The Grab-Bag Party!

[Dannyalcatraz]

...maybe one bag of 3-10 minis per player (that the player themself chose or mostly chose if they let the others chose a mix for them) and the player picks from thier bag.

That's an interesting variant.

Hmmmm....

What about having your players pick minis for each other to choose from? IOW, if you have 6 players, players 1-5 each pick a mini for player 6 to choose from, players 2-6 each pick a mini for player 1 to choose from, etc.

That way, each player gets 5 minis to choose from. Odds are good that there will be one or more each player likes, since, doubtlessly, someone would pick a mini that resonates with the player's strengths and preferences.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I think this would be a cool way to set up a group... but would echo that everyone would need to be okay with the concept.

You could tie it to a campaign start saying that there are 45 adventure quality folks in your home town, which is going to be used as a base of operations for the group. When you have a need to replace a character, they come out of the town pool of minis. If someone wants to 'retire', thier mini could go back to town.

Of course, this wouldn't work too well unless you have a pretty good stock of minis. Most of mine are monstrous critters

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You could tie it to a campaign start saying that there are 45 adventure quality folks in your home town, which is going to be used as a base of operations for the group. When you have a need to replace a character, they come out of the town pool of minis. If someone wants to 'retire', thier mini could go back to town.

That's another nifty twist! Its kind of like the old 2Ed DarkSun Character Trees...but for the whole party!

Of course, this wouldn't work too well unless you have a pretty good stock of minis. Most of mine are monstrous critters

Well, I've been buying minis since 1977, and have a collection of lead & pewter that probably outweighs most humans...and I'm about 10' away from 2 towers of 16" Sterlite stacking drawers full of various forms of plasticrack: DDM, Confrontation, Halo, Aliens vs Predators, Mechwarrior, Star Wars and an assortment of DC, Marvel and Indie supers minis.

So yeah...I think I could pull that off!

 

[weem]

I was just sitting around unboxing some minis (various forms of plasti-crack) and a thought occurred to me...a different method of assembling a party of PCs for a campaign.

No, I'm not suggesting any variant PC character generation rules. This is about the kinds of PCs in the campaign, and should work for any RPG.

The basic thought is this: Pick a whole bunch of minis that you like that have some kind of link to your campaign and put them in a bag (or box or coffee can or whatever opaque container you want to use). Then have each player reach into the bag and pull out a single mini at random: this represents their PC. They are to design a PC based on the mini in their hand, using whatever sourcebooks and PC gen system you care to use.

I know, its somewhat similar to handing out pre-gens. The difference, however, is that the players themselves generate the stats & equipment given the guidelines you set, but all inspired by the mini they chose at random.

Obviously, this is going to skew the makeup of the party. By this method, its conceivable that the party could all be half-orc barbarians, if you loaded lots of those into the bag. And, of course, its probable that players will be playing classes, archetypes or even genders they don't usually play.

What do you think? Sound like fun or impending disaster?

Sounds like a blast to me, I would love it as a player - even for something long term/campaign-ish. Of course I can count on one hand (if I lost 3 fingers in a lawn mower accident) how many others from our groups would also enjoy this :/

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You know, it would be really cool if ANYONE who tries this comes back to this thread and tells us how it goes...

Hmmm...anyone running something at a Con?

 

[Sunking]

Realy love the idea and have some relating experience

not quit the same but: we started by each making 3 full-charekters then put them all in a box and drew 2 chose one put other back, one couldent optimize and rule because propertly It would go to another and yet agein ther was alwas the chance of draving ones own, so it endet up evrybody just making charekters intresting for play (and ohh yea it got you out of the comfort zone somtimes)

If sombody was perma killed s/he would make 3 new to join the ranks of the waiting, draw 2 and chose the one s/he best like.

It worked at least until I had to quit the group and move far far away (I think its still working now into the 5ft year)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Actually, what you just described is similar to the old 2Ed DarkSun Character Trees.

With those, you generated a set of PCs that were (as I recall) supposed to be within 1 alignment step of another in the family, so you could have a Lawful Good, Neutral Good and Lawful Neutral PC all within the same tree.

When PC #1 in the tree died, you got out another PC from the tree, and generated a new PC for the tree.

I liked them, and actually encouraged their use even in 3.X...some used them, some didn't.

 

[Herobizkit]

It would even be more interesting to crack open a brand new box of DDM and say "pick something from this box other than the Rare... and make it work."

 

[Wormwood]

This reminds me of an idea I had for the post-Scales of War adventure I was planning: a mini campaign where each player picked "Quick Character" from the Character Builder. One click and you have a completely random PC ready to play.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I got the fallen villager mini.... wtf?
anyone got a concept for a human in a tunic, with no weapons, lying on the ground?