Monday, July 14, 2014

Random Character Generation in Dungeonteller

Anthony asked me if the full-on Dungeonteller book includes rules for character generation rather than using the optimized character sheets included in the game. I don't have any philosophical objections to random chargen, but I feel that the "rolling up a character" process is a huge turn-off for newbie players and non-gamers. They usually get so much hand-holding and railroady advice from the DM and more experienced players that the PC they end up with might as well have been handed to them.

Here's how I would do it in Dungeonteller.

1. Pick two lucky numbers from 1 to 6.
2. Roll ten dice for each action (Battle, Magic, Make, etc.) and count the lucky numbers as successes. Each success equals one action die for that action.
3. Decide which of the six hero types you want to be and use that hero's starting cool powers list.

[Excuse me while I grab some dice, BRB]

OK, here's what I got, rolling 10 dice for each action:

Battle 1
Magic 4
Make 5
Muscle 4
Notice 2
Resist 5
Shoot 2
Sneak 3
Stunt 2
Talk 5

Looking at the relatively high Magic and Talk, maybe a rogue or an elf? Nothing stands out for me on that guy.

Let's try again:

Battle 3
Magic 7 
Make 4
Muscle 2
Notice 6
Resist 5
Shoot 3
Sneak 1
Stunt 5
Talk 4

I picture this hero as a charismatic, strong-willed wizard. Low Sneak and high Stunt is an odd combo -- maybe he never shuts up and that's why he can't sneak?

This is fun, one more time:

Battle 7
Magic 2 
Make 3
Muscle 1
Notice 3
Resist 5
Shoot 0
Sneak 4
Stunt 5
Talk 3

This guy strikes me as a nimble but willowy paladin -- high Battle, high Resist, high Stunt, low Muscle, zero Shoot.

1 comment:

  1. Nice, thanks, but you didn't have to go through all the trouble! I was just wondering if you'd ever considered random generation. I totally understand and agree with not having newbs go through chargen, trust me! Anyway, I printed out this post along with my PDF of the full game that I just snagged off of RPGNow. I'm going to try and get a game going with my kids as soon as possible, and report back on my blog about how it goes. I expect it to go over better than when I tried to use Mentzer to run stuff for them...

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