The Untamed Wilds: Electric Skies Character Generation

The Untamed Wilds: Electric Skies

In 2020 the Earth went through the Violent Shift. The magnetic poles switched, throwing the world into chaos. The elemental change brought back something that been lost for eons: waylines, a specific form of energy not accessible through technology but through the mind, were available to humanity again. It was not long before people declared that magic had returned to the world, and for the first time in thousands of years magicians roamed the planet. The waylines crisscrossed the earth and influenced the plants and animals, enabling them to grow larger and display startling new abilities. The world that humanity had conquered was able to push back against modern civilization. With a decimated population from the violent pole shift, people grouped together in the largest cities. The revitalized waylines had an unexpected effect on humanity as well, changing their appearance into what became known as elves, orcs, giants, and base line humans.

The year is 2120, a century after the Violent Shift. With generations of blending magic and technology, the Helton Metroplex on the southern coast of what was once called Texas is a massive sprawl of glittering metal and glass skyscrapers surrounded by vast expanses of new, untamed wilderness. The old-world governments collapsed, and the cities that thrived became powers unto themselves with corporations providing the organization and buying votes on the ruling city council. The fossil fuel industry never reemerged after the Violent Shift, and Tesla towers were erected to provide power for all technology needs. The new Earth exists in three realms, the Hard Realm, where the physical things happen, the Virtual Reality, where all information is stored, transactions are made, and anything artificial is accessed, and the Astral Plane, which proficient magicians can travel to, leaving their bodies for a time in order to converse with spirits and view the Hard Realm in relative security.

Helton Law forbids any Artificial Intelligence to target a living thing, so all conflicts are still done by the old ways. Guns, blades, and spells (powerful abilities granted by manipulating waylines) are the weapons that dominate the streets. With the conflicts between the Ultra Corporations that dominate life in the Helton sprawl there’s plenty of work for Freelancers.

Good fortune, Liveborn, it’s a rich tapestry. (which means ‘good luck person, it’s a dangerous world’)

Character Generation - Step 1: Choose an Archetype

- The Untamed Wilds: Electric Skies has six basic Archetypes to begin character generation. These Archetypes are based on priorities of Body, Essence, and Mind as per standard The Untamed Wilds rules. Body dictates physical actions, Essence dictates magical ability, and Mind dictates mental functions.

Archtypes: Choose a 1st, 2nd and 3rd priority for Body, Essence, and Mind. 1st priority always has the highest numbers, 2nd priority has the middle, and 3rd priority has the lowest numbers on a collective scale

Titles are not necessary. You may call your arch-type whatever you wish. The real difference is the priority of the abilities. Beginning stats are as follows.

Description -A heavy warrior or an enhanced fighter

Description -A fighting strategist, precision striker

Description -A fighting magician, battle-mage

Description -An intellectual magician, precision manipulator

Description -An infiltrating expert, skill-based specialist

Description -A technical specialist, skill-based operator

Example Character: I decided I wanted to make an intelligent character that outwits opponents, rather than use force, with little magic ability. From the Archtypes I choose my priorities of 1st: Mind, 2nd: Body, 3rd: Essence.

My beginning stats are:
As per the standard TUW rules, the Base Attributes of Mind, Body, and Essence cannot be increased over 10. The nine Developmental Attributes and all Skills are all increased using development points at a cost of an equal number of points to the previous number.

Step 2: Descriptive Bonuses: Adding details to the character increases stats. All bonuses are cumulative.

Example Character: I decide to make this character a female (Health +1, Cohesion +1, Persona +1), Average Height 6'2" (Health +1), Average Build (Health +1), Human (Knowledge +1), Medium Skin Color (Cohesion +1), Carotenoic Hue (Cohesion +1), Round eye shape (Persona +1), and Medium Eye Color (Will +1)

After adding my detail bonuses her stats are: Mind 10, Knowledge 4, Persona 5, Will 4, Commercial 3; Body 10, Health 5, Motility 2, Strength 2, Combat 2; Essence 10, Adhesion 1, Cohesion 4, Confluence 1, Collegiate 1

Step 3: Equipment - This is a high technology fantasy world and having the right tools can mean the difference between life and death.



Starting equipment: The Helton Metroplex is an advanced civilization and therefore ordinary items such as clothes and food are readily available. Characters may start with any standard domestic items including handheld communicators wearable on the wrist or face. Further equipment will be selected from starting packages and extra gear may be purchased in gameplay.

Starting packages: choose any 1 package
Also the player has saved 2000 credits before the start of the game. Can be spent on weapons or accessories but some credits will be needed in gameplay.


Cybernetics: A blending between flesh and machine, cybernetics are the edge non-magicians need to stay competitive in the post-shift world.

Cybernetics add and subtract from stats with Essence being the primary cost.
Essence can be bought again at 10 experience points per replacement point.
If any stat reaches 0, it can no longer be lowered. If the cost cannot be paid, then cybernetics cannot be applied. Cybernetics can be installed after character creation.

Cosmetic Alteration: Through surgery and magic, people can manipulate their appearance in any number of ways. Along with pigment variation, accessories like pointed ears, tusks, horns, and normal feature alterations are common place. Cosmetic alterations do not subtract from Essence. Cost: 500 credits per alteration.

Description of Cybernetics: The following items can be installed or external and could be used by most private citizens.

Virtual Reality Headset : +3 Commercial, -1 Essence. Cost: 10,000 credits

Customizable and personal to each user, the VR Headset contains the hardware required to fully connect a user to the VR that’s too bulky to install in the skull. The Virtual Reality is where all electronic information is stored, transactions are made, and anything else that we can currently do online except it’s an evolved form of the internet where the user controls a three-dimensional avatar inside the realm instead of looking at a screen. When the headset is placed over the eyes, it links with plates implanted in the skull and connects the user real time with the virtual reality realm, which operates under its own rules, separate from the hard realm. Connecting to the VR makes the user oblivious to the hard realm, and the user is not conscious while connected. A user must disconnect from the VR to interact with the hard realm. Avatars represent your presence in the VR and are completely customizable within certain size limits up to 1.5 times larger or smaller than the users hard realm size. Some people spend most of their lives in the VR, and some never go at all. If the Hard Realm brain dies, then the avatar of a user immediately vanishes, and the character is dead in the Hard Realm and the VR. Some people have cast aside their bodies and live as a brain in a jar with the VR as their only realm.

The VR can still be accessed by non-connected users and the headset is almost identical except for the pieces installed in the user that allows full connection. These visiting users cannot manipulate the VR, but can observe and interpret information with audible messages.

Avatar combat in the VR is prevalent and when a user is forced from the VR it causes feedback that can deal Body damage. In the VR, the only applicable stats are Mind, Knowledge, Persona, and Will along with the expanded versions of those attributes and the Commercial skill along with all the expanded skills. In the VR a weapon can take any shape but it’s attack, damage, and range are dependent on VR Manipulation rolls enhanced by Persona and Will. VR damage is resisted with Knowledge and reduces Mind. Once Mind is depleted the user automatically disconnects from the VR realm, but overlap damage reduces Body, and then Essence, potentially killing the user.

The VR connects cities, but defenses require that all visiting users receive permission to gain access to a city their hard realm body does not reside in.

Vehicle Link Display: +3 Commercial, -1 Essence, Cost: 5,000 for one closed link, 10,000 credits for a second link.
The VLD is a VR closed link to a hard realm vehicle. Closed links are used to connect two hard realm targets and although the vehicle user is connected to the VR realm, they cannot manipulate, attack, be attacked or harmed through it. A vehicle with a closed link is under complete control by the user and any action the user could perform inside the vehicle, they can perform from a distance dependent on Commercial and the expanded skill Remote Operation. Extra closed links can operate extra vehicles. Many people have a closed link as part of their profession, but very few people have two and more than that is unheard of. Each vehicle would require a separate action to command. Multiple vehicles cannot receive commands at the same time.

Note: The future society is filled with vehicles, and all are controlled by a Vehicle Link Display. There are no manual controls. By Helton law the operator of a vehicle must be present in the vehicle, although the VLD can operate a vehicle from range. Most people have a VLD for personal use, and usually the only people that do not have one are dedicated magicians.

Internal communicator: +2 Commercial, -1 Essence. Cost: 2,000 credits.
Instead of a hand-held communicator, a player can have one in their head, allowing audio, video, and text only messages sent through the VR.

Cybernetics Description Continued: The following items are more combat oriented and rarer in civilized society

Replacement Limb: +2 Str, +2 Motility, -1 Essence, -1 Cohesion per limb; cover 10%, deflect 10, soak 5 per limb. Cost: 10,000 credits per limb

Extra Arms: Cost: 20,000 credits (Always half size or smaller because having two extra full-size arms attached to your torso is counterproductive.) +2 Motility, -1 Essence per limb. A pair of extra arms can use weapons (melee and pistols), hold items, or do anything a normal pair of arms could do at half size. They can be used for 5% cover against ranged attack with deflect 5, soak 2.

Combat Variant: -1 Essence per limb. Cost: 5,000 credits extra per limb.
Extra arms with the combat variant package can perform another attack in conjunction with the main limbs. A pair of extra arms must choose the same target.

Replacement Eye: +2 Commercial, -1 Essence per eye, Cost: 5,000 credits per eye. Increases visual range and clarity, and can alternate between viewing different wavelengths of light.

Enhanced Hearing: +2 Persona, -1 Essence for both ears, Cost: 10,000 for both ears. Increases audio range and can alternate between audio frequencies.

Optic Combat Display (OCD): +3 Combat, -1 Essence, Cost: 50,000 credits. Helps with all forms of combat.

Retractable blade: +2 Combat, -1 Essence per blade, Cost: 2,500 credits per blade. Compatible with replacement limbs.

Internal Firearm: +2 Combat, -1 Essence per firearm, Cost: 10,000 credits per firearm. Compatible with replacement limbs and limited to pistols, shotguns, and single hand fully automatics.

Reinforced skeleton: +3 Health, +2 Strength, -1 Motility, -1 Essence, Cost: 25,000 credits. Grants a character a 10 soak stat for Body damage.

Skin durability: +2 Health, -1 Persona, Cost: 12,000 credits. Grants the character a 10 deflect and 5 soak stat for received damage. Not compatible with cosmetic changes.

Muscle Increase: +2 Motility, +2 Strength, -1 Cohesion, -1 Confluence, Cost: 7,000 credits per increase. Muscle fiber grown from the characters own body is added to existing muscles, not compatible with replacement limbs.

Modern Skills: Skills are the same as described in The Untamed Wilds Community page with these additions.

Combat – Firearms: self-explanatory. Use this skill to shoot guns. Linked attribute is Motility.
- Firearms – Pistol, Shotgun, Rifle, Full-Automatic

Commercial – VR Manipulation: the specialization that allows users to become master of the Virtual Reality. Linked attribute is Persona.

• Remote Operation: the specialization for expert handling of hard realm vehicles over a closed link, further specializations branch to include specific vehicles. Linked attribute is Will.
• Remote Operation - One wheel, Two Wheel, Three Wheel, Four Wheel

Vehicles: Like Firearms, road vehicles are manufactured by several corporations but to very specific legal compliances. All legal ground vehicles can reach a top speed of one hundred miles per hour. Helton vehicles are programmed to operate at peak efficiency when at top speed. They can be made with one, two, three or four wheels depending on personal preference. Air ships can reach a top speed of one hundred sixty mph, and supply drones can do over three hundred mph.


Vehicle


Vehicle additions:

Weapons: can be installed in vehicles at twice their normal price. A concealable vehicle weapon is twice the price of a vehicle weapon. Weapons mounted to vehicles are fired with the Remote Operation skill (Commercial)

Vehicles can increase their speed at 1000 credits per 20 mph increase. These additions are illegal and the operator will be arrested if discovered.

Vehicles can increase their deflect by up to 10 points at 100 credits per point, but the armor is obvious and suspicious to law enforcement. The engines of the vehicles can handle the added weight with speed loss.

Note: Houston PD vehicles can legally reach 120 mph to allow them to catch fleeing criminals.

Drones: Drones are robot airships with limited artificial intelligence able to complete complex tasks. Drones are primarily used for supply lines and maintenance on hard to reach areas of the city. It is illegal to have any software that allows artificial intelligences to target living things, so drones are not used for gardening, pest control, or law enforcement.

Drone speed can reach up to 300 mph for swift package delivery. Any drone that is discovered with a weapon is destroyed and its owner is arrested. Drones can be found from street level to the tops of skyscrapers and deal with much of the city maintenance and trash removal.

Surveillance drones can be made to the size of insects. Skyscrapers have devices that deactivate drones if they fly inside, granting their occupants a measure of privacy. Video from drones is not permissible in a court of law.


Airships: Airships are flying vehicles with inflated tanks of lighter than air gas and rotating high speed turbines on wings that allow for enough lift and thrust to transport occupants across the city. The only way to operate an airship is with a Vehicle Link Display.


Since remote piloted vehicles must have the operator on board, and every Houston citizen has the right to self-defense, mounting weapons on airships is legal. Any firearm can be installed on an airship at twice the current cost. Since weight is a significant issue with airships, no extra armor is added.

Airships travel from the top of skyscraper to skyscraper and do not land on the street. Airships are used for law enforcement, pest control, and passenger travel. Due to the prevalence of airships in the Electric Skies, no rockets or similar armaments can be legally owned or manufactured within the city. Due to the VLD’s preventing collisions, there are no definite lanes for airships although they normally stay above the tops of skyscrapers.

Firearms: players can use whatever manufacturer and model to describe their guns that they like

Firearms are the premium form of physical protection. They are manufactured by multiple corporations. Cylinder pistols are still manufactured per special request, but most firearms are Semi-automatic. Full auto pistols are not legally manufactured.

Firearms come with 2 free reloads.



Full Auto Firearms can engage multiple targets in one attack. Incurs an extra -20 Reaction Time per extra target.



Bayonets and solid stocks. Due to enchantments being placed on firearms as blunt or edged weapons, bayonets and unfoldable stocks have come back into regular use.





Effectiveness: Body+Health+Mind+Knowledge+Will+Commercial+d100



Effectiveness: Body+Health+Mind+Knowledge+Will+Commercial+d100



Effectiveness: Body+Motility+Mind+Knowledge+Will+Commercial+d100



Effectiveness: Body+Motility+Mind+Knowledge+Will+Commercial+d100



Effectiveness: Body+Motility+Mind+Knowledge+Will+Commercial+d100

Armor: probably a necessity, but you might get lucky