On this page:
- In a Nut Shell
- Pick a Race
- Pick a Professional Trait
- Creation Points
- Abilities
- Hit Points
- Death and K.O.
- Starting Equipment
- Example Character Sheet
- Sticky Note Character Sheet
- Level Up!
In a nut shell:
As mentioned on the main page, character builds are meant to be simple, easy to remember, and small enough to fit on a sticky note.
For inspiration and ideas, or if you’re too lazy to make your own, check out the pre-built player characters page.
Basically there are 3 steps to building a character.
- Pick a race and a Racial Trait
- Pick a Professional Trait
- Pick Abilities
- Gear up!
Shotgun RPG breaks abilities down into 4 categories: Fight, Cunning, Wit, and Flash. These abilities are part of what make your character unique or special. They define whether your character is particularly good — or particularly bad — at achieving a given task.
Pick a race
Use the Race Guide to pick a race. Basically just think of what animal humanoid you want to be, and what special trait makes you unique.
Pick a Professional Trait
Professional traits are what make you good at your job, whatever that may be.
Listed under each Ability below is a list of actions. These actions are what you can select as professional traits.
Weapons must be specified beyond just the Fight (Weapon Use) action. You must choose a specific weapon group to be proficient with such as Fight (Pistols) or Fight (Swords).
Are you a thief? Maybe you pick Cunning (Sleight of Hand) or Cunning (Stealth). Are you a gunslinger? Fight (Pistols) or Cunning (QuickDraw)
Professional Trait Lists:
Creation Points
Each new character starts with 6 points to spend on abilities, and cannot spend more than 3 points on any one ability during creation.
An example of a well-rounded character would have the following stats:
- Fight: 2
- Cunning: 2
- Wit: 1
- Flash: 1
A serious fighter might choose 3 for Fight and sacrifice the points somewhere else, whereas a professional thief might go for the +3 to cunning.
Abilities
Fight
Fight determines your strength, ability to punch and avoid being punched, physical endurance, and overall ability to use your body as a means of destruction.
Professional Traits:
- Grappling: Grappling, pushing, restraining, and wrestling another character
- Combat (pick one): swords, pistols, rifles, shotguns, knives, axes, hand-to-hand, staffs, spears, clubs, archery, thrown weapons, brawling, improvised weapons.
- Bash: Breaking something, smashing something, bashing a door down, and kicking over an object.
- Force: Moving, pushing, lifting, throwing, pulling, opening a jar of pickles, and holding a heavy object.
- Fortitude: Resist being crushed, resist the effects of poison, illness, or disease, endure pain, and stop yourself from peeing or puking.
Cunning
Cunning defines how sneaky, quick, or skillful a character is. A cunning character can pick a lock, swing from a chandelier, and steal the pants off of a king while he gives a speech, all without ever being seen.
Professional Traits:
- Acrobatics: Balancing, tumbling, and jumping.
- Sleight of Hand: Tricks, pickpocketing, and fine manipulation.
- Stealth: Moving silently and staying hidden.
- Escape: Untying a knot, wriggling out of restraints, and escaping grapples.
- Climb: Scaling surfaces and overcoming obstacles.
- Swim: Moving through water and dealing with aquatic challenges.
- Reaction: Dodging area-of-effect attacks, trap evasion, avoid falling objects, winning a quick draw, and dodging
- Hand-eye-coordination: Throwing darts or knives, playing golf, threading a needle, and playing billiards.
Wit
Wit measures a character’s intelligence and overall knowledge. Whether you’re hacking into the clockwork matrix, reciting the periodic table of elements, fixing a train, putting a band-aid on a boo-boo, or trying to remember if you left the stove on, wit is what is used for all things brainy.
Professional Traits:
- Creature Control: Interacting with animals and understanding their behavior.
- Knowledge: Outlaw Lore, Gearsmithing Know-How, Railway Routes, Nomadic Tribal Wisdom, Bounty Board Intel, Alchemy of the West, Ghost Town Legends, Saloon Etiquette, Rustler Tactics, Skyship Chronicles, Clockwork Computers, and Linguistics, How to Pick a Good Melon, History of the Wild World.
- Perception: Observing surroundings and noticing details, investigating, searching, and using your 5 senses.
- Survival: Navigating, tracking, hunting, living off the land, lighting fires, cooking, and treating wounds and ailments.
- Crafting: Blacksmithing, Clockwork Engineering, Gun-smithing, Machining, Alchemy, and Steam-Clockwork Prosthetics Design.
Flash
Flash determines a character’s attractiveness, charisma, persuasion, artistic ability, eye for beauty, and overall likability. If you want to influence someone, barter, perform, or make something look pretty, flash is the ability you’ll use.
Professional Traits:
- Deceive: Lying, disguises, and manipulation.
- Intimidate: Imposing fear and asserting dominance.
- Perform: Entertaining through music, acting, or other art forms.
- Persuade: Convincing others and negotiating or haggling.
Hit Points
Hit points are determined by adding your Fight score to a base of 1.
Super complex formula: Fight + 1 = HP
So if you have a Fight score of 2, your total HP would be 3. Fight(2) + 1 = 3. Try to keep up, Mr. Figs.
A fight score of zero means you have only one hit point. It also means you should never fight anyone, ever. Talk your way out with flash, run away with cunning, or outsmart your foes with wit.
Death and K.O.
When you are reduced to zero Hit Points, you are typically unconscious, unless circumstances would obviously necessitate death. For example, falling into a volcano, being shot in the brain, or being blatantly executed in some fashion, would all likely result in death. Otherwise, a typical combat scenario would only result in being rendered unconscious, and you would require medical treatment in order to recover.
Starting Equipment
Equipment is simple in Shotgun RPG. Learn more about equipment and how it helps you on the Shotgun RPG Weapons & Junk page.
Currency:
In the Wild World, gold, silver & bullets are the currency. With the gold rush in full swing, most items are purchased per ounce of gold or silver, usually in the form of a nugget or a vile of dust. Bullets are the lowest form of common currency. For example one “shot” of whiskey costs one bullet.
- Gold Ounce (GO) = 10 SO or 100 Shots
- Silver Ounce (SO) = 10 Shots
- Bullet (Shot) = 1 SO
Learn more about currency and the rate of exchange on the Weapons & Junk page.
Pick 2 basic items, one pack, and starting gold.
You can choose 1 weapon and 1 armor, or 2 weapons, or whatever tickles your fancy.
Keep in mind…
- You can exchange one starting gold ounce for one basic item.
- Armor is not a big deal in the Wild World. Light Armor is the most common (dusters and thick leather clothing) which simply grant +1 HP.
- Just because it isn’t listed here doesn’t mean it can’t exist. Ask your Chucker if you have something else in mind.
Pick 2 Basic Items:
You start with whatever clothes you can imagine for free, but these must be purely cosmetic and grant no bonuses.
- Gun: 2 revolvers, 1 rifle, 1 shotgun, or 2 flintlock firearms
- Melee Weapon: a sword, a cudgel, an axe, a tomahawk, brass knuckles (x2 sets), or bowie knives (x2)
- Other Ranged Weapon: a longbow or recurve bow, a crossbow, or a boomerang
- Armor: light armor (leather duster, or thick leather jacket… or chaps)
- Extra Gold: Exchange 1 basic item for 1 Gold.
Pick 1 Pack:
Keep in mind that the knives, hatchets, or other items found in these packs, which could be used as weapons, were not technically made for harming a creature, but could certainly work in a pinch!
- Survival Pack (1 GO): Basic amenities such as fire starter, 1 week of rations, a water canteen, 30 ft. rope, a compass, a lantern, a knife, a hatchet, a small pot for boiling water and cooking, a tent & bedroll, & a bandana.
- Thieve’s Pack (2 GO): Everything a survival kit has, plus a lockpick kit, a glass-cutter, a stethoscope, a hand drill, a grapple hook, & a basic disguise kit.
- Prospector’s Pack (2 GO): Everything a survival kit has, plus a grapple hook, a shovel, a gold pan, a field journal, a fishing kit, blank paper for drawing maps and notes.
- Smithy/Engineer’s Pack (2 GO): Everything a survival kit has, plus a smithy hammer & tongs, leather gloves, gears, cogs, screws, goggles, a steam-pressure gauge, an oil canister, a tool belt with basic tools, ammo refill tools, & a gunpowder horn.
Starting Currency:
- 2 Gold Ounces (GO)
- 5 Silver Ounces (SO)
- 50 bullets (Shots)
Or, exchange up to 1 gold for 1 basic item.
Example Character Sheet
Mr. Figs
I’m only certain about two things: I love Smashing faces, I know how to pick a good ham, and I’m bad at math.
Mr. Figs is a gorilla bounty hunter who loves good ham and violent bar fights.
Race:
- Tree-Swinger (Gorilla)
Abilities:
- HP: 3
- Fight: 2
- Cunning: 2
- Wit: 1
- Flash: 1
Racial Trait:
- Gorilla Fists: +1 Fight (Brawling)
Professional Trait:
- Ham Expert: +1 Wit (Ham Knowledge)
Equipment:
- Cowboy Revolver (x2)
- Baseball Bat Cudgel
- Basic survival pack (fire starter, food, water, rope, etc)
Sticky note version
Level up!
Leveling up occurs when the Chucker thinks you’ve chuckin’ earned it…
A level up can occur when the shooters hit a pivotal moment in the story, such as defeating a powerful boss, reaching the next chapter of the story, or completing the end of a good session.
Level Up Bonuses:
Professional Level-Ups: Professional level-ups occur on each level except levels 5 & 10. A Professional Level-Up means the shooter gains one additional professional trait of their choosing.
Ability Level-Ups: Ability levels occur on 5th and 10th levels (with 10th being the maximum level). An Ability Level-Up means the shooter adds +1 to one of their character’s abilities.
Stacking Traits:
You can “stack” traits by further training in them. If you have +1 to the Fight (Pistols) trait, you are considered proficient in Pistols, and can use them at a professional level. You can then further train to become an Expert (+2) or Master (+3) with pistols during Standard Level-Ups.
You can progress up to 3 levels on any single trait.
The 3 proficiency levels are:
- Professional : (+1)
- Expert : (+2)
- Master : (+3)
Credits:
Midjourney AI