Introduction

Unlike  "Prophet" which is set in the Modern Age (circa 2020) Dark Matter is set in the mid 27th Century in a somewhat distopian future. Although in theory the Galaxy is controlled by a Galactic council and Galactic Governement, and Law and Order are administered by the Galactic Authority, the real powers are the Mega-Corps, and much like in a lot of Cyberpunk settings they rule the roost, wage war on one another, and as long as they don't get caught either by the GA or one of thier rivals pretty much do as they please.

As with Prophet I could have used any of the rule systems I've played with over the years, including any of those I developed on my own, or the now very heavily re-written Diceless Amber rules orginally based on the "Netbook of Amber".

However, the system which I've played most with, and explored the most, at least in terms of it's Universal nature is the Palladium System.

Like every other system it has it's detractors and it's proponets, and like every other system has it's flaws, especially in the Rifts® Setting.

Despite this, it is a versatile system, and like any other tool, works when used in the correct manner, for the setting in which it is played.

The one particular area I like, having explored the myriad of genres and settings, and the way Palladium have used there system, is that it is very malleable and can be shaped into a new tool very easily without substantial effort, although shaping it for the "Prophet" and now for the Dark Matter setting has built uppon a significant numer of years of developement work, not all of which has been done by myself, to overcome some of it's flaws

Whilst at it's core, the Palladium System, like a lot of others, relies on Classes and archetypes, Palladium demonstrted in Beyond the Supernatural™, how part of this could be bent and circumvented, which is what I did for Prophet, throwing classes and archetypes almost completely out of the window.

Almost is the key here, there are sorts of classes, what in the Modern Real World, are called "Occupations". As Prophet was set in the  Modern Age, a system that more closely reflects how lives are led in the world much better suits Roleplaying in it. Whilst those occupations would likely work in Dark Matter, that is not how I did the initial character generation for Dark Matter.

There is also the complication that Dark Matter also supports both Psionics and Martial Arts Masters, although that is down to the GM (I used the Gung-Fu Martial Arts from the Rifter, rather than use the Martial Arts Masters from Ninja's and Superspies).

Removing "Classes" does have a downside - no "Character Levels", and in the traditional Palladium system your "Class level" is what's used to determine your level with a skill (and your SDC/HP although I've replaced that with the more generic DC system which replaces HP/SDC/MDC system from Rifts).

This association between "Character Level" and "Skill level" has several flaws some of them quite significant, and assumes that you use all skills at the same rate and to solve the same complexity of problem which increases as you "level".

Of course in reality this is not the case, you have a key set of skills you use all the time, that "level" as you use them to solve more comple tasks as you rise up the career ladder, others you use less often, and some you gain as you progress through life, and some of these rapidly rise and surpass earlier skills because you use them more.

This was one area I addressed in Rifts® in relation to magic and psionics, introducing the concept of a "usage" level for spells and abilities that solely depended on their frequency of use, not the "character level". "Prophet" took this to it's logical conclusion, which is what I've used for Dark Matter. All skills are "By Use" skills as there are no character levels.

Process

Creating a character for "Dark Matter" follows much the same process as any character creation for most traditional RPG systems

1. Roll your Attributes - See Attributes and DC Below
2. Determine your Education and Occupation- See EducationEducation
   
   Note - this also determines your starting age
3. Select your Skill Programs and Secondary Skills - See
   
   Skill Programs
   Expanded Skills List
4. Determine the "level" for each of you skills - see Skill Levels Below
5. Apply any bonuses accrued due to leveling "Physical" skills to your Attributes
6. Apply any Aging degradations (if applicable) to your Attributes
7. Determine your Starting Wealth and Equipment
8. Fill out any other relavent characteristics relating to your character, marital status, siblings, dependants, ethnicity, hair and eye colour, height, weight, etc

At this point you should have a character ready to play.

Attributes and DC

As said I’m using a modified Palladium System, and therefore the Palladium system for attributes. Roll 4D6 for each of the attributes below, except REF which is calculated, and PERC which is the sum of 3 dice.

For each of the attributes, unless otherwise noted, sum the highest 3 dice. If the total rolled on 3 dice is 16 or more, add the result of the fourth die. Roll each of the attributes in order. For all attributes except PERC if you roll a 1 on the dice re-roll it.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
Mental Endurance (ME)
Mental Affinity (MA)
Physical Strength (PS)
Physical Prowess (PP)
Physical Endurance (PE)
Physical Beauty (PB)
Speed (SPD)
Reflexes (REF)
Perception (PERC)

Some of your attributes may be changed by your skill selections so leave completing your DC until after you have selected all your skills.

Skill Levels

The base method of determining skill level is based on the number of successful uses, and is a modified version of the “by Level” spell rules for spell casters in Rifts. An arbitrary use of the skill which does nothing to further the story does not count as a successful use. A successful use can be bought with XP at the rate of 1 use per 10 XP.

Level To next Level Total Times Used   Level To next Level Total Times Used   Level To next Level Total Times Used 0 12 0   6 56 164   11 160 620 1 16 12   7 64 220   12 208 780 2 24 28   8 96 284   13 272 908 3 32 52   9 112 380   14 450 1170 4 32 84   10 128 492   15 N/A 1620 5 48 116

Characters begin the game with careers (broad term) which results in them having skills, either “primary” as the result of a “Skill Program” selection or “Secondary”. As there are no Classes and Class Levels, the characters must start with some sort of “level” in each skill. This is where “Age” and therefore experience comes into play…

For each complete term of 4 years above the age of 16 the character gains 2D10 uses for a secondary skill and 6D10 uses for a primary skill. All characters start at a base of 12 uses.. i.e. they are basically competent at level 1.
At age 24 and for each 4 years after they gain a 52 uses for a primary skill and 24 uses for a secondary skill.

24 28 32 36 40 52 104 156 208 260 24 48 72 96 120

Age has another advantage, to a degree, starting at age 28, a character can gain an additional secondary skill, and for each 4 years beyond that another secondary skill. These additional skills progress only from the age at which they are gained, so a secondary skill gained at age 28, gains 2D10 uses if the character’s starting age is 32 or more, 4d10 if their age is 36 or more, etc. Additionally for each 4 year period they gain the +24 uses bonus.