[Rq-rules] Character Creation Rules

Thu Oct 11 20:59:23 PDT 2007

Your idea of a non-human-centric world is an interesting one. As it happens,
I have a friend who took that idea several steps further.

He created a setting we called the "Floating Isles". Not only did it have
*no human beings at all*, but none of the other standard fantasy races were
present, either. What's more, it didn't even have solid ground, except as
smallish islands floating in an endless blue sky!

It was an incredibly *refreshing* setting. Whenever we got bored with
standard fantasy, we'd do a Floating Isles scenario. Because the geography
(aerography?) of the Isles (i.e. their relationship to each other) were
constantly changing due to wind forces and other unknown effects, strange
creatures and new races were common. The GM worked hard to really smash all
the stereotypes, and make interesting creatures that really felt new. Of
course, virtually all creatures were able to fly - not as much of a
challenge, since gravity as we know it only existed on the top of each Isle,
not between them. Incidentally, the original concept was based on the
artwork of Roger Dean (primarily his album covers for the band Yes).

This was long before Niven wrote "The Smoke Ring" or anything like that, by
the way.

Many years later, I tried to write up the Isles in an issue of my old zine,
Rack & Rune. Here's a link. The article starts on page 4.

http://www.runequest.org/rr15.pdf

Now, as to character design: I prefer point-based design systems to random
ones, usually. And if possible, I like to throw GURPS-like advantages and
disadvantages into the mix. In fact, actual GURPS ads/disads can be very
easily worked into D100/RQ.

However, my very favorite method came from throwing out the rulebook
altogether. We only used this for "serious" games, ones with an intense
focus on roleplaying. The results were almost always spectacular.

The GM created each character by having a series of private discussions with
each player over the course of several weeks. The conversations happened in
person and on the phone (the net wasn't available in our dorms back
then...it was the mid-1980s). We wouldn't discuss numbers. We'd discuss the
personality and history of the character, along with the underlying
concepts. And we'd do it in the terms that you'd use to describe a real
person, i.e. NOT "he's got an 18 strength" but instead something like "he's
apprenticed to the town blacksmith, and he doesn't know anyone in the
village who is stronger than he is - although there are a couple of burly
farmers who are probably about as strong".

Inevitably the character concepts evolved over the weeks of creation. The GM
took sole responsibility for actually designing the characters, working out
statistics by fiat. I don't know how other GMs who used this system did it,
but *I* didn't make a fetish out of balancing the stats: instead, my goal
was to make sure that each character had one or more interesting and useful
abilities which were not duplicated elsewhere in the party. In other words,
my goal was to balance playing time, plot involvement, and fun for the
*players*, rather than balancing the stats of the *characters*. It helped
that I knew all the players well, and could judge their strengths and
weaknesses.

In the process, extensive histories for the characters naturally evolved.
What's more, as things went forward the players would talk with each other
and work out any shared history that their characters might have. We even
tried playing out pre-campaign scenarios, talking in character to each other
as our "young" characters in their earlier years. This built a sense of
party unity and history that was unusually deep.

Typically, a game that used this method of character creation was run on a
"sheetless" basis, i.e. the players never saw a character sheet for their
character, never saw their own ability scores or stats. Instead, they knew
as much about their characters as the character knew about him- or herself.
Players would often keep extensive notes, of course, but they did not
include numerical data.

The GM did all the system record-keeping, while the players rolled dice and
employed strategy and tactics using a real-world approach. RuneQuest was an
ideal system for this sort of sheetless campaign. Since it models reality
well without being overcomplicated, the GM could easily accommodate  the
actions of the PCs without being TOO overburdened with bookkeeping.

The one flaw was that some people tended to lose track of the dividing line
between reality and fantasy in roleplaying games. Sheetless gaming really
seems to bring that out in some players. We all got obsessed - it's almost
frightening how much more *involving* a sheetless game can be - but some
people just lost it altogether.

But with good players, it can be a really mind-blowing experience.

It's not necessary to have a sheetless game in order to use the discussion
method of character design, of course. The only problem is that
argumentative players may object to the GM's actualization of their
character, quibbling over stats or skills.

->Peter

On 10/11/07, tiggermb at verizon.net <tiggermb at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> Hello all.
>
> Like I usually do when I post with a question (rather infrequently), I am
> giving a little background about WHY I am posting the question. If you don't
> want to read the why skip to the last paragraph or two..
>
> I was in a discussion about RPG's recently with my weekly group. We tend
> to play D and D because it is what they know - and becasue I let other
> people GM. I have gotten them to try Runequest for a quick adventure, and
> while they seemed to enjoy it, my rusty GM skills really showed and I don't
> think the adventure was all it could have been.
>
> The discussion was about character races, and half breeds, and how most of
> the time, when we talk about half breeds, we mean half human. My thought was
> that MOST RPG settings are human centric, with humans being the most
> frequent race; the race that holds dominion over most of the land, makes the
> rules and enforces the law. Over the years most RPG settings I have played
> in are that way. There was one small series of adventures where we played a
> Halfling Family, and another where our characters spent a lot of time in
> Elven territory, but by and large, most of the time, the local law is human.
> Then my imagination started working...
>
> Now the thought is in my mind to design a setting that is very NON human.
> A world of lawlesness where there are no or few humans on the great plains.
> A world of Elven Forests and Dwarven mountains. A world that is less
> realistic than most others, and more fantastical. Because Dwarves always
> seems to get the short stick in any campaign I have been in, I intend to
> start the characters in Dwarf country. I want to give them a world of Giant
> Underground Mushroom Forests, Rivers of Lava, Giant Worms, Glowing Crystals,
> all the super fantastical underground gaming enviornment that I can come up
> with. Because I like the way Runequest allows for wonderfully descrptive
> combat and encounters, I want to create this setting using the RQ/BRP rules.
>
> Which leads me to the CHARACTERS. I don't like to roll characters, as
> such. I like to think up ideas and use some point system or non random
> method of charcter generation. So - What Non random methods of Character
> Generation are people here using for non Humans? What suggestions might
> people come up with for BRP character design?
>
> On a second note, any suggestions for fantasitc (particularly
> Dwarven/underground) locations and encounters would be welcome as well.
> Don't know if this will ever some to frutition, but like a lot of things I
> fiddle with it if it weighs on my mind. If I work on it enough maybe I can
> convince them. It might be easier to do once the new BRP system is out...
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> MB
>
>
>
>
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>

-- 
Peter Maranci - pmaranci at gmail.com
Pete's RuneQuest & Roleplaying! http://www.runequest.org/rq.htm
The Diary of An Invisible Man: http://bobquasit.livejournal.com/
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