Character creation and conversion Version 000115 - Jesper Anderson Determining needed characteristics and skills In PCCS, only the characteristics directly related to combat are used. There is also a separation of CON into WIL and HLT. In Call of Cthulhu there are some non-combat related characteristics. Depending on how much you want to convert to PCCS there are several methods to translate Call of Cthulhu characteristics into PCCS characteristics. Characteristics PCCS needs STR, INT, AGI, WIL and HLT. These are called Primary Characteristics. If you go for an all out conversion to a PCCS derivative, use the remaining (Secondary) characteristics from that game as well. If you decide to stay with the Call of Cthulhu characteristics: STR = STR, DEX = AGI, POW = WIL, CON = HLT, INT = INT, Keep CHA and SIZ, EDU can be kept or dumped. Luck roll and Idea roll should be dumped in favor of the Action-Reaction system, but this is more a matter of taste and how the campaign is run. Skills Use whatever skill set suits your campaign best, the Delta Green skill list or the skill list from Lawnmower Man or Dracula. Or just combine skills like mad. The only real conflict is in combat skills. For a modern day investigative campaign the skill set in Lawnmower Man is quite excellent. Conversion from Delta Green and Call of Cthulhu One way to reasonably accurately translate skills from percentage to skill level is to treat the accumulated percentage as learning points. After this, skills can either be raised as usual in the basic role playing system (roll over the LP total to gain 1 LP) or using the PCCS LP system. When converting a whole party, try to maintain balance between the various characters When converting a character, remember that skill values over 8 are extremely unusual, especially combat skill values. A character with high physical and mental characteristics and a high Combat Skill Level will be very, very tough. Avoid the temptation to allow players to get `super characters'. Not having extreme combat skills will help the players be cautious and think before they act. On the other hand, don't push the characters combat skills down to the floor or they will feel totally outclassed by anything toting a gun. Character creation using PCCS derivative games Using the character creation system included in some PCCS derivative games, especially Lawnmower Man and Dracula RPG should be straightforward. This will also help avoid extremely powerful or weak characters that may result from random characteristic determination. When creating a character, the easiest way to go is to use the system in Lawnmower Man or Dracula to create the character and then, if desired, translate the skill ranks to PCCS Skill Levels Character creation using Delta Green and PCCS Using Delta Green with `raw' PCCS to create characters is definitely possible, and may be the only way if you don't have access to PCCS Advanced Rules or one of the PCCS derivative games. The best way to do this is or the player and the GM to together decide on the gun combat skill level of the character, then deduct percentages to be assigned among the other skills according to the following table. When assigning GUN SL, keep in mind that the skill should match the characters actual combat experience level. Normal skill level for a non military or paramilitary character is 0. Police would normally have SL 2-4. Line military personnel (infantry etc.) would have SL 3-5. SWAT teams and similar would have SL 5-7. Elite military units (SAS, SEAL etc.) would have SL 7-8. SL 8 and above are very rare and represent significant training and exposure to combat situations. GUN SL COST 0 0 1 4 2 8 3 16 4 32 5 64 6 80 7 110 8 160 9 220 10 350 This cost does not follow the LP cost, but is an approximation of the fact that Gun Combat SL is worth more than any single skill in basic CoC/DG. Skill progression Raising Gun Combat SL when using the CoC/DG skill system can be handled in the following way. Assign a point total attached to the GUN SL. To increase this point total, roll over the current point total with D100. Success raises the point total by 1 point. This roll should not be affected by characteristics. Make the roll when increasing other skills. To be allowed to attempt an increase the character should have been in a combat situation, or in a sufficiently stressful situation. GUN SL POINTS 0 0 1 4 2 7 3 10 4 20 5 35 6 60 7 80 8 90 9 95 10 100