Starter Character Templates - J8 System

RE: Starter Character Templates

Samadhi — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 22:19:43 +0000

Starship Floater

(name)		Initiative	2	Sanity	13	Focus	5
Divinity	2	Intuition	1	Guile	3	Knowledge	3
Strength	2	Perception	1	Agility	1	Constitution	3
XP Spent	000	XP Total	000	Avoid	11	Vitality	5

Skills

Pilot: Starship 2

Communications 2

Scan Equipment 2

Weapons Targeting 2

Computer Programming 2

Pistol 1

Math 1

Chemistry 1

Diplomacy 1

Read Lips 1

RE: Starter Character Templates

Samadhi — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 22:07:57 +0000

Demolitions Expert

(name)		Initiative	3	Sanity	12	Focus	4
Divinity	2	Intuition	1	Guile	2	Knowledge	2
Strength	3	Perception	2	Agility	2	Constitution	2
XP Spent	000	XP Total	000	Avoid	12	Vitality	5

Skills

Demolitions 3

Heavy Weapons 2

Search 2

Stealth 2

Thrown Weapons 1

Athletics 1

Gymnastics 1

Running 1

Sleight of Hand 1

RE: Starter Character Templates

Samadhi — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 13:18:09 +0000

I wanted to add a future-tech-level example

Space Commando Template

XP Spent	20	XP Total	20	Sanity	12	Focus	3
Divinity	1	Intuition	2	Guile	2	Knowledge	2
Strength	2	Perception	2	Agility	3	Constitution	2
		Initiative	4	Avoid	13	Vitality	4

Skills
Pilot: Hovervehicles 2

Pilot: Power Armor 1

Rifles 2

Pistols 2

Melee 2

Scan Equipment 2

Navigation 2

Communications 1

RE: Starter Character Templates

Samadhi — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 13:11:42 +0000

Wizard Template

XP Spent	20	XP Total	20	Sanity	13	Focus	5
Divinity	2	Intuition	2	Guile	3	Knowledge	3
Strength	1	Perception	1	Agility	2	Constitution	2
		Initiative	3	Avoid	12	Vitality	3

Skills
Knowledge: Arcana 2
High Magick Spellcasting 4 (ability to cast book and ritual magick; the primary skill to do so)
Spellcraft 2 (ability to decipher and understand the spellcasting implements of outside spells)
Wand Use 2 (bonus to accuracy of spells when using a proper wand to cast)
Spell Memorization 1 (the number of spells able to be memorized at one time, in addition to a base number determined by Knowledge)

An expanded wizard template since its one of the most commonly requested:
"Wand" is just an example of a Somatic component. Somatic/Verbal/Material components add Accuracy/Magnitude/Range as the basic magic components. Magnitude would be either duration or damage depending on the type of spell. The base Spellcasting skill would apply for grapple checks.
Metamagics can all exist as stances per standard. However, more standard J8 sorc options like multitargeting would not be. Wizardry is too rigid to change fundamentally. Spells do what they do and are not freely variable the way single abilities are.
Exaggeration stance allows them combined but requires large gestures and shouting and such
Scroll Use/Creation feel very per-campaign but could be there
Spell Research could allow learning spells without purchase/looting them. Ranks would be similar to a level cap, and inventing truly new stuff would require double digits

RE: Starter Character Templates

Samadhi — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 13:11:08 +0000

Ranger Template

XP Spent	20	XP Total	20	Sanity	11	Focus	3
Divinity	1	Intuition	2	Guile	1	Knowledge	2
Strength	2	Perception	3	Agility	3	Constitution	2
		Initiative	5	Avoid	13	Vitality	4

Skills
Archery 2
Wilderness Survival 2
Tracking 1
Animal Handling 2
Animal Companion 2
Land Navigation 2
Knowledge: Nature 1
Spot 1
Stealth 1
Athletics 1

Starter Character Templates

Samadhi — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 13:10:41 +0000

From the perspective of eventually molding these into a Player's Handbook, one thing that should probably be included is character templates. That way, if a noob wanders over from another game, they could easily just sit down and start playing a "basic" character class.

Feel free to contribute!! There are no wrong answers, since even barbarians might get built with different emphasis.

Edit:
I did go with a 16/20 for the first build I posted here. I liked keeping it simple here, because its always informative and fun to "add on" additions.
Realistically, I don't see any future campaign starting lower than 20/40. 20 Attribute points is the average of rolling 1d4 per attribute; a true human average. 40 XP allows the incorporation of 20 background points and 20 free points.
Sample backgrounds is another interesting template that could be posted here.