I’ve just been reading the first few chapters of the manga of To Another World… With Land Mines, and it made me think of this question to pose you all.
(No, there aren’t any actual land mines, thank God.)
In the story, our main character is killed in a bus crash and is reincarnated into a medieval fantasy world. Before this, he is met by the god of the world and actually taken through a RPG character creation process, with 150 points to spend on stats, abilities, and so on. Being a suspicious (and sensible) sort, he realises that the descriptions of the various abilities aren’t very detailed, and spends 20 points on the Character Creation Guide ability which unlocks more detailed descriptions. He’s very glad he did that, because it turns out that all the cool powerful looking abilities are basically traps (or land mines, as he calls them). For instance, the Half Vampire ability which is described initially as “enhanced strength and agility, enhanced magical ability, not vulnerable to sunlight” actually also comes with “must drink 300ml fresh blood daily or have -10 penalty to everything, will be hunted on sight if identified”. Some are just hard to use and not worth it, such as the 50 point Copy ability (can copy another PC’s abilities but the other PC must teach you how to use them, otherwise they don’t work).
So, my question to you all, given all that, is: if this happened to you, with your knowledge and experience with various RPG systems, which RPG system would you be most happy to see in the character creation system? And which would you be least happy to see? Once you’d got over the trauma of death and then having to live in a medieval fantasy world you didn’t know anything about, of course.
(Of course, this goes beyond just what a chore character creation is or whether the system has a lot of traps. I’d personally be very worried to see a RPG system that was very swingy and lethal, since I would be very concerned about how long I’d survive in a setting underpinned by that system. I’d probably then buy skills and advantages that allowed me to live a pleasant quiet life as far from danger as possible.)
For me, well, I’m not sure what the best and worst are, but some brief thoughts:
(No, there aren’t any actual land mines, thank God.)
In the story, our main character is killed in a bus crash and is reincarnated into a medieval fantasy world. Before this, he is met by the god of the world and actually taken through a RPG character creation process, with 150 points to spend on stats, abilities, and so on. Being a suspicious (and sensible) sort, he realises that the descriptions of the various abilities aren’t very detailed, and spends 20 points on the Character Creation Guide ability which unlocks more detailed descriptions. He’s very glad he did that, because it turns out that all the cool powerful looking abilities are basically traps (or land mines, as he calls them). For instance, the Half Vampire ability which is described initially as “enhanced strength and agility, enhanced magical ability, not vulnerable to sunlight” actually also comes with “must drink 300ml fresh blood daily or have -10 penalty to everything, will be hunted on sight if identified”. Some are just hard to use and not worth it, such as the 50 point Copy ability (can copy another PC’s abilities but the other PC must teach you how to use them, otherwise they don’t work).
So, my question to you all, given all that, is: if this happened to you, with your knowledge and experience with various RPG systems, which RPG system would you be most happy to see in the character creation system? And which would you be least happy to see? Once you’d got over the trauma of death and then having to live in a medieval fantasy world you didn’t know anything about, of course.
(Of course, this goes beyond just what a chore character creation is or whether the system has a lot of traps. I’d personally be very worried to see a RPG system that was very swingy and lethal, since I would be very concerned about how long I’d survive in a setting underpinned by that system. I’d probably then buy skills and advantages that allowed me to live a pleasant quiet life as far from danger as possible.)
For me, well, I’m not sure what the best and worst are, but some brief thoughts:
- I’d probably be quite happy to see D&D 5E. Yes, it’s a bit boring and I’d be concerned about surviving the first few levels (which really depends on how stupid or unlucky I am) but the system is fairly transparent and none of the choices are traps. If I chose a magical character (and of course I would) even being able to cast cantrips would be awesome.
- I would be rather less happy to see GURPS, because I don’t know the system so well and I think there’s a lot of potential traps.
- I’d be seriously worried if I saw WFRP, because my stats would be terrible and I really don’t like rats, infections, or bad dentistry. Also, very few of the careers are suited to living a quiet pleasant life somewhere.
- If I saw RIFTS I’d ask the god for a redo.
