Creature Rules (Action)

Heroic Action Role-Play

Creatures is a generic term used in Action for all things in action capable of independent action. This includes all player characters, non-player characters, bit actors, animals, monsters, summonnables, automatos, and robots. A trap or automatic device may or may not be a creature depending on how it is used in the game.

Role & Quality

All creatures have the four Attributes and almost all have Skills and Schticks. Creatures also have a role; this determine how they take Damage and use Fortune. There are also four degrees of competency creatures can have. These do not in themselves have any effect on the game, but are used when generating the creature's traits.

Role

Role determines the use of Fortune and how you take Damage. It has no direct impact on statistics. The role of an NPC can change during the story; a villain that first turns up as a serious challenge (Villain) can later be someone's sidekick (Henchman) or a Minion can assume a greater role and become a henchman, all with no change in attributes.

Hero/Villain

A hero or villain is a main character; a mover and shaker. They are able to take massive amounts of punishment and can use fortune to achieve their ends. Normally, all player characters are heroes, while there are only a few non-player villain in a story and generally no non-player heroes - when non-player heroes appear its because the GM needs a powerful Avatar to highlight some aspect of the story.

Heroes can take a number of Hits equal tot heir [[Body (Action)|Body], with a minimum of three hits. They have Fortune points equal to their Mind.

Henchman

Henchmen are important and powerful figures, but they don't have the staying power of heroes and villains. They have more than one hit and can use fortune to push the envelope, but not to the same degree - their luck runs out after a few moments of glory.

Henchmen can take three Hits of damage and have three Fortune points.

Minion/Victim

A minion can be competent and dangerous, but he has a bit part. Minions are faceless and display little individuality or motivation beyond a fierce determination. A minion has no name or goes by a generic and forgettable moniker. Minions can work for both heroes and villains.

A victim is a variant of the minion, just as frail but with a lot of personality and motivation - tough often in a simple stereotypical way. Expressions such as "this is my last day at this job" are common. They exist to provide drama and motivation; they strive heroically and their failures serve to inspire the heroes.

A minion or victim has only one Hit and cannot spend Fortune points.

Quality

The quality of a creature is used to generate its Attributes and Skills. Quality is independent of role, and a creature's quality - and the statistics derived from it - generally does not change except trough experience, tough there are exceptions.

Star

The player characters are the stars of the story