Like nearly everyone else in this hobby, I own more games than I'll ever be able to play. But making characters for games you will never play is a time-honored tradition and I figured I might as well turn it into something interesting to read.
Basic premise here is that I'm going to go digging through my archive of games looking for anything with character generation complex enough to make an interesting blogpost out of, and then I'll go through the process step-by-step, rules-as-written. The end result should hopefully be somewhere between solo play report, mini-review, and creative writing exercise. If the process for a single character isn't super in-depth, I'll make a full party slash whatever other setting building tables and procedures they have in there.
Many of these games I've either not read in full or haven’t read in ages (or both), so I fully expect some surprises to come out of the woodwork and / or some of these to be duds that I have to toss. The list below is neither exhaustive nor a guarantee: I'm sticking it here to give a rough overview of what's available and provide a handy random table in case I need a suggestion.
If the muses move you to start compiling a portfolio of your own, let me know! I’ll link to it down below.
Completed Characters
The List
- Shattered
- Delta Green (2016)
- Runequest (2018)
- Dungeons the Dragoning 7th Edition
- Star Wars 5e
- Hellboy 5e
- Eclipse Phase 2e
- Talislanta 4e/5e
- Shadow of the Demon Lord
- Spire & Heart
- Red Markets
- Ringworld
- Pokerole
- Nibiru
- New Horizons
- Mutant Year 0
- Mistborn Adventure Game
- LISA the RPG
- Lancer
- Harlem Underground
- Halo Mythic 2.0
- FIST
- As the Sun Forever Sets
- Engine Heart
- CAIN
- Dogs in the Vinyard
- Across A Thousand Dead Worlds
- [DATA EXPUNGED]
- Open Quest 3e
- A wide selection of GURPS
- Sleepaway
- Land of Eem (2022 Quickstart)
- Armour Astir
- Blades in the Dark
- Deadball
- 60Virsi0ns v.7
- Final Fantasy d6
- BLAM
- D&D 3.5 + supplements
- Silent Legions
- Stars Without Number
- Worlds Without Number
- Ars Magica 3e
- Cephus Engine
Most of these books are not formatted for e-reader whatsoever, so doing these on my lunch break is not particularly convenient. Ah well, I'll work around it.
ReplyDeleteYou better make Ayo in Hellboy 5e or I'll riot
ReplyDeleteAs you would be correct to do.
DeleteWWN and SWN character creation largely overlap, in that you can actually just port classes from one to the other (with some caution involved). I'd suggest taking a look at CWN or some of his previous games as well as context, and think they might make the most sense as a single entry.
ReplyDeleteSolid point. I already plan on cheating with Silent Legions to do pantheon generation, so the worldbuilding tables are going to get involved as well.
DeleteWhat, no classic Traveller? How can you take a pass on the infamous Survival Roll mechanisim?
ReplyDeleteI'm going with games I have easy access to at the moment, so it'll be Cephus Engine for the time being.
DeleteI vote Dungeons the Dragoning 7E. Both for reflections on popular online nerd culture (or 4chan's version circa 2008-2010/12?).
ReplyDeleteBut also as a commentary on small (or large) RPG games which are just mash-ups of mechanics and ideas the writers liked.
Yeah I'm really looking forward to it.
DeleteIt might be interesting to create the same sort of character with the different systems. E.g. a cleric of a war god (which would differ by setting) which could also translate to army/navy medic for the more contemporary or future games. Then you would at least be able to compare the results for how skilled, how survivable, how capable a character is at the starting level.
ReplyDeleteYeah I have considered having a recurring character to two. We'll see how it shakes out.
DeleteExcited for Runequest! Love the family generator. Once ended up with the coolest uncle ever. Excited for many of these honestly.
ReplyDeleteOh believe me there's going to be a solid wall of me ranting and raving about how great the lifepath generator is.
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