Let Me Tell You About My Character...

[Jdvn1]

At GenCon, I carry around a little digital recorder and tape record anyone who is telling me about their character. Then I give them to (contact), who is a DJ, so that he can scratch with them.

buh bum buh bum He is a ha-- He is a ha-- ORC WIZARD! buh bum buh bum

Now that's something I'd pay to hear.

 

[Nomad4life]

He and I agreed that "character generation" is a lost art that has denigrated into "statistics generation" in D&D. That is, by and large, players no longer create characters, so much as a sheet of abilities of what their character can do.

Errr... But was there really ever a point in time when this wasn’t the case? Even back in the Red Box era I remember the majority of gamers would give character descriptions such as “I have a 6th level fighter with an STR of 17, a +1 longsword, and a ring of feather fall.”

And yeah, it was just as dull of a description then as it is now. But I wouldn’t really call detailed character background generation a “lost art.” To lose something you have to have it first, right?

 

[Numion]

Yes, but Gary is full of great stories about rp experiences as well. The games that I hear him talk about in articles as well as the Gary Gygax Q&A thread describe both crunch and rp. I have no doubt most of them were powergamers (and still are), but they were also great storytellers. I guess what I am trying to say is a hero without a story is not much of a hero at all. When your story amounts to "I critted the dragon for 250 points of damage and he failed his massive damage save. Isn't that awesome? And it was the first round too!" you aren't really telling a story, you're describing a statistical phenomenon.

And I'm saying you don't need 5 pages of backstory for a character to make a great story. Quite a lot of people shape their characters personality during play. I see nothing wrong this since adventuring would shape anyones personality - just like in real life adversity and experiences (wars, personal difficulties, accumulating great wealth) can change people.

I find the story that unfolds as the game progresses so much more interesting than any half-assed piece of fiction I might create as a backstory. Some of us are talented enough to create compelling fiction, but 90% suck at it. And luckily, that is not even required to have a proper story during the game.

What is to you "I scored 250 points against the dragon", would be a cause of celebration for my character, but not in mechanical terms. In-character I would say "Did you see me slam dunk that dragons honor?! The evening's on me at the Feasting Ghoul, bring in the elven wine!"

 

[airwalkrr]

And I'm saying you don't need 5 pages of backstory for a character to make a great story. Quite a lot of people shape their characters personality during play. I see nothing wrong this since adventuring would shape anyones personality - just like in real life adversity and experiences (wars, personal difficulties, accumulating great wealth) can change people.

Well, perhaps if you had bothered to read the rest of my post, you would ahve realized that this is exactly what I wish for. I don't expect people to write 5 pages of backstory. I don't expect them to even write backstory. But I would like them to play a character, not a set of stats.

 

[dpmcalister]

What do you think, Enworld? Is character generation a lost art that has given way to "statistic generation?" Is the story that important anymore or is D&D really just a tactical board game?

Yes

It's one of the reasons I've lost my enthusiasm for D&D, too many players at my old club who created stats and not characters. I'm not asking for pages of background story, nor am I saying that you need to play a useless character. Just have something you can roleplay (my own D&D character is a specialised ranger/archer and is very good at what he does, but it's his backstory and the roleplaying that I really enjoy).

 

[Numion]

Well, perhaps if you had bothered to read the rest of my post, you would ahve realized that this is exactly what I wish for. I don't expect people to write 5 pages of backstory. I don't expect them to even write backstory. But I would like them to play a character, not a set of stats.

Mainly your post was about the "lost art" of character design, and how that affects play. That's what I was responding to.

It seems that your argument degenerated to the usual "people just powergame nowadays" at some point; I guess I missed that :\

ps. Search the post by Silent Wail on RPG.NET

 

[Piratecat]

This seems like the perfect time to remind you not to argue, so that the thread doesn't degenerate into two people sniping at one another. Right? Right.

 

[Odhanan]

Is character generation a lost art that has given way to "statistic generation?" Is the story that important anymore or is D&D really just a tactical board game?

No and No.

 

[Psion]

ps. Search the post by Silent Wail on RPG.NET

Their search engine stinks. Look here.

 

[EricNoah]

What kind of irks me in threads like this is a) the use of annecdotal evidence to generate a universal rule (i.e. "I've seen a number of people who do X, and thus now everyone in the world does X"), and b) in general, complaints about how "gamers today do X, whereas in my day we did Y."

It's like when people say "kids today have no values or respect or they hate school" or whatever. I teach in a middle school and I can tell you ... based on those kids alone, mind you! ... "kids today" do have values, they are very respectful, they enjoy being in school and learning, and they want to please adults. And yet I haven't seen all "kids today" so I'm in no better position to make a blanket statement than anyone else.

Long story short: gross overgeneralizations are no help to anyone. And whining about the behaviors of people whom you will never actually play with is unproductive.

So ... back to the topic at hand ... maybe a more productive line of thinking or questioning might be, "How can I, as DM, get my players to come up with interesting character background?" (If you already know the answer, please share!)

My reaction: Ultimately, if you're going to ask someone to do some work (whatever kind of work it might be), it has to pay off somewhere down the road. So you need to establish that character backgrounds will pay off. There are some players for whom a background is its own reward, but for others you may need to provide a carrot. Doesn't have to be much. Maybe you'll promise to try to work in one bit of each character's background into the campaign's storyline. (Crafting a background and then never having it come into play is a bummer!) Maybe you let them have an extra rank or two in some crafting or profession skill to represent their background knowledge. Something like that.

Some people will not immediately see the value in creating a backstory. Some people, indeed, feel a little trapped by doing so. They'd rather start with a bit of a blank slate and then let the campaign be their story.