Here's some character creation rules for an Origin Story After Sundown game.
The year is 199X, and seems like there might be monsters out there at night.
- All Basic Attributes start at 1, and then you assign 13 additional points. In other words, your Basic Attributes should be a total of 19.
- Only one Basic Attribute can be a 6.
- Edge starts at 3, Potency is of course 0.
- All skills start at 0, then assign 54 skill points.
- You do not have to have any specific split among the Physical/Social/Technical categories.
- You can only have one skill at 6 OR two skills at 5. All other skills must be 4 or less.
- You get 1 Specialization in each Technical skill with at least one rank, as well as 3 Specializations you can assign anywhere.
For Backgrounds, you get 35 points but you do not have to spend them at character creation.
- Background points spent at character creation can give you a single background at 6, or two backgrounds at 5, similar to skills. Any other backgrounds spent at character creation must be for backgrounds that are 4 or less.
- Background points held in reserve can be spent at any time to make up a new Background or raise an existing Background (no higher than 4).
- The 2 of Wands and 3 of Wands both give two extra Background points to hold in reserve instead of their normal effect. Other cards that increase Backgrounds work as normal, and can raise a Background above 4 as normal.
- Backgrounds cannot be raised above 6.
- You must select exactly 1 Advantage and 1 Disadvantage.
- Free Resources: 3/2/1. Similar to Backgrounds, you don't need to assign any of these at the start. The only benefit to picking them right away is that you can use them right away.
- Obligations (Rating 3 or less) can be taken to obtain additional Resources of a matching rating. Unlike the free Resources, you have to decide the details of the Obligation and the Resource at character creation.
- Your character is already a little bit unhinged at the edges (that's probably how they got caught up in a monster story), so select a Master Passion even though you're a mortal.
- Select a Driving Passion of course.
- Select any Ethical Taboos you want to have.
- Fill in a starting Ideology: pick at least two things that you Honor and at least two things that you Despise. You can of course have more than that to start, and you can edit it between sessions once the game has begun.
- After a bit of adventuring as normal humans who don't know for sure about monsters being real (though you probably suspect it), you'll learn that monsters are real, and then you'll later be able to become a monster.
- Your monster form will be selected at random.
- You will at least get to roll it yourself when/if the time comes (if that makes you feel better), but it'll be 1d6 for monster kind, and then 1d3 for power source (which of course determines your sub-kind).
When magic does come up we're going to try out a new rule variant: Instead of Magic Suppression being triggered by the creature type of the creature using the magic, it's triggered by the Power Source of the magic in question.
- Infernal magic doesn't function when you're wet
- Astral magic doesn't work when you're drunk
- Orphic magic doesn't work in sunlight
The rules for Counterspelling and Dispelling are unaffected. The rules for what material deals Aggravated damage are also unaffected.
So, Vampires in the sun can use any magic that isn't Orphic, and Mages in the rain can use any magic that isn't Infernal. This also makes the interaction between Universal magic and your own power source much more important to each player. Like with Universal powers, Devotions also copy the Power Source of the person using them for all purposes.