Character Count // The Very Beginning
In which our hero is loosely defined and a plan is made.
Here’s the ‘premise’
My friends and I have recently been branching out and trying some new game systems that aren’t D&D. Gotta tell you, it has been a BLAST! We’ve played Troika! to get our madcap fix, Mork Borg to go a little darker, and are planning both a Star Wars: Saga campaign and a little Yokai Hunters Society romp to learn that system. Also, I am in love with the Quest system and I’ve never taken the opportunity to learn Pathfinder or Starfinder, so those are on the short list, too.
In learning and exploring these new systems, my favorite part has (and always has) been navigating the character creation process for each system. To me, making a cool character is the highlight of playing any RPG; finding the right balance of concept and crunch helps me settle into a character a little easier at the table. Once I find myself in ‘the zone’, I can handle any story arc, ruleset, or dice mechanics.
Said differently, I have roughly 400 characters built on D&D Beyond. Probably won’t use more than 5 of them. Yep, I’m that guy :)
Only one problem - D&D character creation has been my default for so long that it has become the benchmark for making RPG characters - it’s how I make characters in my head when my mind wanders.
SO…Let’s fix that!
The ‘Plan’
I have a D&D character that I’m in love with. I think we’ve all been there in some capacity :) He is a Maine Coon Tabaxi named Follows The School. He’s a giant (i.e. super tall), quiet, ‘mountain man’ who would rather be fishing - basically all the time. He’s patterned a little after Nick Offerman’s character in Parks & Recreation :) I have him rolled as a ranger/monk in D&D 5e, and in my head canon, he’s the kind of fella that wades into streams, sits, and waits for the fish to come to him before he stuns them with his bare palms. High dex, low charisma and only the essential worldly belongings, School is on a ‘vision quest’ of sorts to find the sparkly, rainbow fish that he is convinced talked to him when he was young.
Very little of any of that translates in full to other systems.
That’s to be expected, of course, but I found it interesting, nonetheless. Other games ask more (read: too much, sometimes) of the player when it comes to creatively describing a character up front vs. assigning them confusing stats that defines what how a character might look/act. Two different ways to get to the goal, but enough of a process change to throw a wooden shoe into the industrial revolution machine of my brain. Plus, neither is a silver bullet for luring in new players - “Ugh, I have to write a mad libs to describe my character?! Can’t he just hit stuff?” is just as bad as “Wait, I add my Esoteric Poetry modifier to which stat to get my full Emotional Intelligence score for this level?”
I wanna try my best to recreate Follow The School (FTS) in as many systems as humanly possible, with the hope of providing insight into various systems for other folx who might be on the hunt for D&D alternatives. The complexity of the character creation system is the key for me, and maybe it is for you, too.
The ‘Rules’
I’m going to start with the D&D version of School first, for a baseline reference.
I’m also going to make a more ‘standard’ archetype character at the same time - I fully understand that FTS may be a bit out of standard for some rulesets, and the scientist in me would like to keep it relatively ‘fair’ in comparing systems :) I’ll probably do a dwarven fighter/mage or a human cleric or something simple. Any insight you’d like to provide would be greatly appreciated!!
I will create each character at max level. I, for one, think insight into character advancement systems is pretty interesting when shopping for new systems.
I will do my best to post a filled-out character sheet for each of these. Be advised, it might be a hand-written post-it for some systems and a 3,346-page PDF for others. I’ll do my best!
If you have a system you’d like me to try next - let me know! If I am able, and can find the right resources, I’m more than happy to move something to the top of the list if I can!
I’ll provide my thoughts on what I see as strengths or opportunities (excuse the corporate speak) for each system. You may promptly ignore, discard, scoff at, or provide a rebuttal to said thoughts :)
I will try my damnedest to list out the systems we’ve already dug into and link to the results at the bottom of each post. This may evolve or move to a thread or something; we’ll play it by ear! Who knows, my data-analyst brain might make a ridiculous google sheet and track to some agreed-upon KPIs or something stupid like that. ~pushes imaginary glasses up nose~
So, what do you think? Wanna follow along at home while we stumble through making the same characters a kajillion times? Know somebody who might be into this goofy ‘experiment’ as well? Subscribe and/or share below, and let’s gooooooooooo!
Thanks for your time, Dear Reader; It is truly appreciated!
I hope that you and yours are safe and healthy.