Paroxysm: Concept Based Character Design

[Nathaniel]

I'm just finishing hammering out the character generation process I'm using in a game I'm designing (Paroxysm - a science fiction horror game) which I plan on making available in PDF form, possibly on rpgnow.com.

The goal of the character design system is to produce characters that are close to concept and the minimize/eliminate the times where the character creation system changes your concept because it can't quite do what you want.  Here's an overview of what I have:

Step 1:  Write a one sentence character concept.

example: Reginald Black is an efficiency consultant working for Libertech Inc. who's wife and daughter were driven insane during a inter-system jump three
years ago.

Step 2:  Write five adjectives/phrases that best describe the character:

example: Proper.  Appears to have it all together.  Driven.  Ready to snap.  Obsessed.

Step 3:  What are the five things the character is best at (in order)?

example:  Business.  Problem Solving.  Suspended animation theory.  Psychology.  Engineering.

Step 4:  What does your character desire most?

example:  Reginald wants his wife and daughter back.  Atleast to the point where they'll recognize them and he can take care of them rather than having to keep them institutionalized.

Step 5:  What does your character fear most?

example:  Spending the rest of his life alone and never getting through to his wife or daughter.

Step 6:  What 5 things is your character the worst at doing?

example: Playing games-- he fails a lot and gets frustrated.  Forming lasting relationships.  Basic repairs/mechanical work-- even when he was an engineer, he really needed the technicians around to get anything done.  Being patient.  Art-- he can't draw, paint or anything.  Don't even ask him to draw you out a map to get somewhere unless you let him do it on his computer.

Step 7:  Figure out Skills and Descriptors.

A character is primarily made up of Descriptors and Skills.  Skills represent something the character is notably competent at doing.  Descriptors are other important details that are central to the character and his or her life.

Go through what you produced in the first 5 steps.

Step 7.1:  Determine one skill and two descriptors from your original concept sentence.

example: Skill:  Business  Descriptors:  Works for Libertech.  Insane Dependants.

Step 7.2:  Determine 2-5 Descriptors from the short list of adjectives.

example: 1) Proper and appears to have it all together.  2) Is really driven, obsessed and ready to snap.  (note that some combination may reduce the total descriptors).

Step 7.3:  Determine 5 Skills from the list of what the character is best at (this should pretty much be a direct import).

example:  Business (note that it's repeated-- don't write it down again, just put a little star or something near the first time your wrote it down), Problem solving, Suspended animation theory, Psychology, Engineering.

Step 7.4:  Write down 2 goals for the character under descriptors that best represent what the character has to do in order to achieve what they want most.

example:  1) Make sure he makes enough money to get the best care for his family. 2) Figure out what happened in the intersystem jump that caused their insanity.

Step 7.5  Figure out 2 appropriate descriptors from what the character fears most.

example:  Afraid of ending up alone.  Afraid of those he lets close being take from him.

Step 8.  On a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 is the best in the world, or the best a human couple possibly be for that time, how would your character rate at what they do best?  

example:  Reginald has been distracted from business over the last few years.  Normally he'd be utterly amazing, perhaps an 8.  However, with the time he's been spending researching what happened to his family and related discipline, it's slipped a bit.  Though Business came up as a skilll twice during step 7.  So Reginald would probably be a 7.

Step 9:  In relation to what your character is best at, how would each of the skills you've written down for the character rate?

example:  Problem Solving 6, Suspended animation theory 5, Psychology 5, Engineering 4.  He's an excellent problem solver and great and taking in info, so three years of obsessively studying suspended animation and psychology has made him pretty much a professional.  It's been about 10 years since he's done any Engineering work, but he occasionally analyzes factories and whatnot during his consulting work, so it's still comes up and he's quite competent.

Step 10:  Figure out 4-8 skills that the character would have to develop in order to do the tasks involved in his best skills.  Assign each of these a value of either 1, 2 or 3 based on the character's competency.

example:  Computers 2, Dealing with Bearacracy 3, Organizing travel and events 2, Financial Matters 2.

Step 11:  Given the list of what your character is worst at, come up with 5 or more Failings for that character.

example: Playing Games - get's frustrated.  Bad at forming lasting relationships.  Incompetent at simple repair/mechanical work.  Lack of patience.  Zero artistic ability.

Step 12:  Mental health scales.  Each character has two mental health scales.  Their Emotions and their Rationality.  An average person who has a reasonable grip on their emotions and a good handle on the world would have 5 in both (scale of 0 to 10).  Think of any reasons that the character would be stronger or weaker emotionally.  Anything related to emotional disorders would definitely reduce the number.  How is the character's grip on reality?  Does the universe make sense?  Adjust the character's Rationality appropriately.

Example:  Reginald is driven, obsessed and ready to snap.  It's been three long years of hard work and disapointment for him.  His Emotions is at 2.  He's a fairly rational fellow, but the lack of discernable cause for his wife and daughter's breakdown has left him a bit shaken about the world.  His Rationality is at 4.

------

That's basically the character.  Below will be a post about how the numbers are used.

Nathan Hiebert

[Nathaniel]

Here's how it's all used:

Skills - Rank + 2d6 compared to a difficulty or an opposed roll as appropriate.

GM interprets result - beating the difficulty doesn't just mean a simple success and failing to meet it doesn't neccessarily mean failure.  The GM takes the degree of success or failure into account as well as any other factors and comes up with an appropriate result.  Players can also narrate their results for certain situations.  GM always has veto power though.

Descriptors - taken into consideration when determining the result of die rolls and just as general influences during the game.

Failings -- unless there's a reason why not, don't roll when you attempt to do something that is one of your failings.  Instead narrate a failure or a partial success as appropriate.  Under extraordinary circumstances or with the help of someone skilled at what your character has as a failing, the GM may allow a roll instead.

Mental Health Scales -- Certain events reduce or increase either or both scales.  Sometimes the change is temporary and some times it's permanent.  At 0, the character will panic, hallicunate, come to false conclusions etc. depending on what caused it, the character's personality and background etc.  The player narrates this for his own character-- other players and the GM can also add on effects that they think are appropriate.

Combat:  Same as skills.  Character have a damage scale that ranges from unharmed to dead (in about 7 or 8 steps).  Combat is based entirely on results.  For each combat scene (or partial scene) what each character is trying to accomplish is declared.  Rolls are then made based on whomever would be opposing a character's goal in combat and the results are interpretted as per the skills.

example:  Harv and Will and trying to escape from a space station infested with gigantic insect-like creatures.  Harv is trying his best to keep a swarm of them back with his rifle while Will is trying to bypass the door controls to shut the door before they get through.  Harv is opposed by the insects and their ability to avoid fire (a skill for them), Will is opposed by their speed (the GM notes that these creatures are "very fast").  Rolls are made.  The GM says that Harv is fairly successful at keeping them at bay, but that about 10 of them get through the doors before Will is able to close it, crushing the 11th under the massive bulk of the door.

Nathan

[Tony Irwin]

Looks like you've got it all figured out. I've read through it twice but it's hard for me (and I suspect many others) to offer any meaningful comments unless you specify what you're after.

Do you have any specific questions about what you've done? What kind of feedback would you like?

Tony

[Nathaniel]

Looks like you've got it all figured out. I've read through it twice but it's hard for me (and I suspect many others) to offer any meaningful comments unless you specify what you're after.

*slaps forehead* I knew I forgot to ask a question or even ask for feedback.

Do you have any specific questions about what you've done? What kind of feedback would you like?

Do you think it will accomplish the goal of allowing a concept to be represented without having the character creation system get in the way?

Can you think of any way to make what I have here extraordinary?  It's pretty straight forward (other than not having any real attributes other than the emotional and rationality scales).  I'm trying to avoid having a bland system but still keep things very concept and theme driven.

Nathan

[Mike Holmes]

I think that what you have is pretty darn "transparent" in terms of creating a character from a concept. Should be fine, I think. The question is will the mechanics do anything for the goals of the game. I assume we're talking about getting the players scared here? Or do you have other goals?

Mike

[Nathaniel]

I think that what you have is pretty darn "transparent" in terms of creating a character from a concept. Should be fine, I think.

It's definitely transparent.  The steps are pretty much 1 to 1 to the final results.  Some of my playtesters were wary of a game where the characters didn't have attributes (other than the mental health scales, but they're more like a hitpoint kind of a thing), but only skills and descriptors (and failings, but they're pretty much either skills or descriptors grouped seperately).

The question is will the mechanics do anything for the goals of the game. I assume we're talking about getting the players scared here? Or do you have other goals?

Well, scaring the players is only part of the goal.  I'm hoping that empowering the players to make statements with credibility about more than their own characters will give them the opportunity to contribute to the scary atmosphere.  I'm trying to figure out a way to formalize how and when the players are allowed to take director stance and make statements about more than their own characters.  So far, my playtests have gone alright with just allowing the players to make any statement like like whenever, but allowing the GM and other players to sort of veto things with "actually..." statements.  It would work better if I were to develop more precise protocols for that sort of thing.

Nathan