I'll second Spirit of the Century, and toss in any variety of PDQ (Truth & Justice; Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot; Dead Inside; etc.). Both systems are great for concentrating on the character rather than the mechanics. SotC is nice since you could easily use the story & guest story parts of character generation to tie the characters together.
In fact, I think I'll do the first part of a character right now. Roy, a modeler who has become a skilled designer of 'wave enhanced equipment.
Phase 1: Pre-Fenspace Life
Roy loved making models as a kid. Little plastic blocks and kids clay gave way to balsa, foam blocks, and plastic sheets. By fifteen he received his first art show award with a 1/10 scale model of an Apollo program lunar lander. With photos set up nearby for people to judge the model with. One year later he showed a lunar lander control panel, complete with a working landing computer (made with a few BASIC Stamps - he didn't quite feel like making the guts 100% accurate).
Aspect 1: Award winning modeler. You name it, Roy can model it, and may already have won an award for it.
Aspect 2: Roy's blueprint library. Some are genuine blueprints collected from friends and inside sources. Some he has drawn up himself based on any records he could find. Whether it's a shuttle craft or a shuttle ask Roy, he has it or he'll know who does.
Phase 2: Introduction to Fenspace
Roy was attending a small convention in New Mexico and didn't expect anything so exciting to happen. But his partner in the junkbox prop building challenge happened to bring along some handwavium...
Aspect 3: Did I just build a working tricorder, nifty! Sure that tricorder eats AAA batteries like they're pocky, but it works. The combination of building skills and a strong sense of what he wants has given Roy a good record at building working handwaved gear.
Aspect 4: Focused on my work "Wait, you said you just came from that panel? Frak!" When Roy gets into a good state of flow it takes alot to distract him from the task at hand. Great for his work, not so great for anything else he meant to do.
Phase 3: Roy's first story, "Con Under Siege."
When the government decides to surround first and investigate later, it's up to those on the scene at a small town local con to get people out to freedom. Under an nonnegotiable deadline Roy leads a crew of builders in the construction of over two dozen separate vehicles. Everything from a flying van, an electric racing bike, to the first in his now classic line of Rocket Buoys. As the initial breakout spread in all directions they drew off enough of the besieging forces to allow outside help to carry off the rest.
Aspect 5: "Trouble", Rocket Buoy mark five. Take a single seat and strap it to a rocket engine and six spindly landing legs. Someone said they thought it looked like a buoy, hence the name. That was mark one, models two through five have all been entirely custom built.
Aspect 6: Got to do what's right. Roy was almost caught. While fleeing he came down upon the aftermath of a high speed chase. Grabbing a fire extinguisher he went to work... the official record says that he got back in the rocket buoy and fled before the cops chasing caught up. He's certainly not going to suggest on record that they let him go simply after keeping another cop from being burned alive.
Phases four and five would describe how Roy was involved in two other characters background stories. With four more aspects building off those.
So what are aspects? Those are what Fate (the system behind Spirit of the Century and the upcoming Dresden Files RPG) uses instead of a generic set of character attributes. Players can use aspects to help the character: Roy's player might tap Award Winning Modeler to provide assist a skill role while building something. Or Focused on my Work to allow Roy to complete repairs to a damaged anti-grav system without any penalties for the buffeting of the non-aerodynamic falling-like-a-brick van as it falls through the air.
Of course the GM can tap a players aspects too. Although the player gets a fate point to cash in later if the tapping of the aspect disfavors them. "Unfortunately while Roy knows the man in the room with him is a spy, he's simply so focused on his work as he fixes the life support system that he never sees him searching through the files..."
If you want a closer look at the system you can check www.evilhat.com/?spirit
Included at the end of the entry on the page for Spirit of the Century is a link to the SotC system resource document. Pretty much the game just stripped of the few game world details. But I think it's well worth the price of the printed edition.
PDQ likewise drops a specific set of character attributes for listing qualities that a character has. Under PDQ Roy's character sheet might list: Expert (+4) Modeler, Good (+2) Blueprint Library & Contacts, Good (+2) I built it, of course it works, Poor (-2) Have to do what's right.
Note: Poor (-2) Have to do what's right, doesn't mean he's poor at doing the right thing. It means that his need to do the right thing can be expected to inconvenience him. Another character might have, Poor (-2) My ships AI plots against me, or Poor (-2) Doesn't understand fan culture.
If I was using PDQ I would probably do something like Truth & Justice does, with a set of points for Qualities to give the non-handwavium needed parts of the character and allow two points for handwavium-needed benefits. With an option like T&Js 'highly skilled' to trade away handwavium points for additional quality points.
So Roy might use his handwavium points for: Expert (+4) Amazing Rocket Buoy. Stunts: Good (+2) Scanners, Good (+2) Rapid Ascent.
There's a free copy of the PDQ core rules at
And now I'll stop before I flood the thread any further....www.atomicsockmonkey.com/freebies.asp#pdq
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Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.
In fact, I think I'll do the first part of a character right now. Roy, a modeler who has become a skilled designer of 'wave enhanced equipment.
Phase 1: Pre-Fenspace Life
Roy loved making models as a kid. Little plastic blocks and kids clay gave way to balsa, foam blocks, and plastic sheets. By fifteen he received his first art show award with a 1/10 scale model of an Apollo program lunar lander. With photos set up nearby for people to judge the model with. One year later he showed a lunar lander control panel, complete with a working landing computer (made with a few BASIC Stamps - he didn't quite feel like making the guts 100% accurate).
Aspect 1: Award winning modeler. You name it, Roy can model it, and may already have won an award for it.
Aspect 2: Roy's blueprint library. Some are genuine blueprints collected from friends and inside sources. Some he has drawn up himself based on any records he could find. Whether it's a shuttle craft or a shuttle ask Roy, he has it or he'll know who does.
Phase 2: Introduction to Fenspace
Roy was attending a small convention in New Mexico and didn't expect anything so exciting to happen. But his partner in the junkbox prop building challenge happened to bring along some handwavium...
Aspect 3: Did I just build a working tricorder, nifty! Sure that tricorder eats AAA batteries like they're pocky, but it works. The combination of building skills and a strong sense of what he wants has given Roy a good record at building working handwaved gear.
Aspect 4: Focused on my work "Wait, you said you just came from that panel? Frak!" When Roy gets into a good state of flow it takes alot to distract him from the task at hand. Great for his work, not so great for anything else he meant to do.
Phase 3: Roy's first story, "Con Under Siege."
When the government decides to surround first and investigate later, it's up to those on the scene at a small town local con to get people out to freedom. Under an nonnegotiable deadline Roy leads a crew of builders in the construction of over two dozen separate vehicles. Everything from a flying van, an electric racing bike, to the first in his now classic line of Rocket Buoys. As the initial breakout spread in all directions they drew off enough of the besieging forces to allow outside help to carry off the rest.
Aspect 5: "Trouble", Rocket Buoy mark five. Take a single seat and strap it to a rocket engine and six spindly landing legs. Someone said they thought it looked like a buoy, hence the name. That was mark one, models two through five have all been entirely custom built.
Aspect 6: Got to do what's right. Roy was almost caught. While fleeing he came down upon the aftermath of a high speed chase. Grabbing a fire extinguisher he went to work... the official record says that he got back in the rocket buoy and fled before the cops chasing caught up. He's certainly not going to suggest on record that they let him go simply after keeping another cop from being burned alive.
Phases four and five would describe how Roy was involved in two other characters background stories. With four more aspects building off those.
So what are aspects? Those are what Fate (the system behind Spirit of the Century and the upcoming Dresden Files RPG) uses instead of a generic set of character attributes. Players can use aspects to help the character: Roy's player might tap Award Winning Modeler to provide assist a skill role while building something. Or Focused on my Work to allow Roy to complete repairs to a damaged anti-grav system without any penalties for the buffeting of the non-aerodynamic falling-like-a-brick van as it falls through the air.
Of course the GM can tap a players aspects too. Although the player gets a fate point to cash in later if the tapping of the aspect disfavors them. "Unfortunately while Roy knows the man in the room with him is a spy, he's simply so focused on his work as he fixes the life support system that he never sees him searching through the files..."
If you want a closer look at the system you can check www.evilhat.com/?spirit
Included at the end of the entry on the page for Spirit of the Century is a link to the SotC system resource document. Pretty much the game just stripped of the few game world details. But I think it's well worth the price of the printed edition.
PDQ likewise drops a specific set of character attributes for listing qualities that a character has. Under PDQ Roy's character sheet might list: Expert (+4) Modeler, Good (+2) Blueprint Library & Contacts, Good (+2) I built it, of course it works, Poor (-2) Have to do what's right.
Note: Poor (-2) Have to do what's right, doesn't mean he's poor at doing the right thing. It means that his need to do the right thing can be expected to inconvenience him. Another character might have, Poor (-2) My ships AI plots against me, or Poor (-2) Doesn't understand fan culture.
If I was using PDQ I would probably do something like Truth & Justice does, with a set of points for Qualities to give the non-handwavium needed parts of the character and allow two points for handwavium-needed benefits. With an option like T&Js 'highly skilled' to trade away handwavium points for additional quality points.
So Roy might use his handwavium points for: Expert (+4) Amazing Rocket Buoy. Stunts: Good (+2) Scanners, Good (+2) Rapid Ascent.
There's a free copy of the PDQ core rules at
And now I'll stop before I flood the thread any further....www.atomicsockmonkey.com/freebies.asp#pdq
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Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.