Pendragon of Mars Character Creation

Pendragon's character creation can be best described as insufferable. I mean really; if your book has a heading that says "Allot Prime and Derived Statistics", it should be aimed at accountants. To help with this, I took everyone's favorite page from everyone's favorite book to take pages from: DCC's funnel.

To begin a game of PoM, you create 4 simplified Pendragon characters, each of which has 5 stats: Size, Dexterity, Strength, Constitution, and Appearance. For each stat, roll either 4d6 drop lowest or 3d6, depending on how authentic/masochistic you feel today.

Each character's HP is equal to their Constitution + Size, and they all do (SIZ+STR)/6 d6 damage with a melee attack. Your character drops unconscious if they reach 1/4 of their total HP.

Next, the characters create mechs. For the funnel, they choose a mech model:

Ballista
A long-range artillery mech, able to hit targets at the longest ranges of any mech. However, it is slow and lightly armored, and can be easily defeated by swarms of enemies.

HP: 65
Armor: 4
Move: 2

Components
Light Field Gun: 6d6 damage, no line of sight required, roll under 15 to hit
Long-range Comms
Active Sensors
4 Smoke Grenades

Stalker
A small scout mech, with light armaments but lots of passive components.

HP: 45
Armor: 0
Move: 4

Components
Light Laser: 2d6 damage, roll under 12 to hit
Silenced Servomotors
Active Sensors
Camouflage Paint
Short-Range Comms

Paladin
Paladins are frontline combat mechs, with heavy armor and weapons. However, they have a very short range. 

HP: 80
Armor: 4
Move: 2

Components
Rocket Pods: 2 shots at 2d6 AoE damage each, 1d4 usage dice
Medium Laser: 3d6 damage
Passive Sensors
Short-Range Comms

After The Funnel

Once the funnel is complete, players choose one of their surviving PCs to become a knight of 1st level: at 1st level, PCs get skills.

Skills are divided based off of what stat they use. The PCs score in that stat is now the pool of points for those skills.

For example, if a PC has a 12 in Bad Acting, they can put 5 points into Scenery-Chewing, 3 points into Mechanical Intonation, and 4 points into Literally Holding Your Script In Front Of Your Face.

As well as this, you can start to customize your mech with different components and weapons.