📖 Let's Read! - [Let's Read] Infinity: The Roleplaying Game core rulebook | Tabletop Roleplaying Open (2025)

Decision Nine is the last step. Your Infinity Point refresh is set to two, meaning you start each session with two Infinity Points. You add two points to your attributes, either +2 to one or +1 to two. You gain two ranks of training, which must be spent increasing a skill value from 0 to 1. You gain one talent that you qualify for, and Assets equal to your Personality attribute. If you do not have a trait, you gain one.

Then, if you have any Life Points remaining, they must be spent. Up to 2 Life Points can be spent to increase your Infinity Point refresh, but that's the only good one. You can also convert them to Assets or ranks of training, but the latter is capped at one per skill value. You can also roll for 1d6 languages, or one specific language.

Step Three has you determine your 3 Stress tracks: Vigor, Resolve, and Firewall. Each is determined by an attribute plus a particular skill Expertise: Brawn+Resistance for Vigor, Willpower+Discipline for Resolve, and Intelligence+Hacking for Firewall. These effectively function as hit point tracks for Combat, Psywar, and Infowar respectively.

Step Four has you determine your bonus damage. These range from 0 to 5CD, and are determined by the appropriate attribute for the attack type: Melee, Ranged, Psywar, or Infowar.

Step Five lets you purchase equipment, using your accumulated Assets. In addition, all characters receive a comlog. Also, you know how I said that even Ariadnans had Cubes? Turns out, only if you died in character creation. All non-Ariadnans receive a basic geist and Cube for free.

Step Six is optional, and covers the rules for aging. At 30 and every three years after, you roll 1CD, and on an Effect roll 2d6 to determine which attribute you lose a point from. For all that, rehosting eliminates aging penalties, and most people in the Sphere don't suffer deleterious effects of aging to begin with, or at least not so young. The chart does make it most likely for you to penalize Brawn, Agility, or Coordination.

That ends the hard mechanical parts of character creation, but you are still encouraged to solidify your relationships with your supporting cast and allies. For the latter, a d20 table of possible relationships offers options from "we bonded over investigating our parents' mysterious disappearance" to "we belong to the same obscure Maya fandom". For the record, the latter is akin to finding out that your partner in UN Special Ops is in your Exalted online game, which is objectively the best thing. You'll also want to establish the details of your faction handler, who contacts you to give your Wilderness of Mirrors objective. You'll want to establish how you communicate (in both directions), what resources they can call upon, who they report to, and if you even know their identity.

A basic geist has two attributes at 5, the rest at 4, and four ranks of training to add to skills as you see fit. Upgrades for your geist can be purchased, and the Gear chapter has several pre-built versions for particular roles. Geists are basically super-Siri, if Siri focused on running your life in the background. Players should establish some basic roleplaying notes for the personality your geist has evolved, as well as the avatar it adopts. To avoid having to talk to yourself, it is suggested that each player be the geist of the player to their left.

Alright, that covers creation, time for some thoughts.

Overall, I think there's a good system here. From the start, I like it for the homework reduction it gives a new player. That said, there are some definite rookie traps. From a sheer mechanical advantage perspective, Life Points should be spent mostly on extra career phases and IP refresh. Life Points spent on improving your Birth Host go to nothing if you die in character creation, and just seem to come too early for characters that will be mostly randomly determined. Like all lifepath systems, you run the risk of someone just not getting a synergistic character, or in this case having to spend their LPs to get a synergistic character, while a tablemate rolls everything perfectly and spends their LPs on decisive, long-term advantages. Some things, like Hacking Devices, are just not very well distributed across careers, so a player might well have to acquire them in Decision Nine.

The point-buy option is definitely something to keep in mind. My biggest complaint is that you can't be an alien, as your 12 points are all accounted for, but that's the big one. It is worth keeping in mind that you have to take all the spend options, so you can't bank points by rolling to take a third career phase or buff your refresh.

Outside of the Core, the faction books slot neatly into the basic framework provided here. Depending on the book, they can offer an expanded Homeland table with more precise locations, faction-specific event tables, and an expanded d20 faction career table.

The basic framework for a career is simple enough, leading to easy homebrew. Pick three mandatory skills, then three elective skills. You can have a skill that is both mandatory and elective. Choose a handful of essential gear, and spitball an Earnings roll. Career Earnings trend low, with most rolls averaging out to Earnings 4 or less.

Life Points are an unqualified good thing, giving the player valuable control. Some of the options around careers are perhaps more complicated than they need to be (looking at you, Criminal Record), but hazarding is a fun addition; getting an event or some other modifier to reduce difficulty is a nice way to encourage without commanding.

Next time, so help me god, we're rolling up a character.