The examples page is broken down into two parts - Archtypes and Character Examples. The first section, Archetypes, is meant to give raw examples of different types of characters. This is not to suggest you play one of these archetypes - these just happen to be character types that could be found in Khayr ad-Din.

Attributes

Okay. It's been stated other places, but I'm going to state it very plainly here. YES, Attributes are on a scale from -5 to 5. BUT, no character should have -5 or 5. Those are EXTREMES. This is the top (or bottom) 1/10th of one percent in the entire world's population.

What about a 4? Olympic athletes, the highest-paid super-models, the most successful people in their fields (Do the names Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Michael Jordan, Harrison Ford mean anything to you?) Attributes of four will be very rare indeed.

Three? Okay. If you're an expert in your field, meaning a top-rate athlete, a famous hollywood or broadway actor, or the like, then yes - we can talk about a three.

Now, before you complain and say, "But I think I should have a three!", We WILL allow SOME threes. But SKILLS are more important than attributes in this system. A 1 or 2 is NOT BAD. In fact, a very small percentage of the human population would really even HAVE a 1, let alone a 2.

Granted, PCs (Player Characters like yours) ARE the exception to the rule. 1's and 2's are perfectly okay. The same is true with -1's and -2's. And let me relate a tidbit from the real, bound-paper rulebook: -3's are for cripples and children.

Skills

Skills in Heavy Gear are more important than attributes. That's why there are seventy-some of them. Skills are based off of certain attributes, and because of the way skill tests are rolled, skills very quickly become more important than attributes. Being properly trained will make you successful. Having a high base stat will only make you a little MORE successful. It can NOT make up for not having a skill.

To put it a bit more bluntly, if you have a 0 in Small Arms (you don't take any levels in the skill), even if you have a +3 in Dexterity, there's a 1 in 3 chance that you'll drop the gun, shoot yourself or cause it to jam. With level 1 of Small Arms, the chance of something drastic happening is only one in six. With a level 2, it's a 1 in 36 chance. And your chance of hitting