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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 2166957" data-attributes="member: 99">Well I'm definately moving away from the "morality/alignment" issue and into "metagame planning" but I find your approach very interesting in how different it is from the one our group employs.  During the campaign planning phase we sit around the table and toss character ideas back and forth very freely.  What typically happens is that there are one or two players who have fairly firm idea of the PC's they want to play and one or two more have a general idea (Fighter Type, Wizard Type, Rogue Type, etc.).  The other one or two guys usually wait to see what others settle on and then start to form character ideas for themselves.We're still very clear on the point that nobody is being pressured to fill a certain role in the party.  Nobody "Has to play the Cleric" or anything like that.  We can always find workarounds.  But I do find that they tend to adopt roles that cover most of the necessary "essentials" for the sort of adventuring that the campaign is likely to contain.  I think that's just natural because they want their character to be unique and interesting.  I've seen situations before where two or more PC's share an area of expertise and when those situations come up they're sometimes tripping all over each other to try and be the one to handle it.  So while there is plenty of overlap in some areas (particularly things like efficacy in melee combat for example) they tend to specialize in some areas and avoid overlap there.  Does that ever become a problem in your group where the PC's are being made without sharing info?As to the point about discussin the themes, flavor and tenor of the campaign, I find this to be completely indespensible.  My current campaign is an Eberron game set in the city of Sharn.  I told them at the outset that the game might stray outside the city on occasion but that I wanted Sharn to be the primary focus of the game.  So when they made characters they avoided the Druid and Ranger types who thrive in the wilderness and focused on PC's that are a bit more streetwise and politically savvy.Unfortunately I did not initially get into the issue of the flavor and pace of the campaign that I was shooting for and I've had to go back and address this during our last session (the 8th of the campaign).  Our group has gotten larger of late (we're up to 6 players now) and because of that and the fact that Eberron is well suited to the genre, I was really shooting for more of a "pulp action" feel than I've done in the past.  Previously most of my games have been the sort where things are grim and gritty and players who blunder about and don't plan things well get in over their heads.  This time around I wanted to make them a bit less paranoid and a bit more willing to jump in with both feet.  But because I failed to adequately explain this they were still tiptoeing trying to make sure not to upset the applecart when I wanted them to be dashing through the streets in high adventure chases, knocking over three applecarts at a time.  Thanks to some frank discussions last session I think they've got a better sense that they can act a bit less cautiously and not get burned every time.Anyway, I'll quit rambling but these kinds of discussions are why I come to ENWorld (aside from all the nice people I've met).  I thing I was a decent GM before I became a member here but my skills and level of communication with the players have really increased thanks to the tips I've picked up from others here.</blockquote>

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