D&D General help! i'm stuck with a premise and need a game mechanic or creative solution to solve this unique "reverse-character creation" situation...

[aco175]

You could put them through one of those classic video game questionnaires where you ask them some vague questions about outlook on life and then build characters based on that.

If you were an animal, what kind would you be?

If you came to a locked door, how would you try to get inside?

Do you love your mother?

Why are you an orphan from a village destroyed by orcs and have no backstory?

 

[Shadowdweller00]

Human, by the handle, yes, and isn't that a self-contradictory statement?

 

[akr71]

How about have them create their characters as they go?

This is just off the top of my head mind you, so I haven't quite thought about all the problems this would cause. They are level 14 so you know their proficiency bonus is +5. As they explore the area around them and need to make skill checks and saving throws, have them determine their relevant stat at that time. Standard array might be the easiest to implement, but other methods wouldn't be impossible. Again level 14 would indicate at least 3 ASIs/feats

For example, one of the party wants to search an area for secret doors and you call for an Investigation check. What score do they want to assign to their Intelligence? Choose from the array and write it in (plus any racial modifier). How many of those ASIs did they invest in Intelligence? How about a feat that might factor into it? Are they proficient in Investigation?

The decisions that they make gradually pigeon-hole what class & background they could be, until they have a filled out character sheet.

Perhaps a sorcerer picks up their old arcane focus and they are filled with a surge of arcane power. Perhaps a martial character picks up a weapon and it just feels right in their hand. They strap on armor like they've done it a thousand times.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I did something like this with FATE. Whenever the characters tried to use a skill, I'd ask them how good their character was at that skill, but it was limited so they could only have one +4, two +3, etc, so if they chose their +4 skill right away nothing else could be a +4.

I could see something similar with 5e, using default array for abilities, and having a list of skills available. (X class skills plus two background skills). I'm not sure what I'd do about spells, since there are so many options. If characters aren't familiar their might be a lot of game time pouring through the books.

Also not sure what I'd do about class features, since so many are locked to class or subclass. Maybe decide those two things in advance?

 

[niklinna]

My PC's are very high level, but they don't know it! I'm opening the next campaign at lvl 14, but at the start the PC's find themselves in the lair of a just-defeated foe, and they have triggered a trap on the treasure which blanked their minds, making them forget who they are. The players each get a blank character sheet to start the show, and the point of the campaign is basically to find out who you are, and to fill out the sheet. But I'm kinda stuck as to whether to use "already-made" characters I made, or have them create them randomly, since I know that half the fun is making your character. But as a one-shot, I think it would be fun to change it up and have the character be "hidden" in that their capabilities are slowly revealed to them as they have to find a way to regain their memories. Spellcasters will have forgotten their spells, and will have even forgotten that they are spellcasters! I'm trying to figure out how THEY can figure it out lol. Do you think martial skills would be affected? Or is that mostly muscle memory? Gimme a hand please!

I have played this sort of setup for one-shots several times in other RPG systems and it can be a lot of fun, particularly if what gets revealed is key to the goings-on in the adventure.

One approach I've played that's different from what you listed, is not having any already-made characters. The GM put the players on the spot at key moments and asked us what our characters could (or couldn't) do, or gave us a choice from a small set of options, or asked who in the party had been involved in backstory element X. If you take that approach, you might want to prepare your players a bit by making clear that the usual stat distributions apply, so they can't have 18s in everything—but perhaps initial choices can be raised once or twice, as they realize their true capabilities. You can also offer out particularly relevant class & subclass features at those key moments, possibly without naming them, and who chooses what will narrow or pin down their specific builds.

 

[soviet]

Another idea: if your players know each other quite well, and can keep a secret, have them create each other's characters to 'discover' during play. Like a secret santa kind of vibe.

 

[Mercurius]

One shot, definitely pre-gens. But I think you're going to want more than a single session to adequately explore this idea (or do you mean singular adventure, by "one-shot," thus multiple sessions?).

It also depends on the players: how open they are to try something new.

I really like the idea of them not knowing anything about their capabilities until they try things out. So they don't know their STR until they test it, or how good they are with a sword. Could have some comic potential.

If you really want to go wild with the idea, you could make their actions dictate what they are. So if they try to lift a rock, you say "Make a STR check." Depending upon how they roll, that's their STR. Maybe something like so: their resulting ability score is 8 + half their first d20 role. If they role a natural 20, they roll again and 1-10 and it stays at 10, 11-15 and it goes to 19, 16-19 it goes to 20, a second natural d20 results in another roll.

I don't know how you'd translate this to class stuff, but maybe something similar. But you'd want to be rather vague about it, so they didn't catch on too quickly. "I cast meteor swarm."

Early on, you could be very narrative based and "hand-wavy," and give little hints.

 

[niklinna]

Another idea: if your players know each other quite well, and can keep a secret, have them create each other's characters to 'discover' during play. Like a secret santa kind of vibe.

I've played something like this too, it's freaking amazing. We each played ourself in a horror scenario, and then somebody else was playing an evil spirit out to get one particular other character, and passing notes about the things they made us see or hear The notes had to go through the DM for anonymity of course, which was chaos, but it was a ton of fun!

 

[Grakarg]

There was a 1-shot adventure like this for the Dungeon Crawl Classics game (DCC).
Twilight of the Solstice. They might have made others.
It was a Holiday special adventure and it came with pregen characters, you'd scratch off the stats and abilities as you used them to reveal what they were. It seemed like a fun idea for a one-shot, but I never got a chance to play it.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

It's going to make for a stop and go adventure but to me the easiest way to allow them to make the character they want AND to do a little surprise in a one shot would be to simply seed the adventure with 13 "level up" points in the story and each time the party hits one you have them level up their PC.

It's not quite the same as you are wanting but it allows them to have exactly the character they want....and the surprise is still there since they don't know how high a level they are going to peak at.