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Rolling an adventurer for a brand new player to RQ. I like to go through the rules as I roll and I am finding it to take longer that I expected. I mean, with a party that knows the game it usually takes about 2 to 3 hours to tackle the 8 steps shown in the rules to make 2 characters. Of course I am not teaching as I go with the experienced...

How long are people finding it to takes to finish Char Gen first time out? Enquiring minds want to know.

Edited by Bill the barbarian
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... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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Online definitely takes longer.. I find that it can take longer even with Mythras characters... and longer if we need to decide backstories of how the characters are related.. 

You really need to make sure that they don't die horribly in the first outing

 

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7 hours ago, Arcadiagt5 said:

It generally takes a couple of hours even with experienced players, otherwise there’s too high a chance that something will get missed. At least in my experience anyway. 

100% agreement! And have you had the pleasure if introducing a new player yet?

 

7 hours ago, Nozbat said:

Online definitely takes longer.. I find that it can take longer even with Mythras characters... and longer if we need to decide backstories of how the characters are related.. 

 

Online is hard! And there are wrinkles involved you would never see at a table IRL!

 

7 hours ago, Nozbat said:

You really need to make sure that they don't die horribly in the first outing

 

Seeing as he will be joining your band of merry steaders, I am sure you have a bit of a vested interest in that...

Edited by Bill the barbarian

... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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1 minute ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Seeing as he will be joining your band of merry steaders, I am sure you have a bit of a vested interest in that...

He'll be in the middle of the party then... safe in the arms of Natalinna

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1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said:

How long are people finding it to takes to finish Char Gen first time out? Enquiring minds want to know.

Since discovering RQ:RiG in October 2018 (still don't recall what I was searching for at the time -- maybe some info on 2nd or 3rd editions that I could link to on some other forum post) I've created 12 characters as practice (I'm not in a gaming group at the moment, and know I'd be a terrible GM).

All of them took at least two hours to do (the first probably took closer to four as I was doing a parallel generation using RQ2nd [or 3rd] rules as a comparison of differences.

RiG creates characters that are higher "level" than my RQ2nd characters ever reached over a few years of play (well, okay -- I did have a character buy his way into the priesthood; Cults of Prax had both Rune Lords and Rune Priests for Humakt, and the priesthood took into account donations to the cult, so I donated enough money to reach the 95-96% level for acceptance).

RiG is not a system where one can take a group and have all of them generate a character in parallel over an hour and still have time to play a short session.

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7 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

All of them took at least two hours to do (the first probably took closer to four as I was doing a parallel generation using RQ2nd [or 3rd] rules as a comparison of differences.

 

Online (this takes a lot of time more than I thought) brand new player (same), it will probably take me 5 hours... Thankfully new player is enjoying himself

 

2 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

RiG creates characters that are higher "level" than my RQ2nd characters ever reached over a few years of play (well, okay -- I did have a character buy his way into the priesthood; Cults of Prax had both Rune Lords and Rune Priests for Humakt, and the priesthood took into account donations to the cult, so I donated enough money to reach the 95-96% level for acceptance).

 

I have found this to be true myself. So, far then I am the only one here {or the only one to respond anyway) that has taken a green player (no RQ experience) through Char Gen...

 

5 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

RiG is not a system where one can take a group and have all of them generate a character in parallel over an hour and still have time to play a short session.

True

... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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I have made up a checklist and guide plus a skills spreadsheet.  I THINK it may speed character generation up a little, but what I really did it for was to help spot and prevent omissions and mistakes.  Things like skipping the extra rune %, or getting confused about characteristic bonuses and skill%.  I've made omissions myself and realized it when i was playing the character, why not help my players past that?

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

I have made up a checklist and guide plus a skills spreadsheet.  I THINK it may speed character generation up a little, but what I really did it for was to help spot and prevent omissions and mistakes.  Things like skipping the extra rune %, or getting confused about characteristic bonuses and skill%.  I've made omissions myself and realized it when i was playing the character, why not help my players past that?

 

Yes, I did that as well, I would post mine but it has a lot of cut and paste of text and graphics from RQ RiG, meaning I would be breaking several copyrights to post it.

Edited by Bill the barbarian

... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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42 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Yes, I did that as well, I would post mine but it has a lot of cute and paste of text and graphics from RQ RiG, meaning I would be breaking several copyrights to post it.

Mine is not nearly so fancy.  I originally tailored it to my campaign but have genericized it, and will post if anyone asks for it.   I hereby grant free permission to use and copy to anyone who reads this and to Chaosium.

Edited by Squaredeal Sten
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42 minutes ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

OK, this is two documents:

1. My character creation checklist ("notes")

2. The skills spreadsheet

 

 

Genericized Notes on character generation.docx 16.64 kB · 0 downloads Blank Skills spreadsheet.xlsx 16.34 kB · 0 downloads

To much info for a newbie to take in, but having it all laid out like the Blank Skills does allow one to double check ones math (not a bad thing) and of course the whole enchilada is too much for a newbie RAW first time out of the barn (I would think a few char gens would be needed to get the hang of RQG) so you will need an experienced person there to assist anyway.  I would have to go through it to see if I could catch any errors (OCD) but I have what I need already so I am good.

Looks helpful, and I am sure someone will be happy to use ‘em and will thank you for sharing 'em!

Yeah, you really do need a chart to remember everything seeing as Char Gen is so spread out. 

 

ETA Genericized notes will be handy for the experienced min/maxer who wants the most out of his Char Gen!

Edited by Bill the barbarian

... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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6 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

100% agreement! And have you had the pleasure if introducing a new player yet?

Since COVID? One relatively new player to RQ, although he has prior tabletop experience (mostly D&D I think). He wanted to play a healer but I'm still not confident in handling a Chalana Arroy as GM in a relatively combat heavy game, so we compromised on an Ernaldan healer instead. Took about the same length of time as the others.

Before that, most of my players were were as new to RQ as I was, although I could leverage my prior knowledge of Pendragon somewhat (passions, runes as personality traits, family history- there’s a lot of Pendragon in the DNA of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha). 

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7 hours ago, Nozbat said:

Online definitely takes longer

Interesting, that hasn’t really been my experience. Although maybe my memories of the before COVID time are dimming somewhat.

7 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Online is hard! And here are wrinkles involved you would never see at a table IRL

Once you get used to it though… I've found that the player typing in family history events in the Roll20 bio page in edit mode whilst I also have the sheet open at the same time to enter the acquired passions/skills is surprisingly efficient.

6 hours ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

RiG is not a system where one can take a group and have all of them generate a character in parallel over an hour and still have time to play a short session.

This is true. Although you can run a fair bit of it in parallel for a full session of character creation if you're sufficiently familiar with that part of the rules. And the Roll20 sheet helps a fair bit with calcs.

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35 minutes ago, Arcadiagt5 said:

Since COVID? One relatively new player to RQ, although he has prior tabletop experience (mostly D&D I think). He wanted to play a healer but I'm still not confident in handling a Chalana Arroy as GM in a relatively combat heavy game, so we compromised on an Ernaldan healer instead. Took about the same length of time as the others.

Before that, most of my players were were as new to RQ as I was, although I could leverage my prior knowledge of Pendragon somewhat (passions, runes as personality traits, family history- there’s a lot of Pendragon in the DNA of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha). 

Brilliant, glad you are finding it easy. Me, I would rather pull out all my teeth with rusty pliers then play online. But, big but here, I would not be playing with nice people from around the world and I would not be playing during the pandemic period.

32 minutes ago, Arcadiagt5 said:

Once you get used to it though… I've found that the player typing in family history events in the Roll20 bio page in edit mode whilst I also have the sheet open at the same time to enter the acquired passions/skills is surprisingly efficient.

6 hours ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

Have not found that after 9 months of playing online, and I would love for that kick in... anytime now would be grand 😉!

 

... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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51 minutes ago, Arcadiagt5 said:

Since COVID? One relatively new player to RQ, although he has prior tabletop experience (mostly D&D I think). He wanted to play a healer but I'm still not confident in handling a Chalana Arroy as GM in a relatively combat heavy game, so we compromised on an Ernaldan healer instead. Took about the same length of time as the others.

Before that, most of my players were were as new to RQ as I was, although I could leverage my prior knowledge of Pendragon somewhat (passions, runes as personality traits, family history- there’s a lot of Pendragon in the DNA of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha). 

Brilliant, glad you are finding it easy. Me, I would rather pull out all my teeth with rusty pliers then play online. But, big but here, I would not be playing with nice people from around the world and I would not be playing during the pandemic period.

44 minutes ago, Arcadiagt5 said:

Once you get used to it though… I've found that the player typing in family history events in the Roll20 bio page in edit mode whilst I also have the sheet open at the same time to enter the acquired passions/skills is surprisingly efficient.

6 hours ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

Have not found that after 9 months of playing online, and I would love for that kick in... anytime now would be grand 😉!

I am now at family history and new player is astonished and delighted (I realize I am talking for someone else, but that is how it seemed to me) with the expanded history," My grandma, the wood crafter was in the supply train for Grizzly Peak and she got a chance to die defending Tarkorlor. Great!”  "Are you disappointed?", ask I. “No, this is great” says he! “And me ma saw a king get et by a dinosaur and I still have nightmares!”

 

Edited by Bill the barbarian

... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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Generally it takes one to two hours for me to work with a player to create a character. About half of that time is the Family Background process and cult selection. But remember, unlike in many RPGs, character creation in RQG teaches many key tropes of the setting, so it is hardly "lost" time, especially for players new to the setting. 

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28 minutes ago, Jeff said:

Generally it takes one to two hours for me to work with a player to create a character. About half of that time is the Family Background process and cult selection. But remember, unlike in many RPGs, character creation in RQG teaches many key tropes of the setting, so it is hardly "lost" time, especially for players new to the setting. 

Agreed!

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... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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it must take times, and it is good to take times when it is to explore the character and the player wish.

Of course that is not good if you waste time to explore the rule to not lose anything. I don't think rqg rules waste time by the way, seems to me enough clear when you know RQ (all editions) or their cousins, and when you have created two or three characters with RQG

 

the only advice I may have for a new player is to not give her the rules but more explore with her what she wants to play. A warrior ? A magician ? .. Then propose the profession(s). Do not try to propose some tricky / exotic combo for a new player. Just explain the different "meta"  

Explain the gods for what they are, not the detail of their spells, not the list of skills bonus they propose.

When the player decide, then you (GM) put the stats in the character sheet (show what you do to teach her for her next character, she may react to say oh I would prefer blablabla, then adjust ). Of course let the player choose the spells but when the god is choosen. Of course let the player roll the dices (if there are dices to roll)

Then the last thing is the personal skills choice. Everything is done, give the player the sheet, give 4 papers with +25, give 5 papers with +10 and let her do the last job.

Of course if your players want to explore all the rules, want to understand and create by herself, let she does. Or maybe propose the training session as I described, with luck she will be enough happy whith her character to not redo the job by herself.

 

I don't talk about the background because the background is very important from my perspective and depends on your approach. The minimum is to roll dices (good for a player who doesn't know gloranta), the maximum is... up to you and the player

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16 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

I have made up a checklist and guide plus a skills spreadsheet

I'm doing the same.. mostly as an exercise to relearn Excel VBA (which I last used about 10 years ago). I have a button press now that generates all the stats randomly, runes, skill mods, derived characteristics.  I'm now reworking it to generate NPC stat blocks based on 5 levels of NPC archetype from "weak" through to "heroic". A bit like the idea in Six Seasons but with all (well, most of...) the gritty detail generated for you. It was interesting figuring out the cumulative density function for the total of 19d6 (+12 +3 for Elemental Runes).

I rolled up the PC's for my players and reckon an hour or two is about right. Especially when you just just bash the stat values into a spreadsheet and it will do the fiddly stuff for you. I'm aware there's a soup-to-nuts spreadsheet too, which I expect is very good. I've simply been tinkering for fun. The story-based character generation is lovely and worth the effort, IMHO.  It inspired me to read the associated passages in the Glorantha Sourcebook and the Duel at Dangerford Scenario. I feel I have a better grip on the unfolding heroic events now.

17 hours ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

RiG creates characters that are higher "level" than my RQ2nd characters ever reached over a few years of play (well, okay -- I did have a character buy his way into the priesthood; Cults of Prax had both Rune Lords and Rune Priests for Humakt, and the priesthood took into account donations to the cult, so I donated enough money to reach the 95-96% level for acceptance).

Yes, my group found the concept of being newly minted characters being that accomplished (e.g. quite possibly having mastery of a primary skill) a turn-off.  We've nerfed the character generation rules to have the characters start off a little weaker but able to advance more quickly.  YGWV etc.  See attached for the latest version in case of interest.  I intend to figure out what this means for Step 2 (Family History) at some point but am most likely to leave it 'as is' since I rather admire it.

HouseRules.pdf

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