Pilot Creation

CHARACTER CREATION IS COLLABORATIVE. Don't show up to the campaign with a character fully locked in - it's best handled as a group activity around the table, as part of a "SESSION ZERO" where you discuss and decide on the kind of campaign you want to play in.

It's important that you finish character creation with the answer to a simple question: WHY IS YOUR CHARACTER IN THE STORY? What goals are they pursuing that drive the action forwards? What circumstances are pushing them to take on ever-greater levels of risk to get what they want? Characters who don't want to engage with the interesting parts of the fiction and would insist on just staying home where it's safe and comfortable are an important part of the world, but they don't make for good protagonists (Bilbo Baggins may complain through most of his journey, but he does voluntarily go on the journey, and deep down, he wouldn't have it any other way). Actively steering your character into exciting circumstances is a key part of your side of the social contract.

You can print out a copy of the Character Creation Worksheet to help you through this process, or just use the back of your Character Sheet or a blank piece of paper. This will mostly help with the Phase Trio: three aspects that sum up your backstory and jumpstart your relationships with the other PCs.

Don't stress too much about getting your stats, aspects, and stunts perfect at character creation - YOU CAN ALWAYS CHANGE THEM LATER.

Name Your Character

Every character needs a name. Yours, specifically, needs one at some point prior to reaching Phase One and writing your third aspect. If you're stumped, there are all sorts of name generators available online that include everything from real-world names organized by linguistic and cultural / national origin to some incredibly specific genre- and trope-based naming conventions.

Writing Aspects

Aspects can describe anything and everything about your character, including but not limited to:

• Significant personality traits or beliefs ("Sucker for a Pretty Face", "Never Leave a Man Behind," "The Only Good Tsyntavian Is a Dead Tsyntavian").
• The character’s background or profession ("Educated at the Academy of Blades", "Born a Spacer", "Cybernetic Street Thief").
• An important possession or noticeable feature ("My Father’s Bloodstained Sword", "Dressed to the Nines," "Sharp Eyed Veteran").
• Relationships to people and organizations ("In League with the Twisting Hand", "The King’s Favor", "Proud Member of the Company of Lords").
• Problems, goals, or issues the character is dealing with (A Price on My Head, The King Must Die, Fear of Heights).
• Titles, reputations, or obligations the character may have ("Self-Important Merchant Guildmaster", "Silver-Tongued Scoundrel", "Honor-Bound to Avenge My Brother").

The best aspects overlap across a few of these categories, which gives you more ways to bring you into play.

Good aspects are DOUBLE-EDGED SWORDS. They can be invoked to help you, but can also be compelled against you - and that's important, because your aspects working against you is how you earn the fate points that can force things to go your way when it counts. Put another way, aspects should pull you into dramatic and high-stakes situations, then help you through them once you're there.

If you're struggling to come up with a good aspect, ask yourself: WHAT'S IMPORTANT, AND WHY? What elements of the truth the aspect represents do you actually care about? Why are they most interesting to you?

TALK WITH THE GM about your aspects as you work through them. Make sure you're both on the same page about what they mean, and what you want out of them. Both of you may want to find one way each aspect might be invoked or compelled to make sure you're both seeing the same things, or give each other ideas. This mutual understanding has a much stronger impact on how your character plays at the table than perfectly precise aspect wording. That being said, do prioritize directness and clarity over flowery metaphors or implications; the less everyone has to remember about any gaps between a phrase on your sheet and what that phrase means, the better.

Choose To Care

AT LEAST ONE of your character's aspects must relate to a strong belief they hold about the world your character lives in (as in the belief is strongly held, an extreme position in some way, or both). This could be a political stance, a philosophical viewpoint, a religious conviction, an idea of what a perfect world should look like, or any number of other ways a person's opinions could manifest.

High Concept & Trouble

First, choose a HIGH CONCEPT, a phrase that sums up the main thing your character is about - how you'd open the pitch for the character when telling a friend about them (e.g. "Wizard Private Detective," "Hotheaded Martial Arts Prodigy," "Peace Envoy From The Moon"). These can have overlap among the characters, as long as you have something to distinguish how your character is different from the others (e.g. "Alliance Soldier" by itself isn't specific enough to work as a high concept in a campaign soldiers fighting for the Alliance; "Gifted Rookie Alliance Soldier," "Vengeful Maverick Alliance Soldier," "Grizzled Veteran Alliance Soldier," or "Conscientious Defector Alliance Soldier" are all better).

Next, choose your TROUBLE, the biggest thing complicating your character's existence - a PERSONAL STRUGGLE or a PROBLEMATIC RELATIONSHIP. This shouldn't be anything easy to solve - if it was, your character would've done so already - but also shouldn't be so omnipresent that it completely paralyzes your character (e.g. something like "attacked by ninjas every hour on the hour" would force the story to be about nothing but fending off constant ninja attacks; "hunted by enemy ninjas" gets at something similar without dominating the narrative). It also shouldn't be directly related to your high concept. For example, if your high concept is "dogged detective," the trouble "the criminal underworld hates me" is dull, because we can already assume it's true based on the high concept. Something more specific, like "Don Giovanni personally hates me," would distinguish and improve it.

Phase One: Inciting Incident

Where did your character's story begin? What was the first thing that marked them as someone worth paying special attention to?

Write down up to two sentences on an index card describing your character's most relevant backstory event. This should be what kickstarted the chain of cause and effect that led to their being here, now, where the campaign will actually start. Then, write down an aspect that in some way relates to what happened.

Phase Two & Three: Crossing Paths

Now, you'll tie the group together by having other characters contribute a supporting role in your story, and vice-versa. Once everyone's inciting incident is written down, pass each card to another player (pass left, pass right, shuffle and redistribute - doesn't matter how, as long as everyone's holding someone else's card).

Give your character a supporting role in the backstory you've been handed. Briefly discuss your idea with the player whose card you have, then add one sentence or phrase to the card summing up how your character either complicated the scenario, solved a situation, or both solved one problem and created another (not necessarily in that order).

Then, write the backstory idea and your character's contribution to it down on your own phase worksheet, and write an aspect from the supporting role your character played. The person whose backstory it is should also write down your contribution, if there's room on their sheet.

Repeat this process for Phase 3.

Free Space

This last aspect is completely up to you. Fill it in with anything else you think is key to your character, or leave it blank for now and discover the aspect through play.

Rank Skills & Approaches

You start the game with SIX SKILLS ranked on your character sheet. Lacking a rank in a skill does not necessarily indicate total incapability; often, it just means you're not experienced or gifted enough to reliably use the skill under the kind of pressures that demand the dice come into play. See 3 Skills, Approaches, & Stunts#Untrained Action for details.

Rank one skill at Great, two at Good, and three at Adequate. Don't worry too much if you get hung up on a decision here - skills are fairly fluid over a character's lifetime, as they gain new abilities and let old and unused ones atrophy. You can adjust your skills at each #Milestone (i.e. at the end of most sessions) by swapping two that are within one rank of each other, or removing an existing Adequate skill to gain an Adequate rank in a new one that was previously unranked.

You also begin play with ALL SIX APPROACHES ranked; as with skills, rank one Great, two Good, and three Adequate. Approaches are harder to adjust than skills, since they model something fundamental about who your character is and how they operate in the world, but not impossible. Where skills can be adjusted every milestone, changing approaches requires a #Breakthrough, a less frequent but more significant moment that also sees your character get meaningfully stronger.

See 3 Skills, Approaches, & Stunts for the list of skills and approaches, with explanations of what they all cover, and #Advancement below for further details on milestones, breakthroughs, and other opportunities to adjust and improve your character.

Refresh

Your refresh determines the MINIMUM number of fate points you have at the start of each session. You will always start a session with at least this many fate points, though your points do not reset if you have more of them than your refresh number at the start of the session. Points do, however, reset to your refresh at the start of a new SCENARIO.

You will gain additional refresh as your campaign progresses, which you may spend on more stunts or keep in order to increase your starting fate point total. You can NEVER have less than one refresh at any time.

New characters have 3 refresh, up to 2 of which may be used to buy stunts (see below).

Write Stunts

By default, you start play with THREE PILOT STUNTS, each of which must use a skill you have at least Adequate (1) rank in. You may spend refresh to purchase additional stunt, one for one - though, to repeat, you may never have less than one refresh at any time.

See 3 Skills, Approaches, & Stunts#Building a Good Stunt for detailed rules and guidance about stunts, and 3 Skills, Approaches, & Stunts#Skill Details for some examples of what a stunt for each skill might look like.

Lightning Round: Character Discovery

If your group wants to skip making detailed characters up front and instead jump into play as quickly as possible -perhaps to just try out the system through a one-shot or shorter game - you can leave most of the character blank at the beginning of the game and fill it out as you go. Start with just the high concepts for your pilot and your mech, one Great skill, and one Great approach. Then, build out your remaining aspects, skills, approaches, and stunts as you discover your character through play.

Mech Creation

Your mech uses the same skills and approaches as everything else you do, but it has its own set of aspects and stunts. These SUPPLEMENT your existing pilot abilities, but apply only while you are piloting your mech. All your Pilot aspects and stunts can still apply while you're in the cockpit.

Mech Aspects

When creating your MECH ASPECTS, you'll start with a high concept and a trouble, just like your pilot. For your third mech aspect, describe your RELATIONSHIP to your mech. Is it your loyal companion? An extension of your body? A replaceable tool like any other? An armored coffin? All of the above, or something else entirely? Think about how you feel about this machine and what makes it yours - or what it means to you if it's not yours. This Relationship aspect is the only one that may be freely rewritten at a #Milestone; your mech's high concept and trouble both require a #Breakthrough to rewrite.

Gear Aspects

Mechs have two gear aspects, representing the equipment loadout you carry into battle. These aspects can shape the tactical options available to you and define how your mech actually fights. They can be invoked or compelled like any other aspect, but they also have a few special rules.

Mech equipment is proportionate to the mech using it, meaning it is enormous, intricate, and requires some lead time to change out. Your gear aspects are not available to rewrite during a #Milestone; instead, they may be freely changed when any of the following conditions apply:

• You are about to deploy in a battle for which you had time to prepare (so if you're dealing with a surprise attack or other scenario that requires emergency rapid response, you'll have to make the best of what you're already equipped with).
• A session begins or ends while you are in a position that would reasonably allow access to the facilities and time needed to reequip your mech (meaning you're not currently in your mech, you're not under immediate time pressure, and you're not in a situation or location that naturally prevents access to replacement gear like the middle of an empty desert).

Additionally, the GM may DESTROY a piece of gear as a special type of compel when your mech suffers a breakdown other than Dented. If this happens, write the breakdown aspect in a way that reflects the loss of the equipment (e.g. "Disabled Shoulder Cannons"). Unless you've established the gear aspect as something irreplaceable, like a bleeding-edge prototype, you'll get it back when the breakdown clears at the next Breakthrough advance. This is still a compel, so you will earn a fate point if it happens and you may spend one to refuse it. See 4 Challenges, Conflicts, & Contests#Harm and Mechs for the full rules on suffering and clearing breakdown.

Unless you use a stunt to get an additional, more mechanically detailed permanent capability built into your mech's design (e.g. a transformation, prototype defense technology, advanced neural link, or other complex feature), these aspects are assumed to be the only equipment your mech deploys with above whatever baseline your table agrees on in session 0.

There is no set equipment list, so you're free to outfit your mech with whatever gear you can dream up, but you must still work with the GM to make sure you're both on the same page about what a gear aspect can actually do.

EXAMPLES Beam Saber, Heat Axe, Shoulder Shield, Twin Head-Mounted Vulcans, Mega Bazooka Launcher, Enhanced Booster Binder, Atmospheric Re-Entry Balloon, Psi-Controlled Drone Swarm

Mech Stunts

Your mech starts with two stunts, written through the same process as your pilot stunts. You may purchase additional mech stunts with refresh.

Replacing Your Mech

If your mech is ever replaced, voluntarily or otherwise (see 4 Challenges, Conflicts, & Contests#Losing Your Mech), you are refunded HALF the refresh spent on your old mech's stunts, ROUNDED UP. You may use this refresh immediately to buy new stunts or reallocate it towards your refresh rating.

You may replace your mech voluntarily at any #Breakthrough. Some characters treat their mechs as disposable tools and upgrade without ceremony; for others, their mech is a deeply personal connection, and getting a new one is a significant story moment that's worth playing out as a dramatic scene.

scale

Mechs have a SCALE, a number that models the way that being in a mech radically changes your capabilities without having to use completely separate rulesets for on-foot and in-mech gameplay. By default, the game assumes roughly 1 point of scale for every 10 meters in mech height, rounded. In the source material this game draws on, most mechs range from scale 1 to scale 3, with outliers starting at scale 4 and increasing from there. Keep all player and most NPC mechs at the same scale - decide this with your group at character creation. Normal humans on foot always count as scale 0.

You may wish to widen the bands to use fewer scale categories and a wider variety of mechs within each, or decouple the scale bands from hard measurements entirely and just use a ladder like "human, small mech, normal mech, big mech, huge mech, stupidly huge mech, bigger than any mech." That's completely fine! This is meant to be a SET AND FORGET mechanic that applies only when the difference between human scale and whatever you decide is the standard mech scale, or standard mech scale and something much larger, matters. As long as everyone's on the same page about the impact they can expect those differences to have, scale is doing its job.

Scale modifies the dice in two ways:

• In general, when attempting an action where the scale difference between you and your opposition makes things easier (e.g. evading a mech's sensors; throwing a car; painting a target), the opposition should be adjusted down by the difference in your scales. When the difference makes things harder (e.g. fighting a mech with small arms while on foot; precision repair work; dentistry), adjust the opposition up by the difference.
• Any time an attack by a larger-scale opponent succeeds against a lower scale opponent, double the scale difference and add that number to the amount of hits scored above the target. This stacks with the first rule, so if a Scale 2 mech shoots at a Scale 0 character on foot, the on-foot character's Defend roll is already reduced by 2 (since it's the opposition for the mech), then, if the attack is successful, four more hits are added before assigning strain or consequences. The intent here is to model the idea that anyone not in a mech who takes a direct hit from a mech-sized weapon is likely to be reduced to red paste, without making that into a hard guarantee.

This system does break down somewhat when dealing with extreme outliers (scale differences of 3 or more) or things like spaceships that dwarf mechs, but whose size advantage is counteracted by being far slower and more cumbersome. The GM should use their best judgement and err on the side of "difficult but fair" when dealing with things that are still within the realm of mech combat. For anything larger, an approach other than direct combat with the massive target will be needed (e.g. the Death Star trench run, where the rebels faced ferocious and extended opposition from comparably-scaled ships and point defenses in order to reach an exploitable weak spot they could actually affect, but never had to deal with the Death Star's planet-killing superlaser). You are encouraged to come up with creative ways to circumvent or nullify the scale modifiers, like blowing off a mech's sensor array to force the pilot to open the cockpit and expose their body to direct fire, or a mech stunt with a specific application to small-scale precision work like "Nested Manipulators."

Advancement

Milestone

Milestones happen at the END OF A SESSION, part of the way through dealing with a story arc. They are focused on ADJUSTING your character laterally rather than advancing them. You may not wish to use a milestone, which is fine. It doesn't always make sense to change your character. The opportunity is there if you need it.

During a milestone, you can do ONE of the following:

• Switch the ratings of any two skills that are within 1 step of each other (e.g. switch Tinker 2 and Persevere 1, becomes Persevere 2 and Tinker 1), or replace one Adequate (1) skill with one that isn't on your sheet.
• Rewrite one stunt.
• Purchase a new stunt by spending 1 refresh (you can never go below 1 refresh).
• Rewrite any one of your aspects, except your high concept.

Breakthrough

Breakthroughs are more significant, letting your character actually GROW IN POWER. A breakthrough lets you do ALL of the following:

• Choose one thing from the milestone list.
• Rewrite your character's high concept, if you care to.
• If you have any moderate or severe consequences not yet in recovery, you can begin the recovery process and rename them. Any that were in recovery may now be cleared.
• If you have an extreme consequence that has not yet been renamed, you may rename it now. Extreme consequences can never be cleared, only processed.
• Switch the ratings of any two approaches that are within 1 step of each other (e.g. switch Carefully 2 and Subtly 3; becomes Carefully 3, Subtly 2).
• Choose one:
  • Increase the rating of one skill by 1.
  • Add a new skill to your sheet at Adequate (1) rating.
  • Unlock one box of armor for your mech.
• Replace your mech completely.

If the GM feels a major plot development has concluded and it's time for the characters to power up, they may also offer one or both of the following:

• Gain a point of refresh, which you can immediately spend to buy a new stunt if you like.
• Increase an approach rating by 1.

Improving Ranks

When improving a skill rank, you must maintain a "column" structure. Each step may not have more skills than the step below it. That may mean you need to promote a few unranked skills first - or, you may save up your skill points rather than spend them immediately, allowing big increases all at once.

1. Except for Adequate (1), no more than two approaches may ever be at the same rank. So a spread of 2 2 3 3 4 4 is fine, but the only legal choice for the next approach increase is to increase one of the Masterful (4) approaches to Superhuman (5) for a spread of 2 2 3 3 4 5.
2. Only one approach may be Superhuman (5).

Example Characters

Kamille Bidan, Zeta Gundam: Kamille Bidan (Start), Kamille Bidan (Late)

Char Aznable, Zeta Gundam: Quattro Bajeena, Char Aznable

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3 Skills, Approaches, & Stunts