Generating The Major Characters



The Heroes

Player Generated Player Characters have alrady been handled, this section deals with how to make characters for the players and do it quickly.

Game Master Generated Player Characters

So you need to make PCs in a hurry cause the players are newbies and can't do it for themselves. Simple.

Picking Roles

write out a character with exactly average statistics, then decide on the role each character will have from two angles: Character role, strategic role.

Strategic Roles

Most games have a set look for a typical party. D&D's default part has always been Fighter, Mage, Cleric, Rogue- or some subtle variation. This rounds out in role-playing in general to be close combat specialist, long-range combat specialist, healer, technician.

The close combat specialist is the fighter, and in other games this is not much changed. The Jedi Knight or the Wookie, the super-hero with enhanced strength, the martial artist, the werewolf; these are all close combat specialists. These warriors are there to bring the fight to the enemy so that the enemy does not get close to the weaker characters.

The long range combat specialist is the wizard or the sorcerer, and in other games is only superficially changed. The sniper, and the archer, the psychic, the super-hero with energy projection powers, the knife-thrower; these are the long range combat specialists. They are there to provide a big punch to the party. In general game language most of these characters are glass cannons; that means that they can do a lot of damage but cannot take damage. This is why they work from long range.

The healer is the most obvious character type, no matter the setting. Clerics, psychic healers, medics, doctors, cyber-docs, druidic healers, super-heroes with healing powers; these are all obviously healers. The healer's job is to keep the party alive. They are sometimes decent at combat, and in those cases are able to act as a back-up close combat specialist. Even in those cases where the healer is not a back-up warrior, they still tend to have a strong ability to take damage, because it doesn't help the party if the healer is easily killed.

The technician is the least easily defined role. The technician is the skill specialist. The thief from fantasy games it the classic model, whose skills are designed and used to get the party through the hazards of a dungeon, locked doors, traps, ambushes, and the like. In general a technician is there to do a speciality job not associated with combat or healing, but still essential to the party's success in the sorts of games that the GM has in mind. A Scout/Guide for wilderness campaigns, a pilot for science fiction campaigns, a hacker or computer technician, a scholar on important obscure texts, a language specialist or a negotiator, a mechanic, any character whose contribution to the party is neither healing nor combat is a technician. Technicians are normally not horrible at combat, but tend to specialize in a less traditional form of combat. Pilots can dogfight in their ships, mechanics can build turrets or mines (sometimes), scholars can sometimes summon ancient gods, thieves can sneak attack or backstab, hacker's can attack computer sytems. The scout is often a part-time long range combat specialist- but combat is not their primary function.

If the party has more than four players, then ask whether another technician would be helpful, if this is the case, then add one. If this is not the case, then add a close combat specialist- the party can alwasy use more of them. If after adding the technician there are still more players, add a close combat specialist. If there are still players to add after (in either of the previous cases) adding a close combat specialist, then add a long range combat specialist. After that, if there are more players to add, then add a healer, and after that start over as though building a new party (start with the combat specialists). In general, there should be more close combat specialists than anything else. In large parties there should generally be an even number of Long Range Combat Specialists and Healers. Their should be one or two technicians. If more are needed, then the GM should supply NPCs. Make certain that you achieve this balance.

Character Roles

As for character role, there are a set of hero types listed below, pick one per character and don't overlap.