What if We Got Rid of Character Creation?

[dbm]

In general, an RPG should definitely include character generation to hold my interest. I do see some niche / hyper-focussed games where there are only pre-gens but such a game would only hold my interest for a short time. Things like Lady Blackbird for example.

I’m comfortable with pre-gens for a specific module or campaign within the bigger context of a game that allows custom character creation. For example, the recent Savage Worlds Kickstarter for Legend of Ghost Mountain has a set of five pre-gens which then have their backgrounds woven into the campaign as a whole.

It is possible to create custom characters for the campaign, and there is GM guidance for maximising the existing character hooks with those new PCs. There are full materials (extra Edges and so on) to create custom PCs in the setting so you can play further in the world as you want.

So - game system supports custom characters fully, while the campaign assumes pre-gens but they are not mandatory.

That is an interesting compromise in my mind; give the freedom to make what you want but also present a world dialled in to the characters.

 

[GMMichael]

What do you think the Starter Sets are?

Gateway drugs?

I appreciate pre-gens in starter sets. I appreciate them even more when the game's character creation is convoluted. Otherwise, starter sets aren't really fitting the bill here; if you present players with the possibility of character creation, a good percentage of them will demand it. The OP here is trying to avoid that.

. . . So - game system supports custom characters fully, while the campaign assumes pre-gens but they are not mandatory.

That is an interesting compromise in my mind; give the freedom to make what you want but also present a world dialled in to the characters.

As above, I don't know that pre-gens work if custom-creation is an option. But it could be an interesting compromise. With a big disclaimer like,

"These five characters are the stars of the story. Any custom-made characters will be treated as supporting characters."

That's a veiled threat...almost. It sort of hints at the main characters having plot armor, while others don't.

But to add a little more context here, I could not have been more thrilled to play the different characters in Final Fantasy IV, as they were presented as pre-gens in Nintendo Power (don't judge). Countless games would go on to present more and more character customization, until I saw the wildly popular Witcher 3, in which you may play only Geralt, and I thought, "yech. I don't want to play as him."

 

[Bawylie]

I ran a campaign that started out with the characters rolling stats (HP = constitution) and during the first adventure, they had to save whomever they could during an attack on the town. Those they saved included named NPCs would be mentors going forward. Based on those decisions, and who survived, that determined what classes they could train into. Consequently they had no cleric, wizard, sorcerer, barbarian, or paladin mentors and therefore no access to those classes. There were other decision points affecting the campaign as well but char-gen was embedded into play. Worked neat.

Now I’m thinking of increasing levels revealing backstory as you play and progress. Maybe a gradual piecing-together of a shared history or event (a La Alice in borderland) but I haven’t thought too much about this yet.

 

[dbm]

As above, I don't know that pre-gens work if custom-creation is an option. But it could be an interesting compromise. With a big disclaimer like,

"These five characters are the stars of the story. Any custom-made characters will be treated as supporting characters."

That's a veiled threat...almost. It sort of hints at the main characters having plot armor, while others don't.

In terms of the specific product Legend of Ghost Mountain, the game treats the PCs the same mechanically whether they are the pre-gens or not. The difference is in how NPCs react to them since each of the PCs have built-in hooks for people or groups that appear in the adventure.

The book also has GM advice on how to make alternative use of the hooks if the pre-gen characters are not used. So the material presented can still be used, but the GM will need to decide where and how it is used for the specific set of PCs.

 

[Li Shenron]

Ah, character creation: it takes the whole first session, there are too many options, how to multiclass, how to optimize, what should my backstory be, I just died so now I can't play again until I make a new character . . .

Free character creation isn't always easy on GMs either: how do you write a (good) campaign and plot hooks without knowing who are the stars of the show? Or: I was very happy with myself for killing off Fred's annoying-frickin'-bard, but I still have a session to run and he won't stop asking me questions about his starting spell book!

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 would eliminate:

• the character creation session
• characters without relationships or motivations
• chapters on skills, spells, or dare I say...universal combat rules? (You can do what's on your sheet.)
• players without backup characters
• min-maxing, dump stats, dead levels
• "useless" characters
• death cones (because there's a new character at the bottom of the cone, making it a...um...death turnip?)

...but critically:

- some player freedom. The horror!

There are so many options available between full character creation and premade characters, and each option can be your best choice for your own game, so I wouldn't get rid of the traditional hardcore full-freedom character creation but I certainly don't use it all the time.

As a player, I prefer full character creation, within the boundary of the chosen setting/theme, meaning that not everything needs to be allowed. But this is because I know 5e well enough so that I can create a new low/mid-level character very quickly. Otherwise I would reserve full character creation to when you are determined to play a long campaign.

Nowadays, besides our family game, I almost always plays one-shots or "weekend games", and for them I prefer to bring pregens for the players to choose from. I do not like truly completely defined pregens however, so I normally only provide the stats, and let players choose non-stats features.

Between these two options, I sometimes provide sort-of "modular" pregens, typically in the sense of having class and base stats all defined, but let players add a race and/or a background (instead of having them fixed), and possibily choose between starting packages (such as two or three different sets of pre-chosen spells for a spellcaster). For races I always had to tinker a lot, particularly to avoid having to update stats already on the character sheet, so sometimes I just had each race provide some (but not necessarily all) their non-bonus features.