Wednesday, February 29, 2012

What Do You Like About Char Gen?

Simple and small post for today. I don't have much to talk about, but I am intrigued about a comment that Rob Donahue made on twitter today.

The topic being discussed was character creation in the new Marvel Heroic RPG. A good topic to be sure, but what Rob said is that int he MHRPG Char Gen is there, but it is not a mini game in and of itself. Generation is fast and quick. Judging by the Leverage system, I am hoping it is like that. In Leverage char gen is half done during the opening adventure with facets about your character coming up naturally.

So, for you, what do you like about char gen? Do you like spending the points? Do you like a mini game? Or would you rather just get into it?

4 comments:

  1. Sometimes. Sometimes I want to craft a character, to be surprised by the dice. Other times I want to game and chargen is an obstacle.

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  2. I am not a math person. But for some reason, I enjoy point-build characters. I'm not a big min-maxer or anything, but there is something fun about trying to craft the character you want from a limited pool of resources. It makes you really consider what you want to do at an early stage, and (in that way) help define the character somewhat.

    That having been said, I did enjoy the character generation process for the old FASA Star Trek game. That really felt like a 'mini game', in which you saw the previous career of your character play out via rolls of the dice. It really helped give a backstory to your character. Like the one guy I had who graduated top honors from the academy, was assigned duty on a constitution class ship (the best) then completely TANKED on this first assignment. From this, I extrapolated that he was an over-achiever who just burned himself out fast. A former 'straight arrow', he then embraced becoming something of a 'slacker'.

    But on the whole, point build is still my favorite.

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  3. I enjoy sifting through a large number and variety of options, the more the better. I like to take the time to craft a character. I want to get excited about the character.

    But then I also prefer long running (several years of real time) over one shots or 3 game session stories. I figure I'll be with that character for an extended period of time so I want something I am comfortable with.

    I would be curious if people view char gen differently if the character is being made for a one shot or a multi-year campaign.

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  4. My assumption would be yes, Callin. I mean, if it is going to be a one shot, who wants to waste 6-8 hours making a char? (obvious exaggeration is obvious.) But for a long term campaign, even if it is going to only go for a couple months, losing a session's worth of time is a lot more tolerable.

    I'm curious if the people who like the "indepth" options would be ok with a faster option that still allowed a lot of depth for the character. Obviously, this is harder than it sounds, but systems like Leverage to give a lot of room for unique characters with quick generation.

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