FoldUnfold Table of Contents I am a/an [adjective] [noun] who [verbs] CHARACTER DESCRIPTOR, TYPE, AND FOCUS Descriptors Foci Character Stats MIGHT SPEED INTELLECT POOL, EDGE, AND EFFORT POOL EDGE EFFORT EFFORT AND DAMAGE MULTIPLE USES OF EFFORT AND EDGE CHARACTER TIERS AND BENEFITS CUSTOMIZING CHARACTERS SKILLS SKILLS FROM BACKGROUNDS TRADING ABILITIES MODIFYING ABILITIES SWITCHING DESCRIPTORS AND FOCI AFTER CHARACTER CREATION TIERS ABOVE SIXTH

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I am a/an [adjective] [noun] who [verbs]

Filling out this sentence is the core guideline of character creation and provides an instant glimpse as to who you are playing both in terms of skillset and personality

CHARACTER DESCRIPTOR, TYPE, AND FOCUS

To create your character, you build a simple statement that describes them. The statement takes this form: “I am a [fill in an adjective here] [fill in a noun here] who [fill in a verb here].” Thus: “I am an adjective noun who verbs.” For example, you might say, “I am a Rugged Glaive who Controls Beasts” or “I am a Charming Nano who Focuses Mind Over Matter.” In this sentence, the adjective is called your descriptor. The noun is your character type. The verb is called your focus. Even though character type is in the middle of the sentence, that’s where we’ll start this discussion. (Just as in a sentence, the noun provides the foundation.) Character type is the core of your character. In some roleplaying games, it might be called your character class. Your type helps determine your character’s place in the world and relationship with other people in the setting. It’s the noun of the sentence “I am an adjective noun who verbs.”
You can choose from eight character types:

• Glaive
• Nano
• Jack
• Glint (Options 1)
• Seeker (Options 1)
• Arkus (Destiny)
• Delve (Destiny)
• Wright (Destiny)

Descriptor defines your character—it flavors everything you do. Your descriptor places your character in the situation (the first adventure, which starts the campaign) and helps provide motivation. It’s the adjective of the sentence “I am an adjective noun who verbs.” You can choose from many character descriptors. Focus is what your character does best. Focus gives your character specificity and provides
interesting new abilities that might come in handy. Your focus also helps you understand how you relate with the other player characters in your group. It’s the verb of the sentence “I am an adjective noun who verbs.” There are many character foci to choose from.

Descriptors

Foci

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Character Stats

Every player character has three defining characteristics, which are typically called “statistics” or “stats.” These stats are Might, Speed, and Intellect. They are broad categories that cover many different but related aspects of a character.

MIGHT

Might defines how strong and durable your character is. The concepts of strength, endurance,
constitution, hardiness, and physical prowess are all folded into this one stat. Might isn’t relative to size; instead, it’s an absolute measurement. An elephant has more Might than the mightiest tiger, which has more Might than the mightiest rat, which has more Might than the mightiest spider. Might governs actions from forcing doors open to walking for days without food to resisting disease. It’s also the primary means of determining how much damage your character can sustain in a dangerous situation. Physical characters, tough characters, and characters interested in fighting should focus on Might.

SPEED

Speed describes how fast and physically coordinated your character is. The stat embodies quickness,
movement, dexterity, and reflexes. Speed governs such divergent actions as dodging attacks, sneaking around quietly, and throwing a ball accurately. It helps determine whether you can move farther on your turn. Nimble, fast, or sneaky characters will want good Speed stats, as will those interested in ranged combat.

INTELLECT

This stat determines how smart, knowledgeable, and likable your character is. It includes intelligence, wisdom, charisma, education, reasoning, wit, willpower, and charm. Intellect governs solving puzzles, remembering facts, telling convincing lies, and using mental powers. Characters interested in communicating effectively, being learned scholars, and wielding the numenera should stress their Intellect stat.

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POOL, EDGE, AND EFFORT

Each of your stats has two components: your Pool and your Edge. Your Pool represents your raw, innate ability, and your Edge represents knowing how to use what you have. A third element ties into this concept: Effort. When your character really needs to accomplish a task, you apply Effort.

POOL

Your Pool is the most basic measurement of a stat. Comparing the Pools of two creatures will give you a general sense of which creature is superior in that stat. For example, a character who has a Might Pool of 16 is stronger (in a basic sense) than a character who has a Might Pool of 12. Most characters start with a Pool of 9 to 12 in most stats—that’s the average range.

When your character is injured, sickened, or attacked, you temporarily lose points from one of your stat Pools. The nature of the attack determines which Pool loses points. For example, physical damage from a sword reduces your Might Pool, a poison that makes you clumsy reduces your Speed Pool, and a mental blast reduces your Intellect Pool. You can also spend points from one of your stat Pools to decrease a task’s difficulty (see Effort,below). You can rest to regain lost points from a stat Pool (see Recovering Points in a Pool), and some special abilities or numenera might allow you to recover lost points quickly.

EDGE

Although your Pool is the basic measurement of a stat, your Edge is also important. When something requires you to spend points from a stat Pool, your Edge for that stat reduces the cost. It also reduces the cost of applying Effort to a roll.

For example, let’s say you have a mental blast ability, and activating it costs 1 point from your Intellect Pool. Subtract your Intellect Edge from the activation cost, and the result is how many points you must spend to use the mental blast. If using your Edge reduces the cost to 0, you can use the ability for free.

Your Edge can be different for each stat. For example, you could have a Might Edge of 1, a Speed Edge of 1, and an Intellect Edge of 0. You’ll always have an Edge of at least 1 in one stat. Your Edge for a stat reduces the cost of spending points from that stat Pool, but not from other Pools. Your Might Edge reduces the cost of spending points from your Might Pool, but it doesn’t affect your Speed Pool or Intellect

EFFORT

When your character really needs to accomplish a task, you can apply Effort to reduce the difficulty of a task (also called easing a task). For a beginning character, applying Effort requires spending 3 points from the stat Pool appropriate to the action. Thus, if your character tries to dodge an attack (a Speed roll) and wants to increase the chance for success, you can apply Effort by spending 3 points from your Speed Pool. Using Effort eases the task by one step. This is called applying one level of Effort.
You don’t have to apply Effort if you don’t want to. If you choose to apply Effort to a task, you must do it before you attempt the roll—you can’t roll first and then decide to apply Effort if you rolled poorly. Applying more Effort can lower a task’s difficulty further: each additional level of Effort
eases the task by another step. Applying one level of Effort eases the task by one step, applying two levels eases the task by two steps, and so on. Each level of Effort after the first costs only 2 points from the stat Pool instead of 3. So applying two levels of Effort costs 5 points (3 for the first level plus 2 for the second level), applying three levels costs 7 points (3 plus 2 plus 2), and so on.

Every character has an Effort score, which indicates the maximum number of levels of Effort that can be applied to a roll. A beginning (first-tier) character has an Effort of 1, meaning you can apply only one level of Effort to a roll. A more experienced character has a higher Effort score and can apply more levels of Effort to a roll. For example, a character who has an Effort of 3 can apply up to three levels of Effort to ease a task.

When you apply Effort, subtract your relevant Edge from the total cost of applying Effort. For example, let’s say you need to make a Speed roll. To increase your chance for success, you decide to apply one level of Effort, which will ease the task by one step. Normally, that would cost 3 points from your Speed Pool. However, if you have a Speed Edge of 2, you subtract that from the cost. Thus, applying Effort to the roll costs only 1 point from your Speed Pool. What if you applied two levels of Effort to the Speed roll instead of just one? That would ease the task by two steps. Normally, it would cost 5 points from your Speed Pool, but after subtracting your Speed Edge of 2, it costs only 3 points. Once a stat’s Edge reaches 3, you can apply one level of Effort for free. For example, if you have a Speed Edge of 3 and you apply one level of Effort to a Speed roll, it costs you 0 points from your Speed Pool. Normally, applying one level of Effort would cost 3 points, but you subtract your Speed Edge from that cost, reducing it to 0.)

Skills and other advantages also ease a task, and you can use them in conjunction with Effort. In addition, your character might have special abilities or equipment that allow you to apply Effort to accomplish a special effect, such as knocking down a foe with an attack or affecting multiple targets with a power that normally affects only one.

EFFORT AND DAMAGE

Instead of applying Effort to ease your attack, you can apply Effort to increase the amount of damage you inflict with an attack. For each level of Effort you apply in this way, you inflict 3 additional points of damage. This works for any kind of attack that inflicts damage, whether a sword, a crossbow, a mind blast, or something else.

When using Effort to increase the damage of an area attack, such as the explosion created by a Nano’s Flash ability, you inflict 2 additional points of damage instead of 3 points. However, the additional points are dealt to all targets in the area. Further, even if one or more of the targets in the area resist the attack, you still inflict 1 point of damage to them.

MULTIPLE USES OF EFFORT AND EDGE

If your Effort is 2 or higher, you can apply Effort to multiple aspects of a single action. For example, if you make an attack, you can apply Effort to your attack roll and apply Effort to increase the damage.
The total amount of Effort you apply can’t be higher than your Effort score. For example, if your Effort is 2, you can apply up to two levels of Effort. You could apply one level to an attack roll and one level to its damage, two levels to the attack and no levels to the damage, or no levels to the attack and two levels to the damage.

You can use Edge for a particular stat only once per action. For example, if you apply Effort to a Might attack roll and to your damage, you can use your Might Edge to reduce the cost of one of those uses of Effort, not both. If you spend 1 Intellect point to activate your mind blast and one level of Effort to ease the attack roll, you can use your Intellect Edge to reduce the cost of one of those things, not both.

CHARACTER TIERS AND BENEFITS

Every character starts the game at the first tier. Tier is a measurement of power, toughness, and ability. Characters can advance up to the sixth tier. As your character advances to higher tiers, you gain more abilities, increase your Effort, and can improve a stat’s Edge or increase a stat. Generally speaking, even first-tier characters are quite capable. It’s safe to assume that they’ve already got some experience under their belt. This is not a “zero to hero” progression, but rather an instance of competent people refining and honing their capabilities and knowledge. Advancing to higher tiers is not really the goal of Numenera characters, but rather a representation of how characters progress in a story.

To progress to the next tier, characters earn experience points (XP) by exploring new places and discovering new things—the Ninth World is about discovery of the past and what it means for the future. Experience points have many uses, and one use is to purchase character benefits. After your character purchases four character benefits, they go up to the next tier.

CUSTOMIZING CHARACTERS

Character creation in Numenera is meant to be simple and fast. However, it’s also meant to provide players with the character they want to play. Sometimes, a player wants more than the options provided, even when you add in all the new options. For these players, some tweaking and modifying is required.
The Numenera corebook already provides guidelines for modifying or creating your own new types, descriptors, and foci. Read through those optional rules before using the guidelines here.

SKILLS

Sometimes your character gains training in a specific skill or task. For example, your focus might mean that you're trained in sneaking, in climbing and jumping, or in social interactions. Other times, your character can choose a skill to become trained in, and you can pick a skill that relates to any task you think you might face. The game has no definitive list of skills. However, the following list offers ideas:

Astronomy	History	Philosophy
Balancing	Identifying	Pickpocketing
Carrying	Initiative	Repairing
Climbing	Intimidation	Riding
Crafting numenera*	Jumping	Salvaging numenera*
Deceiving	Leatherworking	Smashing
Economics	Literature	Sneaking
Escaping	Lockpicking	Swimming
Geography	Metalworking	Understanding numenera*
Geology	Perception	Woodworking
Healing	Persuasion

*This skill requires detailed knowledge. If you aren't trained or specialized in this skill, you have an inability in the skill. See Inability, page 101.

You could choose a skill that incorporates more than one of these areas (interacting might include deceiving, intimidation, and persuasion) or is a more specific version of one (hiding might be sneaking when you're not moving). You could also make up more general, professional skills, such as baker, sailor, or lumberjack. If you want to choose a skill that's not on this list, it's probably best to run it past the GM first, but in general, the most important aspect is to choose skills that are appropriate to your character. Remember that if you gain a skill that you're already trained in, you become specialized in that skill, which eases related tasks by two steps instead of one. Because skill descriptions can be nebulous, determining whether you're trained or specialized might take some thinking. For example, if you're trained in lying and later gain an ability that grants you skill with all social interactions, you become specialized in lying and trained in all other types of interactions.

Being trained three times in a skill is no better than being trained twice (in other words, specialized is as good as it gets). Only skills gained through character type abilities (such as the Glaive's fighting moves), focus abilities, or other rare instances allow you to become skilled with attack or defense tasks. If you gain a special ability through your type, your focus, or some other aspect of your character, you can choose it in place of a skill and become trained or specialized in that ability. For example, if you have a mind blast, when it's time to choose a skill to be trained in, you can select your mind blast as your skill. That would ease the task every time you used it. Each ability you have counts as a separate skill for this purpose. You can't select "all mind powers" or "all esoteries" as one skill and become trained or specialized in such a broad category.

SKILLS FROM BACKGROUNDS

A glaive’s background says that he worked in a smithy as a young lad. But there’s no way a glaive can begin with weaponsmithing as a skill (he can get this skill as he progresses). Shouldn’t he start with that skill? This question has four potential answers.
1. No. He might know the basics of the task. However, a skill doesn’t represent a simple familiarity, but extensive training, experience, or talent. Not everyone who works in a restaurant is a chef.
2. Sure. In the scope of things, will weaponsmithing wreck the game or make the character unplayable? Is it unfair to the other players? Probably not. For that matter, give all the characters a background skill. Require that it ties into the character’s actual background and doesn’t have a lot of direct adventuring applications. For example, a PC can have cooking, animal care, philosophy, or woodworking, but not climbing, sneaking, or anything similar, and certainly not a skill with attack or defense.
3. Yes. Use the Experience Point Advance optional rules, where the character takes on a story complication in exchange for receiving 4 XP to buy the new skill.
4. Yes. Allow the player to have an XP deficit. The character starts with the desired skill, but before he can gain any of the four benefits required to advance to the next tier, the player must pay off this deficit. It’s probably unwise to allow a character to start with a deficit of greater than 4 XP.

TRADING ABILITIES

Sometimes a player wants to be a nano but also wants to wear armor without a penalty. To make armor easier to wear, you can use the rule that allows a character to purchase an ability other than one of the four benefits (usually a new skill). But there are other options as well. On a case-by-case basis, you can take an ability from one type (or focus) and make it available to another type at the same tier (or perhaps a higher tier). This option should be used very conservatively, particularly since one of the main draws of a jack character is that jacks have access to abilities from both of the other types.
If you want a slightly more “balanced” alternative, require that the character sacrifice something to gain something. If a nano wants a glaive ability, she has to give up some aspect of being a nano. Perhaps she can wear armor with the Practiced in Armor ability, but she has to give up her numenera knowledge, or she can use cyphers only like a glaive, and so on. This works best for nonvariable abilities. But what about other tier abilities? Sometimes, a player might want just one ability from another type. For example, a glaive wants to use a particular trick of the trade as a fighting move. That’s probably okay, but again, it should be done on a case-by-case basis and very rarely. And it’s still viable to ask that player to give something up. For example, if a glaive wants a trick of the trade at second tier, he should give up one of the second-tier fighting move options permanently.
What do you do in the opposite situation, where a player has a nonvariable ability that he doesn’t want? In most cases, the answer probably is: do nothing. Just because a glaive doesn’t want to wear armor, that doesn’t mean her Practiced in Armor ability is a waste. She might need it later on. But in some cases, that nonvariable ability can be swapped for something else—almost always something of less “value.” In the case of the no-armor glaive, perhaps she gets training in a relatively innocuous skill. For higher-tier abilities, the trade is for a lower-tier ability.

MODIFYING ABILITIES

Characters can spend additional points or make a special roll to make an ability work beyond the bounds of its normal parameters. This is called modifying an ability, and it works on the fly.
But what if a player wants to modify an ability permanently? What if a character who Moves Like a Cat wants her fourth-tier Quick Strike ability to stun foes rather than daze them? Consider the following questions.

Is the modified ability more powerful?
In our example, it is, because stunned foes lose their next action, while dazed foes simply take a penalty to actions. If the answer is yes, a permanent price must be paid for the modification. First of all, increase the point cost (if any) by at least 50 percent. Alternatively, require that a level of Effort be used with the ability. If there is no cost—if the ability is always active, for example—give it a duration (perhaps an hour) and a point cost. Usually the point cost would be the tier + 1.

Is the modified ability less powerful?
If so, reduce the point cost by at least 50 percent. If the ability has no cost to reduce, consider giving the character an extra skill.

Is the modified ability about the same?
Then call it even.

Sometimes a player wants to have an entirely new ability—not one from another type or focus, and not just a modification of an existing ability. In this case, the player and the GM should work out the details together, basing the power level of the new ability on the one that it is replacing. This is tricky, of course, but the broad strokes—damage inflicted, point cost, and so on—can be transferred if applicable, and minor aspects like range and duration should just fit the new ability rather than be a “balance” consideration.

SWITCHING DESCRIPTORS AND FOCI AFTER CHARACTER CREATION

As the campaign goes along, it’s possible that a player might want to switch the descriptor or focus that she chose when creating her character.
It’s best if these changes occur organically rather than being forced. In other words, a character’s descriptor changes because something happened in the game to change her, or her focus changes because a new opportunity arose in the course of play. (Don’t do it if a player wants to change just for the sake of variety or to become more powerful in the current situation. In these cases, the GM should have the player make a new character instead.)

Changing a descriptor is both easy and appropriate, particularly with some of the new descriptors found in this book. For example, in the course of play, a Strong glaive’s father is killed by a terrible villain. The glaive is fueled now by revenge. This story event could easily justify the glaive changing his descriptor to Vengeful or Driven. If he became a terrible person because of it, he might take the Dishonorable descriptor. Likewise, a Learned nano who falls into a vat of acid might become Hideous or Mad.

Of course, these characters lose their old descriptor and any benefits it conveyed, but that can be a part of the story, too. The Strong glaive who is now a Vengeful glaive stopped exercising and physically pushing his body. He might still be strong, but it’s not his defining characteristic—he’s not as strong as he was. He’s vengeful instead. Likewise, the Learned nano forgets some of her schooling and loses her focus on such pursuits due to the accident that made her hideous. There’s no limitation on the number of times a character can change his descriptor. For example, if the aforementioned glaive achieves his vengeance, maybe he goes back to being strong—as long as it fits the story.

Switching a focus is a bit trickier, and the story reason is probably more awkward. How does a jack who Carries a Quiver become a jack who Bears a Halo of Fire? The change likely involves time to train and a story reason. Perhaps the jack trained at a monastery she found in the hills where they specialize in “fire magic,” or maybe she discovered some firerelated numenera. Perhaps she was kidnapped by strange forces and bathed in weird energies. It’s Numenera, so almost anything is possible. You just have to work at it a bit. Focus changes should occur only when a character attains a new tier, and it probably shouldn’t be allowed more than once per character.

Mechanically, the new focus does not “overwrite” the old focus the way a new descriptor replaces an old descriptor. Instead, the old focus abilities remain, and at the new tier, the character gains an ability from the new focus, but the ability must come from a tier lower than the one just attained. For example, if our jack who Carries a Quiver begins to Bear a Halo of Fire at third tier, she keeps her first-tier and second-tier abilities from carrying a quiver, and for her third-tier ability, she chooses either the first-tier or the second-tier ability from Bears a Halo of Fire (probably the first-tier ability, because that makes more sense). When she reaches fourth tier, she chooses from the first three tier abilities of Bears a Halo of Fire (although obviously she can’t choose the ability she already selected). The character always chooses new abilities from tiers lower than the one she attains in her new focus. This means that the only way to get the sixth-tier ability of a focus is to start with that focus.

A character can’t choose abilities from her former focus. Once the change is made, it’s made.

TIERS ABOVE SIXTH

It will take a good long campaign to get a character up to the sixth tier. But what if you want to keep playing the character after that point? There is no seventh tier. Neither character types nor foci go beyond sixth. However, you can simulate continued advancement quite easily. Allow characters to continue to pay for character benefits (4 XP each) as normal, with the following caveats:

• Do not allow characters to increase their Effort beyond 6. Instead, let them choose another skill or an alternative ability, such as adding 2 to their recovery rolls, reducing the cost of wearing armor, or selecting a new fighting move, esotery, or trick of the trade.
• Do not allow a character to have an Edge higher than 6 in any one stat.
• When a character gains four benefits, he gains a new tier. At that point, allow him to choose another ability suited to his character type (esoteries for nanos, fighting moves for glaives, or tricks of the trade for jacks). Further, allow him to choose any ability (of any tier) from the customizing foci ability options in the Numenera corebook.