[This is just my curiousity more than anything (I'm not starting a game planning on doing this, just curious over what people think).]
For the new campaign your DM has decided to let everyone start at level 2, with one caveat. You can start as high as 3rd level or as low as 1st if you roll a d4. If you roll, you must take the results of the roll (and future rolls). Here are the results:
1: You start at level 1, but may assign yourself 2 more attribute points. Your parents or lineage may be important to the campaign, and it may be appropriate to have your character begin a little bit younger than you planned.
2: You start at level 2, but have fallen on a 'misfortune'. Roll on the 'misfortune' table.
3: You begin play at level 2, but have a litte 'problem'. Roll on the 'problem' table.
4: You begin play at level 3, but theres a skeleton in your closet. Roll on the 'skeleton' table.
d4 'Misfortune'
1: You recently severely injured yourself. While the damage has healed, you will be suffering from a -1 penalty to all physical stats for the next 2 weeks, unless you receive a Restoration (or better) spell.
2: You start with all of your weapons and gold taken from you. You still have armor and gear, but your weapons and gold are gone (as well as spellbook or spell components if relevant). You cannot remember what happened, but are sure you had them with you yesterday...
3: You have always had a nickname that you hated. You don't know why, but after spending any amount of time with someone they come up with something that just annoys the heck out of you. Growing up you had 2 or 3, your parents always had one, and you know its only a matter of time before you get another one.
4: Your misfortune was simply waking up on the wrong side of bed! While you are a little grumpy, you should be over it by tomorrow.
d4 'Problem'
1: You have made a promise to raise your younger sibling/cousin/kid-that-won't-leave-you-alone. Whether you continually regret it or not, you made the promise. Whether you keep it or not is up to you, but they are relying on you for guidance.
2: You have a rival in the area whom you recently enraged (the player can determine whether they did this intentionally or if they were misunderstood). Your rival may be interested in competing with you on adventures, or just murdering you. Beware.
3: You are on the run from the local administration over a minor discrepancy concerning your families' taxes. Your family claims that you were in charge of some element of the process and it is your debt. You must pay 50 gold to the local authorities, or else.
4: Your problem is you forgot to have drinks with a friend a few nights ago. Its probably no big deal!
d4 'Skeleton'
1: Your family had a notorious villain in its recent past. The villain was responsible for many atrocities, and even stooped to killing women and children. Though most people have forgotten, some have not. The same blood runs through your veins, and there are many curses on your family name. Whether you will rise above your ancestor or succumb to the evil in your blood is up to you, but some will look for vengeance regardless.
2: You have a private guilt from your youth. You didn't intend anything bad to happen, but you were indirectly responsible for the death of your twin. You were just a kid and it was an accident, but the memory of the circumstances haunt you to this day. You can't stop blaming yourself and wondering how they would have turned out if they had the same chances you did.
3: The skeleton in your closet is literal. You have killed someone and hidden their body somewhere safe. Even if you are not the kind of person that would do something like that, you absolutely had to at the time. Given the choice, maybe you would change things. You may even suspect there was foul play, perhaps some enchantment clouded your mind. Regardless, you had better figure out how to fix the situation and whether or not it is up to you to tell the deceased's family.
4: It's just a tiny toy skeleton - you used it as a toy when you were a kid (or maybe dressed it up with doll's clothing). You never thought it was weird that you played with a toy skeleton...until now. Who gave that to you and why? Maybe it's just an innocuous bit of your childhood, but maybe not.
So would you roll the d4 before the game started? You have a 25% chance of starting lower than the rest of the group, but a 25% chance of starting higher abd a 100% chance of having an interesting story for the bar you meet your fellow adventurers at
[Regardless of whether you would use this for character creation, feel free to use any of these ideas for your game.]
For the new campaign your DM has decided to let everyone start at level 2, with one caveat. You can start as high as 3rd level or as low as 1st if you roll a d4. If you roll, you must take the results of the roll (and future rolls). Here are the results:
1: You start at level 1, but may assign yourself 2 more attribute points. Your parents or lineage may be important to the campaign, and it may be appropriate to have your character begin a little bit younger than you planned.
2: You start at level 2, but have fallen on a 'misfortune'. Roll on the 'misfortune' table.
3: You begin play at level 2, but have a litte 'problem'. Roll on the 'problem' table.
4: You begin play at level 3, but theres a skeleton in your closet. Roll on the 'skeleton' table.
d4 'Misfortune'
1: You recently severely injured yourself. While the damage has healed, you will be suffering from a -1 penalty to all physical stats for the next 2 weeks, unless you receive a Restoration (or better) spell.
2: You start with all of your weapons and gold taken from you. You still have armor and gear, but your weapons and gold are gone (as well as spellbook or spell components if relevant). You cannot remember what happened, but are sure you had them with you yesterday...
3: You have always had a nickname that you hated. You don't know why, but after spending any amount of time with someone they come up with something that just annoys the heck out of you. Growing up you had 2 or 3, your parents always had one, and you know its only a matter of time before you get another one.
4: Your misfortune was simply waking up on the wrong side of bed! While you are a little grumpy, you should be over it by tomorrow.
d4 'Problem'
1: You have made a promise to raise your younger sibling/cousin/kid-that-won't-leave-you-alone. Whether you continually regret it or not, you made the promise. Whether you keep it or not is up to you, but they are relying on you for guidance.
2: You have a rival in the area whom you recently enraged (the player can determine whether they did this intentionally or if they were misunderstood). Your rival may be interested in competing with you on adventures, or just murdering you. Beware.
3: You are on the run from the local administration over a minor discrepancy concerning your families' taxes. Your family claims that you were in charge of some element of the process and it is your debt. You must pay 50 gold to the local authorities, or else.
4: Your problem is you forgot to have drinks with a friend a few nights ago. Its probably no big deal!
d4 'Skeleton'
1: Your family had a notorious villain in its recent past. The villain was responsible for many atrocities, and even stooped to killing women and children. Though most people have forgotten, some have not. The same blood runs through your veins, and there are many curses on your family name. Whether you will rise above your ancestor or succumb to the evil in your blood is up to you, but some will look for vengeance regardless.
2: You have a private guilt from your youth. You didn't intend anything bad to happen, but you were indirectly responsible for the death of your twin. You were just a kid and it was an accident, but the memory of the circumstances haunt you to this day. You can't stop blaming yourself and wondering how they would have turned out if they had the same chances you did.
3: The skeleton in your closet is literal. You have killed someone and hidden their body somewhere safe. Even if you are not the kind of person that would do something like that, you absolutely had to at the time. Given the choice, maybe you would change things. You may even suspect there was foul play, perhaps some enchantment clouded your mind. Regardless, you had better figure out how to fix the situation and whether or not it is up to you to tell the deceased's family.
4: It's just a tiny toy skeleton - you used it as a toy when you were a kid (or maybe dressed it up with doll's clothing). You never thought it was weird that you played with a toy skeleton...until now. Who gave that to you and why? Maybe it's just an innocuous bit of your childhood, but maybe not.
So would you roll the d4 before the game started? You have a 25% chance of starting lower than the rest of the group, but a 25% chance of starting higher abd a 100% chance of having an interesting story for the bar you meet your fellow adventurers at
[Regardless of whether you would use this for character creation, feel free to use any of these ideas for your game.]
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