09-05-2018, 08:34 PM | #21 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Lifepaths in Faaantasy!!!
Quote:
I feel that this is related in a way to a difficulty that I often have in getting character-players to decide on (and explain) a character concept before they start character generation in a point-buy system like GURPS. I keep getting backstory instead of character concept. It's very often all about what the character did in the past and too seldom about what he or she is going to be like on adventures. But that is perhaps a de-rail. The character generation system in the original version of ForeSight depended strongly on a random roll for age. Players tended to resent that, and grumbled, so a new version came out with a system in which the GM set the power level for PCs by specifying how many "background factors" they ought to be built on. Players then chose elements of backstory from the tables, and this set the sizes of the several pools of generation points on which the characters could be built. Players were encouraged to arranged the background factors into a skeletal character history and think about the specifics, and this might possibly guide the choice of skills and abilities. I knew some players to generate their characters as a series of accumulations, spending the results of each background factor on specific knowledge, skills etc. before moving on to the next. The background factors were rather abstract and un-specific, and the players in my fantasy campaigns found them not quite comfortable. So I devised a set specifically for my fantasy setting Gehennum; crafted to a specific setting they were able to be a lot more explicit about what life experiences they represented. They were kind of satisfactory, but some players found that they were okay for any generally conventional Gehennese life, but lacking when it came to generating unconventional characters and backstories. That's a general problem with life=path generation systems, I think.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
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