Dog Town Character Creation

This is a simplified guide to making a character for Dog Town, taken from Jon Canuck on RPoL.net, and modified by NowhereMan.

## 1. Download the (free) Core Rules

Don’t get bogged down in trying to make sense of the rules. Just follow this guide and dip into the rulebook where needed. (Dog Town Core Rules)

## 2. Choose a Criminal Type

Review the profiles of the Criminal Types. Ignore the various numbers, talents and perks for now. Just think about the character concept. Who are you and what type of crime do you do? Are you a burglar, a mugger, a numbers runner, a fraudster or a chop shop mechanic?

An additional 3 archetypes (The Extortionist, The Snitch and The Wheelman) are available in the Stray Bullets expansion, also downloadable for free.

Choose the Type that best suits you, or combine two to make a hybrid type. You can specialize in car theft as a Thief/Wheelman or be a psychopathic Asshole/Heister (think Mr. Blonde from Resevoir Dogs or Waingro from Heat).

Your choice doesn’t limit types of crimes you can do, but makes it easier to learn certain skills or talents.

*e.g. Our player, James, wants a character like Bodie from The Wire, so he chooses The Runner as his Type. He names the character Alonzo Briggs and starts character development.*

## 3. Split 30 Development Points across your Attributes

There are 10 Attributes that reflect your character’s physical and mental abilities. These are Bulk, Power, Toughness, Reflexes, Sense, Brains, Control, Style, Experience, Luck.

Each Attribute is ranked on a scale from -2 to 5.

-2 Is feeble, while 5 is superhuman. -1 and 0 reflect the abilities of the average man and woman on the street.

You have 30 points to spend between the 10 Attributes. It costs one point to raise an ability by one.

*e.g. Alonzo, our Runner, has to have a good mix of physical and mental abilities, so James splits 20 points evenly across the 10 attributes bringing each to 0. However, James wants his character to be young, wiry and smart, and puts the extra points into Reflex +2, Sense +3, Brains +3, and Control +2. These numbers already start to tell you about Alonzo: still a teenager; he’s skinny, but nimble and wise to the streets, with a good head on his shoulders.*

Ignore everything in the rulebook to do with Derived Attributes. Derived Attributes are sub-abilities calculated from combinations of the primary Attributes. Figuring all of them out is extremely time consuming and can be confusing. We'll come back to these later, specifically Know Streets, which is particularly important.

Note that Attributes improve with use once play is underway. This will be covered in more detail in-game.

## 4. Split 75 Skill Points across your Skills

Read through the skills to get an idea of which would be a good fit for your character.

Every character has every skill, only each begins at a totally untrained level. Skills run from -3 (untrained) to 10 (grandmaster), with +1 being an amateur and +5 a professional level of competence.

Some skills are more intuitive, or easier to learn, than others, so what defines “untrained” depends on the skill. Most people’s exposure to explosives is limited to TV shows, so “untrained” for the Explosives skill starts at -3. Most everyone has swung a bat or stick, however, so the “untrained” level for Batting skill starts at 0. That is to say, it’s easier to learn to club someone over the head than it is to rig a car bomb. The rulebook lists the starting level of each individual skill.

Skill Points are allocated on a one to one basis: one point raises the skill by one. 75 Skill Points allows for a well-rounded character.

You can also put Skill Points into Specializations. Specializations are sub-skills of an existing skill. One Skill Point invested this way means the Skill Level remains the same but you get a +2 bonus on rolls involving the Specialization.

*e.g. Awareness is a key skill for a Runner, so James spends 6 Skill Points to bring Alonzo’s awareness skill from -1 (Untrained) to +5. He then spends another Skill Point on the sub-skill Specialization “Spot Tail”. Alonzo keenly aware of his surroundings, but particularly adept at spotting when he’s being followed.*

Don’t bother recording skills that you don’t put points into. Just record the skills and specializations you have, plus their values. Ignore everything to do with Aspects. We’ll calculate Aspects as and when we need them during the game.

Note that Skills improve with use once play is underway. This will be covered in more detail in-game.

## 5. Split 20 Type Points across Attributes, Talents, Skills, Specializations and Drags

This section of the Core Rules is especially badly written and confusing. You have 20 points to spend on various quirks that make your character unique. The book calls these development points, but to avoid confusion with Development Points (above) we’ll call these Type Points. The quirks/bonuses available to you are determined by your Character Type. Hybrid character types can buy from either of their 2 types.

**Abilities:** By spending 5 Type Points for a Primary Attribute or 3 points for a Derived Attribute you can access the bonus listed under the Character Type.

*e.g. Looking at The Runner type (p54), James spends 3 points to access the +3 bonus to “Know Streets” (a Derived Attribute that gives the character more street contacts).*

**Talents:** Are god-given abilities that make the character really good at a particular thing. These can be bought in three ways. 1). By paying the full Type Point cost listed under the talent. You can access any talent this way, so long as you have enough points. 2) By “batching” talents. Certain talents go well together—these are grouped under specific headings in the book, called Sets (e.g. The Power Set (p56) includes the talents Heavy Hitter, Vice Grip and Explosive Speed). By buying more than one talent from a Set you get a discount of one point off each talent you buy. 3). Special Talents, as listed on your Character Type sheet, can be bought for 2 Type Points each (in the case of Talents that already cost only 1 or 2 points, pay 1 point).

*e.g. Looking at The Runner’s special talents, James pays 2 points to buy the Acute Senses talent (normally 3 points). He want’s Alonzo to be an up-and-comer, with potential to run his own rackets one day, so he looks at the Brains Set and buys the talents Suspicious Mind and Logical thinker, each at a one point discount (7 points total instead of 9).*

**Skills:** Listed on the Character Type sheet, these are skills the character is very likely to be good at. By paying 3 Type Points you can bump a skill up 4 skill levels.

*e.g. James consults the Runner’s type page and decides he wants Alonzo to have more swagger, so he pays 3 Type points to bump the Impress skill by 4 levels.*

**Specializations:** As above, these can be bought at the cost of 1 Type Point per specialization.

**Drags:** These are personality disorders, vices and other disadvantages that tend to accompany your specific criminal type. You MUST spend the listed number of Type Points on individual Drags, at the cost of one point per Drag. Hybrid characters must buy whichever is the GREATER number of drags of their two types (e.g. The Asshole has 3 drags, the Heister has only 2; an Asshole/Heister hybrid would have to buy 3 drags).

In consultation with the GM, you may potentially take the same drag twice—representing someone completely off the rails with a given disorder. So taking the Alcohol drag twice would give you a character who is stumbling drunk by 10am, largely erratic and a general liability to the rest of the crew. The effects of drags can be represented through role-playing, but also through various dice roll penalties.

Some of the listed drags are not well or fully explained in the rulebook. Contact the GM if you need more explanation.

## 6. Roll for Flaws and choose your Vices

**Flaws** (pp59-60) are caused by genetics, past experiences or old injuries. Roll 1d20. If you roll 11 or over you have no Flaws. If you roll 10 or less, roll for or choose one Flaw.

**Vices** are an occupational hazard for criminals. The number of vices you have is determined by your Control attribute.Choose 1 vice if your Control is 3. Choose 2 vices if your Control is 2 or less. Choose 3 vices if your Control is 0 or less.

Characters with 4 or more Control have no addictions—they can drop vices before they form habits.

The exception is smoking. In the 1970s around 1/2 of the population smokes, and the majority of the criminal underworld. Roll 1d20. If you roll 5 or over, you’re a smoker.

Vices and addictions are deep-seated, but not unchangeable. As the story progresses, you can attempt to beat addictions as part of the role-play.

## 7. Determine Know Streets Attribute

Know Streets is a derived attribute that determines your character's ties to the streets, their contacts, allies, friends, and associates, as well as any possible stashes of goods they might have squirreled away.

Know Streets is a combination of double your character's Experience and Style scores, plus any bonuses you might have purchased from Type points or Special Talents. The table on pg. 73 of the core rulebook will tell you the results of your Know Streets Attribute.

*e.g. A character with Experience 2 and Style 3, and the Total Recall Special Talent would have a Know Streets score of 14 (+4 from Experience, +6 from Style, and +4 from Total Recall).*

*The character would have 5 good connections plus one very good connection. They would know 40-50 assorted punks and 9 gangsters, be aware of 8-12 others, and would know 20-24 hangouts. They would have 3 quite powerful allies and 1 powerful one. They would have either three small material edges or one good one.*

**Connections:** Connections provide valuable information and jobs. These could be drug dealers, hangout owners, loan sharks, bookies, and so on.

**Punks and Gangsters:** Punks are low-level criminals. They might try to sell you hot gear, bum some cash or cigarettes, or agree to go on jobs with you, but could also rat you out or double-cross you. Gangsters are more successful criminals running rackets on the same level you are. *Knowing* such characters means you're on speaking terms, while being *aware* of them means you would recognize them, and may have been introduced once, but your knowledge is limited.

**Hangouts:** Hangouts are locations and premises where crimes are committed, or where criminals frequent. A pool hall dealing bindles of heroin from behind the bar is a hangout, as is a nightclub owned by a mobster.

**Allies:** Allies are other criminals or perhaps crooked cops who will help you out when shit gets bad.

**Bosses:** Bosses are the real movers and shakers of Dog Town. These criminals are true power-players, running rackets across the city and commanding crews of dozens.

**Material Edges:** A material edge is a stash of valuables tucked away for a rainy day. This can include drugs, guns, or money, or anything else of value. A small material edge is worth up to $500. A good material edge is worth roughly $1,500, but varies based on many factors, including rarity and legality.

## 8. Flesh out your character’s background—their history, family and criminal record.

You’re assumed to be freshly paroled, just out to the joint with the clothes on your back, $40 cash and a few personal effects like a watch, pack of cigarettes or pair of sunglasses.

By now you probably have a pretty good idea of who your character is. Make a few notes on this and what brought you to this point. There are prompts to help you on pp65-70.

That’s it. Ignore the rest of the rulebook for now. We’ll turn to it when needed.