Post by Galadon on Jul 10, 2007 11:33:34 GMT -5
So You Want to Create a Hero?
Character Creation 101
Having seen many potential players either leaves or abandons character concepts altogether, I feel that this bit of data may prove useful to anybody having trouble getting started. This method of character creation.
Step one: “What If?”
Before diving into character stats and history, begin with this question. What if my character is a wizard who designs zany inventions for a living?
What if my character is a musician who is so self-absorbed in himself that he can hardly give anybody else the time of day?
What if my character is a solder who hates goblinoids with such a passion that he’ll throw caution into the wind and rush them blindly at first sight?
Create an interesting “what if” question—the more interesting your question is, the better off you will be.
Of course, it is perfectly acceptable to embellish upon the details (or even build upon the “what if” later on), but you should definitely start with a strong question.
“What if my character is a ranger who loves the woods,” is a bit of a boring question.
“What if my character is a ranger who loves the wilderness to such a degree that passionately hates cities, city life and the people within,” is much better.
Step two: Extremes are your friend
Average characters are boring. Why torture yourself with that concept when you can have fun and play with his/her design. The average commoner person, framer, shop keeper, is 10 and below. Some might more of one stat. Adventures are above the common people that why they have
higher stats to handle what they come across.
In almost all cases, interesting characters in stories have extremes. This extreme doesn’t have to be a stat! It is nice to have an extreme stat or two to add flavor, but you may choose a single skill or so to max out instead. For example, a diplomat character would have high Charisma, but you may also decide to get Skill Focus in diplomacy and other feats to enhance this skill. Assuming that you can RP this character correctly, she would probably be a valuable asset to an
adventure.
Step three: Statistics
When dealing with the six basic attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma), keep in mind that the more extreme you get with those stats, the more explanation is required in your character’s history.
As a general rule of thumb, if one of your character’s stats vary greatly, then you should explain why this is the case. A character with 18 Dexterity will require more background story about why this is so than a character with only 14. A note again although legal by the books having an 18 STR and 18 DEX is legal but quite difficult to explain.
When you make an extreme like this put a note next to the stat. Here is an example of how a note would look on your character sheet:
18 Strength (+4) Spends a few hours a day lifting weights and doing strenuous, manual labor 10 Dexterity (0)
15 Constitution (+2) *A combination of the manual labor and a love of running a couple miles a day
These notes will be used in your history, so write them accordingly!
In fact, it can help greatly if you put notes on all of your character’s history. Notes should also be applied to feats. If your character has exotic feats (anything out of the norm for the character’s class/race), then a longer note should be written—more history will be required to explain these points.
Step four: Character description and history
This speaks for itself. Character description should include what your character looks like externally, first. If you want, you can certainly put in an “inner” description too (she is a romantic, he is extremely
self-assured). By doing both, you can help give yourself a better foundation to start playing with, and it will also help you to create the history too.
You should have a great deal of material to work with in your Character’s history. Instead of going into the whole theory of grammar, metaphor and symbol, I’ll just throw in yet more rules of thumb for you to follow:
1) Shy away from stereotypes. It is fine to have a blonde-haired swordsman, but try to keep him away from being the sole-survivor of an ancient race, or out on a revenge quest against the dark warlord who killed his parents. As been repeated many times before, no ‘throw-away’ towns in your history please (my character’s hometown was burnt to the ground by orcs, for example).
2) Superhuman abilities are the kiss of death. Of course, if your character HAS such powers (like Dark vision), then by all means put it into your history. Saying that your character has slain four dragons at a young age is bad... VERY bad.
Basically, if you’re having your character slay things in her history, make it so that she goes on a killing binge against creatures that her character is physically able to slay according to her stats. You may actually need to do some rolling (if you have a Monster Manual), or ask someone who does if you have an encounter that is iffy in your character’s history.
3) If you don’t need it, don’t include it. Save yourself the headaches for trying to explain things that weren’t explained properly in your notes or are just ‘bonuses’ that you think are cool or spiffy. This includes the most powerful equipment your character can effectively
use, for example. If there is a valid reason why your character would wield a great axe, and then by all means state so. Don’t just put in a great axe because it deals a butt-load of damage.
There is another point to this. It is possible that the reason why your character would use such equipment can be a no-brainer and not require any explanation. A half-orc barbarian wouldn’t really need any explanation why he is wielding a great axe — likewise for a wizard who knows magic missile.
It would save time and arguments if you made characters without magic items at first. Then consult your GM what you can have. Different GM has different guild lines on magic items.
Step six: Don’t try to devour the souls of the GMs.
Be prepared to have spell checking or capitalization issues with your character sheet. Check over your character sheet is a sure way to miss out.
Do not argue with GM’s there may be things they can’t tell you, because it would give away things later on. It might make sense why this or that didn’t work, but if its knowledge you not suppose to know then it makes for bad gaming.
And yes you will get injured at sometime. Things may happen you don’t like because you’re the immortal warrior. But for game balance things may happen to build up for something in the future. How are you going to hate a bad guy if he or she never does anything bad to you. On the other hand if too many bad things happen to you, well that’s not much fun.
Step seven: Unusual characters need explaining.
Adventures that are just in a dungeon and hacking monsters are one thing. No problem be what you what. If you have to deal with towns people and your half black dragon/orc/lizard. You’re going to have trouble dealing with towns people. Regardless your role playing ability.
Languages
Common:
Here at Forgotten Warriors we refer to the language that is the most widely used as "Common" as well as being a name you can use easily in conversation.
All PCs must know common. Whether by speaking it as a native (Human or any of the other races), or because you have a bonus language slot because of high Intelligence, or because you spent skill points on it, your PC must know common before he can be approved. Otherwise, it can be too hard to communicate with your fellow PCs, let alone NPCs you may encounter. For this reason, it is always the first language listed on the character sheet, with all others following in alphabetical order.
Life, Death, and Taxes
When your character gets approved
Make a Current Status post, list your current/max Hp, limited use/day abilities like Lay on Hands, spells, and consumable items (like arrows, potions, scrolls, wands, limited use/day items).
When playing in an adventure, update this Current Status post only; do not change your character sheet itself.
If you gain new items on your adventure, list them in the Current Status post too (even if not limited-use). If you lose an item (your sword breaks, for example), make a note of that as well in the Current Status post.
Your character is assumed to be able to perform enough work, whether through Craft skills, Profession skills, casting spells on demand, or physical labor, to pay off daily expenses.
Thus, clothes, food, and lodging generally do not need to be kept track of, even in the Current Status post. Any food or clothing listed on your character sheet is in addition to what you normally use (for example, if you want to have additional food to serve as bait for hungry dogs, or if you want to have a spare set of clothes to give to a naked hermit you meet on the road). The GM will deduct money from the total for day to day expenses. Of course if you have no money improvise.
Character approval
Character approval will be based largely on what GMs want. If its character history write a good one and use a spell-checker or dictionary; most histories should be written in third person, past tense.
The method for approval is outlined below.
Boring characters tend to lead to boring adventures; boring adventures means no one has much fun. Therefore, any character can be disapproved for being really boring. For purposes of disapproval, "boring" indicates such things as:
Power gaming: Such as having all stats being even because that provides the greatest statistical benefit. Having a 18 Str and 17 Dex, is possible in the rules but unrealistic in game play
All combat stats (Str, Dex, Con) being maxed out at the cost of the mental stats (Int, Wis, Cha, especially Cha). Especially if you don't back it up with good history or role playing. It's expected that fighter-types will have higher physical stats than mental stats, but 18/18/18/10/10/10 is just boring.
No strong magic items at the start. A belt of ogre power, just detracts from role playing
Making a 'clone' of a pre-existing characters from a DnD book or LotR (No Drizzt, Legolas, or Conan clones, please).
Stereotypes (such as an axe-wielding dwarven barbarian) are acceptable, at the discretion of GM. You can take the same race-class combinations (such as a Drow Ranger or an Elven Fighter) as a previous character, but your character needs to be unique. If you want to make a Good Drow Ranger dual-wielding scimitars, you'd better have a good history which *clearly* shows how you are *not* a Drizzt clone.
If you die, no exact copies of your last Character to replace.
3) Powerful races are discouraged, but not disallowed. Approval will depend upon history and other merits. Any standard race or class printed in an official listing.
4) All the math should add up; stats, skills, feats, equipment, spells, saves, the works. Anything that doesn't add up just needs to be corrected before approval.
5) Exceptions to almost any rule are possible (although unlikely). If you've got an idea for something you want to try because it'd be really powerful and kick-ass, like a warrior with six arms, save us the time and drop it. If you want to try something because it'd be interesting and fun to RP, like a blind man who can telepathically see what the people around him see, then feel free to ask. Bending the rules will largely be dependant on history and game balance.
Inactive PCs
If there is no activity for a specific player for a period of 1 week, it is within the GM's jurisdiction to declare any characters controlled by them within their threads an NPC. This can and will be done without
warning if there is no activity from that player. Generally, it is recommended that the DM request that a character act, if the player has been active, but the character has not. Once NPCed the character has to
contact the GM.
This official house rule has been put in place to prevent stagnation of threads.
IF you are aware that you are going to be inactive for any period of time (such as if you are going on vacation or something) Please let your GM know.
You cannot hold your GM responsible for anything that occurs to your character while you are inactive, however GMs are strongly encouraged to play the character as the player themselves would, and to not intentionally kill them off or leave the party, without exceedingly good reason.
Magic items
At the start do not think of magic items, do not put them on character sheets until it's complete. When its complete we shall discuss magic items.
Spell casters
Check GM for requirements of spell casting
Character Creation 101
Having seen many potential players either leaves or abandons character concepts altogether, I feel that this bit of data may prove useful to anybody having trouble getting started. This method of character creation.
Step one: “What If?”
Before diving into character stats and history, begin with this question. What if my character is a wizard who designs zany inventions for a living?
What if my character is a musician who is so self-absorbed in himself that he can hardly give anybody else the time of day?
What if my character is a solder who hates goblinoids with such a passion that he’ll throw caution into the wind and rush them blindly at first sight?
Create an interesting “what if” question—the more interesting your question is, the better off you will be.
Of course, it is perfectly acceptable to embellish upon the details (or even build upon the “what if” later on), but you should definitely start with a strong question.
“What if my character is a ranger who loves the woods,” is a bit of a boring question.
“What if my character is a ranger who loves the wilderness to such a degree that passionately hates cities, city life and the people within,” is much better.
Step two: Extremes are your friend
Average characters are boring. Why torture yourself with that concept when you can have fun and play with his/her design. The average commoner person, framer, shop keeper, is 10 and below. Some might more of one stat. Adventures are above the common people that why they have
higher stats to handle what they come across.
In almost all cases, interesting characters in stories have extremes. This extreme doesn’t have to be a stat! It is nice to have an extreme stat or two to add flavor, but you may choose a single skill or so to max out instead. For example, a diplomat character would have high Charisma, but you may also decide to get Skill Focus in diplomacy and other feats to enhance this skill. Assuming that you can RP this character correctly, she would probably be a valuable asset to an
adventure.
Step three: Statistics
When dealing with the six basic attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma), keep in mind that the more extreme you get with those stats, the more explanation is required in your character’s history.
As a general rule of thumb, if one of your character’s stats vary greatly, then you should explain why this is the case. A character with 18 Dexterity will require more background story about why this is so than a character with only 14. A note again although legal by the books having an 18 STR and 18 DEX is legal but quite difficult to explain.
When you make an extreme like this put a note next to the stat. Here is an example of how a note would look on your character sheet:
18 Strength (+4) Spends a few hours a day lifting weights and doing strenuous, manual labor 10 Dexterity (0)
15 Constitution (+2) *A combination of the manual labor and a love of running a couple miles a day
These notes will be used in your history, so write them accordingly!
In fact, it can help greatly if you put notes on all of your character’s history. Notes should also be applied to feats. If your character has exotic feats (anything out of the norm for the character’s class/race), then a longer note should be written—more history will be required to explain these points.
Step four: Character description and history
This speaks for itself. Character description should include what your character looks like externally, first. If you want, you can certainly put in an “inner” description too (she is a romantic, he is extremely
self-assured). By doing both, you can help give yourself a better foundation to start playing with, and it will also help you to create the history too.
You should have a great deal of material to work with in your Character’s history. Instead of going into the whole theory of grammar, metaphor and symbol, I’ll just throw in yet more rules of thumb for you to follow:
1) Shy away from stereotypes. It is fine to have a blonde-haired swordsman, but try to keep him away from being the sole-survivor of an ancient race, or out on a revenge quest against the dark warlord who killed his parents. As been repeated many times before, no ‘throw-away’ towns in your history please (my character’s hometown was burnt to the ground by orcs, for example).
2) Superhuman abilities are the kiss of death. Of course, if your character HAS such powers (like Dark vision), then by all means put it into your history. Saying that your character has slain four dragons at a young age is bad... VERY bad.
Basically, if you’re having your character slay things in her history, make it so that she goes on a killing binge against creatures that her character is physically able to slay according to her stats. You may actually need to do some rolling (if you have a Monster Manual), or ask someone who does if you have an encounter that is iffy in your character’s history.
3) If you don’t need it, don’t include it. Save yourself the headaches for trying to explain things that weren’t explained properly in your notes or are just ‘bonuses’ that you think are cool or spiffy. This includes the most powerful equipment your character can effectively
use, for example. If there is a valid reason why your character would wield a great axe, and then by all means state so. Don’t just put in a great axe because it deals a butt-load of damage.
There is another point to this. It is possible that the reason why your character would use such equipment can be a no-brainer and not require any explanation. A half-orc barbarian wouldn’t really need any explanation why he is wielding a great axe — likewise for a wizard who knows magic missile.
It would save time and arguments if you made characters without magic items at first. Then consult your GM what you can have. Different GM has different guild lines on magic items.
Step six: Don’t try to devour the souls of the GMs.
Be prepared to have spell checking or capitalization issues with your character sheet. Check over your character sheet is a sure way to miss out.
Do not argue with GM’s there may be things they can’t tell you, because it would give away things later on. It might make sense why this or that didn’t work, but if its knowledge you not suppose to know then it makes for bad gaming.
And yes you will get injured at sometime. Things may happen you don’t like because you’re the immortal warrior. But for game balance things may happen to build up for something in the future. How are you going to hate a bad guy if he or she never does anything bad to you. On the other hand if too many bad things happen to you, well that’s not much fun.
Step seven: Unusual characters need explaining.
Adventures that are just in a dungeon and hacking monsters are one thing. No problem be what you what. If you have to deal with towns people and your half black dragon/orc/lizard. You’re going to have trouble dealing with towns people. Regardless your role playing ability.
Languages
Common:
Here at Forgotten Warriors we refer to the language that is the most widely used as "Common" as well as being a name you can use easily in conversation.
All PCs must know common. Whether by speaking it as a native (Human or any of the other races), or because you have a bonus language slot because of high Intelligence, or because you spent skill points on it, your PC must know common before he can be approved. Otherwise, it can be too hard to communicate with your fellow PCs, let alone NPCs you may encounter. For this reason, it is always the first language listed on the character sheet, with all others following in alphabetical order.
Life, Death, and Taxes
When your character gets approved
Make a Current Status post, list your current/max Hp, limited use/day abilities like Lay on Hands, spells, and consumable items (like arrows, potions, scrolls, wands, limited use/day items).
When playing in an adventure, update this Current Status post only; do not change your character sheet itself.
If you gain new items on your adventure, list them in the Current Status post too (even if not limited-use). If you lose an item (your sword breaks, for example), make a note of that as well in the Current Status post.
Your character is assumed to be able to perform enough work, whether through Craft skills, Profession skills, casting spells on demand, or physical labor, to pay off daily expenses.
Thus, clothes, food, and lodging generally do not need to be kept track of, even in the Current Status post. Any food or clothing listed on your character sheet is in addition to what you normally use (for example, if you want to have additional food to serve as bait for hungry dogs, or if you want to have a spare set of clothes to give to a naked hermit you meet on the road). The GM will deduct money from the total for day to day expenses. Of course if you have no money improvise.
Character approval
Character approval will be based largely on what GMs want. If its character history write a good one and use a spell-checker or dictionary; most histories should be written in third person, past tense.
The method for approval is outlined below.
Boring characters tend to lead to boring adventures; boring adventures means no one has much fun. Therefore, any character can be disapproved for being really boring. For purposes of disapproval, "boring" indicates such things as:
Power gaming: Such as having all stats being even because that provides the greatest statistical benefit. Having a 18 Str and 17 Dex, is possible in the rules but unrealistic in game play
All combat stats (Str, Dex, Con) being maxed out at the cost of the mental stats (Int, Wis, Cha, especially Cha). Especially if you don't back it up with good history or role playing. It's expected that fighter-types will have higher physical stats than mental stats, but 18/18/18/10/10/10 is just boring.
No strong magic items at the start. A belt of ogre power, just detracts from role playing
Making a 'clone' of a pre-existing characters from a DnD book or LotR (No Drizzt, Legolas, or Conan clones, please).
Stereotypes (such as an axe-wielding dwarven barbarian) are acceptable, at the discretion of GM. You can take the same race-class combinations (such as a Drow Ranger or an Elven Fighter) as a previous character, but your character needs to be unique. If you want to make a Good Drow Ranger dual-wielding scimitars, you'd better have a good history which *clearly* shows how you are *not* a Drizzt clone.
If you die, no exact copies of your last Character to replace.
3) Powerful races are discouraged, but not disallowed. Approval will depend upon history and other merits. Any standard race or class printed in an official listing.
4) All the math should add up; stats, skills, feats, equipment, spells, saves, the works. Anything that doesn't add up just needs to be corrected before approval.
5) Exceptions to almost any rule are possible (although unlikely). If you've got an idea for something you want to try because it'd be really powerful and kick-ass, like a warrior with six arms, save us the time and drop it. If you want to try something because it'd be interesting and fun to RP, like a blind man who can telepathically see what the people around him see, then feel free to ask. Bending the rules will largely be dependant on history and game balance.
Inactive PCs
If there is no activity for a specific player for a period of 1 week, it is within the GM's jurisdiction to declare any characters controlled by them within their threads an NPC. This can and will be done without
warning if there is no activity from that player. Generally, it is recommended that the DM request that a character act, if the player has been active, but the character has not. Once NPCed the character has to
contact the GM.
This official house rule has been put in place to prevent stagnation of threads.
IF you are aware that you are going to be inactive for any period of time (such as if you are going on vacation or something) Please let your GM know.
You cannot hold your GM responsible for anything that occurs to your character while you are inactive, however GMs are strongly encouraged to play the character as the player themselves would, and to not intentionally kill them off or leave the party, without exceedingly good reason.
Magic items
At the start do not think of magic items, do not put them on character sheets until it's complete. When its complete we shall discuss magic items.
Spell casters
Check GM for requirements of spell casting