The Interview (3.5)

[weckar]

Tomorrow I am making characters with a group of new players.

Because most of them don't quite know the capabilities and options in the system, nor are they familiar with roleplaying at all, I'd like to do the character creation process as a sort of questionaire based on what they want their character to be. Afterwards we can then quickly and painlessly make decisions based on that list.

I am a little stumped though on what questions to ask. Things I'd want to find out is the roles they would want to play, what alignment their character would be suited for, etc.

Can anyone here advise me on this process?

[ddude987]

1. What do you want your character to do? (ask this from a strictly flavor point of view)
2. What do you imagine your character would do in X situation (good for determining alignment) (note it is recommended if they are new to roleplaying, don't let them be evil or chaotic)

These are questions I always ask players I am introducing to the game.

[weckar]

In my experience Lawful poses at least as many problems as Chaotic. Them not having the preconceptions of Chaotic people around here seem to have may actually be a boon.

Still, a good start for sure. Any suggestions about what the situation should be?

[elonin]

Why are you restricting them from Chaotic or Evil? I wouldn't play in such a game.

[weckar]

I'm not. Well, Evil may be a bit of an issue unless they all are.... As a general rule I prefer not to mix good and evil, but if those not picking the 'group extreme' go neutral, it's all gravy.

[Crake]

Personally, when it comes to alignment, I don't let players pick alignments, I don't introduce any alignment mechanics until a few sessions in, and I just tell the players to play their characters as they imagine they would. Then after a while I assign them an alignment in secret. Since, in my games, mortals have no access to detect alignment spells, the only time their alignment will come into play is the 4th level alignment domain spells (chaos hammer, unholy blight, holy smite and the lawful one that i cant remember), or the alignment word spells.

Should they come across outsiders though, then they will be judged by the standards of paragons of the alignments.

[ngilop]

This is a wonderful idea, and one that I stress all the time for first time DMs.

First, id explain to them that since most everybody is going to be learning the ropes, that it would be a lot easier is everybody was of good alignment, that way there is a better chance of everybody working together

Then ask each one, what concept they are thinking of for their character.

Sometimes this will get a response like " i want to have a dragon as a pet, and be a half angel'

Then you do the whole back and forth, give and take with the player untill you both get to a character concept you find fits in, makes sense, and most importaly will be fun for the player.

Make sure they know that they do not have to resort to teh meat shield/tank, blaster,dedicated healer, trap monkey roles.

as long as you have a few areas covered; for example a guy that can take as well as give out some hits, some way to remove afflictions, and such.then the party is allright.

If a player wants to be say a sneaky more scout based guy, steer him towards classes and feats, and prestige classes.

Fr example , instead of having him go full rogue, maybe suggest that he go rogue for 3 levels then goes into swordsage ( if you have Tome of Battle) or into scout (if you have the complete adventurer)

[weckar]

Since, in my games, mortals have no access to detect alignment spells

An unfortunate liberty I'm not willing to take. Alignment is a core element of the game to me, as vital to a character as their BAB.

[Crake]

An unfortunate liberty I'm not willing to take. Alignment is a core element of the game to me, as vital to a character as their BAB.

Alignment is pretty vital to me as well, but I don't like to let it cloud the judgement of my players. To me, alignment is more complicated than 9 different categories, and players tend to jump at the chance to kill someone evil if they pick them up on a detect evil spell. I figure it's easier to just remove that prejudice, since in my game, there are plenty of evil people who have never done anything truely evil in their entire lives. At the same time, there are good people who have done horrendous things for the greater good. I prefer to let players judge others on their actions, not on the result of a level 1 spell.

[weckar]

That's all well and good. It's something they will have to learn, so better get it in early. Back to topic.

[Urpriest]

Alignment can be pretty late in the process anyway.

I'd say that the first question, to set the stage for how the system works, should be the following:

"Your character is in combat. What do you imagine them doing?"

[gooddragon1]

You have to interview to get in games now? :Sadface:

I always thought interviews were just a combination of sense motive checks, bluff checks, diplomacy checks (with bonuses for knowing people), and knowledge checks (with some research checks made ahead of time for bonuses).

[weckar]

That would definitely be a VERY good and specific question to ask, Urpriest. Thank you. I would not make it the first question though, as my campaigns tend to be relatively low-combat. Wouldn't want to skew expectations.


You have to interview to get in games now?
No. No you don't. Feel free to actually read the first post :)

[Yorrin]

The way I introduce new players, especially ones relatively new to fantasy, is to explain LoTR as an archetypal fantasy world, so as to give them a point of reference. I then ask them basically a multiple choice question:

Which of the following would you enjoy playing?
A. The weapons guy
B. The magic guy
C. The sneaky guy
D. The archer guy
E. The priest guy
D. The nature guy
....
etc

From there I ask what sort of thing they want to do as "the magic guy" or "the sneaky guy." This helps me narrow down what sort of class they should be playing. If they have no clue I just let them read the class list in the table of contents of the PHB and pick whatever sounds good from there. Then I'll go into races, explaining most of the PHB races in terms of pros and cons for their class.

From there I walk them through the character sheet and explain each thing as we get to it. (e.g. when we get to "deity" I go into the pantheon, when we get to "AC" I explain the basics of weapon rolls, etc). After getting through the character sheet I walk them through equipment, and finally go over combat rules in more detail.

[gooddragon1]

No. No you don't. Feel free to actually read the first post :)

But I was just popping in to make a cheap joke :( and my brain is frazzled from a 6 hour SQL assignment (and that was just a tutorial :X ).

[Captnq]

Tomorrow I am making characters with a group of new players.
Can anyone here advise me on this process?

Of course I can. Ask these questions:

1. Are you, or have you ever been a card carrying member of the communist party?
2. Are you allergic to shellfish?
3. If haters are going to hate, are dragons going to drag?
4. If Alice is 23 years old, divorced, and lived with her son who is six for the whole year of 2013 and earned 18,000 dollars, does she qualify for Earned Income Credit when she files her taxes?

Then move onto the alignment questions:

1. If a turtle was on it's back in the desert and you had no supplies, would you turn him over or would you eat him?
2. Do you keep your word because you are honorable, or are you honorable because you keep your word?
3. If this was a continuum of one to ten, where evil was one and Good was ten, and Chaotic was one, and lawful was ten, where would you put the following items:
A) Bacon.
B) Necktie.
C) Goblin.
D) House cat.
E) Gangnam Style.
F) Velveta Cheese.

Next you need to figure out the classes they would be good at. Tell them to choose one of the following:

1) Doing a whole lot of math, or feeding someone his own spleen.
2) Looking cool, or being effective.
3) Would you prefer an old car where you can easily do your own repairs, or a new car where you are dependent on taking it to an authorized dealer?
4) Stabbing someone in the back, or whoring with sailors
5) Taking power from multi-tenticled horrors from beyond the pale, or worshiping multi-tenticled horrors from beyond the pale.

After you get the answers from your players, the choices should be obvious.
Good luck!

[weckar]

Guys... I honestly didn't want or expect this to turn into a joke thread....


But I was just popping in to make a cheap joke :( and my brain is frazzled from a 6 hour SQL assignment (and that was just a tutorial :X ).

You're forgiven

SQL..... :shudder:

[Captnq]

Guys... I honestly didn't want or expect this to turn into a joke thread....



You're forgiven

SQL..... :shudder:

Who's joking?

If you ask boring, normal questions, you'll never get what you want. You need to knock them off guard and slip in the serious questions with nonsense so they don't know which ones to give you the "right answers" on.

[khachaturian]

reminds me of the character creation at the start of ultima iv

[weckar]

OKay... I'll be honest then, I wouldn't be able to decode those questions. They look to be written by a mad slaad.... I love it, but I fail to see how they would help.

[Zytil]

*Questionnaire*

Is it a problem that my automatic answers to all the alignment questions were full-on chaotic neutral or chaotic evil? (Except goblins, which are clearly lawful good.)

Also, these are excellent questions and should be standardized.

[HunterOfJello]

Next you need to figure out the classes they would be good at. Tell them to choose one of the following:

1) Doing a whole lot of math, or feeding someone his own spleen.
2) Looking cool, or being effective.
3) Would you prefer an old car where you can easily do your own repairs, or a new car where you are dependent on taking it to an authorized dealer?
4) Stabbing someone in the back, or whoring with sailors
5) Taking power from multi-tenticled horrors from beyond the pale, or worshiping multi-tenticled horrors from beyond the pale.

After you get the answers from your players, the choices should be obvious.
Good luck!

A series of questions that are both funny, playful, and extremely honest like that may actually be the best idea i've ever heard for a class creation questionnaire process.

You sir, are a genius.


I vote that we make a new thread for questions just like those above.

[weckar]

Gangnam Style is CLEARLY lawful evil. Mass hypnosis and all that.



But, yeah.... Alignment is taken care of, I'd wager. Race/Class?

[Theomniadept]

Alignments should be acted at least a majority of the time. They're not strict adherence rules except for a few classes. Generally the alignments can be summarized as such:

Good represents altruism but also represents self-sacrifice. If a character is good aligned they are fully capable of requesting rewards and payments for their services, but a good cleric or paladin would be expected to heal those who could not pay given an average situation.

Evil represents looking out for yourself and the acquisition of power to do so. It's not inherently a loner alignment but evil worship commonly involves culling weaker members. It's a climb to the top and evil does not care who gets stepped on.

Law is the alignment of order and safety, but at the same time represents subjugation and denial of freedoms. Law lends itself to patterns and relying on authority when morality is involved, at least until the point when a lawful character would be deemed worthy of delivering judgments on one's own. On the other hand, lawful characters may also encounter the problem of enforcing their morals wherever they go and on whomever they travel with.

Chaos is the alignment of freedom and personal liberty, but lends itself to anarchy and survival of the fittest. Chaotic characters (excluding the more random and insane ones) value freedom and believe that if someone can do something they should. If the law says they need a license to be a merchant, they are far more likely to ignore the law and work in secret rather than bend knee to another. Conversely, they are also far more likely to oppose law for the single purpose of challenging authority.

A few things about the alignment system that I have seen that need to be addressed:

1. If you have a paladin, make sure you blatantly let him know that actions speak far louder than religious sermons. Many novice players picking paladin believe they are the fantasy world's police and must Detect Evil on random townsfolk so they can cut them down in the streets. Book of Vile Darkness explicitly said this is executing people for their beliefs. While a paladin cannot associate with evil characters, no character is 'good' just because their primary murder targets are evil.

2. Law and Chaos are the alignments for making a means to an end. I've played with a few players who just cannot get into any character other than their own personality (coupled with magical murder power). If someone is gaining from a lawful alignment but is essentially a rulebreaking murderhobo then feel more than free to knock the alignment towards chaos, but only after repeated offenses.

3. Disallowing evil outright is usually somewhat okay if you're working with new players. But, if it would make things more interesting, then evil should be allowed. Most veteran players know that their evil characters would be hard pressed to get away with being a random orphan sacrificer, so they keep their evil hidden but still do the necessary amount to make themselves evil. More clever players will attempt to look the good guy while playing evil. Talk to players if they want to play evil to get a feel for what they want.

4. Players can have a motivation for something but anything can be justified as anything. Make sure you keep a more objective view of player actions, and let them know what constitutes law or chaos. Lawful Good characters wouldn't be so quick to help setup a crime organization in an evil kingdom; it would be much more sensible for them to attempt to overthrow allies more directly or by diplomacy, religious conversion, etc.

[weckar]

Yes. All true. Doesn't help me any, I'm afraid.

[Urpriest]

I find that in general, it's best for players to not go into the game thinking of D&D as some sort of generic fantasy thing that represents any character whatsoever. Rather, it's better if players are guided towards concepts that D&D does well, so that they don't go asking for a pet pheonix or something.

With that in mind, you can focus on things about the setting. Dividing things by power sources come to mind. Things like "does your character get power from martial training, magical study, faith, or psychic meditation?" (Add in other subsystems if you want to deal with that sort of thing.)

In general, for new players it's nice to have a short list of relatively easy to build and play classes to hand out. So if a player says "martial training", you can ask something like, "are you a shadowy trickster, a devoted defender, a warrior defined by their competence, or a raging berserker" and then fit them to Swordsage, Crusader, Warblade, or Barbarian appropriately. (Filtering out the archers to play Swift Hunters first.) For magic-types, you point them towards the Beguiler, after making sure they're not doing it to blast or to raise undead. Etc.

[Maginomicon]

Do you want to play a character who values the same things you do? Okay, now given that, what do you want your character to value? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=283341)

[weckar]

Some genuinely useful advice there. I have given them premade characters in an earlier demo that we ran, but for the sake of personal attachment I wanted them to be involved in the creation process. So, they know generally how the game goes, or as much as you can know after six hours of play.

[Stux]

Personally, when it comes to alignment, I don't let players pick alignments, I don't introduce any alignment mechanics until a few sessions in, and I just tell the players to play their characters as they imagine they would. Then after a while I assign them an alignment in secret. Since, in my games, mortals have no access to detect alignment spells, the only time their alignment will come into play is the 4th level alignment domain spells (chaos hammer, unholy blight, holy smite and the lawful one that i cant remember), or the alignment word spells.

Personally I love this idea. It would take some managing in practice, but the benefits would likely be worth it.

Players often seem to do things 'because thats my alignment', and that grates with me a little. Especially 'chaotic stupid', 'lawful stupid', or 'stupid evil' types. I think this idea would encourage more complex characterisations and motivations.

The idea that they might not know for sure what their alignment is at a given time really appeals to me. I wouldn't be a bastard about it of course. If someone was playing paladin I would likely give them a warning if they were in danger of moving away from lawful good, plus I would likely relax alignment restrictions on most PrC and such.

Damn, wish I'd seen/thought of this before I started my current campaign!

[Sir Chuckles]

Some genuinely useful advice there. I have given them premade characters in an earlier demo that we ran, but for the sake of personal attachment I wanted them to be involved in the creation process. So, they know generally how the game goes, or as much as you can know after six hours of play.

Don't be afraid to dedicate a session to character building and introduction. Possibly open a forum post or Facebook group message (saves me much table time asking my players to do an in character meet-n'-greet over the internet, usually within a week before the session).

To get away from alignment, you should ask them what they want.


Go to them individually and ask:
1) What kind of character do you want? (Big hulking brute, fancy magic man, and so on)
You now know what to expect from this player.

2) How do you want to kill things? Specifically. You're a *brute/wizard/whatever*, but do you blow them up or turn them to ribbons?
You now know how they'll be playing. Meaning you know what to throw at them (Don't throw something with damage reduction at the 1,000 cuts guy unless he can overcome it or you want to challenge him harshly)

Then go to them as a group and ask:
1) What kind of campaign sounds interesting to you? (If they ask for example, say things like undead slaying, taking of a slave ring, plot hooks)
You then probably have something everyone can agree on.

2) What kind of combat do you expect to see? (Big fights with dozens of enemies, huge monsters, warzones...)
This is your center line for building encounters.

3) What kind of PC-PC interaction do you want to be doing?
This can point out disruptive players, loners, and spotlighters.

4) What kind of NPC-PC interactions do you think will happen?
This will show you if it's going to be a murder hobo party, or a band of mercenaries, or the minions following the spotlight man.

[prufock]

Honestly, as far as character-building goes, you only really need to ask two questions:
"What do you want your character to be able to do?"
"How does he do it?"

These should be able to narrow down class, feat, and skill choices pretty effectively. I would sit with the players discuss it with them, and then make their characters with them, explaining the process as best you can.

[weckar]

Well, all things considered things went pretty well. Everyone was very enthusiastic and we got some interesting characters made. Even though they are far far far from optimal, I think we can look ahead to an interesting campaign:

A Half Orc Monk that is unfortunately suffering in the Wisdom department (he knows the implications).

An Elf Wizard, who somehow is probably the best fighter in the party (She rolled 2 18s and a 17.)

A Human Barbarian. Took TWF and Power Attack (she was gloating about the extra feat a lot)

A Shifter Cleric with the Animal and War domains, who unfortunately had slightly below average rolls. (He took it well)

A Dwarf Rogue (No comments here, he be cool)

A Warforged Warblade (Only player who has actually played before. Didn't really need any help)