Would you pay for a character?

[BrooklynKnight]

I recently had a discussion about character creation with someone, and it kind of occured to me.

One of the most tedious parts of the game, is creating characters. Granted, for some people the process is fun and in fact, the most fun they may have, but i've found for most people, making a character is filled with many tough choices they dont want to think about. They just want to have fun.

We've seen books full of NPCs with Backrounds, like Enemies and Allies (Wotc), or The Cabal from Malhavoc. Some of the best web features at WOTC are the articles that introduce new characters with lush backruonds and histories, and you wonder to yourself "Man id love to play that".

Granted, EnA was one of WOTC's worst books. But....what If you could go to a website and buy a single character. What If you're a GM, thats starting with a bunch of newbies, and you want to hand them completed characters, but dont want to spend the time to detail out that many?

Say 50 cents a level.

Would you go to a website to buy characters that have been created from a certain set of standards. Do you think such a site makes sense?

You could have characters of all types and backrounds ready across all classes. Optimized, Spread Thin, Carefully Balanced, no crazy minmaxing or over powering. Everything set out for you. Stats, Equipment, spells. Optional Backrounds...

Think it might work?

 

[Crothian]

Would it work? I have no idea.

Would I use a such a place? No.

You mention as one of your examples newbies playing the game. I have found that taking a person new to gaming or just the d20 system through thhe process of making a character helps them understand the game and the process behind their character helps them understand the game. It lays a good solid groundwork and the players feel that the character is theirs. I've found that peoplke have a harder time getting attached to and feeling comfortible with a pre generated character.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Thats true, but its only one example. And sometimes, character creation is better introduced "second" after the roleplay experience has. As easy as 3.x character creation is, it can be intimidating to new gamers. Especially those that are in it for the pure fantasy aspect, and are a bit apprehensive about being nerdy or geeky. (i've met many such types.)

Obviously most experienced Gamers and GM's wouldnt need such a site. Though, I can see situations where people would use it.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

No. I enjoy creating PCs. I guess , maybe for a one shot, although I think it's more fun then to play a PC the DM created.

I can't see paying for one.

 

[Vrecknidj]

The idea isn't a bad one, but I'd imagine it's a hard one to sell. I don't know about a $0.50 per level notion, or anything similar. I'd think that you might want to sell groups of characters.

Who knows?

Maybe you could sell books with titles like "101 fighters," or "101 wizards." You could do a variety of levels, races, and combinations of skills and feats. DMs could plop them into existing campaigns.

But, I don't know that I'd buy such a book for much. The problem, of course, as with many crafts, is that it takes a LOT of time to do it right, but it's hard to get the market to pay for it. (My wife knows a quilter who offers magnificent quilts for twenty thousand dollars. When people freak out, she says "It takes me at least 20 hours a week for a year to make one, what do you make for 1000 hours of work?")

Anyway, given that, I'd probably pay $2 or $3 for a book (or PDF) of 40 or 50 characters (no artwork). Probably I'd never use more than half of them. But, from the perspective of someone making up all those characters, that's a lot of time for little return.

Dave

 

[DragonLancer]

No, I wouldn't use it. I don't see the point. It only takes a couple minutes to make a character so why pay for it?

 

[Old Fezziwig]

You mention as one of your examples newbies playing the game. I have found that taking a person new to gaming or just the d20 system through the process of making a character helps them understand the game and the process behind their character helps them understand the game. It lays a good solid groundwork and the players feel that the character is theirs. I've found that peoplke have a harder time getting attached to and feeling comfortible with a pre generated character.

I agree. And where it would be more useful (one shots, cons), I think I'd prefer to have characters tailor made for the scenario by the GM.

But, from the perspective of someone making up all those characters, that's a lot of time for little return.

This is a great point and worth considering.

Best,
Nick

 

[DGFan]

I could see paying for content that was a character with custom spells and/or magic items that were linked to the character's past or had an interesting story to them. In that case one could probably say that you are paying for the items/spells (which people already do). Otherwise I really don't see the point.

 

[D+1]

Say 50 cents a level.

Would you go to a website to buy characters that have been created from a certain set of standards. Do you think such a site makes sense?

You could have characters of all types and backrounds ready across all classes. Optimized, Spread Thin, Carefully Balanced, no crazy minmaxing or over powering. Everything set out for you. Stats, Equipment, spells. Optional Backrounds...

Think it might work?

Not for me at least. Character creation is an important part of... character creation if you will. I find it very difficult to simply pick up a set of stats and background and then make that character mine in the same way that doing all the tedious choosing of feats, skills, equipment does. I also find it difficult to jump into a character above low levels. I much prefer to start out at 1st and play it the whole way through.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Good comments, good comments.