Step 1: Start with the ABCs

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Step 0: Find Your Concept | Step 1: Start with the ABCs | Step 2: Show Your Work | Step 3: Find Your Voice | Step 4: Connect the Dots | Step 5: Make Yourself Presentable

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As Our Story Begins, 850 years have passed since Andalusada's Point of Divergence, creating a world radically different from OTL in many ways. How can anyone build a character that fits into it?
If you'd like to have a try, start here.

Andalusada Base Character (ABC)

100 points

You may not be the hero anyone expected or asked for, but someone has to fill the role — and you've got all the bases covered. Already being comfortable with other languages lets you see the world and get into its trouble, and you're adequate but competent at getting out of trouble too. You have amazingly broad connections transcending social orders and national borders, and an all-but-conscious knack for being in the right place at the right time.
Attributes: ST 10 [0]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 11 [10].
Secondary Characteristics: Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 11 [0]; Per 11 [0]; FP 11 [0]; Basic Speed 6.0 [10]; Basic Move 6 [0].
Advantages: Serendipity 1 [15].

• A total of 5 points to spend in Step 3: Find Your Voice.
• A total of 20 Social Points to spend in Step 4: Connect the Dots.
• A further 25 points chosen from among ST +1 to +2 [10/level], DX +1 [20], IQ +1 [20], HT +1 to +2 [10/level], HP +1 to +3 [2/level], Will +1 to +5 [5/level], Per +1 to +5 [5/level], FP +1 to +3 [3/level], Basic Speed +0.25 to +2.00 [5 per +0.25], Basic Move +1 to +3 [5/level], Absolute Timing [2], Acute Senses (any) [2/level], Ambidexterity [5], Appearance [varies], Combat Reflexes [15], Danger Sense [15], Daredevil [15], Enhanced Dodge 1 [15], Fearlessness [2/level], Fit [5] or Very Fit [15], Gizmos 1-3 [5/gizmo], Hard to Kill [2/level], Hard to Subdue [2/level], High Pain Threshold [10], Intuition [15], Lucky [15], Night Vision 1-9 [1/level], Peripheral Vision [15], Pitiable [5], Rapid Healing [5] or Very Rapid Healing [15], Serendipity 2-3 [15/level], or Signature Gear [Varies].

Disadvantages: A total of -20 Social Points to spend in Step 4: Connect the Dots.

• Another -35 points chosen from various disadvantages that fit your character image and background.

Here are some suggestions...

...and what they look like in GURPS.

Clingy: You really hate being alone, don't you?

Chummy [-5] or Gregarious [-10], Compulsive Carousing [-5*], Lecherousness [-15*], or Sense of Duty (Team) [-5]. Or possibly Phobia (Being Alone) [-15*].

Combine Drama:

Compulsive Behavior (Modifying vehicles) [-5], Vow (Never refuse a challenge to race) [-5].

Damaged Goods: The spirit may be willing, but the flesh is worse for wear. If your scars are on the inside, see "Stockholm Syndrome" below.

Appearance (Unattractive or Ugly) [-4 or -8], Disturbing Voice [-10], Hard of Hearing [-10], Insomniac [-10 or -15], Missing Digit [-2 or -5], One Eye [-15], or Wounded [-5].

Devout: You take religion more seriously than most, in a world that takes religion more seriously than OTL.

Compulsive Behavior (Praying or Vowing) [-5*], Disciplines of Faith [-5 or -10], Odious Personal Habit (Doctrinaire) [-5], or Vow (some personal devotion) [-5]. Sense of Duty (Coreligionists) [-10] works too, even with no overt piety on display.

Dimwitted: Not the brightest silver on the table, are you?

IQ -1 [-20], Per -1 [-5], Hidebound [-5], Incurious [-5], Short Attention Span [-10*], or Stuttering [-10]. Delusion [-5] that wildly overestimates your actual skill.

Goody Two-Shoes: Are you a saint, or a fake? Because nobody in Andalusada's pulp tradition is like this without a reason.

Charitable [-15*], Easy to Read [-10], Guilt Complex [-5], Pacifism (Reluctant Killer) [-5] or (Cannot Harm Innocents) [-10], Selfless [-5*], Truthfulness [-5*], Vow (Refuse no request for medical aid) [-10] or (Refuse no request for aid) [-15], or Workaholic [-5].

Habits: Yeah, maybe you have some... or do they have you?

Addiction [varies], Bad Smell (booze, tobacco smoke, etc.) [-10], Compulsive Drinking [-10*].

Insecure:

Cowardice [-10*], Paranoia [-10*], Phobia [-5 to -10*], etc.

Money Troubles: If it were really about money, you'd be handling it in Step 4: Connect the Dots. The real problem is you.

Consider Greed [-15*], Miserliness [-10*], or Workaholic [-5] if you have trouble getting enough money — or Compulsive Behavior (Gambling, Generosity, or Spending) [-5*] if the trouble is keeping it.

Scrawny: Like the stereotypical 98-pound weakling getting sand kicked into his face. Think carefully about this if you're planning to build a very physical character.

ST -1 [-10], HP -1 to -3 [-2/level], or Skinny [-5].

Stockholm Syndrome: The world has left you scarred deeper than the world can see.

Chronic Depression [-15*], Flashbacks [-5 or -10], Guilt Complex [-5], Nightmares [-5*], On the Edge [-15*], or Post-Combat Shakes [-5*].

Skills: Area Knowledge (E) IQ [1]-11; Merchant (IQ/A) [1]-10; Stealth (A) DX [2]-11.

• One of Driving (Automobile), Driving (Motorcycle), or Riding (Horse), all (DX/A) [2]-11.
• Either Brawling (E) DX+1 [2]-12 or Karate (H) DX-1 [2]-10.
• Either Judo (H) DX-1 [2]-10 or Wrestling (A) DX [2]-11.

Slush Fund: 10 points.

Recommended Books

The ABC is inspired by and clearly based on the Basic Action Template (BAT) from GURPS Action 4: Specialists, which isn't necessary for this but provides a lot more detail.

Author's Notes

Action 4: Specialists is a very solid sourcebook.

• Andalusada is so multilingual that the GURPS Basic Set can't easily support it, and I'm houseruling languages anyways. Setting aside points for it means that nobody's at a disadvantage for being multilingual, and lets me sideline GURPS' complexities until it's absolutely necessary.
• The idea of Social Points was lifted from Pyramid #3/65: Alternate GURPS III. Rather than trying to build characters into the world, this is intended to build the world around characters.
• Andalusada is your world too, which is why the ABC uses the point-based Serendipity variant from GURPS Power-Ups 5: Impulse Buys.
• Guns (Pistol) was dropped from the ABC; Andalusada is a world where shooting the problem yourself can have consequences. Merchant, on the other hand, was added on. It's the skill GURPS uses for bargaining — critical in the Umayyad Caliphate in New Andalusia's market culture — and new players wouldn't think to take it.

Coping Mechanics

Andalusada is a fallen world of broken people with tangled problems: war veterans addicted to their painkillers, saints struggling against themselves, stress smokers, and hardboiled detectives drinking to cope with their issues. It's also probably the first time you've seen GURPS. This section is meant as a tutorial to illustrate how Disadvantages can be interconnected, and will be expanded later.