Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

[Nevelon]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

I had a surprisingly good experience playing Amphibion (who I think was actually a published character from Vibora Bay.)

 

So I have to say, it's not my first choice, but I don't necessarily have a problem with it.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary suggests a regenerated character

 

I've noticed that my players in my group tend to make the same kind of characters from game to game (myself included). Pre-gens help get people out of their ruts and try role-playing something different. In a D&D game I'm currently playing I was given an NPC to play after my character died. Not a character I'd ever had made, but I'm having a lot of fun with it.

[Certified]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

Generally speaking Pre-generated characters are good for short adventures as several people have stated or for introductions to new game systems. In the case of Hero system pre-gens can also serve to set the bar for what the GM expects as a level of power and complexity from characters. I don't think I would mind playing a pre-gen character for a Champions game based on how widely the levels of power can fluctuate.

 

That said as someone who's written multiple convention games that rely on pre-generated characters I think that these characters should do one of two things for the players, either giving them a rich background to draw on that helps to explain the world around them, their motivations and abilities or a blank slate allowing the player to explain how they got to the games starting point. The former I use for convention games to explain the 6th World and Fractured Kingdom settings. The latter can be used in more comfortable space such as a generic fantasy setting.

[RexMundi]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

I will happily play any Pregenerated Character I am handed. Once I start playing, that character, becomes mine. I got over the "I must MAKE IT, or it is NOT MINE RRRAAAGGHHH!! REX SMASH PUNY GM WHO INSULT REX!!!!!!" twenty years back or so.....Still love to build, but a pregenerated Character doesn't come with all the fun squeezed out of it, or the potential evaporated into fine dusty powder, because I didn't make it.

 

~Rex

[Jagged]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

I am a big fan of pre-generated characters.

 

The forum poster Sean Waters has run most of the Champions games I have played and he piloted the use of pre-generated characters within our group. I have to say that initially I was reluctant. I do enjoy the character creation process and playing and tweaking the numbers to create an efficient character does appeal. However ... I believe the best stories are built around the characters that inhabit them. The best stories are not stories about "things that happen to certain people" the best stories are peoples stories. I think it is a lot easier for the referee to build integrated plots if the referee built the characters as well. I say this as a ref who has built the all the player characters in the last few games he has run.

 

Beyond that there are other benefits to be gained. The characters are more likely to be balanced against each other and each player is more likely to have their own role to fill. Plus the game will be quicker to pick up.

 

Incidentally the first time we played with pre-generated characters we also played with hidden powers and characteristics. We only had a written description of what our characters could do. Which led to strange situations of characters falsely believing they were stronger than others due to the feats they had achieved. All very interesting. But I think in the end Sean found that too much like hard work

[Alverant]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

OK' date=' how about I take my question a point further. Let's say the character sheet is pre-gen but the origin and back story are left open? You would need to write this part of the character yourself. Does that change anyone's interest?[/quote']

 

If you weren't going to bring this up, I was. Letting the players come up with the origin and backstory would help, but I'd go a step further. For the sake of balance and team building, I wouldn't mind the GM making 300-325 points of a 400 point character and deciding on half the complications and letting the player finish the job. That way they can make the character their own while not throwing the GM any curves and cut down on abuses. For example the GM makes an ice based character to serve in a ranged attack and support role and the player can decide if he/she is a mutant, has power armor, magic, alien, etc. So you have the best of both worlds.

 

In my gaming group I think one or two players wouldn't mind some of the work being done for them, the rest want to make it themselves and not feel bounded by what would work in a team environment.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

I ran a very successful game (actually a series of three games) some years ago where not only did I make the characters, the players never saw their charsheets. They wrote up their background, told me what skills they thought they should have and a general idea of what their stats were like ("I'm really, really strong, but not too bright" sorta thing). I wrote up their characters and kept 'em. Lotsa great roleplaying in that game. It was always fun to tell the Overconfident character, "Sure, you can jump that chasm and fight off those twenty bandits. No problem!" whether he could or not.

 

That was a special and unique case, of course. I wouldn't do it for just any game. It does help to have a group that trusts each other and the GM.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

I've used a horde of pre-gens in the games I've ran in the past. There was a time when we'd play "RPG Challenges" that consisted of a player being handed a NPC that was outside their comfort zone and had to play them for additional rewards in their normal game. It was kind of fun. I've also been known to use pre-gens when running a flashback in game ... allowing the players to interact with what's going on.

[RexMundi]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

I ran a very successful game (actually a series of three games) some years ago where not only did I make the characters, the players never saw their charsheets. They wrote up their background, told me what skills they thought they should have and a general idea of what their stats were like ("I'm really, really strong, but not too bright" sorta thing). I wrote up their characters and kept 'em. Lotsa great roleplaying in that game. It was always fun to tell the Overconfident character, "Sure, you can jump that chasm and fight off those twenty bandits. No problem!" whether he could or not.

 

That was a special and unique case, of course. I wouldn't do it for just any game. It does help to have a group that trusts each other and the GM.

 

I used to do something similar when (because folks refused to play Champions with me, since I live in d20 Damnation Alley) I was Still schlepping Marvel Super Heroes for TSR, and then when I moved onto Playing DC Heroes. "Interviewed the Player, led them down a path or two based on their own initial ideas, then built the PC and handed it to them". Worked really well. Can't do that with my current group though since they would Bog down, or I would end up with a team I would have to name "Heralds of Galactus to the 500th Power!"

 

My Current 6e Game (And new campaign), is all Pregens. The Players all have, 275 Point Heroic PC's, which they randomly drew out of a bin. Said PC's were named things like, Navy Seal, Hong Kong Action Star, Corrupt Cop etc etc .....at 275, they are cinematically cool, and the players can pull of tons of stuff they've ever seen, on the big or small Screen that's not an outright Super Power.

 

They just now though, have started to get an inkling about the truth. Those are 400 Point, full blown supers characters. They just don't know, what the other 125 points (and associated complications), ARE yet. Only a 1x a Month game though *sigh*, would be cool to have an opportunity to run this for a bigger more active group, same styling, since it's one of the better Campaign Settings I've filled up the 5 subject Notebooks for.

 

Still to wander back on topic, there's nothing wrong, with a pregen. I didn't build my my last motorcycle (though I built the one before that), but I still had a really good time, racking up the speeding tickets.

 

~Rex

[Blue]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

If the character is good and I can connect with it on some level -or- If it was just the mechanics supplied and I could come up with the personality.

[DusterBoy]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

I played a convention one-shot with a pre-generated PC. It was GURPS Discworld GM'd by Phil Masters, they guy who wrote it.

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

For a con game or as a starting character in an unfamiliar system, sure. For an ongoing campaign, it would depend on how well I like the character and how much fun I have playing it to start out. Some of my best gaming experiences have been in the TORG (stock character templates with some customization) and DC Heroes (published characters sometimes instead of originals) systems, and it's certainly possible to have a great time playing a character that you didn't invent yourself.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

Convention games, IMHO, are an entirely different matter. I expect to play pre-gens at a con; I wouldn't want to take up half the game by making up a character, and I'm not really that into "Living" games where you bring your own character to various events. All the con games I run have pre-gens.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

i'd give it a try

[greenbriar]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

a GM I've been gaming with for years, started a game and handed us characters. he wanted us to play powers we had never played or rarely played. I had no problem with that.

[RexMundi]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

Heh, people pay money, drive or fly hundreds or thousands of miles to go to a Con, to play with pregens, yet, if handed one in another environment, get surly about it? That's always cracked me up. If I could find a steady HERO game around here, and the stipulation was, here's your character, wouldn't slow me down one bit.

 

~Rex

[Ice9]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

It's more of a practicality thing at Con games though - there isn't time to make one on the spot, your pre-existing characters are often not a good fit, and with the limited time available you need characters that are already integrated into the game's story. Some Con games do let you use existing characters though, which I find is a good chance to use the ideas there hasn't been an opportunity for in home games.

[casualplayer]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

Play one? Sure. I've torn one out of the back of a module and said "Let's get going!" Played Mordenkainen in one mini-campaign, Caramon in another, Legolas in another. There's a few alignments I have problems wrapping my head around or Psy Lims that I find distasteful but it's good improv practice.

 

I also used to do con games and an annual Halloween Call of Cthulhu game, where you can't burn the time making characters or making sure that the party will find a way to gel. I also ran a scenario for my Champions game where I had everyone pass their character to the left and run that character in-character for the evening. It was a lot of fun watching everyone get a taste of what made each other cool and often inaugurate new uses of powers and innovative tactics that the original players hadn't thought of but readily swiped once they got their characters back.

[Epic Legand]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

I would hate to play a pre-gen( except at a con). When I make a char he ( I hope ) is a smooth blend of flaws perks powers skills ect.... that all add up to one char concept. I can understand a DM wanting to set a power level and not just a point level and a char that is built with the world and story in mind is essential. But if I have a choice, then I would hate to give up the oppertunty to build a char that has options and motivations that all work togeather and in a play style that I enjoy. For me, the chance to play is to rare to try and fofill someone's elses fantasy. I can understand cons and one shots... to much time building char. But for a real game I would always prefer to make my own( if it fits to DM's power and style for game ) I know not everyone cares that much about the "BUILD", but to some of us its is how we attatch ourselfs to a char. Well thats my thoughts....

[csyphrett]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

Heh, people pay money, drive or fly hundreds or thousands of miles to go to a Con, to play with pregens, yet, if handed one in another environment, get surly about it? That's always cracked me up. If I could find a steady HERO game around here, and the stipulation was, here's your character, wouldn't slow me down one bit.

 

~Rex

 

never been to a con. my experience with pregens, mystery powers, etc have been universally bad. maybe I just had gms I didn't trust enough, maybe there was a conflict of interest. I don't know. I just wound up trying to get out of the games as fast as possible.

CES

[Nolgroth]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

I don't normally play, so I can only respond from a GM point of view. I normally encourage all of my players to make their own character. I did run one pulp game where I built pre-gens that were alternate universe adaptations of the main characters. I changed the skills and some bits to make them fit the setting better. It was interesting to see how the players changed their styles slightly to match up with the setting and the pre-gens.

 

I will also probably include pre-gens in any of the Monthly Adventures Design challenges I create.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

We play almost exclusively with GM built characters: it works really well. I'm desperately struggling not to go evangelical on you, but for most games pre-gens work better than player built characters, at least at the start, because the GM will have written the game with their abilities in mind.

 

Hero has an amazingly flexible character creation system, but I'd have preferred to see 6.2 as the first book, and, rather than trying to cover lots of genres, pick two or three (Fantasy, Supers and Pulp, perhaps), and a short , but REALLY polished scenario for each, to actually get people PLAYING. Then they can go onto the character creation book, once they have seen what the system can do. I think that would get people over the unjustified fear of the complexity of Hero.

 

As a GM I prefer pre-gens, but also as a player: after all these years, it is nice to role-play something that is a little way out of my comfort zone, and I create enough characters when I'm writing* scenarios to satisfy my creative needs.

 

 

 

*As those who know me will realise, when I say 'writing' I obviously mean 'vaguely considering the game whilst driving to the venue'.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

Also, just to be clear, some of the longest, most involved and emotional games we have played have been played with pre-gens, not just occasional weekend games. In fact the first Champions game we played, the players got a sketch and a description, no character sheet at all. It had the effect of divorcing the character from the mechanics and gave the game a much more epic feel.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

The game I'm running at the moment is extremely cinematic and the players have had at least three distinct sets of characters to play (a main set and then 'scene' characters) and that allows a different style of storytelling - not necessarily any better - but certainly very interesting. You need at least SOME pre-gens if you are going to do something like that.

[Jagged]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

In fact the first Champions game we played' date=' the players got a sketch and a description, no character sheet at all. It had the effect of divorcing the character from the mechanics and gave the game a much more epic feel.[/quote']

 

*cough* Second game. The first one I built Frisbee.

 

 

EDIT: I make this post and a short while later I see that the inventor of the frisbee has died

[Ghost Archer]

Re: Would you play a game with pre-generated characters?

 

No, pregen characters are to cardboard for me to play and as a GM the only way I would offer up pregens would be to beginning players and then only with the understanding that we would design a personal character for the next session should they find the game worth playing. Of course in the past I have had a number of pregen characters become PCs simply because the player liked what I offered but that was when I was constantly teaching Champions at a hobby shop.