valadil
2008-07-20, 07:23 PM
I'm not sure why but I have a fascination with groups that don't follow the standard tank, caster, healer, and skillmonkey approach. I really like groups composed of the same character type.
As such, one game I've been tossing around in my head lately is a Cryptonomicon inspired Mage game. It would be all about a group of hackers taking on the Technocracy in some fashion or another.
I mentioned this to some of my players and one of them raised the objection that mechanically speaking every character would be pretty similar and they'd all come from similar backgrounds. I hadn't really thought of that because I'd previously done a thieves guild game and that had plenty of variety.
Anyway, this player got me worried. The list of possible PCs isn't too high: academic coder, industry coder, script kiddie/gamer, evil hacker, government hacker, linux evangelist, and non-conformist who doesn't actually use a computer. There may be a couple more. All these characters will focus in mental skills, lack in social skills, and have maxed out ranks in computer skills. Their hobbies may be different, but those just don't come up enough in normal games. Without diving up computers into a dozen sub skills, how do I make things interesting for mechanically similar characters? I want players to feel their character has something unique to contribute to the party.
More importantly, how do I keep things interesting for characters with similar backgrounds and interests? My plan was just to go way deeper into the computer side of things, so even though the general public sees the group as extreme computer nerds, taken from their perspective they're each unique computer nerds. This seemed like a good idea until I realized it might entail in character debates over which is the ultimate linux distribution. I'm not sure any of my players would enjoy that.
As such, one game I've been tossing around in my head lately is a Cryptonomicon inspired Mage game. It would be all about a group of hackers taking on the Technocracy in some fashion or another.
I mentioned this to some of my players and one of them raised the objection that mechanically speaking every character would be pretty similar and they'd all come from similar backgrounds. I hadn't really thought of that because I'd previously done a thieves guild game and that had plenty of variety.
Anyway, this player got me worried. The list of possible PCs isn't too high: academic coder, industry coder, script kiddie/gamer, evil hacker, government hacker, linux evangelist, and non-conformist who doesn't actually use a computer. There may be a couple more. All these characters will focus in mental skills, lack in social skills, and have maxed out ranks in computer skills. Their hobbies may be different, but those just don't come up enough in normal games. Without diving up computers into a dozen sub skills, how do I make things interesting for mechanically similar characters? I want players to feel their character has something unique to contribute to the party.
More importantly, how do I keep things interesting for characters with similar backgrounds and interests? My plan was just to go way deeper into the computer side of things, so even though the general public sees the group as extreme computer nerds, taken from their perspective they're each unique computer nerds. This seemed like a good idea until I realized it might entail in character debates over which is the ultimate linux distribution. I'm not sure any of my players would enjoy that.