Central Casting

[Treebore]

For D&D i sometimes use the Character Background tables from Unearthed Arcana.

Some googling and reading Enworld's
Lifepath thread1
Lifepath thread2

...revealed these:
Character Lifepath on dandwiki
Atomik Lifepath pdf
Lifepath (very interesting, the navigation is a bit strange but this is the most complex system i have found yet, aside from Central Casting.)

There's also the fairly recent Background Noise pdf by Second Rat Games

Thanks! I'll be checking these out.

 

[Dr. Confoundo]

One thing to avoid if you are planning on working a new Lifepath book... try to avoid making moral judgements in your product like the writer of the Central Casting books did. He turned off at least a few readers who did not agree with how his personal morality and religion filtered into the charts. For example, homosexuality is classified in the section on Mental Disabilities... along with things like psychosis and bestiality.

I don't want this post to go over the line into politics, but suffice it to say that you'd probably do well (and make more profit in the long run) if you limited the influence of your own personal beliefs into how the charts are written.

 

[coyote6]

Yeah, when I found a copy of one of 'em years ago and noticed that particular detail, I was rather boggled by it.

 

[hopeless]

Hmm

One thing to avoid if you are planning on working a new Lifepath book... try to avoid making moral judgements in your product like the writer of the Central Casting books did. He turned off at least a few readers who did not agree with how his personal morality and religion filtered into the charts. For example, homosexuality is classified in the section on Mental Disabilities... along with things like psychosis and bestiality.

I don't want this post to go over the line into politics, but suffice it to say that you'd probably do well (and make more profit in the long run) if you limited the influence of your own personal beliefs into how the charts are written.

I did wonder about that, you wouldn't believe the ruckus I got when I used the Mekton zeta version of character past generation where I made on player roll for the gender of his character's former relationship!
And no I didn't joke about that i simply didn't understand the problem, still I wish I had the scanner back then would have made things much easier given the state those books are in.

 

[Treebore]

One thing to avoid if you are planning on working a new Lifepath book... try to avoid making moral judgements in your product like the writer of the Central Casting books did. He turned off at least a few readers who did not agree with how his personal morality and religion filtered into the charts. For example, homosexuality is classified in the section on Mental Disabilities... along with things like psychosis and bestiality.

I don't want this post to go over the line into politics, but suffice it to say that you'd probably do well (and make more profit in the long run) if you limited the influence of your own personal beliefs into how the charts are written.

Yeah, good idea. Fortunately I am not big on making people follow my beliefs, and as far as I know my co conspirators aren't big on that either. So hopefully we won't do anything that can be taken that way.

edit: to be fair I think back in 1988 that particular issue was technically classified in that manner. I think it wasn't until the 90's that it even began to be presented as a genetic influence. So that may be why it was listed that way in 1988.

Still we will endeavor to avoid trying to insult or influence anyones thinking, lifestyles, etc... We want it to be as "Universal" as possible, and not just with respect to RPG systems.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

to be fair I think back in 1988 that particular issue was technically classified in that manner. I think it wasn't until the 90's that it even began to be presented as a genetic influence. So that may be why it was listed that way in 1988.

That's pretty accurate:

Wiki entry regarding the DSMV
Following controversy and protests from gay activists at APA annual conferences from 1970 to 1973, as well as the emergence of new data from researchers such as Alfred Kinsey and Evelyn Hooker, the seventh printing of the DSM-II, in 1974, no longer listed homosexuality as a category of disorder. But through the efforts of psychiatrist Robert Spitzer, who had led the DSM-II development committee, a vote by the APA trustees in 1973, and confirmed by the wider APA membership in 1974, the diagnosis was replaced with the category of "sexual orientation disturbance". That was replaced with the diagnosis of ego-dystonic homosexuality in the DSM-III in 1980, but then was removed in 1987 with the release of the DSM-III-R.[6][36][37] A category of "sexual disorder not otherwise specified" continues in the DSM-IV-TR, which may include "persistent and marked distress about one’s sexual orientation."

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

edit: to be fair I think back in 1988 that particular issue was technically classified in that manner. I think it wasn't until the 90's that it even began to be presented as a genetic influence. So that may be why it was listed that way in 1988.

Also, to be fair to the original author he wasn't hitting people over the head with his beliefs. There were simply one or two small asides saying essentially, "This is organized this way for my own reasons, not yours". If you look at the section dealing with child molestation I get the impression he was uncomfortable including such references at all but was compelled by a sense of reasonable comprehensiveness. At the time of its original issue I don't think it was argued as much as it was, say, 10 years later especially considering the LACK of pervasiveness of online communication in '88.

Edit: Besides, since the primary purpose of the book is generation of PLAYER character backgrounds the comfort zone and beliefs of the player (and DM) should by far trump anything the charts would ostensibly dictate about a PC. In fact, such a book would do well to be written in such a manner that it operates under restrictions set by the DM (no heirs to the throne, deities, inheritors of vast fortunes, etc.) as well as a certain level of roleplaying challenge willing to be accepted by a player (psychological traumas, sexual orientation, complex relationships with an extended family, etc.) prior to even beginning the process.

 

[Krensky]

I did wonder about that, you wouldn't believe the ruckus I got when I used the Mekton zeta version of character past generation where I made on player roll for the gender of his character's former relationship!

Minor nitpick, but if you made the player roll you were using the Lifepath wrong (well, less right). You can roll or just pick what makes sense or fits the character you already have. It's a tool to fill in details that are often missed, not a mini-game like Traveller chargen.

 

[Evil DieM]

I hear this is now a standard feature in most newer model wizards, sorcerers, and other spell-casters... kinda like central heating.

 

[Thanael]

I did have four of these Central casting for legend, for tomorrow, there was a dungeons one and a present day one whose title escapes me, but I lost the legends one and I think sold on the dungeons one so still have the tomorrow and present day one and also hope they bring that out as a pdf since I used to pregen character backgrounds when I still had kingdoms of kalamar back before it was released for use with 3.0.

They were and still are useful of course since I play fantasy games most I still wish I'd kept my copy of the central casting for legends.

The Central Casting books were :
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Central-Casting-Heroes-Paul-Jaquays/dp/0922335001/] Heroes of Legend[/ame]

(There were 2 Editions of this. Apparently the extremely rare 2nd edition of Heroes of Legend has literally double the pages of the first edition.)

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Central-Casting-Character-Creation-Century/dp/0922335117/]Heroes Now![/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Central-Casting-Tomorrow-Character-Creation/dp/0922335036/]Heroes for Tomorrow[/ame]

Central Casting Dungeons

Dungeons and the 2nd Edition's author is Robert Sassone, the others are by Paul Jaquays. All are by Task Force Games.

Here's a site with pictures of all 4: http://www.waynesbooks.com/CampaignBuilding.html