08-23-2011, 11:33 AM | #1 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Character concepts and point totals
A few ideas formed by the optimization thread:
For a campaign where I have a specific story to tell (which for me, tends to mean a short campaign) I will likely create concept descriptions of the necessary characters, and let the players decide which of them plays which one. If a player doesn't like any of the concepts, they can, of course suggest variations. But knowing the players reasonably well (I tend to be dealing with established groups) means I can usually pitch a set of concepts that the players will be happy with. For a long-term campaign, I don't usually make character concepts, although I will often identify capabilities that will be needed, or at least very useful. I'll give the players an idea of the setting, and if there's a patron or mission framework they need to be compatible with, and then let them lose. This often gets discussed over e-mail or at a session, so that players can co-operate in defining their concepts, but they don't have to do this. I give the players a point budget, which is generally intended to be tight, but not stingy. By this, I mean that it's intended that they can be competent for the adventures they'll face, but they'll have plenty of things they they want to upgrade before they start expanding their capabilities to new fields. Watching the players evolve concepts before they start detailed design is fascinating. For my current campaign, Cabalists in the Infinite Worlds, two of the players' concepts were straightforward and practical, but the other two gave more trouble. One started in a form that simply made it impossible to blend into most societies, since he wanted to be a spirit inhabiting a specific suit of armour, with no body inside. This doesn't work in a no-mana environment, and is conspicuous almost everywhere. He was eventually talked down to gigantism and a bizarre form of being only partly alive; he's still conspicuous, but his chivalric behaviour helps calm people. The other wanted for some time to be a vampire. However, in a world-hopping game when you often have no idea of the time of day on the target world, this isn't very practical on 300 points. How do you handle the concept stage? Last edited by johndallman; 08-23-2011 at 11:34 AM. Reason: typo |
08-23-2011, 11:49 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Character concepts and point totals
I get all the players together, discuss the campaign theme and setting, and ask them all to pick concepts and to make sure that they fit together and don't overlap excessively. I do as much character construction as possible, but then I spend a few weeks sending character drafts back and forth with the individual players. It is to be hoped that the initial draft will reveal whether the point value is suited to the desired concepts.
It can be problematic; when I was setting up Sovereignty, one of the initial players could not cut his character down to 1600 points to save his life, even with a month extension of the start time, and one got stuck at 800 and couldn't bring himself to go higher. Bill Stoddard |
08-23-2011, 12:15 PM | #3 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Character concepts and point totals
I've worked in a much narrower range of point totals: 100-200 points 3e and 150-300 points 4e. My players have managed to form their concepts within the right kind of range to date. It was odd how much trouble an experienced Shadowrun player had when new to GURPS, though. He couldn't grasp the skill progression with the table in front of him, and kept trying to fit wrong ideas to it.
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08-23-2011, 12:18 PM | #4 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Character concepts and point totals
I know it's kinda wrong to laugh at newbies, but I'm curious regarding this event. As in, in details. (Beside, I'm pretty sure he figured it out by now.)
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08-23-2011, 12:20 PM | #5 |
Banned
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Re: Character concepts and point totals
I generally only run open-ended campaigns that generally continue until the forces of RW chaos put them to an end.
Generally, I describe a small handful of campaigns I could run to the potential players and see which grabs their interest. I will then specify the scope of character types needed and let the players select among them. I set the point limit (based on what I think will be needed for the style of campaign I imagine) and give the players any limitations on character traits then let them build them themselves. I review the draft characters, make rulings, suggest changes and then they take it back for another round of building if they wish. After the character is 'Final', I usually apply a few more points to fill in things the players left out, and generally I give a 5 point bonus for making or finding a picture of the character. |
08-23-2011, 12:31 PM | #6 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Character concepts and point totals
It didn't really make sense to me. He seemed to be having trouble with the idea that skills are directly based on stats, which isn't a concept in any game he plays, and with the simplicity of the table. He was looking for the costs in each row to be incremental costs, or something. We just did it for him.
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08-23-2011, 12:52 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
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Re: Character concepts and point totals
Most of my players are either GURPS experts or unfamiliar enough to do what I tell them; I don't generally have players who know enough to get into trouble but not enough to get out. So what I usually end up doing is putting together a loose campaign-PC template: X points, must have traits Y and Z, should be someone who'd be employed by agency A. Here's an example.
This is part of a longer process, though:
None of us is a rules-lawyer, so the campaign template isn't considered binding...
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08-23-2011, 02:50 PM | #8 | |
MIB
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
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Re: Character concepts and point totals
Quote:
This was after years of playing 3E mind you so tells a lot about me... Cheers
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08-23-2011, 03:17 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Character concepts and point totals
Quote:
He should have been the kind of vampire who doesn't burn in sunlight but doesn't get his kewl power either. |
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08-23-2011, 03:21 PM | #10 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Character concepts and point totals
Shadowrun was like World Of Darkness in that the writers knew nothing about statistics and made high skill more dangerous than low. I liked the worlds, but the systems were messed up.
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character concept, points |
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