D&D 5E A Key Issue for 5e: Quick Character Generation

[YRUSirius]

At higher levels you ask your DM, what magic items he might have already? A fair DM will look at the other characters and might work with you to give you some magic items.

-YRUSirius

 

[Lanefan]

At higher levels you ask your DM, what magic items he might have already? A fair DM will look at the other characters and might work with you to give you some magic items.

Sure - that's how we do it now.

But if the game wants to generate starting equipment for me I'm lazy enough to let it, only I want it to work properly first.

Lanefan

 

[Splurch]

I don't get why people think its so hard to make a character, I can make a first level 3.5 character in under five minutes if need be. I really like to come up with an idea and then use the rules to come as close as I can to my idea. I think if you take your time with a character you can get into the character more and actually care about it a little. I think the way Next is going is on the right track for fast character creation, and then have a more complex version for people like me.

 

[BobTheNob]

I don't get why people think its so hard to make a character, I can make a first level 3.5 character in under five minutes if need be. I really like to come up with an idea and then use the rules to come as close as I can to my idea. I think if you take your time with a character you can get into the character more and actually care about it a little. I think the way Next is going is on the right track for fast character creation, and then have a more complex version for people like me.

Congratulations. Got to a point with 4e that I could have said the same...but thats just it, it got to a point. When we started 4e, it was a laborsome process. No way known we got a character done under an hour back then.

Mine own (and your) experience aside, once enough people say " I think character creation is too slow"...well, where there is smoke there is fire. The fact that alot of people say it means there is some truth there.

This is an interesting point, not a game breaker, but interesting and Im not going to denounce to the points herein just because it isnt my own experience.

 

[YRUSirius]

I don't get why people think its so hard to make a character, I can make a first level 3.5 character in under five minutes if need be. I really like to come up with an idea and then use the rules to come as close as I can to my idea. I think if you take your time with a character you can get into the character more and actually care about it a little. I think the way Next is going is on the right track for fast character creation, and then have a more complex version for people like me.

"Pro gamers" can generate their characters pretty quickly with experience, yes, but newbie gamers are slower. And why shouldn't you want to make it easier for them?

-YRUSirius

 

[Li Shenron]

Roll attributes.

Chose race.

Chose class.

Chose background.

Chose theme.

Chose equipement.

I start from this and elaborate:

1) Roll attributes
2) Choose race
3) Choose class
4) Choose mandatory class features (e.g. spells) and equipment

Stop here and calculate your combat stats. Here is where character creation ends for a beginner who wants it as simple as possible. Skills/background and feats/themes can be completely ignored: it means that you can actually still jump/swim or use any skill if you want, just you don't bother with extra bonuses and background features. Feats can be ignored completely because they are add-ons after all.

Then if you want a more complete game experience, you have two routes:

(the fast "lunch combo" route, for beginners)
5a) Choose background
6a) Choose theme

(the slow "a la carte" route, for experts)
5b) Choose extra skills and background feature
6b) Choose feats

I think the most critical point is actually 4), because 1)-3) probably takes 5 minutes, but calculations or picking spells can take long for a total beginner, and in the case of spell & equipment I would like iconics to provide "starting packages". With those, you can keep 1)-4) within 15 minutes for beginners too.

 

[Campbell]

I think any concrete system for generating character equipment in a game that does not assume a standard rate of wealth or magical item acquisition is bound to be flawed. Every game is different. If the game is really balanced without magic items you could have 10th level characters with one or two items apiece. You might be able to assume an additional windfall of say 1500 extra gold for an experienced character (4th level +), but I wouldn't go beyond that.

 

[GX.Sigma]

That would be fine - in fact, excellent - at 1st level but how would it work at higher levels when an incoming PC can be expected to have acquired a few magic toys?

By default, PCs are not expected to acquire magic toys, so I expect that to be the default answer. An option is to include a few different expected wealth tables, depending on where the "loot dial" is set:

On the "penny pinching" table, a 10th level character might have nothing beyond his starting package.

On the "dragons sleeping on mountains of gold" table, he might have 10,000 gp.

On the "everything is made of magic" table, he might have 5,000 gp and 5,000 gp worth of magic items.

 

[Splurch]

Congratulations. Got to a point with 4e that I could have said the same...but thats just it, it got to a point. When we started 4e, it was a laborsome process. No way known we got a character done under an hour back then.

I understand what you are saying here, its just every game I've ever played from Gurps, Earthdawn, D&D, Rifts, Shadowrun, White Wolf stuff, Etc.. All seem to have this same issue. When you pick up a new system there is a steep learning curve. I remember when I was a youngster trying to figure out THA0. I think the way they are going with the choose the following (class, race, background, theme) is pretty simple and a good start for new players. The only other thing they really could do to make it simpler is put pregenerated characters in book so people could use them right away, (ala D6 Star Wars), I think that would be a great tool to help people learn how to play maybe with some quick start light rules like Gurps has.

I'm not against making the base game simpler but I also remember the joy of making those earlier characters in a new system. It might of been a tough go at the start but man did I really care for those characters because I put time into them and they were not just throw away one shot deals. And for the people that are more of the gamist style players I think pregen or block stats are great and you can get into a quick game in the matter of minutes.

I actually was the first person in my group to buy 4th ED the day it came out and I really did enjoy the game, however most of the other players I play with didn't like the board game feel of it (we've never used miniatures except for Warhammer and Battletech). I realized that I do enjoy board games and miniature games but it did feel different and we went back to 3.5 (it was different but still good)!

 

[Splurch]

"Pro gamers" can generate their characters pretty quickly with experience, yes, but newbie gamers are slower. And why shouldn't you want to make it easier for them?

-YRUSirius

I think that the choose your package deal makes it really easy also they could put pregenerated characters in the book and quick start rules for beginners to learn with.