characters with a low Strength are easily winded in a short time.
Technical stands for “technical aptitude” and represents a character’s
innate knowledge of how to take apart, repair and modify things. A
character with a high Technical can take apart a droid to repair a
malfunction, fix a busted drive system on a landspeeder, and modify a
blaster to have longer range. Technical also covers a character’s skill
with healing and medicine, his expertise with setting explosives, and his
ability to figure out electronic security systems. Characters with a low
Technical have trouble changing a power pack on a blaster pistol

5) Define Skills.
Each Attribute has a set of skills which serve as a refinement to the
basic trait. Every skill starts off at the same rating as the connected
Attribute, so somebody with a 3 Dexterity would automatically have a
Blaster Pistols skill of 3.

New characters will receive extra points for skills. Inhabitants of the
space station Abyss will receive 10 points, while characters belonging
to the New Hope receive the WEG-standard 7 points. These effectively
work in the same fashion as the Attribute dice, but serve to refine
what you can do above and beyond your raw potential.

Most Skills can be undertaken by a character even if he doesn't have
it listed on his sheet. Assigning points to Skills in this case merely
indicates what your character can do WELL.

At character creation, skills may go as high as the Attribute they
are linked to +3. So, somebody with a Dexterity of 4 could have a
Blaster score of anywhere from 4 (defaulting to Dexterity) to 7
(Dexterity 4 +3).

6) Force-Sensitive?
Decide whether to make your character Force Sensitive. If the answer
is “Yes”, your character starts with two Force Points, otherwise she
receives one. The addition of this trait requires the character to be
submitted for Approval.

7) Force Skills.
With Staff approval, and if you have chosen to be Force-Sensitive, you
may give your character some ability in the three different Force Skills:
Control, Alter and Sense. You can give your character 1 die in a
Force Skill at the cost of 1 die in an Attribute. At the start of play,
no character may have any Force Skill above 3 dice without Staff
consent.

8) Force Powers.
Characters who have dice in any of the Force Skills may choose a
certain number of Force Powers, specific applications of the Force that
the character is especially good at. While a Force-User may use most
powers so long as he has the appropriate Force Skill, listing a power
on the sheet marks it as one at which he is especially good, and he
may lower the difficulty of the appropriate roll by one category.

Each character may choose one power per point in Control, Sense and
Alter. These powers must be chosen from the appropriate power, so
if she has a Control of 2, and a Sense of 1, she may choose 2
Control powers, and 1 Sense, or 1 Control Power, and 1 Control/Sense.

9) Finishing Up.
-Each character will receive 5 Character Points. These may be spent
on improving a character's stats, or may be saved to use for improving
die rolls.

-A character with an exceptional history or creatively-written flashbacks
will also receive 5 bonus dice to distribute amongst either her Attibutes
or her Skills. She may also use these on Force Skills, if she has any,
but no Force Skill may be greater than three at Character Creation.