CREATING A CHARACTER

You have several choices to make when creating your character.  The best way to navigate through these choices is to think of the kind of character that you want to play.  Are you interested in a speedy, stealthy Freemind, or a Freeborn technical wiz, or even a Desert scavenger/trader?
After you figure out the concept of the character, it needs to be fleshed out with game mechanics – Attributes, Skills, and so forth – as well as more concrete concept points – name, age, sex, and so forth.

THE BARE BONES OF THE CHARACTER

The biggest choice the player has to make is whether the character is a Freemind, someone born in the Matrix who has since been freed, or a Freeborn, someone born outside the Matrix in the few remaining human cities near the Earth’s core.  Either choice has its advantages and disadvantages; if the character is a Freeborn, for example, often have greater resources in the Desert of the Real, at the cost of being unable to enter the Matrix and fight the Machines on a digital level.  Freeborns also lack what is known in Matrix terms as a Persona, which is described later.
Attributes
Characters have 7 Prime Attributes and 8 Secondary (Derived) Attributes.
Quickness: The character’s quickness of mind and body
Intelligence: The character’s capacity for reason
Comeliness: the character’s physical beauty
Strength: the character’s physical might
Knowledge: a measure of what the character knows
Willpower: the character’s mental fortitude
Endurance: the character’s physical stamina.
No character can possess and unaugmented Attribute score of more than 6 or less than one.  They may be increased by Real World technology, or Hacking Abilities in the Matrix.

Derived Attributes are determined by averaging two of the character's Prime Attributes.
Charisma (Intelligence and Comeliness): the character’s personal magnetism.
Size (Strength and Endurance): the character’s physical bulk and ability to shrug off damage.
Belief (Willpower and Intelligence plus 1): the character’s ability to bend the rules of the Matrix.
Memory (Intelligence and Knowledge): the character’s ability to organise and utilise stored facts.  It also factors in Freemind characters’ Flash Memory abilities.
Intuition (Intelligence and Quickness): the character’s ‘common sense’; the ability to notice things.
Dexterity (Intelligence and Quickness): the character’s hand-eye coordination, and how fast they react.
Brawling (Strength and Quickness): the character’s ability to fight with their body.
Stealth (Quickness and Knowledge): the art of being sneaky.

There are two ways that the player can generate their Attribute and skill totals.  The first way is to assign Priorities according to the table below.  The character may only choose one Priority 1, one Priority 2, and so on. 

Character Type: what general type the character is, either Freemind or Freeborn.
Ability Modifier: the bonus (or penalty) that the character receives to their Hacking Ability total (See Hacking Abilities)
Attributes: the total number of points that the character can assign to their Prime Attributes.
Skills: the number of skills that the character has to begin with.

The second method is using the Point system. the player is alotted 125 points, which may be spent according to the table below. 

Almost as important as the character’s ability is their Tribe.  There are nine Tribes, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

Cypher (Cyphers)
Unfortunately, the opinions expressed by Cypher have steadily gained supporters in the Real World.  These supporters, known as Cyphers, have been known to work for the Machines as human Agents, using their knowledge and abilities in exchange for power in what they believe to be the Real World of the Matrix.
Cyphers are highly untrustworthy creatures, often exiled from the human cities for political or criminal reasons.  Cyphers who have been exiled in this manner are branded with the symbol of Pluto, lord of the Underworld.  Like their brand-sake, uttering the name of a Cypher (or even the very name itself) is considered to be bad luck.  Calling someone a Cypher is highly insulting, and often results in physical retaliation, especially from Apocalytes and Swtichers.
Cyphers that work for the machines are often housed in luxurious heated suites near a Farm or Node, which allows them to double as guards.  Some elect to have their bodies inserted into the Matrix again, and live as high-powered execs or heads of security.
Skill Modifiers: None.
Gear Modifiers: Cyphers usually have the resources of the Machines at their disposal, so they have access to pretty much any piece of equipment that you could name.
Other Notes: Many people distrust Cyphers intensely, and treat anyone with the brand of Pluto with open hostility, if not an outright attack.  Perhaps this is the reason that Cypher characters are so very rare.

Switch (Switchers)
Before her death at the hands of Cypher, Switch was an accomplished technician and mechanic.  Switchers display a knack for fixing things, from the smallest microelectronic components to the largest hovercraft or Battle Suit.  Unfortunately, they also display unusually short fuses, and may fly off in a rage at the slightest provocation.
Switchers are easily identified by the array of tools they carry, as well as the symbol of Luna, a representation of both their female patron and the malleable nature of their tempers and equipment.
Skill Modifiers: +1 to Intuition.  –1 to Charisma.  Free Skills: Salvage, Repair (one type).
Gear Modifiers: Switches always have a set of Repair tools on hand (Low/High Tech, Low Complexity), and many who have established themselves as part of a hovercraft team or in one of the human cities have extensive workshops (Low/High Tech, Medium to High Complexity).
Other Notes: If a Switcher is slighted or insulted, they must make a Willpower test, with modifiers depending on the situation and person slighting them.  If they fail, then the Switcher attacks the offender for three rounds, reduced by 1 round per success.  So if a Switcher with Willpower 3 overheard an offhand comment by another nomad in a bar (no modifiers), and drew two sevens and a Queen, she would attack the nomad for a minimum of 1 round.

Mouse (Mice/Mousers)
If you need a rare part or item, a visit to a Mouser may prove useful.  Mousers are the trade and scavenge kings, able to strip a crashed robot for parts like a pack of techno-piranhas, and then sell the parts to you for more than top dollar.
Mousers bear the mark of Saturn, the god of enterprise.
Skill Modifiers: +1 to Intuition.  –1 to Size.  Free Skills: Appraisal, Salvage.
Gear Modifiers: An established Mouser will normally have a junkyard or parts shop overflowing with apparently useless junk.  This junkyard will often include, as a matter of course, at least one Workshop (Low/High tech, Medium complexity)
Other Notes: Mousers aren’t known for their martial prowess; it takes a Mouser twice as many Experience Points to increase their Brawling Attribute, or the Martial Arts or Armed Combat skills.

Apoc (Apocalytes)
Apocalytess are the architects of the Resistance.  They design and oversee the construction of new dwellings in the Desert, and design new and better programs for use in the Matrix.  They bear the symbol of Neptune, the life-giving water-god.
Skill Modifiers: +1 to Memory.  –1 to Brawling.  Free skills: Coding, Construction.
Gear Modifiers: Apocalytes usually have a laptop computer (High Tech, Low Complexity) on hand, in case inspiration strikes.
Other Notes: Apocalytes are the builders of the new human society, so they aren’t comfortable in less-than-permanent dwellings (tents, shanty-towns, abandoned buildings).  Add 1 to any Targets on actions taken in such a dwelling.  This only applies in the Real World.

Tank (Tankers)
Tankers are the backbone of the Resistance’s Matrix operations; as Operators, they ghost along with the group, providing information and the ever-important exit locations.  To this end, they excel in Coding and Research.  For reasons not fully discovered, Tankers are all notoriously loud, even when attempting to be quiet; this may have something to do with their being in the constant company of the myriad whines and whirrs of the hovercraft.
Tankers bear the mark of Mercury, the god of communications.
Skill Modifiers: +1 to Memory.  –1 to Stealth.  Free Skills: Coding, Research.
Gear Modifiers: a Tanker character will automatically double the Maximum Load and Library size of their Hovercraft.
Other Notes: Tankers are often naïve, and any attempts to trick them are more likely to succeed.  Reduce the character’s Intuition by 1 for the purposes of determining the outcome of any Con or Bargain attempts.

Dozer (Dozers)
Dozers are the drivers of the Desert.  Put a Dozer behind the wheel of any craft, and if he can’t pilot it, he’ll do a good job of faking it.  Apart from being very good at driving, Dozers are also larger and, by extension, less agile than the average Desert-dweller.
Dozers bear the mark of Apollo, the Sun-god, whose fiery yellow chariot above has been replaced by the cool electric-blue chariots below.
Skill Modifiers: +1 to Size.  –1 to Dexterity.  Free skills: Navigation, one Vehicle (Usually Hovercraft).
Gear Modifiers: Dozers come complete with their own Vehicle to match their Vehicle skill.  This isn’t theirs; it is on loan from Zion, and if they crash it, they won’t be getting a new one any time soon…  If the character elects to purchase a Vehicle with their Resources, they may double their allowance for it.  This extra allowance may only be spent on one vehicle.
Other Notes: Dozers and Tankers are often related; even if they are not blood-relations, the members of the two tribes always share a certain bond.

Morpheus (Morphs)
Morphs are very polar in nature.  To the citizens of the Matrix, they are terrorists, people to be feared and reviled.  To the citizens of the Desert, Morphs are saviours, the footsoldiers of the ‘good fight’.  Their brief is simple: find potential Freeminds, introduce them to the Truth, and hopefully recruit them.  To this end, they are very good at hiding themselves, as well as gathering information about possible recruits.
Morphs are branded with the symbol of Mars, the god who himself has two faces - one of war, and one of new life - much the same as the Morphs.
Skill Modifiers: +1 to Charisma.  –1 to Brawling.  Free skills: Disguise, and either Research or Information Gathering.
Gear Modifiers: If the group does not have means of transportation (no Dozer, or no Hovercraft, or both), then the Morph will come complete with a Hovercraft and (if needed) a driver.
Other Notes: many Morphs make their way into Matrix-bound law enforcement databases, and as such are more likely to be recognised.  Subtract 2 from any Targets involving identifying the Morph through these methods.

Trinity (Trinities)
Trinities are renowned for their ability to steal, whether data or hard currency.  They are fast, precise and sometimes lethal in their methods.  Trinities are often called in to get to the harder potential recruits, those that are of high position, or under close guard by the Machines.
Members of the Trinity tribe bear the mark of Venus, the goddess of beauty and womanhood.
Skill Modifiers: +1 to Dexterity.  –1 to Size.  Free skills: two from Theivery or Movement skills.
Gear Modifiers: Trinities may double their allowance for Gear.
Other Notes: Trinities, like Neos, are proud of their skills, and will defend them when provoked, often resorting to violence.  They react in a similar way to Switchers.  Like the Neos, the Trinities pride themselves on a selective membership: there are no male members of the Trinity tribe, and all female members must have Quickness and Intelligence scores of 4 or more.

Neo (Neos)
Neo is the warrior tribe of the Desert.  They pride themselves on their combat prowess both in and out of the Matrix.  If you examine a roster of Battlesuit pilots, or gunners on a Potential ship, more often than not you will find a large proportion of Neos.  Unfortunately, this focus on combative arts tends to make a Neo a tad awkward in social situations; they find their comfort on the battlefield, not in a roomful of people.
Neos bear the mark of Jupiter, the Divine Champion.  Unlike the other tribes, this mark is usually branded on with a hot iron, rather than a tattoo or nano-etching.  Also, this brand tends to be in a prominent place, such as the cheek or forehead.
Skill Modifiers: +1 to Brawling.  –1 to Charisma.  Free Skills: any two Combat skills.
Gear Modifiers: Neos may double their allowance for Weapons.  If they don’t have a high enough Priority to purchase Weapons, they may purchase weapons with normal allowance rates.
Other Notes: Neos tend to have at least one weapon on them at all times – more, if they can get away with it.  If they are unarmed, add 1 to any Targets they have to draw against.
Neos, like Trinities, are proud of their skills.  They react in the same way as Switchers if their abilities are called into question.  And, like Trinities, the membership into the Tribe of Neo is very exclusive.  There are no female members, and members must have Strength and Endurance scores of 4 or more.

The Tribe of Man
The Tribe of Man is the general term for other Freeminds and Freeborns not associated with one tribe or another.  They bear the crossed-circle of Mother Earth.
Skill Modifiers: None.
Gear Modifiers: None.
Other Notes: Because of the less serious nature of their membership, members of the Tribe of Man tend to wear their mark on their clothing or gear, rather than permanently inscribing it on their bodies.  This is not always the case, though.

Jason and Kate want to create two different characters.  Jason wants a Freemind like the ones in the movie: handy in combat, but with some back-up skills as well.  Kate wants to explore the world outside the Matrix, so she decides to go for a Mouser, a Freeborn Desert-dweller who specialises in the salvage and sale of equipment.

Jason uses the points system, and comes up with the following: 

He decides to put most of his points into his Physical Attributes, giving them 5 each, and he gives four each to Willpower, Knowledge and Intelligence, leaving 2 points for Comeliness. Jason decides that his character dosen't need any Tribal restrictions, so he puts his character in the Tribe of Man.
This gives him the following Basic and Derived Attributes: 

Kate decides to use the Priority method, and comes up with the following: 

Kate decides that the most important Attributes for her will be Intelligence and Knowledge, so she puts 6 into each.  She also wants to be fairly tough mentally and physically, as well as fairly fast on her feet, so she puts 4 each into Willpower, Endurance and Quickness.  This leaves her with 6 points, which she splits equally between Comeliness and Strength. Because Kate’s character is a Mouser, she gains 1 level in Intuition, which increases it to 6, but loses 1 level of Size, reducing it to 3.
This leaves Kate’s character with the following Attributes: 

After the player has determined their character’s Attributes, there are several other sundry scores the player must calculate.
Speed
Speed is equal to the average of the character’s Dexterity and Intuition, rounded down.  Each character (unless they have the Increased Reaction Hacking ability) draws one card.  The draw is added to their Speed score, with the highest total going first, followed by the next highest, and so on.  After the first Turn, 10 is subtracted from the total, and the process begins again with anyone who still has a positive score.  This continues until there is no-one left to act; when this happens, all people still involved in the combat start the process again.
For example: Mary, Crunch, and two Marines are locked in combat.  Mary has Speed 10, Crunch Speed 6, and the two marines 4 each.  Mary also has Increased Reaction at level 4, allowing her to draw two cards instead of one.  Mary draws first, getting a 7 and an 8, for a total score of 25.  Crunch draws a 9, for a score of 15.  The Marines draw a 7 and a 2, giving them totals of 11 and 6 respectively.  The Combat Turns progress as follows: 

In the event of a tie, the person with the highest Speed goes first.  If the Speeds are equal, draw again; high card goes first.
A player may elect to hold their action, and act at some other time in that same turn instead.  This held action must be used before the character acts again in sequence, or it is lost.  In the above example, for instance, Mary could act before Crunch, or before either of the Marines, without losing that action.

Thresholds and Wounds
- Stun Damage Threshold = twice the sum of Size and Willpower
- Physical Damage Threshold = three times the character’s Size
- Stun Wounds = sum of Size and Willpower
- Physical Wounds = Size
- Death’s Door = (Size×4)
Every time a character takes total Physical or Stun damage equal to their Threshold, they take a Wound. Every Wound, Physical or Stun, adds 1 to all the character’s Targets.  If a character takes Stun Wounds equal to or over the sum of their Size and Willpower, then they are incapacitated; if they take Physical Wounds equal to or more than their Size, then they are at death’s door – literally.
After the character has reached their Physical Wound limit, they take one draw of Physical damage per round that they are unattended; if the character takes more than their Death’s Door limit ([Size×4] points of Physical damage) before receiving assistance, then they are unable to be revived.
Stun Wounds heal at one per hour; points of Stun damage heal at 1 point per half-hour.  Physical Wounds heal at the rate of one per day, and points of Physical damage heal at 1 point per hour.  These rates can be increased through hospitalisation and medical attention (in the Matrix) or First Aid (anywhere).
When a character jacks out of the Matrix, half of their Physical Wounds are converted to Stun Wounds.

Flash Memory
Freeminds have Flash Memory, a specialised cluster of bio-organic memory which allows them to literally upload skills into their brain.  The character may know skills equal to the sum of their Memory and Belief Attributes; however, they may not have more than (Intelligence) skills at once – the brain cannot handle it.  These limits may be improved with the Hacking ability Increased Flash Memory.  If slots are full, or there isn’t enough room, the player must decide which skill is lost. Skills cannot be ‘downgraded’ to make room for another skill; it is either known at the level uploaded, or not known at all.
Any skills uploaded into Flash Memory that the character already has are considered to have a Level equal to the Level uploaded minus the Level of the original skill. It takes 5 seconds per Level to upload a Skill up to Level 5, and 10 seconds per level to upload a Skill up to Level 10; in this case, the Level of the skill is the total Level that the player asked for.  During this upload time, the character suffers a +2 Target penalty, as they are distracted somewhat from the real world.  So if a character with Hovercraft: 2 wanted to boost their score to Hovercraft: 5, they would only use up 3 levels of Flash Memory, and it would take (5×5=)20 seconds to upload.
For example: Engel, with Belief: 6, Memory: 5, and Intelligence: 4, has a total of 11 Ranks at her disposal, but she may only know 4 skills at a time.  While trapped on a building, she needs a Rotorcraft skill.  She asks her Operator to upload Rotorcraft at Rank 4: the uploaded skill takes 4 of the available levels, leaving her with 7 levels to use.  After (4×5=) 20 seconds (during which time Engel is at +2 to any Targets she may have to draw against), Engel is ready to rock and roll.  Unfortunately, this isn’t Engel’s day: a SWAT helicopter comes after her.  She needs to fight them off using the rocket launchers mounted on her ride – this requires Gunnery, a skill Engel has at Level 3.  She wants to end this quick, so she contacts her operator again and asks him for a Gunnery program at Rank 7.  After (7×10=) 70 seconds (during which time Engel is at +2 again to any Targets she may have to draw against), Engel knows how to use the launcher’s guidance systems.  With her Gunnery skill jacked up to level 7, Engel is left with (11-4-7+3=) 3 levels of Flash Memory to play with if she can’t shoot down her chasers.
There are some skills that the character cannot load into flash memory; these are noted in the skill description.

Following the formulas above, Jason’s character has the following values for these abilities in the Real World: 

Kate’s character has the following values: 

By virtue of the fact that he is a Freemind, Jason’s character is the only one of the two that has Flash Memory.  His character has 9 levels of Flash Memory available, and may only have 4 skills loaded at the same time.

FLESHING OUT THE CHARACTER

Now that you know what your character is and does, it’s time to give them a name and face.  Spaces are provided on the Character Sheet for the following:
Name
The player puts their name here.
Character
The player chooses the name of his character and puts it here.  Like most slaves, Freeminds tend to abandon their Machine-given name when they are freed, preferring instead to go by a pseudonym.  Because most Freeminds are hackers, this pseudonym is usually their hacker alias.  Most Freeborn are given a name by their parents, and have the option of changing it when they are older.
Age
Most characters will be about 18 to 25 years old.  The life expectancy for Freeborns is 50 to 60 years; for Freeminds, it is about ten years less, due to the hazardous nature of their job.  If the player so wishes, they may also decide when their Freemind character was liberated from the Matrix; usually, this occurs before the age of 20, although some special cases have been recorded.
Sex
Male or Female.  No hermaphrodites or eunuchs, please.
Eye Colour, Hair Colour and Style, Complexion, Build
These are all arbitrary values. Be creative; make your own appearance, or borrow one from a picture of someone.  Generally most Freeminds keep their hair short, or at least shaved around the jack ports at the back of their heads.
Height and Weight
These values do have a minor impact on the way a character interacts with the environment.  The weight of a character in kilograms is equal to the character’s Size attribute times 15, plus 10; female characters multiply this result by .9.  This is the median weight of people like the character; the player may modify this score by 10 percent either way – so the average male character will weigh between 50 and 77 kilograms, while the average female will weigh between 49 and 59 kilograms.  Note that these averages are smaller than the average weights for a person in, say, the late 90s; this is due to a combination of hard living, frequent exercise, and barely adequate food.  Most Desert-dwellers have little or no fat on their body.
A character’s height has more bearing on the character’s interactions.  In centimetres, it is equal to the character’s Size multiplied by 12, plus 120. Once again, this can be modified by 10 percent either way.  The average character will be between 140cm and 172cm tall.
Tribe
This is where the player puts what Tribe their character is from.  The player’s choice of tribe will decide how other Tribes react to them, as well as extra skills and other bonuses.

Note that a character’s persona may be totally different in appearance, height, weight, even sex, to their physical makeup in the Matrix.  To simulate this, the character may sway their height and weight a further 10 percent either way when determining what the character looks like in the Matrix.

Jason has decided that his character is a well-built male African-American with a shaved head and black eyes.  His name is Polar, a name he received after people saw how different he was in and out of the Matrix.  Polar is not very old, about 19, having been freed from the Matrix when he was 12.  Following the calculations, Jason decides that Polar is 190 metres tall, and weighs 95 kilograms. Polar carries the crossed-circle of the Tribe of Man tattooed into the flesh around his jack, which is coloured to complete the pattern.
Polar’s Persona, on the other hand, is quite different.  A glitch in Polar’s wetware programming meant that for the first twelve years of his life, he was a skinny white kid.  With training, Polar has managed to temper this image with his real appearance, but he still hasn’t totally shed his past.  In the Matrix, Polar has light brown skin, blue eyes, and spiky brown hair which remains in place no matter what rigours Polar puts it through.  He is 190cm tall and weighs 90 kilograms; this gives him a well-toned appearance.
Kate’s character is a Freeborn female named Sears, after a sign she once saw on the front of a building that contained a jackpot of loot.  Sears is a slim 20-year-old with blonde hair, green eyes, and fair, freckled skin.  She is 172 centimetres tall, and weighs 50 kilograms.  Because she is a Mouser, Sears also has a Saturn brand on her left shoulder to signify her Tribe.

Now that your character hads their basic bits in order, it's time to find out what they can do. See the section on Skills for more info.