Life path system in-game

[Marc Radle]

The old Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth RPG from Last Unicorn Games had a character creation system that very much did this kind of thing.

 

[TwoSix]

It would be interesting to have a Life Path system that also incorporates a collaborative World Building System. So you're playing out scenarios of your characters' intertwined lives while also establishing truths about the world.

Beyond the Wall, by Flatland Games, is my favorite example of this in the OSR space. Each player picks a playbook, like Nobleman’s Daughter or Witch’s Apprentice or Devout Acolyte, each with randomized tables to generate a young adult in a shared village ready to go on their first adventure. The playbooks also guide the players to create key locations an NPCs in town, and creates bonds between the PCs through shared experiences.

 

[Umbran]

Any thoughts? How would you approach this problem?

Not to be glib, but... that sounds like just playing the game.

 

[Morrus]

Not to be glib, but... that sounds like just playing the game.

And creating your character at the same time.

 

[dragoner]

3) Has actual gaming--roleplaying, social, exploration, combat--fully integrated into it.

I kind of do it with big d66 tables of life path events, it was used in mongoose Traveller 1e, and I expanded on it a bit. One could break it out even more.

 

[Piperken]

...I also like it when systems generate PC connections during character generation.

A full game session which:

1) Generates the players' characters in a life-path way
2) Involves all the players at the table
3) Has actual gaming--roleplaying, social, exploration, combat--fully integrated into it.
4) Creates backstory, character connections with each other, etc.


I kind thought, what if the players played through several 'scenes', one from each stage in their backstory--one as a child, one as a young adult, one in their first career, etc. But for all the players to be involved, all the characters would have to know each other from childhood and have geographically similar lives. Each secene then increases stats etc. like most life-path systems do.

Perhaps each player has a scene and the others play NPCs. But that then means a LOT of scenes. And doesn't help with geneating connections between them.

Anyway. Just random musings of what's been on my mind this week! Any thoughts? How would you approach this problem?

If players were allowed to play other players' characters in these vignette scenes, your connections with each other would be generated.

If there were a standard set of decisions just for this period that heightened tension, conflict or cooperation among characters, this would encourage such connections i.e. no passive options or non-engagement.

Perhaps players could suggest particular aspects, traits or items that this character has while they are portraying them, that could be subject to light revision after by the character's owner?

 

[Umbran]

And creating your character at the same time.

So, playing the game before playing the game? Why wouldn't I want to just play the game?

Again, that's a serious question. You are asking for a subsystem that creates the character and does the stuff you'd expect to do in play. Why have a separate subsystem for that?

 

[Morrus]

So, playing the game before playing the game? Why wouldn't I want to just play the game?

I don’t really have any insight what you’d want. I’m not trying to sell the idea to you. I’m just telling folks what I’d like to do and asking for input on how to accomplish that goal.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

@Morrus
Question: have you ever seen the Central Casting books from Task Force Games? They’re long out of print, but they were essentially books of genre specific tables to roll on to flesh out character backgrounds (and, to a certain extent, equipment lists).

 

[Morrus]

@Morrus
Question: have you ever seen the Central Casting books from Task Force Games? They’re long out of print, but they were essentially books of genre specific tables to roll on to flesh out character backgrounds (and, to a certain extent, equipment lists).

Random tables aren’t really what I was looking for.