These pages include the following information:
- The name of the race.
- Average attributes. See the section on Initial Attributes in Character Creation for more information on how to use these. The number of increase points available to a character of this race will also be given.
- Physical characteristics. The height and weight given are the average for the race, and most members of the race will fall within ten percent of the average, one way or the other. The life expectancy is also given.
- Movement attributes. See the section on Movement in Other Rules for more information on how to use these.
- Hit locations. This table gives all the information you will need
to take the character through combat. The various hit locations which
apply to the race are listed, each with a hit point divider, a “hit on”
range, and an aimed attack penalty.
To determine the character's maximum hit points in a certain hit location, divide their CON by the given hit point divider (eg. if there is a /10 in the HP column, and the character has a 65 CON, they will have a maximum of 6 HP in that hit location). Alternately, there may be an absolute number of hit points given, in which case all characters of the race have the same number of hit points in that location.
The "hit on" range is used to determine where the character is hit. When another character scores a hit against your character, unless it is an aimed attack, they will roll again. Look up the result of their roll on your table to determine which hit location they have damaged. See the chapter on Combat for more details.
The penalty is the modifier which must be applied to a aimed attack on that particular hit location. It is a measure of how awkward it would be to intentionally hit that location.
- Physical Description, Reproduction, Climate, Society and Miscellaneous. These will include anything you will need to know to play a member of the race, along with anything you don't need which we thought was interesting enough to be included.
- Game terms. This will include anything you should keep in mind when creating a member of the race. It is not generally important after the character has been completed.
Note
While the game makes no distinction between male and female characters, the players may wish to take certain tendencies into account.Among most humanoid races, the strongest males are stronger than the strongest females, but females exhibit a higher average endurance and intuition. Males are also taller and heavier on average. The other attributes are fairly even. These differences, however, are not as pronounced as they once were, and there is a continuing trend towards equality.
Among many species of birds the males are brightly coloured, in order to attract mates, while the females are much more blandly coloured, so that they blend into their surroundings while they are hatching their eggs.
Similarly, little or no distinction is made between the numerous species which make up the various races, although there are differences there as well.
Eastern Asian humans are often slightly shorter and darker skinned than their counterparts from northern Europe, but are taller and lighter skinned that the extremely short African pygmies.
There are hundreds of species of dogs, cats, birds, fish, spiders, etc. Clearly, a chihuahua will have a much lower strength than a bulldog. However, to undertake to describe all of these individually is the job of encyclopaedias, not a role-playing game. We will make note of some of the more common or representative species, but it is up to the player and GM to determine the exact statistics of any species we do not explicitly cover.
Your characters will seem more realistic and alive if you take these tendencies into account when creating a character.
