Character Generation and Literary Portrait

[Mike Holmes]

Sounds pretty cool to me.

See cyberpunk for something similar that might give you ideas on what sort of developmental areas to look into.

Mike

[bladamson]

See cyberpunk for something similar that might give you ideas on what sort of developmental areas to look into. Mike

Kinda what I was ripping off...  That or some later edition of Mechwarrior.  Not sure if the lifepath method can be made into a generic enough mechanic for a generic system.  Might just need to supply details for adapting it to a specific game...  I seem to recall seeing a generic lifepath somewhere (GURPS maybe?), but I don't recall it being very good.

One of my colleagues has also suggested an interesting system of card-based plot hooks.  Not clear yet how to tie these things into a character's background assuming the more random approach is not taken.  Once a plot hook is used, the card is discarded and a new one is drawn at random.  A TORG ripoff I suppose, but functioning at a lower level of the plot.  Also removes some flexibility from the GM, but that's a debate for another forum I guess. :)

Was never really able to get into Torg, but then again I don't think we were playing it as the designers intended.

[M. J. Young]

In the second column, the player derives learned skills from what was listed in column one.  Probably up to some sane maximum to keep people from taking advantage of the system.

I'm dying to know what a "sane maximum" would be like. Real people may have a maximum number of skills, but really, have you ever tried to enumerate them? I play a dozen musical instruments, sing, and write and arrange music, and am learning to do it electronically (call me slow on that point). I've got woodcraft skills including camping, cooking, firebuilding, and survival, and watercraft skills including swimming, handling a variety of small boats, and lifesaving techniques. I picked up skills in woodworking, plumbing, electricity--I used to troubleshoot audio amplifiers back in high school. I rebuilt a couple of guitars. I write. I do computer programming and coding, to a small degree. I'm not completely helpless under the hood of a car. I've raised drywall and placed flooring. I did clay pottery and copper enamelling decades ago, and could probably remember how to do them again. I've worked with a blowtorch and been shown how to use an arc welder. My medical knowledge is rather extensive for a laymen--I recognize many drugs by their generic names, understand the operation of a lot of diagnostic equipment, and have extensive first aid training. This doesn't really touch my higher education--liberal arts, theology, and law, primarily, but with a lot more involved. I've never been terribly athletic, but I can do a couple of trampoline stunts (I learned them as a child, but just did them again last month to show my kids how they're done), am adequate at shooting hoops, and in touch football can usually squirm through a defensive line fairly easily.

Maybe I'm not the kind of character you want to create; I've always been a generalist--I've always figured I wanted to know something about everything (learning less and less about more and more until I'm going to know nothing about everything, as they say).

It's probably not the number of skills you want to regulate. Ordinary people have hundreds of real skills, useful things they can do that they learned over the years. How many people here can ride a horse? How many can fix a leaky faucet? How many can drive a standard transmission truck? Find information in a library or encyclopedia? Fire a gun at a target? Fire an arrow at a target? Throw a knife with some accuracy?

One thing you might consider is to leave that second column blank, and split it into two columns. Then when a situation arises, let the players say, "It's possible that my character knows how to do X, because he might have learned that when he Y." Assign a probability to it. Sometimes that probability will be 100%, and you'll just grant it; sometimes it will be 0% and you'll say, "that's ridiculous, there's no connection between going to clown school and being able to fix a faucet." Most will be between. You'll assign the probability and roll the dice. If it's good, it gets added to column B as something the character knows how to do; if it's not good, it gets added to column C as something the character doesn't know how to do at this point.

That way you can represent the vast number of skills characters really have without having long skill sheets. Nothing wrong with long skill sheets--I use them all the time, and enjoy them. But if you're looking for a way to control how many useful skills characters have, and you don't have any better way than maximum number (very unrealistic, it seems to me), it might give you what you want. It also gives you surprises. After all, probably very few people who know me would guess that I drove a dump truck in college--but I know how to do it, because I did, even if I never do it again. So, too, with characters, you'll have those moments where one of them says, "I did something like this before, let me try," and everyone discovers a new facet of the character not previously explored.

Just an idea, anyway.

--M. J. Young

[bladamson]

One thing you might consider is to leave that second column blank, and split it into two columns. Then when a situation arises, let the players say, "It's possible that my character knows how to do X, because he might have learned that when he Y." Assign a probability to it. Sometimes that probability will be 100%, and you'll just grant it; sometimes it will be 0% and you'll say, "that's ridiculous, there's no connection between going to clown school and being able to fix a faucet." Most will be between. You'll assign the probability and roll the dice. If it's good, it gets added to column B as something the character knows how to do; if it's not good, it gets added to column C as something the character doesn't know how to do at this point.

That way you can represent the vast number of skills characters really have without having long skill sheets. Nothing wrong with long skill sheets--I use them all the time, and enjoy them. But if you're looking for a way to control how many useful skills characters have, and you don't have any better way than maximum number (very unrealistic, it seems to me), it might give you what you want. It also gives you surprises. After all, probably very few people who know me would guess that I drove a dump truck in college--but I know how to do it, because I did, even if I never do it again. So, too, with characters, you'll have those moments where one of them says, "I did something like this before, let me try," and everyone discovers a new facet of the character not previously explored.

Oh my god, that's a great idea!  Thank you!