Thread: The Character Creation Topic

The Best Blade, is the Most Balanced Blade Metaphorically speaking of course. I am in no ways a metal smith, or blade expert in real life so I could not say for certain. But I do know from basic shop that well balanced tools work better than tools with odd balance points for most tasks. So... what does that have to do with Character Creation? Other than the obvious reference that I shouldn't have large, top heavy weapons, and their ilk? Well, just one point. Character Balance. A well balanced character reads better, and is more entertaining than a lop sided one. Think of characters as people, rather than a collection of numbers, skills, and equipment. Though in Forum Roleplay there are seldom numbers to think about... I do see a lot of characters that are obviously stemmed from a Collection of Skills, with little thought to making them a living, breathing character. A good example of this would be most Vampires, Demons, or Elementals I see. These characters seem to be designed first in a way that makes them Bad Ass. They have big, flashy powers. They have some stylized dress or appearance, that usually serves no function whatsoever or is very out of place with the character. Goes back to that Make sure things fit with the history. Most ill balanced characters won't have a good history. That's always a good indication. If someone has a Fresh character Never been roleplayed before, and it's Combat section is by far the longest section of the profile, look out. So, for a change of pace, I'm going to list a few typical Unbalanced Archetypes I see. One Fallen God. This is sadly one of the more common types. New roleplayers often end up making these. Though a few veterans will as well, usually with excuses like He's been roleplayed for 7 years, or the like. There is NEVER, EVER, EVER, a reason why such a character should be accepted. Maybe as a quest NPC, but even then, iffy. Never as a player though. Things to look for in the Fallen God. One, they're good at EVERYTHING. This might not be on their profile, but it'll come out soon enough. You'll notice you can't find a single situation where the Fallen God doesn't have some relevant skillknowledge. As well, they won't have a single weakness. Magic, swords, intellect, they'll beat the best of the best at anything. If you have a character, and looking over it, it has Over the years, gained enough power to fit into that category... Or even come close to it, it's a good time to think about retiring them Perhaps promoting them to NPC status, and give them the occasional cameo, and picking up a new character. Two The Sole Weakness This one is a bit sneakier than the previous one, but presents the same problems. This is something generally only newer roleplayers have. This character type almost never forms with experience. Meaning over the years, it's almost impossible to turn your character into one of these types Sole Weakness characters aren't necessarily BAD. In fact, most Vampires should fall into the Sole Weakness category, as well as some Demonic types, undead, etc. Sadly what the Sole Weakness is used for is generally to come up with a powerful character, with an obscure, seldom will come up, weakness to Balance it. For example, a Sole Weakness Character might be a humanoid, who has Shapechanging powers, high level magic, is a martial arts expert, and is immune to all sources of damage... Except those inflicted by weapons made out of Cheese. Obviously this character isn't balanced. And with the exception of Cheese Weakness, is exactly like a Fallen God type. Since these characters tend to have one or two obscure weaknesses, they're easy to spot. In fact, the people that create these characters usually go to great lengths to mention their 'weakness', so you won't notice between lines explaining about the aggravated damage Cheese inflicts, all the ungodly powers that can destroy a planet at will. The answer is simple. Demand more weaknesses, and more common weaknesses. Or just don't allow the character. For example, if you have a Vampire, tell the player they will get killed by sunlight, fire, silver, blessed objects, etc. Even include some of the weaknesses like decapitation, the inability to cross running water, etc. Vampires already have so many freakin' powers even with those limits they're fearsome creatures. But they'd be more balanced, and less likely to take over the game. Three The MinMaxer We're not out of the woods yet. The MinMaxer is the last of the real Dangerous balance types. Anyone familiar with the White Wolf roleplaying games should know this type on sight. Or anyone else that's played a Point Buy system. That's where they were created. That's where they flourish. Still, the Point Buy system, and MinMaxing, is used as a rationale for a lot of characters. For those who dont know what MinMaxing is. MinMaxing is the practice of taking low impact flaws, in order to get points to buy up High Impact SkillsSpecialties. For example. Say, I take something like Fear of Snakes, in an RP set in an Arctic Setting Thus meaning there is about 0 chance you'll run into snakes, as a Rationale to let myself have a full mastery of Necromancy. Obviously the Fear of Snakes, in that setting, is not going to really matter, but a mastery of Necromancy, a potent magical skill, will be a great boon. In addition, I take something like, oh, an old favorite one of my groups used to use Hatred of Politicians Again, how many adventures really get to meet politicians, or have to deal with them regularly, in return for Five Ranks of Jeet Kune Do The martial art Bruce Lee developed... Again, these types aren't as bad as the above. mostly because if you're a smart GM, you'll read those Low Impact flaws, and you'll make sure they come up time, and time again to bite those bastards in the ass. Maybe next time they won't try it on you. That's really the best situation. Show, by example if necessary, that you will never allow a Low Impact flaw. Whatever it is. And then you'll have less MinMaxers. Four The Meticulous Master I personally don't consider this type a danger. And it's balanced enough Through lack of balance, oddly enough, that I consider it perfectly fair game in any roleplay I'm running. The Arcane Master, who devotes his whole life to spellcraft. The warrior who trains day in and day out, the athlete who eats, drinks, sleeps, and plays their sport and nothing else. These are the Masters. The Masters are characters that spend all their Points after a single craft. For example, Opaj is a good Master character. He's a martial Artist, using Katana. And nothing else. He doesn't own a business Though he does have a dojo... which he trains at. He doesn't practice magic. He doesn't spend his days chasing the ladies. He trains. He fights. He adventures. That's all he seems to do. And he's good at it. One of the elite. Now, this does sound Unbalanced, doesn't it? After all, as I stated it so far, he's a Master at his swordcraft... but what balances it out? Nothing. Personally I take the stance stated in RIFTS, and a few other RPG books. Player Characters AREN'T normal people. Normal people don't have assault rifles. Magic. Mecha... Well, you get the picture. Thus a Player's Character has the right to be Above Average. Note I said Above Average. Not Exceptional. If you know Opaj, you know that while he is a Katana master, he has no magic. He has no particular supernatural strength. He isn't a genius by a long shot. Not does he have some giant energy sword weilding mecha he can pilot. He's average in every way, except his martial arts And the implied strengths it gives him. Thus putting him in Above Average range despite his one area of expertise. Now, fixing. If you hate this type, for whatever reason... well, it's easy enough to 'fix. Just claim that have some weakness. Usually one is perfectly easy to balance it out. For example, Opaj's character could be balanced out by the fact that he's a Wanted Man, and thus will be hunted every time he goes out in public. Five The Jack of All Trades The Jack of All Trades... but there is more to that quote. A part that's often forgotten. But a master of none. Basically this would be, you could say, a Balanced version of the Fallen God type. The Jack of All Trades can do a little bit of everything. This is probably the type of characters you'll have in a High School RP I imagine. Or a Realistic one. They shouldn't have any particular strength in one area. They're not the Star Jock, or a Master Artisan. Or a Wizard Adept. Rather you're talking about things like the Vagabond who's worked so many odd jobs he knows a little bit about a lot. Mechanics, sure, he could change the oil, but not rebuild a V8 engine from scratch. Computers, he knows how to work the programs as intended, but not how to hack into the CIA database. Firearms, probably shot a few off, knows how to aim, reload, etc. How to field strip an assault rifle and fix a jam? Probably not. The Jack of All Trades is the Good character type that will probably need the most balancing. Players will have a slight tendency to forget they aren't Masters. They'll find a lot of their attempts at various arts and skills 'working' regardless of how little training they've had in them. Best way to balance this out is just to be a GM. Step in if they've had an unusual string of successes, or are about to accomplish something outside the realm of their meager training, and demand they fail. A Jack of All Trades, optimally, should be a Second character in your party. It's not the healer, but the one that can do some first aid while your healer is busy reattaching someone's arm. Not the Warrior, but someone that can cover the warrior's back. Not the Leader, but a good second in command. If you find a Jack of All Trades outshining the main character in a certain role, let them know, and scale them back, if you need to. Six The Apprentice One of my favorite Starting Character types. This is the type you'll find in games like DD. They're characters that are more or less untested. They are mages, sure, but mages that don't have five ways to blow up the world yet. They are Warriors, but ones that have just completed their 5 years of training. They are Thieves, but still just pick pockets, not those stealing the crown jewels from under the noses of the Palace Guard... The idea behind the Apprentice is a simple, time honored one. You've been training. Whether it was forced on you, such as press gang recruitment for an army, or you chose to, such as running away to join the circus and become a lion tamer, you have been learning for the past X part of your history to be something. A warrior, an artist, an acrobat... A Baker. It doesn't matter. You have the basic skills to do your job. Whatever it is. And your Apprentice character is probably going out on their own for the first time when they join in a roleplay. I like these characters because, even without attempting to Balance they balance well. They may have potential to grow into a Master type. Or they might just become some Jack of All Trades type. Either way, they don't have the problems associated with either one of them. These characters are easy to spot, even if they are seldom played online. They have very few skills. It will be stated time and time again that those skills are not fully developed as well. These are some of the easiest characters to run, as a GM. Plus, since they are designed not to be all that strong, they should be gaining powers during the roleplay, and it gives you, as a GM, more options for adventure types. For example, seeking out the Legendary Magic of Meteo in FF4 to defeat Golbez. Something a Master type would never have to do. Because they most likely already know it, or would never learn it for some reason or another. Seven The Arcane Trickster Note that this character type doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the Arcane. however, most characters in this class tend to be magi of some type. The Arcane Trickster is a combination between the Jack of All Trades, and the Master classes. This is more commonplace than The Apprentice, but can lead to more problems than any of the other Good Balances. The Arcane Trickster type generally specializes in two or three areas. For example, one that I most often see is the Spell Sword. These are people that are suppose to be mostly warriors, but have magic to back them up. Ideally they would be similar in skill, but hopefully not as annoying and bossy as, Paladins. This... tends not to be the case. Again it often comes down to the I don't want to losedie which can cause problems. But if the Spellswords are let go, you'll find them capable of combating with magics, and with swords, just as well as you Master classes, and stealing the thunder from them, as they have fewer weaknesses. Using the Above Example, the Spellsword won't get beaten black and blue by magic like at typical warrior would, probably because he knows barrier spells, spellcraft, and the limitations, and possible counters, to various magical assaults. However, unlike a Mage, he's a Warrior as well. So if that big meathead gets the jump on him, and is right in his face, he can trade blows, instead of just wetting his pants, and praying that someone saves him like your group's dedicated spell caster probably would be doing. Obvious GM steps in this is to come up to the plate, and tell them they aren't hot stuff. Just because they know some magic doesn't mean they can form a barrier strong enough to completely stop that Lightning spell the enemy is tossing at them. Nor does it mean they're Warrior enough to trade blows with the Bruce Lee wannabe and come out on top. What this does mean, is that if they can cleverly manage to use both their strengths together, along with their teammates, they should have very few flaws, and can win out. Only the moron would test his 'half training' against a master, after all. But they won't hesitate to throw out every trick they can, and hope to find something the enemy can't guard against. If you want to balance out a Trickstery type, whatever two or three skill sets they have, at Character Creation... Hmm... best way to go is make sure they understand the limits of diversified training. Not as bad as the Jack of All trades, but state clearly they won't be able to match a specialist. Throw in some Background Weaknesses as well. Never forget the effect a good background can have on balancing out a character. Eight Stu from down the street This is... the most balanced character. And also probably the least fun to play for most people. Oh, and also about the rarest balance type I've seen. Ever. Stu is... Stu. Average Guy. In a typical setting he won't have weapons, armor, mecha, firearms, magical doom, etc. Think of characters like Annie from Robotech. They're sidekicks, maybe comedic relief. But that's that. They aren't heroes. They aren't villians. Heroes, villians, adventurers, mercenaries, etc. They all have things that Stu doesn't have. Training, weapons, destiny, magic... Stu has, almost no skills to speak up. Generally a typical education for the time and place. And any skills he has, probably won't matter in an adventure. The farm boy that knows how to grow a crop, milk the cow, etc, probably isn't going to have a lot to add to an adventure. I like these characters, occasionally. There shouldn't be more than one, maybe two, in an RP. They get old, fast. Plus players can often get frustrated that whenever anything happens, all that Stu gets to do is duck, cover, and pray. They do offer a nice perspective though. And can often be the voice of reason in a group. For example, pointing out to his gung ho adventurer buddies that charging into the Dragon's Lair without a plan, or even with a Plan, is Not A Good Idea. Mostly because he knows if anything goes wrong, well, he'll be the one to pay the price. They all have magic, training, super powers, etc, to help them out. This isn't to say per se that the Stu character type can't do Anything. Just that they don't have the skills, items, and technique to do the things heroes can do. They should always be the 'weakest' character, in terms of power. But there are plenty of stories, even in history, of the Meek rising up to positions of greatness, and altering the course of history. To balance these characters... well... you don't need to do anything. Anything at all. In fact, you probably need to give them a little GM 'nudge', some good luck, etc, to keep them alive, well, and their players happy. So, looking at the above, how do you become one of the Good types without becoming a Bad type? Well, I generally like to think in a Point system. Lets face it. Anyone reading your bio is going to be thinking in Points. They're going to sit there and click off every little power, skill, item, etc, you have, across what they think is the Standard Power Level they want in their game, and against all the drawbacks your character has to prevent them from going too powerful. So, here's my loose guide. With it, you shouldn't go wrong. Consider your basic character has... 3 Points. These points can be whatever Good Things you want your character to have. Is your character rich, and has some old money they can dig into? That's a point. Does your character have Connections? That's a point. Is your character supernaturally strongfastsmart? That's a point. Apprentice of a Martial Art? That's a point. Master of a Martial Art? That's going to be the whole three. Are you getting the picture? Points covering everything that's unusual about your character and would help.... Having a Kitchen Knife isn't a point. Having an Ancestral Masterwork weapon with magical powers? That's a Point Possibly two if its a really powerful weapon, as such things are. If most characters in the setting Not players, NPCs for example have a car... then having a Car isn't a point. But if instead of a car, you had your own personal helicopter Which most people wouldn't, then that's a point. Now... Three Points? Well golly gee whiz, that doesn't sound like much. And no, it's not. It's really designed to create something like the Apprentice characters. As you noticed I said being a master would basically be your whole wad there. So how do you get more points? Say you want to be a Master Martial Artist, and have some legendaryspecial weapon... Well, that's where Drawbacks come in. Here's the thing. Don't be a MinMaxer. If you're going to use Drawbacks to balance out a character, make sure they're ones that can come up in an adventure without your GM really reaching for it. For example, saying you're an... Agoraphobic Fear of being outside, is a significant drawback But from a GM perspective, not a good one if the RP is mostly going to be indoorsdungeons, etc, or if they're planning on having an entirely wilderness RP, as it'll either Not matter or be Too Crippling to your character to survive and have fun. A good drawback can be things like Trouble with the Law. In your past you did something stupid. Robbed an important merchant or official perhaps, killed a beloved figure, etc. So thus you're on the wrong side of the law, hunted by marshals, bounty hunters, etc wherever you go. That's good. Its' something that will effect play. Gives you GM more options in game. But it's not something that will Dominate the RP Your GM could always determine you were hiding well enough, or moving enough that you won't have to deal with the Lawmen and your rep for a while, for example, if he needed to get something else done. That would be a one point drawback. Another good one might be something like Crippling Debt. Your father was a moron. He racked up a lot of bills. When he died, you got to assume his debt. yay... So now you have people hounding you for money. Perhaps a good reason to take up an dangerous, exciting career like Mercenary work. Again, it's another flaw that can have a roleplaying boon. Gives your character motivation. And puts it apart from the random Bad ass mercenaries out there. Now, a good rule to follow, so you won't end up with some EXTREME character, with something like 10 drawbacks, and 13 points, is to set a limit to yourself. Say, something like No more than two drawbacks, for a total of 5 good points. That simple. In fact, I'd recommend 5 as a good number to stop at. Anymore than that, and you can end up with an unbalanced, ungodly powerful character. Not to mention having too many drawbacks really makes your character stand out like a sore thumb. Okay, so he's a fugative, unslightly mutant, who smells like chum, can't speak any language, who has magical mishaps' around them, a fear of Light, a hatred of Water, an irrational unquestioning zeal to follow religious authorities, paranoia.... and so on and so on. While I could actually make a character like that, and make it somewhat interesting, the sheer number of drawbacks would make it feel more like an Albatross around the neck, than a nice additional to your roleplaying experience. Submitting New Content So, you read this thread. You're a smart fellow. Articulate? Experienced? Think you have something to say about creating a better character I missed out on? Or just something you think you could have said better than I? Well, now here's your chance to show off your stuff. The Process is very informal. No Forms to fill out. No required Fields. no need to toss a bribe my way... Wait, feel free to toss some cash my way. It won't help you in any way... but I could use it. Here's what you do. It's very simple. Kick back, open up your word processing implement of choice. In there, type up your Article. Try to keep your article to one subject. You can go into asides. Lord knows I do so too. I'm not going to hold it against you. But asides should be relatively on topic. For example, when I discussed NPCs during my Organization and Team section The limits on topics is simple. The topic must do with creating characters. That simple. We're not going to be talking about how to Combat Roleplay, or how to write up proper dramatic scenes. Or comedic scenes. We're here to talk about Character Creation. It's in the title. When writing your article, please try to state examples of what you're talking about. It doesn't matter if they're Examples created solely for the purpose of the Article, or taken from Experience. Though you should try to state which. If you are uncertain about your ability to write a post with relatively decent grammar and spelling Hell, I've probably made a few errors in this post alone, but nothing that distracts from the ability to read it too badly, run it through your word processor's grammar and spell checkers Or use one over the net, they're not hard to find. If I have any trouble reading your Article, I'm not going to accept it. Doesn't matter how brilliant your ideas are if you can't communicate them. Once you believe you are done creating your masterpiece, go ahead and copy it over to your Post Reply window for this thread. And post it. La! Make sure to copy the URL of the exact post When you are kicked back to the page, it should give you that URL, which will take you directly to your post. Edit that URL onto the bottom of your article. This is for use by me. I will come in here, a happy little Thread Overlord, and read your article. If I believe it is well written, with good information I haven't already covered, I'll take that happy little link you provided, and enter it into the Reader Submission Index, on the post after this. Then, when the next person comes into the thread, then can see that little list of Additional articles, with Links. Click, and read your wisdom. Isn't that snazzy? Reader Submissions None as of yet.