…many will die in the mustard pits
In Which Doc Stars A Gaming Discussion
So lately I’ve been thinking about roleplaying games…and non-gamers…and people who really like character creation and development…and what the RPG hobby/industry generally doesn’t do.
My conclusions? Well, one of them is that most players, even those who do manage to create a bit of a character concept before actually creating a character, give short shrift to character background. Oh sure, they might fill in some details of the background as the game progresses, but that is often done to justify having certain skills or attributes. Not always, of course, since there are folks out there who create some really in depth character info, but most of the time I’d be surprised if a given character has a half a page of background.
Tied to this is the fact that most non-gamers have a problem with wrapping their head around certain types of character. Characters based on well known stuff like Star Trek/Star Wars, well known superheroes and tv shows are pretty easy, but the basic fantasy archetypes (and those of pulp, horror and many flavors of sci-fi) are not things they really have experience with.
Another thing that both non-gamers and many experienced gamers don’t have is a connection to the character. In non-gamers, this is because they…A: don’t know the archetypes…B: start out as a full fledged hero…C: have to spend so much time learning the rules as they play. In experienced gamers, not having a connection to a character leads to the old “charge in and kick ass because this is just Fighter #231 and I can roll up another if he dies”
So anyway, I’m thinking about all this while I’m also working on some maps for the Kingdom Building Game and, as often happens, my muse hits me upside the head and says…
“Why not create rules and a very limited setting for starting characters out from the very beginning…late childhood to early teens…when they will gain the attributes and skills that will let them eventually set off on the adventuring path? Give them some very simple early adventures that will hone these skills a bit, eventually leading them to what D&D would consider 1st level.”
In other words, create the game that lets a player (especially a first time non gamer) build the character from the REAL ground level up, in a setting that is quite mundane and small compared to the humongous RPG settings they will encounter later.
And in my next post, we’ll take a look at how that might be done.
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