So heres my first question for the group. How do you handle character generation (or whats the best system youve found for doing so)? Also, what elements have you liked/disliked out of all the systems youve seen? Personally, I like lifepath/character background options that add flavor (but no/very little power), such as Cyberpunk 2020 and the old Traveler system, and I like some randomness, but one thing Ive always disliked is the time required. More than anything, I disliked having to spend an entire game session creating characters. I also dislike forcing players to spend an entire session generating a new one if they die and the resultant plot immunity which often results from GMs pulling their punches because of that. In the game Im designing, Ive included a number of options for character generation, including both a point buy and random attribute generation with skills purchased via character generation points, but the one Ive encouraged my players to use has been an on the fly generation system where everyone receives a blank character sheet and a number of points at the start of the game. During the first gaming session (and possibly longer, depending on the player), the players decide what points theyre allocating for a given stat or skill. The players run into a group of enemies and maybe one guy decides to allocate points to strength, agility, and a martial arts skill. Another might go with empathy, intuition, and some communications skills. Yet another might go with agility, willpower, and stealth. The point being, the players will be as prepared for their first gaming session as they want to be, and will spend their points generating characters that fit the campaign in the way they want, as opposed to trying to read the GMs mind ahead of time to determine what they might need. Also, given that its a skills-based system (a lot of the game is based off of Runequest/BRP), the character are unable to gain experience until they have spent all of their character points. This gives them an incentive to spend the points relatively quickly and also helps limit opportunities to game the system. What do you think?
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 21:18:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015