Taking real people and inserting them into game

[Lathner]

So I have been thinking of running a game using the people in its actual stats so their real ability to pick things up movement and other such things and I was trying to figure out the best way to test ability to then convert over.

    Stats I have figured out how to convert

   

[eepjr24]

You will end up with very little granularity. Normals (we are not even talking base stat PC's here, really) have a range of STR from infirm (0 to 1 STR) to 23 (based on bench press), 22 (based on clean and jerk), 22 (based on deadlift), 22 (based on snatch). All of those figures are from world records and APG1 pg 10 conversions. That is basically a top shape olympian to an infirm grandma. Take a look at APG page 7 for a more granular detail. Normal people on the other hand cluster very closely around 8-12 STR.

 

Other stats are more difficult due to a lack of real world benchmarks to go by. I generally use the same as STR, with the high end of normal (picks up sports of dexterity easily: 12, Reaction time of a field hardened Marine: 20-22, etc).

 

Other folks will likely weigh in with their ideas and then you can use them or not to inform your own.

 

- E

[Christopher]

First you will need a group that is okay with it. Not many people will like being judged like this and with these kinds of "personal sheets" disagreements can arise quickly.

 

Secondly the stats and skills will be somewhat uniform. RPG's tend to atract a certain kind of people. And for some reason the kind that "goes to Gym twice a week" did not run over my path that often while playing.

One way around this would be not to focus on exact values, but on working out the differences. Going by the people in my computerclub I could think of a Speedster, a Gadgeteer, a Technopath and Martial Artist Superheroic types. You have not fully clarified if this will be for Heroic or Superheroic settings and wich powerlevel.

[Lathner]

This will be a heroic.  I already had a figured stat test for STR I choose to just give a value for EGO . DEX is being done in a stack.  already have something for CON. BODYshould be easy com is also easy

 

INT is trouble some as is PRE. however I havn't been able to make a smooth change for either speed or run or other such stats since we do have some athlete's  in the group

[massey]

Yeah, the problem you're gonna have is when you give Bob a comeliness of 6, he's gonna get mad. And you're gonna be like "well Bob, you haven't had a girlfriend in 9 years, and there's that big mole on your face with a bunch of hairs growing out of it, did you think you had a 20 comeliness? Women are just too intimidated to talk to you?" And then he's gonna throw something at you. But he will fail to hit you because gamers have low Dex. But you'll fall down anyway, because GMs also have low Dex.

[Grailknight]

IME, people play RPGs to be something other than themselves or at least to be their ideal selves. You'll probably get much happier players if you at least let them use their ideals in context with the power level you want to run. They can be flawed in real life, let them have their fantasies(within limits of course).

[Amorkca]

One game I ran ages ago started off with the players as themselves, I gave them fairly competent stats seeing as we think we're better than we are, so for example I know Tai Chi so I gave my character martial arts.  Back when MA was not a bunch of maneuvers per se.

 

The players got to pick their strengths and would discuss what their "weaknesses" were and that was our starting group.

 

It was a modern fantasy setting, as the age of technology turned over to magic... again...

[TheDarkness]

Played a game of 40k role play years ago. We were a unit fighting tyrannids. Anyway, one day, the GM decided to turn it into a bit of a pick up game. It started as a firefight in the sewers. A grenade went off near us, and we were enveloped in smoke.

 

Next thing he said was, everyone was themselves, in the room we were in, and there were demons all around. We acted as we would, some running, some making escape possible(mind you, we had three martial artists and one former SEAL in the group). We were a bit confused for a bit, but ended up getting into it.

 

After a few rounds of this, we were space marines again. Turns out it had been a hallucinatory gas grenade.

 

As for granularity and difference between the characters, I think it is sometimes good to get in situations that remind us that the system is in service to the play, not the other way around. Suddenly finding yourself not a unique butterfly often can lead to unique choices as players.

[Tasha]

So I have been thinking of running a game using the people in its actual stats so their real ability to pick things up movement and other such things and I was trying to figure out the best way to test ability to then convert over.

    Stats I have figured out how to convert

The only way this ever works is to have the PC's be idealized versions of the Players. Otherwise you run the real risk of alienating your players when they disagree with your opinion about their physical and mental stats. What sounds like fun really turns out to be not very much fun for the Players.

[Hugh Neilson]

"Whaddaya mean, 6 Charisma?"

 

IOW, I agree with Tasha.

[Lezentauw]

The only way this ever works is to have the PC's be idealized versions of the Players. Otherwise you run the real risk of alienating your players when they disagree with your opinion about their physical and mental stats. What sounds like fun really turns out to be not very much fun for the Players.

 

In V&V you were suppose to have the players play themselves.  I decided back then, in my youth, that I was not going to get into the whole evaluate yourself debate.  Besides certain stats are impossible to evaluate.  So, I just had the players role for their stats normally, and explained it as an alternate form of the player....

[massey]

I, of course, have straight 20s.

[Christopher]

"Whaddaya mean, 6 Charisma?"

 

IOW, I agree with Tasha.

To quote teh last part of "The Gamers":

"My intelligence is 4? Outrageous! *starts changing the sheet*":

 

I, of course, have straight 20s.

And I of course are to humble to ever over-evaluate myself like that. Indeed I am prone to under-evaluation.

[bigdamnhero]

I did a "let's play ourselves" game once years ago, and it went great. But then, we were all in the military and had some actual game-useful skills. It was a fun group effort deciding how to translate, say, our rifle marksmanship scores into CSLs. But I imagine it would be less fun with a more typical RPG group.

 

One way around this would be not to focus on exact values, but on working out the differences.

This. Don't worry about how strong/fast/smart/etc they are in relation to the average Action Movie Hero, because that gets depressing really quick when you realize your highest Characteristic is an 11. Just focus on how good they are compared to each other. (The only fixed mechanical bookmark you may have to change is Max Lift.)

 

The only way this ever works is to have the PC's be idealized versions of the Players. Otherwise you run the real risk of alienating your players when they disagree with your opinion about their physical and mental stats. What sounds like fun really turns out to be not very much fun for the Players.

Amen. Honestly, my suggestion is to give everyone X points, tell them to create "cinematic" versions of themselves, and skip the whole "let's argue over how weak/clumsy/stupid Fred is" trap. There's also the option of starting out with some kind of Training Montage as an excuse to get everyone in somewhat better shape.

[bigdamnhero]

Ironically, when statting ourselves out for the game we did, the only real disagreement we got into was when one player tried to give himself a 14 INT, which for this guy was being far too modest. "Dude, you're getting straight As at one of the top colleges in the country without studying and you have yet to open most of your books. People come to you for help with classes that you haven't taken. Take the damn 18 already..."

 

(I'm not exaggerating - dude's a legit genius.)

[Lathner]

OK so I already plan on giving them dome points via a training/magical experience

 

However it is possible to make the base of the characters with real life stats in found a way to find run and swim for converting I also found kinda a way to find speed and skills is going to be no where close to game level. As in "you've shother a gun of that type like four times sure take wf."

[massey]

OK so I already plan on giving them dome points via a training/magical experience

 

However it is possible to make the base of the characters with real life stats in found a way to find run and swim for converting I also found kinda a way to find speed and skills is going to be no where close to game level. As in "you've shother a gun of that type like four times sure take wf."

 

Well of course it's possible to give them fairly accurate stats.  The problem you'll face is that you're going to piss people off.  Some people are going to have below average stats, and they are not going to like hearing that.

 

I suggest starting the players off without a character sheet.  Then roleplay through the adventure, or intro, or whatever, where they get the magical training.  Then have them build their new "we got cool abilities" versions of themselves from scratch.  And you never have to make your players mad when you decide that Bob is a doofus who only deserves a 5 Int.  Even if he is a doofus.  Heck, especially if he's a doofus, then he really doesn't want to have other people tell him that.

[bigdamnhero]

This thread had some good discussion about translating characters from other sources, including reality, and how to adjust the scale to get a little more granularity when everyone is crowded at around "Average."

[TheDarkness]

The advantage of the game I described above was that the stats for ourselves, which we could debate, but were not crazy out there(because we were well accustomed to the brutal honesty of a number of our friends), in the end did not matter. We were space marines fighting aliens in a sewer imagining(due to hallucinatory gas) that we were a group of twenty year olds in a basement fighting demons. When one of us was grabbing a stick in order to hit the demon, in reality it was a space marine grabbing whatever melee weapon he or she had, and the stats and damage, though we didn't know it, were based on the space marine stats.

 

What was funny was that we, as space marines, were outgunning our foes, and so they were confused by our retreat deeper into the sewer(or, in our minds, out of the basement), and assumed it was a clever ruse on our part.

[Lathner]

well I am not going to really get the no your not this from this group we already have done work with this type of game so I do have the base support from the players 

[TheDarkness]

well I am not going to really get the no your not this from this group we already have done work with this type of game so I do have the base support from the players 

It all comes down to knowing your group. The group I played with also didn't really fuss much over a rational assessment of what their stats would be, so it worked. If it works for yours, then there's really no big concern.

 

It's not like you're going to then reveal that one of them is Hydra agent. Or are you?

[Hugh Neilson]

"What's this Psych Comp: Dense as a Post"?

[bigdamnhero]

Distinctive Features: Seriously, Have You Looked In A Mirror Dude?

[Hugh Neilson]

Distinctive Features: Seriously, Have You Looked In A Mirror Dude?

DF: Gamer Funk should also go over well...

[NuSoardGraphite]

Yeah, the problem you're gonna have is when you give Bob a comeliness of 6, he's gonna get mad. And you're gonna be like "well Bob, you haven't had a girlfriend in 9 years, and there's that big mole on your face with a bunch of hairs growing out of it, did you think you had a 20 comeliness? Women are just too intimidated to talk to you?" And then he's gonna throw something at you. But he will fail to hit you because gamers have low Dex. But you'll fall down anyway, because GMs also have low Dex.

Thi is why you tell the players to rate themselves but to be reasonable about it.