Justin Oldham is the creator of A.C., he borrowed from more than three decades of experience with RPGs of all sorts. "As a player of these games, I couldn't help noticing that the way characters are built does determine how they are 'played' -- used by the flesh-and-blood people who are players. When there is no attribute for something, they can't easily do it. When there is no rule for something, they don't always try to do...whatever it is. We were never going to nail down every rule for everything that could happen during game play--but--we could provide participants with attributes that encouraged them to 'do' a very wide range of things."
Age is a determining factor for many elements when players create their post-Collapse characters. Younger people are presumed to know less than their adult counterparts. Individuals are allowed to have one category of Background Knowledge (BKN) for every three years of age they are at the time the character is created (Age/3 = # of BKN). Players are encouraged to think of BKN as the context that their character has for what they see and hear as the game progresses. Referees can use BKN categories as a form of measuring stick, to determine what is or is not common knowledge for the average post-Collapse person.
The game includes seven physical attributes. They are: Upper Body Strength, Lower Body Strength, Manual Dexterity, Agility, Attractiveness, Hardiness, and Vigor. There are two mental attributes -- Willpower and Reason. The age of a fictional person determines how many d6 are rolled for these attributes, when characters are created. The published rule is 1d6 for every 5 years of age that a character is when game play starts. A human maximum of 30 is recommended for all stats. A 30-year old character could have attributes of 25-30, based on the results of 5d6 as rolled.
Players have the freedom to pick and choose from Basic Skill groups that contain three subfields when they are creating a character. Each area of interest can be thought of as a broad representation of the knowhow that it would take to perform those tasks. Some areas of interest have prerequisites to simulate the fact that additional knowledge must be acquired before it's possible to perform that complex task or make use of what could be sophisticated (i.e., academic) facts and figures. Any character can have any skill for which they meet the prerequisites.
Players can acquire Character Points (CPs) during the course of a game session. These can be used in a variety of ways. A player can "purchase" the option if bettering their character's chances of performing particular act, learn or increase their knowledge of a particular skill, or raise the value of a particular attribute.
Referees have the option of developing scenarios designed to be played in a limited number of game sessions or campaigns that are intended to be played over a longer period of time. Either way, character points can be earned when the players have their characters solve challenges, perform acts that are particularly useful in reaching a goal, or make other decisions that somehow further the story. It's recommended that a character receive between 1 and 5 character points in a session. This prevents the game from being unbalanced because characters are too "lucky" or improve too quickly.
As time passes in the game and characters gets older, it is possible for them to be affected by the aging process. This is reflected through a reduction in certain attributes that begins when they reach age 30 and continue each year of game time. These attribute reductions can be offset by using earned CPs to increase or retain the values. This represents the character performing activities designed to retain their youthful physical and mental prowess, as happens with modern people who go to the gym or perform mental tasks that are intended to help them keep their physical strength, mobility, and mental faculties.
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