What if We Got Rid of Character Creation?

[bloodtide]

I'd be fine with getting rid of the character creation mini game. So many players are so obsessed with just creating a character that they don't even want to play the game.

It's bad enough players can take hours of game time going over all the character creation math and looking for combos and exploits. Then more time looking through books and web sites. And then coming around to wanting to home brew their own "perfect" character things.

While there is a huge myth around a player making a characters personality, and many players say the want to do it, few do. Nearly nine time out of ten: every player will just play themselves. The best many players do is an exaggerated version of themselves. They all follow the same path: "oh your character is super cool, afraid of nothing, loves killing monsters and loves getting loot? " Even when the player adds a bit "oh my character is afraid of spiders" they will simply ignore that during any adventure game play.

There might be even more myth around a player making a backstory, goal and story. A lot of players like to do a wide out line, but not too much more then that: it's just too much work. Most players like to "play" as a player as it's easy.

My biggest one would be the mismatch in the players minds. A player takes all the time to make a mechanical character and writes up pages of personality backstory. They are ready to play the game that they think they want to play. Though they will basically "play themselves". So after they just murderhobo everything that moves in the game, and then get very depressed that they don't "feel" like they are playing their character of "a secret prince, half god, chosen one of the prophecy".

Having players that want to play the game more then just making a character would be an improvement.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

PreGens as an option? Cool!

PreGens as the only option? No thanks.

 

[Mallus]

What @Dannyalcatraz said.

Alternately, I already have Final Fantasy and Mass Effect. It’s nice to play a different sort of RPG for a change. Also, I like making characters. It’s, like, a creative outlet when I‘m not running the game.

 

[Committed Hero]

This would also let a GM proficient with the game system ensure that novice players start with characters that are competent in their chosen field and/or useful in the specific campaign at hand. OTOH it adds more to the GM's workload.

Unless the players are at a loss for ideas, or unwilling to delve into the specifics of the setting, I don't see the supposed benefits outweighing the negatives. I would want unanimous buy-in before I tried this as a GM.

 

[MNblockhead]

WotC already offers pregens on its website for free. If you have D&D beyond you can generate a character entirely randomly in seconds.

As a DM, I ran both types of campaigns. Where I want to run a campaign with a specific style and which is heavily story based, I'll have pre-gens that players can select from, with backstories that tie them to the plot and to each other. But those tend to be shorter campaigns. One main, large adventure. Not years-long campaigns. But this is actually MORE work for the DM unless you are buying an adventure that comes with pre-gens.

For one shots, I prefer pre-gens, so you can get into the adventure immediately. I find this especially important when introducing a new system. As a player, I avoid any convention game that makes time for creating characters or asks people to bring their own characters. I just find that it reduces the time we have to play the adventure and you don't have time for party relationships to each other and the world to develop naturally.

As a player I can enjoy taking a pre-gen and role-playing a character I didn't create to be as fun as rolling my own. Often it'll lead me to playing a character with features I wouldn't have built on my own and that creates interesting challenges and introduces me to features I might not have otherwise had interacted with. As a player I can enjoy either. I like both pre-gens and rolling my own.

As a DM, I talk to my players. Since I started running games again, in all of my D&D campaigns the players made their own characters. Most players find this more satisfying for long campaigns. The only games I've run since 2014 that used pregens were one-shots in other systems.

 

[the Jester]

What if we just threw it out? What if your RPG had 10 (20?) characters to choose from, and when a PC dies and there's no replacement, the game's over? Each character has built-in backstory, level progression, a starting kit. Or, the Final Fantasy method: you can be Cecil, Kain, Rosa, Rydia, Edge, Cid, Tellah, Yang, Palom, or Porom.

That's not the kind of RPG I am interested in playing.

 

[mythago]

I guess the flip answer is, what if we didn’t assume every TTRPG is like D&D?

The less flip answer is, if character creation is sucking up your whole first session, don’t do it at the table.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Sure, let's remove character creation!

We can then use all that new free space to add a system where players can create their own new pre-gens or customise existing ones using lists of options of various species, classes, backgrounds, feats and more!

 

[MNblockhead]

The less flip answer is, if character creation is sucking up your whole first session, don’t do it at the table.

Unless, of course, like me, getting together and making characters together is fun.

 

[mythago]

Unless, of course, like me, getting together and making characters together is fun.

Sure, and in some games it IS part of the game. I’m just going with the hot take in the original proposal that character creation is tedious and wastes precious gaming time.