Brand New Players: Make Character, or use Sample Character?

[Tony Vargas]

I've introduced numerous players to D&D and other RPGs, and pregens are an ideal tool for that. They let a player jump in and start to experience the system very quickly, and the player doesn't have any attachment to a pre-gen should it face some grim fate early on.

A good pregen for an intro game is something of an art. It should highlight the game and the kind of character it is. It should also be fairly easy to look through and reverse engineer, and easy to improve upon. A good pregen gives a positive first impression of the game but also leaves the player wanting to try building their own character.

 

[Li Shenron]

Whenever I have beginners in my games, I always let them write up their own PCs, but I admit that also I have always given plenty of direct suggestions, because otherwise even at 1st level the amount of available material is overwhelming... it would just take too long to read everything, and they wouldn't be able anyway to make a conscious decision before knowing the game a bit.

OTOH, I was just thinking recently, that if I am able to find the time to be a DM again, this time I want to invite a bunch of friends that have never played RPG, and pre-generate many ready PCs for them to choose from. Then I'll tell them not to be too picky in their choice, for some of them are probably going to be dead at the end of the adventure, so better not to become too attached

 

[Bobbum Man]

I would rather that first time players make their own characters, and that character gen be simple, intuitive and free of trap options.

Then again, if I had my druthers then character generation would only have a few points of articulation: (Race, Class, Stats, Theme, Paragon Path, Epic Destiny) that are all widely divergent.

So there you go.

 

[Mattachine]

I teach people to play D&D every year at the school I work at (we have a D&D club). Most years, I start with character creation, and we get bogged down in the details for two sessions before starting a game. It isn't fun for most of the students right off the bat. This was true for 3e, 3.5, Iron Heroes, and 4e.

Lat year, I started with pregens (that you, Characte Creator) based on what new players wanted. They were free to change them as needed between sessions, or replace them with completely new characters when they were ready to make their own.

I love the idea of newbies making their own, but the core mechanics of the game are rolling d20s and such, not character creation.


To put it another way: When teaching someone to play baseball, give them a mit, tell them to catch the ball, and then give them a bat and tell them to hit and run. Later on, they can better decide which position to play.

 

[S'mon]

IMO the game is not in making a character, the game is in actually playing the game. So pregens are best - created according to any expressed preferences of the new player, if practical & desired. Get him/her playing an effective character. Get them hooked. Then they can rebuild their PC or make a new one later, if desired.

Note: Does not apply to Moldvay Basic and similarly simple iterations.

 

[Aenghus]

I would prefer the base rules to have mechanically simple versions of each of the classes suitable for use by new players (that aren't hopelessly gimped compared to the more complex builds). Players connect better with characters they generated themselves, or at least contributed to.


My opinion is coloured by a long-standing record of awful pregen characters from publishers, full of mismatched attributes, bad choices, missing or incorrect equipment and bad proofreading. As a consequence I tend to distrust pregenerated characters and check them very carefully for anomalies, as they all to often are written by people who lack a good grounding in the system ostensibly being used.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Yes -- both.

The game needs to offer both options. A newbie to RPGs in general probably needs to be able to play a pre-made character briefly to be able to understand all of the choices. Someone who groks the idea of an RPG, or is coming from another system, needs a quick/simple way to get rolling while still being able to make clear choices.

And frankly, even experienced players need a system for quick character creation, for that time when you bite the dust but want to jump quickly back into the action with a new character concept.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Should a new player make a character the first time they play, or should they choose a sample character and play them?

They should do whichever they want.

I'm accustomed to DMing WotC editions, so I always ask new players what kind of character they'd like to play and whether they'd like me to do it for them the first time. 9 times out of 10, they insist on making their first character themselves and I've never seen a serious mess-up.

The guy who taught me the game is the only player I've ever known who just can't be bothered with chargen. Strangely, or maybe not so strangely, he got bored of D&D before WotC took over. That's one of the tragedies of my life.

 

[Invisible Stalker]

While playing the campaign requires the whole team, character creation does not. For new players it is usually just me and the player, no one else waiting around impatiently for the game to start.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Now, I've seen people write up their first character in, say, Champions and have it be a complete cock-up. Once the game system gets seriously complex you really need someone to oversee your work.