FUDGE Animorphs: Characters

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FUDGE

Characters

FUDGE Animorphs uses the Objective Character Creation system. Characters get three free attribute levels and one supernormal power, normally used for Andalite morphing. Characters must also take two Faults: Scale -1 and Youth.

The general idea here is that the PCs are young teenagers, middle school or junior high students. GMs wishing to run the game with older PCs should discard the two required Faults.

Attributes

There are six attributes, each with a default value of Fair.

Strength (STR): STR is a measure of the character's raw physical power. It's used as the basis for muscle-powered damage, as well as lifting and jumping ability.
Dexterity (DEX): DEX measures the character's manual dexterity and body agility. When the Pemalite crystal needs to be delicately removed from its wire cage, this is the attribute to use.
Intelligence (INT): INT relates to problem-solving and deductive reasoning. It does not correlate directly with real-world IQ.
Willpower (WIL): WIL measures the character's mental fortitude. It's used to control new morphs and resist the urge to surrender, among other things.
Perception (PER): PER indicates how much attention the character pays to the world. If he doesn't hear the slight scraping noise of a Taxxon creeping across the floor, he could get ambushed.
Social (SOC): SOC indicates how well the character gets along with others. It's useful in situations involving negotiation, bribery, etc.

Skills

There is no set list of skills. GMs are free to choose their own, though it's recommended that the characters be allowed only a few skill levels, relative to the size of the skill list. This limits the number of skills a character is likely to take and better reflects their youth and inexperience.

Characters are limited to one Great and three Good skills. No Superb skills are allowed at character creation, though they can be gained through character advancement.

Combat-intensive characters are discouraged, unless the GM plans a military-oriented campaign.

Galard: This skill gives the ability to speak and understand Galard, the galactic trade language. This is an Easy skill, and all spacegoing aliens may have it at Mediocre for no cost. Even if they have no vocal apparatus, they will be able to understand Galard when they hear it. Galard is first described in Animorphs #14: The Unknown.
Humans start without this skill. They can learn it at GM discretion.

Gifts

Estreen

This is the natural ability to morph in the most aesthetic manner possible. An estreen can even make a living as a morph artist, morphing from one form to another for others' entertainment. In game terms, an estreen will not cause observers to make a Will check for some morphs. The really ugly ones (which vary depending on the observer, but normally include things like cockroaches) will still require one.

This Gift must be bought at character creation. Either you have it or you don't. It's not something that can be taught or learned.

Tech Level

Tech Level (TL) measures the level of technology attained by a given culture, race, etc. Human norm is TL 7. Every level above TL 7 counts as one Gift, and every level below TL 7 counts as one Fault. The different Tech Levels and some general characteristics of each are:

	TL	Technology
	 0	Stone knives and bearskins
	 1	Bronze Age, written language, agriculture
	 2	Iron Age, windmills, ocean-going ships
	 3	Steel, plate armor, mathematics using zero
	 4	Black powder, printing press
	 5	Industrial Revolution, steam power, telegraph
	 6	World Wars I and II, radio, cars, antibiotics
	 7	Modern-day Earth (default level)
	 8	Hot fusion power, interplanetary vacations
	 9	Experimental FTL, shredders
	10	Slow FTL radio, FTL travel common (Yeerk tech)
	11	Fast FTL radio, Escafil Device (Andalite tech)
	12	Antigravity, personal force fields
	13	Antimatter power, terraforming
	14	Dyson spheres, ringworlds, total conversion
	15	Matter transmission, Zero-space draw power
	16+	Cosmic

For example, Andalites are TL 11. This counts as 11 - 7 = 4 Gifts. On the other hand, Hork-Bajir are Tech Level 2. This counts as 7 - 2 = 5 Faults.

When using technology-related Skills (Computer Programming, Astronomy, etc.), Tech Level acts similar to Scale. The equipment TL is subtracted from the character's TL, and the result is added to the Skill Roll. For example, an Andalite gets a +4 bonus using any tech Skill on human equipment. A Hork-Bajir gets a -5 penalty, assuming he even has an appropriate Skill.

Tech Level is a societal trait. An individual character must take Tech Level at his society's level, unless he has a really good backstory approved by the GM to explain otherwise.

Supernormal Powers

Andalite Morphing

This ability is the heart of the books. Essentially, it allows someone to acquire the DNA of any animal through contact, then use that acquired DNA at any time to take become that animal. In game terms, there are several effects:

Any animal (or any DNA-based creature, for that matter) may be acquired by touching it for several seconds. During this time and for about ten seconds afterward, the animal will remain calm, almost asleep. Any number of morphs may be acquired for no additional cost.
Any acquired animal may be morphed. This takes about 30 seconds. The character gains all that animal's abilities, and can use them instinctively as well as the original animal does. The morph is based on the animal's DNA, so medical changes to the animal (i.e., descenting a skunk or devenoming a cobra) have no effect on the morph. Extra mass is borrowed from or extruded to Zero space.
The animal's instincts must be overridden to use the morph. This requires a WIL check, with the animal's WIL as the difficulty. The GM may modify this depending on the animal's nature.
Being in morph automatically gives the character thought-speak.
Physical damage is healed by morphing or demorphing. Morphs are based on DNA, not on a stored form. When a morph or demorph is finished, all damage is healed.
Morphing is very tiring. To make two morphs without resting between requires a Mediocre FIT check. If the check is failed, the character takes one Scratch. This does not heal with a subsequent morph, and increases the difficulty level of the next FIT check by one. Once a character is Incapacitated by this type of damage, he is unconscious and must wake up before he can morph again.
Morphing is also very ugly. Anyone seeing a morph happen must make a WIL check to avoid an unpleasant reaction. Typical reactions will range from yelling, "What is that?!" to getting physically ill, for those with Fault: Weak Stomach.
There is a two-hour time limit on morphing. Past that time, there is an increasing chance of becoming permanently stuck in morph, a nothlit. After two hours in morph, the character must make a Poor WIL check to successfully demorph. Each minute past that time increases the difficulty level by one. On a failed roll, or when the difficulty is so high that the character can't possibly roll it with a +4, the character is a nothlit. See below for the effects.

Andalite morphing provides more benefits than a single FUDGE supernormal power should. However, it automatically comes with Fault: Enemies (Yeerks). Human morphers also gain a Fault: Secret that could lead to enslavement or death. These two Faults help offset the usefulness of morphing.

Sub-temporally Grounded

The Time Matrix and some beings have the ability to create timelines. We learn in Megamorphs #4: Back to Before that someone who is sub-temporally grounded can sense the differences between a created timeline and his or her "base" timeline. Recognizing the differences can cause a timeline to fall apart.

Thought-speak

This is the mode of speech native to Andalites, Iskoort and Helmacrons. It's a limited form of telepathy that allows someone to transmit conversational thoughts. It takes about the same amount of time as talking does and has about the same range, but has some advantages. A person using thought-speak can allow anyone to hear, or selectively target one or more recipients. Since it's telepathic in nature, language isn't a barrier to the sender. Thought-speak also works through obstacles as though they weren't there.

Thought-speak is free if it's the race's only form of communication. In that case, no Faults related to lack of other communication abilities are allowed; e.g., No Vocal Cords. The race won't automatically understand other forms of communication, though.

In Animorphs #1: The Invasion, thought-speak also allowed the person to hear another's thoughts if they were properly directed. That has been ignored in later books.

Faults

DNA Allergy

You are allergic to a specific kind of DNA. You will feel queasy while acquiring it. Several hours later, you will start to morph uncontrollably, sometimes directly from one form to another without demorphing first. After two or three days, you will expel the DNA, in a process known as hereth illint, by ejecting a duplicate of the animal you acquired. This will end the problems, but may be otherwise inconvenient. See Animorphs #12: The Reaction for details.

The GM gets to pick the allergy, not the player. That way it will be a surprise when it happens. Only characters with Andalite morphing may take this Fault, and it is worth only one skill level in trade. The relative value is so low because once the allergy is identified, the allergen is easy to avoid.

Morph Allergy

You are allergic to morphing in general. You cannot take Andalite Morphing as a Supernormal Power. This is not a useful Fault for PCs, obviously. It's described in passing in Animorphs #40: The Other.

Nothlit

A nothlit is a person who exceeded the two-hour morph time limit, and is permanently in morph. All physical traits and abilities become those of the morph. INT and WIL stay the same, but all other Attributes must be refigured based on the morph. Purely mental traits (Skills, etc.) are kept, as is thought-speak (which may be free, see above). The player must redesign the character as a nothlit within the campaign limits, as he is now genetically a different creature.

A nothlit can never regain the morph power through another use of an Escafil Device. He also must survive in whatever form he's stuck in.

Table of Contents

Original material © Patrick Clark 1999/2000
Everything else is either © Steffan O'Sullivan or © K. A. Applegate.
Last updated 24 May 2000

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