oldnemrod
Apprentice Douchebag
Posts: 92
Preferred Game Systems: WOD (old and new), 4E DnD, Shadowrun, 5E DND,
Currently Playing: Star Wars Saga Edition( I'M A MANDALORIAN!)
Currently Running: 5E Hoard of the Dragon Queen
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Post by oldnemrod on Sept 3, 2013 12:25:30 GMT -8
I had discussed many moons ago about introducing Archetypes as a game mechanic into my system. After some helpful advice on what to do, I came up with a new way to use it. What's better is I believe this could be used in any system.
Instead of a player picking an archetype that represents their character, what if players picked several archetypes that their characters have encountered and that have influenced who they've become? As protagonists in the fiction, the characters shouldn't be defined so easily as the Rogue or Braggart. They should be more complex than that. Archetypes representing those that have had a major impact on the characters' lives can also give GMs something to fall back on when said NPC makes an appearance.
I can see either giving a small bonus from each Archetype or simply picking the top three skills a player has and asking how they were influenced to excel in that particular field.
You could even pick the lowest skills and find out why they never took much interest in it. Maybe that skill was just never considered in life or maybe there is a story as to why that character avoided learning it.
Just my thoughts. I like how FATE character creation uses someone's past to build on. It would be nice if more number crunchy games attempted to integrate backstory as a necessary part of character gen.
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Post by jazzisblues on Sept 4, 2013 6:33:33 GMT -8
Interesting idea that strikes me as being complicated in practice, but I have an idea. I'm going to use Hero as my example because it's the easiest I think to demonstrate what I'm trying to say.
In Hero, characters are the composite of points spent to acquire attributes, skills, perks, talents and powers with an adjustment for complications.
A package deal is a pre-formed group of those elements that represent a typical exemplar of that thing. eg. The paramilitary package deal is basically a high end soldier with some specialized skills.
So here's how I would do what I think I see you aiming at.
During the "background" phase of character creation the player picks (n) package deals that represent people they have encountered an have been formative. These prefabs are given names and a relationship to the player character. Then the player may pick a certain number of points from those prefabs to apply to their character. You could then modify the economy a bit to represent greater or lesser influence. Which I would represent by making the cost somewhere in the range of .75 - 1 : 1 - 1 : 1.25 - 1 depending.
The same thing could be done in Pathfinder easily enough.
To me the important part would be that the influence be given a name and a relationship to the pc, though at gm's discretion those could be left nebulous at the beginning of the game.
Just a rambling train of thought probably going nowhere,
JiB
Addendum
The pc could also choose disadvantages from the influencing character to use for themselves as well.
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oldnemrod
Apprentice Douchebag
Posts: 92
Preferred Game Systems: WOD (old and new), 4E DnD, Shadowrun, 5E DND,
Currently Playing: Star Wars Saga Edition( I'M A MANDALORIAN!)
Currently Running: 5E Hoard of the Dragon Queen
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Post by oldnemrod on Sept 4, 2013 10:56:33 GMT -8
I should have used a system to help get across what I meant. You did it beautifully.
I know most general game systems have point buys of associations and allies that either the GM or the player define. I just wondered what it would be like to have a system that built in what generations have passed on.
A father pushes his son to become a lawyer. The son picks up some Knowledge(Law) or Diplomacy, but usually no more than one rank. Meanwhile he wants to be an artist (Empathy and Craft: Art). All because of his relationship to his father. You also have a character with some strong feelings toward each field that could help inform the role play.
So archetypes might be changed to Relationships or Influences. Either way, I like the idea of a character being more than their independent choices and have aspects derived from the their interactions with strong influences.
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Post by suboptimal on Sept 9, 2013 0:34:19 GMT -8
How about the "Barbarians Of Lemuria" way? Instead of Archtypes or Classes use Jobs / Proficiencies / Careers in the characters background to determine skills or bonuses for skills. You could also work important NPCs into this, like mentors ect.
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Post by Kainguru on Sept 9, 2013 5:58:22 GMT -8
Dare I say : AD&D GreyHawk Adventures (hard bound) did this within an archetype system with their Zero level character option. You could have a thief that fought as a fighter with a long sword provided he/she had the right mentor to learn off Aaron
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