Character Creation Card Draft

[newagelancelot]

Hi All,

Early days into a concept I'm working on for and alternative character creation method. It's aim to for players to have fun creating a balanced party together, by "gamifying" it. I'd love to share it and gather the collective wisdom of the Paizo community in the process, to see if I'm crazy and should trash the idea, or if the concept can be improved.

The general premise is to breakdown character creation into 3 main areas (each represented by cards):
- Party Role (Burgler, Caster, Healer, Warrior, Wildcard)
- Dice Pool for generating ability scores (24d6,25d6,26d6,27d7)
- Starting Hero Points (0, 1, 2, 3)

Check out my in-progress card layouts here
(Artwork shameless pillaged from Google. No rights reserved, this is just a pet project for me. Cards not for sale. Yada yada...)

There's lots of ways to approach the draft, whether it's roll for first pick or using a "chip bid" system. (I haven't thought deeply about which way is best, and I'm open to feedback.) Players take it in turns to select a card, and they can only select one card from each category. So, in theory, players who prefer to play a specific role may have a smaller dice pool, or fewer hero points, etc; and players who are more open to playing unpopular roles get rewarded with more hero points or a bigger dice pool to roll their ability scores.

For 4 Players, drop the Wildcard role (which lets the player pick any class they want).
For 5 Players, have 2 x "25d6 Dice Pool" cards, and 2 x "1 Hero Point" cards.

Anyway, I'll write it up more formally if there's interest from the community. For now, it's just a crazy idea.

I'm grateful for your thoughts.

[Azten]

This is quite similar to the way my friends and I created characters once. We had three piles(Race, Class, and Background) we all drew one from, and then we'd pass one to a player on our left had some crazy things, like a Half-Fiend Elf with the artist background.

How does one roll a d7?

[johnnythexxxiv]

Well it turns out, first you have to talk about how you got the d7 and what it means to be a d7 for 4 minutes, and then you have to talk about how you rolled the d7 a thousand times for a minute, and then you actually roll it.

[newagelancelot]

Azten wrote:

This is quite similar to the way my friends and I created characters once. We had three piles(Race, Class, and Background) we all drew one from, and then we'd pass one to a player on our left had some crazy things, like a Half-Fiend Elf with the artist background.

How does one roll a d7?

Lol. Thanks for spotting the typo, and for the feedback.

It should read as 27d6.

[Shiroi]

I see some level of problems with the idea, in that some bonuses are temporary and others are permanent. +x hero points is a limited resource I'm not likely to be able to use more than once, whereas a bonus to my point buy is essentially free money forever. One of them gives me a single spotlight moment, the other gives me a long term permanent glow.

I feel like you should divide the role cards up further into more cards instead.

Try "single target damage" "aoe" "status debuffer"

"HP healer" "status buffer" "nerf cleaner"

"Tank" "saves specialist" "positioning expert"

"Physical skill monkey" "utility spellbot" "knowledgeable bookworm"

You now have 4 piles of 3 cards each. Draft piles, such that each of the 4 players now has 3 roles from different aspects of the character creation process.

For instance, I want first and foremost to be a status nerfer. I'll take that card from my draft turn, before anyone else. I wanted to make statuses my thing, but before my next draft someone else picked up the status buffer card so instead I'll need to pick a different secondary focus. I pick up nerf cleaner since I can't be the buff person, and keep more of my flavor. For my third pick, there aren't many options left so I'll draw the saves specialist.

Now I need to design a character who deals status effects easily, removes them from allies, and isn't affected by them to start with because of high saves. I'm a battlefield control expert. My allies each have 3 roles as well, which means the other 9 cards are occupied and our party has access to a wide arsenal of strong points to handle every situation.

Note that I've drafted a 12 card system, and it's all about roles in the party, so we keep the same point buys and starting hero points. Our characters should have different focuses and strengths, but still be roughly comparable to one another in overall power.

With 3 people, everyone draws a card from each stack. With 5, you still draw 3 cards but you put the first one you drew back at the end of the first round of drafting so that there's cards left for the 5th player. Similar tactics for 6 players, returning your first two cards after the second draft round.

-------------------------

A second thought... As a way to stick closer to your original idea, you could run a slightly higher power game on the concept of using a subtly different system to hero points for that last card type.

Three decks consist of "role" "point buy cost" and "swing moment".

Swing moment would range from 0 swing, 1 swing is a single +/-5 before a roll of your choice each session, 2 swing is a +/-5 after a roll of your choice each session, and 3 swing is a forced reroll of one die each session (or both of the first but used on different rolls if you prefer).

This means you can have your first choice of party roll, a stat boost which gives consistent results, or a roll boost giving stronger results but less often generally being once per session.

[newagelancelot]

Shiroi wrote:

I see some level of problems with the idea, in that some bonuses are temporary and others are permanent. +x hero points is a limited resource I'm not likely to be able to use more than once, whereas a bonus to my point buy is essentially free money forever. One of them gives me a single spotlight moment, the other gives me a long term permanent glow.

I feel like you should divide the role cards up further into more cards instead.

Try "single target damage" "aoe" "status debuffer"

"HP healer" "status buffer" "nerf cleaner"

"Tank" "saves specialist" "positioning expert"

"Physical skill monkey" "utility spellbot" "knowledgeable bookworm"

You now have 4 piles of 3 cards each. Draft piles, such that each of the 4 players now has 3 roles from different aspects of the character creation process.

For instance, I want first and foremost to be a status nerfer. I'll take that card from my draft turn, before anyone else. I wanted to make statuses my thing, but before my next draft someone else picked up the status buffer card so instead I'll need to pick a different secondary focus. I pick up nerf cleaner since I can't be the buff person, and keep more of my flavor. For my third pick, there aren't many options left so I'll draw the saves specialist.

Now I need to design a character who deals status effects easily, removes them from allies, and isn't affected by them to start with because of high saves. I'm a battlefield control expert. My allies each have 3 roles as well, which means the other 9 cards are occupied and our party has access to a wide arsenal of strong points to handle every situation.

Note that I've drafted a 12 card system, and it's all about roles in the party, so we keep the same point buys and starting hero points. Our characters should have different focuses and strengths, but still be roughly comparable to one another in overall power.

With 3 people, everyone draws a card from each stack. With 5, you still draw 3 cards but you put the first one you drew back at the end of...

Thanks for the Feedback Shiroi. I appreciate your thoughts, in particular about the "Swing moment". I might adapt the traditional Hero Points model to make it a more permanent thing. For example, eliminating the usual way of earning Hero Points, instead replacing it with something printed on the card. For example, each time they level up, the character earns a number of Hero Points printed on their card. Is that too powerful?

[Shiroi]

It depends on how often you level up. It could easily be too powerful if you level every session, or again entirely wasted if you level twice a year. Any "swing" bonus, under any style or description, needs to be based on your campaign. 15 minute adventuring day vs long day of attrition style play? It makes a difference if you choose "x each day". Sessions spanning multiple days or even weeks vs multiple sessions to finish a single day? Same problem if you base the refresh on sessions. Fast vs long leveling track, or even "level when I say you do"? This can be a big difference.

When you use this mechanic, understand that not all measures are created equal and be sure you balance it based on your play style, and your party needs, to be approximately equal in value to the other options.