Legends of Anglerre chargen questions

Question

I looked over Legends of Anglerre's explanation of quick character generation and it doesn't seem to exactly explain what power scope is covers. What characters does it allow?

Additionally, I am not sure about skill points - how much do I give per power level (Good, Great and Superb in order)? How was the suggested base 20 points decided upon?

Finally, given I plan on running a one shot to players who've never played FATE or LoA, would it be wiser to pregen the characters completely?

Answer 1

I understand that the 20 point pyramid allows 1 Great skill. What I'm wondering is whether this applies to all 3 grades of characters (Doing step 4 and step 5 in chargen) in terms of abilities. Would Great characters get more points to get a Superb skill? Would Superb characters get more points to have a Fantastic skill?

Given the points values on p.17 for the various grades:

Superb: 35 points 5 phases 10 aspects 5 stunts<br>
Great:  20 points 4 phases 8 aspects 4 stunts<br>
Good:   15 points 3 phases 6 aspects 3 stunts

Because of the pyramid nature, a Good (15pt) character can not get above a Good. He has to have a pyramid, so in order to have a Great, he has to have at least one great, which requires at least 2 Goods, and that requires 3 Fairs, and those require 4 averages...

Best Skill Good          Best Skill Great         Best Skill Superb
minimum points           minimum points           Minimum Points
   3    Gd x1 =  3          4      Gr x1 = 4           5       Su x1 = 5
  2 2   Fa x2 =  4         3 3     Gd x2 = 6          4 4      Gr x2 = 8
 1 1 1  Av x3 =  3        2 2 2    Fa x3 = 6         3 3 3     Gd x3 = 9
        Total = 10       1 1 1 1   Av x4 = 4        2 2 2 2    Fa x4 = 8
                                   Total = 20      1 1 1 1 1   Av x5 = 5
                                                               Total = 35

So, since a Good character has 15 points, he can't reach Great because great requires 20 points minimum to reach. (with Aspects, tho', he might be able to act with an effective skill of Superb when he uses an aspect; more on that later.)

So, what are the options for a 15 point Good Character?

   3         Gd x1 = 3      3             Gd x1 = 3            
  2 2 2      Fa x3 = 6     2 2            Fa x2 = 4   
 1 1 1 1 1 1 Av x6 = 6    1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Av x8 = 8   
             Total = 15                   Total = 15

He can't have 2 Goods, tho:

   3 3    Gd x2 = 6 
  2 2 2   Fa x3 = 6 
 1 1 1 1  Av x4 = 4 
          Total = 16 « over by 1!

But you can also have a "Good" character with no "Good" skills:

Fa x4 =  8    Fa x3 =  6    Fa x2  =  4    Fa x1  =  2    Fa x0  =  0    
Av x7 =  7    Av x9 =  9    Av x11 = 11    Av x13 = 13    Av x15 = 15    
Total = 15    Total = 15    Total  = 15    Total  = 15    Total  = 15    

Great Characters, with 20 points of skills, can only have 1 Great... because the minimum pyramid for a great is 20 points.

He can, however, have any of the following Good-top pyramids:

Gd x2 =  6     Gd x2 =  6     Gd x1 =  3     Gd x1 =  3
Fa x4 =  8     Fa x3 =  6     Fa x5 = 10     Fa x4 =  8
Av x6 =  6     Av x8 =  8     Av x7 =  7     Av x9 =  9
Total = 20     Total = 20     Total = 20     Total = 20

Gd x1  =  3    Gd x1  =  3
Fa x3  =  6    Fa x2  =  4    Fa x6  = 12    Fa x5  = 10
Av x11 = 11    Av x13 = 13    Av x8  =  8    Av x10 = 10
Total  = 20    Total  = 20    Total  = 20    Total  = 20

Fa x4  =  8    Fa x3  =  6    Fa x2  =  4    Fa x1  =  2
Av x12 = 12    Av x14 = 14    Av x16 = 16    Av x18 = 18
Total  = 20    Total  = 20    Total  = 20    Total  = 20

Likewise, theres no way to have a valid pyramid with better than Superb with the 35 points a Superb character starts with, but he can have a lot of options for starting with less than a superb. Too many to list.

The character category determines how many phases, and what the maximum possible skill level at start is. Only for Good characters does that provide options if you want to be as Good as you can.

Answer 2

You should spend skill points based on 1 point per + given--Average is 1 point, Fair is 2 points, and so on. The default for this game is a pyramid, like the other FATE games--this one, however, is less high-powered than Spirit of the Century (another FATE game) is at the beginning. This is the default 20 point pyramid:

    4      -- Total: 4                 =  4
   3 3     -- Total: 4 + 6             = 10
  2 2 2    -- Total: 4 + 6 + 6         = 16
 1 1 1 1   -- Total: 4 + 6 + 6 + 4     = 20

By comparison, SotC's starting pyramid would be 35 points, because of the extra 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 available for skills:

    5      -- Total: 5                 =  5
   4 4     -- Total: 5 + 8             = 13
  3 3 3    -- Total: 5 + 8 + 9         = 22
 2 2 2 2   -- Total: 5 + 8 + 9 + 8     = 30
1 1 1 1 1  -- Total: 5 + 8 + 9 + 8 + 5 = 35

Pregens are very useful for a one-shot for FATE based systems--this system may be quicker than the Dresden Files RPG's system, but it still can easily take a while for newer players. Stick with pregens to avoid problems.