D&D General Wildly Diverse "Circus Troupe" Adventuring Parties

[Swarmkeeper]

I’m conscious that I don’t want to bore people with long winded descriptions. And anyway, asking questions is a sign of engagement.

Of course! Succinctly touch upon 3-5 details of a scene that the adventurers can interact with - do not be long winded. And while my particular goal as DM is to have players grok the scene I’ve laid out and just tell me what their PCs would like to do next, I’d certainly rather have engagement in the form of questions than the alternative.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

So, as a player, putting me on the spot and saying, "You must come as a blank slate, and do all your character creation right now," is a great way for me to end up with a character I'm not really interested in playing, and that probably won't be all that interesting for others to play alongside, either. If you aren't going to give me much time to think about it, how about you just hand me a pre-generated character, and be done with it?

I've never done that before, or even heard of anyone attempting it, but it does seems like this could work REALLY well if everyone was on board with the concept that the entire first session (or maybe more!) is dedicated to taking however much time is required to create characters and party backstory together. It sounds like it would be a disaster with everyone being rushed so we can just start playing - but creating characters during the session doesn't automatically mean you won't have enough time to think about things, if everyone's on the same page that there is no rush to get started.

If you have been playing with the other players for a while and know campaign is going to last a long time without falling apart, this seems like a great way to kick things off. Doesn't work so well though in a group that could fall apart at any moment to scheduling issues, where there is more motivation to get things up and running quickly

 

[Umbran]

This, in my opinion, is definitely a case of a DM not doing their job to create a cooperative experience witht their players

So, that's not necessarily a GM's job - it is a style choice. Many GMs like to take that on, but it is not a requirement to run a game.

The FR GM in question did not claim they'd work backstories into play. They were not violating an agreement by not doing so.

 

[Bravesteel25]

So, that's not necessarily a GM's job - it is a style choice. Many GMs like to take that on, but it is not a requirement to run a game.

The FR GM in question did not claim they'd work backstories into play. They were not violating an agreement by not doing so.

I'm not saying a GM has to deeply weave a character's backstory into the game, but to not pay any attention to it at all seems a little negligent, but to each their won. I just prefer a game where the the group engages with the story, from the GM and character perspective, as opposed to it being an excuse to kick butt and roll dice. I don't think that requires an enormous amount of engagement on the part of the players towards the setting nor the GM towards the character's themselves.

 

[Incenjucar]

Setting player expectations is important. I play mostly in sanctioned games, which means the GMs can't really modify anything anyways. I'm still able to lay out some character lore, but I'm playing those characters in the current situation. My rogue/bard burlesque saloon performer who worships a redeemed succubus deity doesn't need to run into members of their old saloon to get their story across. Her story is what's happening now, be it in a dungeon or a royal court.

 

[Hussar]

So, as a player, putting me on the spot and saying, "You must come as a blank slate, and do all your character creation right now," is a great way for me to end up with a character I'm not really interested in playing, and that probably won't be all that interesting for others to play alongside, either. If you aren't going to give me much time to think about it, how about you just hand me a pre-generated character, and be done with it?



Corollary: if you are playing in the Forgotten Realms, you have to go through literally thousands of pages before you can really grasp what's available.

Well, that's not quite what I was talking about. One way that I've tried to get things going is a really cool (well, to me at least) chargen mini-game using Magic the Gathering Cards. You spread out about ten cards per player (or more, the exact number isn't really important other than LOTS) into a large square. So, presuming 4 players, let's say 49 cards in a 7x7 grid. Taking turns, you each pick one card. You can use anything on that card as part of your character. The picture, the text, anything.

Round 1 - you pick a card that represents you. This is your core identity.
Round 2 - you pick a card for the person to the left of you. That represents your connection to that person.
Round 3 - You pick a card for the person to the right of you. That represents your connection that person.
Round 4 - You pick a card that represents an event in your past. That event can, with discussion, also be connected to either or both the people you are connected to.
Round 5 - You pick a card and give it to anyone at the table, including yourself. This represents something about that character. What it represents is totally up to the person receiving the card.

It's not like it's a totally blank slate anyway. Before Session 0, we've already chosen some sort of campaign. So, everyone's already on board with playing Campaign X, whatever that campaign happens to be. But, I am rather tired of four or five players coming to the table with fully formed PC's, none of which have any connection to each other. I mean, heck, it's not like this is a bizarre concept. FATE games work this way. You can't come to the table in FATE with a fully formed character. It just doesn't work. Loads of games require you to work as a group to create characters and campaign.

Are you saying you could never play a FATE game?

 

[Hussar]

Out of curiosity, has anyone here ever offered extra background benefits to characters grounded in a particular setting? Maybe something like, "Humans from Amadeusburg get Musician as an additional bonus feat," or, "Every genasi raised by a genie starts with a magic item from Column A." If so, do players turn down these bonuses and still show up with fish-out-of water characters?

One thing that I liked about Primeval Thule was their backgrounds actually had serious tangible benefits that increased as you leveled up. It was a very solid system.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh, for the Soldier background, gave you a house (as an option) in Saltmarsh.

But, to be fair, no, I haven't really done that and I probably should. Maybe a more carrot approach might be a better way.