Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnomasz
I'll have to think about it more, I might have been selling those schools badly. But as for the player in question, I don't feel he'd be interested in in-game reasons to join a school, only in the mechanics. I guess sacrificing some time to make characters in person with hard copies of books would be the only solution here.
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I find one-on-one character creation really crucial. Because is allows you to say no to some concepts and redirect into something more appropriate. It also allows you to make sure that the characters work for that game world. For example, it doesn't matter if there is no mechanical difference between being in a school and not being in a school...if in this game world there are no mages who aren't in schools. Though I think there should be mechanical manifestations of the in-game situation....which could mean that mages not in a school must take Enemy (Witchhunters)...or social Stigma...or they don't have access to any spells that require Margery...or whatever makes sense in your game world. In Game and mechanics should compliment each other.
Anyhow...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnomasz
I think I need to grow some spine to demand a drive from each player.
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Remember 3 different "drives":
1) The character needs to be motivated to be a part of the campaign frame. If the campaign frame is that the PCs are members of Special Forces who are working for the Royal Academy of Magic...then the PC concept has to include doing that.
2) The character should have a short term goal.
3) The character should have a long term goal.
All of these things come easily if you know your character's backstory...so the PC should have a backstory. Some players will not write up a backstory...this is why one-on-one character creation is so important to me. That one-on-one process is not just about getting the mechanics of the character down, but getting the story of the character down. I ask questions during the process to help them build their backstory...which helps build their mechanics.
Something like:
Me: Okay, so I emailed you the setting last week. What sort of character are you thinking about making?
Player: I'm thinking about a Mage.
Me: Great! Which school are you thinking about being a member of?
Player: I don't see any min-max reason to be in a school. Also it looks like if you are a member of a school you can't take any spell you want...you are limited. So I'll not be in a school so I have no limitations on what spells I can know.
Me: Well in this world, almost all people are in schools. They are places of the highest learning and experimentation in magic. If you operate magic without being a member of a school there are a couple of consequences. a) you will have a really hard time learning new spells as no one in schools will teach you, you would only have what you start with. b) only the people in schools have access to more complicated spells (those that require imagery 1 or higher) so you would be limited in what spells you could have, c) no one who is not a member of a school can operate magic in towns, it is illegal, d) d) you'd have to take a negative reputation for being a wild magic user--they are frowned on--but most importantly e) the Royal Academy of Magic would not hire a Wild Mage to be a member of the Special Forces hunting down Wild Mages and your character is a member of the Special Forces hunting down Wild Mages.
Player: Oh...how do they know if a person is part of a school?
Me: When you join a school they place an arcane mark upon you that brands you as a member of a particular school.
Player: Hm...is there a way to fake the mark?
Me: What are you thinking?
Player: Well...what if I'm a Wild Mage who has a fake mark?
Me: Before we get into the fake mark. Why would a Wild Mage want to join the Royal Academy's Witchhunters?
Player: To destroy them!
**Here we have a red flag...this sounds like the player might not want to play in this campaign frame at all and this character might be really disharmonious to the campaign. If I knew the player well, and knew him/her to be a good team player and good RP'er, I might allow the concept...but for players who are not good team players, I probably wouldn't. If this is meant to be a one-off adventure rather than a continuing campaign, I'd also be fine with someone whose goal is to blow up the campaign...because there isn't going to be a long term campaign. However, let's say your player is more of a problem type and this is meant to be an ongoing campaign.**
Me: Let's go with a concept of someone who fits the campaign frame first. I don't want the party broken apart with internal fighting right off the bat. Also, when we talked about this as a group, you agreed that you liked the campaign frame of witch hunters...so create something that would work with that. What sort of magic would you like to be able to wield?
Player: I want to be able to wield everything!
Me: That isn't possible in this game world. But if you want the aggressive fire-ball wielders...or the ones with the most variety, you should go for the undead-hating spellslingers. They specialize in x, y, z...
Player: Okay, I can do that.
Me: So, why did your character decide to join the spellslingers? **This is me maneuvering to try and round out the character and try to come organically to some goals**
Player: Um...my parents were killed by the undead?
Me: How old was your character when it happened?
Player: Um...my character was 12?
Me: Did your character see it happen?
Player: Yeah.
Me: Where did your character grow up, in a small village or in a town?
Player: It was a small village.
Me: Okay so you grow up in a small village...what did your parents do?
Player: They were farmers.
Me: Great...so you grow up in a small village, your parents are farmers, and one night an army of rotting corpses set upon the village lead by an evil Necromancer...they rounded up everyone and the necromancer inspects each person...seemingly looking for something or someone...when he doesn't find what he's looking for, his zombies eat the victim. So...how did your character escape death?
Player: Um...his mother hid him in the hay loft of the barn and told him not to come out or make a sound no matter what.
Me: Could your mother have also given you an amulet to keep with you and let no one see or have?
Player: Cool!
Me: So after the undead army left, leaving only death and destruction what happened next?
Player: I made my way to the capital city to warn them...um...and the with nothing else, I decided to join the spellslingers to avenge my family.
Me: So your long term goal is to find the Necromancer and avenge your family?
Player: Yeah.
Me: Great! Okay so...
**Here I try to get him to talk about what made him bad ass enough to be invited to the witch hunters and why he'd join them. I try to get him to come up with a short term goal (probably figuring out the amulet). Ask some more questions to round out the character...and THEN start getting into the making the character.**