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| Alternate character generation for one-off ZAP games. |
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| mungo |
 Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:57 pm Post subject: Alternate character generation for one-off ZAP games. |
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RED
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
Posts: 84
Service Group: R&D
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I wrote a post about this on my own site, but I wanted to share this here to get some input from other players and/or GMs about this process.
Background : I run Paranoia at SF Bay Area conventions. The games have all been Zap style, with one exception. As an alternative to doing full-on character generation or using pre-generated characters, I've used the following process several times for generating characters on the fly.
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1. Your base Management, Stealth, Violence, Hardware, Software and Wetware skills are 10. This gives you effectively a 50/50 chance at doing most things.
2. Your Energy Weapons skill is a 12.
3. You get three skills that you are Good at, and get them at a 14. You pick these skills when you need them. For example, if you are trying to deal with a malfunctioning bot, you can say “I am good at Bot Ops and Maintenance” and take that skill at a 14.
4. You get three skills that you are Bad at, and get these skills at a 4. Any one of your teammates may pick this skill when you are trying to use it. For example, if you a bot is malfunctioning, and you say “Can I try and disable it?” one of your teammates can say “You are bad at Bot Ops and Maintenance.” No one player can define more than three Bad skills in a single gaming session (this keeps one persom from really hosing the other players).
5. You get one thing you are Very Good at. This is a narrow specialty, that you get at a 17. You define this skill when you need it, and it must be ruled sufficiently narrow by the GM.
6. Once a skill has been defined (including the Energy Weapons skill), it cannot be changed. In other words, once you’re good at something, you cannot be made Bad at it.
7. The first person to define the skill wins. For example, if the GM says “You need to roll Habitat Engineering to stop this elevator from plummeting,” and you say “I’m Good at that” while someone tries to say “You’re Bad at that,” whoever spoke first has defined the skill.
8. You may or may not have a mutant power. You decide what it is when you try to use it. Describe the desired effect to the GM, and roll. The GM will describe what happens, along with any consequences.
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Secret Societies, Service Firms and the rest don't tend to come into it, but with a one-off game, especially in the Zap style, this structure has allowed us to get half an hour to an hour time for gaming, rather than spending more time on setup.
This has worked well for me in the setting described (Zap, One-off, Convention games) but I'd like to hear what other people think. |
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| Rickton |
| Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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BLUE
Joined: 04 Jun 2006
Posts: 1708
Service Group: R&D
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Wow, I like that a lot. I might even use that with my group the next time we play since somehow they can never remember any kind of character generation rules at all for any game.
The only thing I'm suspicious of is letting players choose their own mutant powers -- seems to give them a bit too much control. How's that worked for you?
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Pleasantville by Night, a horror-humor web game I created. Join a secret society and try to take over the city!
Sometimes I write stories too. |
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| mungo |
| Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:58 pm Post subject: |
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RED
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
Posts: 84
Service Group: R&D
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| Rickton wrote: |
| The only thing I'm suspicious of is letting players choose their own mutant powers -- seems to give them a bit too much control. How's that worked for you? |
They tell me what they try to do, I tell them what happens. If something is clearly over the top (Can I detonate the planet?) I either tell them they can try, and then detonate their clone as the power goes wrong, or I just say No. Most people have been pretty great about it. I'd say that out of 30 requests, 25 have been something like "Mutant power : Pyrokinesis. I use it to set his pants on fire," one request has been something like "Mutant power : Can Never Be Hurt By Lasers," and the remaining 4 requests have been absolute gems:
"Give someone a charlie-horse from a distance of 10 meters"
"Make a 1 square meter patch of the floor very slippery"
"Sneaky Back Lasers"
"I Squirt Ink"
In my experience with this style of character generation, given a standard 6 player, 8 hour convention game, maybe two people will ask about their mutant power. |
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| Allen Varney |
| Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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Gamma Very High Programmer
Joined: 22 Feb 2004
Posts: 1083
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| mungo wrote: |
| "Make a 1 square meter patch of the floor very slippery" |
Holy crap, I can't believe I never thought of that one. The charlie-horse one is good too.
EDIT: Technically I guess the Gravity Control and Magnetize powers in The Mutant Experience cover some of the same slipping effects. We missed a bet in not adding that as an option for Slippery Skin. |
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