Character Building: Yara Kren (Part I):

Alright, some might have noticed Character Genetic Breakdown in the first sheet uploaded yesterday for the design feature of the character sheet templates.  I didn't go over the majority of the information on the pages then, but today I'll go over that interesting function and others in the upper right corner.  Character Genetic Breakdown lists four entries, each with a percent slot and another slot for species and race.  In MaL, a character may have traits due to their genetics even if they are a half-breed, or, as in the case of some characters, a quarter-breed.  For anything less than 25% the traits of that species and race are less likely to appear, and if less than 15% no benefit can be gained from it.  If Yara Kren is a female character being generated with an Incubus grandfather tied to an Indeth Human grandmother, and another Incubus grandfather tied to a Satvabes Felinae grandmother, then the character would be 50% Cubi genetically (taking on the Succubus recessive genes in this case due to her gender, 25% ), 25% Indeth Human, and 25% Satvabes Felinae.  Looking at those possibilities we see these genetics being gained:

25% Indeth Human: +0 HP, +0 EP, +0 LP, +0 SP, +2 FP, +0 REA, -1 FIN, +1 INT, +1 WIS, +0 WIL, +1 STR, +0 Speed, +1 Courage Checks,  +1 Beauty , -3 inches height, no specific special ability at start.

25% Satvabes Felinae: +0 HP, +0 EP, +1 LP, +1 SP, +0 FP, +1 REA, +1 FIN, +0 INT, +1 WIS, +0 WIL, +1 STR, +2 Speed, -1 Memory Checks, +1 Beauty, +0 inches height, no specific special ability at start.

25% Lilu Succubus: +0 HP, +0 EP, +0 LP, +0 SP, +1 FP, +0 REA, +0 FIN, +0 INT, +0 WIS, +0 WIL, +2 STR, +1 Speed, +1 Charisma Checks, +4 Beauty, +0 inches height, empathic manipulation ability or empathic and telepathic manipulation abilities at start.

25% Ebyonet Succubus: +0 HP, +0 EP, +0 LP, +0 SP, +1 FP, +0 REA, +1 FIN, +2 INT, +0 WIS, +0 WIL, +1 STR, +1 Speed, +1 Charisma Checks, +3 Beauty, +0 inches height, empathic manipulation ability or empathic and telepathic manipulation abilities at start.

When determining which genes carry over,  one rolls to see which percentage hits.  If a character has a 25%, 25% and 25% build with the rest being too muddled, then a 1-5 on a d20 means no bonus to that entry, 6-10 being the first set of 25%, 11-15 being the second set of 25%, and 16-20 being the final set of 25%.  In the case of the character illustrated above, 1-5 would be Indeth Human genes carried over, 6-10 would be Satvabes Felinae genes carrying over, and 11-15 would be Lilu Succubus genes carrying over, 16-20 would be Ebyonet Succubus genes carrying over.  With just a few rolls to determine which carries over we arrive at this:

Yara Kren (Female Lilu Succubus/Ebyonet Succubus/Indeth Human/Satvabes Felinae Hybrid): +0 HP, +0 EP, +0 LP, +0 SP, +1 FP, +0 REA, +1 FIN, +2 INT, +0 WIS, +0 WIL, +2 STR, +2 Speed, +1 Charisma Checks, +1 Beauty, +0 inches height, empathic manipulation ability or empathic and telepathic manipulation abilities at start.

Now, while most of these stats fit with the pure Succubus genes, some things are different, the increase in intelligence and speed, as well as the decrease in beauty.  If this character is in a family where some of their siblings took more after the Cubi genes, they might be more beautiful, overshadowing Yara in the attention that they gain.  Her intelligence and higher speed, however, might make her the leader of her siblings in getting them into and out of trouble on adventures at a young age, making her that much more likely to have a wandering soul and desire to see the world.  This makes a different character than a pure Succubus, and serves as an example as to how genetics can affect a character's personality for roleplay.  There are, however, a few things not listed to determine, namely, the differences in max age and height due to the genetics.  Given a player choosing Yara to be 25 at start, we can average out her height from the genetics.  An Indeth Human female is on average around 5' tall.  A Satvabes Felinae female is on average 4'10'' tall.  A Succubus is on average around 5'7'' tall.  Given the total sum (doubling for Succubus) and averaging it out, we arrive at a height of about 5'3'', or if one prefers to roll instead, the result skewed toward the Satvabes Felinae genetics, pushing it to 5' tall, being between the average and the one the genes are closest to.  The max natural age for a Human is 125, the max natural age for a Felinae is 80, the max natural age for a Succubus is 205.  Again, averaging them out (and doubling for Succubus) we have 154 as the max natural age, or if rolling, this time skewing towards Succubus genes, 180 as the max natural age.

In the case of the physical description, the character Yara Kren is likely going to appear mostly Succubus,  with some other genetic traits as well.  First, whether Yara should have fur or not.  I rolled a 1d4 to determine if Yara would have fur, with a 1 being about a quarter fur, 2 being slight fur, the others no fur.  It came up with a 2, so Yara has some bronze fur, but just a little, some on the back of her neck, her belly, and back.  I flipped a coin on her skin tone being an average of the different tones or one specifically and it came out as an average, with her fur taking after her Felinae Grandmother.  This averaging makes her skin Ecru in color (#C2B280 for websafe hex color), with light freckling and small black & brown spots on the elbows, shoulders, knees and hips.  She does have a tail (a roll of 1d4 to determine if she has one and which type) which is long, slender and spaded, but having some soft bronze fur in rings along its length.  She also has horns which are short but sharp, coming out of the side of her head and pointing slightly downward.  Her hair is a light red, probably grown long to cover her face at an early age but then cropped short as she got into fights, now kept at a moderate size due to her increasing experience with defending herself and self-confidence.  Her eyes are green since all four races have that as a possibly trait and while I did roll for other possibilities, three green and one yellow came up, meaning her eyes are going to be green, and taking after her Cubi lineage in form.  Later some time I'll make a sketch of her for a character sheet as I'm going to us Yara to example several other parts of the current template as well.


Titles and Aliases is a spot on the template for if the character has already made a name for themselves or has some manner of birthright or other title for roleplay reasons.  Let's say that she holds the title of Psion Apprentice as she's learning to hone her mental abilities while studying under another.  Let's also give her the alias of Yara Light-Hands due to her skill at pick-pocketing and theft of small items, as well as skill with manipulating small things like locks.  Due to her title and her alias, I'd say she'd probably make good profits in the Con Artist profession, so we can put that down as well.  While MaL allows for class-less builds, if Yara was built as a dual-class from the start she'd probably be a Rogue/Psion.  For her starting location, let's put her in the playtest world of Lenida, born in the open seas on the recently started Cubi immigrant merchant fleet on the ketch owned by her parents called The Crimson Maiden.  Her renown in her hometown (being the merchant fleet) is at a 3, with plenty of people knowing her and her family, as well as the fights she has gotten into, but most not aware of the con jobs she's pulled on visitors to the fleet and sometimes even on her own people.  She does not yet have any universal renown.  The Cubi fleet itself is mostly from desert and wasteland dwellers of their previous homelands, seeking new territories to claim, having first started showing up near the Aduron Draconis Dragon-Kin Empire and a few other islands and has developed a mixture of cultures between the Aduron Draconis Dragon-Kin low culture and the old Cubi High Culture and Cubi Low Culture.  Yara would know the Aduten Language (Language of the Aduron and Ventun Draconis Dragon-Kin) and Cubenja (Cubi language), as well as the Cubi Low Culture and Aduron Draconis Dragon-Kin Culture.  That all said, when I have an illustration of Yara and the rest of the sheets set, I'll upload them, but tomorrow the next sheet!