RPG FAQ Thread

[Gray Lensman]

Since we have some people here who are relatively new to RPG's, I thought I'd cobble a thread together to answer questions. Seemed the thing to do.

Anyone who wants to offer questions or comments is more than welcome to do so. The objective of this thread is to be a learning aid for players.

Hope this helps.

[Gray Lensman]

To start things rolling, I'll throw in some of the basics...

Keep in mind that I'm answering this from my own experience. Different people may have different styles of play. This also depends on the systems they've played and the kind of people they've played with. Role-playing isn't an exact science, and sometimes things work differently for different people.

Anyway, here goes.

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What is an RPG (Role Playing Game)?

An RPG is basically an interactive game where a player plays the role of a character. Elliot describes it as "freeform acting", which is an apt description. The objective is really to have fun and tell a story about the character(s) you're playing.

So how does it all work?

There are many different game systems and rules, so I'll try to keep this simple. For our purposes, I'm just describing the basic role-playing process.

Firstly, one person is selected to act as Game Master (GM). A GM sets and enforces game rules, develops the game universe, and creates the overall story that the players are involved in. The GM plays all of the characters not created by the players. In a sense, a GM is a referee, a judge, and the God of his game universe.

Then the player creates a character. (Called a PC, or Player Character.) The rules for creating characters are normally set down by the GM, depending on what he or she might want. Within the rules, a player is encouraged to be as creative as s/he likes in creating a character. The idea is to have fun with the character, since the player will have to live with him/her throughout the course of the game.

Once this is done, the game begins. The GM will usually describe the situations the character will face. The player has full control of what his/her character will do. However, the GM may determine whether the player's action will succeed. This depends on the game rules and what the GM may allow. The game continues as long as the players have the time and the interest.

As a general rule of thumb: You control your character, but the GM controls everything else.

So I only control my character?

Right. You cannot control another player's character, and you cannot control GM characters (called NPC's). You can only control the characters you create.

By the way, it's bad form to attempt to control a GM character. This is called self-GMing. Some GM's may tolerate a little bit of creative license, but others may not. Be very sure where your GM stands on this.

What if I want to control another character?

If your GM approves, create another character of your own. Some GM's may allow a player to use more than one character in a game.

Some GM's may allow you to create and control minor supporting characters, as well. They may not actually be part of the adventure, but just be part of the life of your main PC. Their role is to add flavor and depth to your PC. Check with your GM to see if he will allow this.

Sometimes characters may change roles in the course of the adventure. This will happen naturally if the character is strong enough. For instance, my character Blitz started off as a supporting character for one of my PC's. Over time, Blitz grew out of her supporting role and became a strong PC in her own right. This has happened to me rarely, but it can happen with the right character.

I've heard the term Dungeon Master (or DM). What exactly is that?

Basically the same as a GM. DM refers more to the Dungeons & Dragons game system, but there's no real difference.

What's with all those dice you people carry around?

Traditionally, an RPG will throw in an element of randomness into gameplay. Let's say you're trying to attack someone with a weapon. You may be lucky and score a direct hit. You may be unlucky and miss entirely. Or some unexpected thing may happen. Gamers use dice to help determine the outcome of random events.

Now, not all game systems require dice. Diceless systems (such as Amber) do exist. However, these tend to be the exception rather than the rule. It's much better to have a set of dice than not, IMO.

That said, I consider role-playing to be more about developing your character than about die rolls. Dice should be a storytelling tool, not the end-all of role-playing.

What kinds of dice are there?

Quite a few, actually. The most common I've seen used are 6-sided dice (d6), 10-sided dice (d10), and 20-sided dice (d20). However, I've been known to use 4-sided dice (d4), 8-sided dice (d8), and 12-sided dice (d12). More than likely, those will be all you'll ever need.

More rare are things like 100-sided dice, 50-sided dice, and things like that. But it's not likely a player would need to worry about those.

I've seen people use notation like 3d6, 3d10, etc. How do you come up with that?

It's a reference to die rolls. Let's say that we want to work out of a system that goes to a maximum of 18. Since we don't have an 18-sided die, we have to work it out some other way. So we might roll a six-sided die three times and add together the result. We call that method of die-rolling 3d6.

So 3d6 is just rolling a six-sided die three times.

How does web gaming work?

It's still basically role-playing, it's just done on the boards. You still have a GM and a set of players. The difference is that each action may be done with posts on a message board. The idea is basically the same, except the means of play is different. As always, the rules depend on what the GM wants to do.

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I think this is a good enough starting point for now. I may add other things or not later on, depending on interest or follow-up questions. Hopefully, this is enough to help people get started.

[Shan]

Then the player creates a character. (Called a PC, or Player Character.) The rules for creating characters are normally set down by the GM, depending on what he or she might want. Within the rules, a player is encouraged to be as creative as s/he likes in creating a character. The idea is to have fun with the character, since the player will have to live with him/her throughout the course of the game.

I warned everybody that I have no clue about how any of this is done. Sooooooooooooooooooooooo here is my first
question.

OK, I understand what you said about a player creating a character within the rules the GM makes. What I don't get is how a player goes about creating that character?
What do they have to do to create it?

Could someone give me an example of how it might take place? If you could that would help alot.

Shan

[Shan]

A question about how dice are used.

If you are role playing a game on a message board, would dice be used in that type of game? If so who would role the dice to tell you what you could or could not do with your character?

Shan

[Elliot Kane]

Depends on the system, Shan - and on the GM.

Generally speaking, every character will have a number of attributes - such as Strength, Dexterity etc - that are usually fairly self explanatory.

Some GMs will insist on dice rolling, others might allow a certain number of points to be distributed by the player, while others may run with 'anything reasonable' - allowing their players to create characters according to their vision for what they want to play.

The personality of the character is usually decided by the player, along with any generally unimportant character details, such as the character's sex, general appearance etc.

Most systems allow the player to choose a profession - or 'Character Class' - for their character, which will give them certain abilities whilst restricting them in other ways. A Mage, for example, will usually have good spell casting abilitiess but be weak in combat.

With all that worked out, you're about ready to begin the game Sounds complicated, I know, but it's easier than it looks when described like this. The player will usually record all these details on a 'Character Sheet' which is usually laid out in a way tthat makes it very easy to see what goes where and why

[Elliot Kane]

shantara said:

A question about how dice are used.

If you are role playing a game on a message board, would dice be used in that type of game? If so who would role the dice to tell you what you could or could not do with your character?

Shan

Not usually. If any dice are involved, the GM would roll them, I should imagine.

[Shan]

Some GMs will insist on dice rolling, others might allow a certain number of points to be distributed by the player, while others may run with 'anything reasonable' - allowing their players to create characters according to their vision for what they want to play.

What do you mean about GMs insisting on dice rolling for building a character? Would it be a certain dice especially for character building and would it have to be rolled for each stat. (GM would roll it, right? )

And how would a player create a character according to their vision? Would they have to put points into their char's stats? I'm a little confused here.

Shan

Shan

[Elliot Kane]

shantara said:

Some GMs will insist on dice rolling, others might allow a certain number of points to be distributed by the player, while others may run with 'anything reasonable' - allowing their players to create characters according to their vision for what they want to play.

What do you mean about GMs insisting on dice rolling for building a character? Would it be a certain dice especially for character building and would it have to be rolled for each stat. (GM would roll it, right? )

And how would a player create a character according to their vision? Would they have to put points into their char's stats? I'm a little confused here.

Shan

Shan

Yes, and yes

The player would roll the dice to determine his/her stats, but obviously this system relies on random chance and cannot truly be said to be fair. Blind luck may hand the player a near-perfect set of stats - or a nightmare where the character would be seriously disadvantaged.

When you have very experienced players, they will usually have a very strong idea of what they want from a character - and usually they will want to balance that character to reflect their idea of it. Allowing them to assign stat points as they like allows them to create a character who is deliberately strong or weak in ways that fit their idea.

[Dark Phoenix Rising]

Shan - There are a variety of stat generation methods that are available in games and depending on how different you (the GM) want your characters to be depends on which system you use. Some examples are -
(dice labels will be shown as xDy x being the number of dice and y being the number possible results that die can give, e.g. 4D6 would be 4 six sided dice, 4D3 would normally be 4 six sided dice where the result of each die is divided by 2 and rounded up)

• 3D6 - This sytem will give you the full range of stats that a starting character (in any DnD based system) can have, but as you can guess it is more or less random, with most results being between 8 and 12.
  
• 4D6 drop the lowest - This system gives the players more chances to get a reasonable state than the above system while keeping the range of scores wide.
  
• 4D6 drop the lowest reroll 1's - This system gives markedly higher stats than the above system but almost guarentees that the characters will be exceptional examples of their species.
  
• 8D6 assign to suit, starting with 8's - Each player rolls 8D6 and assigns whole dice to each stat untill they have no more dice, to keep things balanced each stat starts at 8.
  
• 32 points to spend starting with 8's in each stat - In this system each player starts with the same number of points and decides how to distrubute those stats, with higher scores (the cost of each stat is 1 or the current modifier of the stat which ever is greater i.e. 8-14 = 1 point each, 15 - 16 = 2, 17 - 18 = 3).
  
• 66 points starting with 5's in each stat - similar to the above system, however the increase in cost is more pronounced.
  

Other systems like vampire the maskarade (sp?) have completly different stats, and use a completly different stat generation system.

[Gray Lensman]

Shan...

Elliot has your answer, I think.

When starting this thread, I deliberately tried to start with the very simplest approach. There are many game systems with varying rules. Also, a GM may decide to alter the written game rules to suit his needs. I thought it was best to describe a system-neutral process before going into any specific rules. I think it's more important to understand the idea of what role-playing is, rather than getting bogged down in rules and whatnot.

Message board play... works a little differently than straight pen-and-paper. This is because the players are not face-to-face, so adjustments have to be made.

In all the times I've played web RPG's, the GM has handled all die rolls. This is done to prevent disputes. In a face-to-face game, you'll normally roll and the GM will see you roll, so what you see is what you get. You can't do that in a web game. The GM does the rolling to keep things smooth and orderly.

This also means that you don't roll for stats in web play. The way we've played in the past, the GM establishes limits for characters. For instance, the GM may not allow characters to have certain powers or abilities. (For instance, running as fast as the Flash in a superhero game. The GM may decide this kind of character is hard to challenge and disallow it.) Within those limits, you can design whatever you want.

Basically, the GM constructs a sample character sheet. The player fills it out, and finally submitting his/her character to the GM for approval. The GM may suggest changes or an outright redo if that's necessary. Finally, the character is approved and ready for play.

In the past, we've used a character sheet that looked something like this...

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Player Name/Handle:
Character Name:
Mask Name:
Character Age:
Gender:
Birthplace:
Hair Color:
Eye Color:
Height:
Weight:
Main Power:

Secondary Power:

Handedness:

Distinguishing Featuresone paragraph) Does not necessarily have to be unique features If you where a costume give us a hint on what it looks like. Pictures are always good.

Family:

Occupation:

Character Interests:

Hobbies:

Best Friend:

Worst Enemy:

Turn Ons:

Turn Offs:

Worst Secret:
Character Goals:
**Two year Goal -
**Five year Goal -



Character Background:

(minimum 5 real paragraphs.) Try to cover your character's overall history. Don't focus on just one event.

*

You may not necessarily need quite that much detail, depending on the GM and what he's looking for. (For instance, you may not need to write much in terms of character background.) I'm just showing this to you as an example of what questions you might expect to answer when designing a character. You may never need a lot of detail, but if you like putting in detail, it does help you in play.

If you're still unsure about something or you think it'll help, I can show you my completed sheet for one of my characters. That may give you a useful blueprint to work with. Keep in mind that character sheets tend to vary a LOT between game systems. The sheet I posted is just an example of what we've normally used in the past.

After that, the game starts and you write out what the character does, says, or whatever comes to your mind. Web gaming has been a lot of fun, especially since we've normally not had to worry about game mechanics while doing it.

[Shan]

Steve your above post helped me alot. Thank you.

I've heard the words character sheets and all, but I never had any idea what they really were or what part they played in role playing games.

I know this is going to sound dumb, but remember it is coming from someone who knows nothing at all about pen&paper games. In fact I don't even know about this type of stuff in computer games. The question: How do you know how to fill out one of these sheets? How do you know what to put for all of this? I can see how an experienced player would know, but I'm talking about someone who has never played or has any idea how to play.

Shan

[Shan]

Other systems like vampire the maskarade (sp?) have completly different stats, and use a completly different stat generation system.

DragonLord, do you have any idea how the stat system would be different in Vampire? How it works differently?

Shan

[Dark Phoenix Rising]

In DnD you have 6 different stats (strength dexterity constitution intellegence wisdom and charisma) while in vampire you have 3 types of attributes (physical, socal, mental) which you have to choose which one is primary, secondary and terary (sp?), then each of those has 3 stats that relate to it e.g. strength, dexterity, and stamina relate to physical. You then have to assign your points to each of the stats (with a max of 5 and 1 auto point in each stat),

There is no dice rolling involved in character generation for vampire.

[Gray Lensman]

shantara said:

Steve your above post helped me alot. Thank you.

Anytime.

I know this is going to sound dumb, but remember it is coming from someone who knows nothing at all about pen&paper games.

Your question isn't dumb at all. In fact, it helps me a lot. Sometimes I forget that what looks natural and obvious to me isn't to a newcomer.

We all had to learn sometime. When I was new, I was a bit daunted by the seeming complexity of RPG's. Believe me, I wasn't born knowing this stuff.

The question: How do you know how to fill out one of these sheets? How do you know what to put for all of this? I can see how an experienced player would know, but I'm talking about someone who has never played or has any idea how to play.

Okay, I was concerned that you might have trouble here. Like I said, not a dumb question. Be warned, we may be here a while.

Before I go on, just some notes to keep in mind. The sample sheet I gave you was designed for a superhero RPG intended for a web game. If we were playing D&D, for example, we'd end up with a completely different set of questions. Different game systems ask for different things. But you should still be able to fill out any sheet if you know who your character is and what you're aiming for.

Also keep in mind what I'm about to tell you is what works for me. I approach character creation like a writer. You may come up with a better method that works for you. You're an artist, so you may see your character visually. That's okay. Try things out and see what works for you.

First, it helps to know what kind of character you want to play. It helps to be able to visualize your character before you start. You'll already have some guidelines, depending on the game system, the setting of the adventure, and what the GM has in mind. The rest depends on what kind of character interests you, what kind of abilities you want your character to have, what you think you can play well, your personal style of play, and so on.

How do I create a character? I generally use the same process laid out in the Writer's Guides. I start out with a basic character concept and build around that. I usually develop my characters in painstaking detail before I start writing my sheet. You don't have to go to the lengths that I do. I do this because it helps me solidify my idea for my character in my head.

If that sounds daunting, don't worry. I've had characters that required no preparation at all. Blitz was like that, and she's probably my best character. I only knew I wanted a teenage girl who was innocent, fun-loving, and too reckless for her own good. When I started her in play, I just found her voice and let Blitz do the rest.

Once you think you have an idea of who your character is, then we start with the sheet. Most of these will answer themselves if you know who your character is. Basically, you are trying to describe your character to the GM so that he knows who your character is. This allows him to plan the adventure around your character.

For a pen-and-paper game, a character sheet will require die rolls for stats. In D&D, this would look exactly like the character status screen for Planescape: Torment or Baldur's Gate. (With numbers indicating STR, INT, etc.) The difference in pen-and-paper is that you are rolling the numbers rather than letting the computer do it. Don't worry about that right now. It's more important that you understand the basic process before worrying about rolling numbers for stats.

In a following post, I'm going to write up a character sheet like the one I gave you above, using Blitz as an example because she's easiest for me.

[Gray Lensman]

Okay, now for the sample character sheet. I'll walk you through the steps. Let's use Blitz as an example, just because I find her the easiest to use.

First, we need some ground rules for the sake of discussion. Let's say that we're going to do a character sheet for the superhero RPG I used to play. This is not a pen-and-paper game, so we don't need to roll stats.

That means the character must make sense in the game world. Let's say the GM has chosen Centennial City as our setting. Let's also suppose that magic doesn't exist there. So you couldn't create a wizard character for this game. Let's also suppose that the GM has told us that we can't have a character as strong as Superman, a character can move no faster than the speed of sound, and that our character can only have two powers. There may also be other limits that the GM has given us, but let's leave that aside.

At this point, we look at the ground rules and decide on a character. The idea is to create a character that fits into the game world. The character should be powerful enough to take care of herself in combat, but still within the limits our GM has set.

At this point, we make up the character. That includes abilities, personality, and anything else we may want to include. Blitz's personality came first, and pretty quickly. I eventually gave Blitz super-speed and fast healing because she's reckless and needs powers to protect her. For background, she really doesn't need much, because she's pretty much a normal girl. However, I do need to explain where she got her powers from and maybe also her current situation in life. So we fill in those gaps.

Note that this isn't the only way to do it. You may want to start with the character's powers/abilities and then build a personality and the rest around that. It's also possible to start with a visual image and build a character around a specific look.

The character sheet asks to provide a visual description or a picture. Most of the time, I've never had to do that. I've only ever done it for web games, and then only at GM request. But let's play along for sake of discussion.

With Blitz, I always had a clear image in my head of a young woman with red hair and a happy smile. As time went on, it became clear that she looked like Michelle Trachtenberg. (I based Blitz off of Buffy's kid sister Dawn, so it made sense to use the same actress.) This has helped me visualize her in my mind.

So we have a character. We know who she is, what she looks like, what she can do, and maybe where she came from. We're pretty sure she fits the ground rules that have been given to us. So all we have to do is write down the details about our character. Just put down what you know about your character on the sheet.

If we were playing pen-and-paper, we would roll our stats and record them on our character sheet. But we're not doing pen-and-paper in this example, so we're not worrying about it.

Once that's done, you submit the character sheet to the GM. He may accept it or ask you to make changes. When the GM finally decides to accept the character, your job is done.

Below is a sample character sheet I made up, just to give you an idea of how a finished character sheet might look...

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Player Name/Handle: Gray Lensman
Character Name: Amy Mason
Mask Name: Blitz
Character Age: 18
Gender: Female
Birthplace: Centennial City
Hair Color: Red
Eye Color: Green
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 120 lbs.
Main Power: Super-speed. Amy has the ability to run at high speeds. I’d like for Amy’s speed to be at the maximum allowable. (Note: Highest speed allowed in this game is the speed of sound.) She has comparable reflexes, reaction time, and maneuverability. She has a “speed field” that protects her from all the negative effects of physics like inertia and whatnot.

Secondary Power: Fast healing. Amy has a healing factor that allows her to recover from all forms of damage. This includes wounds, poisons, diseases, and whatnot.

Handedness: Right

Distinguishing Features: See Micros. Amy Mason looks just like Michelle Trachtenberg, except with long red hair. Amy has an expression of wide-eyed innocence, and she usually wears a happy smile on her face. While Amy is undeniably pretty, she looks like a normal young woman her age. Don't let the lack of supermodel good looks fool you. For all that Amy looks like an ordinary girl, she carries herself with extraordinary inner strength and self-confidence.



Family: Amy’s important family is her big sister Miranda, who is a big city reporter. Miranda has basically been like a second mother to her. Amy loves her big sister, but also likes to have a certain amount of independence from her. Miranda is always afraid Amy will get in trouble, and Amy gets annoyed with Miranda's overprotectiveness. Amy loves her sister, even though they drive each other crazy. Overall, they come across as a normal family.

Occupation: College student.

Character Interests: Rock music, pop culture, earning the approval and respect of her sister.

Hobbies: Amy is pop culture girl; if it's happening in Hollywood, odds are Amy is the first to find out about it. Amy is a pretty good singer and dancer. She is also an amateur guitarist and songwriter, though she knows she has a long way to go before she reaches professional quality.

Best Friend: As much as Amy sometimes hates to admit it, she sees her sister Miranda as her best friend. She also has a fairly wide social circle at school, including a small aspiring rock band she plays for. But Miranda is the one person who knows Amy best and will always look out for her, no matter how much Amy gets in trouble.

Worst Enemy: The Machinist, who is a black market super-tech dealer. Amy unwittingly took the Machinist's device, which accidentally gave Amy her powers. Amy later ended up destroying the device to save her sister. The Machinist didn't exactly take this well. In his mind, Amy cost him a great deal of money... and worse, she annoys him. A lot. This hasn't exactly been the start of a beautiful friendship...

Turn Ons: Canadian rock chicks (Amy wishes she was one), helping her sister, good music, pop culture, superheroes (Amy sees heroes as the next wave of pop culture).

Turn Offs: Bad music (especially rap-- Amy hates that stuff), bad people, anything that stands between Amy and her dreams (including one bossy and overbearing big sister).

Worst Secret: Subtlety Girl, she is not. Amy is very, very bad at keeping secrets. Amy can't keep one to save her life. This is not a good thing when talking about a girl who has to keep up a secret identity...

Character Goals: Amy wants to be a pop culture phenomenon, a superheroine, or both. Getting out of her sister's shadow is also a big priority.
**Two year Goal - To finish her first couple of years of school and maybe even get noticed as a talent.
**Five year Goal - By then, Amy wants to have finished her full degree. She wants to have made her big break by then, or failing that, start a career as an entertainment writer.

Character Background:

Amy Mason is the younger sister of Miranda Mason, an investigative reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper. At some point, their mother left their father and abandoned the girls when Amy was very young. Consequently, Miranda took much of the responsibility for raising and protecting Amy. Over time, Amy has come to regard Miranda as much as a mother figure as she does a sister. Amy grew up idolizing Miranda, though there’s a small undercurrent of jealousy because she sees Miranda as more beautiful and more successful.

Following their father’s death, Amy moved in permanently with Miranda, who became Amy’s legal guardian. After Miranda graduated from journalism school, she quickly began a rising career. Miranda became an investigative reporter, while Amy finished her studies. Amy graduated from high school with good marks, and enrolled in college not long thereafter. In the meantime, Amy helped Miranda with her work, much of it research. Amy also pursued her personal interests, primarily the study of pop culture, but especially music.

However, Amy was not entirely content with this. While she loved her sister, she felt increasingly isolated from Miranda after her workload increased. After Miranda became a superheroine to better do her job as a reporter, Amy wanted to be involved. One day, while accompanying Miranda, Amy found a mysterious device in a junkyard. The good news is that the device gave Amy super-speed and a healing factor. The bad news is that the Machinist, a black market super-villain, came looking for his missing device. Amy defeated the Machinist, but she was forced to destroy the device in the process.

Following her first adventure, Amy joined her sister's super-team, where Amy took the code-name of Blitz. Miranda allowed Amy into the group on a probation deal, in exchange for Amy’s cooperation and commitment to her schoolwork. Amy, seeing this as an opportunity to do good and connect with her sister, agreed.

Amy has since proven to be a valuable member of the group, though Miranda has serious misgivings about this…

*

And that's it. Your background description doesn't have to be nearly as long as I've written above. What I'm trying to do is give you texture and an idea of what the finished product could conceivably look like.

Hope that's helped some.

[Shan]

Steve that was a tremendous help. Thank you.

I now understand what needs to be done and how to go about doing it but I still have a few more questions.

For someone with no knowledge of RPG worlds, characters, and the like, how would I go about deciding on her birthplace, who her worst enemy is, what powers she might need, and what goals to set for her?

Would the GM set up the city or village or area and your character be from there? I don't know areas, cities, or whatever that are part of the RPG world.

How do you know who would be her enemy? Would it be someone or group from the area she is from?

As for powers, how do you know what powers you would be allowed to give a character?

And when you mention goals, are you thinking of playing the character until she reaches these goals?


Now does the GM make up the world, the people in the world, and all that goes on in it and the characters just play through the world he has created kinda like in a so called computer RPG? Would the characters age range be given to you by the GM and you fit your character somewhere in that range?

Thanks for the detailed sheet. It helped alot.

Is it just me or is it normal for someone who's had no experience in this field to not understand?

Shan

[Gray Lensman]

shantara said:

For someone with no knowledge of RPG worlds, characters, and the like, how would I go about deciding on her birthplace, who her worst enemy is, what powers she might need, and what goals to set for her?

Birthplace... depends on the setting and what the GM gives you, I'd say. Most superhero-type worlds are usually based on the Earth we know, so you could use a real location for a game like that. Or a fictional location that the GM has mentioned. In our games, we usually knew the game setting beforehand, so I just used that.

The rest, you make up. For Worst Enemy, I made up a character to be a worst enemy. Of course, you could say that your character doesn't have one. If your character tends to get along with people or is something of a reclusive person, then this wouldn't necessarily apply.

Powers... the GM sets limits and guidelines for those. Aside from that, you can try anything you want. And if you're not sure, you can ask the GM.

Would the GM set up the city or village or area and your character be from there?

Yep. I've often played that way. That's how I played Amy, in fact.

How do you know who would be her enemy? Would it be someone or group from the area she is from?

It could be. But in the end, it depends on the character. You have to decide what kind of enemy would make sense for her to have. What would make your character more interesting.

For instance, when I created Night Spider, I decided he was a reformed villain who used to work for an organized crime family. When he reformed, the family turned against him. So the family would be his worst enemy.

Most sheets won't ask this kind of thing. But I find it kind of helps, because it adds texture to your character, even if you never use these details much.

As for powers, how do you know what powers you would be allowed to give a character?

The GM will tell you, usually. He may say from the start what he wants. In our games, we've usually just submitted characters and let the GM give us feedback.

When in doubt, it's okay to ask. A good GM will always help a player in the character creation process. The idea is to create a character that's fun to work with.

And when you mention goals, are you thinking of playing the character until she reaches these goals?

I could if I wanted, sure.

Of course, a lot can happen in the course of a campaign. She may achieve her goals. She may fail to reach her goals. Or she may change during the course of the campaign. Her goals and motivations may change as she learns and grows. She may get what she wants and decide she didn't want it after all. All that depends on what the character does and what happens in the adventure.

The important thing is that your character has motivation. A good character should always want something. The character's desires and motivations drive them through the adventure.

Now does the GM make up the world, the people in the world, and all that goes on in it and the characters just play through the world he has created kinda like in a so called computer RPG?

Yes, that's exactly it.

Actually, I'd consider Torment to be a good example of what roleplaying is. You can play Nameless as any kind of character you want. The computer then has the world and the other characters react to what you have Nameless do. The difference is that in a proper RPG, you have more options.

Would the characters age range be given to you by the GM and you fit your character somewhere in that range?

Maybe, if the GM has a specific kind of adventure he wants to run. Let's say he wanted to run, say, a Harry Potter kind of game. If all the PC's are all Hogwarts students, they would all have to be young.

But in my experience, that's pretty rare. Usually, I've never had an age range given to me. When I played Amy, she was the youngest character in the group. Some of the other characters were much older. The vast majority of the time, the character's age was up to the player.

Is it just me or is it normal for someone who's had no experience in this field to not understand?

Nah, that's perfectly normal. I learned from years of playing. Nobody learns this stuff overnight.

[Dark Phoenix Rising]

In my experiance of learning to play and watching others learn, the only way to get a grip on this sort of thing is to do it. And if you ignore the system to start with (maybe ask the GM to let you get away with the bare bones of your character for a few weeks or even better have a combat free couple of sessions) and just concentrate on your character you'll very quickly get an idea of what roleplaying is about and how to go about building a character. As everybody finds their own way of creating characters.

For me I start out with the stats and see what that will give me. Then I consider what sort of character I want to play (e.g. caster, fighter, rogue, or combo), then I look at what options are available for the character I want to play.

Once I know what class(es) I want to play I then start to work out what skills they have, and also their personality. I then start to buy their equipment and based on that finalise the character sheet. I then tend to develop the character and their personality as I go through the first few sessions of the game ( and changing later as things happen). I can usually get a brief background done if it is needed, but I need a little play time to make it more indepth.

[Shan]

Thanks Steve for all the help. I think it is all finally beginning to come together for me and make some sense.


I guess these are more general game questions than anything else. What happens if a group gets together and decides to start a new game, do all the people playing create new characters or do they bring in characters they've played in other games?

If they are allowed to bring in a character from previous games, how does that affect a new player who doesn't have a character to bring in?

Is there an advantage or a disadvantage for a new player (no experience) playing with a group who know what they are doing?

Also how big of a disadvantage would it be for a new player who knew nothing of comics or superheroes to play in a game with players who were very familiar with these?

Shan

[Shan]

DragonLord, from reading what you and Steve wrote, it sounds as if you go about creating your character quite different from he does.

I am guessing then from what the both of you have said that each person has to come up with the way that works best for them. Maybe so trial and error to start with?

Shan