Sunday, October 28, 2012

Character Creation

One of the hallmarks of the melee/wizard system is the character creation.  Unlike most games of the time using random creation, M/W used point based character creation.  Character construction included selection of everything from attributes, to skills and spells.  For the new player, this can be an overwhelming start to fun.

Think of Monopoly. If you had to create special information for the dog, the iron, the car, or the boot prior to playing--well you might not ever begin. 

One of the good things about classic D&D is the simplicity of starting a new player: do you want to be a fighter? A thief? an Elf? a Dwarf?  Okay you pick Dwarf, now roll 3d6 for each attribute, now roll for HP, here is some gear and away you go. There is a minimal setup or investment for the new player to start.

Don't worry HOW retains the classic point buy system, yet I feel an opportunity remains for random creation.

My question is whether or not this optional system should, or should not, be included as part of the main HOW rules.  As Blades & Black Magic will contain additional optional  rules, perhaps it is best left out of the core rules and reserved for this book?

On the update front, for the players portion I added a combat example, character creation example, and some brief additional notes on fire and poison.  The referee portion at the time of this writing is still being edited, but again I do believe it will finish soon.
at

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 28, 2012 at 3:30 PM

    There's more clarity if as an optional rule it goes in B&BM instead - possibly with a couple of 'roll for your skills' tables - for those people who like a hardcore-random character.

    M/W allowed the new player to think 'what do I want to play' and arrange the scores to fit their conception.

    D&D is more like 'well you wanted to be Conan but you rolled STR 4, deal with it'. Much as I'm a '3d6-in-order' guy when it comes to D&D I realise that younger players in particular prefer to emulate the pictures in their mind.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fenway5October 28, 2012 at 6:39 PM

    @GR Excellent points and I appreciate the feedback.

    ReplyDelete
  3. NarmerOctober 28, 2012 at 11:21 PM

    I also think it should be left out of the main rules. Core first, options later.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fenway5October 29, 2012 at 5:31 AM

    @Narmer, thanks for the feedback. I think you and GR have the right of it. Note there will be some optional rules included (Critical hit/fumble) but they are minor additions. I think it is important to include some optional rules to show the rules are flexible/malleable and can be changed.

    ReplyDelete