Category: Character Creation Challenge

As promised in the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge After Action Report, here are the badges for those who completed the 31 characters. My daughter provided them in a large and small format. The badge is different than the last two years and are provided below.

There was several participants who sent feedback to me on the challenge itself. I didn’t have permission to use their names, but I wanted to pass on their comments to encourage others. I think part of the reason that these have been successful in the past is the encouragement that we all give each other on message boards and social media.

• I just wanted to say I really enjoyed the experience and it was a great way to start the new year. I hope to have the time to do it again next year. If you have any questions please contact me on my email or feel free to also contact me directly on Discord. Thank you again I had a blast!
• Thank you to TardisCaptain for this opportunity to participate and to all those enjoying this!
• Made it! Thanks again for putting this together. And glad to hear everyone is okay.
• I really enjoyed the Challenge this year, already looking forward to next year’s!
• Agreed, thanks for running this, had a great time participating with my Advanced Fighting Fantasy reskins of classic 80s fantasy films (some of which may appear in The Warlock Returns fanzine as full articles in the near future), and had a lot of fun reading all the varied and imaginative entries from everyone else. Good times!
• D&D remains my bread and butter. But I was able to explore a few other RPGs this year. More planning for next year, methinks. (Hubris. Any bets on no more actual planning next year?)
• I’m afraid I’ve got no insightful commentary. Folks can make of my musical taste what they will. Thanks to TardisCaptain , it was fun. Now to sit down and actually read the thread. Is it bad I’ve come up with a theme for next year already?
• Honestly, I think I did better last year; both in terms of being more organized and more creative. Which isn’t to say there isn’t a couple of highlights here, but between scrapping several ideas and having a lot else on my mind this year, it’s maybe been a bit more hassle than I’d have liked. I did enjoy coming up with themes to the names of some groups.
• So, it was fun, but also more work than expected. If I do this next year, maybe rather than full parties I’ll go with something that requires less prep and crunch – simpler systems, more spontaneous ideas for chargen. Or maybe I’ll do pregens for one-shots. We’ll see.
• However, doing this exercise has made me want to start writing stuff again, it’s really blown away the dust and cobwebs. It’ll take me a while to get back into practice, but I do intend to write more on this blog in future. And I’m really looking forward to next year’s challenge.
• Wow, making 31 characters for as many different games was quite a lot, even though I did choose mainly rules-light games. Seeing the great diversity in games and character concepts posted in this thread was very fun!
• I had fun making these characters and using several games I have not touched for decades I look forward to this next year!
• Thank you, TardisCaptain ! Once again it was a lot of fun. And it was very cool to see all the creative stuff people came up with. I had to stop myself from gumming up the thread with questions. Thanks!
• And with that 2024 is a wrap! Looking forward to 2025. As usual I will plan to get a few characters ready in advance so I can try more complicated systems. If all goes like previous years I will fail horribly and scramble to do each day next year.
• Thank you for organizing the event once again.
• Character Creation Challenge comes to an end! It was a blast!

So there will be a Character Creation Challenge in January 2025. I’ve already got a few new games to use and I’m willing to take any requests (if I have them). I’m also thinking of different themes that I may want to use since I saw a lot of successful ones used this year.

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

NOTE: Real world issues delayed the last two characters getting posted online.

Day 30 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge and I am using the Pathfinder 2nd Edition system by Paizo. I had picked this up on the same charity bundle that I had also picked up Starfinder with. And I had a devil of a time getting the files downloaded from Paizo’s website. But I was finally able to gain them.

I’ve had a chance to play Pathfinder 2nd Edition at my first SaltCON last spring. I was really impressed with how the GM presented the game (and the tools that he used for a one-shot). The characters were pre-made so this is my first attempt at making one. I wonder how it will compare with the earlier Starfinder entry?

The PDF I own contains 642 pages with the character creation chapter starting on page 19. The actual character creation list (with character sheet breakdown) starts on page 21. The character sheet is four pages long.

OK so step one is to create a concept. I’ve felt the need to play a dwarven cleric so I’m going with that. I named him Rogar of Clan Granitebender.

Step two is to start building ability scores. I rolled for these scores because it was an option and I wanted to throw some dice. But apparently you don’t just use these scores. Depending upon your ancestry (aka race), background (aka growing up), and class there aer some ability boosts (that add or subtract from the ability scores. It was an interesting concept at first. But I make the mistake of trying to write everything down on a notepad before transferring it over to the character sheet. With the real-life interruptions that happened, I had to back-track over a few things to make sure I got them right when I was transferring the information.

Steps three, four and five (as mentioned above) was the selection of ancestry, background and class. I tried to make sure I had all of the parts put together (a little from here, then add some from over there, etc.) Thank heavens for the PDF being properly bookmarked.

The next step is to determine the ability scores. Basically you are going over all of the items assembled from above and making sure they are in the right place with modifiers. Step six is a companion step where you record your class details.

Step eight, finally buying equipment. Prices were really different than they were in other D20 games. But I appreciated that there was the “Adventurer’s kit” available.

Step nine is to calculate the modifieres (again you are going over everything, which I think I did right)

Step ten is the finishing details. I pushed my way through this, I really wanted to be done after going over (and re-going over) a lot of details.

Apparently I didn’t get my spells, so I at least wrote down the name. I really wanted to be done with this character. Here are the sheets. Yes there is some missing information, but I need to finish this because of how far behind I am due to real-world issues.

Afterthoughts:

When I wasn’t getting interrupted by real-world events, I was starting to get caught up in the character creation. I was actually wanting to play this character. A physical book purchase may be in the future. Would I run a game? I don’t know with the ton of books that are out there (that a GM needs to know about), but I could very easily see myself playing Pathfinder 2nd Edition.

I hope that some of the steps presented in character creation for PF2e get integrated in the upcoming 2nd edition of Starfinder that they are working on now. One of the things that caught my attention on the character sheet is the breakdown of proficiency from Untrained (+0) to Legendary (8+Level). In the different sections of the character sheet, if you had one of these proficiencies, you just check the level. However while I was trying to fit in all of the details on the character sheet, I’m starting to think that I should just move to fillable sheets. Copy and past if I’m pulling from a PDF.

When I was finally done, I longed for the simplicity of OSR. But I still want to participate a PF2e campaign.

Additional Notes:

I’m very thankful for the readers who have interacted with me both on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server and on social media. On Mastodon a couple of readers have started a long discussion to my Rolemaster Fantasy entry. Comments included that the game was an artifact of it’s era with the volume turned up to 11 with crunch going beyond the competitors of the time. Another comment was “you wouldn’t get me playing Rolemaster or RuneQuest due to the crunch”. “I’m absolutely horrified when I look at the design and layout of some of the games that I use to think were wonderful because now they are nothing but a solid medium-density pile of mushy text which beyond being poorly edited are just badly laid out.” I think there is a big reason we see D20 variants everywhere but no clones of these games.

So if I know, or think, that a game might be too crunchy or badly presented why do I use them in the challenge? I want to at least dip my toe in the pool and see how it is. There have been a few games that have been a surprise on the good side. And there have been others that still make me shake my head and wonder how these books are popular.

Coming Up Next:

Anarchy

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Here we are at Day 28 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge. Today we will be using another game that I was able to pick up cheaply at the SaltCON game swap. Rolemaster Fantasy Role Playing by I.C.E. Inc.

This book was published in 1999 and is a second edition. I had read a challenge entry from someone who had used an earlier version of Rolemaster and they expressed a lot of frustration. I wonder if I’ll run into the same thing. The physical book is 255 pages in length and has an ISDN number of 9-781558-065505.

This appears to be a percentage system. I like the percentage system in the FASA Star Trek RPG so I’m hopeful for this. The character creation steps are listed on page 11. The character sheet is four pages long.

Step one is the character concept. Since I haven’t made any halfling characters yet, this guy will be a thief from that race. Using a random name generator I came up with Hobson Silversting.

Step two is to select the race (done, see above), I wrote down the halfling stats that were provided. Choose a profession (again see above) and choose a realm of power. Which is something that has to do with spell casting. So I don’t know why a thief would need this, but I selected one after reading the descriptions

Step three is to generate the stats for the character. The attributes are Agility, Constitution, Memory (the ability to retain what your character has learned), Reasoning (i.e. intelligence), Self Discipline (control of mind over body), Empathy (aka wisdom), Intuition (luck and precognition and stuff), Presence (control of one’s own mind. How is this different from Self Discipline?), Quickness and Strength. Now you don’t get the stats themselves, you generate the temporary stats (which you then use in the game if I’m understanding this correctly). Then you generate the stat potential (uh…. yea…. OK). I think I followed the math and math and math and math.

Steps four, five and six all have to deal with skill groups and individual skills. You get some when the character was young, when they were trained and in their profession. More math came out of the woodwork and I’m starting to get annoyed. I don’t mind some math, but school assignments are long behind me.

By now I’m skipping ahead. I write down some items that it states that the character gets. I didn’t write down anything else because I decided that I was done. I have to agree with the person who posted about the first-edition of Rolemaster, it’s too much and it’s scattered everywhere in different sections of the book. I threw the sheets in the scanner and here they are.

Afterthoughts:

I liked how they showed different sections of the character sheet being filled in during the character creation process. It did help answer a few questions, especially with how spread out everything was on the four sheets.

While the writing was OK and the flow had a good start, it dived into the curse that alternative games had in the 80’s and 90’s. Too much crunch and too much math. They were trying to be a little too realistic. Most participants in the hobby know that you can’t come up with a system that is going to be 100 percent accurate. Just give us a system that will not interrupt the flow of the game while giving us the randomness of a failure/success process.

I don’t see myself playing this game or homebrewing for it. After I’ve used it in a secondary project, I may put this game in the trade pile.

Additional Notes:

I had a different reader comment on Mastodon that he would play fourth-edition Dungeons and Dragons, as long as someone else ran it. He liked the miniatures-first/heavy combat play because he had a large wargame collection. I had heard from several other RPGers prior that they thought that fourth-edition was a good tactical game, but not a very good roleplaying game. Had it been a side game called D&D Tactics, it probably would have been better received.

A few of you wanted to hear more about Cowboy Bebop. I’ll do an unboxing post in February. By then I hope to have more information to share about my thoughts. I’m going to explore another avenue after the Character Creation Challenge is done.

Coming Up Next:

Tiny Frontiers

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

And here we are at Day 24 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge. Today I am using Crypts & Things: The Chronicles of Zarth from D101 Games. I had picked this book up at a game swap held at SaltCON Spring for a decent price. I figured that it would be a good entry in the challenge, plus another blog series that I hope to release soon.

This hardbound book has 149 pages and was written by Newt Newport. This is a first printing book that was released in 2012. A one page character sheet is found in the back of the book. The character creation steps start on page 8.

Being a retro-clone I’m not surprised to find that we roll 3d6 down the line. I like this because I don’t know what type of character this will turn out until then. Well the highest is Intelligence and Charisma. So he’s a good looking magic user (which I found out is called the magician). I wrote down the different bonuses from the attributes. A high wisdom and high charisma can earn you an XP bonus of 5% each. Then you get an extra 5% for the prime attribute of your character. So you could end up with +15%. There wasn’t any rules written about moving attribute points around. But I’ll let the scores stand as they are.

OK so Magician it is. As it turns out the spells are broken down into White, Grey and Black magic. White is like the clerics, grey is standard stuff and black is harmful magic. There was some very interesting magic rules about using grey and black magic (it hurts you to use it in the form of HP and savings throws needed, ouch). Because of my high INT I get an extra 1st level spell during character creation. You write down three 1st level spells and one 2nd level spell in your spell book. Then if you want more, you have to find them or pay another magician to help you write it down. I like this idea. Magicians can use leather armor without losing any spell casting ability (nice) and can use standard weapons as long as they are not two-handed (other than the staff) but they have a -1 to damage if they use them. This helps match the Gandalf using a sword as well as his spells.

Next comes the Generating Life Events chart. Roll a D20 three times and check the numbers on page 19. Some gave me some bonuses to certain savings throws. But the one that really made me raise my eyebrow was the “I was a slave at a royal court” which increased the character’s charisma by +2. So now it’s a 17 so he’s a really good looking magician.

Last step was to roll for gold (standard 3d6x10) and buy some equipment. I did so and then filled in the blanks that I may have had on the sheet. This included a name (hey random name generator) which came up with Azor. After scanning the character sheet I realized that I probably should have put down Azor the Charming or Azor the Handsome. Oh well, here is the scan.

Afterthoughts:

This is a D20 OGL clone with some interesting twists. Combining the cleric and magic user together into one class and then having a payment system (usually in lost HP) was an interesting idea, but not one that I think I’d go with if I was running a game. I think I’d have the cost for grey magic on a roll of 1 out of 20 and dark magic on a higher scale (1-2? 1-3? I’d have to test). I can just see a magician rolling a repair spell (a grey spell) and then suddenly dying because it took his hit points. In the middle of a massive battle and you need the magician to strike with the spell that may bring the big bad guy down? Sorry, he doesn’t have enough hit points to cast the spell and survive. The rules did state that magic was rare and dangerous, but I don’t know about that dangerous.

I liked the Life Events chart. I’d probably expand the idea to more than twenty entries. But it did make for some interesting twists (and possible back story) for the character. I also liked that there was a choice of ascending or descending armor classes.

There is a remastered version of this game. I wonder how that book compares to this one?

Additional Notes:

Because of my schedules today, I ended up taking the book with me and creating the character away from my computer. I think it added to this being one of my less stressful character creations. I’d usually type down my thoughts while I was creating the character. With this entry, I had to note them down in my head for later. Which could have been a bad thing considering all of the items rolling around in there. I may have to try this same technique with tomorrow’s entry.

Coming Up Next:

Cyberpunk Red

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.