Data dumps and Complications

[assault]

I'm looking at character creation now.

 

Since fantasy, aside from Urban Fantasy, involves a world other than our own, a data dump is necessary. It should, however, be as short as possible. You can't really expect people to read your book before they can start playing.

 

You can, in fact, cheat, by incorporating their character decisions into your world building. That can get out of hand though.

 

For example, if a character is Hunted by Orcs, Orcs exist, and are a significant factor in the setting. But what if you don't want Orcs in the setting?

 

Of course you can ban such an option in your data dump, but the problem is: what is allowed?

 

You can cut down some problems by using a familiar set of tropes - but that restricts you to settings your players are familiar with. Worse, you can't assume that your players have read the same stuff you have.

 

So a mediaeval setting would end up being Hollywood mediaeval, without all the interesting options from the actual Middle Ages. Or worse, sub-Tolkien. Poor Tolkien.

 

Anyway, Hero is relatively rare as RPGs go, by putting Complications/Disadvantages so up front. A character isn't complete without them.

 

A game doesn't work unless both the GM and the players are happy with them.

 

It might be best to have some serious guidelines about what is desirable. Of course that means that you are basically using stock characters. I don't really have a problem with that. They will be fleshed out through play.

 

The other benefit of using stock characters is that they are quick to create, fixing one of Hero's major problems.

 

So I have just talked myself into using stock characters.

 

Has anyone else had experience with this? Or are there alternative solutions that reduce analysis paralysis to manageable levels?

[archer]

I usually pick a particular fantasy world and tell my players that it's either that world or substantially like that world.

 

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Dragonlance

 

Humans, elves, Dwarves as playable races. Goblins and draconians as major "evil" intelligent races. Some very minor neutral races such as centaurs and unicorns. A standard array of D&D class tropes: warrior, barbarian, wizard, sorcerer, cleric, thief, paladin, etc.

 

Nations may or may not be the same as in the books.

 

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Guardians of the Flame

 

Humans, elves, and dwarves as playable races. Elves are racist. Dwarves are moderate in everything. Slavery is endemic in all societies except the dwarves.

 

The major roiling force in society has been a small group of adventurers who came from another world and who declared war on the Slaver's Guild claiming that slavery is a moral evil. Those adventurers created a small kingdom called "Home". The king is called "Mayor" and is selected by the landowners as a group. And can be de-selected by the landowners as a group...it's a very confusing form of kingship but it seems to work for them so far.

 

"Home" is in an unclaimed corner of the Middle Lands which has in recent years become home for a goodly number of freed slaves. It has also quickly become a center of commerce as the adventurers have introduced inventions by "engineers" (apparently some new form of wizardry) who have produced a better form of steel and "firearms" (a thundering weapon which instantly bores large holes in targets).

 

Other major players in the area include

1) The city of Pandathaway which is ruled by a council of guilds (including the Wizard's Guild and the Slaver's Guild). A metropolitan area open to individuals of all races as long as they're willing to pay the entry fee, keep the peace, and don't go broke and become homeless.

2) A number of societies of clerics, the most common of which is the Spidersect and the most powerful of which is The Society of the Healing Hand. Most clerics are open for hire by anyone, except the Healing Hand refuses to help the people of Home. The most anyone has been able to get out of them on the topic is that they've already "done their part". Rumor has it that the Hand has also refused to assist the Slaver's Guild...but people who snoop into the business of the Slaver's Guild usually end up as slaves so take that rumor with a grain of salt.

3) A large Elven kingdom in the north where humans are second class citizens and barred from owning land and barred from a number of professions. 

4) A small dwarven kingdom.

5) A patchwork of human kingdoms throughout the Middle Lands and around the Cirric (a large freshwater inland sea).

 

No paladins, sorcerors, or druids but other D&D class tropes are available. All magic-users do the "have to memorize spells from a spellbook" thing.

 

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The Land (from the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant)

 

Playable races are human, giant, Haruchai.

 

Haruchai are vaguely Asian in appearance, telepathic with each other, very physically fit, athletic, know martial arts, and a huge number of mandatory complications like watched by other members of their race, competitive with other Haruchai, taking vows of martial service to various lords or causes as an excuse to be in The Land rather than in their racial homeland. They prefer talking telepathically to other Haruchai and don't ever seem to have a lot to say to other people. 

 

Giants are 8-12 feet tall. They're supremely fire resistant (especially to BODY damage) though fire does still cause pain. And they regenerate from fire damage or fire death. They live on the coast and most have some amount of seamanship. Most also have some amount of stone lore (masonry, stone magic, or both). They're very verbose by human standards.

 

The main evil race are the Cavewights, a troll variant with no regeneration. 

 

There's no dedicated cleric class.

 

There are mages who use staffs to channel their power and are considered to be very powerful (no body-affecting powers or movement powers but pretty much everything else). There's also lesser mages who work stone (create heat, lava, light, some density increase, etc.) and mages who act basically like druids but with no powers over animals (so things like divination, weather, plant growth, etc.) 

 

Haruchai are never mages and refuse to use magic. They also distain to use weapons and fight exclusively with their bare hands (unless that's completely impossible like the opponent is made of fire or lava).

 

Giants are never staff mages. Learning a bit of stone is common. Learning some wood magic is fairly rare.

 

A special evil god exists (but no deity of good). He has a number of powerful servants, which ones you might see depends on how much of a pain in his butt that you are. At points in time in which he's more powerful, he's able to create large numbers of warped creatures to serve as a slave army. When he's not so strong, some of those warped creatures might still be hiding (or wandering around) left over from the last war.

 

There's a lot of ancient magics in The Land left over from a previous golden age...or from even earlier than that. Some of those will be plot hooks. Others are locations, both those that are well-known and those which are long-forgotten.

 

 

[Scott Ruggels]

I dropped info dumps, several "books" on the players, but I come from a time where GMs Home brewed their fantasy campaigns from scratch, as there weren't any FH Published materials other than a Grimoire, and a Bestiary.  Also running the campaign for years generated more written material.  I may publish some of it later when I can put it all back together.

 

Character Generation consisted of "Package Deals" that, at the time gave you discounts on points, and the deals were organized as "Race/ Species", then "Cultural", and then "Military".  They would "stack (especially Military"), but Disadvantages of the same type would not. This was all 3rd Edition/ Fourth Edition rules. 

 

 

The current campaign has some templates for races, but not a lot of development past that, since it was more of a PBP game.