Bearing in mind that I am inventing numbers
as I write this post, and thus any numerical balance is extremely unlikely to bear out beyond superficial examination:
Imagine that in this hypothetical 6e, we can define the absolute bare minimum one requires in order to have...a character, as opposed to not having one.
We can, for example, conclude that they can wear cloth (as that tends to be something anyone can use), but have no training beyond that--no skill with armor, weapons, equipment, etc. They have no training/proficiency with any skill, saving throw, or whatever else--but they do have a floor modifier of +0 to any such derived statistics. Implicitly, they have less than 10 in their stats, as these stats are likely to be developed through play--though perhaps choosing some set of non-penalty ability scores (but not actual
bonus) is warranted. This character has no class features, no feats. Background could be more complicated, but we'll assume that that background will get established later. Lacking class features, they can't cast spells. We can, however, presume that they understand at least one language both spoken and written. Likely, the character has a species/race/physiology/etc. That one's a bit harder to explain being discovered/learned by doing/etc., but perhaps it could be elective too with a bit of extra effort. (I would not expect the system to be designed from that point, but it could be a bolt-on.)
From there, we start defining chunky
pieces of the features a
full character would have, that this one doesn't. Things like:
- Various armor/weapon training
- Increasing base HP
- Improving saving throws
- Learning skills
- Improving ability scores
- Gaining cantrips and a spellcasting modifier
- Gaining a 1st level spell and slot
- Gaining a core baseline class feature (e.g. Bardic Inspiration, Lay on Hands, Divine/Primal Order, etc.)
Some of these might lock you into specific choices, e.g. if you choose Intelligence as your spellcasting modifier, you can't become a Druid or Bard, or if you improve your hit points up to the maximum, you can only be a Barbarian, etc.; but that's for later speculation.
Then, we explain various ways of assembling these pieces to produce an easier experience. Zeroed out across the board, that's your ultra-gritty OSR-style starting experience. Good defenses, HP, saves, but otherwise feature-free? That's your "training wheels" approach for brand-new players. Perhaps, maybe in a supplement, develop rules for a quicker-but-still-granular character creation--sort of an "accelerated novice levels" sort of thing--so that people who love making their characters grow organically can do so, really letting them "play" the character to "build" it, as it were.
Further, produce a handful of official "starter character" adventures, fully designed around having characters that are this much weaker than a standard character. (After all, this would be one of the best ways for people to learn the ins and outs of the new system!) Have at least one of those "starter character" adventures be specifically geared for an old-school experience, so that that approach is clearly marked as just as much warranted and accepted as any other. You could even implement
random results for what things characters get by achieving goals in their starter-character adventures, so that the player genuinely discovers what they're going to play
by playing, rather than by having a single roll of the dice tell them.
