2. Pick your faction.Are they good? Are they bad? This game is PRE Beast wars, as it deals with AutoBots and decpeticons. Remember that your name should fit your faction. Would an autobot be named "Bloodwynd the fierce??" Of course not.

Your choice of factions are:
A: AutoBot (Good guys)
B: Decpeticon (Bad Guys)
C: Cybertronian Empire (g2 Decpeticons led by the Leige Maximo)
D: Junkions (Good guys that talk like commercials and/or Monty Python skits.)
E: Destrons (For this game, Destrons are the servants and robots of the Quintessons.)

3. Choose your form. What does your robot turn into? A Dinosaur? Tank? City? This is important as it dictates the only other form your robot has.

4. Choose sub group (Optional)
This is ONLY if your are part of a gesalt team, or something unique like a Triple CHanger, Pretender, or the like. I hope this is self explanatory.

5. Choose your function. Your function is what your robot was created to do. Infantry? Espionage? Terrorism? This is your choice and is limited only by your imagination.

6. Choose your quote. Your Quote basically sums up your robots personality is one or two sentences. Birdbrain of Monstuctors is "Anyone who is not a predator is considered prey." This describes him accurately as he is a social darwinist and a Decepticon where MIGHT makes RIGHT. THink long and hard about this quote.

7. Define your character.

7a: OVERVIEW Take a look at any tech spec. You will see the following abilities:
Strength
Intelligence
Speed
Endurance
Rank
Courage
Firepower
Skill

These are the stats that your character will have as well. Note that on a tech spec that the level of ability in each goes from 1 (Worst) to 10 (best) Again, this will be the same for your character. You have FIFTY (50) points to distribute between these 8 abilities. DO NOT only spend half a point or a fraction of a point like is now done in Beast Wars/Beast machines. Only spend a full point. (Is this hard to understand?)

7b: What the statistics mean

A: Strength
Strength is how strong your character is. How hard he/she punches. How much he/she can lift.

B: Intelligence.
This defines how smart your character is. Is he a sly genius? Loyal but dumb? Booksmart but without common sense? Decide this when allotting points to this characteristic.

C: Speed.
Speed has three uses. The first is how fast your character is in alternate (Veichle/animal/etc) mode. The Second is your FIGHTING INITATIVE. We will cover fighting later. For now we will say that the higher the speed means you the sooner you attack in combat. The final is your ability to dodge attacks in combat. Speed is the most combat oriented ability.

D: ENDURANCE
Endurance is how much damage you can take. An RPG phrase for this is "HIT POINTS." If your endurance is 7, you can take 7 points of damage before going unconcious. Endurance also helps you prevent damage taken in battle.

E: RANK
Rank is your position is your faction. The higher the rank the more power you have. Optimus Prime, as leader, has rank of 10. As well, Rank can keep your forces in line through your charisma and leadership ability.

F: Courage
Courage is your bravery. How you do under stress. The higher the courage, the less likely you are to run away in combat

G: Firepower.
Firepower defines how powerful your common gun or primary weapon is. If you have a firepower of 7, your gun can do up to 7 points of damage.

H: Skill
Skill is your ability to hit in combat with either gun or hand to hand weapon. It is also your ability to preform certain acts under stress, such as repairs, trying to put together your decepticon jammer in the middle of a battle after it was blown apart by Skywarp, or climbing a wall of sheer ice.

8: SPECIAL SKILLS AND WEAPONS.

NOTE:This will be the most complicated part of making a character.

Every transformer has something that makes them special. Bw it Trailbreaker's force field, A head or power master or something like that. These abilities are divided into 2 catagories:

Defensive Skills/Weapons
Offensive Skills/Weapons

Here you have 4 points. You may either spend the points on Defensive or offensive in any manner that you choose. If it is a minor ability it will cost one point. If it is a major ability, it will cost two points. Thus you can have either 4 minor skills, 2 major skills or 1 of each.

Again, this is limited to your imagination, but use common sense. A glass gun like cliffjumper's is a minor weapon. Only is used on occasion and isn't super powerful. A force field like Trailbreakers is a MAJOR power as it can really protect you and your allies. A head/power/target/etc master is worth two points as having a sidekick is a major power.

NOTE: An extra veichle or robot mode counts as a minor power. Thus Sixshot would spend all his points on his various modes. A triple changer would spend one point and then have three left. Being part of a gesalt counts as a extra form and thus costs one point.

NOTE: A pretender shell or being a transformer like reflector is a MAJOR power.

When spending skill points please go into detail about what exactly your power/weapon does. Do not take something like TIME TRAVEL or tracking missles filled with anti-matter.

If you have any questions about this section, let me know.

9. HISTORY/PERSONALITY
Give all the info and background you can about your character. Make him come alive. What did he do on cybertron. Why is he an autobot or decepticon. Make your ref/gamemaster and fellow players CARE about your character.

10. WEAKNESS
To complete your character, it must have an Achillies heel. Some weakness that can be exploited if found out. A robot that is afraid of four headed frogs would not be a weakness. Silverbolt the aieralbot has a perfect weakness: FEAR OF HEIGHTS. Optimus prime's weakness is his compassion for other life forms. He is willing to protect even the smallest rabbit from decepticon attacks.

10: EXAMPLE OF CHARACTER CREATION
Let's say Bob wants to play TF:THE RPG. He decides to make a decepticon called TerrorTank (lame name, but Bob likes it.)

Bob decides that Terror Tank will be a Decepticon.

Bob then must pick his function. Bob feels that Terror is a bully at best, so he decides Terrortank's function is "Ground assult"

Now for a quote. Bob needs to define the personality of Terrortank. he's already stated that TT is a bully and Decepticon. Finally he picks the following: "The fear of my victims feeds me better than any energon." Bob states that Terror gets an adrenaline rush or a "High" from hurting and killing Autobot and other lesser life forms. As well, once lost is the bloodlust of battle, Terror forgets everything else. He may be so wrapped up in the fight, that he may not hear Megatron yell retreat and find himself the only decepticon left on the battlefield.

Now for the point spending. Bob has 50 points to spend. He looks at the first catagory.

Terrortank is a warrior, so he should be very strong. Bob gives him an 8 in strength.

Next he looks at intelligence. Bob reasons TT is dumb as he is big so he gives him a 3 for intelligence.

Speed is the next catagory. Tanks aren't very fast. And Bob doesn;t care whether TT is the first to attack or not, as long as he gets to attack! He gives TT a 3 for speed.

Next is Endurance. Bob reasons TT is well armoured and can take a lot of damage. He should also have a lot of hit points. Bob gives TerrorTank an 8 in Endurance.

Now we have Rank. Bob laughs here. No decepticon would ever put TerrorTank in chare of anything! He's a grunt and knows it. Bob gives him a mere two for rank.

Courage. This catagory is MADE for TT. He's too dumb to know to retreat. Plus the bloodlust in TerrorTank would never let him retreat. Bob cranks Courage all the way up to 10!

Firepower. TerrorTank is just that: A tank. Tanks have guns. Plus Bob imagines Terror running into battle emptying his gun before any other decepticon has gotten a chance to fire. Bob gives Terror an 8 in firepower.

Finally, we come to skill. Bob feels Terror is a skilled warrior, has good aim and preforms well under stress. Still, TT is an idiot. He gives Terror a 6 for skill.

Bob counts up the points he has used and finds it to be only 48. Bob still gets two more points to spend. He looks at his character and decides to put both points into Endurance to make him a real pain in the chassis to the Autobots.

Now for special skills. Bob decides that Terror isn't a real defensive robot, but one point in defense might help. He decides to go for a radar or scanning device that detects nearby autobots and the exact # of how many there are. Not it does not tell him WHICH autobots are there. It would merely tell him that there are three autobots guarding Fort Knox. This is a minor power so he has three left.

Bob wants a big ass weapon to help him in combat, which befits his characters nature. Note that bob already has a normal gun that has a firepower of 8. Bob asks if he could have a multigun instead of a normal lazer. The Ref/Game master asks him to specify. Bob wants a gun that can shoot different ammo with the flick of a switch. He wants it to shoot gernades, ice beams, fire and taser like darts. The multi-gun will take the place of his normal standard lazer, but each ammo from his gun has his standard firepower. The Ref agrees that it should be a major weapon and gives it to him.

Finally Bob has one point left. Bob asks for invincibility to fire. He wants to take no damage from fire and flames. The GM says that is too powerful for a one point skill/ability so he and bob agree to make it FIRE RESISTANCE. Bob will only take half damage from fire and fire based weapons like flamethrowers and Dinobot breath.

Now Bob has to pick a weakness. He decides that TerrorTank will be a bully because he is insecure. As such he always needs to be picking fights, even if it happens to be a more powerful opponent or even a fellow decepticon. This trait does not endear him to other Decepticons and they are not likely to help him if he bites off more than he can chew.

Bob then sits for a bit and writes down his characters Personality and history. The finished copy looks like this:

NAME: TERRORTANK
Faction: Decpeticon
Mode: M-1 Abrams Tank
Function: Ground Assault
Quote: "The Fear of my Victims feeds me better than any energon."

Str: 8
Int: 3
Spd: 3
Endurance: 10
Rank: 2
Courage: 10
Firepower: 8
Skill: 6

Weakness: Terrortank is has low self-estee, and needs to beat people up in order to feel good about himself. He sometimes ends of picking fights with those bigger and more powerful than he is, and even with other decpeticons. He is quick to anger and a smart autobot can pit TerrorTank against his fellow decepticons.

Skills//weapons:

MAJOR: TT carries a multi gun that shoots an array of ammunition. Fire, Ice, Gernades...you name it. if he will be facing an Autobot who has a specific weakness to a type of ammunition, he will build new shells for his gun tailored to that weakness. Minor: Resistance to fire. TT takes half damage from fire. Minor: Radar/detection. TT can detect if and how many autobots are within a 10 mile range, allowing he and his fellow decepticons to prepare a suprise attack. History/Personality: TerrorTank is a grunt. A front line expendable soldier...and he LOVES it. He'd hate to be thinking up long boring plans or leading forces into battle. He just wants to destroy and lose himself in the sounds of warfare. As long as he can empty his gun of rounds and comes back to base with the fuel of an Autobot still dripping from his fists, he's a happy camper.

Well folks, That's all there is to making characters. If you wish to play, just send your creation to: me via email (Forms are coming) and I will let you know if you are approved of our note. I do suggest reading the COMBAT RULES as well before you send in a guy. Look for you soon! Adieu!

NOTE: All Transformers not created by players, Autobot and decepticon logos, Cyberton and etc. are properites of Hasbro and Takara INC. This role Playing game is under a copyright by Alexanderlucard (C/1995)and any use of this RPG style without express permission of the author is subject to due course of legal action.