Assigned Characters

[dcorbin]

Does anyone ever play where the DM creates the characters, perhaps some of the background, and gives them to the players to play?

If so, what are advantages and disadvantages of this technique?

As a player, what would you think about being on the receiving end of this?

Any other related comments are also welcome.

David Corbin

 

[Sixchan]

Yeah, I'm currently doing a new thing with this. We had just decided to start an OA campaign, and to save time, the players told me their desired class and asked me to make up appropriate characters. It wasn't particularly hard to do, and aside from minor adjustments that they wanted, everything was hunky dory. It's too early to say what sort of effect this will have, but we'll see.

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

It would fly with anyone i game with, unless it was a one shot or something like that. Nothing turns me off like a DM saying i have to use a pregen character. It just really sucks alot of the fun out of the game for me.

 

[Buttercup]

We have a player on hiatus for a few months, so we decided to play a mini-campaign to test some ideas and variant rules. I pre-generated characters for this, to save time, and to make sure we had as few uncontrolled variables as possible.

Interestingly, one of my players (the least experienced one) decided he prefers this. And since his character in the regular game died last time we played, he asked me to build him a new character for when our regular game resumes at the end of January. In his case, I think it's because he's not that familiar with the rules, so the characters he creates end up not being that good at anything.

 

[astralpwka]

Pregenerated characters seem to work well for those who just show up, because everyone hates the wait for the new guy to make a character, but I think that the players are more attached to their own character concepts.

 

[Derfel]

Our group seems pretty split about this issue. A few don't mind pre-made characters, mostly since they hate character creation and are pretty much happy with whatever they get. But me and a couple others prefer to make our own. I actually enjoy making characters so I'm sure that's part of it. I also think it has something to do with our familiarity with the rules. Those of us with a lot of gaming experience tend to enjoy character creation, while the others find it tedious.

Personally I feel pregen's only work with short adventures, or one-shots. If I'm going to be playing a long term campaign I prefer to be able to create my own character,.

Some might argue that pregen's allow the DM control over the type of characters that will be in the campaign, but in my experience as long as you explain the campaign to the players and guide their choices with the story in mind, you can benefit from both the freedom of player-made characters and those that fit the story.

I think it comes down to how attached a player becomes to their character. In my yeas of playing I have never seen a player become attached to a premade character as much as one they create themselves. When our group reminisces about past characters and campaigns, it is always about ones where they players made their own characters.

 

[drdevoid]

Now I am presupposing with this post that the race or class is assigned (maybe even gens the background) but the player still designs the actual character. . .

A twist on the assigned characters idea happened in a game I am currently playing. It involved the DM assigning race, which was kind of fun. Since the races imply character classes, it affords the DM the ability to nodge players out of the same class/archetype over and over or it automatically gives interesting unique characters if they go against standard types. So it's been sort of a win/win.

That said, some people just hate being told what to do with their characters, period. It really depends on the group, or as others have explained, the desire to make your own character is a large part of the fun of the game rather than just the playing of it.

 

[Umbran]

Well, I have to slip into a stock answer - it depends on your players, and what you're trying to do...

I personally find that pregens work well for one-shots, or short campaigns. In these cases, pregens make for quicker startup, and allow the GM to preset certain mood elements. For longer campaigns, I find that player-creations are better.

 

[AngelTears]

It is a good idea. The GM can make a good character that fits the party and makes them a cohesive whole as well linked with the background world.

The disadvantages is that more work for the GM on making a character that is well balanced and tied to the gaming world.

Players are not happy with not having the ability to make their own character.

-Angel Tears

 

[Reynard]

I tend to make pregens when we play new games. I usually get an idea of what the players want to do, but make up the PCs so that they "fit".

the biggest advantage of pregens is that it aves time at the table. I run games that meet, if we are lucky, every three weeks or so. I don't want to lose a whole first session creating characters. It is not so bad when we play D&D, since pretty much everyone has the books and can create their character before the first session -- so long as they let me know what they are playing. But when we played Exalted, we lost half the first session just explaining characters and having them spend their bonus points. I can't imagine trying to guide five players in full character gen in a game like that.

As far as only taking pregens through a one shot or a mini-campaign, or that pregens are somehow not as close to a player's heart as a character he designed himself: do not concur. A player will make a character his own without any trouble, regardless of what is on the sheet. Hopefully, he does so by using what is one the sheet, but we all know players whose characters -- all of them -- hyave the same personalities, regardless of race or class or level of experience.