_____________________ / \ >- Multiclass System -< \_____________________/ by Peter Knutsen ------------------------------------------------------------------- English Version, Ascii format (Danish Version is avaible in MS Word format) ================================================================== Version name: First Beta-version Last updated: 30th of May 1998 By: Peter Knutsen (original designer) ================================================================== How to contact the author: send e-mail to peter.k@post1.tele.dk ================================================================== This is a Beta-version of the game, there are still some minor details that could use some tweaking, so I am releasing this game for playtesting. Please check it out, try it, and send me your thoughts. Feel free to discuss the game in public, on the usenet, or in private. The game is absolutely free, no one can make any money by distributing this RPG system. You are allowed to distribute it free of charge, on or via any media imaginable. The proper forum for discussing the Multiclass system is the usenet newsgroup "rec.games.design". This newsgroup is for discussions of the design of all kinds of games, computer games, board games and role playing game systems. Lately there has been almost no discussion about real role playing games, only multiplayer computer games like Ultima Online. The URL of the page containing the Multiclass system will be posted both in "rec.games.design" and "rec.games.frp" but please do not discuss the game in "rec.games.frp" _______________________ / \ >- System, Description -< \_______________________/ The game has 12 character classes. From these you must select one Primary class, one Secondary class, and one Tertiary class. This allows for very fast character creation. Skills are highly important in this game, you posses all skills in your classes, but get to select 6 of them, your initial specializations. Combat rules are very light, also magic rules are very light, the GM must be experienced and able to improvise and judge complex situations. The system does not demand much of the players, however, it's good for introducing newbies to roleplaying. Some will argue that the fast character creation process will make the players care less about their characters. I agree that the danger is there, but I don't think it's as bad as in D&D/AD&D and such games. Please note that there is no Hitpoint Inflation, as in D&D/AD&D. A normal Human has 10 hitpoints. A highly experienced Warrior can have a maximum of 27 hitpoints (and the last 2 hitpoints are so costly that most Warriors will settle for 25 Hitpoints, and spend the Experience points on improving their skills). ------------------------------------------------------------------- My reasons for making the Multiclass System, and the history of the game: I don't like class-based systems, since they seem unrealistic to me. I can't, no matter how hard I try, peg myself down as one particular class or stereotype/archetype. Skill-based systems, like GURPS, are much better, giving you a lot of freedom when creating your character. However, when I read the Star Wars Live Roleplaying Rules (I've not been able to determine who wrote these rules, sorry!) I got an idea. The Star Wars LR system lets you choose two classes, out of six. I started making a list of character classes for a hard SF game, but dropped the idea quickly. Much later (this year) I decided to try again, in the fantasy genre, much inspired by the Quest RPG (there's a link to it from "Eric's page of free RPG's") My first intention was to create several game systems, one "lite" version, one of medium complexity and one of high complexity. This I've dropped, there will only be a "lite" version. Gone are seperate "advantages" and "spells", everything is treated as skills (including "empathy" which GURPS treats as an advantage) I had 11 classes at first, but decided to add the Craftsman class. Initially, the GM could give the players a choice of selecting two or three character classes (always with a priority), I've dropped this idea too, it's recommended that all players select three classes, one primary, one secondary and one tertiary. Another idea which I've decided not to implement was to have "races" (humans, hobbits, dwarves, elves). All players are assumed to be humans, if not, then the GM must figure out what it implies to be an Elf or a Dwarf, and so on. _______________________ / \ >- Playtest questions -< \_______________________/ First of all, do you think the skill placements make sense? Maybe you think that the Sage should be able to use the Cryptology skill, since the Sage can be a Mentat-like character. I welcome all comments on the system, but the above idea is not very valid. If you want a Mentat like Thufir Hawat (from Dune), make him a Sage/Spy/anything (probably Sage/Spy/Warrior, or Sage/Spy/Merchant) Do you think one of the classes are too powerfull (i.e. versatile)? If so, please tell me. I'd also be happy to recieve any suggestions as to what changes would make the class in question less powerfull. Likewise, are any of the classes too weak? Do you have any suggestions about how to change it? I know that the Craftsman is a it wimpy, but I can't see any way of changing this. It is a class for people who likes to make things, and while the rules-part seems extremely weak, an imaginative player combined with a versatile GM might get some fun out of a Craftsman/Sage/Healer, for instance. Some kind of gadgeteer character maybe. Remember the suggestion that a character who is a craftsman can start out with special equipment, of high quality craftsmanship or metal. This should make it tempting for a player to take Warrior/Craftsman/something. Any skills that are missing? I know Cooking is, and Games, but I can't really find a good place for them. Maybe I should have general skills too, avaible to all classes. Any skills that seem redundant? Critical hit and Assassin seem alike, but they aren't, not really. Crit. Hit is used in combat, Assassin is used to avoid combat. Okay, crithit is a skill that tries to end fights quickly, but it's still a bit different. Any other suggestions or criticisms will be welcome. _______________ / \ >- The classes -< \_______________/ If you're used to D&D or AD&D, read carefully. Each single class in Multiclass is very narrow, much more so than in D&D/AD&D. This is why you get to select three classes. For instance, to make something resembling an AD&D priest or cleric, you must take both Priest and Warrior as classes. The Priest itself has no combat abilities. Likewise, to emulate an AD&D thief, you should consider taking both Thief and Spy as classes. The Warrior class in Multiclass also has a lot of military skills, strategy, leadership, logistics. The Craftsman class might not be very usefull, but it's there for the people who like it. Also, it can be usefull for making NPC's, and it should be possible for a character with the relevant Craftsman skills to start out with better equipment, which he is assumed to have made himself. Three of the classes have magical abilities: The Priest, the Psionicist and the Wizard. The Healer does not posses any magical abilities, he's more like a physician. A list of the classes: Bard Craftsman Healer Merchant Priest Psionicist Rural Sage Spy Thief Warrior Wizard You must select three classes from the above list. Your Primary Class is your "best" class, this is the skills you're best at. Your Secondary class is your second-best class, and your Tertiary class is your third-best class. You posses all the skills of all the classes in the game, but it is very difficult for you to use skills from quaternary classes (classes other than the three you have selected). =============================================================== Here ends the usenet posting. =============================================================== Consider these two examples: A: Priest/Warrior/Healer B: Healer/Sage/Priest Both are Priests and Healers, but they are very different. The first character is mainly a Priest. He can call upon his god or goddess to aid him. He has a lot of "Divine Power Points" that he can use for Miracles (Divine Magic). He can also fight quite well, and has more hitpoints than the average human (he has 14 HP, because he has Warrior as his Secondary class) Lastly, he has a little skill in medicine, first aid, psycology, hypnosis, surgery. The second character is mainly a Healer. He is very good at treating wounds and diseases. He has some knowledge, bookish knowledge, history, geography, zoology/botany and the like. Lastly, he can ask his god or goddess for aid, but he is less likely to get divine aid than the first character. Also, he has only 60% as many spell points as the first character, and only 10 hitpoints since he did not take Warrior as a class. Both are Priests and Healers, but they are not at all alike. There are 1320 different class combinations, and when you've selected your three classes, you still have to select which skills you want to specialize in. ____________________________________ / \ >- Short Description of the classes -< \____________________________________/ Bard: Music, entertainment, informal social skills. He also knows old legends and can tell stories. Compose music, make poetry, memorize huge amounts of text. Craftsman: He can make weapons, tools, armour. Do engineering. He can identify metals, strange substances, produce high quality steel. Work with leather, wood. Healer: Treat wounds, diseases, poisons. He can also make poisons, hypnotize people, and he's good at reading the emotions of his patients. He can also cure mental ilnesses, and perform surgery. Merchant: Formal social skills, administration, accounting, logistics, economics, geography (merchant variety). Diplomacy, Negotiations, Haggling, Shopkeeping. Evaluate goods. Priest: Beneficial/defensive magic. Healing magic. Animal & Plant magic. Banishing undead and magical beings. He has also studies theology, and can perform social ceremonies (marriage, death rites - these have no "magical" effects at all) Psionicist: Awareness, Strong mental powers, Danger sense, Telekinesis. This guy can't throw huge balls of fire or shoot lightning from his fingertips, but don't underestimate the powers of the mind. Rural: Is he a farmer, a sheperd, a hunter, a cowboy? Wildlife skills of all sorts are found here. Also a few skills that are usefull at sea. Sage: Vast knowledge, can memorize stuff. A teacher, a librarian, perhaps a Mentat (like in Dune). Spy: An assassin, saboteur, spy, undercover law enforcer. Covert skills, often illegal. Can make poisons, disguise himself, impersonate NPC's. Thief: Specialized in aquiring the property of other people. Can evaluate goods. Stealthy skills, can make/disarm traps. Is an escape artist, can perform sleight of hand tricks. Warrior: Meelee weapons, missile weapons, unarmed combat of all kinds. First aid, can fight wearing armour. Also has soldier skills (both grunt and officer skills). Many options for individualizations. Wizard: Much more spectacular than the psionicist, more dramatic. Can work with the elements, throw spears of ice or balls of fire, summon elementals, create undead servants, enchant items, make magical traps. _____________ / \ >- Skill use -< \_____________/ To use a skill, roll 3d6, if the number if equal to or below your skill rating, you are succesfull. Sometimes, when you are attempting to do something very difficult, the GM may tell you to subtract one or more points from your skill rating. Each point spent on a skill will increase your skill rating with 1. Refer to this table to find your skill ratings /---------+-------------------------------------------------------\ |Skill | 0 1 2 3 4 5 7 10 14 19 25 | |class | pts. pts. pts. pts. pts. pts. pts. pts. pts. pts. pts.| +---------+-------------------------------------------------------+ |Primary | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 | |Secondary| 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 | |Tertiary | 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |Quternaty| 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | \---------+-------------------------------------------------------/ Alternate skill system (very small rule variation) If you think that the "classes" should weigh less and the skills that the player chooses to spend points on should weigh more, use this table. It is exactly like the above table, except that all 0-point skill ratings are 1 point lower (i.e. when you spend the first point on a skill, you get a +2 to your skill rating, but on your other hand, your initial skill ratings (for skills which you haven't spent points on) will be low) /---------+-------------------------------------------------------\ |Skill | 0 1 2 3 4 5 7 10 14 19 25 | |class | pts. pts. pts. pts. pts. pts. pts. pts. pts. pts. pts.| +---------+-------------------------------------------------------+ |Primary | 10 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 | |Secondary| 9 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 | |Tertiary | 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |Quternaty| 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | \---------+-------------------------------------------------------/ This will make the game harder for newbie players, the GM should consider to allow more points for character creation. ______________________ / \ >- Character Creation -< \______________________/ Well, first you must choose your primary, secondary and tertiary class. Then you must select the skills which you are especially good at. It it recommended that six points are given to a player who are to create a new character. Newbie players are advised to spend three of these points on three different skills from the primary class, two of these points on two different skills from the secondary class and the last point on one of the tertiary class skills. Roleplayers who have experience with other systems can distribute their points as they please. _____________________________ / \ >- More powerfull characters -< \_____________________________/ Well, the basic suggestion is 6 points for starters, and then you can give the players 1-2 experience points after a completed quest. Here are some guidelines if you want to give your players more starting experience points +----------------+------------+--------------------------------+ |Degree of skill | points to |Recommended for | | | distribute | Primary | Secondary | Tertiary | +----------------+------------+---------+-----------+----------+ |Beginner | 6 | 3| 2 | 1 | |Seasoned | 9 | 4| 3 | 2 | |Experienced | 12 | 6| 4 | 2 | |Veterans | 15 | 7| 5 | 3 | |Hero material | 20 | 10| 6 | 4 | |Heroes | 27 | 12| 9 | 6 | |Legendary | 36 | 16| 12 | 8 | +----------------+------------+---------+----------------------+ newbie roleplayers should follow the "recommended distrution", spend the recommended amounts of points on their primary, secondary and tertiary skills, while experienced roleplayers can distribute the points as they please, even spending some of them on skills from quaternary classes if they wish. ________ / \ >- Stat -< \________/ Currently, there is one stat in the Multiclass system. If you want a system with more stats, steal from another rpg. Good examples are Quest and FFRE (check out the roguelike-game-in- development "LW-Angband", which is being developped by Laurence Whithers. URL: http://www.lwithers.demon.co.uk/lwangband/ffre/) FFRE is another rpg system designed by me, it is 100% skill-based with no classes, but it has a good stat system. Only problem is that it somewhat more complex than Multiclass, so using the FFRE system will modify the atmosphere of the game. In the official Multiclass rules, there are five level of the stat. Lousy Normal Good Great Heroic All normal humans have Normal in their stat (this stat covers both physical and intellectual ability). All player characters have Good in their stat. Some NPC's have Lousy, some have Good, a few have Great, but most have Normal. If a playe wishes to improve his or her stat, it costs two character points for the first improvement, and four character points for the second improvement. Each improvement will also give you more hitpoints and more spell points, this is because your strength, fitness, willpower and spirit is enhanced. --------------------------------------------------------------- Rating Point cost damage Hitpoint Spell point (PC) bonus bonus* bonus ** --------------------------------------------------------------- Lousy 8 - -1 -3 -50% of base sp. Normal 10 - +0 -1 -25% of base sp. Good 12 0 +1(N) Great 14 2 +2 +1 +50% of base sp. Heroic 16 4 +3 +3 +100% of base sp. --------------------------------------------------------------- (N) this bonus is not calculated into the "weapon damage table", so all PC's should add +1 to their meelee weapon damage. * this is cumulative ** this bonus is added to all spell point pools If a player wants to do something that isn't covered by a skill, make a roll against his or her stat. It's for things like "feats of strength", "Willpower saving throws", "Concentration attempts"... Situations when you'd roll against Dex, Con, Int/IQ in other RPG systems. _______________ / \ >- Skill lists -< \_______________/ Note that some skills appear under more than one class. Sometimes they are identical (First aid is the same for a Warrior as for a Healer). Sometimes they are nearly identical, only a GM who really likes detail should care about whether your Logistics skill are from the Warrior (military) or Merchant (trade) class. At other times, they are somewhat different. The Geography skill of the Merchant is specialized in economics. The Sage- Geography skill is unspecialized, but the player can choose to specialize, selecting any subject that he pleases, and gaini a +1 bonus to Geography rolls dealing with that subject, while recieving a -1 penalty to rolls dealing with other geographical subjects. There is nothing keeping a Sage from specializing his Geography skill in Trade. This will make his skill identical with the Merhant-Grography skill, except that he only recieves a -1 penalty on Geography rolls that aren't related to Trade, where the Merhant recieves a -2 penalty (because his knowledge lacks breadth) This may not sound obvious, but the Poisons skills are the same for Healers and Spies. A spy can easily be sent on a mission to cause the queen of a foriegn country to abort, this kind of poison is not limited to physicians. ___________________ / \ >- Specializations -< \___________________/ Specializations: Sometimes a skill has several variants. This is the case with the weapons skills. Each Meelee weapon is a seperate skill. If you specialize in Longbow, you can still use a shortbow, but you get a -1 penalty. Likewise with crossbows, light and heavy ones. Slings are a seperate weapon type. Elemental magic is different. You must select one of the four types. You can still use the three other types, but are at a -1 penalty. Whenever you spend a skill point to increase your elemental magic skill, you have the option of swapping your old specialization for a new one, i.e going from Fire magic specialization to a Earth magic specialization. Your elemental spells are slightly more powerfull if they use your chosen element, and the results of a fumble are less severe. Example: Gandalph is a Wizard/Sage/Warrior who spends one of his starting skill points on Elemental Magic. He chooses to specialize in Fire magic. After a few months of adventuring, he wants to become an Earth mage instead, so when he spends a skill point improving his Elemental magic skill, he changes specialization from Fire to Earth magic. /-----------------------------------\ | The skills of the various classes | \-----------------------------------/ ________ / \ >- Bard -< \________/ Acting - Can display false emotions, pretend to be something else, but not someone else (that's the "Impersonate" skill, which the spy has). I.e. if he can disguise himself as a castle guard, he can pretend to be a castle guard, but he can't pretend to be the captain of the castle guards. Arts - There are several art skills: drawing, painting, sculpting. Charisma - Personal charm/magnetism. The ability to impress people, command their attention (compare with "Imtimidate" - Spy skill). Compose music - The ability to compose pleasant music. Disguise - The ability to disguise yourself, either just to hide your own features, or to look like something or someone else. Instrument - The ability to play one musical instrument. Select this skill several times if you wish to be able to play on more than one instrument Legends - Knowledge of legends, both old and ancient ones. Some of these are true, some aren't, this skill can both be used for entertainment and usefull knowledge. Memorize - The ability to store information for later recall. Can be words (text or speech) or images. Poetry - The ability to compose poetry or songs. Satire - Nasty humour. The chinese word for satire means "laughter with knives". Can be an effective weapon. Singing - The ability to sing. Includes knowledge of dozens of songs Storytelling - The ability to tell stories in a dramatic way. Recount your own past experiences, re-tell old legends, or improvise stories. _____________ / \ >- Craftsman -< \_____________/ Armoursmith - Can make body armour, shields, gauntlets, helmets and other defensive equipment. Blacksmith - Can shoe horses, make and maintain tools. Bowyer - Can make bows and arrows, and maintain them. Carpenter - Can work with wood. Decoration - A talent for decorating things, all objects that the craftsman fashions will be decorated with aestethically pleasing designs, giving them a personal touch. Engineer - The design of buildings and structures, bridges, fortresses, houses, castles, aquaducts. Glasblower - The shaping of glass. Leatherworker - Working with leather, making leather armour, gloves, and harnesses. Metallurgy - How to produce special metals, steel of high quality. Pottery - working with clay, making pots and other containers. Ropemaker - Making ropes and string. Tailor - Making clothes. Weaponsmith - Making meelee weapons and crossbows. __________ / \ >- Healer -< \__________/ Antidotes - Can treat victims of poison. Empathy - Can sense the emotions of other people. First aid - For use after accidents or combat Herb medicine - The use of herbs to alleviate illnesses or. treat wounds. Hypnosis - A good anestethic, but it can also be used for more sinister purposes. Medicine - Diagnosing and treating diseases, the main skill of a doctor. Placebo - Getting the patient to cure himself with "faith healing" or "salt water injections" Poisons - How to make and use poisons, for various purposes: to kill, to cause sleep, to cause hallucinations or cloud the brains, to cause a pregnant woman to abort. Psycology - The science of the mind. Surgery - This requires a scalpel and for all but the most minor surgery also a pain-killer. ____________ / \ >- Merchant -< \____________/ Administration - Managing a large group of people Accounting - Handling the finances Diplomacy - Formalities and etiquette, this is useful when dealing with nobles and rulers Economics - The science of trade Evaluate goods - How to determine what something is worth Geography - Knowledge of foreign contries, specialized in trade questions. Haggling - Bartering Logistics - Knowledge about supply, how to get things from one place to another, how to coordinate transports. Negotiate - Bartering on a higher level, often about political issues. Politics - Sometimes merchants have to meddle in politics. This skill helps you to figure out who is in charge, and why. How to gain allies and influence. Salesman - Shopkeeping, how to handle a small store, deal with the customers. __________ / \ >- Priest -< \__________/ Animal magic (M) - This magic can call nearby animals and get them to rush to you, or allow you to communicate with animals who are already present. Also to some extent you can control them. All religions must have one or two animal types, like insects and fish/water mammals, or amphibians and lizards. The default animals are mammals and birds, if the player does not specify anything. Appeals (M) - Petitioning the divine powers for aid, if succesfull, you will gain some minor usefull benefit. Banish (m) - This can force undead to flee from you, or make extraplanar creatures disappear. You can also excorcise spirits. Extra power - Each point spent on Extra Power gives you 50% more priest spell points. Healing (M) - Magical healing Holy symbol - If you spend a point here, you have a Holy Symbol which aids you whenever you use priestly magic. Miracles (M) - Special skill (see part 3 - Magic) Necromancy (M) - Magic dealing with dead bodies and the spirits of the deceased. This skill is not accessible to all religions, and this skill is mainly intended for NPC's anyway. It allows you to create and control undead, and to summon and communicate with spirits, even to control them. Plant magic (M) - This magic can give you plant empathy or enable you to control plants. Only trees and other very large plants are sentient, it may be possible to communicate with these using Plant Magic (ask the GM) Protections (M) - petitioning the divine powers for protection Rituals - How to perform social rituals like marriage and death rites. Theology - The branch of philosophy that deals with religious questions Weather magic(M) - Predicting and controlling the weather (m) means that this skill can be augmented by the expenditure of priest spell points. Normal use of the skill costs no spell points and is not considered magic, but you can spend 1 or more spell points if you with to make your chance of succes greater. It can be rather difficult to banish a powerfull creature, an ancient lich would have maybe a -8 penalty to your skill rating, so in a situation like this it would be prudent to spend a few spell points (M) means that this is a magical skill. Using it costs priest spell points. ______________ / \ >- Psionicist -< \______________/ Body magic (M) - You can enhance the abilities of your body, or give it entirely new abilities Control person(M)- Controlling one person, or in a pinch, two or three. Making a person say something is easier than making him do something ("these are not the droids you are looking for") Danger sense - Sometimes when danger lies ahead, your hair rises and you feel a prickly sensation above your spine. Dream walking - You can enter a trance and then your soul can leave your body, moving about freely, and much faster than a galopping horse. Empathy - Can sense the emotions of other people. Extra power - Each point spent here gives you 50% more psi spell points. Force fields (M) - You can create impenetrable walls and bubbles of force. They will be invisible to all except those who posses magical sight. Healing (M) - Can heal wounds and cure illnesses Hypnosis - A good anestethic, but it can also be used for more sinister purposes. Mass control (M) - Controlling large crowds, this control is not as strong as "Control person" but with a few points invested in this skill, a Primary Psionicist can control thousands of people at the same time. Meditation - If you have this skill, you regain spell points at a 50% faster rate, this means all three kinds of spell points. Sanctuary - You have a secret, peacefull place, where you can rest. Second sight (m) - You can see and hear hidden things, sense the presence of spirits. Sixth sense (m) - You posses a sixth sense, and can feel the presence of other minds (i.e. you can tell if you're alone in a dark room). You can see inside closed containers, or complex mechanisms like locks and traps. Telekinesis(F)(M) - You can cause small objects to move, with great accuracy. Telekinesis(G)(M)- You can cause large objects to move, but with low accuracy. Telepathy (M)- You can communicate instantly with other telepaths. (m) means that routine use of this skill does not cost spell points, but you can choose to spend one or more spell points to increase your power, or the chance of succes. Please note that "Danger Sense" and "Empathy" are passive skills, they can't be augmented by spell point expenditure. "Hypnosis" is not a supernatural ability, so you can't spend spell points on this either (except indirectly, you can use "Control Person" first and make the victim more suspectible to your "Hypnosis" attempt). (M) means that this is a magical skill. Using it costs psi spell points. _________ / \ >- Rural -< \_________/ Animal training - You must select one category of animals examples: mounts, dogs, or birds Animal traps - Setting traps for animals, usually because they have valuable fur. These traps are easy to make, but sentient beings can avoid them without sweat. Botany - Knowledge of plants Camouflage - Hiding in natural surroundings Camping - How to make an efficient camp quickly You are also able to do it without disturbing the wildlife nearby, and you can erase all traces of your camp when you leave, so that the wild animals won't find out there's a human on their territory Cattle handling - Cowboy skill, but it is also possible to drive and control cattle without a horse Climbing - Select either rocks or trees as your speciality Drive wagon - This skill is for large, slow wagons with a high cargo capacity. Ecology - You understand the relations between the various plants and animals, who eats who and how often. Herb medicine - The use of herbs to alleviate illnesses or. treat wounds. Hiking - You can walk for most of the day, lightly encumbered. Hunting(L) - Hunting for large game (elefants, lions) usually these are trophys as well as food sources. Hunting(S) - Small game hunting. Deer and such can be hunted with either this skill or Large Game Hunting Move silently - You can move without making too much noise Navigation(L) - Land navigation Navigation(S) - Sea navigation Riding - Anybody can ride on a horse if it's calm and moving at a slow pace. This skill gives you a chance to remain seated if your horse is galopping and/or agitated Sailor - Sailor training, you know how to handle sails and work on a ship. Sheperd - Handling sheep and related animals (they're much more stupid than cows, so you can't use your Cattle Handling skill for sheep, or the other way around) Shortbow - This weapon is mainly used for hunting animals, it is of very little use against armoured humans. It does shoot faster than a longbow, however. Sling - A sling is light and easy to hide, you can find ammunition for it almost anywhere. Survival - Select one area for each point you put into this skill, all other areas are quite unfamiliar to you and your skill will be almost useless. Arctic Caves Coast/swamp Desert Forest Hills Plain Each point spent on this skill will both give you familiarity with one terrain type and improve your general Survival skill. Tracking - How to follow tracks. This skill also makes it easier for you to cover your own tracks, when travelling. You can also try to deduce previous events, by reading tracks on the ground (but this is very difficult!) Zoology - Knowledge of individual animals. To know how different animal species relate with each other, select Ecology. ________ / \ >- Sage -< \________/ Alien cultures - Knowledge of the customs of non-human cultures. Botany - Knowledge of plants. Chemistry - Analysis and synthesis of chemical substances. Foreign cultures - Knowledge of the customs of other human cultures. Geography - Knowledge of other countries, their peoples, their economy, their rulers. You can choose to specialize in one particular area of this skill. Geology - Knowledge of earth and rocks. Usefull for mining, but you can also determine if an area is treathened by eartquakes, or if a particular piece of land can be cultivated. History - Knowledge of the events of the past. Legends - Knowledge of legends, both old and ancient ones. Some of these are true, some aren't, this skill can both be used for entertainment and usefull knowledge. Philosophy - The eternal questions that puzzle our minds. Matemathics - Geometry and algebra Memorise - The ability to store information for later recall. Can be words (text or speech) or images. Scribe - You can write quickly, and your letters are easy to read. You also know how to make ink and maintain writing equipment. Speedreading - You can read quickly and retain the general idea of the text. This skill also allows you to "skim" texts, looking for specific keywords while reading very quickly. Theology - The branch of philosophy that deals with religious questions Zoology - Knowledge of individual animals. To know how different animal species relate with each other, select Ecology (Ecology is deliberately not included in the skill list of the Sage. To understand ecology in a primitive setting, you must have a vast amount of hands-on experience with nature) _______ / \ >- Spy -< \_______/ Acting - Can display false emotions, pretend to be something else, but not someone else (that's the "Impersonate" skill, which the spy has). I.e. if he can disguise himself as a castle guard, he can pretend to be a castle guard, but he can't pretend to be the captain of the castle guards. Alertness - You are much more aware of your surroundings and it's hard to surprise you. Antidotes - Can treat victims of poison. Assassin - Training in assassinations. You know how to backstab people, use effective knockout techniques, and use a garotte. You can do these things, while minimizing the victim's ability to make noise and call for help. Bluff - The ability to tell a fast lie, with no preparation, under pressure. (Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) from "Beverly Hills cop" uses this skill a lot) Bribe - The ability to determine whether someone is bribable, and what form of bribe would work best, and the correct amount (better offer a bribe that is too large than one that is too small) Critical hit - You can strike against vital parts, causig much more damage than normal. This skill is less useful against opponents wearing armour, since armour tends to cover vital parts. Because of this, the Critical Hit skill is more usefull for assassins. Critical Hit works with both meelee and distance weapons. (For each point of protection of the armour your opponent is wearing, subtract 1 from your Critical Hit skill) Cryptology - You can make codes, use them to encrypt messages, and also attempt to break codes made by others. Danger sense - Sometimes when danger lies ahead, your hair rises and you feel a prickly sensation above your spine. Disguise - The ability to disguise yourself, either just to hide your own features, or to look like something or someone else. Forgery - You can forge official documents and passports. You can also forge money, but it is difficult and time-consuming, and not worth the effort. In medieval societies, the penalty for counterfeiting money was extremely cruel. Impersonate - The ability to impersonate one specific person, take on his manners, speak in a voice similair to his. Close observation is required before you can impersonate someone, and you need at least half a day of practice, a full week if you're to do a good job. Interrogation - You can question people effectively, catch them easily if they're lying. Intimidate - This skill is used for threatening people or attempting to appear dangerous. This may sound evil, but use of this skill can get you what you want without combat. Memorize - The ability to store information for later recall. Can be words (text or speech) or images. Poisons - How to make and use poisons, for various purposes: to kill, to cause sleep, to cause hallucinations or cloud the brains, to cause a pregnant woman to abort. Searching - You can search an area quickly and efficiently. This skill also allows you to hide things yourself, you have some notions about where people tend to search, and what places they usually overlook. You can search for loot, traps, hidden weapons, or just conduct a general search(this takes time) Seduce - You can seduce suspectible indivuals. Suspectible refers to the sexual orientation of the victim, you yourself are trained in seducing both genders. This skill works best against young people. Mature players should roleplay the seduction, young players are recommended to just roll a few dice and care little about the details. Speedreading - You can read quickly and retain the general idea of the text. This skill also allows you to "skim" texts, looking for specific keywords while reading very quickly. _________ / \ >- Thief -< \_________/ Alertness - You are much more aware of your surroundings and it's hard to surprise you. Bluff - The ability to tell a fast lie, with no preparation, under pressure. (Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) from "Beverly Hills cop" uses this skill a lot) Climbing - Climbing, specialized in buildings, walls and other human-made structures. Please remember that castle walls are designed to keep intruders out and to resist siege engines, climbing these should be relatively easy. Danger sense - Sometimes when danger lies ahead, your hair rises and you feel a prickly sensation above your spine. Escape artits - The Harry Houdini skill, you can get out of handcuffs, chains, closed rooms, chests, coffins. Evaluate goods - How to determine what something is worth Hide - This is actually the camouflage skill, except that you are specialized in hiding i shadows and have almost no experience in wilderness hiding. Move silently - You can move without making too much noise Pick locks - You can pick mechanical locks and avoid the traps that are found in them. Pick pockets - You can steal objects from people, purses, small items, even jewelry, although the last is very difficult. Searching - You can search an area quickly and efficiently. This skill also allows you to hide things yourself, you have some notions about where people tend to search, and what places they usually overlook. You can search for loot, traps, hidden weapons, or just conduct a general search(this takes time) Sleight of hand - You can perform "magic" tricks, this is mostly used to impress people and divert their attention (like a stage magician, this skill also makes you very proficient at controlling the attention of your audience and make them notice and overlook things as you please.) Traps - You can work with ordinary traps, set them up, find them, and disarm them. You can also modify other the traps set by other people. ___________ / \ >- Warrior -< \___________/ Ambush - How to prepare a good ambush, and keep morals up while waiting This skill also allows you to detect ambushes, and you will rarely be surprised completely. Accuracy - You can hit accurately, hit small items or body parts, both with meelee and missile weapons. Critical hit - You can strike against vital parts, causig much more damage than normal. This skill is less useful against opponents wearing armour, since armour tends to cover vital parts. Because of this, the Critical Hit skill is more usefull for assassins. Critical Hit works with both meelee and distance weapons. (For each point of protection of the armour your opponent is wearing, subtract 1 from your Critical Hit skill) Disarm - You can use this skill to disarm your opponent, or knock him out, or otherwise render him helpless. Engineer - The design of buildings and structures, bridges, fortresses, houses, castles, aquaducts. Fight in armour - Special skill (See "Combat" section) First aid - For use after accidents or combat Horseback combat - You can fight on horseback, with both meelee and missile weapons. Intimidate - This skill is used for threatening people or attempting to appear dangerous. This may sound evil, but use of this skill can get you what you want without combat. Logistics - Knowledge about supply, how to get things from one place to another, how to coordinate transports. Marching - You can walk for most of the day, at a slow pace, carrying heavy equipment and lots of supplies. Marine training - You are trained in shipboard fighting, to board ships, defend against boarders and fight on a deck. The conditions at sea will also be detrimental to your weapons, they will require special maintenance. Having points in this skill ensures that your weapons and other equipment are properly maintained. Meelee weapons - Select one type: fencing weapons, swords, maces, axes, spear, staff You must also select one subtype, when you fight with the other types, you get a -1 to your skill. If you want to aquire skill with another weapon type, it costs you 1 character point. You get a -2 penalty when fighting with totally unfamiliar weapon types. Missile weapons - Select one type: Slings, Bows, Crossbows Also select one subtype, the other rules are as for meelee weapons. Soldier - You have undergone basic recruiet training, this enables you to fight effectively in a large military force. You are trained to quickly obey the orders of your superiors unless they sound completely stupid (you know that most of the time, your superiors have acces to more information about the tactics of the enemy than you have) Strategy - You can control armies and make effective use of them. Tactics - You can make effective use of a small group of armed men. Toughness - Points spent on Toughness will give you more hitpoints. Thrown weapons - Select one weapon type: spear, knife, shuriken, axe. Unarmed combat(J)- Unarmed combat - judo style. Used for throws and holds. Unarmed combat(K)- Unarmed combat - karate style. Used for kicks and punches. __________ / \ >- Wizard -< \__________/ Alchemy - The transformation of matter. This is mysticism and mutations of metals, not chemistry. Demonology (M)- You have some knowledge of demons, and you can summon them (this is quite easy) and attempt to control them (this is not so easy) Defensive magic(M) This magic creates shields and can give you protection against an element of your choice. Elemental magic(M) Select one specialization, but you can use all four elements. Air - Earth - Fire - Water This magic can also provide you with temporary protection against one element of your choice, or all four elements at once, but the last is a very complex and costly spell. Enchant objects - This process takes time, usually months, sometimes years. Magically enhanced swords, cloaks of invisibility, rings that create an invisible armour aroud the wearer, and thousands of other options. Remember, this is magic, not technology, magic items should never be 100% reliable. Extra power - This option gives you more wizard spell points. Illusions (M) - You can create visual or audial illusions (other types are possible, but these two sences are the most common. If you are a human, the olfactory illusions that you create will probably be good enough to fool other humans, but never dogs!) Illusions which combine several senses are possible, but more difficult to create. Focus - Object Magic trap (M) - This can be just a crude alarm, a trap set to alert you of the presence of intruders, or the trap can contain other spells which are cast at either the person who triggers the trap, or a predetermined target. The triggering conditions can be specified by the wizard, but they can't be too complex. Potions - This skill enables you to make magical potions. Some examples: Healing, regeneration, strength, speed, iron skin, water breathing. potions can only create internal effects (you can't have potions of Fireball. You might have a potion of Fire Breath, but the user would be damaged by the fire himself. Of course, he could drink a "potion of protection from fire" first, then he'd take little or no damage. Power battery - Object Shape changing(M)- You can change your own shape, or that of others (only if they are cooperative, and it's still more difficult than changing your own shape). The easiest change is to just change your appeareance, change your facial features, hair colour and such. Changing your apparent race is somewhat harder, trying to look like a member of another humanoid species is more difficult. Altering your size makes is even more difficult (trying to become a centaur or squirrel). You can also change your shape into that of an animal, this is a little harder than just shapechanging into another species. The change will last for 4 hours, unless you wish to revert to normal before that. Doubling the spell point expenditure will double the duration. If you shapechange someone else, you can teach that person how to revert to normal or not, as you please. Sleight of hand - You can perform "magic" tricks, this is mostly used to impress people and divert their attention (like a stage magician, this skill also makes you very proficient at controlling the attention of your audience Summon elemental - You can summon elementals (easy) and try to (M) command them (hard). If your attempt to command the elemenal fails, there is a chance that it will be angered and attack you, otherwise it will return to its normal plane of existence immediately. If the elemental attacks you, it is a very good idea to have a high skill in elemental magic, so you can cast protective spells against whatever element the angry elemental can use. (M) means that this is a magical skill. Using it costs wizard spell points. _____________________ / \ >- Magic -< \_____________________/ ____________________ / \ >- Magic in general -< \____________________/ Spell points There are three kinds of spell points, these are: Divine points Psi points Magic points (for Wizard magic) Everybody has all three kinds of spell points. It is possible to use magic even if you haven't chosen the particular class that are associated with that kind of magic. Examples: Zunda is a Wizard/Priest/Psi. She can use all kinds of magic, but are best with Wizard magic. Gorg is a Warrior/Rural/Psi. He can use Psi magic, but he isn't very good at it. If he wants to be able to use Wizard magic, he must put at least one point into one Wizard skill (it doesn't have to be a spell, it just has to be an unique Wizard skill). Verner is a Spy/Thief/Warrior. He wants to get hold of some Healing magic, but he can't use any Divine magic before he spends at least one point on a Priest skill. He chooses to spend that point on "Healing" magic. After the training at the University of Copenhagen, Verner can use all kinds of Priest magic. Some months after graduating from the Healing course, Verner finds himself in a difficult situation. While attempting to steal the British Crown jewels, he activates the alarm system, and six guards armed with crossbows surround him. Now Verner can petition God (the Christian one) for aid, using the "Protective" magic skill. He can cause most of the bolts to miss or inflict only flesh wounds, while he flees from the guards. Later on he can Heal the wounds. Had he been in that situation a year earlier, he would have had to fight the guards to get away (or let them catch him, and then later escape from prison - but then he wouldn't have gotten the Crown jewels) _____________________ / \ >- Spell point pools -< \_____________________/ A psionicist has many spell points, a Wizard has less, and a Priest has very few. Also, a Primary Wizard will have more Magic points than a Tertiary Wizard. There is a "skill" called "Extra Power", which can be taken one or more times, for each kind of magic, providing extra points. /-----------------------+----------+---------+------------\ |Base spell | | | | |points: Primary |Secondary |Tertiary |Quaternary* | +-----------------------+----------+---------+------------+ |Priest 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | |Wizard 15 |12 | 9 | 6 | |Psionicist 20 |16 |12 | 8 | \-----------------------+----------+---------+------------/ * remember that the player can use no spells before at least one point has been spent on one skill or spell unique to that particular class. Extra Power Priest Base 1 pt. 2 pt. 3 pt. 5 pt. 8 pt. 12 pt. --------------------------------------------------------------- Primary 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Secondary 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 Tertiary 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 Quaternary 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 --------------------------------------------------------------- Wizard Base 1 pt. 2 pt. 3 pt. 5 pt. 8 pt. 12 pt. --------------------------------------------------------------- Primary 15 23 30 38 45 53 60 Secondary 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 Tertiary 9 13 18 23 27 32 36 Quaternary 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 --------------------------------------------------------------- Psionicist Base 1 pt. 2 pt. 3 pt. 5 pt. 8 pt. 12 pt. --------------------------------------------------------------- Primary 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Secondary 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 Tertiary 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 Quaternary 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 --------------------------------------------------------------- Essentially, each point spent on "Extra Power" gives you 50% of your base spell points, for the first three points. After that, the cost to get more spell points increase, first to two points, then to three points and so on, but the increase is still 50%. Please note that "Extra Power" has to be bought seperately for each kind of magic (Divine, Psi, Wizard magic). _____________________ / \ >- Spell point costs -< \_____________________/ To cast a spell, you must expend at least one spell point. If you want the spell to be of more power than it normally would, you can spend extra spell points. Each spell point spent on extra power gives you a -1 penalty to your skill rating when attempting to cast the spell. You can also spend spell points to make the casting easier, each spell point spent on this gives you a +1 bonus to your skill rating. So if you want your spell to be more powerfull, and you want to avoid the penalty, you can just spent 3 spell points on it, or 5 if you want a really powerfull spell (i.e you spend 2 points on extra power and 2 points on ease) Sometimes, the GM will give you one or more negative modifiers either because you are trying to cast the spell under adverse conditions, or because you are trying to do something difficult or highly unorthodox with your spell. In this case you can also spend points on ease, negating part or all of the penalty that the GM has declared. You can even spend further spell points on casting ease, to get your chance of succes higher than normal. The maximum allowable chance of succes is 17, this includes the bonus from a Focus if you're using Wizard magic. _________________________________ / \ >- Special rules for magic -< \_________________________________/ ________________ / \ >- Priest Magic -< \________________/ Miracles The base value of this skill is much lower than for other skills Primary priest 6 Secondary priest 5 Tertiary priest 4 Quaternary priest 3 For each point spent on the Miracles skill, it is increased by one point. Attempting to perform a Miracle: The GM rolls 3d6, if the roll is lower or equal to the Miracles skill of the player, a Miracle occurs. It should be helpful to the player, and quite spectacular, compared to the magic that the priest can perform himself. Whether or not the attempt is succesfull, the player looses all priest spell points. If he has no spell points left at all, he will be unable to regain priestly spell points for the next 24 hours. If he has only a very few spell points left, then he will not be able to regain spell points until the next sunrise or sundown, whatever comes first. A Holy Symbol does not give any bonus to attempts to petition Miracles! Holy Symbol: If you posses a Holy Symbol, all your attempts at using Priest magic gets a +1 bonus to the relevant skill, except for Miracles. If you loose the Holy Symbol, you are completely unable to use any Priest magic except for Miracles, for one month. After that time, you can get a new Holy Symbol, but at the expense of one point Regaining priest spell points in a holy place: If you are in a holy, sacred and peacefull place (i.e. a temple or church of your religion, or a monastery where there are no conflicts) you regain priest spell points 50% faster. In essence, this works like the Psi skill "Sanctuary", except that you do not in any way control the Sanctuary, and that it isn't secret. If you insult the person who controls the specific church or temple, he or she can dismiss you, and even forbid you ever to enter the place again. On the other hand, you get the 50% faster spell point regeneration in all holy places dedicated to your religion, instead of just one place. ______________ / \ >- Psionicist -< \______________/ The option "Sanctuary" can be taken only once, it is a special place you have acces to. If you loose it, you can gain another Sanctuary, but it requires roleplaying and the expenditure of one character point. (You can't just aquire a new Sanctuary, like you can aquire a new focus or holy symbol) Effects of a Sanctuary: You regain all spell points 50% faster, that is, both psi, wizard and priest spell points. This is cumulative with the bonus from the Meditation skill. The Sanctuary is also a secluded, secret place where you can hide out if you are persecuted. You can bring your friends there, but the more people who knows about the place, the larger is the risk that your peace will be disturbed. Effects of Meditation: On a succesfull skill roll, you regain all spell points twice as fast, that is, both psi, wizard ans priest spell points. This is cumulative with the Sanctuary skill. ________________ / \ >- Wizard Magic -< \________________/ Focus (to posses a focus, the player must pay 1 point): If the wizard has a focus, all his skill rolls to use magic recieves a +1 bonus. If he looses his focus, he gets a -1 penalty to all skill rolls to use magic, until he gets the focus back or makes a new one. Making a new focus (also costs one point): The wizard must have been without a focus for a year before he can make a new one. The echantment takes four monhs, during this time the wizard is incapable of doing anything else. Any object can be enchanted into a focus, a ring, a sword, a cloak, a staff. It is not possible to make a focus for someone else. Power Battery (to posses a battery, the player must pay 1 point): Any object can be enchanted into a battery, but a wizard can only posses one battery at a time. It can store wizard spell points equal to the base spell point pool of the wizard (i.e. it's twice as powerfull as taking the "Extra power" skill once). The down side is that a battery can be stolen. Making a new power battery (costs 1 point): This process lasts two months, and the wizard can't do anything else in that period. If a wizard looses his battery, he can immediately start making a new one, as long as he has a character point to pay for it. Please note that foci and batteries only work with Wizard spell points, not with Priestly or Psionic spell points. ------------------------------------------------------------------ __________ / \ >- Combat -< \__________/ Hitpoints: The basic number of hitpoints is 10. This is what you have, unless you choose Warrior as one of your classes. If you choose Warrior as your Primary class, you have 16 Basic hitpoints. Secondary class means you get 14 Basic Hitpoints. Tertiary class means you get 12 Basic Hitpoints. If you choose to put points into the Warrior "skill" called "Toughness", you can recieve extra hitpoints, the maximum depends on what priority your Warrior class has. The first number is the realistic maximum, the number in paranthesis is the absolute maximum. Max (abs.)* Warrior is HP (max ) ----------------------------- Primary class 25 (27) Secondary class 20 (21) Tertiary class 16 Quaternaty class 12 ----------------------------- * It is possible to gain an additional 5 hitpoints, by spending experience points on improving your statistic (remember, the Multiclass system only has one statistic, where other RPG's tend to have from 4 to 12). The first improvement of your statistic costs 2 experience points and gives you 2 extra hitpoints, regardless of your class. The second improvement costs 4 experience points and gives you 3 extra hitpoints, regardless of your class. The increase from "Toughness" works like this: +------------+----------------------------------------------------+ | Warrior is | Points spent on the "Toughness" "skill" | +------------+--------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | |0 points|1 point|2 points|3 points|5 points|8 points| +------------+--------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | Primary |16 |20 |23 | 25 | 26 | 27 | | Secondary |14 |17 |19 | 20 | 21 | | | Tertiary |12 |14 |15 | 16 | | | | Quaternary |10 |11 |12 | | | | +------------+--------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ _______________ / \ >- Weapon list -< \_______________/ Knife I 1d6 Dagger I 1d6+2 Rapier I 1d6+2 Sword 2d6+1 2-H sword 3d6+1 Hand axe 2d6 War axe 3d6+3 Club 2d6-3 Mace 2d6-1 Light spear I 2d6+3 (attack every other round) Pike 3d6+3 (attack every third round) Unarmed-throw 1d6+2* Unarmed-karate 1d6+3 * usually - the damage depends on how hard the floor is, and if the victim collides with a wall at full speed, damage is much higher) Shuriken 1d6 Spear, light I 2d6x2 Spear, heavy 2d6x3 Stone 1d6 Knife I 1d6+2 Axe 1d6+4 Sling 1d6+2 Short bow I 3d6-2 (can fire twice every other round*) Long bow I 3d6+2 Light crossbow I 3d6+2 (requires 1 round for loading) Heavy crossbow I 4d6+3 (requires 3 rounds for loading) * only if the archer has spent at least one point on the Bow skill. This must be the Bow skill from the Warrior class, a Rural archer does not learn how to shoot rapidly. Weapons marked with an I are impaling weapons, all types of chainmail provides less protection against impaling weapons. _______________ / \ >- Armour list -< \_______________/ +------------------------------------------------+ |Type Protection Skill Max | | penalty reduction| +------------------------------------------------+ |Padded clothing 1 0 0 | |Leather armour 2 0 0 | |Studded leather 3 0 0 | ||Light chainmail 4(2) 1 1 | |Normal chainmail 5(3) 2 2 | |Heavy chainmail 6(4) 3 3 | |Scale mail 6 4 2 | |Plate mail 8 5 2 | +------------------------------------------------+ The protection number in paranthesis is the protection that this armour type provides against impaling weapons. These are: knife, dagger, rapier, light spear arrows, bolts, light throwing spears, throwing knives "Skill penalty" is the number that is subtracted from the combat skills of the wearer. Heavy armour makes you clumsier, but this effect can be negated by spending points on the "fight in armour" skill. Each point spent on this skill reduces the "skill penalty" by one point, this works for all armour types. A Primary class Warrior is allowed to spend 3 points in the "fight in armour" skill. Secondary and Tertiary Warriors are allowed to spend 2 points, while Quaternary warrios can only spend 1 point. Also, with some armour types, the "skill penalty" can't be negated completely. "Max reduction" refers to the maximum number of point that can be effectively spent on the "fight in armour" skill. A PC who usually wears heavychain mail can spend 3 points on the "fight in armour" skill to reduce his penalty from a -3 to a zero penalty, but if he swaps his heavy chain mail for a scae mail, he can only benefit from the first two "fight in armour" points, so he still gets a -2 penalty. ___________________________________ / \ >- High Quality craftmanship/metal -< \___________________________________/ High quality gives a +1 bonus, very high quality gives a +2 bonus. It it possible to get both a bonus for craftsmanship and metal, so the maximum bonus per item is a +4 bonus. Quality equipment costs a lot more, here are some suggested price modifiers: Metal price modifier -------------------------------- Bad metal x 0.50 Normal metal x 1.0 Quality metal x 2.5 H.Q. metal x 10 -------------------------------- Craftsmanship price mod. Game effect -------------------------------------------------------- Bad craftsmanship x 0.33 -1 to skill & damage Normal craftsmanship x 1.0 normal skill & damage Quality craftmanship x 4 +1 to skill & damage H.Q. craftsmanship x 24 +2 to skill & damage -------------------------------------------------------- So, if you want a HQ/HQ broadsword, to get a +4 bonus to damage and a +2 bonus to skill, the price is 240 times higher than normal. ________________ / \ >- Shield rules -< \________________/ Buckler +1 Passive Defense Round shield +2 Passive Defense (+1 defense vs thrown) Tower shield +3 Passive Defense (+2 def vs thrown, +1 df vs missile) Passive defense makes you harder to hit. If you have a Round Shield, anybody who strikes at you with a meelee weapon gets a -2 penalty to his skill rating. Shields are heavy, and if you carry one, people will assume that you are a fighting man/woman.