Genesys RPG

Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) has recently released a 'generic' implementation of their Star Wars rulesystem called 'Genesys'.

No... 'Genesys'.

Probably clever shorthand for 'Generic System'.

At any rate, the system is nearly identical to the Star Wars system, aside from two areas:

• Different Dice (You can use the star wars dice in a pinch.)
• Specialization 'trees' are gone.

The new dice due have more reasonable symbology, but work just the same as they do in Star Wars, sans a Force die.

The change in talent handling will be a welcome change for many, as now talents are bought 'a la carte', with each talent having a 'tier level' that dictates its XP cost, as well as when you may buy it.

When you purchase a talent, the two requirements are:

1.  Enough experience points.
2. After you would add the talent, you have more talents of a lower tier. This effectively creates a 'talent pyramid' akin to the way Fate handles skills.

The core book is a toolkit, most similar to something like the 'Cypher System' rulebook in that you need to put in a bit of work as a GM to build out some items, archetypes and foes before you can really run a game with it.

Like the Cypher System rulebook, there are genre examples given for Fantasy, Modern, and Sci-Fi (Cyberpunk and Space Opera). These honestly feel more like teasers for future FFG product (i.e. Twilight Imperium and Android are the two sci-fi setting overviews given.) but they give enough mechanical examples to build out those backgrounds yourself.

So to test out character creation, I'm going to make a barbarian warrior named 'Valeria'.

Step 1 is to figure out concept/background: She's a barbarian warrior named 'Valeria'. 😁

Step 2 is to determine Archetype or Species. This is essentially a package that determines starting stats, a special ability and a skill boost as well as experience points to buy additional skills/talents.

The core book gives an example of an Archetype for a laborer, basically strong, not great with mental fortitude and has the option to drop a critical injury to the least serious one possible once per session for a story point spend. We will refactor this as a 'Barbarian' archtype, swapping the low willpower for a low intellect.

Valeria the Barbarian

BRAWN 3 AGILITY 2  INTELLECT 1 CUNNING 2 WILLPOWER 2 PRESENCE 2 

Starting Wound Threshold: 12 + Brawn  = 15

Starting Strain Threshold: 8 + Willpower = 10

Starting Experience: 100 

Starting Skills: A Barbarian starts with one rank in Athletics during character creation. They obtain this rank before spending experience points, and may not increase Athletics above rank 2 during character creation.

Tough as Nails: Once per session, your character may spend a Story Point as an out-of-turn incidental immediately after suffering a Critical Injury and determining the result. If they do so, they count the result rolled as “01".

Step 3 we choose a career, which gives us a package of skills that we get a discount for buying as well as starting with an additional rank in 4 of them. We will select 'Soldier' (we could make our own as well, but this is a first pass.) 

We get Athletics, Brawl, Coercion, Melee[Heavy], Perception, Ranged, Survival, and Vigilance as career skills, plus we get a free rank in four of them: Melee[Heavy], Vigilance, Survival and Coercion seem like a good start.

Step 4 Invest Experience Points. We have 100 to buy talents and skills and a chance to improve characteristics.

• Skills cost 5x the level you want to raise it to, plus 5 more if it is not a career skill.  (And you cant have more than a skill of 2 from character generation.)
• Talents cost 5x the Tier level of the talent. 

For Valeria, we should bump her brawn to 4 for a cost of 40. (40pts characteristics)

Skills: add one level of Melee[Heavy] for 10, one level of Discipline for 10, one level of Perception for 5, one level of brawl for 5 and one level Cool for 10 (40pts skills)

Talents: Tier 1: Parry for 5 Durable for 5. Tier 2: Berserk for 10

Step 5 Derived characteristics: Wounds 16, Strain 10, Melee Defense 0, Ranged Defense 0, Soak 4

Step 6 Determine Character Motivation. I'm just going to roll these, and unlike some systems they DO have a mechanical impact, especially in Social Encounters.

• Desire - Safety... Ok this is a weird Barbarian Berserker, but there we are. 
• Fear - Nemesis. She has someone who she fears, even if she doesnt admit it it, that is out for her.
• Strength - Courageous. This is thematically appropriate.
• Flaw - Anger. Ok this also works quite well for a Barbarian Berserker.

Putting it all together, perhaps she is on the run from an enemy that wishes to end her for something that she did when she lost her temper. Perhaps she is afraid of this nemesis not so much for the physical threat it presents, but rather the reminder of something terrible that she did...

Step 7 Choose Gear, Appearance and Personality.

Personality I think we did a good job fleshing out in Step 6. Given her brawn and berserker tendencies, I would say that she is physically imposing, and aside from battle scars of otherwise unremarkable appearance.

As to gear, we have 500 (currency), so flipping to the limited Fantasy section, we will buy leather armor for 50, winter clothing for 100, and a Greataxe for 300 (450 total, 50 left).

 

Final Sheet:

Name: Valeria
Species/Archetype: Barbarian
Career: Soldier

Soak Value: 4+1
Wounds: Threshold 16 / Current      Strain: Threshold 10 / Current 
Defense: Ranged — / Melee —

Characteristics
Brawn: 4  Agility: 2 Intellect: 1 Cunning: 2 Willpower: 2 Presence: 2

Skills
Athletics: 1 Brawl:1 Survival: 1 Vigilance: 1 Melee — Heavy: 2 Coercion:1 Discipline: 1 Perception: 1  Cool: 1

Weapons:
Greataxe

Armor:
Leather

Motivations:


Strength: Courageous
Flaw: Anger
Desire: Safety
Fear: Nemesis

Talents & Special Abilities:
Tough as Nails: Once per session, downgrade a critical hit to “01”
Parry: Spend 3 strain to add 2 + Parry rating to soak after attack.
Durable: Drop 10 off critical injury rolls against her for each level of Durable.
Berserk: Add a success and two advantages to each combat roll you make. Enemies get a success on attacks against you, you cant make ranged attacks and you suffer 6 strain at the end of combat.