C&C 15-Minute Character Generator

ckutalik · Post by **ckutalik** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:52 pm

Having (patiently) listened to the players in my recent C&C sandbox campaign, I realized that they really wanted it both ways when it comes to having backgrounds for their characters. They want some kind of loose story but are wary (and rightfully) of putting too much energy into wimpy low-level characters that might get the axe early on.

In a somewhat related set of issues, we've had a lot of flux at the table with new characters appearing nearly every session. The whole idea was to create a loose drop-in and out kind of game. It's worked well, we've had 10 players coming and out in the last two months. But all those new characters got me wishing that I had a quicker way of adding newbies or successor characters into the game.

So a little frenetic tinkering and I put together a full-blown quick character generation system. In theory--it still needs the cold water of playtesting--it allows a player to whip up a cool, quirky character in less than 15 minutes.

If folks are interested you can download the whole thing here: http://hillcantons.blogspot.com

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:47 pm

Thats pretty slick Chris. Quick, basic, and dirty.

I wonder how to expand it to account for new PC's at any level.
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Maliki · Post by **Maliki** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:01 pm

Nice work.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:12 pm

Quote:
I wonder how to expand it to account for new PC's at any level.

Incorporate sieg's Crusader article?
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:45 pm

serleran wrote:
Incorporate sieg's Crusader article?

In which issue?
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:54 pm

I dunno which one. I just know there is one.
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jaguar451 · Post by **jaguar451** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 1:04 am

Which article?

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 1:13 am

Its an article about creating detailed histories for higher-level characters. You make rolls on some tables and get things like "lost eye in a war."

I only read it once, so I don't remember its name or what issue... but, it definitely exists. My Crusaders are not in one easy to get place, so it'd be hard for me to find it...
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ckutalik · Post by **ckutalik** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 1:22 am

Treebore wrote:
I wonder how to expand it to account for new PC's at any level.

A good question, I have been starting players in my own campaign with 3,000 xp myself (somewhere between 2nd and 3rd level for most classes). But the characters are all presumed to start with about 300 gp worth of gear and are otherwise dirt poor. I can see the equipment charts as is holding steady for starting characters up to about 3rd level, but yeah it would get iffy after that.

At a certain point (5th level?) the normal equipment table should probably be a bunch of handwaving as you would assume that characters would own the higher end non-magical gear by that point in their career. One thing you must have at by the mid-levels is an equitable way to parcel out magical items. Didn't the first edition DMG have some tables on this?

Still maybe I can come up with some elegant ways to build level progressions in the charts (level-based modifiers, extra rolls, etc.)

ckutalik · Post by **ckutalik** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 1:27 am

serleran wrote:
Its an article about creating detailed histories for higher-level characters. You make rolls on some tables and get things like "lost eye in a war."

I only read it once, so I don't remember its name or what issue... but, it definitely exists. My Crusaders are not in one easy to get place, so it'd be hard for me to find it...

If someone could track this down I would be awfully interested myself.

anglefish · Post by **anglefish** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:10 am

Cool generator.

For me, I've taken other tactics to facilitate revolving door PCs:

* Base the campagin on something that ties the PC together with a larger group; like a sailing ship, spy organization, caravan or a guild. Absent players have their PCs called away on another mission while new PCs rise from the faceless ranks.

* Have a metagame: The played game is really a virtual world

* For scifi: I've had a crashed colony ship have defective sleeper pods. New PC finally get awaken while inactive PC get siezures and go directly to med-bay. (Haven't worked out how to that in a fantasy game)

* Toss continuity out the window. No one comments on the roster changes

* The PC are actually body hopping spirits who jump from body to body to achieve their mission.

dunbruha · Post by **dunbruha** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:01 am

ckutalik wrote:
If someone could track this down I would be awfully interested myself.

I did a quick scan of the tables of contents for issues 2-16 and didn't see anything like this based on the titles... but maybe it was there, and it didn't register with me.

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:20 am

OK, after much digging and belabored effort, it's actually two issues of Crusader: #8 and #9. The latter has the errata for the former. The article in question would be the Auld Wyrmish by Mike Stewart (sieg.)

So, there. I'm not making up stuff.
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jaguar451 · Post by **jaguar451** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 4:41 am

Ah, of course, seeing as how I own issues 4, 6, 9-16, it would be #8....

ckutalik · Post by **ckutalik** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:48 pm

serleran wrote:
OK, after much digging and belabored effort, it's actually two issues of Crusader: #8 and #9. The latter has the errata for the former. The article in question would be the Auld Wyrmish by Mike Stewart (sieg.)

So, there. I'm not making up stuff.

Well, I'm glad you weren't because this looks like a pretty sweet system to complement my own. Here's the description I found:

Auld Wyrmish: Creating High Level Characters on the Fly

by Mike Stewart

This provides not only a system to create medium to high level characters for Castles & Crusades in a fast and simple manner, but also gives a quick system to give some background adventures to the characters history as well. Yes, you rolled that your PC gets a +3 Longsword, but the system can also tell the player HOW the character got it.

ckutalik · Post by **ckutalik** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:04 pm

anglefish wrote:
For me, I've taken other tactics to facilitate revolving door PCs:.

Those are all great,creative ideas. I have had to grapple with a couple unique issues to running a West March-ish sandbox campaign such as the potential for a high number of PC deaths (so far they've been hella lucky) and lots of people showing up for the sessions at the last minute wanting to play NOW.

I'm trying to encourage them to break up into smaller groups and sessions. But in the short run a quicky generator definitely feels like it will be of great help.

ckutalik · Post by **ckutalik** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:06 pm

Oops forgot to add that Chris Gonnerman from Dragonfoot has kindly put together an automated online tool based on my background generator. Saves me even more time with a click of the button. Yay.
http://tower.newcenturycomputers.net/background.html

old school gamer · Post by **old school gamer** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 4:14 pm

I have tried to go to the site where the file is, but it tends to take a long time to load up and then my computer will freeze up and be unable to load it up.

Do you some other way to make it more accessable?

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 4:49 pm

Interesting results.
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 4:55 pm

old school gamer wrote:
I have tried to go to the site where the file is, but it tends to take a long time to load up and then my computer will freeze up and be unable to load it up.

Do you some other way to make it more accessable?

I don't think the online generator is DLable.
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:04 pm

serleran wrote:
Interesting results.

Yeah, my family and I actually engaged in a game of making the results work together. Quit a few interesting results.
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ckutalik · Post by **ckutalik** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 12:52 pm

Thanks to Cheepicus over at Dragonsfoot there's now a version of the generator that you can use offline. http://www.multifoliate.com/quickiebackground.html

According to him: "You can view the page source and copy/paste, or "Save As" to get a local copy."

His version also allows you to generate multiple characters at a time.

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 4:34 pm

ckutalik wrote:
Thanks to Cheepicus over at Dragonsfoot there's now a version of the generator that you can use offline. http://www.multifoliate.com/quickiebackground.html

According to him: "You can view the page source and copy/paste, or "Save As" to get a local copy."

His version also allows you to generate multiple characters at a time.

I did the "Save as" option, but it still opens my browser when I start it up. I'll see if the copy option handles it differently.
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 4:38 pm

What program should we paste our copy into to have it work?
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dunbruha · Post by **dunbruha** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 5:27 pm

Treebore wrote:
What program should we paste our copy into to have it work?

Just save the web page as a html file. All the tables are part of the page. When you run it, your browser will open and generate a background.

ckutalik · Post by **ckutalik** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:52 pm

Does anyone have contact info for Mike Stewart the author of the aforementioned Crusader article?

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:57 pm

He's Sieg on these boards, can send him a PM.