Core Book Chapter 2

This chapter gets you started in the right direction for creating your character for the Merc.NET role-playing game.
Steps To Survival
1.] Determine what your characters race will be; the core rulebook for Merc.NET has Human, Dwuervan, Ngorm, Halfarn, Orlanc, Yetin, and Tantalan as starting races with more to be added in future publications.
2.] Determine how many hit points your character has.
3.] Decide whether or not your character is going to have any Advantages or Disadvantages [generally these can only be assigned at the start of character creation; however the GM may allow it later on in the campaign [if there is a valid enough reason].
4.] Determine whether or not your character is going to be a normal character or if he/she will be a Magus or Esper.
5.] Allocate your Boost Points to flesh out your character.
6.] Determine what your character’s Physical and Mental Exertions are going to be.
7.] Determine your character’s Mental and Physical Defense.
8.] Determine any Damage Deflection that your character has.
9.] Determine what your character’s Initiative Bonus is.
10.] Determine how many Surge Points your character has.
11.] Determine your Mana & Esper Pools.
12.] Determine your character’s Movement Rates.
13.] Determine your character’s Encumbrance.
14.] Flesh out your character by coming up with a name, age, gender, height, weight, eye & hair color, date of birth, religion, race, home world, and size.
Table 2-1 - Level Rewards	Table 2-1 - Level Rewards	 	 	 	 	 	
Level 	Boost Points 	# Of Attacks	Max. Boost	Level	Boost Points	# Of Attacks	Max. Boost
0th 	25 	1 	1 	1st 	50 	1 	2
2nd 	50 	1 	3 	3rd 	50 	1 	4
4th 	50 	2 	5 	5th 	50 	2 	6
6th 	75 	2 	7 	7th 	75 	2 	8
8th 	75 	3 	9 	9th 	75 	3 	10
10th 	75 	3 	11 	11th 	100 	3 	12
12th 	100 	4 	13 	13th 	100 	4 	14
14th 	100 	4 	15 	15th 	100 	4 	16
16th 	125 	5 	17 	17th 	125 	5 	18
18th 	125 	5 	19 	19th 	125 	5 	20
20th 	150 	5 	20 	 	 	 	
Table 2-2 - Experience Point Level Up Chart	Table 2-2 - Experience Point Level Up Chart	Table 2-2 - Experience Point Level Up Chart	Table 2-2 - Experience Point Level Up Chart	 	 	 	
Level 	XP Needed 	Level 	XP Needed 	Level	XP Needed	Level	XP Needed
0th 	0 	1st 	5 	2nd 	5 	3rd 	5
4th 	5 	5th 	5 	6th 	10 	7th 	10
8th 	10 	9th 	10 	10th 	10 	11th 	15
12th 	15 	13th 	15 	14th 	15 	15th 	15
16th 	20 	17th 	20 	18th 	20 	19th 	20
20th 	25* 	 	 	 	 	 	
1.] Choosing Your Race
In the Merc.NET Core Book you have the choice of Human, Dwuervan, Elharnian, Halfarn, Ngorm, Orlanc, Yetin, and Tantalan.
2.] Hit Points
All characters start at 0th Level and start with 50 hit points and get 10 reserve hit points which are discussed in the Game Mechanics Chapter. Each level after 0th you pay for hit points on a 1 for one basis.
3.] Advantages & Disadvantages
With Disadvantages you can earn extra points to put towards purchasing Advantages or give yourself a one time pool of extra points to put towards more Hit Points. Just remember the more Disadvantages you take the more handicapped your character is going to be.
Advantages can give your character some extraordinary abilities that allow them to better function and survive.
A character can have a maximum of five total Advantages and Disadvantages.
4.] Determining A Character's Life Path
In Merc.NET you have the choice of your character just being a standard character or whether they will be a Magus [magic user] or Esper [psychic].
Table 2-3 - Magus/Esper Level Rewards*	Table 2-3 - Magus/Esper Level Rewards*	Table 2-3 - Magus/Esper Level Rewards*	 	 	 	 	
Level 	Boost Points 	M/E Pool 	Attacks	Level	Boost Points	M/E Pool	Attacks
0th 	25 	25 	1 	1st 	40 	10 	1
2nd 	40 	10 	1 	3rd 	40 	10 	1
4th 	40 	10 	1 	5th 	40 	10 	1
6th 	60 	15 	2 	7th 	60 	15 	2
8th 	60 	15 	2 	9th 	60 	15 	2
10th 	60 	15 	2 	11th 	80 	20 	2
12th 	80 	20 	3 	13th 	80 	20 	3
14th 	80 	20 	3 	15th 	80 	20 	3
16th 	100 	25 	4 	17th 	100 	25 	4
18th 	100 	25 	4 	19th 	100 	25 	4
20th 	120 	30 	4 	 	 	 	
*It should be noted that max boost ranks are the same for all character types.
5.] Boost Points
Boost points are the meat and potatoes of your character and these points are used to flesh out your character’s abilities; just hope that your character doesn’t become meat and potatoes.
At the beginning of character creation the player receives 25 points to spend on Boosts, these can either be Physical, Mental, or one of the other categories.
Another thing to take into consideration when allocating Boost points is the fact that you may want to spend some extra ones on hit points.
The reason to take this into consideration is the fact that no Boost can have a rank higher than your current level plus one thus meaning at fifth level Steve can have a Rank 6 in handguns.
Starting with 1st Level players get more Boost Points than they did at 0th Level [all characters start at 0th Level] they can spend these points however they want to but must still conform to the rules above.
6.] Exertions
The Hammer System has two types of Exertions there is Physical and there is Mental, you use Boost Points to increase your Exertions in the same manner you would for purchasing Boosts. The formula is pretty simple, you take your Exertion add any miscellaneous modifiers you may have and that is your total exertion bonus, this is added to whatever you roll on the 2d10 during the game. The character sheet also has a slot for any temporary modifiers you may have. Exertions are used when you need to exert yourself mentally [such as trying to remember a piece of information], or physically [such as trying to avoid an explosion].
7.] Physical & Mental Defense
Determining your character’s Physical and Mental Defense is very simple; you start with a base of 10 and then you can purchase these bonuses the same way you would boosts. Mental defense is to help you withstand mental attacks such as mind reading and the like; physical defense is to help a person avoid attacks.
8.] Damage Deflection
Determine whether or not your character has any Damage Deflection capability. Damage Deflection can be gained by using Boosts.
9.] Initiative Bonus
Your initiative is a 1d12 plus whatever ranks you have purchased in the Initiative boost.
10.] Surge Points
You determine the number of surge points you gain by adding your level plus 10 and this is how many you gain each level. If you don’t use up all your Surge Points by the time you reach the next level you get to keep them, die size rolled depends on level see the chart below for this.
Surge points can be used for any number of things, attacks rolls, exertion rolls, and Boost check rolls. [Use of Surge Point must be called before you tell the GM your rolled result].
Table 2-4 - Surge Point Chart--	Table 2-4 - Surge Point Chart--	Table 2-4 - Surge Point Chart--	- 	- 	- 	- 	-
Level 	Die Size 	Level 	Die Size	Level 	Die Size	Level 	Die Size
1st-5th 	1d6 	6th-10th 	1d8 	11th-15th	1d10 	16th-20th	1d12
11.] Mana & Esper Pools
These pools are used by Magus and Espers to either cast magic spells or use their mental abilities, it should be noted that while they get fewer boost points than a normal character this is made up for by the fact that they can use magic or mental abilities using those points that have now been transferred to these two pools.
12.] Movement Rates
There are seven types of movement rates in the game, the basic one is walking, then running which is twice that of the walking speed, sprinting is four times the base speed, then there is climbing which is ½ a persons walking speed, then jumping is 10 feet [horizontal jump] 5 feet at a vertical angle. There is also swimming which is the same as your walking rate and then flying which only certain races have unless you have stuff like Bioware, cyber ware, or Nanno-ware and are determined independently of the walking speed.
13.] Encumbrance
Encumbrance is determined by determining what size category your character is [in the case of Merc.NET it varies by size but most starting races are medium sized creatures] and have a weight allowance of 45lbs and twice this in dead lift weight.
14.] Fleshing Out Your Character
This part of character creation can be pretty fun and you can take whatever liberties you want generally.
These things include coming up with a name for your character, determining your character’s age, gender, height, and weight, as well as eye and hair color, date of birth, and religion.
There is also a section on the character sheet for background information.