Character #2: Aftermath!

 

Aftermath!, by Fantasy Games Unlimited, is 'A Role Playing Game set in a Post-Apocalypse World' published in 1981. My buddies and I had played mostly AD&D 1E and Traveller, but once this hit our teenage hands it was game over. This was what we had been looking for: guns, armor, and vehicles in a world without laws.

'Many people that came across Aftermath! claimed it was too crunchy, with exhibit A being this combat flow chart:

Like any system, we took the rules as a guide, and only used the detail we wanted, so I don't remember it being overly burdensome or slow. 

Aftermath is skill based, so the character you roll is the character you play with and 'advancement' means getting better gear. You can train to improve skills (solo study) and also Learn by Doing if you used the skill in Detailed Action Time and/or to significantly deal with a situation. I think we used this at the end of each session. But success adds just 1 point to the score in the skill (1%), so it's slow going. 

We' (at least 50% of the time it was just me and one other, Craig, my best friend since first grade) weren't much into any kind of character development, so it didn't really matter. With just the two of us, and as the Forever DM/GM, I usually ran a DM-PC or multiple party NPCs. I let Craig dictate the basic tactics usually, and then just rolled for my guy. We had fun 'running and gunning', so that was all that really mattered. 

I haven't played in over 40 years, so I'm sure I've forgotten many details. And we were all about fun, so as DM I went with rulings over rules and kept things flowing.

Since this is probably a more obscure RPG, I'm going to walk through the character generation process in a little more detail. One valid criticism is the character generation rules are spread out a bit between Book 1 Basic Rules, and Book 2 Survivors of the Aftermath.  The Process is defined in Book 2, but the items are defined in Book 1. So I'll be doing a lot of back and forth behind the scenes!

The first step is to roll an Age Group (d20 table), which also gives a Base Age. I rolled a 4 which gives Age Group 0 and a Base Age of 13. Adding 2D5 gives my actual Age, 17 (the dice are cold tonight!).  I also get 2D5 Attribute Increase Points, and my cold dice give me a lousy 3 points. 

Every character gets Development Points equal to their Base Age, 13 in my case. These can be used as either Attribute Increase Points or Skill Points to buy skills. Characters in older Age Groups get to roll on a table for possible additional Development Points and Attribute Increase Points. I'm keeping all 13 points for Skill Points.

Age Group 0 and 1 (ie, under age 32) require a roll on the Origins Table to define the source of training and upbringing of one born near or after the fall. The character generation process is set for a campaign 20 years after the fall of civilization. The GM can adjust that if they wanted of course, but that was fine with us Cold War-age kids. I rolled Adopted by a Survivor, Raised in Seclusion. So I have a 20% chance of a Technical Skill being unavailable, and 40% for a High Tech Skill to be unavailable.

Next up are the Psychological Profile and Talents. The Psychological Profile is a D10 roll on a table to provide an Initial Talent Rating (base) of -2 to +3 for each of 7 Talents. I then allocate 15+2D6 points to the Talents. The Talents are 'a measure of the character's aptitude and raw ability', factor into Skill Scores, and can also be used as a Skill Score when the character does not have an applicable skill. The maximum score in a Talent is 20, and since a skill Base Chance of Success (BCS) is the Skill Score divided by 5, the maximum Talent BCS would be 4. 

The Talents are:

Charismatic (persuasiveness, leadership)
Combative (Aggressiveness, raw fighting ability)
Communicative (facility with languages, ability to communicate an idea)
Esthetic (appreciation and performance of artistic endeavors)
Mechanical (affinity for technology)
Natural (affinity for the natural environment)
Scientific (reasoned analysis)

I rolled 2D5 for 9, giving me 24 points to allocate. This table captures the base I rolled, allocated points, and total for each Talent, and is replicated on the Character sheet.

Talent                    Base    Allocated    Current
Charismatic             0              4                4
Combative               1            10              11
Communicative       1              0                1

Esthetic                    0             0                0

Mechanical             -2             4                2

Natural                     1             2                3

Scientific                -2             4                2

Talents greater than 10 provide special abilities, with the Talent score divided by 5 being a chance of success. For Combative, this is an ability to gauge an opponents Skill Score in the weapon he is currently using.

Outside the random base for each Talent, Talent point allocations are a cool mechanic to customize a character to his environment, upbringing, or desired character, since the Talent score factors into Skill Scores. I found here I quickly reverted to my 15 year old self for a Combat-focused character. I'll roll up another Aftermath character later and see if I can create a character a little less combat oriented. Wish me luck!

Finally we get to the Attributes. The Attributes are Wit (WT), Will (WL), Strength (STR), Deftness (DFT), Speed (SPD), and Health (HLH). 

Wit - Not intelligence, the game takes that to depend on the Player. Wit is ability to learn, and observe and interpret things.
Will - Strength of the character's mind, including drive and determination.
Strength - Self explanatory
Deftness - Manual dexterity and reaction time
Speed - Agility and rapidity of action
Health - Constitution, resistance to disease, and recuperative powers

One core mechanic in Aftermath! is the Attribute Group. This is a number based on the magnitude of the attribute, and a resultant Effect Die. One quickly learns that Group 2 (1D6 effect die) is 5-14, and Group 3 (1D10 effect die) is 15-24. Other mechanics are based on Attribute Groups, which I will cover soon, and you will see it is advantageous to allocate one more point to get to 15 (or 25 if you're really Min/Maxing).

Each character starts with 75 points to allocate to the six Attributes, plus any Attribute Increase Points, or Development Points used as Attribute Increase Points. I only had 3 Attribute Increase Points, and was saving all my Development Points for Skill Points, so I had 78 points to allocate. An Attribute Saving Throw (AST: /2 round down)) and Critical Saving Throw (CST: /3 nearest) are then calculated for each Attribute.

Attribute   Allocated    AST    CST

WT                 14            7          4            

WL                 10            5          3

STR                15            7          5

DFT                15            7          5

SPD                16            8          5

HLH                 8            4          3

With points allocated to Attributes, a number of additional numbers are calculated/determined.

Combat is in Action Phases (Detailed Action Time), with various factors defined by the character stats: 

Base Action Phase - BAP (Initiative): (SPD AST)  8

Maximum Number of Actions - MNA: (DFT Group)  3

Phases Consumed in Action -PCA: (BAP/MNA, round down) 2

Combat Dodge Ability (CDA - base defensive adjustment to attacker's Base Chance of Success): [DFT+SPD]/20, nearest: 2

Health and Healing:

Damage Resistance Total (HLH +1/2 STR + 1/2 WL): 20

Healing Rate (HLH Group): 2

Shock Factor (10+Healing Rate): 12 If damage done in a single blow/attack exceeds the Shock Factor value, a Health AST must be made to remain conscious.

Others: 

Strength Group: 3 (1D10 effect die)

Learning Rate (WT Group): 2

Freely Improvable Skills (WT+WL): 24

Now it's time to pick skills, using my 13 Development Points as Skill Points. There is a comprehensive list of skills, including combat skills (hand to hand, muscle powered, small arms, support weapons), non-technical physical skills such as beast riding or boating, non-technical knowledges such as carpentry or fermentation, Technical - Physical skills such as lockpicking or automobile driving, Technical - Knowledges such as Botany or Pharmacy, and High Technology Physical Skills (pilot of various types, for example) and Knowledges (such as computer design or power generation - nuclear).

The teenager school of thought was min/max, so pick useful skills. Another school of thought, especially for older characters that had a life pre-collapse, is to pick the skills relevant to their life. My buddy and I actually started to design ourselves as characters (we both grew up hunting so could take some firearm skills), but that quickly devolved into our hypothetical 'future selves'. Of course we both seemed to be future Seal Team Six operators combined with James Bond. But I digress.

Each skill has a cost (1 to 4 points) and possible prerequisite skill(s). The Score in a skill is a sum of two Attribute scores (possibly the same attribute) plus a Talent. One can also buy a skill twice to double the score.

Every character gets a free skill in Brawling and a Survival Skill (rural, urban, arctic, desert, or oceanic). I take rural. The upbringing also gives me Post Ruin Culture, and one non-firearm combat skill, which I take Archery.

I choose skills to align with a rural, subsistence upbringing:

Archery (x2, one was from upbringing, so only 'purchased' once)

Unarmed Combat

Pistol, modern

Beast Riding

Search

Stealth (x2)

Tracking

Hunting

Fishing

Finally, basic clothing, and initial equipment and armor.

Basic clothing is a 1D10 + Age Group table roll (older = a little more/better). I rolled a 6, which is the top unmodified category (6-10), giving fatigue pants, shirt, a field jacket, and combat boots.

Initial armor is bought using 2xBase Age in barter points, so 26 points for me. Each material type has an armor value, encumbrance, and cost per location. 

One of our favorite things about Aftermath was the detailed hit location and armor factor.

So I purchased a motorcycle helmet, leather gloves, a heavy leather breast plate, and leather bracers.

Initial equipment includes a basic survival kit (matches, flint&steel, chalk (?), snares, magnifying lens, compass, 'jackknife', 1 liter canteen, and a "space" blanket: "space" is actually in quotes 😁. For those younger folks, this is like a mylar survival blanket but heavier material). Other initial equipment is based on selected skills and the Utility Number (basically, the usefulness/quality/condition). So for archery I received a 50lb pull bow, a quiver, and 1D20 arrows. I also gave myself one day of natural food (nuts, berries, dried meat) based on my hunting and fishing skills and upbringing.

I then calculated my skill scores and Base Chance of Success (BCS).

Here's the completed character, on an original 1980s photo copy of the yellow cardstock character sheet.

Artimus Smith is a 17 year old born and raised in the post-apocalypse world. His mother was escaping the destroyed city, but was assaulted, raped and left for dead. An older couple with a small farm found her and saved her life, but she ended up dying during childbirth. Artimus was raised by the couple on the farm, learning to hunt and fish and survive. He became fairly proficient with his bow, and sneaking up on game. His adopted father introduced him to a pistol, but only had the one for his own self defense. Other than archery, Artimus is rather unskilled, especially in any higher tech skills.

Despite the pleadings of his adopted parents, Artimus has become restless with his rural upbringing. What few stories about the pre-apocalypse world he could pull out of his parents have sparked a calling to head back towards the city to explore and learn more about the older times. With his bow and arrow and meager supplies, he sets off early one morning before his parents awake. Will he survive more than a few days in the truly cruel, cruel world?

 #CharacterCreationChallenge.