How should I handle this?

[Darklance]

After quite a bit of work I'm ready to begin a second campaign set in ancient Greece. For the rules I'm planning to use some modified COC D20. HP will be 10+ con mod and there will be some armor changes as well. The problem is that

1) We NEVER hand make characters. Its to much of a hassle and there is to much room for errors. We've been sticking to PCgen and the master Tools Demo. Now we're going to have to make up characters from scratch.

2) Three of my five players are from my other campaign and have a good understanding of D20 and role playing. The fourth and Fifth players are my brother and his girlfriend. My brother played with me years ago but broke off as we got older. He at least understands the general concept if not the new rules. His girlfriend has never played before but has expressed interest in my game. I don't want to lose her before the game even starts.

So, what are some steps I can take to make sure this runs smoothly? I can see the possibility of it getting out of control and the creation taking all night with many errors. Basically they have the two class choices from COC d20. Are there any half made up character sheets out there with the two classes basically filled out? Something along these lines? I'm basically looking for anyway to cut corners. Or better yet...is there a COC character generator out there I've never heard of?

Any advice and experience sharing is welcome. Thanks.

 

[kengar]

OK, there are a couple things I can suggest:

First off as far as PC gen goes, use point-buy for scores instead of rolling (see the DMG for the costs). It will save time in the long run on approving characters and make things more balanced. I would recommend a 20-26 pt base if you are going for low-to-mid power level. Also, with point-buy there's no need to witness rolls for scores , so the experienced players might be able to get their characters done -at least partially- ahead of time.

When it comes to classes, if you have time, maybe you could put together a few "templates" yourself. Let the players look at them and tweak them to fit their concept. If they have a few examples of what can be done in the rules, they will decide on their characters that much faster than if they have to go from square one.

As for your brother and his GF, ask them if they would like you to make characters for them. Get their input on the type of character they would each like to play and design something for them. If they don't like the idea, have them come over early so you can help them with design, etc. If you have time, run them through a sample encounter. Just a "you see two orcs" kind of a thing to help their characters get up to speed and give them both a feel for how the rules work.

When it comes time to play, tell them if they aren't sure how the rules would work for a given situation, they can just describe what they want to do and you can interpret it into the mechanics. This might not really be necessary since the other players will probably be full of advice, but if you make the offer, the new player(s) can be less intimidated by the system and take a more active part (this is often true in the "brother's girlfriend/1st-time gamer" kind of situations).

 

[Darklance]

Bump!

Anyone else?

 

[Darklance]

One last bump.

 

[Tsyr]

First, I would actualy recomend rolling for begining people... less "Lets see... if I raise this... but wait, that leaves me an extra point... so if I lower this... but no..."

Second, make up little index cards or something with "starting lists" for feats/skills... Don't make them mandatory, just let 'em browse 'em if they want... You know... like have one with the skills/feats for a soldier, one with the skills/feats for a scout, etc etc. YOU have to put a little efort into it, but it speads up the initial session.

I know this is technicly piracy, but what I've often done when introducing players to a new system is to xerox or type up the basic skill lists and so forth so that there isn't a ton of waiting for "Bob to pass the PHB, I need to see what there is..."

 

[nsruf]

I started a modern day CoC campaign recently and the group contains two people who a) only played D&D twice and b) didn't like it that much. So I made handouts for character creation that explained the steps in detail, and I also fixed the selection of core skills. So, after rolling and assigning abilities, their only choices were offensive/defensive option, skill point allocation (which I simpified to maxing out 8+Int modifier skills) and feats (which took the longest). It's hard to make any mistakes this way.

And one of the players remarked that she liked the handouts, because they are easier to follow then the usual, verbal instructions: we change game systems a lot in that group and every time, creating PC is a hassle because we often have only one copy of the rulebook...

So I don't know about any pre-made character sheets, but if you are willing to do the extra work and make some handouts and simplify some things, this should be much easier.