What is "Lifepath"?

[Torquemada]

Good day.

{Please send this post to the right place if it doesn't belong here. Thanks.}

I recently read a review of Burning Wheel and it mentioned a lifepath. I'm sure I've used that before in some other game but, just to be sure, I'd like to know what is it. Would someone, please, care to explain it to me or direct me to the answer?

Thank you.

[contracycle]

Cyberpunk 2020 by R. Talsorian and some other games, like Traveller, have a life path system used whern generating the character.  These would detail the character moving through experiences prior to the start of play, thus regularising the kinds of skills and abilities characters possess.  In Traveller, you could infamously be killed in character creation!  But they can be quite cool in fleshing out an idea, and I like them as an expression of the designers view of the world.

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

I think FUDGE also has a decent lifepath system.  It's free and it's online, so if you want to see what one looks like, go ahead and download it.  It's in PDF format, so make sure you have Adobe Reader :)

Peace,

-Troy

[Picador]

I always really liked the lifepath mechanic in CP2020, although it had some implementation problems. I also remember there being a similar system in... what was it called? Rogue Squadron something? The system that had a bunch of wargames with spaceships, tanks, etc and also a human-level game, set in a futuristic Roman Empire?

I tried a little while back to design a lifepath system, focusing not just on skill accumulation, but also on traumas, personality quirks, karma, etc. I thought it would be a good tool for giving characters some depth and inspiring players. One of my issues with the straight Narrative approach is that sometime players need a little more structure to build around, or they fall into the same old cliches. Building characters from the ground up, rather than from the concept-down, can be tricky but ultimately rewarding: on the one hand you frustrate the player who's psyched to play a certain Type, but on the other hand you give all kinds of ideas to the open-minded player. Some systems try to provide two character generation systems - one random, one designed - to solve this problem. And a few games encourage players to reverse-engineer a lifepath after designing a PC (e.g., Kult tells players to write up a chronological history of the PC's acquisition of various ads/disads to track his or her Mental Balance over the years).

[Trevis Martin]

Actually, FUDGE itself does not have a lifepath system but a FUDGE variant, FATE has a sort of lifepath system.

best

Trevis

[anonymouse]

Quite a few other R.Talsorian games used lifepath systems, like the Mekton incarnations and I think some of their anime-setting games as well. I know that the old MechWarrior game from FASA (not the click-mini version from Wizkids) had such a system, and there was even one included in.. I forget what it's called, something like, "Hero's Handbook"? Maybe? Anyway, it was a small supplement released for D&D 3E shortly after that game's release. If you can find it around your local game store, it's likely to be dirt cheap and a decent model to work off of (if not the absolute best).

In general, a lifepath system is a series of tables; each entry on the table is associated with a die roll. A very simple, generic one might look something like:

A: Parents
1: No parents (go to table A-1)
2: One parent, the other dead (go to table A-2)
3: Adopted
4: Estranged/cut off

..and so you'd roll a D4 and figure out what the deal is with your character's parents. Maybe you'd get "No Parents" so you'd go to table A-1 to figure out what happened to them (dead, missing, Darth Vader, whatever). Some table results may have game modifications attached to them, some are just color/flavor/background material.

These systems are nice in general because they provide players with an idea of the kinds of characters the game expects; and also removes that burden of trying to come up a super-detailed character all on your own with interesting history, motivations, friends and enemies, etc. I -really- like lifepath systems because of this. It's very easy for me to sit down, come up with an interesting character (I can flesh out the table entries on my own where I want to), and just -play-.

[xiombarg]

Another game that uses a Lifepath, in the Traveller vein, is Starcluster and nearly all the other Flying Mice games...

[M. J. Young]

I tried a little while back to design a lifepath system, focusing not just on skill accumulation, but also on traumas, personality quirks, karma, etc.

This would be particularly interesting, I think, if there were player choices mixed into it. I'm thinking of something like, This happened to you, how did your character react to that and what impact did it have on him? Thus you could have the character jilted in a soured love affair, and the player could decide that thereafter the character shied away from close relationships, or turned gay, or determined always to be the jilter not the jilted, or any of a range of possibilities. If these character traits were then used as the lifepath progressed, you'd have fleshed out an interesting character by the time you were done.

Just a thought.

--M. J. Young

[Picador]

If these character traits were then used as the lifepath progressed, you'd have fleshed out an interesting character by the time you were done.

Absolutely. One problem I had with other lifepath systems I've seen is that they only seem concerned with the end result; I'd rather take the character as she is at each step of the lifepath and allow that to affect the flow of her experience. You could even get a lot of mileage out of a really simple system, like: "What are the three most important events in your life? Play each one out in order, making changes to your character's abilities/personality/situation accordingly." This could be freeform for a narrative character-creation system, or more structured (with e.g. lists of event "types" and their various effects based onthe character's current state and the choices made in playing it out), or even random (like the systems out there now, although the randomly-generated event should interact with the rest of the character's context at the time).

[xenopulse]

Play each one out in order, making changes to your character's abilities/personality/situation accordingly.

It seems to me that Dogs in the Vineyard is doing just that with the initiation, and it seems to work like a charm.

So yeah, I think there's a lot of potential in this.

[Thor Olavsrud]

Hey, just saw  this thread. Burning Wheel's lifepaths are a bit different than other lifepath systems that I'm familiar with, in that there's no randomness involved. The system uses lifepaths to create unique characters with a specific history and feel, without the need for extensive eight page character backstories (blech).

You can download the Orc lifepaths from the book here to see what I mean.

By moving through the lifepaths, you accumulate years, resources, potential skills and traits. For instance, let's say I want to play a character inspired by Martin Luther.

I start to select my lifepaths. I decide to start in the Villager Setting:

1. City Born. This makes me 12 years old. I get 10 Resource points, 4 general skill points, and 1 free trait point.

2. Student. This adds 4 years (making me 16). I get 5 more Resource points, +1 to my Mental stat pool, and 11 skill points (Read is required. Optional skills now available to me with my regular skill points include Write, Philosophy, Geometry Training, Rule of Law, History, Symbology, Anatomy, Astrology, Inconspicuous, Streetwise and City-wise). I also get 2 free trait points.

2. a. Student offers leads to any Lifepath Setting except Noble. I'll take him to the Religious Setting. This adds 1 year (making me 17).

3. Temple Acolyte looks like the right path. This adds 6 years (making me 23). I get 5 more Resource points, +1 to my Mental stat pool, and 4 skill points (Read would normally be required, but it's already required by Student, so I go down the list and see that Write is required. Additional optional skills include Doctrine and Temple-wise). I also get 1 trait point. Tonsured is required. Obedient, and Faithful, are optional.

4. Priest is the next path. This adds 5 years (making me 28). I get 18 Resource points, +1 to my Mental stat pool, and 7 skill points (Oratory is required; new optional skills include: Suasion, Read, Write, Doctrine, Ritual, Symbology, and Religious History). I also get 2 trait points. Vested is required.

5. Theologian is next. This adds 10 years (now 38), 9 Resource points, +1 to my Mental stat pool, and 10 skill points (Doctrine is required; optional include: Rhetoric, Philosophy, History, Religious History, Church Law, Obscure History, Read and Write). I get 2 trait points. Learned is required. Optional traits include Insightful, Bookworm and Academic.

5. a. At this point, I want to get to the Outcast setting, but Theologian doesn't offer it (it offers City Dweller, Village and Court). So I'll have to find a way to get there. After becoming a Theologian, Luther became a Sub-prior. I think the Custodian path is close enough, so:

6. Custodian. This adds 5 years (now 43), 10 Resource points, +1 Mental stat pool, and 7 skill points (Relic-wise is required; optional include: Observation, Obscure History, Religious History, Folklore, and Saint-wise). I also get 2 trait points. Strange is required. Erudite, Obsessed and Arcane are optional.

6. a. Custodian gives me the lead to Outcast I was looking for. This adds 1 year (now 44).

7. Insurrectionist. This adds 3 years (now 47), 5 Resource points, and 4 skill points (Philosophy is required. Rule of Law, Doctrine, Oratory and Firebombs are optional). I get 2 trait points. Zealot is required.

To sum up, this is the story of my character: City Born, Student (lead to Religious), Temple Acolyte, Priest, Theologian, Custodian (lead to Outcast), Insurrectionist. I'm 47 years old. I have 72 Resource points to spend on Gear, Property, Affiliations, Reputations and Relationships.

My stat pools are 12 Mental Points (to be split among Perception and Will) and a measely 12 Physical Points (to be split among Agility, Speed, Power and Forte).

I have 4 General Skill points which I can spend on anything.I also have a whopping 43 Skill points to spend. I MUST at least open Read, Write, Oratory, Doctrine, Relic-wise and Philosophy. Additionally, I am free to spend those 43 skill points on Geometry Training, Rule of Law, History, Symbology, Anatomy, Astrology, Inconspicuous, Streetwise, City-wise, Temple-wise, Suasion, Ritual, Religious History, Rhetoric, Church Law, Obscure History, Folklore, Saint-wise, and Firebombs.

I also have a whopping 12 trait points! I must purchase Tonsured, Vested, Learned, Strange, and Zealot for one point each, leaving me with 7 trait points to spend. Optionally, for 1 point each, I may purchase Obedient (not likely!), Faithful, Insightful, Bookworm, Academic, Erudite, Obsessed, and Arcane.Or I may use those points to buy traits that  weren't available from my lifepaths (though I'll pay a premium).

Once I purchase my traits, as well as my Affiliations, Reputations and Relationships, and set down my Beliefs and Instincts, I have a clear idea of who my character is.

[Sydney Freedberg]

I never published this system in any form, but I ran a campaign in college where all the player-characters were princes of the same royal family, and character generation consisted of getting everyone together and running through the history of the empire (which I hadn't revealed previously) year-by-year from the point of view of their characters. Each player got to spend a certain number of character points per year and describe what they were doing as soon as his/her character turned ten, and each player got to roleplay out one seminal event from his/her youth as well. It wasn't a standard lifepath system, but it was a variant that very successfully got their heads into the setting.

[Mike Holmes]

One problem I had with other lifepath systems I've seen is that they only seem concerned with the end result; I'd rather take the character as she is at each step of the lifepath and allow that to affect the flow of her experience.

See the aforementioned link to FATE. The authors have stated that their lifepath methods are meant to exist to facilitate play like this - even jumping back and forth in time.

Mike

[Shim]

Could you possibly extend this "Lifepath" thing to cities and society?
Is there already something like this?

[groundhog]

If you can find a copy of Dark Conspiracy, it has an interesting lifepath system. There are different career and education paths from which to choose, some having prerequisites and such. Each takes a certain amount of time to complete and comes with a certain set of skills, attribute bonuses, income, and skill electives. You can end up with a starting character as old as you want, which means you can have a bunch of skills and a bunch of money saved if you want. The game also penalizes characters over a certain age, requiring them to roll for physical attribute losses and such due to advanced age. So you can have a young, freesh character, a senior citizen with lots of skills, or some combination in between.