Jason Farlander
Apr 20 2004, 12:33 AM
I'm working on a new handout to give to new players. Here is my current draft. It's based somewhat on Bull's 50+ questions, and includes the hireability stuff I posted here recently. If there's anything I left out that is sufficiently important as to bear mentioning, or if you have any comments at all, I'd like to hear them. Thanks.
[ Spoiler ]
So youre about to make a shadowrun character. Cool. Hold on, though... put those books away for a bit. Dont write anything until I tell you to. Before you start crunchingnumbers, I want you to consider the idea that you are going to be creating a person - not just a set of statistics. Real people have backgrounds, desires, beliefs, and goals. So should your character.
Before you hit the books, I would like a summary of who your character is as a person. That summary should be at least a single page, typed and single-spaced. You may write the summary in any way you wish: as a story, monologue, biography, or even a simple list of questions and answers. There are a number of things that I want you to make sure you address in your character summary (these will be listed below), but feel free to include any extra information you like.
While you will not be "graded" on your work, I do reserve the right to reject any character if I do not like the background, as well as to reward backgrounds I find particularly interesting with bonus points to be spent during the number crunching portion of character generation. Yes, this involves a good deal of subjectivity on my part - you will have to trust that I am trying to be fair and reasonable. In all cases, provide as much detail and be as specific in that detail as you can, as this will help ensure a favorable reaction on my part.
(Note: if your character has Amnesia, you may not be able to address some of the
following questions. Note also, however, that granting your character Amnesia gives the GM full license to determine those details, which can be a very dangerous thing. Don't take the decision to play an amnesiac character lightly)
- Describe your character's childhood. Where and when was your character born? Were you issued a SIN (a number that identifies you as a citizen)? If not, why not? What was his or her family life like? What did his or her parent's do for a living? Did anything particularly unusual happen to your character while he or she was still a child?
- Describe your character's education. Was your character formally educated? Where? What did he or she study? Did your character go to college? If your character did not recieve formal education, how did your character learn the things he or she currently knows?
- What did your character do for a living before becomming a shadowrunner? What kind of job did your character have? Does he or she still have a *normal* job? Under what circumstances did your character learn the skills that would later prove useful to a life in the shadows?
- *This is important*: Describe how and why you became a shadowrunner, as well as why your character continues to run the shadows rather than getting a *real* job and living a *normal* life. What does your character hope to accomplish as a shadowrunner - what goal or goals does your character strive to achieve? Under what circumstances would you give up running the shadows?
- Now that your character is a shadowrunner, what is his or her life like? Where does your character live? What does your character do with his or her free time? Does your character maintain contact with his or her family? Has your character ever had any serious relationships? If your character has a SIN, how does he or she deal with the risk of getting caught? What does your character think about his or her shadowrunning career? What "useful" contacts does your character possess, and how did you come to know those people?
- Describe your character's beliefs, morals, and how those beliefs and morals affect his or her shadowrunning career. What are your character's religious beliefs? What are your character's political beliefs? What does your character think about magic? Does your character have any prejudices? Are there any jobs your character will not take? Are there any circumstances that would cause your character to abandon a job he or she had already accepted? Is there anything your character would be willing to die for?
- Describe your character's personality. What is his or her favorite thing to do? What annoys your character the most? What does your character fear the most? Does your character like to socialize? Are you a "loner" or a "team player"? What does your character think about other people, in general? How easy is it to get along with your character? Is your character uptight and meticulous or more relaxed and easygoing? Does your character have any notable personality quirks?
- Describe your character physically. Gender, metatype, height, weight, build, skin color, hair color, eye color and any unique traits (such as scars and tatoos) are important, as well as how your character dresses, how well groomed your character is, and how your chraracter conducts him- or herself in general.
- What is your character's "Street Name" and why did your character choose that
particular name. (if your character has gone by any other street names in the past, please mention and explain those as well)
- Finally, fill in with a good number of minor details to help flesh out the character.
Things like favorite foods, musical preferences, etc. If you have any questions, please ask. I am more than willing to help.
Once I have approved your character summary, you may proceed to peruse the books and build your character. If you would prefer to have me build a character for you, I am willing to do so. If you have any questions concerning the character generation process, please ask. You may use build point, priority, sum-to-ten, or BECKS when making your character - I ask that you let me know which system you use. Please, please, do NOT cheat when making your character. I can usually tell. I will not be happy.
When you finish the number crunching portion of character generation, I want you to submit a copy of the finished character as well a one-paragraph summary of the reasons a prospective employer should hire your character AND a one-paragraph summary of the reasons a shadowrunning team should accept your character. I ask that you attempt to write these paragraphs in character, but you are not *required* to write them in character if it proves too difficult.
You should only consider your character to be complete AFTER you have submitted all of these things to me and I have given the character my final approval. Once that happens... CONGRATULATIONS! You're ready to start playing!
Okay... remember how I told you not to write anything until I gave you permission? You now have my permission. Just dont forget the most important thing: have fun!
(Note: Spoiler tags were used based on the length of the deal)
kevyn668
Apr 20 2004, 12:44 AM
I think its a great tool for beging players. Bravo!
For more seasoned characters, I perfer either the 20 ?s or a page or so (single spaced).
But I got burned back in the day when I cranked out a 9ish page background for a new character and he died 3 sessions in. Bad rolls. It sucked. Now I try to hit the important stuff and leave the rest rather vague. If the character survives I can fill in the details as we go. Kind of like character development on a TV series.
"Oh yeah, my....step brother. Haven't seen you in....."
**looks to Gm** how long was that again?
Sorry, chummer. I rambled.
Anywho, Good Idea.
tisoz
Apr 20 2004, 01:44 AM
About the only issue I have concerns the following:
| QUOTE |
| Under what circumstances did your character learn the skills that would later prove useful to a life in the shadows? |
This infers/assumes the character is new to shadowrunning. What about the sap who got canned because of office politics/scapegoat/expensive injury that was easier to fir than cover expense/whatever and found themselves blackballed from getting a similar position with another company? Or they've made their way through half a dozen corps and no one will hire them? They have no choice but something a bit illegal, stumble through it, learn from their mistakes, and eventually learn what they need to know to survive at the time your game starts.
This is one problem with the character background first approach. If the player invests the character with a ll the attributes, skills, resources a normal person would have, they are going to exceed whatever creation system is employed. Make them a shadowrunner that should possess some unique skills above and beyond the norm. Based on the skill descriptions, an adult should have at least 100 points just in level 1 and 2 skills.
Make that child born to human parents (just like a human child likely was) but make them a metahuman, and suddenly they get put on the short bus? Or however you want to portray the reasons for game balance.
What if the person is a totally untrained magician, never learned a spell or a magic skill? Doesn't know how to astrally project and has the drek scared out of him when his vision goes wacky. 30 BP - that's what. He could have earned a PhD in 5 unrelated fields, if his background says so for the same price. What did the untrained mage do in the time multi PhD (or multi weapons expert) was learning these skills? Try to puzzle out what why no one else talks about their eyesight going crazy, or investing thousands of nuyen trying to get it corrected?
Every time I try to do background first, totally disregarding what it will cost, I always come up short and with a bunch of stuff irrelevant to shadowrunning. When the number crunching comes, the irrelevant gets trimmed first. Why have a useless guy who took longer to create than he is going to survive?
Jason Farlander
Apr 20 2004, 02:01 AM
| QUOTE (tizos) |
| This infers/assumes the character is new to shadowrunning. |
So.. do you think I should include a line saying something along the lines of "if the specific wording of any of the following questions does not fit with your character background, ignore the specific wording and address the general idea of the question as best you can." ?
| QUOTE (tisoz) |
| Based on the skill descriptions, an adult should have at least 100 points just in level 1 and 2 skills. |
I personally think that most people default when using these minor skills.
gknoy
Apr 20 2004, 02:08 AM
I think it might be interesting to have a handout of sorts about what it "means" to be a professional shadowrunner. Granted, this is potential flamebait as we ALL have differing ideas, to an extent, on this issue. But what about the new players who have NEVER read any of the books, and might not even have the time/inclination to read the intro story in SR3?
Such a handout might cover ...
What is a Shadowrunner?
(What's a Johnson?)
What are typical roles in a Shadowrunning team? (this is especially important, IMO)
What differentiates a "pro" from an "amateur" runner?
And go on to cover things like,
Why are the Typical Roles above considered necessary for a well-balanced team?
What are typical jobs that anonymous employers might contract a Shadowrunner for? (this might be considered part of the definition of what a 'Runner is, actually ...)
I ask all this becqause my players are very casually involved, but have asked to have an introduction to the SR universe/world. I've opted do save orbital bovine bombardments (a staple of SR
) for later.
Arethusa
Apr 20 2004, 02:15 AM
Unfortunately, a heavy roleplaying game will have to simply toss number crunching out the window. There's no way around it. Build points and priorities force you to make the best of what you have, and that means no skills that won't get used heavily. Maybe you were a former soldier, but if you're going to an effective sam and you'll be using assault rifles and pistols, you don't waste points on shotgun, rifle, or anything else you won't touch. Maybe you were airborne qualified, but you're a moron if you spend points in parachute. That's just how it goes unless you run a heavy roleplaying game and can trust your characters to play for the character and not the numbers.
RangerJoe
Apr 20 2004, 02:37 AM
I have to agree with gknoy. We sort of assume you've given the new player a once-over about what Shadowrun is about. A good way of keying folks in to the SR universe, though, is to have them read the "example run" in the begining of the BBB, or let them read through the expose in SSG. Of course, there is a place for character before books, but also for books before character.
Jason Farlander
Apr 20 2004, 03:26 AM
Right... this is just the character generation deal. Before they get to the point where they start thinking about making characters, I have new players read the first couple of sections in SR3 (the sample run and the history sections) and, now that it exists, the section in the SSG you mentioned.
When I encounter a player that doesnt really care enough about the game to read a couple of chapters in the main book, I just hand that player a premade character with a minibackground (I have a bunch of those) and give them a basic rundown of the game as a whole.
A handout describing the basics of what Shadowrun is and what being a shadowrunner means might be a good idea, though. Has anyone actually written up such a thing (so I don't have to)?
Anymage
Apr 20 2004, 07:32 AM
Wad up your handout and toss it out. Okay, maybe keep one sheet for yourself, but don't hand them to your players. Typed-up character backgrounds tend to get a little silly, and may not have anything to do with how the character is in play.
For your first sesson, you're not going to be doing any playing at all. Zip, zero, zilch, unless you've scheduled a loooong playtime. That first sesson will be setting groundwork, nothing more.
Play Sesson Zero, socialize a bit before playing. Ask the players what they like about the setting, what grabs them, and how they want to fit into it. Then sit around the table, discuss basic roles, and let everyone discuss who they want to play first. That way you can try to avoid archetype theft, archetype gaps, and unworkable combinations.
First player who's ready, have them do a White-Wolfian prelude; start with basic questions like "what is your character's role?", "why is he/she a shadowrunner?", "how does he tie in with the rest of the group?", etc. and as you go on try to color in things like childhood and family. Use short vignettes as well as direct questions. When you feel that both of you have a handle on, or at least a solid thumbnail of the character, go on to the next player. Repeat until everyone has something good worked out.
And for the love of god, for your first actual play sesson, GIVE THEM SOMETHING SOFT. As others have said, when you invest time like that into a character, you don't want him to buy the farm on the first game. Do something over-the-top like security going on strike, leaving only a handful of paranoid suits with light pistols as "opposition" but plenty of legwork/social/other challenges, so they can learn the mechanics and basic tactics without too much riding on them.
Also, be sure to stress at chargen that characters are supposed to be compotent and tough. If you're not, it's a miracle you've survived and been hired to this point, and don't keep counting on miracles. I've seen too many "I'm not a munchkin!" characters who don't get that if combati s something that your character expects, he should have some talent in it.
Abstruse
Apr 20 2004, 11:36 AM
I don't like the idea of solidifying a character background before the character is made because a lot of times my initial concept will change from when I assign attributes (first thing I do) to when I'm buying stuff (last thing I do). I figure out I need to take another flaw/edge, so it changes the background a little. I can't buy that Edged Combat 4 and Negotiations 5 for the character, just one or the other, so that changes my background more. While I'm looking for that piece of cyberware, I see some shadowtalk thing that gives me a new idea, and so on. Thus the Himura Kenshin rip-off character turns into something totally different and totally unique.
Basically, I'm just saying not to force them to stick to it if they come up with an idea...
The Abstruse One
Siege
Apr 20 2004, 12:42 PM
I think most experienced RPGers will use alternate media to communicate the idea of the current game to newbies -- refer to the numerous threads regarding books to read and movies to watch.
-Siege
Jason Farlander
Apr 20 2004, 02:30 PM
Alright... so now we have comments ranging from
| QUOTE |
| I think its a great tool for beging players. Bravo! |
to
| QUOTE |
| Wad up your handout and toss it out. |
...Interesting
Moon-Hawk
Apr 20 2004, 05:13 PM
I can understand both points of view. I really don't like it when players grind numbers until they have the ultimate whatever, and then try to weave a strange and convoluted background to justify everything. On the other hand, you will want to change your background here and there during the chargen process.
I usually have my players do the same sort of thing that you're suggesting, but I don't require specifics until the end. For example, a background of "Grew up on the street, worked for a corp for a while, now I run" is fine to start chargen, but by the time they're done I want to know who they hung with on the street, what they learned there, why they joined a corp, which one, what they learned and got there, why they left, who got them into running, etc.
I want them to establish their basic character concept and fit a role in the team before they generate, but I don't bother trying to get too many details until after they're done.
Your sheet is good, keep it, just reorder it a little bit and add the number crunching step in the middle somewhere, that's my recommendation.
Jason Farlander
Apr 20 2004, 05:36 PM
Hmm... some good advice there Moon-Hawk. I'll work on that and post a revised version.
Jason Farlander
Apr 20 2004, 06:21 PM
Revised version
[ Spoiler ]
So you're about to make a shadowrun character. Cool. Hold on, though... put those books away for a bit. Dont write anything until I tell you to. Before you start crunching numbers, I want you to consider the idea that you are going to be creating a person - not just a set of statistics. Real people have backgrounds, desires, beliefs, and goals. So should your character.
Before you hit the books, I would like a summary of who your character is as a person. This summary should be about a paragraph in length, and does not need to be particularly detailed - just create a rough sketch of who your character is and what your character does, and provide a *brief* overview of your character's background. Submit this character summary to me, and I'll look it over. Note that I may ask you to make some changes or explain your thinking behind something, and that I reserve the right to reject anything that I don't think is appropriate.
Once I have approved your character summary, you may proceed to peruse the books and build your character. If you would prefer to have me build a character for you, I am willing to do so. If you have any questions concerning the character generation process, please ask. You may use build point, priority, sum-to-ten, or BECKS when making your character - I ask that you let me know which system you use. Please, please, do NOT cheat when making your character. I can usually tell. I will not be happy.
When you finish the number crunching portion of character generation, you should write up a significantly more detailed background for your character. I ask that this background be typed. You may structure the background in any way you wish: as a story, monologue, biography, or even a simple list of questions and answers. There are a number of things that I want you to make sure you address in your character background (these will be listed below), but feel free to include any extra information you like. If you find that the specific wording of one of the questions I ask you to be sure to answer does not, for whatever reason, apply to your specific character, simply disregard the specific wording of the question and provide the general sort of information that question addresses.
As you write your background, you may wish to alter your character. Thats perfectly fine - in fact, I recommend that you do so. It is better to alter your character to match your background than to try to twist the background around something on your character sheet you have difficulty explaining.
While you will not be "graded" on your work, I do reserve the right to reject any character if I do not like the background, as well as to reward backgrounds I find particularly interesting with bonus points. Yes, this involves a good deal of subjectivity on my part - you will have to trust that I am trying to be fair and reasonable. In all cases, provide as much detail and be as specific in that detail as you can, as this will help ensure a favorable reaction on my part.
(Note: if your character has Amnesia, you may not be able to address some of the following questions. Note also, however, that granting your character Amnesia gives the GM full license to determine those details, which can be a very dangerous thing. Don't take the decision to play an amnesiac character lightly)
- Describe your character's childhood. Where and when was your character born? Were you issued a SIN (a number that identifies you as a citizen)? If not, why not? What was his or her family life like? What did his or her parent's do for a living? Did anything particularly unusual happen to your character while he or she was still a child?
- Describe your character's education. Was your character formally educated? Where? What did he or she study? Did your character go to college? If your character did not recieve formal education, how did your character learn the things he or she currently knows?
- What did your character do for a living before becomming a shadowrunner? What kind of job did your character have? Does he or she still have a *normal* job? Under what circumstances did your character learn the skills that would later prove useful to a life in the shadows?
- *This is important*: Describe how and why you became a shadowrunner, as well as why your character continues to run the shadows rather than getting a *real* job and living a *normal* life. What does your character hope to accomplish as a shadowrunner - what goal or goals does your character strive to achieve? Under what circumstances would you give up running the shadows?
- Now that your character is a shadowrunner, what is his or her life like? Where does your character live? What does your character do with his or her free time? Does your character maintain contact with his or her family? Has your character ever had any serious relationships? If your character has a SIN, how does he or she deal with the risk of getting caught? What does your character think about his or her shadowrunning career? What "useful" contacts does your character possess, and how did you come to know those people?
- Describe your character's beliefs, morals, and how those beliefs and morals affect his or her shadowrunning career. What are your character's religious beliefs? What are your character's political beliefs? What does your character think about magic? Does your character have any prejudices? Are there any jobs your character will not take? Are there any circumstances that would cause your character to abandon a job he or she had already accepted? Is there anything your character would be willing to die for?
- Describe your character's personality. What is his or her favorite thing to do? What annoys your character the most? What does your character fear the most? Does your character like to socialize? Are you a "loner" or a "team player"? What does your character think about other people, in general? How easy is it to get along with your character? Is your character uptight and meticulous or more relaxed and easygoing? Does your character have any notable personality quirks?
- Describe your character physically. Gender, metatype, height, weight, build, skin color, hair color, eye color and any unique traits (such as scars and tatoos) are important, as well as how your character dresses, how well groomed your character is, and how your character conducts him- or herself in general.
- What is your character's "Street Name" and why did your character choose that particular name. (if your character has gone by any other street names in the past, please mention and explain those as well)
- Finally, fill in with a good number of minor details to help flesh out the character.
Things like favorite foods, musical preferences, etc.
If you have any questions, please ask. I am more than willing to help.
When you are finished writing your background and tweaking your character, I want you to submit a copy of the finished character, the character's background, a one paragraph summary of the reasons a prospective employer should hire your character AND a one paragraph summary of the reasons a shadowrunning team should accept your character. I ask that you attempt to write these paragraphs in character, but you are not *required* to write them in character if it proves too difficult.
You should only consider your character to be complete AFTER you have submitted all of these things to me and I have given the character my final approval. Once that happens... CONGRATULATIONS! You're ready to start playing!
Okay... remember how I told you not to write anything until I gave you permission? You now have my permission. Just dont forget the most important thing: have fun!
Moon-Hawk
Apr 20 2004, 06:26 PM
Very cool. I hope that raises the quality of characters you're seeing.
Also, cool idea using spoilers that way; made the thread easier to peruse.
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