Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Character Creation Questionaire

This is something I've been batting around in my head for a few days. It isn't a game of 20 questions for the character, but rather a questionaire to find out what kind of character creation, and how much choice, a given group wants to have in their game. It isn't finished yet, and this is a very rough draft, so feel free to give suggestions for wording or question changes. Also, feel free to use this for your own group, or own endeavors. The idea behind it is to either choose a game with characters made the way the group wants, or to establish a base line for forming a character creation system for your group.

Character Creation Questionaire

1) How Long should Character Creation Take? (i.e. 5 minutes, 2 hours, etc)

2) Should Character Creation include World Building? Why/Why Not?

3) Do you prefer randomized stats or the ability to choose your own stats?
3a) If Randomized, should you have an equal chance of being below average as above average?
3b) if Assigned, do you prefer point buy or to assign set stat values via priority?

4) Do you prefer more or less variation in stat ranks for different levels of ability (i.e. 1-100 vs. 1-10 for stat ranks)

5) Should base level PCs be worse, equal to, or better than the average person in the game world?

6) Do you prefer a game with a Skill system, or one without one?

7) If there are skills, should they add to rolls, should their absence hinder rolls, or both?

8) Do you prefer high or low levels of variation in skills (again, 1-100 vs. 1-10) if they are present?

9) Do you like Advantage/Aspect/Feat systems to further specify where your character is capable and what they can do?

10) Do you like Disadvantage/Complication systems to set challenges for your character?
10a) If yes, do you prefer to get points at character creation for your vulnerabilities, or points that can be spent for bonuses in game as they come up?

11) Do you prefer to buy gear with character points or character money?

12) Do you prefer to have assigned starting gear, or a set amount to buy your own starting gear?

5 comments:

  1. Although I know this sheet was designed for RPG groups, some of the questions are also great pointers for getting started on (video) game design documents as well, depending on the genre you're working in. I've only done a few very amateur projects in game design, but I wish I knew about some of these questions back then; they would have greatly enhanced the document's attention to technical detail.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A good question to ask is: Do you want collaborative or individual character creation?

    ReplyDelete
  3. A.J., when it boils down to it, the similarities in game design across various features are remarkably similar. I could see this working for MMO or other RPG design for regular videogames. Some of the questions could also work for just about any game.

    Eric, a good addition. I've never actually seen collaborative creation work the way it is supposed to, but that doesn't make the idea defunct or bad.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is great and I am going to totally use it. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very interesting take on the Character Creation Questionaire. I like it.

    ReplyDelete