Changing the perspective of game and character creation.
Trevis Martin:
One game comes immediately to mind.
Burning Wheel you have lifepath character creation. Starting from when the character was born you gain stats, skills, traits, resources from every lifepath your character goes through. For example Born Noble -> Page -> Squire -> Knight
In fact campaigns are sometimes put together where we say "we'll be using 3 lifepath characters." or "we'll be using 5 lifepath characters." It has a significant impact.
There are lots of games that have a lifepath type thing, Dresden Files (FATE) for example, where each stage of your history you get a single powerful resource for (Aspects), or (and perhaps originally but I don't know) Cyberpunk. but Burning Wheel is the one I know of that takes it from birth and ties all the characters "bits" into it.
I still have a set of books called "Central Casting" That ran you through a series of randomized tables for character history and it gave you certain skills and traits (including alignment) in that process. The books were not system specific.
Erik Weissengruber:
Which one of those has given you a really satisfying character creation experience?
D.R. Clifford:
While I've never gotten the opportunity to play Universalis, I have read it, and I think it might be what you're looking for.
From what I remember, first the group determines the themes, genre, and setting. Then a cast of characters is created collaboratively. Once the board and pieces are set in place, players bid for which characters they want ownership of.
As for actual play experience, 'Spirit of the Century' and 'In a Wicked Age' also strike me as along the lines of what you're discussing.
SotC is a FATE variant and like most FATE variants it turns character creation into part of the game. It's unique (so far as I know) in that having the whole group in the same room at char-gen is absolutely mandatory. Part of this is because four out of ten aspects are derived from relationships to other PCs. Also, because the PC's themes, motives, and interpersonal relationships are at the backbone of the system, the groundwork for what the campaign is going to be about is laid at char-gen.
IaWA is a lot like Universalis, but more structured. First the group chooses from one of four play styles, then cards are drawn from a standard deck of playing cards. The results are compared against the chart relevant to your chosen play style. Each card represents an element of the story and the group comes together to interpret their meanings. Once the scenario, items, persons, and places of interest have been fleshed out, players pick who they want ownership of, character sheets are drawn up, and the game begins.
jsmorrison55:
not to bash any of the great rpg games of our time, but having to start at level 1 character, is a bit of a lazy tradition. i know what Edge0618 is feeling as he wrote the first post, and i feel where he want to go. but in my mind, is a theory, that the earliest RPG players, meaning the dark ages of gaming, i think they already did these stuff. the way we question the parameters of modern rpg playing and its rules. i think they already questioned that and decided to make the most ideal character bases and starting at level 1 would be most practical, and it is.
but the point of having the characters start at neutral, then gaining points and having a class as the story deepens, is a classic and epic way to start a game. thats, if we all have time to play this game, since early on the game, we are already dragging. thats the only problem with the game Edge0618 is thinking about.
my two cents.
Ron Edwards:
Hey everyone,
This thread isn't working out. The initial poster has not stepped up to lead a discussion topic. People have raised several good points and a couple of game designs, all of which need to become threads of their own instead. Let's have no more posts to this one, please.
Best, Ron
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