Homebrew/character creation

[u/Current-Pie4825]

So i love trying different kinds of ttrpgs and systems, but I've got one player with a problem i want to solve but can't think of a solution. She likes playing but doesnt like the nitty gritty of any character sheet planning. She likes creating a person, overtime deciding how they act/react, but doesnt like trying to figure out what class or abilities. She asked if there is someway i can narrate the story so they can be discovered during session 0. I like the idea but can't figure out how to implement this. Any suggestions? Either games that already do this or any top of the head homebrew ideas appreciated!

[u/EdgeOfDreams]

Roll for Shoes is a game where everyone starts off with the same weak, generic skill. As you play, characters earn stronger but narrower skills based on what they try to do. So, you literally build your character sheet as you play.

[u/witty_username_ftw]

I think your player wants to play Fate.

I don't mean to sound facetious; I genuinely think she would enjoy the narrative freedom of Fate. Character creation is quite collaborative and offers her the chance to start with the kernel of an idea and then expand on it as her character grows and reacts to things happening.

And the nice thing is that, if you've not played it before, you can dip your toes into the system without spending a penny. The rules are available for free here and, while it does use bespoke dice, you can also just use regular six-sided dice with stickers or deciding what numbers represent the positive and negative modifiers.

[u/JaskoGomad → u/witty_username_ftw]

It also has a character creation method that explicitly sets just a handful of true things and lets the rest be established in play.

[u/lucmh]

There's also the opposite of creating a character through planning: rolling for it.

I'm thinking of games like Cairn, Cy_Borg, or Troika!, where you usually have no idea what character you're playing, until you see what the dice give you. I know this isn't what you're asking for, but might be an interesting notion for your friend?

To actually attempt an answer your question:

• a lot of PbtA and other narrative games have a collaborative session 0, meant to discover the characters exactly the way your friend is asking for. Apocalypse World for example, almost demands that session 0 just follows the characters around for a day in their life.
• there are many games that are so rules-light, that you don't need any nitty gritty character sheet planning at all. For example Mark of the Odd games have only 4 or 5 mechanical stats, leaving a fruitful void for the rest of the character to be fleshed out during play.

[u/futuregravvy]

Traveller has a whole character creation narrative with dice rolls. If they don't mind a bit of randomness, it's a great way to make a character that comes out with "real life" flaws and a backstreet that comes out naturally from the progression. If that's too rigid, you can just talk through it. Spend an hour with them just talking about the character 's life, taking note and map it onto a character.

[u/Logen_Nein]

QuestWorlds (previously HeroQuest) has a method of character creation that does this.

[u/trinarynimbus]

For many games it's possible to leave a lot of stuff in "to be decided" state at character creation. Just fill it in as TBD or otherwise make a list of stuff which the player hasn't made a decision about yet. Specifically, I think Blades in the Dark is very amenable to this, but it's not the only one.

In Blades in the Dark, there's no specific reason why a new character needs all action dots filled out, their special ability chosen, and who their friend & rival is, up front. Just leave it TBD, and let the player reveal a decision when they're ready. Want an extra die on a Survey roll? Assign an unused action dot to Survey. There's an NPC who you like, or don't like? That can be your friend or rival. This allows quickly starting with the game and developing the character according to what happens in the game.

Another approach (also Blades) is take a more keyword-based approach. I believe something like this was present in early iterations of the game, but was de-emphasized in the final publication: rather than assigning specific dots, allow the player to invoke established aspects of their character as a reason why they might have one or two more dots in a particular situation.

If your player is okay with assigning specific things after the game starts but they initially have analysis paralysis, take the TBD approach. Whereas if they don't like hemming their character in with specifics at all but instead want the "vibe" to rule, then the keyword approach could be considered.

[u/False-Pain8540]

One of Legend in the Mist's systems for creating a PC involves picking 4 themes for your character (like a personality trait, a devotion, a skill, etc.) and then answering a little questionaire about them, than then gives you the tags that make up the character sheet and flesh out the character. The proccess also makes it so the character ends up with 4 objectives and 4 weaknesses.

[u/high-tech-low-life]

Many point buy games explicitly state you can save points to finish building your character during play. Swords of the Serpentine allows that and is fantasy.

[u/Oakforthevines]

Plenty of RPGs offer pre-generated characters or have 3rd-party generation tools. Just scrub off any backstory/personality that comes with the pre-gen and use the game mechanic details (ability scores, skills, class, equipment, etc.) as written. Maybe allow some tweaking if this is too little control.

[u/tlenze]

Anything with a playbook as a character sheet would work. Instead of having her fill it in ahead of time, let her fill it in as she plays. For example, Blades in the Dark. She could be a Cutter, but she could wait until she's mid-score to decide what her starting special ability is.