Characters in One-shots

[StaciD]

Do you think it's better to provide characters in a one-shot scenario, or let players design their own? Or perhaps, since "better" is a subjective term, I should rephrase the question: what are the advantages and disadvantages of the two options, and for what reasons might you chose one over the other? Or perhaps I'm jumping the gun and this is meat for a future article. I'm just impatient, since I'm facing that choice right now developing a stage for Skotos.

[Jetgirl]

From reading your proposal for your game, I think you will probably want to make up the characters for the players.

Most of the best one-shot LARPs I have played in (or ran) provided characters. The biggest advantages are that
1) the players can jump right into the game knowing what to do and

2) You can provide action, intrigue, and interest right from the get-go.

A provided character is not just stats. They already have a niche in the scenario and connections with other player characters. You actually can construct a web of intrigue before the game starts with well-written character backgrounds.

The only time I have seen the "make-your-own-character" game work well is when it is a huge game, (50 or more players) and you can't really expect everyone to be involved directly with the central plot. In this kind of game, making characters works well, because players can make up what they like to play and basically just play around.

Providing characters also doesn't mean that players don't have choices of what to play. Different STs handle this in different ways. Some just say the names of the characters out loud and players will raise their hands to indicate they want that character. This doesn't give much information, of course, to the players. Other times, STs will say the profession of the character, and still others will give more information regarding the personality. I saw a packet for a weekend long LARP game one time that had players actually rate on a one-to-ten scale different character personality and social attributes that they would like to play. The STs then presumably matched players up as best they could to the characters they had available.

[StaciD]

Thank you...I've actually been leaning more and more this way as time goes on. While I don't want players to feel compelled to tell the story in a particular way because their characters are overly scripted, neither do I want them standing around for a couple hours wondering what they should do. I shall attempt to strike a balance between providing background and goals for each character and ensuring the players have enough freedom to interpret and perform.

As for splitting up the roles, I expect it will be much the same as the Lovecraft stage, where players will visit a web page and choose on a first-come-first-serve basis, for a list that includes the name and a brief description of the role.

[Huisden]

I think that both should be available, there are some people that don't have as much creativity as some others might have and therefore they might have problems to incoporate their characters into the gameworld.

I prefer to play my own character the way that I want him to be instead of being given one already made. I do enjoy making storylines for my own characters, and I must admit that if a game only had that option, that it would make it less fun.

I have no ideas on what your game might be like, but I have played TEC for several years with several characters, and I must admit that I have enjoyed creating all those storylines.

I have never made a character come in the gameworld with all of his storyline complete, they were just rough sketches and as time went on, I completed them. There are so many things to take into consideration that it is much harder to make a character with a complete pre-established storyline instead of making a rough sketch and then completing it as time passes by, but you should not forget that you have to stay true to your character and his emotions at all time.

For someone that has just started the game, it might be easier for them to start from an already created storyline, but you should always remember that the veteran players will want to create their own storyline in the future, instead of using already made ones.

In my opinion, you should blend the two together. Someone should have the option whether or not he wants to play a character with an already made storyline.

-Huisden's player

[Jetgirl]

Well, in this case Staci is talking about running a stage game. The players will only have their characters for several hours, and will not have a chance to create something they can develop "over time".

I agree that there is a balance that you need to be able to provide between what you hand the players and what they get to make up themselves. Otherwise, you could just hand them a script! (I actually did get handed practically a book on a character at one game.) I have found that what works well is you give a very short overview of how the character fits into the game world. A short paragraph, say. Then maybe a major goal or two. Then a list of other characters that character knows with a sentence on attitudes towards/connections with each one.

This leaves alot of blanks for the player to fill in. And as I mention in this article, no two players will play the same character exactly the same way. That's part of what makes STing these things fun!

[Huisden]

Originally posted by Jetgirl
Well, in this case Staci is talking about running a stage game. The players will only have their characters for several hours, and will not have a chance to create something they can develop "over time".

I agree that there is a balance that you need to be able to provide between what you hand the players and what they get to make up themselves. Otherwise, you could just hand them a script! (I actually did get handed practically a book on a character at one game.) I have found that what works well is you give a very short overview of how the character fits into the game world. A short paragraph, say. Then maybe a major goal or two. Then a list of other characters that character knows with a sentence on attitudes towards/connections with each one.

This leaves alot of blanks for the player to fill in. And as I mention in this article, no two players will play the same character exactly the same way. That's part of what makes STing these things fun!

If it's only for several hours and in the very early stages, I'd suggest that she does those biographies, it would be impossible to play without them at early stages. Once the players know more about the game, it would be a good idea to let them create their character and storyline.

[Govan]

I really loved how Oasis did it. They gave a rather complete skeleton of a character and allowed the player to fill it in.