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[In a Land Called] Personalities, Skill sets, & Tragedies

Started by timfire, November 03, 2005, 12:57:44 PM

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timfire

Past threads:
[In a Land Called] Console RPGs done timfire's way
[In a Land Called] Now with Flow Chart!

My new game is inspired by console-style CRPGs, in particular the Final Fantasy series (read the past threads for more info).

I would like some suggestions for Chargen. My idea is that the player will choice three Character... err, Aspects (a personality archetype, a skill set, & a personal tragedy) a from a set of lists I will provide in the book. (Basically, pick one from column A, one from column B, and one from column C.) These lists will be based on stereo-types from these CRPGs. I would like suggestions for these lists. Here's what I got right now:

Personality Archetypes
    Grumpy Old Man/Woman
    Loner
    Tough Guy/Gal
    Cute Youngster
    Playboy/girl
    Happy-Go-Lucky
    The "Other"
    The Joker
    Nobleman/Woman

Skill Sets
    Brawler
    Soldier
    Weapon Expert
    Martial Artist
    Healer
    Wizard
    Scholar
    Inventor
    Thief

Tragedies
    Lost (dead) Loved One
    Sick Loved One
    Amnesia
    Don't know their past ("where they come from"/parents/etc)

That's 9 Personalities, 9 Skill sets, and 4 Tragedies... obviously I'm hurting on the Tradegy front. The number of Personalities & Skill sets isn't bad, but it might be nice to have a couple more. I also want to make sure I have all the stereotypes covered.

Thanks!
--Timothy Walters Kleinert

Eero Tuovinen

monster renegade (both a personality and tragedy?)
sworn crusader
artist/other (cook, mathematician, dancer, sports player, gambling, other weird-ass combat style)
summoner
priestess
scorned by his people (political reasons or something)
incurable wanderlust
chosen/cursed by whatever
frustrated vision (spent 20 years building that spaceship that won't fly, or something)

for starters...
Blogging at Game Design is about Structure.
Publishing Zombie Cinema and Solar System at Arkenstone Publishing.

timfire

Thanks Eero!

There all pretty good. I'll try them out/keep them in mind. I'm trying to keep the "aspects" somwhat generic, so that each group may tweak them for their individual setting, but I'll can probably use the basic ideas. Two quick comments:

Monster renegade: A monster would be "the other" (a creature/nationality/culture "other" than the rest of the party), but renegade is pretty good.
Priestess: I would consider that the "healer" (maybe I need a better name).
--Timothy Walters Kleinert

Arturo G.


What about:

Tragedies:
Plagued by visions (infernal, violence, unreal, whatever...)
Uncontrolable magic gift (once fired it cannot be stopped or controlled, and in stress situations it may become automatically fired). e.g. levitation or telekinetic power.
Last member of a community (race, culture, nation). Many cultural interests, abilities and procedures imposible to be understood or be valued by others.

Skill sets:
Ranger? The typical outdoors abilities set.
Marine/Pirate?

Cheers,
Arturo

Mike Sugarbaker

"Lost faith" is what popped into my head. "Renegade," "frustrated" and "scorned by his tribe" kind of fall under this rubric.
Publisher/Co-Editor, OgreCave
Caretaker, Planet Story Games
Content Admin, Story Games Codex

Justin A Hamilton

A lot of these are based from the Grandia series, and various Atlus SRPGs.

Personallity Archetype
Aspiring idol/performer.
Logic-worshipping android/robot/construct
Angsty-go-lucky
Technology-hating Naturalist
Technology-apologizing Naturalist
The good-intentioned will-probably-become villian ("these forbidden arts WILL save the land")
Shy-to-a-fault/Professional Apologist
Constantly argumentative companion
Elder retiree (who comes back for one more adventure)
Raised by wolves
Religious zealot

Skill Sets
Shaman/Druid
Alchemist
Bizarre hobbiest (Relm, Calculators, etc)
Lancer/Wind-rider (if you want to get that close to the source material)

Tragedies
Actually a terrible reality-destroying monster
Possessed
Practicioner of objectively evil arts (no matter how well-intending the user is)
Really a robot/clone/etc
Possessor of a highly-hunted artifact/magic/etc.