Randomly-rolled adventurers

[VIVIT]

Originally Posted by West_Winds

It was just a suggestion. Feel free not to use it. I personally can't stand randomly generated characters and don't understand why anyone would want that. It was the best I could come up with :/ I don't think you're going to find many options for this.

Not to fault your suggestion! I can see some value to it, but a lot of players would probably not like it, even those who are otherwise okay with rolled characters, and it's really not what I had in mind. Again, the biggest thing I'm looking for right now is a way to streamline character generation and minimize the amount of point-budgeting that has to be done. What I can maybe see is writing out versions of the templates with advantages and disadvantages already selected -- possible multiple option sets of the same template -- to further abstract the parts of character generation that can't be streamlined through randomization. After all, nobody complains that Clerics in D&D can't substitute the "no edged weapons" restriction for a compulsively strong sense of honesty.

[dripton]

Just in case anyone finds it useful, I wrote a random character generator for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. (Which is quite similar, but not identical, to Dungeon Fantasy RPG.)

It lets you make random characters for any template from GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers. The characters are legal; for example, spell prerequisites are enforced. The characters are not utterly horrible, because the templates provide a lower bound on quality. They're not exactly great, either, because they're random.

Someday I might get around to converting it from DF to DFRPG. (That basically means tweaking the templates a bit, adding support for non-human racial templates, and changing the spell lists a bit.) Or maybe not. The demand for making random Dungeon Fantasy characters seems to be pretty small. But it was amusing to write.

https://github.com/dripton/dfrandom

Sample output

./dfrandom.py -t wizard

Wizard
ST 10 [0]
DX 12 [40]
IQ 15 [100]
HT 11 [10]
HP 10 [0]
Will 15 [0]
Per 12 [-15]
FP 14 [9]
Basic Speed 6 [5]
Basic Move 6 [0]
Magery 3 [35]
Occultism [2]
Alchemy [8]
Thaumatology [1]
Hazardous Materials (Magical) [1]
Research [1]
Speed-Reading [1]
Teaching [1]
Writing [1]
Meditation [2]
Language (Spoken: Native / Written: Accented) [5]
Language (Spoken: None / Written: Accented) [2]
Intuition [15]
Eidetic Memory [5]
Language (Spoken: Broken / Written: Accented) [3]
Weirdness Magnet [-15]
Pyromania (12) [-5]
Low Pain Threshold [-10]
Nervous Stomach [-1]
Curious (15) [-2]
Overconfidence (15) [-2]
Hidden Lore (Spirits) [2]
Staff [8]
Throwing [4]
Diplomacy [1]
Hidden Lore (Spirits) [1]
First Aid [1]
Body Sense [1]
Fast-Draw (Potion) [1]
Cartography [1]
Stealth [1]
Climbing [1]
Hidden Lore (Magic Items) [1]
Haste [1]
Seek Plastic [1]
Grease [1]
Find Direction [1]
Foolishness [1]
Weaken Will [1]
Sound [1]
Seek Fire [1]
Ignite Fire [1]
Dull Hearing [1]
Seek Machine [1]
Sense Foes [1]
Ward [1]
Seek Water [1]
Delay [1]
Bless [1]
Sense Life [1]
Purify Air [1]
Purify Water [1]
Measurement [1]
Reveal Function [1]
Scryguard [1]
Sense Danger [1]
Itch [1]
Hinder [1]
Planar Summons [1]
Seek Power [1]
Conduct Power [1]
Scrywall [1]
Detect Magic [1]
total points: 250

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Doesn't the GCA have a random character generator?

Originally Posted by Bruno

Yes; to an extent. You pick a template, and it randomly fills it out.

That's in the current Beta for GCA5. The currently available retail version of GCA4 does not have the feature to randomly fill out a template.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by Harald387

The way I'd handle this would be to use a standard point build at the campaign budget (for DFRPG, 250 points), and then to add a budget of randomly rolled traits (possibly based on a lifepath track similar to that from the old Traveler games and used in a lot of other places as well). This may be less well-suited to DFRPG, though; 'lifepath' implies 'background' and 'background' implies 'setting details and social consequences'.

Background can be adventurer focused if you want.
...
11-12: Played follow the leader into cult hideout and got recruited. Excommunicated and +1 wealth level.
13-14: Kicked in the head by a cow. -1 IQ, +1 HT, Higher Purpose-Slay bovines.
15-16: Pet dog possessed by spirit. Gain a 62 point canine ally but lose 1 will.
17-18: Adopted by noble family. You are too good for delving now. Make a new character.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Yes; to an extent. You pick a template, and it randomly fills it out.

Well there you go, a professional system that randomly generates a character...

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

That's in the current Beta for GCA5. The currently available retail version of GCA4 does not have the feature to randomly fill out a template.

... that's in Beta.


/le sigh

[David Johansen]

Originally Posted by Imbicatus

Ah yes, traveller, where your character can die during creation.

Best feature of the game really. Traveller character creation is a minigame and without death and aging there's no reason not to play a ninety year old superman. It also helps you get rid of characters with bad rolls. Nothing above average? Well, a term of Scout or Belter should get you a clean slate. If you've got a run of good stats you might want to take the safe road and be a Merchant or Bureaucrat and muster out young. It's a brilliant self adjusting system that gets flack because people are used to rolling 4d6 and picking the best 3.

If Traveller really has a fault it's a lack of detailed discussion of the intent and function of the rules.

[VIVIT]

Originally Posted by David Johansen

If Traveller really has a fault it's a lack of detailed discussion of the intent and function of the rules.

I feel like GURPS has a problem with that too, at least insofar as to explaining what's optional and what isn't.

[Infornific]

I did a quick random system based on Sean Punch’s Five Easy Pieces. Note there are inevitably a few implicit world assumptions - fighters are the most common type of adventurer, clerics are more common than druids, etc.

Step 1

Roll for basic abilities

5 modules for 250 point level characters

3 modules for 150 point characters/elite henchmen

2 modules for ordinary henchmen

1 modules for bargain basement special henchmen,

Roll 2d for each module:


2-3 Arcane
4-6 Combat
7 Personal Improvement
8-9 Specialist
10-11 Divine
12 Monk (2)

Step 2

Determine specific module. Reroll for a specific module if you’ve already maxed out.

Arcane

Roll 1d

1-4 Mage (2)
5-6 Spellsinger (2)

If Arcane is rolled twice, you need only roll once for the specific module.

Combat

1-2 Brute Warrior (2)
3-4 Finesse Warrior (2)
5 Leader (1)
6 Master Archer (2)

If Combat is rolled more than once you can simply choose the same module previously rolled.

Divine

1 Crusader (2)
2-4 Priest (2)
5-6 Nature Priest (2)

If Priest or Crusader are already rolled, disregard Nature Priest and vice versa.

Monk

A Monk is a Monk. Optionally, if Monk has already been rolled, a Specialist or Personal Improvement Module can be automatically changed to Monk.

Personal Improvement

1-2 Cerebral (2)
4-6 Physical (2)

Optionally, just choose what matches the other modules.

Specialist

Roll 1d

1 Lore-Master
2 Medic
3-4 Rogue (3)
5 Outdoorsy (2)
6 Social (2)

Again, if other modules suggest obvious choices, choose them. Characters with Combat modules may also choose Leader.

Step 3

Determine Disadvantages as per “Five Easy Pieces.” If I feel inspired, I may write up random Disadvantages linked to modules.


Example:

I roll 6, 7, 9, 5 and 6

That’s Combat, Personal Improvement, Specialist, Combat and Combat.

Checking for specifics I get:

Combat, 1 Brute Warrior
Personal Improvement, 2 Cerebral
Specialist, 5 Outdoorsy
Combat, 2 Brute Warrior
Combat, 3 Finesse Warrior

I rolled a 2 for the last one but rerolled as I maxed out on Brute Warrior. Looks like a smarter than average barbarian - perhaps one who adventures because he’s curious about civilization?

[Neveron]

Another option is to dig out Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons and flip the pages to Sean Punch's Pointless Slaying and Looting article.

You begin with a 25% chance for each archetype (Agile, Brainy, Brawny, Versatile), perhaps weighted as desired. Determining this on a six-sided die is simple: reroll 5s and 6s.

There's 43 Major Abilities, 28 of which don't have prerequisites and 15 of which that do.
There are 50 Minor Abilities, 32 of which don't have prerequisites and 18 that do.
As for the specific prereqs:

Spoiler:  

Druidism has 4 Major, 0 Minor.
Minor Wizardry has 2 Major.
Minor Wizardry (Animal) has 1 Major.
Minor Wizardry (Necromantic) has 2 Minor.
Wizardry has 3 Major, 3 Minor.
Chi Mastery has 6 Major, 6 Minor.
Demonologist has 1 Major, 1 Minor.
Thanatologist has 1 Major, 1 Minor.
Theurgy has 6 Major, 9 Minor.
Warrior Training has 4 Major, 7 Minor.
Heroic Archer has 1 Minor.

Minor Wizardry and Warrior Training are Minor Abilities, the rest are Major Abilities.

I'm mostly just listing out those so you can see that it's not really possible to just pull each thing out into its own subtable.
In any case, you get eight slots of abilities. Major Abilities take up two slots apiece, Minor only one. I'm not entirely certain how you'd go about determining all this, to be honest. The simplest answer is probably "put them all in one 93-long list, reroll ones you can't afford or have prerequisites for", maybe with the added "if you roll something you don't have the prerequisite for, you get the prerequisite if you can afford it".

There are 32ish Heroic Flaws, and you get five. Reroll duplicates, easy enough. You can fit this comfortable in a d66/2 table.

There are 36ish Wildcards, and you get ten. Reroll if you get five levels of one, I guess. I'm not sure how to handle ones with prerequisites (e.g. Magical College!).
You might want to guarantee some basic competency - e.g. require having at least one combat-relevant Wildcard rather than just having ten levels of Green Thumb!.

All of this will get a very random character, at the expense of that character being, well, very random.
I'm not certain, but it seems like it's unlikely that your party would even be able to cast spells. From some napkin math it looks like the chance of someone being able to cast from one Magical College! is only 24.6%? Not counting them actually having Theurgy/Wizardry/Druidism/Minor Wizardry, of course.

IMHO I'll have to agree with those that say that a Traveller-esque life-path system would be the best for more controlled randomness, but that requires some level of effort to make and gives the character and setting some backstory you may not want.

[Pseudonym]

I made one for Pointless Slaying and Looting.

https://i.imgur.com/NpdsCzH.png

I want to incorporate it into a website one day, and also make it able to generate GCS character sheets based on the results.