The beauty of FUDGE is in its superb configurability. It's a skill-centered system without too much granularity to it (if desired), and has a nice word-based method for attribute expression, which makes for fairly understandable character sheets, even if you haven't seen the system much or at all before.
This section will discuss the particulars and peculiarities of my implementation of the Amber setting (and DRPG to an extent) using FUDGE as a base. Ideally, you won't need to go look at the rules for FUDGE at all, just using this section for building your character. The actual numerics of building a character are detailed later -- first, an overview:
I'm doing away with 'stats', and moving the focus to 'gifts' and 'skills'; what it is about you that is intrinsic, and what it is that you do to what degree of competency. So, we don't have the stat 'Warfare' -- we have the skills 'Bladed Weaponry', 'Military Command', and so on. It's still possible to have a Gerard, though, without a Strength stat -- read on.
A personal shadow, item of power, or powerful contact is a Resource; it exists external to your character, but is tied to him or her in some important fashion. A Resource is a kind of Gift, and will have a degree of effectiveness and power dependent on how many Gift allocations are put toward it. A 'Fair' or 'Good' resource might be a sword that sings a tune when danger comes around; a 'Great' resource could be Frakir, which could both strangle and danger-sense; a 'Superb' resource would be Benedict's silver arm, which could affect the insubstantial in Tir-na, and move when he himself couldn't; and a 'Legendary' resource would be something like Grayswandir. Let's not talk about spikards.
Opportunities are another subclass of Gifts, which represent specialized training or power attunements most often, opening up a restricted set of skills to a character. The ones most relevant are:
Others exist, of course, and should be discussed with the GM.
Intrinsics are just that, intrinsic traits of your character which are not easily quantifiable with a skill rating, but which can put a particular 'spin' on the outcome of your character's actions and efforts under the right circumstances. They can either be ungraded ('Keen Eyesight') or graded ('Strength of a generation: Great'); graded Intrinsics are considered to be generally more powerful and encompassing than ungraded ones.
The best example of this (though something of a special case) are the classic "superlatives" of Amber. While Benedict's military and combative prowess reside in his skills, Gerard and Corwin's strength and endurance are less easily expressed as a set of skills.
In FUDGE Amber, Gerard's strength would be expressed as 'Strength of a generation: Legendary' and would take up five full Gift allocations (see below). He is 'ranked' as the Legendarily Strong member of his generation, and the GM takes this into account whenever he uses his skills or performs an action in a way that uses his strength as a factor. In some ways, the gift is a 'big, diffuse skill' that affects a wide range of endeavors.
This is relative to his own generation, however; in a troupe of sons-of-Elders, someone else might have the same gift, but would not be able to take Gerard on an even ground. Age does, on occasion, matter.
Shapeshifting, by contrast, is an ungraded Intrinsic (though it should have an associated metaphysical skill).
Flaws are a one-for-one trade of one flaw for one 'gift allocation', and should be a fairly severe disadvantage. They should be bad enough that they have a notable impact on the character's perspective, behavior, and possibly fate.
'Ugly' is not a flaw, but 'No Amber Blood' is (Chaosians would take this, but also Shapeshifting, for a zero-sum). Those playing pure shadows would take the prior flaw, plus 'Shadow Entity' to indicate they are fully non-real -- a severe handicap. Other flaws could include 'Blood Cursed' -- depending on the severity of the curse, could even be worth two -- 'Hunted by powerful elder', and so on.
Skills are the center of a character, and sit at the 'broad' but not 'super-broad' level of granularity; to illustrate, some examples:
We'll sit somewhere in the middle. Non-metaphysical skills are generally either at the 'Common' or 'Hard' level (which affects cost and starting level). Skills which would be considered "easy" are more or less taken as free character aspects, if the background warrants it. Combat skills are universally considered to be 'Hard' to learn. We don't have a rigidly defined skill set, however, so run your initial list past the GM before you start committing points and ratings to them.
Metaphysical skills are the skills associated with intrinsics, opportunities, and in general, the sources of "powers" in the game. They have pre-requesites, and are universally considered to be 'Very Hard' to learn. A non-inclusive list:
There are no Power Words; their effects can either be achieved by Spellcasting, or the appropriate use of Pattern Tricks.
Three related 'Common' and/or 'Hard' skills can be grouped together as a 'Vocation', for a cost break; you buy one rating for the vocation, as though it were a 'Hard' skill at twice the cost, and that rating applies to the three grouped skills. The Vocation itself becomes a part of your character background.
For example, a Jakob, son of Caine, might have a Vocation of 'Pirate', with the three skills associated being: Firearms (for the flintlock pistol), Swordplay, and Sailing.
Vocations, because they are associated with a portion of the character's life, an actual 'job' he/she held in order to gain those skills, can also afford a few 'extras' -- mundane skills which make sense for a Pirate to have might be judged at a higher default level (like, say, appraisal, as a skill you might pick up while selling your plundered booty).
The three vocational skills must be picked at the time the Vocation is defined; no metaphysical skills (they're Very Hard anyway, but I'm reiterating) can be incorporated into the Vocation.
You can have more than one Vocation, thanks to the wonders of living many lifetimes.
Characters start out with 50 skill levels (S). 6 skill levels can be traded in for 1 gift level (G) (this conversion can be done in the opposite direction, as well, with gift levels received from flaws, for example). Define and allocate skills and gifts as you see fit, according to their type/difficulty. The 'Fair' rating is considered medium to high competency.
The allocations table is as follows; the 'zero' cost ratings are considered the default for a skill unless the GM deems it one that would have no default rating. The skill cost progression is somewhat different from FUDGE's suggested progression due to the reworking of the meaning of the skill levels, and due to the 'unbounded' nature of the skill ratings. Costs listed are the amount to 'set' a skill at that level, so upgrading a Poor Vocation to a Mediocre Vocation costs 2 additional skill levels, not an additional 4.
| Common | Hard | Metaphysical/ Very Hard | Vocation | Graded Gift | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -1 S | 0 S | 1 S | 0 S | N/A | Terrible |
| 0 S | 1 S | 2 S | 2 S | N/A | Poor |
| 1 S | 2 S | 3 S | 4 S | N/A | Mediocre |
| 2 S | 3 S | 4 S | 6 S | 1 G | Fair |
| 3 S | 4 S | 5 S | 8 S | 2 G | Good |
| 4 S | 5 S | 1 G | 10 S | 3 G | Great |
| 5 S | 1 G | 2 G | 2 G | 4 G | Superb |
| 1 G | 2 G | 3 G | 4 G | 5 G | Legendary |
| 2 G | 3 G | 4 G | 6 G | N/A | Legendary + 1 |
| 3 G | 4 G | 5 G | 8 G | N/A | Legendary + 2 |
| +N G | +N G | +N G | +2N G | N/A | Legendary + 2 + N |
Ratings for particularly high super-legendary values (L+4 and up) may have additional GM requirements beyond simple level allocation.
Advancement (improvement of a character sheet) is something that occurs between adventures, where experience points are either funneled into 'Fudge Points' (more on those, later), or sheet advancement. Advancement can only occur along lines that are clearly developed during the course of play: you can't improve a skill or vocation that you haven't been using or developing in some way (so keep track).
If you receive Instruction or Attunement or the like during the course of play, you'll get them added to your sheet even if you don't have the experience points to buy them. If you go into 'debt' with your instruction and attunement, all experience points you earn get put toward paying off that debt until you're no longer in debt (so it's best not to get Instruction or Attunement without being able to buy up front).
Per 'Advancement Period', you can only improve the level of a skill, vocation, or graded gift, one 'hop' up the chart (so, no jumps from 'Good' to 'Legendary' between Adventure 1 and Adventure 2).
Each character starts out with one free fudge point. Fudge points can be spent to alter a die roll one leve, up or down; fudge points can be spent to perform some meta-game magic and declare that your wounds 'weren't as bad as they looked'; a fudge point can give you an automatic success with panache on any given unopposed action (where you aren't contesting your skill against someone else); and in the most general application, fudge points can be spent to nebulously 'push things to go your way' by buying favor from the gods (the GM) on a short-term basis. Fudge points are, in essence, the way players can influence the plot line when their characters' skills fail them.
Two experience points can be traded in for one skill level (so, twelve experience points get you a gift).
Conversely, if you have skill levels left over after your initial creation, you can funnel them out to an experience pool -- but only at 1 skill level for 1 experience point (there's some loss due to the potential to convert to Fudge Points). You can't have skill levels sitting around unallocated, so -- unless you want some initial fudge points -- it's best to use them all.
One experience point can be traded in for one fudge point. Fudge points cannot be turned back into experience: once they're in your fudge point pool, they're earmarked specifically for that use.
You don't get to choose your parent, but you may feel free to describe the way in which you were parented.
Always buy Trump Use if your character's had any exposure to them. Buy a decent amount of Pattern Use if you've attuned to one of the designs. Horsemanship and one or more medieval weapons skill should not be neglected. Consider buying a Fair resource if you have 1 gift allocation and nothing to do with it. Use vocations unless you can't rationalize a skill-set otherwise.
There are no campaign contributions. At this time, I don't believe in 'em. If you want to do cool stuff for the campaign -- do it. But don't expect that to translate to a reward on your sheet.
Duke is at heart a cowboy, a wide-roamin' guy who spends most of his time around casinos, saloons, and 'wild west' shadows. He started out as a sailor in his father's Navy, however.
Zephrim is a budding trump artist, a nobleman about Amber, and an heir to the 'redhead gene'... for all it is worth.
Joachim is a spy, trained by his father in the mundane areas, but only a little in touch with the True Story of the Amberverse. At the begining of the campaign he will be introduced to Amber.