A Return for Central Casting

Central Casting (the first three, not Dungeons) by Task Force Games, was and is, IMO, one of the greatest gaming supplements to grace the gaming community at large during the late 80's and early 90's. I have used these books in the past to generate some memorable (at least for me) character histories. With some exceptions at the time (like Warhammer 1st ed. and Traveller) none of the big RPG, read AD&D1 and AD&D2, had next to nothing for generating even a skeletal history. Not that a good DM couldn't help the players come up with one but the systems themselves didn't make a character's background a priority. These books filled that gap handily during that time.


I think its high time that the Central Casting series should make a return of sorts. I honestly think this book would be a hit. They were setting and game-system neutral and could be seemlessly retrofitted into any campaign. There were some rules to follow but these were of the lite variety (and a little clunky at times) and could easily be modded or ignored where necessary. I would love to see this RPG gem return to the scene under the skillful hand of someone like Monte Cook, Green Ronin, RPGObjects or even a company like White Wolf. These books, IMO, are screaming to be brought up to date and reintroduced to the newer generation of gamers.

If it sounds like I'm gushing about these books I apologize but I think there is potential here. Does anyone else feel the same?

BTW, whatever happened to Task Force Games? They seemed to have disappeared off the gaming map entirely.

Phil Reed in a post ages ago (probably eaten in the crash) talked of possible doing something like this. Hopefully, he still is...

I am a big fan of random generators of all sorts (which is why my company has put out several random adventure generators in our Modern Dispatch issues). Cyberpunk's lifepath system, the service history generation in FASA's Star Trek, the Victory Games James Bond 007 "For Your Information" supplement...all of it.

I wanted to like Central Casting....I really did. It's certainly complete enough, and that's really cool. Unfortunately, the author chose to weave his personal politics into the tables, which resulted in such lovely things as homosexuality being arrived at on the "mental problems" subtable, etc.

I do agree, though, that a similar style of supplement would be a wicked-cool thing to release now (minus the preaching, of course).

I remember those books, remember them fondly actually, but as comedy. Great RPG comedy, but comedy still. The backgrounds they created were so exaggerated, almost a farce, that no plausible character could ever come from them. I just don't see the need for big, elaborate tables to randomly generate background for a character in any setting.

I remember in one Star Wars campaign I ran, our gaming group had just run across a copy of Heroes of Tomorrow and decided to use it to come up with character backgrounds, and after removing the elements which absolutely didn't fit into Star Wars at all, it was a pack of 4 characters with so many twists, hidden backgrounds, mental defects, strange pasts, and convoluted histories that it was a wonder they were playable. After the characters created with that book died quickly and painfullly, we ended up never using those books ever again for actual character creation.

If know the setting well enough to run it, you should be able to help your players come up with varied and meaningful character backgrounds.

But, if they re-released such a book, I'd be tempted to buy it, for the comic value, not as a serious RPG suppliment.

If the end results would give you some tangible, in-game effects, such as bonus feats and skill ranks, along with some penalties to balance things out, I would be all for it. But otherwise, I would prefer to come up with my own character background rather than roll on a bunch of tables to determine it.

IIRC, the Central Casting tables were a whole book. The Cyberpunk lifepath and Traveller prior history tables (the only others I am familiar with) were just a few pages in the rules book. Traveller's system is central to the game; you have to use the prior history to get the character you start play with.

The Central Casting-type book might come in handy for sparking some ideas, but I don't think I would play a character whose background was entirely or primarily generated by it.

I used to like them and used them (up to the point that GMSkarka mentions; it became very blatent in the last book). Usually you'd wind up with really useful info, such as what your parents did and how many siblings you had, what sort of socio-economic status you were used to, etc. Then you'd occassionally get enough weird rolls to make a monster, like wingsandsword's experience. When someone had something absurd, I'd just change it or ignore it.

Ironically, now it wouldn't be nearly as useful because of the potential to get some really unbalancing skill-related stuff from it. Previously when you had no skill system, it provided at least a tiny framework to use. Now, if suddenly you got a +10 ranks to, say, Spellcraft or something like that it could prove disruptive.

GMSkarka said:

I am a big fan of random generators of all sorts (which is why my company has put out several random adventure generators in our Modern Dispatch issues). Cyberpunk's lifepath system, the service history generation in FASA's Star Trek, the Victory Games James Bond 007 "For Your Information" supplement...all of it.

I wanted to like Central Casting....I really did. It's certainly complete enough, and that's really cool. Unfortunately, the author chose to weave his personal politics into the tables, which resulted in such lovely things as homosexuality being arrived at on the "mental problems" subtable, etc.

I do agree, though, that a similar style of supplement would be a wicked-cool thing to release now (minus the preaching, of course).

Click to expand...

I had the same problem. And his inclusion of his own values was so pointless... I felt like finding Mr. Jaques and beating him with a clue club. (I am still a member of the clue club clan...) I have not read a single thing by him since.

The Auld Grump

I'd asked about this a while back as well. And Phil Reed indicated that he had pursued such a thing at one time, but apparently tabled it for some reason or another.

So, as far as I know, it's not a project he's actively working on, but maybe he is slowly.

The thing about Central Casting is that you shouldn't take the roll at face value. A previous GM of mine used it (which is how I was introduced to it) and he typically rolled at least twice on a table, especially if the first roll didn't make any sense at all. It worked extremely well.

So thats when central casting came out! It was recommended to me, but I assumed it was a d20 product.

I don't want it enough to look for an old copy, unless my local used game store has a one.

TheAuldGrump said:

I had the same problem. And his inclusion of his own values was so pointless... I felt like finding Mr. Jaques and beating him with a clue club.

Click to expand...

Not that I agree with the notion of homosexuality as a mental illness, but in his defense, Jaques may have simply been working from older references that included these things. Homosexuality, for example, was not removed from the DSM until 1986, and one might have still found a copy that listed it on their library shelves when the Central Casting books were written. He should have proofed better, but it is easy to imagine that when someone is writing a book with that many list, they might crib a few things, and let some oddities slip through.

I like giving people the benefit of the doubt - unless you know something more specific? (Share, share! )