Origins: Character Creation from the ground up

[Rubbermancer]

I've hit upon an idea, somewhat inspired by the lifepath/profession/etc systems used in games like Burning Wheel, Barbarians of Lemuria, etc. It's a simple, somewhat abstract and loosely defined point-buy character creation process, done as a one-on-one discussion with the GM, building a life from the ground up.

The basis for it is this point table:

Costs..............................I Define...............GM/Dice Defines

Growth Spurt/Advantage..........1........................n/a
Hardship..................................0........................-1
Era...........................................2......................... 1


A character's life is composed of Eras. These Eras are each defined by a certain number of Hardships, and the player can purchase up to 3 Growth Spurts for any single Era. A Growth Spurt or Advantage can either be used to negate a Hardship, or it can be used for something completely different, leaving the Hardship as an old wound, an unresolved bitterness that will follow the player's character through life.

A Growth Spurt is an internal improvement of some sort: You've gotten good at something, either mentally, physically, or emotionally. In short, you've grown. An Advantage is an external improvement. Perhaps you have some wealth, or a good friend, a kick-ass sword or a beautiful wife, etc.

A character starts with 5 points, at the "Origin" Era, which is a freebie Era. Here, you may describe you race, your family, your upbringing, and the living conditions and daily rhythms that defined your "formative years"/childhood. Then, you roll 1d4 to see how many Hardships plague your Origin, and choose how many of these Hardships you want to define on your own. Each Hardship that you allow the GM to define gives you an extra point. Up to 5 Growth Spurts/Advantages may be purchased for this Era, as children learn quickly and adapt easily.

Once you feel you are done with the Origin Era, you ought to have some points left. (If not, you start the game at the end of the Origin Era, on the cusp of adulthood.) These points can be used to purchase a new Era, either for 2 points if you wish to define its basic type yourself, or for 1 point if you don't mind allowing the GM to choose the type, or rolling randomly for it.

There are 3 types of Era. Upheaval, Revelation, or Peace.

Upheaval: Something happened at the start of this Era that dramatically changed who you were and how you lived. You would never be the same after the Event (describe). This Era bears with it 1d4-1 Hardships.

Revelation: Unlike Upheaval, a Revelation Era starts with an internal Event, a realization or a metamorphosis that changes the way you see the world. This Era bears with it 1d4-2 Hardships. A -1 result means the Revelation Era gets a bonus Growth Spurt or Advantage.

Peace: You wake up one day and realize that life isn't such a struggle anymore. You've accomplished some things, found some happiness, built yourself a comfortable way of life, and now you're coasting. Your mind turns to newer horizons, previously neglected interests, and unexplored desires. This Era bears with it 1d4-3 Hardships. A negative result grants bonus Growth Spurts or Advantages for the Era.


And then rinse and repeat, until you run out of points. ...Which, if I've done my feeble math right, shouldn't happen too soon or too late, right? Any thoughts?




*EDITED multiple times to get that silly table to look decent

[Onix]

This sounds cool. It would take forever to make characters, especially if there's a semi large group. That may not be a bad thing though as all my groups have always liked the process of making characters. I think you'd just have to be up front about it and say "This takes a session, if you don't like games that take time to make characters, this isn't your game."

But

It would make really interesting characters, ones that the GM knows what to do with and ones that the players can build to their specifications and explore at the same time. Too often, if character creation is a point buy, there's no mystery to the character and the players more or less have exactly what they wanted and that actually ends up kinda boring.

[Rubbermancer]

Yeah, I'm also used to spending a lot of time on character creation, both as a player and as a GM. This is perhaps more of a point-tug-o'-war than a point-buy system, hehe.

I'm wondering where to take this. I might just refine it into something more system-agnostic, by emphasizing the fact that Growth Spurts are a very open deal. For example, they could easily be used to purchase skills or skill groups, give you an idea of how to arrange your stats, or to lay the foundation for being a mage or a soldier or whatever. It could be an enriching add-on to character creation in a lot of games, helping to define a character's background more sharply. How system-agnostic do you think it is, currently?

I originally made it as part of the CC for a fantasy setting I'm working on, but the other game rules as they currently stand sort of revolve around dying and then living future lives, retaining some aspects of your past lives, and that makes the time-consuming nature of the Origin process a bit of a problem.

[Rubbermancer]

Would anybody be interested in working with me to make a character with this system, just to test it out? It can be for whatever setting you want.

[Onix]

Combine it with your d4 system and you've got the basics for a game.

ATM I'm up to my eyeballs in projects, but if you put it together with the knife fighter setting and make a few starting example ideas, I'll toss in a few.

[Rubbermancer]

Not sure it'd work with the knife fighter thing, I think that whole concept was entirely too narrow for this. For the knife fighter thing, I see CC being more along the lines of "1 hidden talent, 1 false talent, and a whole bucketload of stabby-pointy-gear customization options, wheee!"

[Onix]

It would be cool to integrate something like this into SPF, and I am looking at making The Artifact's Char Gen more immersive for 3rd ed but I'd have to really think about how to employ this and what it would do to the game. I'll mull it over.