Tools for Creating Characters

I’ve been giving some thought to tools and techniques for creating characters over the last few weeks.  I’m going to record a few quick notes on these musings here.

Firstly the technique of asking leading questions to draw out character ideas. 

Secondly, possibilities for representing personality traits by reflecting them in the mechanics of a game.

Thirdly, some party composition ideas.

Leading Questions

The technique of asking evocative leading question to draw out ideas of characters (and also the game world) is simple but under-used, in my experience.
Interesting questions can flesh out a character in ways that may not have otherwise been illuminated in the game.  Furthermore, they may provide a great opportunity to increase player buy-in.
The kind of thing that I mean is:

In your backstory, you escaped from imprisonment.  How did you escape; and what (or who) did you have to leave behind?

[As a call to adventure] – Why do you need five hundred gold pieces in a hurry?

When travelling between locations, rather than rolling a random encounter simply ask a player to describe a problem that they encountered along the way; and then ask another how they solved or bypassed the problem.

[Upon reaching a spooky mausoleum] – Is anyone in this tomb a relative?

Paired Stats

Inspired by games such as Pendragon, Smallville, FAE (Fate Accelerated Edition), and most especially by A Dirty World (a noir game), I’ve been thinking about character attributes that are closer to personality traits than to traditional attributes.

 

I’ve been considering pairs of stats that trade off against each other (thus providing an interesting decision, and a possible source of dramatic tension within characters).

You could have pairs of stats ranked 1 to 5 or d4 to d12, but with a degree of interference with each other (for example, if your Deceit reaches d12, it pushes your Honesty down to d4).

 

Anyhow, the product of my noodling is this:

 

Mental

Patience vs Cunning (Caution/Deliberation vs Quick Wits; Intellect vs Guile) [Mental/Intellectual]

Demonstration vs Observation (Knowledge vs Awareness) [Info: Notice/Investigate]

Generosity vs Greed (Resources vs Theft/Burglary) [Resources, Property]

Composure vs Defiance (Endurance vs Evasion) [Stress, Damage]

Patience = Analysis?

Social

Empathy vs Persuasion (Understanding vs Manipulation) [Social/Information]

Purity vs Corruption (Inspiration vs Seduction) [Decency/Vice]

Honesty vs Deceit (Integrity/Honour vs Guile) [Truth & Lies]

Rapport vs Provoke (Charm vs Intimidate) [General Persuasion]

Action

Vigour vs Grace (Might/Force vs Agility/Quick; Physique vs Athletics) [Action/Physical]

Courage vs Wrath (Valour vs Cruelty) [Violence, Combat]

Fortitude vs Evasion (Endurance vs Defiance) [Stress, Damage]

Infiltration vs Surveillance (Sneaking vs Seeing) [Stealth, Espionage]

Arcane

Discipline vs Conviction (Composure vs Defiance; Defend vs Attack) [Arcane]

Lore vs Learning [Scholarship vs Research]

Sense vs Alter [Intellego vs Muto/Rego]

Creation vs Destruction [Creo vs Perdo]

Sci-fi/Tech

Craft vs Wreck (Engineering vs Sabotage) [Engineering/Technology]

Hack/Firewall (Digital Intrusion/Defence)

Target/Evade (Gunnery/Helm)

Shield/Cloak

Tradecraft

Craft vs Wreck (Engineering vs Sabotage) [Engineering/Technology]

Infiltration vs Surveillance (Sneaking vs Seeing) [Stealth, Espionage]

Generosity vs Greed (Resources vs Theft/Burglary) [Resources, Property]

Overt vs Covert (Flashy vs Sneaky; Flair vs Guile; Bold vs Subtle) [Presence/Stealth]

Fight vs Flight?

Conceal/Disguise (Camouflage)

Cast Calculus

I’ve also been spending too much time on TV Tropes looking at pages like these:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CastCalculus

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PowerTrio

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FreudianTrio

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourPhilosophyEnsemble

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourTemperamentEnsemble

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FiveManBand

 

As a result, that following table has taken shape in my head.  Perhaps I’ll use it to create some pre-gen characters one day.

 

 

Fighter/Paladin	Rouge/Ninja	Bard/Sorcerer	Wizard/Cleric
Combat	Stealth	Diplomacy	Magic
Hitter	Thief	Grifter	Hacker/Mastermind
Mighty "Glacier"	Fragile  Speedster	Jack  of all Stats	Glass  Cannon
Choleric	Phlegmatic	Sanguine	Melancholic
Red/Yang/Red	Blue/Yin/Blue	Red/Yang/White	Blue/Yin/Black
Cynic	Apathetic	Optimist	Realist
Ego	Foil?	Id	Superego
Kirk		McCoy	Spock
Big Guy/Leader	Lancer	Heart	Smart  Guy
Fire/Lightning	Water/Shadow	Air/Fire	Earth/Ice

13th Age – useful tools and subsystems

I’ve been running through a quick playtest of 13th Age with one of my groups, whilst we are down a player for a few sessions in our ongoing campaign.  These are my thoughts so far on the ideas that 13th Age brings to the table.

Escalation

The escalation die is a brilliant concept, and I’ve previously incorporated it into other games.  The idea is that PCs (and significant monsters) get an incremental bonus to their attacks after the first round of the fight (+1 on the first round, +2 on the third round, up to +6 on the seventh and subsequent rounds), and the obvious way to track this is on a nicely visible d6.  I run it that the bonus applies to both attack rolls and damage, although I can’t recall off the top of my head weather that is by the book or a house-rule.

This escalation mechanic stops battles from dragging on, and it also adds a tactical element that dissuades PCs from ‘going nova’ and blowing everything that they have in round one (because if they wait a bit before using their most potent attacks, they have a greater chance of hitting).  This emulates the escalation that often occurs over the course of a fight in film.

Recharge Powers

13th Age has a number of powers and abilities which are replenished when a particular number (e.g. 16+) is rolled on the d20 during a short rest.  This reduces the bookkeeping of tracking resources that can be used a few times a day, and creates an interesting tactical decision about when to use powers/spells.  It means that there is a chance that a power may return before the next battle, which I think adds a pinch of excitement that just counting down a couple of uses of a spell doesn’t offer.  It’s a small thing, but it is an interesting idea.

Flexible Moves

Similar to the recharging of abilities, flexible moves are a way to add a touch of excitement with minimal bookkeeping overhead, based on a d20 roll.  Essentially, certain powers within the game (such as fighter manoeuvres) activate when the number that you roll meets certain conditions, such as being a hit and an odd number.  One of my players has taken several flexible attacks for his fighter, some that activate on even numbers, some that activate on odd numbers, and some that activate on a miss; and now whatever number he rolls on the d20, something cool happens.
These sorts of mechanical tools appeal to me greatly: they are simple and elegant, and add a fun element to the game that doesn’t need much effort to track (and consequently doesn’t impose too much cognitive load).

Monster Stats and Scripting Behaviour

The monster stat blocks in 13th Age are beautiful – they are extremely simple and easy to run.
You are given the monster type & level, the attacks, initiative, AC (Armour Class), PD (Physical Defence), MD (Mental Defence), the HP, and a short snippet of flavour text.  That’s pretty much it – take a look: www.13thagesrd.com/monsters/
The monsters are also very easy to run, due to the way that their attacks and typical behaviours are effectively scripted into their d20 roll.  This works much like the flexible moves mentioned above, so for example a monster may use one attack if you roll an even number, or another if you roll odd.  This reduces the amount of thinking that you need to do when running the monster, which is nice.

Icons

The Icons of 13th Age are the pivotal NPCs/factions/demigods which help to define the setting.  They have easy-to-grok names such as “The Archmage” or “the Dwarf Lord”, and they represent the major forces that shape the default 13th Age setting.
The PCs allocate points to their relationships with these Icons, be they allies, adversaries, or something more complicated.  At the start of each session these relationships are used to produce potential plot ideas, which is a nice touch.  However, I think that their greatest utility is simply in being a tool to define the world.  Pretty much every NPC of importance is going to know who most of the Icons are, and is going to have views upon then and relationships with them (usually not directly, but for example by working with one of the organisations that are aligned with them).  The mechanical support for these relationships helps to keep them focused over the course of play.

Magic Items

The magic items in 13th age fall into two categories: the single-use minor items and the permanent major items.  The minor items (e.g. potions) give you a small bonus (+1 to +3, based on your level); the major items give permanent bonuses and various useful abilities.  The interesting thing about 13th age is how it handles these powerful magic items – if you have too many (i.e. more than your level) then you develop entertaining/inconvenient personality quirks.  This is because the true magic items are somewhat sentient, and if you have too many then you can get a bit overwhelmed as their personalities begin to bleed into yours.  They begin to wield you, rather than the other way around.  This is a simple and entertaining method of preventing PCs from lugging around a golf bag of magic swords, and many of the quirks amuse me (such as “Constantly checking self out and flexing, and seems to want to be caught doing that”, or “Develops a love of elegant elven poetry”).

Recoveries & Heal-Ups

13th Age PCs gets “recoveries”, which are functionally similar to the “healing surges” of 4E, in that they are additional bundles of hit points that you can use to replenish your health.  These mostly serve to somewhat free up the cleric from being called upon to do nothing but heal people, and as such have my approval.  They don’t make all that much sense in-universe, but then again neither to Hit Points.
Full heal-ups are similar to resting for the night in other versions of D&D/F20 (replenishing powers and HP), except that in a bold twist the designers have decided to de-couple this from sleeping.  Instead, you get a full heal-up after around 4 combat encounters.  This removes the 5-minute workday problem, at the cost of not really making a great deal of in-universe sense.  I’m not sure how I feel about that; it bothers me slightly, but I can’t think of a more simple and effective way to resolve the issue.

Some brief thoughts on fate skills for modes/classes/roles

This it just a quick thought from some notes that I was tinkering around with a few days ago, which I want to get down here for easy access.

I’ve been thinking about the roles/classes that crop up in games.  There are four or five broad categories that show up again and again (for example in D&D, Leverage, Wilderness of Mirrors, Exalted, Werewolf, etc.) –
Rouge/Thief/Stealth/Assassin/Shade/Scout/Pluto/Night/Irraka
Fighter/Hitter/Heavy/Gunner/Violence/Solider/Mars/Dawn/Rahu
Bard/Grifter/Face/Voice/Charmer/Diplomat/Mercury/Eclipse/Cahalith
Sage/Tinker/Hacker/Fixer/Tech/Engineer/Vulcan/Twilight/Ithaeur
Cleric/Mastermind/Leader/Captain/Saturn/Zenith/Elodoth

I’ve been toying with how to best split the default Fate Core skill list into these categories.  The Skill list is:
Athletics
Burglary
Contacts
Crafts
Deceive
Drive
Empathy
Fight
Investigate
Lore
Notice
Physique
Provoke
Rapport
Resources
Shoot
Stealth
Will
(I’m not too worried about Contacts and Resources, because a lot of the potential games in my head treat those as special cases, and they don’t break down readily along class lines)


So I’m thinking that on a 4 class (Thief/Fighter/Face/Hacker) model then I’d probably go for:

Thief/Shade/Stealth/Scout/Pluto/Night/Irraka:
Stealth*
Burglary*
Athletics*
Drive
Notice
Investigate?

Hitter/Heavy/Gunner/Violence/Solider/Mars/Dawn/Rahu:
Fight*
Shoot*
Physique*
Athletics
Provoke
Will?

Grifter/Face/Charmer/Diplomat/Mercury/Eclipse/Cahalith:
Deceive*
Rapport*
Presence*
Provoke
Empathy
Contacts?

Tinker/Hacker/Fixer/Tech/Engineer/Sage/Vulcan/Twilight/Ithaeur:
Crafts/Engineering*
Computer*
Lore*
Investigate
Drive
Resources?

The skills marked with a “*” are ones that I’m sure about, those marked with a “?” I’m on the fence about.


For a 5-class model (adding in a knowledgeable leader role), I think:

Mastermind/Intellect/Lore/Command:
Presence
Will
Lore
Investigate
Notice

Thief/Shade/Stealth/Scout:
Stealth
Burglary
Athletics
Drive
Notice

Hitter/Heavy/Gunner/Violence/Solider:
Fight
Shoot
Physique
Athletics
Provoke

Grifter/Face/Charmer/Diplomat:
Deceive
Rapport
Presence
Provoke
Empathy

Tinker/Hacker/Fixer/Tech/Engineer:
Crafts/Engineering
Computer
Lore
Investigate
Drive


See also:
https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/default-skill-list
https://fate-srd.com/fate-system-toolkit/skill-modes

Thoughts on how to “fix” Warhammer RPGs

Thoughts on how to “fix” Warhammer RPGs

(or “better gaming through different dice”)

My gaming group tends to play quite a bit of Warhammer.  Over the last decade I’ve played in multiple games of Warhammer Fantasy Role Play (WHFRP), both 2nd and 3rd edition; and 40K games of Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and Only War.
I find the setting reasonably entertaining (more so in the form that we play it rather than by the book – we lean a bit more towards humour, whimsy, and high adventure than the grim-dark default), but I’m not a fan of the systems.

D100 
I find that the d100 system of 2E WHFRP and the 40K games (DH, RT, DW, BC & OW) is way too random, swingy, and inconsistent.  I appreciate the to a large extent this is a deliberate feature rather than a bug – the Warhammer setting focuses on (bad?) luck, fate, the randomness in its violence and the harsh uncaringness of its universe.  However, I find that the end result of the system is that characters are only erratically competent.

Take a character early in their career: 30% is a fairly good stat for a starter 40K character to have in something that they are quite good at, e.g. Weapon Skill for a solider, Willpower for a Psyker, or Balistic Skill for a sniper.  Let’s imagine that the sniper character has some beneficial circumstances or assistance; such as close range, a large target, and time to aim.  They could probably clock up a bonus of about +50% in very favourable circumstances.  This would give the sniper about an 80% chance of hitting a large target, such as the side of a barn.  Put another way, that it a 20% chance of failure for the sniper to hit the side of the barn.  From a few feet away.  And 50% would by an unusually high bonus; shooting some mooks in a corridor as they run towards you with kitchen knives would probably be a +30% bonus, or a 40% chance of failure.  And that is before they roll for their chance to dodge, even if your shot is on target. 
This doesn’t make it feel like you are moderately skilled professionals who are way out of their depth in a gritty world, so much as an incompetent clown who pulls off the occasional trick shot.

Fine, but basically not my cup of tea.

In order to twist the system to my taste, I’m thinking that I may switch it to a build of Fate if I run Warhammer again; a quick and dirty hybrid system.  Basically take out the d100 and swap for for 4dF (fate/fudge dice), stick a zero on the end of the fate ladder numbers, and call it a day.
Maybe 25 ranks to assign across your 9 attributes (two at +40, four at +30, two at +20, and one at +10?), use a default difficulty of 20, and then apply the modifiers from Warhammer as normal.  So a character with an attribute of 30 and a bonus of +20 would still rolling on +50, but 4dF rather than d%, with wither each + or – on the fudge dice being read as +/-10 rather than +/-1.  Then use all or the weapons, skills and stats as normal.  I’d also keep the aspects and fate points from Fate.

***

WHFRP 3E
I have less beef with the 3rd Edition of WHFRP.  There is a bit of a learning curve, but once you learn to parse the strange dice symbols the system can be quite quick and light, which I appreciate.
The problem for me is that there are simply too few success/failure symbols and way too many advantage/disadvantage (boon/bane) symbols.  This be really tricky to adjudicate as a GM, and after a while it becomes hard to constantly thing off ways to explain your highly advantageous failures.  This once again gives the feeling that the characters are incompetent by lucky clowns, rather than professionals.  I’d simply fix this by using different dice.  You can pick up blank d6’s pretty cheap.  I think that I’ll experiment with adjusting the odds of the different symbols, next time I play WHFRP 3E for FF Star Wars (Edge of Empire, Age of Rebellion, Force & Destiny).

Icons Lists from Mythology, Fiction, and Games

When creating the setting for a scenario or campaign, it can be helpful to come up with a list of people or factions in the settling, as the powerful movers and shakers the the PCs will be interacting with.  Fate would call these "Faces", and 13th Age calls them "Icons".
Half a dozen of these major NPCs/GMCs (Non-Player Characters, also know as Game Master Characters in some circles) are ample for most short campaigns, whilst a dozen is a good number for a longer campaign with deeper setting detail.

The default Icons list from 13th age (more info here: http://www.13thagesrd.com/icons/) is:
The Archmage
The Crusader
The Diabolist
The Dwarf King
The Elf Queen
The Emperor
The Great Gold Wyrm
The High Druid
The Lich King
The Orc Lord
The Priestess
The Prince of Shadows
The Three

So, I got to thinking about who the Icons/Faces would be in various stories/settings -

Star Wars:
The Empire (The Emperor, Darth Vader, Moff Tarkin)
Rebels (Mon Mothma, Organa, Admiral Ackbar)
The Hutts (Jabba the Hutt)
Separatists (Count Dooku, Nate Gunray, General Grievous)
Jedi Council (Yoda, Mace Windu)
Others, such as Mandalorians, Chiss, Dark Sun, Nightsisters, can be added to suit the needs of the campaign.

Arthurian Legends:
Arthur
Merlin
Guinevere
Lancelot
Mordred
Morgana Le Fay
Lady of the Lake/Niviane
Other Knights: Gawain, Galahad, Tristan, Bors, Percival, Bedivere, Ector, Kay, etc.

Robin Hood:
Robin of Locksley
Sheriff of Nottingham
Maid Marion
Guy of Gisbourne
King John
King Richard

Three Musketeers:
Cardinal Richelieu
Milady de Winter
Compe de Rochefort
King Louis XIII
Queen Ann
Captain Treville
Duke of Buckingham

Elder Scrolls - Morrowind:
House Dagoth (Dagoth Ur)
The Tribunal (Vivec, Almalexia, Sotha Sil)
House Hlaalu (Duke Vedam Dren)
House Redoran (Bolvyn Venim)
House Telvanni (Gothren)
Camonna Tong (Orvas Dren)
Morag Tong (Eno Hlaalu)
Ashlanders (various Ashkahns)
Twin Lamps (Ilmeni Dren)
Blades (Caius Cosades)
Imperial Legion (Varus Vantinius)
East Empire Company (Carnius Magius, Falco Galenus)

Elder Scrolls - Oblivion:
The Blades (Jauffre)
Mythic Dawn (Mankar Camoran)
Fighters Guild (Vilena Donton/Modryn Oreyn)
Mages Guild (Hannibal Traven)
Thieves Guild (Gray Fox)
Imperial City Watch (Hieronymus Lex)
Dark Brotherhood (Ungolim, Lucien Lachance)
Countess Umbranox (Anvil)
Count Terentius (Bravil)
Countess Carvain (Bruma)
Count Indarys (Cheydinhal)
Countess Valga (Chorrol)
Count Goldwine (Kvatch)
Count Caro (Leyawiin)
Count Hassildor (Skingrad)
Elder Council (Chancellor Ocato)

Elder Scrolls - Skyrim:
Stormcloaks (Ulfric Stormcloak)
Imperial Legion (General Tullius)
Companions (Kodlak Whitemane)
College of Winterhold (Savos Aren)
Thieves Guild (Karliah, Maven Black-Briar)
Dark Brotherhood (Astrid)
Bards College of Solitude (Viarmo)
Blades (Delphine)
Thalmor (Elenwen)
Dawnguard (Isran)
Silver Hand (Krev the Skinner)
Jarl Balgruuf of Whiterun
Jarl Elisif of Solitude
Jarl Skald of Dawnstar
Jarl Siddgeir of Falkreath
Jarl Igmund of Markarth
Jarl Idgod Ravencrone of Morthal
Jarl Laila Law-Giver of Riften
Jarl Korir of Winterhold

Random Openings

Inspired by Rob Donoghue's great "Getting into Trouble" tables for his quick Fritz Leiber-esque "Two Guys with Swords" game at http://walkingmind.evilhat.com/2010/12/14/two-guys-with-swords/ I offer:


Where you Are Now

1. On the roof of the tower
2. A mountain pass, during a storm
3. Busy marketplace, with suspicious figures in the shadows
4. The duke's wine cellar
5. Wilderness shrine to one of those unusual gods
6. Bandit country
7. Burning building
8. Volcano, which is starting to rumble
9. Edge of a dark lake, where ripples have disturbed the surface
10. Backstreets of the city, surrounded by fog

What Brought You to This

1. A series of poor life choices in the recent past, regarding who to trust
2. A job went sideways
3. The captain of the Guard didn't have a sense of humour
4. How were you to know that the painting was a counterfeit? 
5. Wandered off the path, whilst drunk
6. That wizard was quick to anger
7. Blackmailed with an antidote to a slow poison
8. A spell backfired, spectacularly
9. That drunken boast may have been unwise
10. Misunderstanding regarding the ownership of an idol

How It Is About To Get Worse

1. Someone delved too greedily and too deep
2. That ritual chanting probably isn't a good sign
3. The creature has your scent
4. Rising water/gas/lava
5. That supposedly sure-fire spell you just cast didn't work as intended
6. The people surrounding you are holding sharp objects
7. The dead have risen. Again.
8. The sun is about to set
9. Those druids are rather touchy
10. Huh. Aren't those things immune to swords?

Links to RPG Resources

I'm going to regularly update this post as I add links

Resources

http://donjon.bin.sh/
http://walkingmind.evilhat.com/
http://walkingmind.evilhat.com/2010/12/14/two-guys-with-swords/
https://fate-srd.com/
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/pirates-arrr-us
http://www.13thagesrd.com/
http://gumshoesrd.opengamingnetwork.com/
https://www.reddit.com/r/rpgtables/
http://tvtropes.org/
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ensembles
http://inkwellideas.com/free-tools/
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GambitIndex