Generating yourself BRP style?

[dracopticon]

Hello all!

I am pondering about the possibility of letting a few player friends of mine transform their "real life stats" into BRP values. Has this been done before? Any tips are welcome.

[tooley1chris]

LOL! I see some hurt feelings when moderator checks the sheets and:

1. Raises an eyebrow curiosly

2. Shakes his/her head sadly

3. Turns red trying not to laugh

4. Shoots Mt.Dew out nose from laughing 

5. Proclaims "Guys...I was being SERIOUS "

6. Loudly asks WTF?

7. Crumples character sheet up and hands  you a new one.

 

I can't imagine a good start to this game but do think it might be fun. Might suggest it to my group if we do a modern zombie game.

I imagine their response to be "Um...we roleplay to NOT be ourselves. "

Edited September 11, 2015 by tooley1chris

[Montjoy]

Don't do it if anyone is even a little sensitive about their actual IQ, Weight(size), or physical capabilities. 

It won't end well starting a game with hurt feelings.

[Montjoy]

Maybe go with idealized "you" based on you but here is a pool of scores to distribute among your abilities.

Everyone gets the same numbers and can put them where they believe they should go.

[soltakss]

Some people might like the idea, but I am of the "I roleplay to play someone else" camp.

Also, my opinion of my stats is probably different to other people's ideas, except for SIZ which is my weight in stones. One way of doing it is to ask everyone in the game to write down what they think the characteristics are for everyone else, then take the most common values. Better do it anonymously, though. 

 

It might be OK for a Gor-style campaign, or a Post-Apocalypse game, where modern people are dropped into a new situation.

[auyl]

Never done this myself. Had friends who have ... didn't end well.

I remind myself of that every time I think of doing this.

[Sunwolfe]

Once upon a time, early college age, my brother GMed a game wherein we--a couple of us--did this. He set the game in our home town which had just undergone some sort of strange attack. We really weren't sure what kind of attack, but all indications seemed to point toward aliens--there were many peeps missing, but only a few were found dead without apparent reason. By the way he described things, the environment had a something of a Gamma World vibe to it without the years-since-the-holocaust decay and ruin.

As for our characters, my brother questioned us concerning our likes and dislikes, making notes about what we really knew at that moment. Being readers we actually were aware of a lot of things. He highlighted our skills, he exaggerated them  somewhat, and then gave them percentages. He unilaterally decided we were all a bit more than average on the INT scale, 14 as I recall, and he used some mechanism I can't recall for calculating CON, STR and DEX. APP/CHA never really came up. We spent most of the game trying to access food, weapons and transportation while investigating the disappearances and dodging local gangs on the prowl for supplies, loot and slaves. 

We had just broached the subject of POW after encountering public park areas where evidence indicated some sort of arcane ritual had taken place when we ended the game for the night. We all agreed it was a blast and wanted to do more. I'm sad to say we never did get back to the game, but I certainly wish we had.

Cheers!

[sladethesniper]

The way we have done it in the past is for everyone to make stats for everyone, except themselves...and then take the average value.  That was actually pretty good in our group of 5 players.

-STS

[Al.]

The (unpublished but available on the web legally posted by the author) Virgin Dr Who game has a section for doing this.

The Rating there is different (1 to 6 I think) but could be translated fairly easily

I think it was things like most people have Willpower 3 if you are a notorious coward or have failed to quit smoking for more than two days it is 2, if you work in a dangerous profession like bomb disposal 4 

Any already written guidelines is externally moderated and seems fairer than

 hmmmm Al you're butt ugly have App 6

Even if really they're not any fairer in reality

 

Al

[Aelwyn]

Sladethesniper has a good idea, but I'm not sure the folks I role-play with are aware that I've got teaching experience and a black-belt in Tae Kwon Do, or that I used to run a men's group. Maybe you could bring in a resume of relevant experience for the skills you think you have, then let other players assign numbers to those.

And here's my own attempt. 

Ron Stanley

STR 12 (broad shoulders, sometimes do physical work, but I don't lift weights)

CON 10 (allergies but no serious health problems; I exercise sporadically and don't seem to have a problem with altitude sickness, although I've had some problems with motion sickness; gave myself an extra point because I seem to be able to "push myself" at the point where most people become fatigued)

SIZ 13 (based on weight rather than height) 

INT 14 (IQ/10, rounded up and subtracted a point as my IQ hasn't been tested since I was 8 years old, and my memory isn't what it used to be)

POW 9 (history of depression; no apparent talent for magic; numerous attempts to "use the force" when I was 14 all failed; however, I strongly suspect this is due to the lack of magic in this setting rather than the absence of midi-chlorians in me)

DEX 7 (I have to admit, I'm a clutz; perfect outfit for me would be coffee-colored pants and marinara-colored shirt)

APP 13 (self-deprecating, and somewhat good-looking, but not movie-star handsome [although I look a lot like the actor Kenneth Branagh]; I've based this a little more on my ability to get along with a wide range of people in many different circumstances rather than physical beauty)

EDU 16 (I have a master's degree (18 years of education) but I think EDU 18 would not make sense for me as there are serious gaps in my knowledge. Plus, you could pretty much do away with this stat in a campaign... if you know something, your character knows it, period.)

Skills: Write 80%, Edit 80%, Teach 50%, Brawl 50%, Grapple 35%, Persuade 40%, Command 40%, Perform (Sing) 50%, Perform (Guitar) 30%, Listen 10%, Psychotherapy 25%, Repair (Structural) 25%

Notes: I'm a professional editor and have been published in national newspapers and professional magazines. I was a high school English teacher for 9 years, hence the Teach skill. I manage a small team of people... Persuade rather than Command seems to be more my management style, but I think I can get some of the effects of Command with a lighter touch. I got a black belt in Tae Kwon Do from a pretty serious club but I am out of practice, so I gave myself a 50% for Brawl and a 35% for Grapple, but I'm probably 0-5% for Martial Arts. 1st degree black belts are fairly common; it would be a lot more impressive if I were a 3rd-degree black belt and my skills were current. Might want to bump those stats up a bit if other players start maxxing their characters. Listen skill is low because I've got some deficits in that area. Gave myself slight bumps for Psychotherapy due to running a men's group for young men and Repair (Structural) because I'm fairly handy but have no professional experience in that area other than fixing up my own house to sell it. Also sing and write my own songs, but I'm a beginning guitar player.

Not sure how long I'd survive in a combat- or magic-based setting.

Possible other skills: Drive (automobile), Strategy, Computer Programming (this would be fairly low but maybe above the base skill), Technical Skill (Computer Use)

[Hexelis]

Years ago, a few of us discussed this. Just beginning to talk about it, I knew it wouldn't work in our group. Everyone tended to view themselves through rose-colored glasses and were very critical of everyone else. I quickly realized I was gaming with a bunch of delusional narcissistic ego-maniacs. I still think I had the most sanity, lol.

[seneschal]

Both Time Lord (mentioned above by A.I.) and the venerable Villains & Vigilantes took this approach.  The idea in V&V is that you play yourself, with powers.  Since superheroes in that game are basically Average Joes who happen to have one or two unusual abilities, it isn't much of a stretch.  Same with time travel, apocalyptic, horror and other campaigns in which the player-characters are ordinary people caught up in extraordinary situations.  I think sladethesniper's averaging game stats by other players suggestion is a good salve for fragile egos; works best if the group consists of friends who know one another fairly well.

That said, I'm in the "I play to escape reality" camp.  As I've mentioned elsewhere, when I role-play I want to be able to one-punch King Kong, out-think Sherlock Holmes, bounce off walls like Bruce Lee with a gut full of Red Bull, ooze so much suavity that I make James Bond look like Don Knotts, and of course, always get the girl.  

[ORtrail]

The (unpublished but available on the web legally posted by the author) Virgin Dr Who game has a section for doing this

Al

Wait, what?  Unpublished?  We are talking the Time Lord RPG from 1991 by Ian Marsh and Peter Darvill-Evans?  I have a published copy of that, which I think the wife picked up while we were on a vacation to New York city.  At an airport book store I think.  It was printed in Great Britain, so maybe only a handful of copies ever made it across the pond?

After edit:  What about the BTRC time travel RPG called Timelords?  The assumption was you would play as yourself, hurled accidentally through time and space.  There was a handy(?) list of questions to help determine your number for each attribute. 

 

Another edit:  Okay,  quick look at  Wikipedia and my questions are answered. 

Edited September 14, 2015 by ORtrail

[seneschal]

Time Lord in the U.S. suffered from several things.  It came out during the original DW series' nadir.  It was marketed in book stores but not in game shops.  And it was published as a small paperback book entirely unlike the boxed sets and magazine sized books American gamers were used to.  Booksellers, who never figured out what to do with RPG materials anyway, put it with the sci-fi and fantasy novels instead of with the D&D sets.  It got lost.  Plus, as the author himself has admitted, the rules were pretty rudimentary.  Gamers who did find Time Lord were put off by the system even if they though FASA's Doctor Who RPG rules had been wonky.

[Al.]

Wait, what?  Unpublished?  We are talking the Time Lord RPG from 1991 by Ian Marsh and Peter Darvill-Evans? 

Erm yes. You are quite correct it was published. It even says so in the pdf and on the website.

How embarassing  

[Al.]

Both Time Lord (mentioned above by A.I.

Al (ay elle) not A.I. (ay eye), in retrospect using my shortened name as my forum ID on every forum I post on was an error. Seems to be an issue with any and all forum fonts. As I think I'm right in saying (though see above for the accuracy of my posts) that that error has been made on every forum I've ever used.

[Baulderstone]

I tried it many years ago, and it was a bad idea. I think the only way it could work would be to use point-based generation, with the assumption that they are playing a fictionalized version of themselves. You might not be able to afford everything you believe you should have, and some people might have abilities you don't believe they could. It's not like you are every going to get a perfect simulation of the players anyway. Might as well do it in a way that does the least damage. 

Even the anonymous averaging idea seems perilous to me. Someone's feelings are just as likely to be hurt, and their resentment can be spread across the whole group. And personally, if the GM asks me to judge every other players stats, I am not doing it, even if the data is going to be anonymized. I'll just politely sit that campaign out. 

[ORtrail]

See, that kind of negative vibe post is why I had to give you such a low Charisma score, Baulderstone. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2015 by ORtrail

[Baulderstone]

See, that kind of negative vibe post is why I had to give you such a low Charisma score, Baulderstone. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*unconvincingly attempts to laugh at your "joke" good naturedly, quietly biding my time until I can completely screw over your character when you least expect it.