Character Creation

[fusangite]

I think what is being lost here in this discussion is the uniqueness of each campaign world. Ultimately, a player cannot develop a character background by him/herself; a background can only arise out of discussion with a GM. Effectively, a player and GM need to co-create a background unless they are working from some kind of packaged game world about which both player and GM know an equal amount.

Character background, for me, is best established over a lunch or dinner with the player at which the two of you settle on something unique, particular and situated in the campaign world. Assigning players the job of creating a background independenty usually either
(a) causes the player to inadvertently shape some aspect of the culture, politics or religion of the race and/or place from which the character originates which may or may not be consistent with the world structure
(b) results in a character who is either generic or poorly defined

 

[Wraith Form]

A friend of mine yoinked this idea off rpg.net, and was very pleased with it:

.....and now it's been yoinked for me, too! (The index card idea)

I really like this idea....very, very, very cool!! It also seems to integrate some of the aspects that Fusangite was concerned about--if backgrounds are written by the DM on the index cards, and then players just choose from that point, it would mean it's got "DM approval".

 

[Rel]

I think what is being lost here in this discussion is the uniqueness of each campaign world. Ultimately, a player cannot develop a character background by him/herself; a background can only arise out of discussion with a GM. Effectively, a player and GM need to co-create a background unless they are working from some kind of packaged game world about which both player and GM know an equal amount.

I totally agree with this and I rather took it as a given in my comments above. For me, the genesis of a campaign always goes like this:

1) I tell the players about the world*.
2) They tell me about the characters they want to play.
3) I offer feedback about their ideas in an effort to fit them more seamlessly into the campaign world.
4) They make the characters.
5) We start playing.


*Just for the record, it is a requisite that the players be excited and supportive of the game world, both in terms of mechanics and theme. If I sense (or they flat out tell me) that the idea does not interest them, then we seek out another setting or system to play in.

 

[DongShenYin]

Would you guys ask the players individually, or all together?

 

[irdeggman]

Just for the record, (and I don't know if this was retained in 3.5), on page 40 of the 3.0 DMG there are rules for "Apprentice Level Characters" who are effectively level 0.

Good point. But the apprentice level characters variant from 3.0 was specific to allowing a character to start as a multiclass character at 1st level. Essentially what it did was have 1/2 level classes so that the character was actually a first level character.

 

[shilsen]

Would you guys ask the players individually, or all together?

I usually talk to the players as a group and let them discuss character plans, then handle the nitty-gritties of character creation individually, and then fine-tune things as a group before starting off.

 

[ARandomGod]

Would you guys ask the players individually, or all together?

I think it's best to ask them all together. And then spend some time individually during the finishing, for special requests, extra thoughts or questions, etcetera.