First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons™ Character Creation
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7:  Family Information, Oriental Ancestry and Honor
  Roll social class, birth number, parent's marital status, oriental families, ancestry, and honor.  Monk characters do not determine any of these things, as they have abandoned all these things and will never think on them again.  Dimernesti and Dargonesti do not have any of these things.  Their parents are not married and are unknown to them, and they do not know who if any of those with whom they were raised are full or half siblings, or cousins, or not related in any close connection.  (Dimernesti and Dargonesti characters will not normally marry.)

Occidental, Viking, Krynn, and Underdark characters roll social class on this table; Cavaliers and Paladins who roll below 21 begin as Lower Middle Class:
   01-04 Lower Lower Class (LLC)
   05-10 Middle Lower Class (MLC)
   11-20 Upper Lower Class (ULC)
   21-35 Lower Middle Class (LMC)
   36-55 Middle Middle Class (MMC)
   56-87 Upper Middle Class (UMC)
   88-96 Lower Upper Class (LUC)
   97-99 Middle Upper Class (MUC)
   00 Upper Upper Class (UUC)

Oriental characters roll on a separate table, which includes adjustments to character reactions, ancestry, birthright, and honor.  The roll is 2d10; Samurai add +10 to the roll, while Yakuza subtract -10.  The information in the other columns is explained below.

Roll
Birth Rank
NPC Reaction
2
Outcast
5%
d6/1
d4/1
0
3
Lower Class
10%
d6/1
d4/2
0
4-5
Lower Middle Class
15%
d6/2
d6/1
5
6-8
Middle Class
20%
d10/1
d8/2
8
9-10
Upper Middle Class
25%
d20/2
d20/2
10
11-12
Lower Upper Class
30%
d100/2
d20/4
15
13-14
Upper Class
35%
d100/4
d100/3
17
15-16
10th Rank
40%
d100/5
d100/4
20
17-18
9th Rank
45%
d100/6
d100/5
22
19-20
8th Rank
50%
d100/7
d100/6
24
21-22
7th Rank
55%
d100/7
d100/7
25
23-24
6th Rank
60%
d100/7
d100/8
26
25-26
5th Rank
65%
d100/8
d100/9
27
27
4th Rank
70%
d100/8
d100/9
28
28
3rd Rank
75%
d100/9
d100/10
29
29
2nd Rank
80%
d100/9
d100/10
30
30
1st Rank
90%
d100/10
d100/10
35


  For birth number, non-oriental characters roll on this table; there are racial adjustments to this and the marital status table as follows:
   Dwarf, any -15
   Elf, Drow -15
   Gray -30
   High -20
   Wood -10
   Others -15
   Gnome, any -20
   Half-Elf -10
   Half-Orc +10 on Birth only; +75 on Marital Status only
   Human 0
   Minotaur +10
   Trollborn -30 on Birth only; +30 on Marital Status only

Die Roll
 Order of Birth
01-05
 Only Child ("O")
06-10
 1
11-20
 2
21-35
 3
36-50
 4
51-65
 5
66-80
 6
81-85
 7
86-90
 8
91-94
 9
95-97
 10
98-99
 11
100
 12
  For number of children in the family, if the character is not indicated as an only child, roll again, including racial modifiers, but add +20 to the roll.  If the number is greater than 100, the number is 12+ the number which would be indicated if the roll were the amount over 100, that is, a roll equivalent to 120 would be 12 for the 100, plus 2 for a roll of 20, equals 14.  If the number is equal to or less than the child number of the character, the character is the last child (that is, there are as many as his number and no more), unless he is a first and not an only, in which case there are two children.


  For parents' marital status of non-oriental characters, roll a percentage, and modify for race as above.  Any result over 80 indicates unmarried parents.

  Note that all these class, birth, and marriage determinations refer only to character class types, not to the population at large.  It takes into account the various societal forces which encourage or resist pursuit of these classes.

  Oriental characters determine their birth position differently, by creating family.  The player will roll d8 to determine how many members there are in his grandfather's generation.  He will create spaces for this many across the top of his "family record".  He repeats this for his father's generation, and for his own generation, gaining successive numbers of children in each generation.  He rolls a second set of dice to generate numbers not greater than the numbers of children in each generation to determine which member of each generation is his grandfather, his father, and his self.  Grandfather and father are of course male family members; self is the gender selected by the character.  The head of the family (The eldest character of the eldest generation) is male.  All other characters have a 70% chance of being male (great uncles, uncles, brothers), and are 30% likely to be females (great aunts, aunts, sisters).  Furthermore, the number of children in each branch of the family is determined.  For the grandfather and the father, that number is determined by the number in the next generation line; for the self, the number is zero.  All other members of the family have d8-2 (not less than 0) children.  This should be rolled.  Space should be made for the referee to name the characters on the chart, but not the children in other untraced lines (cousins).

  Orientals require ancestry rolls.  The die rolled is listed on the birthrank table under "ancestry", with the number of times the die should be rolled.  This table shows those rolls which have a result, which should be recorded:

Roll
Honor
 Ancestry Result
4
-15
 Criminal
5
 Land, small mountain
6
 Roll again with next higher die or +10
7-8
+2
 Land, small farm
9
+2
 Traditional business
10
 Roll again with next higher die or +10
11
-10
 Common bloodline
12-15
+3
 Land, small farm
16-19
+6
 Land, modest farm
20
 Roll again with next higher die or +10
25-26
+6
 Advantageous marriage
27-31
+3
 Ancestral Alliance
32-35
+2
 Ancestral Feud
39
+6
 Brilliant Artisan
40-42
+8 
 Castle, small
43-44
+10
 Castle, large
45
+7
 Classic artist
46
-10
 Curse
50
-10
 Defeated family
51-54
+6
 Estate, small
55-56
+7
 Estate, large
57
+9
 Famous general
58
+1
 Famous holy man
59
+8
 Famous minister
70
+10
 Folk hero
71
-20
 Great Betrayal
72
+15
 Great hero
78
+12
 Imperial bloodline
79
-5
 Infamous general
80
-7
 Infamous minister
86-87
+4
 Land, large town
88-91
+2
 Merchant fleet
92-93
-5
 Notorious moneylender
94-96
+7
 Hereditary title
97
 Roll again, +10 on the roll
98
 Secret Society
99
+3
 Tragic event
  Honor adjustments are applied to the base family honor to determine the honor of the family.
  Some of these results have consequences not related to honor, but related to character creation.  These are listed and explained briefly here.  It is also recommended that listings be referenced in TSR's Oriental Adventures™ as many may have effects on play but not on character creation.
  Ancestral alliance gives the character a +20 modifier to reactions with a specific family which the referee must identify; ancestral feud has a -40 reaction with a specific family.
  A defeated family automatically has at least one ancestral feud and several ancestral alliances stemming from a past power struggle, with the adjustments related to those.
  Estates count as land, and in addition to indicating warriors and others to control and keep them, generate income:  d6x100 ch'ien for a small estate, and (d6+4)x100 for a large estate.  Income properties are important in the determination of personal honor, as the family must have income properties for the character to have a share in one.
  Having a folk hero in the family gives +10 to reactions with commoners.
  Although a great hero does not confer specific benefits, it causes the character's name to be commonly recognized in all quarters.
  Land creates income, which varies greatly.  Mountain land is the worst, supporting 2d4 people from lumber and bamboo.  Farms are better, with small farms supporting 3d4 and modest ones supporting 4d4 people.  Towns indicate the ownership of a village, or the holding of a mansion in a large town, or the control of several blocks of a city.  If only one piece of land (in this case including castles) is owned, part of the family lives there and runs it themselves; additional lands are rented to produce income.  Income ranges from 10 to 2000 ch'ien, with the referee determining the variation and range for any specific property.
  A merchant fleet produces income of d10x100 ch'ien from its d4+1 ships or caravans.
  A notorious moneylender may worsen the family name, but it increases wealth, and entitles the character to an additional roll on the birthrights table, below.
  A hereditary title belongs to the head of the family, and will pass to the eldest male child, and from him to either his eldest male child or his brother if there is no male.  It could possibly fall upon the character if he is close to the top of the genealogy pile, but it will be later.
  A secret society will give the character contacts with some unknown organization of which he will never speak.


Orientals also require birthright rolls.  The die rolled is listed on the birthrank table under "birthright", with the number of times the die should be rolled.  This table shows those rolls which have a result, which should be recorded:

Roll
Honor
 Birthright Result
4
 Roll again, using next higher die or +10
6
+1
 Property share
7
 Roll again, using next higher die or +10
8
+1
 Property share
17-18
+1
 Property share
19
 Horse
20
 d6 Cash strings
31-33
+2
 Armor of quality
41-45
+1
 Property share
51-55
 d8 Cash strings
56-60
+1
 Property share
61-63
+2
 Weapon of quality
71-75
+2
 Armor of quality
76-80
+1
 d4 Horses
91-95
 2d6 Cash strings
96-98
+2
 Weapon of quality
99
+4
 Magic Weapon
00
 Roll again, +10 on roll
  Honor adjustments on this table adjust the personal honor of the character.

These results affect character creation:
  A property share indicates that the character receives d3x10% of the income generated by an income property (e.g., land, fleet) held by his family.  He cannot receive more than 30% of any one property, which will come to him annually.  If there is no income property in the family, the character receives neither the income nor the honor adjustment.  The referee may wish to calculate this value, and give all or part of it to the character before he purchases equipment, to reflect the character's wealthier status.  He will need to determine the game date on which the money is normally received.
  Horses are of any type selected by the player.  Although book rules state that tack is not included, MyWorld rules permit the character to have reasonable tack and harness for the type of beast selected (since often characters who roll horses do not have the money for saddles).
  Cash strings contain 100 coins, and are generally worn under the clothes, usually on the arm or possibly the neck, out of sight.  The coin type is rolled on d10, 1-4 fen, 5-7 yuan, 8-9 tael, 10 ch'ien.  Each string is rolled separately.  Characters guard this money as a birthright, and only break a string at great need; however, the referee will permit a character to break a string in equipping for the great adventure which is the game.
  Armor of quality is of a type selected by the referee.  It is a family heirloom with which the character will not part, but will wear proudly.  It is not magical, and affords no added protection, but is light and flexible, half the weight of the same piece of ordinary armor and one encumbrance category better.  It is also highly decorated.  The table for random determination of armor type is here, but the referee may ignore any result not suitable to the character; he may prefer not to do so, especially if the character is of a class which will use little or no armor (such characters may honor their followers by permitting them to wear the armor, when they have achieved a respectable stature):
   01-04 Banded, AC4, fairly bulky, 18#, mv full
   05 Buckler, Adj. -1x1, non-bulky, 1.5#
   06-12 Chain, AC5, non-bulky, 15#, mv full
   13-16 Do-maru, Torso armor, Adj.-2, non-bulky, 10#, mv full
   17 Haidate, Apron armor, Adj.-1, non-bulky, 5#, mv full
   18-22 Hara-ate, Breast & Thigh frontal armor, Adj.-2, non-bulky, 5#, mv full
   23-26 Hara-ate-gawa, Torso armor, Adj.-1, non-bulky, 5#, mv full
   27-30 Haramaki, Torso armor, Adj.-1, non-bulky, 7.5#, mv full
   31-35 Haramaki-do, Torso armor, Adj.-2, non-bulky, 10#, mv full
   36-44 Hide, AC6, non-bulky, 12.5#, mv full
   45-46 Kote, Armored sleeves, Adj.-1, non-bulky, no weight, mv full
   47-55 Leather, AC8, non-bulky, 7.5#, mv full
   56-62 O-Yoroi, Full armor, AC3, fairly bulky, 20#, mv 3/4
   63-66 Padded, AC8, non-bulky, 5#, mv full
   67-70 Ring Mail, AC7, non-bulky, 12.5#, mv full
   71-74 Scale, leather, AC7, non-bulky, 10#, mv full
   75-78 Scale, metal, AC6, non-bulky, 20#, mv 3/4
   79-82 Shield, large, Adj-1x3, fairly bulky, 5#, mv full
   83-86 Shield, medium, Adj-1x2, non-bulky, 2.5#, mv full
   87 Sode, pair, Shoulder covers, Adj-1, non-bulky, 1.5#, mv full
   88-92 Splint, AC4, fairly bulky, 20#, mv full
   93-99 Studded, AC7, non-bulky, 10#, mv full
   00 Gajin armor type determined by the referee, normal AC, improve bulk by one category, move by one quarter, and weight by half.
  Weapon of quality is of a type selected by the player/character, preferably of a type which the character can use.  The effects of quality on a weapon are many and varied.  Melee weapons generally are +1 to hit.  Bow and other missile-firing types extend range by treating long as medium, medium as short, and short as point blank (if the character has a point-blank range category).  Other missile weapons are +1 to hit.  Martial arts weapons are +1 to hit.  Ninja weapons are +1 to damage, compact, and easily concealed.  See the Oriental Adventures™ for more information on this.
  A magic weapon is of a type selected by the player/character, limited to swords or miscellaneous weapons.  They are +1 or (on a roll of 7+ on d10) +2.  They have no other properties, and are among the family's prize possessions.  If the character loses it and does not recover it or die in the attempt, it is a great loss of honor.


  To determine oriental family honor, add the adjustments from the ancestry table to the base honor from the birthrank table.  Record this number.
  To determine the oriental character's personal honor, add the family honor, the honor adjustments due to birthrights, and the character's lowest ability score.  Record this number.  Personal and family honor will both change during the game.
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