Campaign/Character Creation Idea, Any Opinions Helpful.

[Malfunctioned]

On the train ride home from my college (Which is where I get most of my odd ideas in fact.) I got the idea of a campaign that uses semi-random character creation. The method for doing this would be listing all of the available races, classes and alignments in a table and having the players roll to see what their character is, a sample table for a core campaign would look like this -
{table=head]Roll|Class|Race|Alignment
1|Barbarian|Elf|Chaotic Evil
2|Bard|Dwarf|Chaotic Good
3|Cleric|Gnome|Chaotic Neutral
4|Druid|Halfling|Lawful Evil
5|Fighter|Half-Elf|Lawful Good
6|Monk|Half-Orc|Lawful Neutral
7|Paladin|Human|Neutral Evil
8|Ranger|Orc|Neutral Good
9|Rogue|Goblin|True Neutral
10|Sorcerer|Kobold|Reroll
11|Wizard|Reroll|Reroll[/table]
If an incompatible selection is given the player then chooses to reroll on one of the columns of their choice e.g. If a player is given a Chaotic Neutral Paladin they may choose to either reroll the alignment or class.

Once the class and race have been discovered then stats are rolled, this will be done using the organic abilities option where 4d6b3 is rolled and place in order, when all six are place you have the option of rerolling one ability and swapping the places of two others.

The rest of the character building is up to the player. I understand that this option may not be the cup of tea of most gamers but in certain kinds of campaigns it may actually fit well, for example:

In this world at the centre of every creature is a Spark. This Spark existed before they were born and will exist long after they die and contains everything they are and will ever be. The lights that can be seen when any creature looks up at the sky at night are said to be groups of Sparks that instinctively group together out of loneliness and want for a body. When a Spark is ready to be born it is pulled out of the sky and becomes the newborn child, the PCs characters however will never have this honour. They are Sparks that have been sent out of the skies before their time and in their haste quickly assembled into bodies and minds into possibly odd combinations of what they were originally meant to become.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy reading about this and I hope I can receive some comments and critique.

[Kylarra]

I guess maybe for a oneshot, but the novelty would wear off quickly for me personally.

I'd also strongly suggest against having evil alignments on the random generator, or at least not CE.

[Malfunctioned]

The table is easily changable, if a DM doesn't want a certain alignment in their game then they can simple change that number into a reroll.

[the humanity]

hmm. maybe the party base alignment should be rolled seperately, and then the inclusion of certain classes should be adjusted as such.

ex. 1d10 (whole party)
1) Lawful Good
2) Neutral Good
3) Chaotic Good
4) Chaotic Neutral
5) Neutral
6) Lawful Neutral
7) Lawful Evil
8) Neutral Evil
9) Chaotic Evil
10) reroll

1d3 (individual)
1) exact alignment
2) 1 different Law/Chaos (if neutral in law/chaos, flip a coin)
3) 1 different Good/Evil (if neutral in good/evil, flip a coin)

so for a party that rolled a 3, and a character that rolled a 2, the character would be neutral good.

[Greenish]

In this world at the centre of every creature is a Spark. This Spark existed before they were born and will exist long after they die and contains everything they are and will ever be. The lights that can be seen when any creature looks up at the sky at night are said to be groups of Sparks that instinctively group together out of loneliness and want for a body. When a Spark is ready to be born it is pulled out of the sky and becomes the newborn child, the PCs characters however will never have this honour. They are Sparks that have been sent out of the skies before their time and in their haste quickly assembled into bodies and minds into possibly odd combinations of what they were originally meant to become.Aww, first I thought you meant mad scientist-style sparks.

[valadil]

I'd be curious to see how it goes but agree that it would work best for a one shot.

On a similar but reversed note, I've also always wondered what would happen if you rolled stats in order, didn't rearrange them and picked a class based on stats. I feel like this is more of an old school method though and probably wouldn't go over well with new players.

[Malfunctioned]

I'd be curious to see how it goes but agree that it would work best for a one shot.

On a similar but reversed note, I've also always wondered what would happen if you rolled stats in order, didn't rearrange them and picked a class based on stats. I feel like this is more of an old school method though and probably wouldn't go over well with new players.

I reckon that might actually go quite well, but then again you might end up with a combination that's not too good for any class.

On another not, I've set up a one-shot PbP using this system if anyone wants to try it. Here it is. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=143828)

[MlleRouge]

I'd warn the players in advance if you plan to use a method like this for character generation. I think you're right that it wouldn't be some players' cup of tea. I'd personally decline to play in a game where I didn't have control over the creation of my own character, unless maybe it was a one shot. Trying to see it from another viewpoint, I'm sure there is some novelty or challenge value there that some people might find fun. I'd definitely tell the players that this was the plan in advance, though.

[valadil]

I reckon that might actually go quite well, but then again you might end up with a combination that's not too good for any class.


I think it would be a lot more conducive to 4e than 3.5. As long as you have two high stats in 4e you can pretty much find a class that's based on them.

[Kylarra]

I think it would be a lot more conducive to 4e than 3.5. As long as you have two high stats in 4e you can pretty much find a class that's based on them.I actually played a fun oneshot for 4e where you basically rolled a race, then rolled a class and then built the character from there.

[lightningcat]

You could use 2d6 for your 11 number range, and arrange your perfered classes/races/alignments according to the bellcurve. Otherwise you should use a d12, because most people lack the d11 needed for your original table.