Pre-Generated PCs: Do they work for you?

[The_lurkeR]

Wanted to chime in my support with Umbran... I think pregen's can actually increase the amount of roleplay and character.

As has been said, given the chance many players will play themselves into a certain rut. But give that person who normally plays the snooty elf mage a human barbarian and you're bound to see new creative sparks fly.

I think this might also have something to do with peoples experience in playing. Having played every class for near 20 years now, it's fun to be surprised with the skeleton of a pregen and fill in the holes myself. For someone just starting out, but perhaps not a newbie anymore, I can see where they might find a pregen stifling because they haven't had the chance to stretch and find their own ways yet.

(Oh and to the original question, random and barebones is how I like to make pregen's. That way the player has room to fill in the why's and how's of the character.)


Just my 2 cents

p.s. Tom swapping the characters like that sounds like a fun thing to do... maybe if only for just one night to mix things up!

 

[Tom Cashel]

I always use pre-gens for Call of Cthulhu games, based on whatever Profession the players choose. The basic skill set is always the same, so that's no great shakes, and I leave the last 60 Personal Specialty points unassigned so players can customize as they see fit.

And I agree 100% with Umbran's comments on development vs. generation.

(Pimp time! DC Metro gamers who play Call of Cthulhu--click the link in my sig!)

 

[Altalazar]

Sorry to be blunt, but IMHO - Stuff and nonsense!

Hamlet is a character. A pre-gen. More than that, the details of his actions and speech are largely determined for the one who plays him. But somehow Sir Lawrence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh, and Mel Gibson all managed to do different, interesting things with the character.

IME, people put to much emphasis on the generation of the character, and then sit on the laurels of that work. You can make a character your own, even if the stats and feats are chosen for you ahead of time, and the situation you start in isn't one of your own choosing. Character isn't about ownership. It's about development. All a pre-gen gives you is the starting place. You talk as if you cannot begin a journey if you are given the starting place by someone else.

Reasons and history aren't only the province of long-term campaigns. Campaigns are novel-series. One-shots are short stories. Mini-campaigns are from novella to novel in length. You can have reasons and history in all of them. The issue isn't length, it's the amount and quality of qwriting done by the GM.

Mind you, just as not all novelists are good at writing short stories, not all GM who are good at campaign work are good at one-shots, and vice versa. The two different styles require different pacing and elements. And, of course, just as not all readers enjoy short stories, not all players like one-shots.

I never said one-shots weren't enjoyable - I have done pleny in my time - I just prefer the longer-term development of a campaign. And I think campaigns work much better and are more fun when characters are developed by each player, not vat-grown and handed over to a player.

Hamlet is fully scripted. D&D is not. I don't think the analogy there holds. Players want to be WRITERS of their own stories, with the DM as a guide - they don't want to be mere actors, saying words and doing actions pre-determined and unchanging from a script.

In 3e especially, there are a lot of big choices made at 1st level that can't be changed or made up for at later levels, unlike the earlier editions of the game. So even if a player does get some inspiration from the pre-gen, they might find themselves hampered in fully realizing it, because the character sheet doesn't match what they've come up with for the character.

I'm sure there is plenty of room for personal taste here - I'm someone who couldn't find a house I liked; I had to build a new one from scratch - this was my first house. Even though it was much more involved, I think it was well worth it - every doorknob and phone jack is my personal choice for style and location. Incidentally, I designed the house around the finished basement, with a 15x30 room designed for gaming. (Enough chairs and table space for eight players to comfortably play, though usually we do 4-6).

As I said above, the players in my group get most of their enjoyment from creating a character concept from scratch - they'd never find a pre-gen to be fun because it wouldn't be their own.