An interesting method of group chargen - My players stay out

[Hussar]

This is an idea I yoinked from Fear the Boot's podcast (I don't remember which one, so don't ask, it was a while ago.)

The way it works is this: Before everyone comes to your game, grab a bunch (about 10/player) of cards from any CCG. Preferably pick cards that somewhat fit with the theme of your campaign. Magic cards, Yu-Gi-Oh, whatever. Doesn't really matter.

Lay the cards out, face up, in a grid so everyone can see the cards. Choose a rotation for who gets to go first, second etc and keep that rotation throughout. Highest roll goes first and then to the left would likely work best.

You are going to go around the table for seven rounds, so, this is going to take a bit of time. Probably about an hour or so.

In the first two rounds, each player picks a card for himself. In the third round, players pick cards for the person to the left, and then to the right in the fourth round. In the fifth round, players pick their own cards again.

Each card in your hand represents something about your history. Now, you don't need to use the whole card. In fact, it would likely be best if you didn't. All each player has to do is include some element of the card in his background - could be something from the art, the flavor text, the artists name, whatever. If it appears on the card, it is fair game.

Once that is done, you go to the sixth and seventh rounds. In the sixth round, each player must trade one card with another player. Those two cards must now be incorporated into both player's backstories. Those cards represent the ties that bind the two players together. How do they know each other? Do they have some sort of shared experience? Anything. Repeat again in the seventh round, although each player must trade with a different player than in round six.

There, now you have seven elements to tie into your character's background, two of which are shared by another player at the table.

What do you think?

 

[The Little Raven]

What do you think?

I think it's a very intriguing idea, and I'd like to see some kind of log after you do it. It adds elements to their history that they didn't necessarily choose themselves, and makes them feel a bit more organic than most characters. I think I might do something similar the next time we roll up new characters.

 

[Hussar]

TLR, ask and ye shall recieve. I just started a story hour thread, and I'll be posting the transcript sometime next week.

 

[Umbran]

If you've got a group that's not good at doing this on their own, this has some value.

The shared card concept needs a little refinement:

If you have an odd number of players, for example, you have someone who's left out, or someone who has extra connections.

Folks get to trade cards for shared elements - what happens if players don't agree on who gets to share with whom? What if everyone wants to share with Billy, who has the Ubercard?

How do you handle the fact that the thing that player A likes about the shared card and the thing that player B likes about it are different. Player A wants the warrior in the image, but the flavor text talks about a wizard that player B wants to use - that's not exactly a connection.

And, as a thought, you don't need to use CCGs - a Tarot deck can do nicely, and there are agreed-upon interpretations of what the cards mean, and each card can have an upright and reversed aspect...

 

[Grymar]

Interesting idea. The only thing I dislike is taking power away from the players on their background. I like having them do 98% of the work so they can build a character they really enjoy and are invested in...in my experiments on doing any sort of structure to the backgrounds, I end up with players who care less about their characters.

But it does sound interesting. I may have to see if I can do a light version.

 

[Hussar]

If you've got a group that's not good at doing this on their own, this has some value.

The shared card concept needs a little refinement:

If you have an odd number of players, for example, you have someone who's left out, or someone who has extra connections.

Extra connections aren't really a problem IMO. You might have to step in to make sure that no one is left out though.

Folks get to trade cards for shared elements - what happens if players don't agree on who gets to share with whom? What if everyone wants to share with Billy, who has the Ubercard?

Well, I don't really see how you can have an Ubercard since nothing in the cards carry any real mechanical differences. As far as agree on sharing, well, you only have to include something from the card, and that something has to touch on another player. You don't have to share the exact same things though.

How do you handle the fact that the thing that player A likes about the shared card and the thing that player B likes about it are different. Player A wants the warrior in the image, but the flavor text talks about a wizard that player B wants to use - that's not exactly a connection.

That's up to the players to work out honestly. They need to come up with a way that the wizard and the warrior apply to a shared history.

And, as a thought, you don't need to use CCGs - a Tarot deck can do nicely, and there are agreed-upon interpretations of what the cards mean, and each card can have an upright and reversed aspect...

Tarot might work, but, too bland for my taste TBH. There is no "right" or "wrong" interpretations in this, so, trying to force that would negate a lot of player creativity.

To give an example, I might have the following two cards in my hand:

I add the ideas to my background that I had some sort of blood brother in my past, and I once had an unfortunate encounter with a minotaur.

If someone trades the Bloodpet card from me, maybe he becomes my blood brother. Or perhaps he's a friend of my blood brother. Or perhaps he takes the necromancer line and works with it somehow - maybe he witnessed the death of my blood brother at the hands of a necromancer. Whatever.

Like I said, this is not a quick thing. It is going to take a bit of back and forth, give and take to get things going.

The problem I have with letting the players make backgrounds in a vaccuum, is you wind up with a group with absolutely no links to each other and completely conflicting goals. That's why I'm trying this.