"psychohist" <psychohist@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
> You say you'll ask general questions, without reference to the
> mechanics, regarding what kind of character they want to play, and
> that you'd implement these in the mechanics for the players later.
It's now clear that I failed to mention an im****tant part of this:
having done the drudge work of making the game stats for the
character, I would them talk with each player about their resulting
character and fine-tune it based on their responses. I wouldn't expect
the players to be handed a character sheet unseen and begin playing
it, even if they provided the prose description of the character.
The im****tant thing is that the initial character design would be with
all the players designing a party of characters together, and me to
guide them and veto anything which doesn't fit the setting; and the
initial design would be game-stats-free so that it doesn't bog down
into learning the game rules in detail before play begins.
> I would worry that the rules might not sup****t their desires exactly
> - especially since, when making their descriptions, they won't
> understand the constraints of the rules.
I will be using a rule set (perhaps GURPS or FUDGE) that allows for
very flexible character design. The limits of character traits would
be imposed by the chosen setting tropes and level of realism, not by
the rules.
> Since these people do play board games, might it be a better
> approach to pick a simple set of rules that they can understand -
> say, The Fantasy Trip, or even something like the simplistic rules
> that come with the Games Workshops "Lord of the Rings" figurine
> sets? Once they're used to the idea, you could move to more complex
> rules later.
Based on the advice given in this thread, which has been as much about
setting (which I didn't ask for) as character design, I'm getting the
strong indication that choosing an appropriate setting for these
newbies is more than just "what would you like?".
Perhaps running a once-off, multi-session adventure with disposable
characters could be better than starting with a campaign. It would
give the players a chance to learn how to roleplay without being stuck
with a character design that, despite their choosing it, turns out to
be incompatible with their play style.
> The other thing I'd suggest is that if you take a setting straight
> from fiction, you be careful about which setting you select.
This is advice I've read many times, and it's still good. I'll keep it
in mind as I present settings and design the adventures.
Thanks for the good response.
--
\ "If [a technology company] has confidence in their future |
`\ ability to innovate, the im****tance they place on protecting |
_o__) their past innovations really should decline." -- Gary Barnett |
Ben Finney
|
