Would you believe me that I couldn't find it in the LR4AP (player's handbook, for our still interested readers). Also, I'm sure is not mentioned in the essential rules. Thanks again Lunamancer.
Maybe some day we'll have a searchable text.
I have two other players interested in a one shot. Better start the Character creation ASAP. Still takes me a lot of time.
I came up with some quick Avatar creation rules and posted them on the FB group.
For each base rating and ability, roll the indicated dice. Results less than the indicated minimum are treated as if the minimum were rolled. Results greater than the indicated maximum are treated as if the maximum were rolled.
Health = 6d20 (45 to 85)
Precision = 5d20 (30 to 65)
Speed = 2d20 half points (9 to 15)
1st Ability = 5d20 (50 to 80)
2nd Ability = 4d20 (40 to 60)
3rd Ability = 3d20 (30 to 45)
4th Ability = 2d20 (20 to 30)
5th Ability = 1d20 (10 to 15)
Pick equipment and go.No adjusting BRs by Ability choice selection or any of that. It only works for human Avatars. If you want it to go real fast, stick with cookie-cutter Ordered Avatars. The resulting Avatars tend to be on par with ones generated by the book, but some will be stronger, some will be weaker. I originally created this for high death rate campaigns so a player can generate a new Avatar in under 10 minutes and jump right back into the game.
I've also been working on equipment packs to even speed up that part of it. I'm doing three packs for each order, so it's a bit of work. There is a little bit of flexibility within each pack. Here's Option A for Desperado Order Avatars.
half leather armor
long dagger
small crossbow
quarrel box, waist belt
20 quarrels
good clothing, colorful, dark, or light suit
hat
cloak, colorfull or light without hood
narrow leather belt
low hard-soled boots
2 leather belt pouches
cloth shoulder pouch with sling
large heavy sack with 10' leather thong neck wrap
30' rope
grapnel
candle lantern
tinder box
torch
file and lock pick in leather case
hammer and metal-cutting chisel
small jimmy bar
pry bar
small metal saw
small wood saw
jug of beer, 1 quart
bread and cheese for one person for four days
two-pound sausage
[low table pick]
[middle table pick]
[special table pick]
It's not a bad idea for new players to just have them play an ordered human Avatar by my quick creation method, especially for a one-shot, so that they get the hang of how the game works and what all the abilities do, then make their own once they have some basis of knowledge.
I have another question, but more on the realm of house rules: do you know an alternative rule for improvised magic? I think my only true difficulty with this game is learning the activations (spells). That's true for any kind of game with spell list. - Thank you!
If you think about it, the Heart's Desire power is basically free form magic.
One of the tricky things is, because starting Avatars are already quite capable--roughly equivalent to 3rd to 6th level D&D characters rather than 1st level ones--activators tend to start with a lot of powers and it is a lot to learn. A few things you could do to make it more manageable: 1) There are lists of powers in the back of Beasts of Lejend, mainly meant for LMs needing to quickly pick powers for NACs, and just limit play to those powers for the time being. It's a much shorter, simpler list for you to learn. 2) You can forbid the Extraordinary Orders from the game initially, allowing Avatars to choose an Extraordinary Ability as their free 5th Ability. This will greatly limit the number of equipment picks they get for powers so you only have to learn the small number of powers players have picked.
As for a free-form system, you can of course just always do whatever you want. Where it gets tricky--and this is with any RPG, especially those that use free form magic--is gauging what is appropriate potency of the power.
For offensive powers, the main offsetting factors are going to be activation time vs range. Long activation times can be offset if they work at great ranges because the time it takes the enemy to get to the activator gives extra time to complete the application. Conversely, at short ranges, it's very difficult to get off long activations. Secondary off-setting factors would be Harm vs AEP cost. Assuming you've gotten range balanced with activation time, if you more harm is desired, it should require the investment of additional AEPs. A lot of Geourgy powers provide some good guidance here. Those variable grade ones, such as Earth Hammer, or Ice Spear, are good examples. You might also compare and contrast to Dazzling Dagger and Dazzling Dread from Enchantment. Shadow Bolts is a great example of a super fast acting, super potent offensive power that sucks up half your AEPs in one shot. I recommend ignoring the "update" in Essentials that lists Shadow Bolts as variable grade. Greater activation time for maxing it out hamstrings its usefulness.
For defensive or buffing powers, the main offsetting factors are going to be activation time vs duration. It's not a big deal if an activation takes 4 ABCs to complete if it lasts 6 hours. You can easily do it at the start of the adventure and re-up during rest periods. If the duration is short, though, such that it has to be activated in the heat of combat, it's going to be difficult to complete anything higher than Good grade. The potency of the buff or defense should be weighed against AEP cost. Something with a duration of 5 minutes to an hour is ideal for prepping for a single battle. But if the effect of the power is going to be in the order of 10-20 points of harm, or points of AP, for multiple party members, it should cost a good percentage of the activators AEPs. But duration also needs to be checked by potency. You don't want something with so long a duration that it will essentially be "always on" having massive unmitigated defensive of buffing capacity. The Personal Armor and Personal Shielding powers from Enchantment, and Grant Might, Grant Puissance from Theurgy gives you an idea of the upper bounds of effectiveness.
For everything else, I'm not sure what guidance I can offer, and I don't know that I can even point to good examples in the game. In the campaign where I'm a player, the first bunch of adventures my mage was able to effectively divide-and-conquer each enemy by using Conjured Closure to shut and lock doors. It doesn't take much time or AEPs. I thought it was over-powered. And Elephant of Surprise I hadn't been able to use at all. Not a once. I thought that was underpowered to the point of being useless. But now I haven't used conjured closure in months because we haven't had many indoor combats, and Elephant of Surprise I just used in back-to-back sessions. So much varies by circumstance, it's hard to say what's fair or not when going free form.