Character Options

Following is an outline of the Character Creation intended for this setting. This sections *requires* use of the *Ultramodern5* book because it only lists page numbers and descriptions as they pertain to they universe of Dark Cycles.

## **Life-Path**

### **Background**

Background indicates the sort of life you had before you became an 'adventurer'. Generally you can think of it as the kind of life you had before you were an adult striking out on your own. They start on Page 37, and they give you typically a handful of language/tool proficiencies, some skill proficiencies, and some basic starting equipment. The Backgrounds available will be listed to include some ideas about what sort of life in the Dark Cycles might lead to this background. The list is only examples to get you thinking, it's not a full list of all available options.

* Affluent
	+ Martian Metal Baron's Brat
	+ Child of a rich Earther family
	+ Corpo Kid
	+ Agent of the Automa League
* Bruiser
	+ Martian Surface-dweller
	+ Blue-collar child
	+ Slum dweller
	+ Lunar Farm Kid
	+ Literally any location or wealth, but you were just a scrappy kid. Wealthy kids can still be fighters, it's just not the stereotype.
* Delinquent
	+ Middle class good-for-nothing
	+ Martian rabblerouser/opportunist
	+ From the poor streets on Earth
	+ Station Rat
	+ Earthen Crime family
* Disciple
	+ Born (or recruited) into a Dark Cult.
	+ Lunar Hippie Kid
	+ Non-Dark related religious parents
* Drifter
	+ Concord fail-to-thrive Settler
	+ PaU Runaway
	+ Runaway Emergent Automa
* Intellectual
	+ Earth University Scholar
	+ Engineer
	+ Martian Startup Scholar
	+ Automa League Explorer
* Laborer
	+ Lunar Farmer
	+ Martian Surface Blue Collar
	+ Out-Belter
	+ Martian Belt Miner
* Prodigy
	+ A person from Earth or a Station who is good at...
		- VR-Arenas
		- Football/soccer and/or soccer/football.
		- Painting/digital art
		- A musical instrument
* Recluse
	+ Station Rat gone Hacker
	+ Pathological Introvert
	+ Virtual Reality Ascendant
* Regular Joe
	+ Literally anything you can reasonably think of.
* Smooth Talker
	+ Gemini Salesman
	+ Attentive Corpo Kid
	+ Back Alley Grifter (probably from Luna or Mars, but there's poor parts of Earth too)
* The Covenant of Mecha
	+ *Note: Mecha isn't a 'covenant' or real thing in this setting, it's just what this Background is called. This represents operating in a Dark-empowered position professionally*
	+ Dark Cult Inner Circle/Agent
	+ Professional Thaumaturge
	+ Darkwatch Agent (Inspector/Specialist)
	+ Shadownaut from the PaU
* The Fabrigia Institute
	+ *Note: Like Covenant of Mecha, this isn't a literal place - it just represents being a Dark Scholar*
	+ Scholar of the Tatsuo Thaumotechnical Institute
	+ Researcher for the Trinity College Darkweaving program
	+ Dark Cult Theologian
	+ Proxcent Hedge-Thaumaturge

### **Origins**

Life Paths are your characters background, and they start on Page 36. There are rollable tables for each step of the way, but you can freely choose your character's Lifepath *except* for Life Moments (Tables C1-F4). Life Moments MUST be rolled. Note that any option referencing specifically aliens is not valid, as sophont aliens are not a (known) factor of this setting.

## **Ladders**

Ladders represent something beyond class - a sort of personal disposition. They are technically an optional rule, but one this setting uses to allow characters to branch out and get some more choice that help to define them as characters. Much like Backgrounds, they are listed with some examples of the kinds of people who would take this as a Ladder. As with Backgrounds, this list isn't exhaustive, just there to get the brain juice pumping.

* Born Leader
	+ Proxcent/Martian Rebellion Leaders
	+ Corpos
	+ Psychologists
	+ Strong willed scholars
* Juggernaut
	+ V-Bar Bouncer
	+ V-Bar regular problem customer/barfighter
	+ Professional Athelete
	+ Martian Rabble-rousers, Blue Collar
* Occultist
	+ Dark Savant
	+ Hedge Practitioner
	+ Hobbyist Thaumaturge
	+ Automa with an Arcanocore
* Performer
	+ Natural Comedian
	+ Con men/grifters
	+ Crime Family's Negotiator
	+ Diplomat
* Runner
	+ Station Rat
	+ Criminal Courier
	+ Parkour Techie
	+ Stunt Man/Does His Own Stuns
* Savant
	+ Tactician
	+ Rough-And-Tumble Scholar
	+ Common Sense Comptency
	+ Expert in their field and in *the* field.
* Survivor
	+ Lunar Hermit
	+ Career Homeless
	+ Doomsday Prepper
	+ Grizzled War Veteran
* Veteran
	+ Combat Expert
	+ Security Thaumturge
	+ Battle-Tested Security Agent
	+ Practitioner of the Battle Field Tao

* Warrior
	+ Heavy Security/Military
	+ Blood-Lust Afflicted
	+ Combat Savant
	+ Martian Militiaman

## **Classes**

This is literally just a list of the classes and a brief explanation of what they do. Class in this system has more to do with what you actively do in the game, but it's not like usual D&D5e where it's your be-all end-all. You have Archetype, Background, and Ladder to fill in details. Think of this as your core mechanics, and everything else as modular character building.

* Civillian
	+ Literally anything not otherwise covered, and even then using Archetype and Ladder picks you could probably do those anyways. Civillians are 'lucky' characters. They're the everyman who shows up and is surprisingly competent. You can think of this as a Jack of All Trades class,
* Face
	+ It's the face. You do the talking, you are reasonably hard to kill, and you're also kind of a weird utility character. Out of combat they handle social interaction well, in combat they tend to debuff, distract, and charm. They also get to do this with a special extra action they can get, meaning you don't have to sacrifice blapping someone or casting a spell. They can also somewhat buff allies - think Bard from D&D 5e.
* Grounder
	+ Foot soldiers. This is the closest thing I'd say we have to a Paladin analog. Great weapon and armor profs, and a sort of two-path progression along Assault (more damage, good against easy to hit targets) or Precision (accurate, crit-focused). They get some other misc. abilities (every class basically does) for some support options, some lay-on-hands style healing.
* Gunslinger
	+ It's like a monk, but it uses guns. They get 'Kata Points' to use 'Gun Kata'. They can either do single-shot hits that do more damage, or they can do multiple attacks. They can also use guns in melee to get bonuses against that creature. Big Matrix energy.
* Heavy
	+ If Grounder was Paladin, Heavy is fighter. They gain proficiency with all the same stuff, plus superheavy weapons. They do area denial, area of effects, and some light debuffing/battlefield control. Like a fighter, they just keep picking abilities from their list of cool things they can learn to do.
* Infiltrator
	+ Rogue analogs. They focus more on the stealth and skill checks than the sneak attack damage, though. Their main gimmick is that they are consistently good - they can reroll a stupid number of dice, grant themselves advtange on abilities, and do a little extra damage (auto crits) to targets they hit. It's all about consistency and accuracy.
* Magi
	+ This is the Dark user class. They don't play as much like a Wizard as you'd think. Still a d6 hit die with no armor, but they get free bonus advancement down a Path and an option to gut their HP progression to give themselves better spellcasting. They also have passive bonuses to spellcasting.
* Marshal
	+ Marshals don't have an easy D&D class analog. They can use up to Heavy weapons, medium armor, and have a d8 hit die. They also get a good number of skills, and prof in all ground vehicles and aircraft. Mostly they act like a buffing pylon/tactician. They do a lot with turn order and action economy manipulation, and they have the selection from two different pools of abilities. The best way to describe them is utility/force multipliers that are intended to act as the party leader.
* Martial Artist
	+ This is the monk who is actually a Monk minus all of the magic and ki. Mechanically they aren't very closely related to D&D's monk. The whole class is built around hitting enemies to build a combo, then either storing that combo for it's passive bonus or unleashing it on someone for big damage and debilitating effects. Thematically a monk/brawler, not mechanically. They also get 'Martial Exploits' which are cool moves that don't mess with your Combo too much. Most focus on converting Hit Dice to combo, or on disrupting enemy actions.
* Medic
	+ Medics are not clerics, they're roughly closer to the idea of an 'alchemist' but even then that's not right. A d6 hit die, light armor, Int+Wis focused. They do only light healing. They have Medical Exploits that work pretty close to D&D 5e Spells, being of specific levels and having a Cantrip equivalent. 'Cantrips' can do only light healing, mostly providing minor-ish support effects. Not focused on damage so much as providing combat stims, minor healing, and occasionally making enemy lives a little tiny bit harder.
* Sniper
	+ If you wanted +xd6 sneak attack, Sniper is for you. They have points they can burn to do cool things for shooting people. They have a large list of abilities they can pull from, and are only limited in that they have only so many (2+WisMod) Marksman Points to use on them. But you get 2 back for dropping people with a sniper rifle. At 5th level you can burn 3 points to turn an 18-20 into a crit, do +2d6 damage, ad make a crit do triple damage instead. You get to decide these things after the d20 roll is seen, so this is pretty powerful and very tacticool.
* Techie
	+ This is a little bit like the Magus from Pathfinder or the Kensai from 3.5 in that they focus on buffing a specific weapon using a pool of points they have. Thew buffs last 5 minutes, and you can keep several weapons with different configurations on you (since you only burn points when activating them) so they have a bit of a gadgeteer/the right weapon for the right job vibe. Unlike most classes, these don't get points back on short rest. Instead they take 1 minute and roll a successively harder Int check to regain their points. They also gain some other novel ways to use Tech Points.

## **Archetype**

Archetypes are options chosen at 3rd level. Whereas in D&D you choose a 'subclass', Archetypes in Ultramodern5 are free-floating. You can select any archetype with any class. They're pretty short and sweet, so the descriptions will also be shorter and sweeter.

* Anti-Hero
	+ Gain a pool of points (Dead Pool) you fill by killing things near you, rolling max damage, or getting crit'd. Then unload that pool as straight up bonus damage.
* Authority
	+ Should have been called Expert, pick an Int skill. You are now stupidly good at that skill, and Int skills in general.
* Banner Head
	+ Scary guy who picks one person in a fight who is now basically locked into a fight with you and you get an advantage over. Basically draw aggro/challenge an enemy by being scary.
* Brawler
	+ Grappler build, the Archetype.
* Brother of Blood
	+ Useless unless two people in the party take it, and then if they do you get some of eachother's prof's and some fun bonuses to supporting eachother. Novel idea.
* Cleaner
	+ Really wants to one-round targets with a big damage bonus. I like to think of this as the John Wick archetype.
* Country Gunmen
	+ Quickdraw McFasthands. Big initiative rolls, some fun bonuses to damaging people slower than you.
* Darkslinger
	+ Pocket Magi who also can invest Dark into ranged weapon attacks to grant themselves advantage and make the attack be considered magical.
* Diplomat
	+ A powerful face option that can get you advantage on social rolls against a target. Idealizes de-escalating a situation before combat can even happen.
* Driver
	+ Car guy! Special stunts you can do with vehicles, plus some damage bonuses for ramming people.
* Field Machinist
	+ Really just makes your Engineering rolls good.
* Field Medic
	+ Bonuses on Medicine checks, later on the power to self-heal mid combat with hit dice.
* Grand Master
	+ Learn specific martial arts stances that gives you buffs and benefits for 5 minutes, then go on cool down until long rest.
* Gun Dancer
	+ RNG-based ability to gain more attacks with one-handed small arms. (15% for one extra attack, 10% for two).
* Infantry Support Specialist
	+ Basically turn yourself into an emplaced weapons user. Low mobility, big damage outputs.
* Magician
	+ General bonuses to spell casting, more for non-Magi, and you slowly learn to use fewer spell components (verbal, then somatic disappear).
* Machine of War
	+ Attack people to gain HP, and if you get enough HP you get an additional attack.
* Man at Arms
	+ Weapon specialist archetype.
* Militarist
	+ Gain a pool of Tactical Points that starts at 0 and is increased when allies get crit'd, allies roll 1's, allies are damaged past half health, dropped to 0, or 3+ allies get hit in an AoE. Use those Tactical Points to give allies bonus attacks/actions and other fun tactician tricks. It's like being a pocket Marshal.
* Pathfinder
	+ Pocket infiltrator. Lets you 'teleport' as long as no enemies have line of sight on you. You can only teleport to other places out of sight.
* Mecha Pilot
	+ Makes you generally better at piloting mechs, grants mech proficiencies.
* Pistolero
	+ Get sneak attacks with pistols on targets within 20 feet. Just +xd6, scaling with level.
* Recon Intelligence
	+ Stealth ability that lets you modify attack and Stealth rolls up or down by 1d10.
* Ring Fighter
	+ Another grappling related archetype, but more defensive than offensive when compared to Brawler.
* Sapper
	+ Combat engineer archetype with a focus on demolitions.
* Selfless Protector
	+ Bodyguard archetypes - lets you give a chosen target in reach your AC bonus and you can take bullets/effects for them. You can pull your focus around with you when you move.
* Skirmisher
	+ Pocket Sniper. Lets you double tap to shoot multiple targets once per short rest.
* Suave
	+ Another Face archetype. Grants you prof in all face skills, and lets you get some big bonuses on Social checks. It's the James Bond class.
* Technomancer
	+ Dark archetype, gets a magical/mechanical Familiar that scales into more familiars or an animal companion of sorts. you can also learn to power devices with your magic.