RADS

2 | Character Creation

Creating a Free Rad is quick, simple and can even be done at random, to explore characters you wouldn’t otherwise play.

1. Choose your approaches

Characters in RADS are distinguished by the approaches they prefer when facing challenges. There are three approaches: forceful, quick, and careful.

Assign one as your best approach, one as an average approach and one as your worst approach, or roll 1d6 twice to assign your best and worst approach at random, re-rolling duplicates (1–2 for forceful, 3–4 for quick, 5–6 for careful).

When you test your best approach, you roll 2d10; for your average approach, 2d8; for your worst approach, 2d6.

2. Choose a day job

Select from law enforcement, driver, bureaucrat, medic, tradesman, performer, criminal, journalist, or roll 1d8 to assign at random. Note the talents you gain.

3. Choose a gift

Select a gift from warding, illusion, wildspeech, compulsion and divination, or roll 1d6 to assign at random, re-rolling on a 6. Note the Powers you gain.

4. Choose a combat speciality

Select from brutal, tough, alert, strategic, speedy and unconventional, or roll 1d6 to assign at random.

5. Choose two tactical moves

Select from advance, delay, aid, sabotage, quicken, slow, flurry, savage, counter and protect, or roll 2d10 to assign at random, re-rolling duplicates.

6. Write them up

Put your character’s details into a character sheet. Your character is able to move 6 spaces—or 8 if you took the ‘speedy’ combat speciality—and has 24 Energy. The last thing you’ll need is a name and your character’s story.

The resulting FR will look a bit like this:

Name George Tiller
Energy 24
Movement 6 spaces
Approaches Forceful: 2d8
Quick: 2d6
Careful: 2d10
Day job Medic (talents: triage, CPR)
Powers warding (alarm, sanctify, repel)
Combat Speciality tough
Tactical Moves protect, slow
Story George is a firefighter who became a Rad after an explosion at a government lab—a secret DNA research facility—exposed him to gamma radiation and hydroquinone. He’s known by all as a sensible and caring man, but doesn’t hesitate to resort to force when those he cares about are in trouble.

What makes a good Free Rad?

Free Rads come from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Feel free to create a rich other life for your character, bearing in mind the following:

Are there any characters you can't play?

RADS is an engine for cooperative storytelling which is designed to help you create a certain kind of story. The above passage describes the kinds of characters who suit those kinds of story. Conversely, three character concepts in particular just don’t fit well into the intended genres of this system:

These kinds of characters tend to hold up the plot and cause conflict with other characters in the group, which can quickly spill out into the real world and leave other players at the table bored, upset or annoyed.

If you really want to play a character like this, seek the blessing of your GR and the rest of the table first, and caveat ludio.