Im working on something like this right now. I am creating all the PCs myself. My players won't know anything until they start the AP.
Check out the 3pp Adventure Up From Darkness. The PCs wake up entombed and with amnesia. It even uses the idea of players not knowing their character abilities.
EZG: " Best one shot in ages."
Im working on something like this right now. I am creating all the PCs myself. My players won't know anything until they start the AP.I would love to try that both as a GM (if the playersite are willing) and as a player.
Just depends on your group. My players have been gaming with me for 15+ years. They trust me to give them solid, functional, characters that will fit their perosnality and playstyle.
I have designed their characters for the last several APs we have done, and they have been happy with it. I plot out their advancements, so that step doesn't bog down a session when they level.
This time though, they won't see it coming...
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Go for it, me and my gaming group have talked about playing this Ap, being mythos and horror freaks.
We talked about doing the totalt blank character sheet - its more horror, and even when the players do not known if they can certain things and have to try.
Slowly the get to fill out the blanks, as a GM make a lot of flashback or other scenes to tease some of their past.
It's a good idea :-)
Messed around with an idea similar to this. Start the players off as "kids" with average ability scores and one good one. Then they choose which class they want to be "when they grow up". Separate out the the abilities and work through it.
Yours would be slightly different as you "gain" an ability as you go. Basically run into the situation and add the multipliers behind the screen saying "you thought that was easy/tough" depending on how far they succeed/fail. Keep them guessing.
General Rules:
- Abilities: All scores are 8.
- HP: Start at CON and then add 1/6th for each year completed.
- Feat: 5th Year
- Skills: 1 per year, starting at the beginning of Third Year, unless they have more than 6, then add 1 to each year (starting with the lowest).
- Class Abilities/Features: 1 per year unless they have more than 6, then add 1 to each year (starting with the lowest).
- Armor Proficiency: Cloth, Leather, Hide, Chainmail, Scale, Plate (in order). Offered on the year, but can be taken at any time after the assigned year.
- Shield Proficiency: Light (3rd), Heavy (6th), can be taken at any time after the assigned year.
- Class: Chosen at the end of the First Year.
- Weapon Proficiency: 1-2 Simple, 3-4, Martial, 5-6 Superior (must take Feat if required).
- Stat Boost: Given the number of points at the beginning of the year.
- Spellcasting: 0 level spells are learned in the Third Year. The remaining spells are spread out over the remaining years. Prepared spells are equal to the base number and improve based on the primary Ability Score.
- Movement is reduced by 5’ and increased to normal after the 4th year.
- Size: All characters are considered size Small until the end of their 3rd year, then they take on their normal size category.
These are some cool ideas! Another interesting twist that occurred to me (either for Strange Aeons or not) is have their class be based on their actions. So, while they don't know who they are (either from amnesia or with the child idea) however they react to situations determines what class they should be. So someone who suggests sneaking, make them a rogue, if someone tries to protect someone else, then a paladin, etc. Might be tricky to have it happen naturally if the players know about it, but could be fun to try. Have them develop the character's personalities based on the events as they unfold and from that determine the classes. Just a thought.
But, as for the OP, I say go for it! Sounds like a perfect place to use that idea!
It has definitely inspired me to try something unusual like this someday. Thanks!
Looks like there are a lot of us planning to do similar things. Here's my take:
I am fully pregenerating the characters, but will not equip them in any way. At the first session, the players will have presented before them a character portrait, a very brief physical description, and the full text of the traits selected for the character. There will be no more specific information than this, and some of it will intentionally be at least somewhat misleading (there will be at least one character who is not human but appears to be, etc). I am taking full advantage of the Unchained "Removing Alignment" system, and no character will have a specific deity listed on their sheet (unless they have the Birthmark trait or similar).
When the players have selected their characters based upon the information presented, the session will begin - still no character sheet, just the little "resume" (if you've read the first encounter, you know this is going to be pretty apropos).
When they then awaken fully, they'll receive their character sheets: no equipment, no names, no spells prepared. The sacks of equipment will not be in such a convenient location, either; the characters have been in the asylum for at least some days if not a week or more, so I will have their actual belongings stored away elsewhere (in a bin, not separated, and in the form of equipment cards, just because they were never really intended to get it all back anyway).
I'll be using HeroLab at the table in realtime to ease the process of having characters find and redistribute their goods and whatnot.
I'm using a variation of this. I let the players build their characters, but not any background.I think the players being comfortable with what they are playing is an important part of the game.
My approach is having the amnesia being closer to the one in the book: they lose all skills, spells and class abilities. Starting in the dream, when they discover they only have 1d4 items with them, I'd remove as well their skills and class abilities, then recover them slowly.
When they wake up in the cell, and every player will have 1d4 skills, 1 single class ability (the things that you gain at first level, such as "spell combat" or "arcana pool" for the magus or "domain" and "channel energy" for the cleric. I will also remove the starting gear from the first room. They'll find some oversized scalpels that count as daggers, a club or two, and a hand axe near the furnace (to chop wood). Among the corpses in the nearby room, they'll have some dead guards, which carry leather armor, maces, and light crossbows. Once they reach the main corridor, in some wall they'll find a coat of arms with a couple of longswords crossing a large shield, etc. The players also remember 1 single spell, and the doppelganger doctor carry enough basic chemical components in his surgeon kit for a single extract for the alchemist in the group.
They still have BAB, saves, HP, armor and weapon proficiencies, and feats. I thought about hindering them more, but the first few combats in this AP are against Doppelgangers, which is a pretty tough monster to fight at lvl 1, moreso without spells and undergeared.
At the begining of every combat, I let them roll a Will save to remember 1 extra class ability. And whenever they succesfuly use a skill (rolling like if they had rank 0), they get their ranks back.
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I've been brainstorming ideas along this line, but I have been wanting to keep character pre-building out of the hands of the players for the sake of getting more out of the amnesia aspect. At the same time I am also keeping in mind avoiding too much halt in play and looking for ways to reveal character details to the players organically.
A couple ideas I have come up with so far, one of which came to mind reading through comments here. The concept behind these ideas is intended to play up the "Jason Bourne" factor with muscle memory or subconscious reaction revealing more what the character is capable of. Both would involve some note-passing so that only the player knows and can be given an opportunity to play it up.
Idea one: A player's responses to the environment and encounters during play would shape the direction of the character. Pro: Allows for the most organic process of progression from the player's perspective. Con: It could prove difficult for trying to incorporate casters, plus the GM would need to be on their toes for on-the-spot decision making.
Idea two (one I will likely go with): Have some of the character randomly pre-decided, such as drawn from a hat or rolled on a chart, but the information is withheld from the player and slowly revealed over time. Pro: Providing prompts to the player is easier on the GM. Con: GM would need to do a bit more pre-campaign prep with creating cards to draw and various other character specifics, such as starting equipment.