Millennium’s End v2.06

In a role-playing game like Millennium’s End, the character is the most important element of play. Suspense, action, intrigue and drama all contribute to the excitement and thrill of roleplaying, but in the end it is the personalities and interactions of the characters that make for really memorable roleplaying campaigns.

Every player runs a character, who has a distinct personality and abilities, and who, guided by the player, moves through the fictitious world set forth by the GM. Your character will exist primarily in your imagination, and in the imagination of your GM and the other players in your group. Over the course of the game, however, you will need to resolve your character’s actions consistently and realistically. For that reason, and to help you develop your character fully and concisely, you must define your character’s attributes and abilities for use with the game system. That’s where the character creation system comes in.

The Millennium’s End character creation system is driven by the players’ concepts of their characters. It is largely a point-based system, meaning players allot points to various skills and abilities to “build” the characters they imagine. There is a random element to the procedure, however—the Attributes, which are the most fundamental definitions of a character’s abilities, are derived from a hybrid process that combines point allocation with dice rolling. This randomization adds an element of the unpredictable to character development, encouraging players to take risks and deviate a little from the types of characters they might usually play. At the same time, it allows enough control to let players turn a strong, creative concept into a fun and interesting character.

CharaCter Generation

Before play can begin, each player must create a character. Character creation usually takes about an hour, maybe more if there are many players. Because of its relative complexity—in terms of both game me-chanics and typical adventure subjects—Millennium’s End is best played as a long-term campaign game, so you don’t want to take the generation process too lightly. On the other hand, a strong character concept can

The rules in this section cover character generation comprehensively. If you are an experienced Millennium’s End player, or you want to start playing as quickly as possible, check out Charac-ter Generation at a Glance, on page 10, which summarizes all character generation steps. Also, have a look at the Character Frames, starting on page 28. Character Frames are partially-generated characters, that you can flesh out in about half the time needed to create a character from scratch.

Chapter oneCharaCter Creation

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Character Creation 7

take a long time to fully develop, so you don’t want to get bogged down in minutiae at this stage. As your character is played, many small details of his or her personality will emerge on their own.

The bulk of this chapter is devoted to a standard character genera-tion process which works well for experienced players and offers total flexibility in character concept. If you are an inexperienced player, or if you don’t want to spend too much time on your character and are less concerned about flexibility, check out the Character Frames at the end of the chapter. The process for building a character from a Frame is identical to building one from scratch, except that the Frame takes a lot of work out of the process. Of course, Character Frames offer somewhat less flexibility in character concept and background, but ten different frames are offered, and each can be heavily customized to fit the char-acter you have in mind.

ConceptThe first step in the generation process is concept. Character concept is two-fold: it defines both your character’s personality and his or her abili-ties. Personality and background are important—ultimately, it is your character’s personality that will make him or her engaging and fun to play. But personality can emerge on its own, as your character is played. The character creation process you are about to go through focuses on the other side of character concept: abilities.

Characters in Millennium’s End work for BlackEagle/BlackEagle Security and Investigations Corporation, a private organization of re-spected troubleshooters who hire out for investigative and para-military services all around the globe (individual campaigns vary according to the tastes and vision of individual GMs—if your GM doesn’t want to run a campaign around BlackEagle, ignore this paragraph). BlackEagle places no parameters on the types of people it employs—so long as your charac-ter is resourceful, reliable, and has a few useful skills, he or she will fit right in. There’s more information on BlackEagle in the sidebars of this section, and in Chapter Four. For the moment, however, just know that your character choices are up to you—there is no type or class to which your character must conform.

The information you are about to put on paper is simply a repre-sentation—and a shallow one at that—of the abilities of the imaginary character you are developing. Nevertheless, you cannot proceed with developing your character’s Attributes and skills without some rough mental picture on which to base your decisions. So before you put pencil to paper, ask yourself a few questions about your character. Is he or she cerebral, or action-oriented? What kinds of activities does he or she find interesting, and what is he or she good at? What kind of background brought these skills about? Has your character travelled much? Has he or she had much education? How about military experience? A professional background? And most importantly, why is your character a BlackEagle operative? How did your character get to where he or she is today? The answers to these questions will guide you in making basic decisions on your character’s abilities, strengths, and weaknesses as you generate the paper representation of your character concept.

You don’t have to stop with those relatively utilitarian queries. De-veloping a rough idea of your character’s personality as you bring his or her paper representation into being adds depth and sophistication to the result. Is your character outgoing or reserved? Foolhardy or calculating?

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Millennium’s End v2.08

What were the major influences on his or her life? What were his or her formative experiences? What does he or she do for fun? What are your character’s goals and desires? And what could happen during the upcoming campaign to make this a truly successful character for you? There’s no need to kill yourself over these questions if the answers don’t come easily.

But if you think about these and other issues as you put your character together, you can’t go far wrong.

Don’t create your character in a vacuum. BlackEagle operatives are organized into “cells,” groups that always work together. The company tries to arrange things so that each cell has a broad spectrum of skills—so that the oper-ative’s capabilities compliment one another. Even if you aren’t playing a Black-Eagle campaign, you want a group of characters that is pretty well-rounded.

As you build your character concept, talk with your GM and the other play-ers, so that you put together a group that will work well as a whole.

the CharaCter Sheet

You will want to obtain a Character Sheet—a form or piece of paper on which to record character information. The one at the end of this book has spaces for all of the information you will need during play, in a logical and easy-to-use format. You may photocopy it, or make your own if you prefer. Later, you might want some sort of notebook or folder, to keep track of the notes, equipment lists, character information, and other bits of essential riff-raff that will inevitably build up during a lengthy campaign.

Having obtained a character sheet (or at least a clean sheet of paper), fill it in as you move through the character creation steps described in this chapter.

AttributesWhen you know more or less what you want in your character, the next step is to define the Attributes and get them down on paper. This is often referred to as “rolling up” the character, because the Attributes are determined in part by rolling dice. These Attributes are the most rudimentary representations of your character, describing his or her most fundamental physical and mental capabilities. With the exception of the character’s personality and background, every other aspect of the character is in some way dependent on them. And although Skills are the primary means of determining what your character can and cannot do, rolls against Attribute levels are sometimes made during play.

There are ten Attributes: Intelligence, Sensibility, Agility, Coordi-nation, Constitution, Strength, Personality, Appearance, Bravado, and Willpower.

What is BlackEagle?1999 marks B/E’s tenth year of op-

eration. Hundreds of operatives carry out BlackEagle contracts big and small from offices around the world. The BlackEagle reputation for success is widespread, with operatives occasionally making headlines for rescuing diplomats, solving crimes, and dying in ongoing feuds with international terrorist networks. But the company is also known for discretion, and those as-signments that make CNN are just the tip of the iceberg as BlackEagle operatives ply their dangerous trade in the rocky post-cold-war world.

All measurements in Millennium’s End use the metric system. An English/Metric conversion table appears on page 73.

In 1990, Clifton and Sheppard BlackEagle founded a small investigations company in their home town of Atlanta, Georgia. A typical P.I. firm at first, the two quickly developed a reputation in Atlanta’s busi-ness community as men who would take on unusual cases, and who reliably got the job done quickly, correctly, and discretely. Crime, terrorism, a cutthroat corporate ethic and an impotent government were all providing BlackEagle/BlackEagle with as much business as they could handle, and in 1993 the company opened its second office in Washington, D.C. Since then the company has continued to grow in size, scope, and reputation.

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Character Creation 9

IntelligenceThis attribute represents the intellectual capabilities of the character. It includes learning ability, abstract and mathematical reasoning, and tactical and strategic logic. It is not a measure of creativity or thoughtful-ness. A character’s intelligence level affects his or her talent for skills in the Academic, Medical, and Scientific skill groups (talent levels, skills, and skill groups are explained later). During play, rolls against intelli-gence are made when circumstances in the game world might present a character with an idea not obvious to the player, or when the character is attempting to make a connection that the player cannot. A successful roll allows the GM to provide additional clues or other ideas.

SensibilitySensibility is your character’s “common sense,” perceptiveness, and short-term memory (absent-mindedness being one sign of low sensibil-ity). Sensibility levels affect talents for Creative, Domestic and Technical, Medical, Natural, and Reflexive skills, and Sensibility also directly affects perception. Sensibility rolls might be made when a character attempts to remember something, or when the GM thinks a character’s actions defy common sense. Success allows forgotten information to be remembered, or for the GM to point out a more sensible approach to the player.

AgilityAgility is a combination of reflexes, grace, and balance. Skills in the Physical and Reflexive skill groups are affected by this attribute, as is a character’s initiative response in combat. Agility rolls might be used when a character is attempting a tricky maneuver (like crawling across a fallen log over a raging river), or reacting to a physically unpredictable situation (like trying to stand in a wildly careening vehicle).

CoordinationThis attribute governs your character’s eye-hand coordination and manual dexterity. It affects the Cre-ative, Domestic/Technical, and Medical skill groups. Coordination rolls are made whenever a character attempts an action that tests eye-hand coordina-tion, but which does not fall under a specific skill.

ConstitutionConstitution represents your character’s health, endurance, and brawn. It affects a his or her weight and size (although this is mostly up to you), abil-ity to recover from bodily damage, and talents for Domestic/Technical and

BlackEagle/BlackEagle employs almost 400 operatives from its sixteen offices in seven countries. These operatives, organized into teams or “cells” of three to six members each, have a broad range of skills and come from a wide variety of backgrounds. A recent study by the company’s Administrative Branch found the following trends:

– BlackEagle operatives are savvy: 58% speak two or more languages. 76% consider themselves “computer literate.” Almost two-thirds have a college degree, and almost all have had some college education. Most say they are well-informed about world events.

– BlackEagle operatives are high-speed: 22% have had SWAT or military Special Operations training or experience. 17% have advanced degrees. More than half came in with professional-level experience, and of those that didn’t, most have a high degree of competence in one or more critical skills.

– B/E ops are hip: 71% are under the age of thirty, and 89% are younger than forty.

Most rank the high-profile lifestyle as one of their favorite aspects of the job. Almost all say they take great pride in their pro-fessionalism.

– BlackEagle operatives are resourceful: 97% of veteran operatives can recount a mo-ment when they faced grave danger alone, or when their assignment or life depended on sound, split-second decisions.

But in some ways, BlackEagle operatives just can’t be cubbyholed. For example, B/E ops come from a staggering variety of backgrounds. In one cell, a retired FBI agent might work side-by-side with an ex-gang-banger. A computer jock fresh out of school might work with a combat veteran of Bosnia and Angola. BlackEagle operatives include soldiers and cops, medics, pilots and investigators, people with computer and covert skills, regardless of their history. They all have one thing in common though. BlackEagle operatives are all clever, inde-pendent, resourceful and reliable.

Roselyn wishes to create a Millen-nium’s End character. She has a rough idea that she’s been mulling over: a BlackEagle operative named Laenna O’Donnell—gutsy, self-sufficient, fairly tough and combat-effective. As Roselyn thinks through her initial character concept, Laenna begins to develop a history and personality. She has a military background, perhaps having cut her teeth in U.N. service in Bosnia, Palestine, or Angola. She’s well-trav-elled, aggressive and clever. A capable operative, she joined BlackEagle to use her well-honed military skills in a more independent (and better-paying) organi-zation. She loves Miami’s warm climate, and spends most of her off-hours on the beach. Roselyn figures she’ll emphasize intelligence, agility and strength while generating Laenna’s Attributes, and look for skills covering firearms, some first aid, languages, and hand-to-hand fighting.

What kind of person works for BlackEagle?Sam

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