Eric and I were talking the other day about GURPS, character creation in particular. He is having some trouble wrapping his head around everything that is involved with character creation. After creating ten or twelve characters in my little Excel spreadsheet I've developed something of a process for character creation and I kind of outlined it for him on the phone. I think, and I said as much then, that I will post it up here. Not because I think it is particularly awesome or noteworthy, but just because having something to go off of can give you a bit of a leg up on the process and I know a few of my cohorts read the blog. I know I found it extremely daunting when I first got into it (skills in particular) and I mostly ignored any advice from the book itself when I started doing this stuff so perhaps some of this is a repeat of what you'd find in the pages of the Basic Set.
1. The first step is to have at least the bare bones idea of a character concept. Does he use guns? Is he a doctor? An explosives expert? A cobbled together automotan based on Tesla's prototypes and wired with modern electronics? This gives you an idea of where to start on everything. If you are gun or hand-to-hand combat expert your skills and basic attributes are very likely going to be vastly different than those of a doctor or teacher. With GURPS I like to peruse the advantages of the Basic Set and some of the alternate takes on them in other sourcebooks to get ideas for my characters. There is obviously the traditional path of taking inspiration from movies and literature and such as well. I guess his step is standard for any RPG.
2. My next step is to go to the basic and secondary attributes. I find them the easiest part of character creation. If you swinging punches you need higher end DX and ST, if its just guns you need DX, etc. If you have a general idea of your character in your mind this is one of the easiest steps. Ten is the human norm, if he's not human or is superior in a few areas, you know where your points need to go. I don't usually do much with secondary stats because I generally obsess over having super high stats and don't need to raise them. Again, if you have a clear idea of your character this is another easy part. If he is a hand to hand fighter, he needs Basic Move so he can get to grips with ranged characters before they destroy him, if he is a big bruiser of a charater he needs more HP than normal, etc.
3. My next step is to move over to disadvantages, for two reasons. The first is that it allows you to have a clearer picture of the points you have available to spend on advantages and skills when you get to those parts. The second reason is that a lot of disadvantages are stuff like Bully, Addiction, Secret, Honesty, etc. These sort of things can give you an even clearer picture of who your character is if you only have a vague idea. Going through the disadvantage list and picking out what sounds right is a great way to kind of fill in the details in a sort of organic way during character creation. If you already have a picture perfect idea of who this person is, this step is pretty easy, aside from some math crunching when figuring out all the Self Control roll factors.
4. This is the really fun part for me. I love scrolling through all the advantages thinking of new ways to use them and fluff them. The Robot had Enhanced Time Sense because his sensors allowed him to pick up minute movements and alterations in human musculature so he could anticipate their actions, but a wizened old martial arts master might have it because he has meditated and trained his senses and body to such a heightened state that his mind can process information and adapt to it almost instantaneously. It amounts to the same thing in the end, but its all about adding your twist to your character. To continue. I do a quick read through the portion of the book picking up only the advantages I absolutely MUST have for the character concept. Don't bother getting truly in depth, just take what you absolutely have to have for the character to work. Then move on.
5. Skills. I find skills to be the most daunting portion of character creation. There are so many skills to peruse, some with prerequisites, and its takes a lot of flipping. What I like to do is write down which skills I feel are necessary to the character and the minimum level I feel I need to function with them. Once they're all written down I go back to the page on buying skills and then start filling in all the costs. This can also be a step where you learn about your character's background if you didn't know them already. You can get to a point where you have two or four points left over or something along those lines and be reading something and decide that your character had a background in Accounting or Philosophy or Gardening (like Hank Mardukus). I also consider this to be the point where you purchase techniques and spells as well because those have a similar format to skills. I find that I really need to watch myself during this step, its very tempting to just spam a buch of every sort of skill you can imagine, but you really need to pick and choose and try and stay true to whatever concept or background you have. At four points a piece (in some instances) it can be easy to justify purchasing something you don't really need, but if you do it one too many times your going to find yourself going over your point total.
6. Do it all over again. Now that you've been through each area of character creation its time to tweak the mess a bit. Do you really need that fifteen in DX or IQ? Or can you drop it a point or two and free that up to pump up or purchase a skill necessary to your character's role in the game. Or maybe you only need five more points to purcahse Combat Reflexes or Precognition or some other neat advantage you'd like to have. Can you afford to take another disadvantage or have you come in under your budget enough to lose one you're not particular fond of? This is the part where you really refine the math of character creation and hopefully at this point you've got something you're fond enough to use during the game.
Hopefully this is a bit of help.
Music: Sally - Gogol Bordello
Music: Not A Crime - Gogol Bordello
Music: Immigrant Punk - Gogol Bordello
Music: Start Wearing Purple - Gogol Bordello
Music: Origin of the Species - MC Frontalot
No comments:
Post a Comment